• I'm a 35-year tube snob who is finally getting tired of lugging a 55-lb beast around to gigs (Bogner XTC or JCM800). So, I have borrowed a friends powered toaster and am working with it to see if I can make it work for me.


    I play a lot of different types of material, but roughly half of my gigs are theatrical pit work. Occasionally I play with a 8-piece horn band, and then I do a lot of other drop-in stuff here and there as I have time.


    So far I've managed to get it powered up and sounding passably good through headphones. I've gotten a couple of rig packs to get started; my next major gig is a local run of "We Will Rock You", which is a jukebox musical that is all Queen material. Thus, right now I'm all about trying to duplicate a dimed AC30.


    Interestingly, there are a few rig packs out there that all have good-sounding profiles of this amp, and they generally get close to the mark, but all are different, coming from different directions.


    So, my question to the group is this: How do you convert what you hear in a small space or headphones to what you will need at stage volume in a big room? With a traditional amp it's a matter of a quick tweak to a couple of knobs, but with a profile, it seems more like you need to have a half-dozen rigs ready to try before you show up, just to make sure you have something that will fit. Am I missing something?

  • Welcome!


    Even if it sounds great with headphones - it may sound poor 'in real live' ;)


    Try to play at the same volume as needed for your gig.


    Best together with the band - if not possible play a backing track of the band and adjust the tone.


    The profiler has the same controls like a normal tube amp.

    (Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence)


    You can also adjust the sound globally with an EQ.

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    Great Profiles --> soundside.de

  • Don't take this the wrong way, but you haven't played any pit gigs, have you? The first time the entire group will be together is likely to be opening night of the show, and "backing tracks" will never exist, because the show will never be recorded (as the performance contract rights require).


    As for playing "the same volume" as the gig, there is no way to know what that will be until a few days before opening. The room is a 1,068 seat theater, and we won't know the required stage volume until the first run-through in tech week. Unlike most "pit gigs" this one requires that the band be onstage as part of the scenery, so we function as both the pit and the monitor system for the cast, which complicates matters even more.


    As for the tone controls, my understanding is that tweaking these only changes the settings for a single rig, and they revert back to the preset when you change rigs, right?......or am I misunderstanding how the KPA works?

  • As for the tone controls, my understanding is that tweaking these only changes the settings for a single rig, and they revert back to the preset when you change rigs, right?......or am I misunderstanding how the KPA works?

    If you tweak anything, you can save the new settings with the store option. Once stored, those settings will be puled up each time. As for the pit gig, you may want to stay with you traditional rig until you are more familiar with the Kemper at the smaller venues and know how it will react with the profiles you have selected. A large live gig is not the best place to debut an unfamiliar amp, tubed or digital.

  • If you tweak anything, you can save the new settings with the store option. Once stored, those settings will be puled up each time. As for the pit gig, you may want to stay with you traditional rig until you are more familiar with the Kemper at the smaller venues and know how it will react with the profiles you have selected. A large live gig is not the best place to debut an unfamiliar amp, tubed or digital.

    OK, guess I need to spend some time with the "store" option.


    How would I then go back to the original, untweaked version, if I manage to knob-twist myself into the depths of hell itself?


    I get what you're saying here, but the reason I borrowed the Kemper is that my existing amps (Bogner XTC, JCM800 and MP-1) really don't get anywhere close to the AC30 signature Brian May sound, but that's what this particular gig calls for. Most of my other gigs actually take a much wider variety of sounds, which I already have dialed into the existing rig (or at least close enough). Probably better to start with modelling a one-trick pony first, then move to the broader pallet after I have a clue how this thing really works.


    The good news is that I have ~6 weeks to futz around with it before the show opens, so I think I can get it there.

  • Make yourself familiar with the Performance mode. You can use one rig which sounds already close for your taste and put it in 5 different slots. Then you can tweak each of them individually, store and recall them. Change one on the fly in your live situation, switch back to another to safe yourself and much more.... actually despite the flexibility and incredible amount of options I sometimes consider the Kemper a one channel amp with one setting. I use this in jams with others. No tweaks, no different rigs/profiles, just one sound, a little boost, a wah, a delay in the slots. That's it.


    And re the gig volume: This is not about 1 or 3 db more or less. It is about not deciding on sound on bedroom level. You can google Fletcher/Munson effect for the details. At low volume you hear things differently. The advice comes from experience that sounds dialed in at bedroom level will have too much highs and bass at regular volume, i.e. gig or rehearsal with a band.

  • OK, guess I need to spend some time with the "store" option.


    How would I then go back to the original, untweaked version, if I manage to knob-twist myself into the depths of hell itself?

    If you save the original untouched version to your PC, you would always be able to recover that version.


    I get what you're saying here, but the reason I borrowed the Kemper is that my existing amps (Bogner XTC, JCM800 and MP-1) really don't get anywhere close to the AC30 signature Brian May sound, but that's what this particular gig calls for. Most of my other gigs actually take a much wider variety of sounds, which I already have dialed into the existing rig (or at least close enough). Probably better to start with modelling a one-trick pony first, then move to the broader pallet after I have a clue how this thing really works.

    The only thing I would suggest for that is to find a similar environment, like the same type of hard and soft surfaces then turn up to a similar loud volume to test the tones. Like you said you have 6 weeks to find the right place and test. I am assuming that you will be playing to FOH and that will allow you to find the right cab sim / IR to use. You sound experienced enough to know what kind of EQ you need to cut through or blend into the mix you are playing in. It seems that you only need to find a good AC30 profile that sounds good loud in a big room with lots of hard surfaces. You might even be able to talk the venue into allowing you to have an hour or two in the pit to run your tests.

  • Welcome!


    What will you be using onstage, to enable you and the cast to hear the band? I suggest using it, and making your best guess at stage volume, and tweak the rigs at that level. If your guess is a bit loud or quiet, the volume adjustment won't affect the tone that much.


    When you get to the venue, the Output section has two EQs that can be used to globally adjust all Rigs for the Main and Monitor/Speaker Outputs.

  • Hey - I know you from that other place. Welcome. ?


    I have my X effects slot set as a global studio EQ. I use it to do a high cut and low cut filter and for any specific tweaks needed for a particular situation. I turn it off for acoustic or bass.


    If you run high gain profiles without a high cut there's a certain harsh treble caused by the mic on the original cabinet that sounds "fizzy". Same with a real amp. I've got my high cut at around 6-7 KHz and it really sounds more like an amp. The sound engineer probably already does something to your XTC in the mix.

  • Welcome!


    What will you be using onstage, to enable you and the cast to hear the band? I suggest using it, and making your best guess at stage volume, and tweak the rigs at that level. If your guess is a bit loud or quiet, the volume adjustment won't affect the tone that much.


    When you get to the venue, the Output section has two EQs that can be used to globally adjust all Rigs for the Main and Monitor/Speaker Outputs.

    I generally run all of my stuff through DXR12s - I have enough for a full club PA, so I can run one or many as needed. I have an EQ in my stage mixer (XR12) to get them very close to flat, so I generally run the same signal to both FOH and my feed, with the only difference being that EQ to adjust for the DXR12.

    Hey - I know you from that other place. Welcome. ?


    I have my X effects slot set as a global studio EQ. I use it to do a high cut and low cut filter and for any specific tweaks needed for a particular situation. I turn it off for acoustic or bass.


    If you run high gain profiles without a high cut there's a certain harsh treble caused by the mic on the original cabinet that sounds "fizzy". Same with a real amp. I've got my high cut at around 6-7 KHz and it really sounds more like an amp. The sound engineer probably already does something to your XTC in the mix.

    I'll play with the X slot idea. I still haven't fooled around with any FX yet - my approach is always to start with the basic sound, then add as little FX as I can to get the right sound for the gig. If the basic tone is right, the FX are easy to add later; the reverse is not true, from my experience.


    I know what you're getting at re: the upper mid harshness, and I already have that pulled out of my feed with XTC rig. My basic rig for the past few years has been XTC>Torpedo Live>XR12, then outputs from the XR12 to whatever is needed. The Torpedo Live is a really solid IR sim of a mic'd cabinet, and you can work with the simulated mic placement to tame it down very nicely. Thus, there is no physical mic, and sound guys generally don't have to re-EQ my feed (I have gotten a number of comments on how easy my feed is for them to work with - one cable, no fuss). Good point, though, that I need to pay attention to that in the KPA setup.


    Thanks to both of you - good helpful stuff to think about!

  • OK, so I finally got to use the Kemper in a rehearsal, using some assorted AC-30 profiles.


    Two things to note:


    1) I ended up using several profiles to get what I needed. The 3 top ones were one from Britt, one from Top Jimi, and one that is an orphan in the rig exchange ("Mister May"). I used a couple more for specific sounds, but these three were the most used.


    2) This thing sounds very, very good, and is a lot easier to use that I expected. I have some work to do to get it ready for the actual show, but this is the easiest time I've ever had running with a new rig. Given how well this went, I may end up switching to Kemper full time, and keeping the tube amps at the house for practice and profiling.


    All that said, when I played the Kemper through a cheap "FRFR" cabinet at GC, I would have never given it a second look - it just didn't sound that great, and was nowhere near what I would have wanted to use in a real gig. Bringing it home, putting some good profiles in it and running with a decent monitor cabinet really showed what it can do, though - and this thing is serious.

    I come away, though, with a sense that the "floorboard" is massive overkill for me. I don't tend to tweak during performances, I just select patches on rack FX units w/MIDI and use the amp's footswitch for gain selection. Given this history, I think I'm going to end up building the rigs I need and using MIDI to select them instead of using the "floorboard", and that will also save a lot of space.