Two weeks in & i am blown away!!!! My name is Conrad & i am a converted valve purist!

Thank you

Quote from BB2019

Hey ConradK , how's the honeymoon? ?

Hey bud

Still loving this unit !

I’m Still finding myself trying a new profile and then an hour later, I find , I’m still just jamming.

Preferring the sound of my creamback loaded guitar cab behind me and my 10” alto speaker to monitor in front of me.

I couldn’t use this alto speaker Alone for all profiles. My ears like the FRFR sound on clean profiles but I’m not a huge fan of THIS FRFR with higher gain profiles.

I have another band rehearsal tomorrow evening, so I’ll get to tweak my profiles at volume and try direct to PA - I’ll revert on my thoughts, after this.

Overall I am still ecstatic at the range of sounds and tweakability of this unit. I found a jazz profile the other day and was playing squeaky clean blues for about an hour before I realised - “woh I’m playing with almost zero gain And it sounds FANTASTIC!!” (I’m an old classic rock rocker) This to me is the sign of a good amp - I’m playing not endlessly tweaking. One immediate thing I’ve noticed on the kemper versus helix is the headroom. I could never get on with the helix or boss gt100 as I found they had zero headroom. The kemper does not have this issue.

Looking forward to the new OS update and trying out more FRFR solutions (in the future)

Right now I’m just loving being a guitar player with a kemper !! I haven’t been on the forum as I’ve been playing guitar !!

How you getting on?

Tried at volume last night and some profiles excelled whilst others were just ok (to be expected as when you are playing with a band you have to adjust in that setting)

I now need to embark upon

1) “matching rig volumes - I’ll get doing my research and manual referencing this evening.

2) work on making My profiles a little more “present” to sit in the mix better - I don’t want to have to increase volumes to silly levels, to be heard as We rehearse in a small room!

3) ways of fattening up my lead sound (we are a trio) and I’m finding my lead can sound a little thin , by itself.

Loving the sound of the :

Top jimi dumble pack:

(perfect sound for teenage kicks!)

Bluesbreaker (brownie with ocd and ts9 ) - free on rig exchange - (great sound for blues rock and “good times bad times - by zep)

Jcm800 (m Britt and rig exchange ones) - for overall Marshalm crunchiness

Overall , couldn’t be more happy with my simplistic set up and the tones I’m achieving. My band are loving the tones as well!

Cheers

Quote from V8guitar

Nice one Conrad, glad you are enjoying it.

I too ditched my valve amps 4 years ago and never looked back.

You are right about dialing in you live sound, so many options. You often find you deviate from your original sound you love to one that fits better, especially with a trio.

BTW I'm in the UK too...

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Cheers mate - yes you are right - I keep finding a sound I think is “the one “ amd then find another one that is even better ! Loving the tms profiles - they work well with my rig ! Funnily enough i owned an orange rockerverb (Mark 3 - 50 watt head ) and could never get it to sound the way I wanted it to. Just tried the TMS shockerverb profile and just LOVE IT ! I prefer the profile to the real amp !

Wow !!

I just set up my pa and plugged the kemper into the desk.

At first I thought - “sounds dreadful” - so I recorded a loop -

lowered the gain (a lot) of the particular profile, boosted the mids,

added a touch of pure cabinet and WOW !

NOW I GET THE FRFR THING !!

This Sounds incredible ! The Fizziness disappears when you lose the excessive gain

This was fantastic but I’ve got to say the game changer for me is the “pure cabinet” as it removes (or smooths out) those FRFR frequencies (which those of us who have always used guitar cabs) - are not used to And thus , dislike.

This kemper is the gift that keeps on giving !! Guess who won’t be using a guitar cab from now onwards ?

Quote from V8guitar

I only use a guitar cab for the "look" now...otherwise FRFR.

Chuffed for you!!!

thanks mate

Quote from V8guitar

BTW - I've even made a fake 4 x12 that is collapsible to take to gigs to hide my 1 x 12 FRFR

excellent humour sir

Next step on my kemper journey :

I am now playing direct to the pa with my trusty alto ts210 , serving monitor duties. Guitar cab is in the garage.

What a wonderful thing this is ! Let the valve purists stick with valves and the miking up faff. This is like Pandora’s box. Once you open it and start looking about , you keep finding treasures!

The direct to foh process has transformed my rehearsals! . I have finally managed to transport all my gear, in just ONE trip!

I’m no longer blowing my band mates out the room , with volume - in fact I asked my band if I was too loud (on Tuesday evening) and the bassist ASKED ME , TO TURN UP MY GUITAR!! In over 20 years of playing I have NEVER been asked to TURN UP! All I have heard is “turn down , you’re too loud! “

FRFR is also improving my playing , as I’m now actually HEARING all the frequencies and subtle overtones of the notes. As many have pointed out previously it let’s you actually hear the true sound of the profile and importantly speakers! Speaker differences and IR’s need FRFR to shine!

I have traditionally always just played vintage and classic rock , I’m now branching out into beautiful jazzy style rock, using subtle phrases and extended chords. I am enjoying playing clean as much as I enjoy playing with moderate gain !!

I’ve JUST started messing about with impulse responses. I have found that The right IR’s make a big difference, with certain profiles. There were profiles that I had written off - the right IR has turned a couple of these into my favourites . I’m finding that messing about with IR’s can also serve as an eq tool. Profile too dark ? Rather than placing an eq block into the X blink - use a brighter mike and place closet to the speaker - it naturally make the profile a bit more mid orientated and pushes it forward in the mix.

JUST the stereo thing to get my head around now !

I’m going from the kemper outs (x2) using Xlrs to the desk.

I’ve selected -12db output to the desk and that seems to make the signal , just right for our pa

I’ve selected master stereo on the kemper Output

Selected stereo for the monitor (the kemper instructed me to plug the monitor into the direct output for stereo) , which I did

Now I’ just need to mess about with stereo delays and reverbs !!

Any tips on using stereo (from you experienced FRFR guys ) would be welcome !

Ps : bought the tone junkie dirty Shirley profile yesterday - the L6 with klon profile is hands down the best rock profile I have EVER played - feels and sounds like a real valve amp - In fact I would say it’s the best rock tone I have EVER achieved!!

I have owned a LOT of amps in my time - so I do not say this glibly!

Rock on my kemper brothers (and sisters)