Why is legato hard with the kemper

  • Hello all


    I’m a Kemper noob as I’ve only had it for a short while, but there is one thing that puzzles me. I have lead sounds I really like, but when I try to play with legato, it frels like I need to apply much more pressure than when I use my old floorboard.


    I have tried to search for people having similar problems, but have not found anything, so I’m thnking that there is something I am missing.


    Have anyone experienced anything similar or have any suggestions? The sound has compression on it, although I can’t remember how much.


    Whenever I search for string sensitivity, everything that comes up has to do with how hard you play in relation to going from a clean sound to a distorted sound and not how light you need to play to get a tone sounding.


    Any help is greatly appreciated.

  • How are you monitoring? It loses a lot of mojo going through studio monitors imo and especially through headphones. I think it’s mostly mental, if you play it through a good PA rig or cab enough and feel/know the tone and everything you live is there at stage volume then you have to convince yourself it’s there in the daw system too.


    Playing through studio monitors is very revealing so maybe what your experiencing is also a bit of a technique flaw that is covered of by the saturation of a pedal board and tube amp rig heard in the room.


    Consider those and have fun

  • Maybe you use less gain right now? Try boosting signal pre-amp with booster or drive like green drive (tubescreamer alike). Try playing with compression or/and compression in amp menu just to hear whats goin on. Check Paul Gilbert talking about compression here:

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  • Thanks for all your replies.

    I’m monitoring through headphones when practising alene, but the problem is alao there with live practice through a cabinet with high volume.


    I’ll try to fiddle with the compression settings and see if that helps.


    Thanks again.

  • What old floorboard did you use? A Boss floorboard? Anway there's no difference playing legato on a real hardware amp and a kemper. I used to use amp sims in the computer and when I bought a kemper I realised how sloppy I had become playing guitar. Simply because, at least then, amp sims masked a lot. Maybe that was the case with your old floorboard?

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • Older modellers used a lot of compression to combat the feeling of latency. Maybe it is this that you’ve been used to?


    What old floorboard did you use? A Boss floorboard? Anway there's no difference playing legato on a real hardware amp and a kemper. I used to use amp sims in the computer and when I bought a kemper I realised how sloppy I had become playing guitar. Simply because, at least then, amp sims masked a lot. Maybe that was the case with your old floorboard?

    Agreed. The Kemper is less forgiving. Like a real tube amp. You may be used to high compressed gain. The Kemper is pretty expressive, so articulation matters a lot. You will get used to It.

    Never too old for rock'n'roll

    Edited once, last by CJGOMEZ ().

  • I used a Digitech GNX 4. Very old.


    I guess I’ll just keep practising with the Kemper and see if I get used to it.

    Well no wonder why. It took me a little shorter while to polish away my sloppy playing so will you too. As cjgomez said the kemper is less forgiving. Just like a real hw amp is.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • Some profiles are more forgiving than others. If you want a fluid, legato lead sound, try the profile called something like Vai JCM (or JCM VAI) on the Rig Exchange. I always come back to that one when I need to just noodle :)

    Engage the Drive Stomp (disengage the boost, though) and the post-Stack compressor and you’ll be laughing

  • Well no wonder why. It took me a little shorter while to polish away my sloppy playing so will you too. As cjgomez said the kemper is less forgiving. Just like a real hw amp is.

    I agree totally and I also found this with my Engl.


    I find better quality sounds which show better articulation of each note also show up any sloppiness.


    As CK says, gain will help but actually lower gain will improve your technique!!


    This is why I play with so much gain, to disguise my crap playing :)

  • We can thank the gods for tons of gain where one can bury crap playing, especially solos. :D And you're right, lower gain, or even clean. will improve technique.

    Think for yourself, or others will think for you wihout thinking of you

    Henry David Thoreau

  • That's why playing traditional blues stuff can be a bit more demanding than playing classic rock: nuance is everything. Bad technique is not easy to get away with. Even the ghost notes and slaps are tricky. It may be less flashy, but not that easy! Well, SRV, Eric Gales or Bonamassa and many others do master that and then some.

    Never too old for rock'n'roll

  • I've found with other digital gear I was able to tweak until I could make a stacked humbucker in the bridge sound like a full humbucker.

    This is impossible with the Kemper, it's just too honest, it always sounds like a single coil.

    I think the answer is easy: Turn the gain up.

    I've only ever seen that suggested three times on this forum, and one of those was me. It's good to see we subscribe to the same church :evil: