Two Kempers in Series Connected via S/PDIF

  • One of the most significant new features of the Stage is the ability to act as a slave when connected via S/PDIF.


    Until the release of the Stage, you could not connect two Kempers serially via S/PDIF. That is because the Rack

    and the Toaster must always be set as a master. As with Aladdin's Genie, two masters are a non starter.


    So why not use analog I/O to connect two Racks, Toasters or one of each? You can, but you add an unnecessary

    A/D and D/A conversion step. I want to avoid that step, so I will be buying a Stage instead of a used Rack or Toaster

    to go with my non powered Rack.


    What will I do with 2 Kempers connected in series?


    Here's one example.


    I plan to make some profiles of my Wheebo Plexface overdrive with no amp in the signal chain. Here's the signal path:


    Guitar --> Kemper --> Radial X-Amp --> Plexface --> "From Amplifier" on the Kemper Profiler DI Box --> To Profiler XLR jack connects to the Profiler's input and the to Cabinet jack connects to a cab.


    The X-Amp provides the pedal with a Hi Z guitar level output that the Plexface expects at its input. Note that the cab is not really needed here because there is no tube amp in the signal chain.


    Once I have the overdrive's profile, I load it into the first Kemper's stack. Now I can load a Merged, Studio or Direct Amp Profile into the second Kemper's stack.