Point Beginner in the Right Direction

  • Hoping for some help. Tube amp user here. Watched a lot of videos, convince me to buy the Kemper Stage. Mostly because it reduced the cost by $1,000, before the Stage you had to get the toaster and a floorboard. I have had a POD XT Live and other modeling boards. Was always mostly able to setup what I needed out of the box without consulting a manual or many videos with all other products. I understand there is much, much more you can do with the Kemper - many, many options. But other than just browsing and playing, I am finding out how unintuitive this thing is for a beginner. I'm a technical guy, and I manage teams that build websites and the manual that came in the box (to me) was hot garbage, and the "Main manual" talks about individual things without any overall context or guide.


    I am looking for some kind of visual and flow to make sense of it all. Nobody seems to have this. I think I know what a "profile" is. And I have somehow figured out you can make a "performance" with up to 5 profiles. And you can click 1-5 in performance mode and "morph" them so each (rig?) can have 2 states. You can have the 4 things in pre and then the 4 things in post. Assigning and editing those things is sure a hot barrel of monkeys.

    Let me describe a few bits of pain...


    I plugged Kemper in my clean amp and browsed the profiles installed in Browse mode and played the whole list. Found some I liked. Went back to the top of the list but somehow it was much shorter than the first time. Many I wanted to play again were missing.

    I installed Rig Manager on a laptop and connected it. I had many more profiles, and it's not apparent what is Rig Manager (only) and what's on the Kemper itself. Updated the Kemper using Rig Manager to the latest firmware and rebooted. Found many profiles I liked that were shared others, and imported some free ones I found online from some of the pro producers. Played those.


    Watched a video and learned how to make favorites. I would play profiles by selecting on the laptop, then favorite on the Kemper unit. Favorited about 20. When I went to the Kemper unit and switched to Performance mode to make my first performance - now only 7 favorites show (out of the 20 I saved). What happened? Are some still in the laptop in Rig Manager? How do you copy from once place to another or sync from laptop to Kemper? Is there some special way to see them in Performance mode?


    Continued trying to make a performance. Added 4 profiles to 1-4. figured out how to change gain in Morph version so I could have clean and dirty. But has this 10 second delay. Watched a video on how to change that on a Profiler Stage from Aug 2019, but the option to change that timing by using "rig" and the first soft button did not match the video at all (software update since moved it?).

    Things are all over the map because I have seen no onboarding tour or decent demo/tutorial that actually walks you through the basics of how to use the thing out of the box.


    • show me the difference between a profile / rig / performance / morph
    • show me how things get from Rig manager into the unit (and back)
    • show me where things are saved from where I save them (saving performances updates rigs? or profiles? and goes back to Rig manager how?)

    I imagine somebody here had to start from where I am now. Where did you learn and how did you get going?


    All help appreciated. :)

  • sorry to hear you are having problems. For me it was the total opposite. I loved the KPA compared to Line6 and Fractal etc because I found it simpler and more intuitive to an old school valve amp mentality.

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    I plugged Kemper in my clean amp and browsed the profiles installed in Browse mode and played the whole list. Found some I liked. Went back to the top of the list but somehow it was much shorter than the first time. Many I wanted to play again were missing.

    it sounds like you activated one of the filters on the KPA that narrow the browser down to things like current author, bass only, favourites etc. Make sue it shows all rigs.

    Quote


    I installed Rig Manager on a laptop and connected it. I had many more profiles, and it's not apparent what is Rig Manager (only) and what's on the Kemper itself. Updated the Kemper using Rig Manager to the latest firmware and rebooted. Found many profiles I liked that were shared others, and imported some free ones I found online from some of the pro producers. Played those.

    in RM the folder structure on the left side has Local Library (on the computer) and My Profiler. If you want to transfer things from RM to KPA just copy and paste or drag and drop from Local Library (or its subfolders) to My Profiler. Unless it’s in the MyProfiler folder it isn’t going to show up when you aren’t connected to RM.

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    • show me the difference between a profile / rig / performance / morph

    profile = the raw amp with or without speaker (basically the amp block)


    rig = a full signal chain containing Stomps, Amp and Effects plus any input settings if the input menu isn’t locked.


    performance = a set of up to 5 rigs grouped together primarily for live use.


    morph = a system for changing settings in Fx, Amps etc in real time. Basically think of it like midi CC via an expression pedal and you won’t be far off. The KPA doesn’t use midi to achieve it and, as a result it can do some amazing things you might not be able to do with midi. Almost any parameter(s) can be assigned to a single exp or button and made to change between the two states. This can be an either of change using a switch (either instant or faded at a preset rate) or fully controllable via an expression pedal.

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    • show me where things are saved from where I save them (saving performances updates rigs? or profiles? and goes back to Rig manager how?)

    Local Library = on your computer


    My Profiler = on the Kemper.


    within each option you have sub folders for Rigs, Presets and Performances. Actually, it’s arranged the other way round this is how I think of it. In RM you have Rigs which can be in My Profiler, Local Library or Rig Exchange. Then you have Presets which can in Local Library or My Profiler, then Performances which can also be in either location.

    Quote

    I imagine somebody here had to start from where I am now. Where did you learn and how did you get going?

    the videos on the Kemper website and the main manual which you download from the site. Once you get your head round the basic structure and the fact that some of the naming is a bit strange it is really very simple and logical.


    Hope that helps. Have fun orientating your self. Once you get it you want look back.

  • Thank you so much Alan! I did manage to learn some things last night thanks to this. Will keep you posted! By the way - where can one get a ring slide like the one you use in your Hellecasters video? I can't play it, but that is one of my favorite songs as well...great video!