Waxing a Kemper.

  • I have spent a week studying manuals, bugging forum members and 3 days with my kemper power toaster. Starting to figure it out. At first just using it direct in the studio, sounded great. Initially plugged in a cab and it sounded a little muffled, I knew I hadn't figured it all out yet so went back to direct. Once I figured out how to get a performance together (edit: not completely figured out saving wise) I plugged it in to an open back V30 cab with MB Friedman and TJ Brown sound profiles. You know an amp sounds good when you just want more and more volume because it doesn't get worse or grate but makes you feel like a warrior of sound and you just grit your teeth together in delight not caring at all if the walls crack. I have had and have lots of high end amps and I have to say I can dial this thing in to kill all of them. It's just so "exact" is the best way to put it. Perfect like the best amps ever, miced in a multi million dollar studio with thousand dollar mics and pres put right on a platter for you..I've always believed a guitar should sound through FOH just like the guitar does on a top notch CD played through the FOH. And this does it easily. I should have grabbed one of these years ago and would have if I would have known how killer this can be. Once you see all the remote can do, live it is not an option but essential to do lots of amazing things like morphing or setting a boost to automatically come up and down per measure without you having to run back to the board to turn your boost off!

  • I have had many many coveted brands and types of tube amps as well as digital modelers. I just cannot see how you couldn't be. The worst thing besides a little learning curve to get the most out of it (and some things are not where you would expect them to be in the manual) is the amount of choices there are. Most amps and even modelers have sounds in the same ballpark but with a Kemper you can really have it your way as long as you know what your way is. There are just too many great sounds and makes it extremely hard to choose. IMO for live the factory footswitch is a must for ultimate, sensible control. To be able to morph each performance slot into a boost or anything is great and I love the automatic momentary/latch of the effect buttons.

  • I feel the exact same about just wanting to turn it up, I play mine through a 4x12 Marshall and I wouldn't want it any other way. I run mine like that with no speaker emulation of course and then I go direct out to a mixing board with cab emulation for in ears. Love having a speaker cab behind me pushing air while monitoring with in ears, some people may think overkill, but I love the option to be able to use cab emulation with direct and no cab emulation with a real cab simultaneously. Can't imagine having to have a real guitar amp again. Coming up on a year with mine and I can honestly say I have NEVER been disappointed with mine.

  • I have spent a week studying manuals, bugging forum members and 3 days with my kemper power toaster. Starting to figure it out. At first just using it direct in the studio, sounded great. Initially plugged in a cab and it sounded a little muffled, I knew I hadn't figured it all out yet so went back to direct. Once I figured out how to get a performance together (edit: not completely figured out saving wise) I plugged it in to an open back V30 cab with MB Friedman and TJ Brown sound profiles. You know an amp sounds good when you just want more and more volume because it doesn't get worse or grate but makes you feel like a warrior of sound and you just grit your teeth together in delight not caring at all if the walls crack. I have had and have lots of high end amps and I have to say I can dial this thing in to kill all of them. It's just so "exact" is the best way to put it. Perfect like the best amps ever, miced in a multi million dollar studio with thousand dollar mics and pres put right on a platter for you..I've always believed a guitar should sound through FOH just like the guitar does on a top notch CD played through the FOH. And this does it easily. I should have grabbed one of these years ago and would have if I would have known how killer this can be. Once you see all the remote can do, live it is not an option but essential to do lots of amazing things like morphing or setting a boost to automatically come up and down per measure without you having to run back to the board to turn your boost off!

    I'm right there with ya!! Just got mine a couple weeks ago...


    Now I know who to bug with all MY questions!! :)

  • I feel the exact same about just wanting to turn it up, I play mine through a 4x12 Marshall and I wouldn't want it any other way. I run mine like that with no speaker emulation of course and then I go direct out to a mixing board with cab emulation for in ears. Love having a speaker cab behind me pushing air while monitoring with in ears, some people may think overkill, but I love the option to be able to use cab emulation with direct and no cab emulation with a real cab simultaneously. Can't imagine having to have a real guitar amp again. Coming up on a year with mine and I can honestly say I have NEVER been disappointed with mine.

    I really feel like selling all of my gear. (except vintage Marshalls) I've already sold some and am just down to a couple amps I would gig with. I may keep them just for a valve reference (mainly my 5153 50W 3ch) Once you skip around with a kemper that's as light as a basket of flowers and hear how good it sounds, lugging a 100W ENGL in a flight case to have not as much versatility just doesn't make sense. Have you noticed a lot of big names that were all using Kempers and AXFX are starting to go back to amps in iso cabs? I believe this is not because of the sound but: #1. When everybody starts doing something all of a sudden you're not special enough and have to be different. #2 the have a road crew to lug big amps and Iso cabs around. But mostly #1. I heard some bands using Kempers live and it sounded KILLER. I went from hating on them for the look to having to get one. It was SKID ROW that did it for me. I saw them at a smaller 2,000 seat venue and their guitar sounds were awesome. I wish I could get their profiles! Nicest bunch of guys too. Snake had the room across from us and introduced himself like a gentleman as if we didn't know who he was lol. I wasn't really a huge Skid Row fan until I saw them there. The new singer is great and bands with killer guitar in them that are not country or cookie monster are few and far between. I would highly recommend seeing them. Better without Bach IMO.

  • You make good points. I kept my old Peavey JSX that I have played through for years, profiled it and its really the only profile I use. I dumped all the profiles on my kemper except for about 90, but I only use the ones that I profiled of my JSX. I feel like I have more control over my sound with the kemp.

    I really feel like selling all of my gear. (except vintage Marshalls) I've already sold some and am just down to a couple amps I would gig with. I may keep them just for a valve reference (mainly my 5153 50W 3ch) Once you skip around with a kemper that's as light as a basket of flowers and hear how good it sounds, lugging a 100W ENGL in a flight case to have not as much versatility just doesn't make sense. Have you noticed a lot of big names that were all using Kempers and AXFX are starting to go back to amps in iso cabs? I believe this is not because of the sound but: #1. When everybody starts doing something all of a sudden you're not special enough and have to be different. #2 the have a road crew to lug big amps and Iso cabs around. But mostly #1. I heard some bands using Kempers live and it sounded KILLER. I went from hating on them for the look to having to get one. It was SKID ROW that did it for me. I saw them at a smaller 2,000 seat venue and their guitar sounds were awesome. I wish I could get their profiles!

  • I have spent a week studying manuals, bugging forum members and 3 days with my kemper power toaster. Starting to figure it out. At first just using it direct in the studio, sounded great. Initially plugged in a cab and it sounded a little muffled, I knew I hadn't figured it all out yet so went back to direct. Once I figured out how to get a performance together (edit: not completely figured out saving wise) I

    That's awesome Dyno. Happy to say that post is a recurring theme on this forum. Agree completely.

  • So good to hear this Dyno, I am enjoying the Powered Kemper for live performances, it is irreplaceable!

    The only part of the equation that I can’t get quite right is the sound directly from a 4X12 cabinet…

    Maybe you could suggest some direct / merged profiles That you think sound and feel / breath as good as a real amp?

  • Although I have absorbed a LOT, I am only 10 days into a Kemper. Personally I would be mostly concerned about how it goes through the FOH and make sure the audience that is paying you gets the sound you want them to have. After that, it's a matter of tweaking the monitor sound. Since merged profiles basically send the same signal you would get from a head/poweramp it shouldn't be different . I know I have to have a great sound onstage to feel like rocking out but it's more important to me that I know it's killing it out front. How many times have you seen bands where the guys are jumping around rocking out but it sounds like CRAP out front. I would just keep trying things. It always takes a while to implement a piece of gear like this into your live show but the payoff is when you get it down and you can roll into a gig at the last minute, wait 48 seconds for the unit to boot and be killing it stress free. Whenever I use tube amps even if I sound check, it seems like I have to run back and tweek more than I should be. Like the digital units I've used before , one day I will get there but with al the choices Kemper gives you, it's gonna take a while!

  • I haven't had that much trouble getting a live cab to sound good. Well done profiles seem to do it on their own. Just downloaded the TJ '74 pack and even though it's not merged, cab driver is doing a great job of making them fantastic through my 1x12 oversize V30 cab. I have only bought 3 packs so far and I can tell this one is likely the most versatile and close to what I want. Funny. somehow I must have turned the output

    browse knob accidentally to a different preset (After this I deleted them all so that doesn't happen again) and it switched the cab sim on, on the monitor/poweramp. At first I was like, Hmmm..... not so great after sampling about 20 or so & being suspicious I checked, yep the monitor cab was on. I switched it off and there it was! Double cabinet not so good. I turned the cab back on and it seemed like it made the profiles more like the Mbritt ones were. Darker,muted.

    I have read where some people like having the cab on THROUGH a cab. Maybe this is why. It kind of makes the top end a bit "softer". Hey if it's what you are going for , there are no "rules". EVH didn't know what he was doing with the Obreheim and other keyboardists would say he was doing it wrong but sometimes just using your ear gets you to your goal and surpasses conventionality. I am going back to cranking my Kemper with '74 profiles. Heck yea.

  • I haven't had that much trouble getting a live cab to sound good. Well done profiles seem to do it on their own. Just downloaded the TJ '74 pack and even though it's not merged, cab driver is doing a great job of making them fantastic through my 1x12 oversize V30 cab. I have only bought 3 packs so far and I can tell this one is likely the most versatile and close to what I want. Funny. somehow I must have turned the output

    browse knob accidentally to a different preset (After this I deleted them all so that doesn't happen again) and it switched the cab sim on, on the monitor/poweramp. At first I was like, Hmmm..... not so great after sampling about 20 or so & being suspicious I checked, yep the monitor cab was on. I switched it off and there it was! Double cabinet not so good. I turned the cab back on and it seemed like it made the profiles more like the Mbritt ones were. Darker,muted.

    I have read where some people like having the cab on THROUGH a cab. Maybe this is why. It kind of makes the top end a bit "softer". Hey if it's what you are going for , there are no "rules". EVH didn't know what he was doing with the Obreheim and other keyboardists would say he was doing it wrong but sometimes just using your ear gets you to your goal and surpasses conventionality. I am going back to cranking my Kemper with '74 profiles. Heck yea.

    Wow, I have the same pack ...

    and you are pleased with that sound through a 4X12 cabinet? It sounds and feels like a real guitar amplifier to you?

    Good for you bro!

  • before you even think about selling any more of your valve amps make sure you make your own profiles of them all. That is the only way you can absolutely guarantee getting your own perfect sound as other people’s profiles are just their idea of the perfect sound.

    I had some great amps but they didn't sound any better than thousands of free profiles available. I won't miss 'em! That's the exact reason I bought a Kemper so I can have MORE!

  • Wow, I have the same pack ...

    and you are pleased with that sound through a 4X12 cabinet? It sounds and feels like a real guitar amplifier to you?

    Good for you bro!

    I sold all my 4x12's when I bought a subcompact car. A while back, I played an outdoor gig for about 4,000 with a ENGL 656 & 1x12 V30 OS OB cab. The support company was impressed by the stage sound & volume compared to the other acts on the bill. That 1x12 creates sound in the round and works great if you don't do IEM (which I can't stand). Through a 1x12 cab I am very pleased with the sound. I played it till my fingers bled last night, took a break and had to play it some more. Opinions vary, but the mid to heavy tones were my top 4 favorite on the Kemper so far out of probably 200 I've tried. The clean sounds in the pack weren't that great to me but I didn't expect that. And I knew as well there are gillions of good sounding cleaner rigs to be had at the click of a mouse in rig manager.

    To answer your question yes it sounds great through a guitar cab and to me it sounds BETTER than most guitar amplifiers so calling a Kemper a real amp is almost insulting it. I feel like a Kemper can produce more exactness. It just seems more controllable, tighter where it needs to be, looser when it needs to be, finger controllable and balances the strings more but not what I'd call over compressed, just more together. Some people complain about digital devices (or even ENGL) being overcompressed, but if you play a tone with huge jumping.popping dynamics on a live stage the soundman will have your gain so low so you don't peak out, you probably wont be heard. You NEED to have consistent dynamic levels live to make it sound "like a record" out front so to me the way Kemper can do that is a benefit, not a liability. On some of my tube amps when I hit a full first position D chord, it can wash a bit and kinda sound a bit out of intonation, where the kemper really balances the strings and makes all the notes clearer and more defined like on a studio album. And live, that's what I am going for!