Playing the Powered Kemper live with band

  • I played my powered Kemper for the first time at a band practice and love it even more now. I had a question regarding the volume, I am going through a 240w Orange 4x12, my band plays very loud which the Kemper held up very well in the mix which I was happy about, Most of my presents of the rig volume at halfway, if I go higher and gets really really loud, is that dangerous as far as like overloading the power amp, or the speakers, I dont want to jeopardize any of the rig if I am pushing to much

  • Hi, Gabriel,


    That's great - you got to play your powered Kemper with your band. "and love it even more now." ?


    Check out the wattage meter. It's in the OUTPUT section (press the OUTPUT button). It is on page [8/8] of the OUTPUT section.



    Here's an excerpt from the Kemper Manual.

    Kemper Manuals and Quick Start guides



  • Manual reads: "If your cabinet has an impedance of 8ohms you need to halve the displayed values."


    The other night using my 8 ohm cab, I had it turned up to where the meter showed 50 watts. It was way louder than most any average club would allow on stage without everyone hating you. I thought I was using 50 watts (I assumed because the amp was "meant" for 8 ohms the meter would be calibrated for that) (and it sounded like 50 watts too!) but a couple weeks ago I read that part where you need to halve the shown value.

    So I was only using 25 watts???? I am almost in disbelief about that meter because most of the time (normal) solid state amps need to be about 300 watts to keep up with a 30 watt tube amp. If it was true I was only using 25 watts, there should be no shortage of power available for any purpose I could imagine.

    I have another(hypothetical) question, if I was on stage with the WHO and needed 500 watts of power running 8 ohms, the meter would be pegged correct? The meter only goes to 600 watts and at 500 watts in a 8 Ohm cab it would have to be reading 1000 watts. This seems kinda odd as the power amp was intended for 8 ohms yet the meter caters to 4ohm users. Too bad it couldn't be easily switchable for the connected cab because for a 8ohm user the meter would be useless after 300 actual watts as it would show 600 on the meter. For a 16 ohm user, the meter becomes useless after 150 actual watts. I'm not complaining as I know for sure that I will never max the meter at 8 ohms unless I get a gig with KISS and they don't put me through FOH lol.

  • Manual reads: "If your cabinet has an impedance of 8ohms you need to halve the displayed values."


    The other night using my 8 ohm cab, I had it turned up to where the meter showed 50 watts. It was way louder than most any average club would allow on stage without everyone hating you. I thought I was using 50 watts (I assumed because the amp was "meant" for 8 ohms the meter would be calibrated for that) (and it sounded like 50 watts too!) but a couple weeks ago I read that part where you need to halve the shown value.

    So I was only using 25 watts???? I am almost in disbelief about that meter because most of the time (normal) solid state amps need to be about 300 watts to keep up with a 30 watt tube amp. If it was true I was only using 25 watts, there should be no shortage of power available for any purpose I could imagine.

    I have another(hypothetical) question, if I was on stage with the WHO and needed 500 watts of power running 8 ohms, the meter would be pegged correct? The meter only goes to 600 watts and at 500 watts in a 8 Ohm cab it would have to be reading 1000 watts. This seems kinda odd as the power amp was intended for 8 ohms yet the meter caters to 4ohm users. Too bad it couldn't be easily switchable for the connected cab because for a 8ohm user the meter would be useless after 300 actual watts as it would show 600 on the meter. For a 16 ohm user, the meter becomes useless after 150 actual watts. I'm not complaining as I know for sure that I will never max the meter at 8 ohms unless I get a gig with KISS and they don't put me through FOH lol.

    I can totally agree with what you are saying. At rehearsal I run a 4x12 Marshall @ 16ohms and I will hit the 100 watt mark sometimes and to think that its only 25 watts is hard for me to believe. Will be curious too see others chime in on this as I've always wondered about the meter and its accuracy.

  • The difference between a 25watts and 50watts is relatively small. Only a few decibels. But your ears hear the sound wave compression as being much louder. A 100 watt amp is actually only about 6 decibels louder than a 50 watt amp. Your ears (and body) will also perceive a 4x12 cab (rated at 150 watts) as being much louder than a 1x12 cab (rated the same) but it is not.


    A 100 watt amp is only twice as loud as a 10 watt amp. You need to go to 1000 watts to get twice as loud as a 100 watt amp. Is the 600 watt powered Kemper loud enough? Damn straight!


    Is one watt loud enough for home practice? Damn straight! One watt = 90db. 100 watts = 110db.


    So, WATT are you guys talking about? ;)

    Larry Mar @ Lonegun Studios. Neither one famous yet.

  • As mentioned, you won't damage the amp, its the speakers you'll damage.


    That said, I think you will struggle to blow the 4 x 12 and no reason why you should vs any other amp - except that you have 600 watts on tap. In other words, whatever volume you ran at before you should be fine with some headroom.


    Sorry to be the "old man" here but playing at that volume can be counter productive. The KPA sounds great at low volume and obviously being digital doesn't need to be cranked ( although needs some volume to hear what it sounds like due to Fletcher blah blah).


    Its your drummer you need to keep up with ( as they are usually more difficult to control - no volume knob) but I would encourage you to rehearse as quietly possible to pick out issues. High volume can hide so much, which will show up through a PA at a gig. If something sounds good tempered down, it will sound amazing loud...conversely we have found things out at low volume which we missed. Vocals are typically difficult to hear at a loud rehearsal and many a time we've picked up issues with vocals as a result of dropping volume.


    Don't get into a volume war as some people then take it to a gig which becomes a nightmare.


    Few audiences like horrific volume and few sound men like high on stage volume and I think its one of the reasons sound men like the KPA as it gets it down at a relatively low volume.

  • At home, I normally run through a 1x12 oversized cab with a CL80 and then go direct out mono to a Neve preamp to record with. Both the sound of my studio monitor and live cab are fairly low.

    For fun sometimes I will crank up the live cab to get the speaker pushing and it really gets much much better, and the miked cab sound is so good I've sometimes pondered just miking the cab live. I wonder how many Kemper users forgo the direct cabs and just mic a live cab as the studio cabs can make the FOH very different than what comes out of your live cab. I love what I get from my live cab and if that's whats going out front I'd be fine with it. The thing I've had to work on the most with my KPA is getting the Direct outs through FOH to sound just like my monitor cab.

    Miking the cab would eliminate that problem to an extent but put back in live mic detriments that give direct an advantage.

  • At rehearsal I run my 4x12 for the feel behind me and use a mono line out with cab enabled for my iems, but at a gig I just have them mic my cab, because like you said, I love what comes out of the cab, sounds killer.

  • At rehearsal I run my 4x12 for the feel behind me and use a mono line out with cab enabled for my iems, but at a gig I just have them mic my cab, because like you said, I love what comes out of the cab, sounds killer.

    Many Kemper users will consider you insane for not going direct. (Myself excluded) I really want to make direct work for me and I'm sure I will. But I am so sadly old school that it just seems the easy & lazy way out to just throw a mic on it as it sounds great, done. But the advantages of going direct are so big that I must get there as many many artists have before me. It'll just take a little work like anything does. I have ran nice tube rigs and pretty good digital rigs and the best part about having an awesome digital rig (that sounds analog=Kemper) is that once you spend the time getting it set up the way you want (which can take a bit) you can waltz on stage without a worry in the world, flip a switch and have everything familiar. That makes for me having a good night and that's everything!

    Same could be had miking one but I like the idea of being able to turn up my cab and not red light the board which usually changes things you accomplished at sound check once the soundman backs off the gain and my front wedge goes with it.

  • Many Kemper users will consider you insane for not going direct. (Myself excluded) I really want to make direct work for me and I'm sure I will. But I am so sadly old school that it just seems the easy & lazy way out to just throw a mic on it as it sounds great, done. But the advantages of going direct are so big that I must get there as many many artists have before me. It'll just take a little work like anything does. I have ran nice tube rigs and pretty good digital rigs and the best part about having an awesome digital rig (that sounds analog=Kemper) is that once you spend the time getting it set up the way you want (which can take a bit) you can waltz on stage without a worry in the world, flip a switch and have everything familiar. That makes for me having a good night and that's everything!

    Same could be had miking one but I like the idea of being able to turn up my cab and not red light the board which usually changes things you accomplished at sound check once the soundman backs off the gain and my front wedge goes with it.

    This was me in my 1st year of Kemper ownership - miking a 4 x 12. It works ok but man you do miss a big part of the benefit.


    I do get the hassle, especially when you have a sound you like because I can tell you - I had to effectively start again. I found the profiles I was using were actually not very good but masked by the 4 x12. I had to get an FRFR speaker ( because I had no access other than at gigs) to find the right profiles etc.


    You've nailed the advantages - my set up and line check is so simple and sound men love it. Literally mike lead into kemper, hit a chord, then solo volume and sound man happy. You stop worrying about mike placement ( I've had mikes fall over etc) or if the sound is coming through the PA OK.


    You are not insane but I found it worth the effort. The good news is, you don't have to delete anything and perhaps during lock down is the time to have a go. You need to be able to audition profiles at volume through an FRFR set up really but headphones are a great place to start.

  • The next gig we do I will def be going direct, I've gotten my direct sound identical to my 4x12 sound. The profile I use is the one I did with my Peavey Jsx and the same cab I play through now, so I have the advantage of having the same cab as the profiled cab sound.

  • Yeah at rehearsal I use a pair of Alclair molded triple driver flat eq iems, so I've been able to tweak my sound to sound identical to my 4x12 sound. Cant wait to just plug straight in at the next gig, whenever that may be...

  • I have one more question, well today at least my Kemper family, I bought headphones and when I used them the sound was slightly different then what was coming out of my cab with some profiles, Is the sound coming out of the headphones closer to what the audience would hear at a show if I went direct? Is the true sound of the profile closer to the headphones and maybe the cab just disguises it slightly?