On the Fence

  • Hello,


    I have been doing a lot of research on the Kemper such as reading reviews and watching videos but I'm sure we all know how that goes... you hear how great it is and hear excellent stuff on youtube then you get said nueral DSP plugin or axe-fx and bam: not even close. There are a lot of people selling these units on my local classifieds (already concerning me honestly) but I still haven't found someone willing to let me swing by and play through it for a bit (even more concerning) to test it out for myself so would anyone be willing to reamp some of my DI's through their Kemper? I see the actual kemper website offers a 45 day return policy but retailers like Sweetwater don't seem to mention this.

  • People selling Kempers shouldn't be of concern. With the Stage being released, some may be wanting to switch models. I know a friend has both right now but only plans to keep one.

    Got a Guitar Center near (or near enough) to you? Order one from them and return it. 45 days, no questions asked. Ship to store and save on shipping costs. I've done this with other items (even TOLD them that's what I was doing). They shrug and say "Happens all the time...."

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • Welcome to the forum! As Ruefus said, with the floor model Stage just released there are surely many more desktop units for resale right now. You can probably get a good price on a used one this way, though there's no return policy when you do that. However, I suspect you'll keep it. I've been a Kemper user for 7.5 years now :)

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • You won’t be disappointed with the kemper I can tell you that for sure. I love the kemper so much I own 4 of them. The secret to the kemper is finding the right profile. IMO the effects are really good now to especially the delays and reverbs.

    f7FdEdG_d.jpg

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • I love my Kemper...but if I was only concerned about ITB recording and I was short on cash...amp sims have gotten really good in a shockingly short amount of time. The STL Putney suite is far better than his KPA pack...imo of course...


    Regarding the DI, I think I know a commercial profiler that would probably run one through for you. I can ask...


    That said, if you can't get a good tone out of neural or fractal, I don't know that you'll have much more success here, all devices/plugins mentioned are more than capable of delivering phenomenal tones, especially low-tuned/high-gain stuff. I know some really good producers that are just using plugins now...it's just so easy to reamp, and they are getting damn good.

    Not trying to scare you off a KPA, it's still the only gear purchase I have never regretted, the variety and quality of tones you have access to, free or otherwise is pretty amazing. For what it's worth, I hated the tones I got with a fractal. But...I am inclined to chalk that up to user error/workflow preference, as many others have proven me wrong many times over.

    Disclaimer: When I post demo clips for profiles, there will be some minimal post-processing, unless stated otherwise. I normally double-track hard L/R, and add to the main buss a small amount of EQ and a limiter/comp set pretty light as well. Sometimes I get test profiles in advance of release, though 90% of my clips will be from packs I have purchased.

  • Also keep in mind that not very few players that would sell their KPAs eventually return for some strange reasons 8). And as stated above, this might be a very good time for bying a used Toaster or Rack due to the introduction of the Stage.


    In the end you have to be willing to find the right profiles that work for you. This might take some time (as it did in my case). But since I found my tones - no looking back. No more gasing for amps, stomps and fx for me. It's all in there.


    I also had an technical issue but K-team was very helpful and the problem got solved.


    Now I only want it smaller. But that's spoiled complaining at a very high level ;).

    Gear: Strats & KPA. Plug Ins: Cubase, NI, iZotope, Slate, XLN, Spectrasonics.
    Music: Song from my former band: vimeo.com/10419626[/media][/media][/media] Something new on the way...

  • would anyone be willing to reamp some of my DI's through their Kemper?

    Of course I could do this ... but it won't help you much because the real magic of the Kemper Profiler isn't just in the resulting tone but in the "feel" how the profiled amps react to your fingers while playing, how it reacts to the pickup switch, volume pot, tone pot ... and how it retains the character of different guitars.

  • Hello,


    I have been doing a lot of research on the Kemper such as reading reviews and watching videos but I'm sure we all know how that goes... you hear how great it is and hear excellent stuff on youtube then you get said nueral DSP plugin or axe-fx and bam: not even close. There are a lot of people selling these units on my local classifieds (already concerning me honestly) but I still haven't found someone willing to let me swing by and play through it for a bit (even more concerning) to test it out for myself so would anyone be willing to reamp some of my DI's through their Kemper? I see the actual kemper website offers a 45 day return policy but retailers like Sweetwater don't seem to mention this.

    I assume you are in the US ? If you were in the UK I'd be happy for you to have a go on mine.


    Some wise wisdom in the words on other posts. You need to try one or take the plunge and buy one to truly know.


    I strongly believe the KPA can give you the sounds you want...can you get them out of the KPA ? Its really accessible but that is the main variable in this...


    To add, I think my KPA could sound better than I have it, but I am useless at tweaking...but I am sooo happy with what I have..

  • I love my Kemper...but if I was only concerned about ITB recording and I was short on cash...amp sims have gotten really good in a shockingly short amount of time. The STL Putney suite is far better than his KPA pack...imo of course...


    Regarding the DI, I think I know a commercial profiler that would probably run one through for you. I can ask...


    That said, if you can't get a good tone out of neural or fractal, I don't know that you'll have much more success here, all devices/plugins mentioned are more than capable of delivering phenomenal tones, especially low-tuned/high-gain stuff. I know some really good producers that are just using plugins now...it's just so easy to reamp, and they are getting damn good.

    Not trying to scare you off a KPA, it's still the only gear purchase I have never regretted, the variety and quality of tones you have access to, free or otherwise is pretty amazing. For what it's worth, I hated the tones I got with a fractal. But...I am inclined to chalk that up to user error/workflow preference, as many others have proven me wrong many times over.

    I've been using the TSE 50x V2 with ownhammer IRs for quite awhile, prior to that I was using the Kazrog Psycho A again with ownhammers. I think the tone I get with this set-up is quite good and the TSE feels like the real amp to me but these are not really something I can use live or bring to another studio with me. I spent hours with an Axe-FX II XL+ and I just couldn't get anything decent out of the thing with the stock stuff but of course you could probably tweak the 8000 parameters for a few months and dial in that perfect tone, I'm ultimately just too lazy for that. I could also just load some 3rd party IRs on it but paying $2k+ for an IR loader seems pretty unreasonable to me. The axe-fx (and bias fx) also seem to really hate high frequencies because pretty much everything sounds like its LPF'd at like 5k.


    For me the Kemper needs to have a profile that blows the TSE 50x V2 away to my ears for me to consider it and without me having to buy a ton of kemper profile packs to find it. Which i understand can be hard since you technically can't even adjust the settings on the amp.

  • I've been using the TSE 50x V2 with ownhammer IRs for quite awhile, prior to that I was using the Kazrog Psycho A again with ownhammers. I think the tone I get with this set-up is quite good and the TSE feels like the real amp to me but these are not really something I can use live or bring to another studio with me. I spent hours with an Axe-FX II XL+ and I just couldn't get anything decent out of the thing with the stock stuff but of course you could probably tweak the 8000 parameters for a few months and dial in that perfect tone, I'm ultimately just too lazy for that. I could also just load some 3rd party IRs on it but paying $2k+ for an IR loader seems pretty unreasonable to me. The axe-fx (and bias fx) also seem to really hate high frequencies because pretty much everything sounds like its LPF'd at like 5k.


    For me the Kemper needs to have a profile that blows the TSE 50x V2 away to my ears for me to consider it and without me having to buy a ton of kemper profile packs to find it. Which i understand can be hard since you technically can't even adjust the settings on the amp.

    I actually think a Kemper might be the way to go then. I'll put it this way: The Putney suite is the best amp sim I've used (for heavy rock/metal), and I have almost everything except Neural (come on, black friday). And the Putney suite is better (to me yes, but many other I know) than his KPA pack. But does not measure up to so many more tones that I from my Kemer, it's just incredible.

    The fact that you mention the meth-like tweaking required to dial in a Fractal makes me think the Kemper is about perfect. Cause that's the whole point. I don't trust my ear after about 20 min of tweaking, I hated playing with an Axe FX because it didn't sound good by itself, I had to get it there. And there are just other thing I'd rather do, like pick a killer profile and play, haha. The Kemper excels at out-of-the-box tones, that's what it does (this does, to a point, depends on where you get your profiles, but the point is the same). And, even worst case: Do you like tweaking endless parameters until you finally find your tone, or scrolling through rigs until one grabs you? I vastly prefer B. :)

    I haven't played through your TSE with your guitar the way you have everything set up. That said...there is not a single doubt in my mind that you will find so many profiles that you prefer to the TSE that it will start to become annoying when you don't know which to pick.

    Seriously though, I am certain of that. Tell you what, send me your DIs and I'll reamp a few for you. I have an embarrassingly large amount of profiles, whatever you'd like, I am very certain there's something you'll like...provided I don't f**k up the reamp...! :D


    Edit: I would like to add that I 100% agree with lightbox to his point: The Kemper really does feel, behave, sound, etc, more "like a real amp" than anything else I have listened to. That's hard to get across with reamps. When I got my KPA, I had a Voz AC15TV 50th annv, and switched back and forth. That was a pretty incredible experience, I have to say. The Vox was up on Reverb the next morning.

    Disclaimer: When I post demo clips for profiles, there will be some minimal post-processing, unless stated otherwise. I normally double-track hard L/R, and add to the main buss a small amount of EQ and a limiter/comp set pretty light as well. Sometimes I get test profiles in advance of release, though 90% of my clips will be from packs I have purchased.

    Edited once, last by Locrain ().

  • Alright thank you I would upload some short DI samples of tracks im working on into a google drive when I get home. I actually downloaded the demo of the Putney suite and found I can get TSE at flat EQ to sound exactly like "Amp 1" flat EQ by engaging the MK II Mod and basically turning the resonance all the way up and turning down the the presence basically all the way down while running the bias a little colder. Very monstrous low end (which isn't a good thing to me) but I ran them both through the same impulse response for comparison purposes, which apparently they didn't even bother to include an IR loader with Putney which is insane for a $150 plugin IMO. Ill also include a few reamps of my own in the folder so you can get an idea of what i'm working with both through the TSE and reamps I did with an actual rig.