So I'm into my 4th weekend gigging with my KPA...

  • Here's an update on my experience with the KPA:


    First off, I use, basically 5 or 6 sounds. The majority of my gig is played between 4 settings - Clean, heavy crunch rhythm, heavy overdrive lead and slightly broken up, SRV-ish. Number five is fairly clean, good for chicken picking stuff for a couple country songs we play. Other than that, if we do Van Halen stuff I have Top Jimis profiles and I have a Slash sound I made from a Michael Britt profile from a Silver Jubilee earlier this week.


    Anyhow - the first couple weeks, the sound that was giving me the most trouble was my clean sound. After the first weekend (I don't recall what I used for sounds) I profiled my Fender 68 Custom Deluxe Reverb. I originally tried Michael Britt's Grab & Go pack, in which he has profiles of this exact amp, but I have my own particular settings, and I've swapped out the speaker in mine to a Celestion G12-65 from 1979, so that amp has its own sound.


    Anyhow, if you've read some of my other posts you'll remember I was having problems getting the onboard compressor stomp to give me what my MXR Dynacomp gives me when going into the Deluxe. A couple weeks ago I finally gave in and ordered a power supply for this pedalboard so I could have my comp and my wah, which I also couldn't get right using the Kemper's on board options. Ironically, while I was waiting on the power supply I got the Stack block comp sounding REALLY close to my MXR. Nonetheless, when the PS arrived I thre a Dynacomp out there.

    My clean sound now is damn near pristine - I'm getting a lot of comments on it, especially from my bandmates. So I'm thrilled with that.

    Now I'm having my biggest problems with my heavy rock crunch and lead sounds. Both are using a profile I made of my modified Marshall DSL100. My soundman has been telling me that he's missing the warmth and balls my tones have always had but all the gigs we've been doing we've been kind of rushed so I couldn't get out there and listen for myself. This evening I was finally able to do that and I can hear exactly what he's talking about. He's definitely not wrong. The problem, though, isn't with the Kemper, it's with my profile. It's definitely lacking down around 300-500hz. I could dial that in with the EQ but I don't have a slot open after the amp in the rhythm crunch sound so instead I'm going to re-profile that amp with a different speaker cab, as well as profile my Modded Marshall JMP-1/9200 rig. The tones I used to get out of that before switching to the Fender a few years ago were otherworldly - I've also recorded that rig a good bit, with the mic combination I'm going to use, and in those recordings, when mixed I didn't need to EQ the guitar at all, it just sat right there in the mix perfectly and sounded gargantuan - so I have no doubt I'm going to get killer results. I should have done that from the get go.

    My SRV-ish tone uses a profile I took of the Deluxe with a Lovepedal Super Six w/Stevie Mod in front - using a Sennheiser 906. It's a really great sounding profile. I think when I redo the Marshall stuff, I'm going to run thre 906, in addition to my 421 and Unidyne III Sm57, then either blend it in or profile that separately, for more options. Then if these turn out ok I'll also profile my '86 Laney AOR100, my '65 Fender Bassman and my $400 Bugera Plexi Clone (that sounds amazing). I have one day, Sunday, to do all this so hopefully I can get the right tones dialed in.

    So anyhow, that's where I'm at currently with my KPA. Since the vast majority of the stuff we play uses clean and only slightly overdriven tones, I'm really happy with the sound so far. Once I get these other profiles done (which I now know exactly what I need) I'll be that much happier.

    Wednesday night a friend of mine, a fellow guitarist on this circuit, dropped in and caught the last song of the set - Turn Up The Radio from Autograph, which is a pretty rockin guitar sound and solo. After the song we were done. He came up & said, simply, 'That's it - Monday I'm buying one'...meaning the Kemper. And that was with the flawed sound. Can't imagine how he'd respond if I had the tone I'm going to have after I reprofile....

  • Its really great to hear your progress stories. Glad you got what you were looking for with Dyna Comp. It is amazing how much of a personal thing tone is though. I'm not a huge fan of the Kemper Compressor because it sounds so much like a Dyna Comp :D. I never used my MXR when it was on my board. In fact I assumed I hared compression. Then I got a Cali 76 and suddenly I had the Compressor on all the time ^^


    I would definitely like to see more control of the Compressor in the Stomp section to cover more compression styles.


    Anyway, it sounds like you are getting VERY close to having your perfect personal sound. Keep up the good work 8)

  • Are you using Morph for boosts as well? Gives you 5 more sounds within a performance.


    I find this really useful on top of the main sounds for added umpf.


    All I do is add a bit more volume, gain and treble for a bit of cut and allocate it to my main rhythm slots, set to instant change....I can click in to get riffs to stand out a bit more ( I'm in a dual guitar band). On my solo slot I have morph to add more reverb and delay for the slower solo sections...

  • Are you using Morph for boosts as well? Gives you 5 more sounds within a performance.


    I find this really useful on top of the main sounds for added umpf.


    All I do is add a bit more volume, gain and treble for a bit of cut and allocate it to my main rhythm slots, set to instant change....I can click in to get riffs to stand out a bit more ( I'm in a dual guitar band). On my solo slot I have morph to add more reverb and delay for the slower solo sections...

    I am using morphing fairly extensively. I use it on my clean channel to go between a smooth tone for more funky scratching type stuff and a brighter, more thin ‘Sweet home Alabama’ type thing. For my lead channel I use it to go from moderate drive for lower key lead stuff to more over the top drive for that type of thing. I use it on a couple other channels for various things as well... really a super useful feature!

  • Another versatile use for Morph is adding Delay Mix and Feedback, and using tap tempo so the rig will work with multiple songs.

    I do that too LOL!!! In fact, I JUST set up a morph so that when I hit the button the delay morphs to something similar to EVHs SDE3000 setting. Sorta. A one off I have coming up has one song where there's some slow whammy bar bending and diving with heavy delay going on. I don't use a whammy but can fake it well enough with enough delay LOL!!!! I don't really wanna have to switch to another performance for that one thing (all 5 slots are full) so Morph to the rescue!

  • Noisenet Can't wait to hear what you come up with for your Laney AOR 100 profiles, dude! If you can get any of the tones that Vinnie Moore and Richie Kotzen got back in the 80's Shrapnel shredder days, I would absolutely LOVE to try them out. For reference:


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    Thanks,

    Jeffro

    Shred 'til yer dead,

    Jeff in Houston

  • Having gigged with the KPA for many years, here's some of the take aways and suggestions I can give on your situation.


    You have to learn that you have to dial your amp tones in at every venue via your monitors and FOH speakers. The sound from the Kemper and the profiles you use will not change, but every FOH/PA and monitor setup is different. If you have a dedicated sound guy that knows your tone, it's a simple as having him EQ the FOH and your monitor setup. If you're doing this yourself, have some play some basic chords while you listen to the FOH. You'll know what you need for it to sound right.


    My band uses wireless in ear monitors for every show, so we have our own mixer setup. So our connection is like this Instrument>Band-IEM Mixer>FOH via transformered Y This is the most consistent I think you can get, we mix our own monitors.


    We send the FOH the same sounds every night and this translates that our monitor mixes are consistent no matter what. If we have to provide FOH sound then we have a live sound guy that knows us and he mixes it, but if the venue provides FOH then you're at the mercy of their guy and hopefully he'll listen to you about your sound.



  • Album tones using those same Laney AOR's, to the best of my knowledge:

    Richie:

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    Vinnie:

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    Can't wait to hear your profiles!


    Jeff

    Shred 'til yer dead,

    Jeff in Houston

  • Can't wait to hear those Laney profiles, Noisenet:love:

    It's gonna be quite some time. I'm in the process of moving out of my current residence into a temporary condo unit. I'll be there for at least six months, after which I'll bellowing for a house to buy. Depending on what I find I'll have to then either build a building for my studio (my preference as I want to do some commercial studio work, don't want clients traipsing through my house) or convert a couple rooms into studio space. It all depends on what price my current house gets, how much what I'm looking for will cost, etc.

    Either way I'm expecting to be out of anything related to loud sound for the better part of a year. :(