My biggest hurdle to date in switching to a Kemper rig live direct has been the cabinet thing. It sounds great through the monitor cab and I could just mic it but we all know there is a better way....From what I understand to get constancy, I may need to use a single cab for all my performances. I have a way I believe will get me there fastest and I want to get some opinions on my intended method. First I will need about 20 rigs in 4 performances "roughed in" at home. In the first bank of 5 (regardless of amp) I will put my top 5 cabs that I felt worked good in the studio, and listening to the FOH, pick the first one , Lock it and try it through my performances, Select slot #2 lock that cab and try it etc. Once I find one I know I like I'll install it on all slots. Does that sound like the easiest way to experiment? How did you "get there"? & Do you live direct users use one cabinet or more than one?
Kemper live direct users question
- Dynochrome
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I experimented with different profiles till I found the one amp that I felt best suited my needs. My experience has been that it is important to consider the interaction between both the amp and the cab. So the combinations can be overwhelming. Also I did buy some presets and each vendor does things differently I guess. I found one that worked really well for me and I just stuck with the cabs that were provided on that set of profiles.
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i always just use the cabinet that is already part of the studio profile, i never bother changing cabs. I don’t believe in the “you need to use the same cabinet on all amps” philosophy. Plenty of players over the years have used two totally separate rigs for their clean and dirty tone - a Fender for cleans and switching to a Marshall for dirt for example. It worked in the real amp world so why wouldn’t it work in the virtual amp world..
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Plenty of players over the years have used two totally separate rigs for their clean and dirty tone - a Fender for cleans and switching to a Marshall for dirt for example. It worked in the real amp world so why wouldn’t it work in the virtual amp world..
I 100% completely agree with you to the point of I'm not speaking of just using 2 amps. People around here do that all the time. I'm talking about using 8 different amps/cabs. Few besides the elite with lots of road crew do that. Most people including top pros (that aren't using Kempers or Axfx,) are micing a Iso box and one or two similar speakers or using Palmers. I certainty have less experience than they do, so I'm not going to buck that because "I know better and I'm going to do it MY way" When many pros before me have already burned,learned and done the research for me and know what works. I have been watching some M britt vids and haven't made it through the series but I wonder if he says,- or if he doesn't, how many cabs he uses live FOH with Lonestar. Betcha it isn't over a few unless he has a soundperson ON him .. I have learned a lot of common sense things in the giliion gigs I have played in S holes to big stages.... Since by far I am not a "direct guitar" expert and in fact have never done it, I'm learning and I would be very interested in hearing how a gigging pro uses cabs FOH. And again, I'd be surprised if it was several.
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Depends what you are doing. Most sessions I do are everything but consistent stylistically so I never change cab and I just try to get a rig that fits the song as much as possible. If I were to play with a band that does the same style all the time or if I'd be looking for more consistency, I'd probably use a performance based around a single amp that has been captured under various amount of gain. I'm more worried about volume balance between rigs or getting the charts on time!
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Most people including top pros (that aren't using Kempers or Axfx,) are micing a Iso box and one or two similar speakers or using Palmers.
I would expect that is more of a practicality issue than a sonic differences issue but I take your point.
I also take your point about working with sound guys that you don’t know or trust to go the right thing but going direct with the Kemper into a single (or pair of channels) removes mich of the risk there too. In the physical world each cabinet would need mic’ed then sent to its own channel to be EQd and have its level set. This is all in the hands of a third party that may not know you or your material which is clearly a big risk. However, with the Kemper all the Rig EQ and level balance is in your hands. The FOH only has to deal with a single global EQ and level mix.
Someone like Michael is using a pretty consistent tone most of the night so a single cab is what he would have done pre Kemper and would do now. In fact most of his profiles are made with the same cab regardless of amp. On the other hand, a covers band doing everything from country to rock would be ore likely to want/need different cabs per rig.
Both approaches are perfectly valid and each has its own pros and cons. All I would say is there is no “need” to use a single cab any more than there is to use a single amp all night. However, there may well be valid reasons why someone would “want” to do so.
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Keyboardists use completely different sounds from song to song. As long as the Rigs are consistent in volume, there is no reason why a guitarist shouldn’t do the same thing.
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When I used real amps, I always used only one amp but made sure I had a way to have a clean channel, dirty channel and either a third channel or a boost for leads. My band plays a large variety of music and I use my Kemper in a similar way. I basically use 5 presets, although, each preset uses a different profile. I have my clean channel, dirty rhythm, butt 2 different lead channels. The 5th channel is a clean with some mild dirt. I'll eventually add a few more presets, but for now this works for me.
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When I used real amps, I always used only one amp but made sure I had a way to have a clean channel, dirty channel and either a third channel or a boost for leads. My band plays a large variety of music and I use my Kemper in a similar way. I basically use 5 presets, although, each preset uses a different profile. I have my clean channel, dirty rhythm, butt 2 different lead channels. The 5th channel is a clean with some mild dirt. I'll eventually add a few more presets, but for now this works for me.
This will likely be exactly my approach as well. I always bought amps regardless of price that would give me with no (or the minimal) compromises:
A virtually acoustic clean sound (That you could strum "Sister Goldenhair" with for example ) Then one that had a little punch (like Romantics and could kick in a bit to do country types), Then a straight up good distortion sound that would cover most rock. Then the ability to do a metal rhythms and a lead channel that I could have FX as I wished on it. I liked dual masters that would allow me to boost any channel for a clean lead crunch lead etc.
