What pedals do a better job than Kemper FX?

I think that the biggest limitation with regards to the current lineup of OD/Dirt/Fuzz effects on the KPA is the fact that it takes more than one slot to achieve the effect of one physical pedal. Ex: combining a green scream, compressor and eq to get the qualities I enjoy in a physical iteration of a TubeScreamer. Doing that would leave you only one other slot free in the stomp section.

To get around this I have a bunch of dirt in the effects loop of my KPA. No matter what, my dirt only takes up one slot, and the rest I use for modulation.

Majority of those pedals are from Abominable Electronics.

Even if Kemper comes up with a ton of killer OD/Fuzz options, I don't know that I'd use them much.

To me, dirt is the most personal of all the effect types.

I don't know if better is the correct word, but I do like my ext pedals quite a lot more, perhaps because I am so used to them and I don't play live anyway.

Here are a few that are always in my chain: I can add in others as required via patchbay.

• Dunlop Cry Baby 535q
• EHX big Muff Pi TW
• Boss CS-3 Compressor (noiseless mod)
• OD-308 (Monte Allums)
• Nux Cerberus: Boost/OD and Distortion only (analog section) plus I love the ability to load in custom IRs.
• TCE Mimiq (occasionally only)

I like the onboard effects enough that I can be happy having just the Kemper and expression pedal for travel stuff. When at home I plug in my Slash Cry baby, Boss TU-3 tuner, fulltone OCD, Boss NS-2, TC Electronics Hall of Fame 2 and Flashback 2. I also have a Klone clone on its way that I am sure to be putting in the mix too. Just toys to have fun with at home but I leave them at home when I play out.

Sometimes , to get "in the mood" , I hook up my old gold Fulltone Deja´ Vibe

Kemper´s FX is pretty good IMHO Don´t use much FX anyway ..... I think .....

Cheers !

Drives need (and are supposedly getting) work. Comp is okay but lacks character(s). Everything else is fine-to-great, but it’s a computer so things like rhythmic filter effects (Midi Murf, Robotalk) would be cool. Like their new acoustic and volume sim—nice—but times ten.

I’ve been evangelizing about CK & Co creating a one-slot master Boost-Drive-Comp-Fuzz for years. No cutesy names that echo the icons, but the capability to get in to all of those territories, that we associate with Klon and the other boosts, TS Zen Jan Ray, KOT, etc etc., FF Muff (bias controls for fuzz). And beyond.

I still own drawers of special analog pedals so I know what it is, but I think that with certain workarounds (like soft shaper, pure boost and profiles with baked-in pedals) the Kemper has pretty much always been able to get it done inside the box. Could it be better and easier yes. Do guitarists who remain faithful to their analog boards sound better? That’s not nearly as automatic a yes as a lot of people would like to think.

ymmv

Gonna be controversial ( and sound like a scratched record) but to me....none, hence I have none.

Never been able to use external drive pedals ( I've tried quite a few) and get a good sound, prefer amp drive sounds every day of the week. Trying to balance the gain stages, limit the noise, faffing ( that's a British word) with pedal settings and connections...True Bypass vs buffer....don't miss any of that. We never find sonic perfection and to me pedals are a form of GAS I have managed to avoid :).

Even the Kemper Whammy and Wah is good enough for me. I played with a few wahs in the past, changing the inductors etc. Back to back, yep can tell the difference and great bragging rights ( yeah of course my wah has the yellow and red fasel inductor that I can switch between) but in practice a regular cry baby was fine.

I miss the building of a pedal board and fiddling with the soldering iron but the "one-stop-shop-in-a-box" ( hey I should be in marketing!) KPA covers all my bases and many more. For me, more options is not necessarily better... but I know I'm in a minority!

Love from your "tone deaf" guitar buddy...

V8guitar I'm with you buddy. I was just using a simple setup before, 2 channel amp, built in boost for both channels and reverb.

Now with the Kemper I have all the toys I wanted without the PITA factor.

Way more fun!

With real Fuzz pedals it is possible to get a very very nice clean tone by rolling back the guitar volume knob (controlling the current into a low input impedance!).

You can't do this with the Kemper. The pick response of a fuzz pedal is completely different and much more expressive.

If you want to make your guitar sound like a convincing bass (1-2 octaves down) there is nothing better than the "EHX Bass 9" pedal atm. Tracking is superb on this pedal.

Quote from Ibot39

With real Fuzz pedals it is possible to get a very very nice clean tone by rolling back the guitar volume knob (controlling the current into a low input impedance!).

You can't do this with the Kemper. The pick response of a fuzz pedal is completely different and much more expressive.

That is exactly the same behaviour with a valve amp so to me not a pedal behaviour per se. Plus in my limited experience not a fuzz pedal but an overdrive pedal behaviour, fuzz tends to go thinner but not clean up - depends on definition of fuzz pedal and which ones of course, but I think its more an a typical behaviour of drive than Fuzz.

I also think the Kemper does respond well to backing off guitar volume. Its not something I do but many people have quoted it.

Sorry to have questioned everything you said and appreciate these are all generalisations

Quote from V8guitar

That is exactly the same behaviour with a valve amp so to me not a pedal behaviour per se. Plus in my limited experience not a fuzz pedal but an overdrive pedal behaviour, fuzz tends to go thinner but not clean up - depends on definition of fuzz pedal and which ones of course, but I think its more an a typical behaviour of drive than Fuzz.

I also think the Kemper does respond well to backing off guitar volume. Its not something I do but many people have quoted it.

Sorry to have questioned everything you said and appreciate these are all generalisations

I am talking about controlling the voltage and current with guitar knob using a fuzz pedal. This affects how (for example a germanium based) fuzz reacts (to pots, pickups, treble bleed....) and is a completely different kind of "clean up" than what you are talking about.

V8guitar

It's not totally different type of clean up, similar principles.

Not sure I totally agree with some kind of magical interaction as anything in front is going to change the sound and as I said I was generalising. However, for that pedal, yep cleans up really well, the fizz does reduce in line with volume so that is cool. My experience has really been that fuzz pedals, even germanium ones, just fizz up...but maybe I've just been using cheaper ones...its few years ago. Doesn't sell me on outboard pedals.

So not going to split hairs here and the vid was interesting.. cheers for that, learn something everyday:)

Quote from V8guitar

It's not totally different type of clean up, similar principles.

Not sure I totally agree with some kind of magical interaction as anything in front is going to change the sound and as I said I was generalising. However, for that pedal, yep cleans up really well, the fizz does reduce in line with volume so that is cool. My experience has really been that fuzz pedals, even germanium ones, just fizz up...but maybe I've just been using cheaper ones...its few years ago. Doesn't sell me on outboard pedals.

So not going to split hairs here and the vid was interesting.. cheers for that, learn something everyday:)

Nah, it's not about splitting hairs

Kemper (fuzz) just can NOT do the same thing like the real pedal in this case. You simply can NOT get THIS known fuzz clean-up effect with Kemper pedal. Fact.

Not wanted to create a long debate on this...Get your point, still don't 100% agree.

Is it fact that the Kemper Fuzz pedal does not clean up like the video of that pedal, yep that is fact. Does the KPA clean up when backing off volume, yep it does.

Anyway I'm not a pedal guy so I guess I'll never get it :). In other words, its like trying to tell a vegetarian that you can't beat the taste of meat... I'm a pedal vegetarian

I'll shut up now