Greetings from the San Francisco Bay...

  • After a lot of deliberation I went ahead and ordered a KPA. I'm pretty excited. I had been contemplating going with a POD HD500/DT25/ISO cab set up (it needs to be silent to quiet for my living situation) but I came to the conclusion that the isolation cabs under $1000 weren't worth considering and that would push me over my budget.


    I've been using alternative guitar amp tech for a long time. I think my first set up of this nature was an ART SGX2000 with a couple of Peavey KB60 keyboard amps. Somehow I got some crazy sound out of that rig... some even good! I think from there I went to a crazy system that used an Ampeg SC140 amp with a Digitech 2120 in it's effect loop but I took one of the stereo outs and ran it into a keyboard amp for extra "stereo" fun. Next rig was a Vox Tonelab SE into a Lexicon MPX-1 into Mackie powered PA speakers. Actual tube amp? It's been a really long time... (and I guess that's going to continue getting longer) I also did the Roland GR based synth thing for years, but I finally gave up on that as failed tech and taught myself basic keyboard skills. I love synths and I have a few analogs at home as well as a VST folder full of goodies. These days I mostly jam around my home studio using Ableton Live and some software loopers like Mobius and Augustus loop.

  • Have been gigging the HD500 for well over a year before changing to KPA: not even worth to compare...you've made the good decision!!


    Edit: the HD is a pro gear and can get you through any gig, by far the best unit from Line6 to date....but the KPA makes you smile (a lot) and gives you goose bump (still after 5 months).

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


  • Have been gigging the HD500 for well over a year before changing to KPA: not even worth to compare...you've made the good decision!!


    Edit: the HD is a pro gear and can get you through any gig, by far the best unit from Line6 to date....but the KPA makes you smile (a lot) and gives you goose bump (still after 5 months).

    Heh, no need to explain... as I decided that the HD500 had enough functionality I wanted at a cheap enough price that it was worth having. So I'll use it to control the KPA and for some of it's effects and what-not.

  • Greetings from the South Bay, Zerocrossing... and if I may say so, fine nickname!


    -djh

    Thanks, though I have to say it comes from a name a friend had for an experimental electronica group we were in. Sadly when I tried to register the domain, Gibson had already done it to use for their software devision... which never really happened. (They just buy software companies and bury them) So I went for a .net. Meanwhile, when it expired my friend snagged the .com... and doesn't use it. :cursing:


    Anyway, there's also a Canadian band that uses Zerocrossing, (they're good!) but I like to think that it was parallel development. I mostly like it because it makes me feel like I'm a character from The Matrix. :wacko:

  • So, I just wanted to take a tiny bit of time to give my early impressions of the KPA.


    I'm totally in love! :thumbup:


    The sound is absolutely fantastic. Little talk here about the included effects, but so far I've found them all to be fantastic. After years of having to use Virsyn's Reflect because Amplitube's reverb offerings were so crappy, it's great to have a built in reverb of such high quality. The stomps are nice and while I can't directly compare the tube screamer model to the real thing, it's the closest thing I've found from memory.


    I totally appreciate the plethora of ins and outs on this thing. I'm using it in a ver basic way now, but I'm glad that the people at Kemper made sure it could easily fit into any set up.


    The unit has a bit of "first of it's kind" things though. First off, the form factor... is weird. Should have been a pedal like the HD500 or a rack. That handle? Seems cuter than it is functional. The knobs seem oddly cheap compared to the rest of the build quality. The UI is a bit all over the place and I've already come across places in the manual that explain something in a way that's unclear or wrong. (like the clean sens being locked by default... maybe the pdf is behind the current software version?) Anyway, nothing too major but I think Kemper should look at companies like Roland/Boss for some UI tips. They're really good at making a fairly complex piece of gear that's easy to navigate.


    As I've mentioned in another thread, I'm surprised it doesn't come with a single bass profile. Why shun bassists and guitarists who double as bass players?


    Anyway, all minor gripes. Where it counts I'm very satisfied and I'm glad I didn't go with a DT25/iso cab set up. This sounds great, probably better, and is zero fuss.


    I did get a POD HD500 though, and right now I have it in the Kemper's effect loop. I love it! On it's own it's nothing special, but the two combine to form a super unit. Turning off the cab sim on the HD500 and using the amp as a "stomp box" has resulted in some amazing tones. The POD's synth models are also very good and fun to play with. I haven't gotten my act together to get the POD controlling patch changes on the Kemper, but that'll come soon.

  • Welcome to here, glad your'e enjoying your KPA. The HD500 is a fun unit too although mine has been relegated to being pretty much just an interface for the KPA on the PC side until I can sell my Ensemble and afford to get a decent cross platform sound card.

  • Welcome to here, glad your'e enjoying your KPA. The HD500 is a fun unit too although mine has been relegated to being pretty much just an interface for the KPA on the PC side until I can sell my Ensemble and afford to get a decent cross platform sound card.

    Per? From the ol' Loopers forum?


    I think you'll find that the HD500 makes a good friend to the KPA. On it's own it's pretty basic, but the combo makes a certain magic. It seems to be great at providing the weirder effects that the KPA likes and using amps as overdrive devices has yielded awesome results. I haven't even gone beyond basic experiments putting various effects in a loop before or after the "amp" in the KPAs effect loop, but so far I've had a hard time making it sound bad.

  • I think you may be thinking of another Per, I usually go under Per or Per-Anders as that's my name, but also mdme_sadie on some older forums (Abelton and Propellorheads forums), though I am also in the bay area. I'll have to experiment some more with the HD in the loop sometime.

  • I think you may be thinking of another Per, I usually go under Per or Per-Anders as that's my name, but also mdme_sadie on some older forums (Abelton and Propellorheads forums), though I am also in the bay area. I'll have to experiment some more with the HD in the loop sometime.

    Ah, yeah, I'm thinking of a fellow named Per Boysen. I know him from a few other forums and he's the exact kind of guy who'd end up with a KPA. He's an amazing multi-instrumentalist. http://www.perboysen.com/ He lives in Sweden though, not the South Bay. One day we'll have to get together over a beer and geek out about our Kempers. ^^