Strymon Iridium - advantages over the Kemper

  • INTRODUCTION:

    I LOVE the Kemper. I will not sell it. It is great.


    But I also like (overdrive) pedals and I just love to use them. A fun thing. And I like the specific sounds I can get. It's not about: Why do you NEED pedals...with the Kemper? That's the same as saying: Why do you need more guitars. The one you have can almost do everything already. Why buying a Danelectro, it is not as good as the Strat you own...

    Why using pedals, they are not as good as ... You get my point 8)


    This said, I never really was pleased with the OD stomps in the Kemper and never was 100 % satisfied using real pedals into the Kemper. The Kemper takes pedals just o.k., but everytime I used the same pedals with tube amps it sounded different and way better. I searched and tried thousands of pedal platform rigs over the years, but in the end it was just o.k.

    Making my own profiles of my pedal platform setup (for example Rocktron Valvesonic Blackplate+) was o.k. too, but it never was as good as with the real thing.


    Even some transistor combos like the H&K Attax takes pedals better. So is it a "amp in the room thing"? No, because using tube preamp into power amp sim + IR takes pedals great and sounds perfect. Profiles of that setup takes pedals not as well.


    The other thing is, the Kemper is not able to make 100% authentic profiles of many pedals. Not of my Tubescreamers (TS Mini, T-REX Diva...), not HM-2, not of my Fuzz pedals, not pushed with Archer... So "baked in pedal profiles" are not the real thing. They sound bad or they sound good, but always slightly different. Sometimes "close enough" and o.k. again.

    I tried for years, but Kemper is not the ultimate pedal platform nor is it able to correctly profile many pedals. I love the Kemper for everything else!



    MAIN PART:

    I bought a Strymon Iridium.

    Took about 10 minutes. Boom. Perfect pedal platform. FINALLY!!! Finally all my pedals sound and respond like they should.

    The Iridium responds to guitars, pickups really well, as does the Kemper. But it also does respond to all kind of pedals so much better than the Kemper. Wow. That is true for all 3 amp models of the unit. They "feel" similar to playing through a tube amp and react to pedals like I expect them to do - instantly great sound!


    Maybe it is the thought-out combination of the analog JFET frontend with great modelling. This thing just works great for my needs.


    It can also sound very close to some of my favourite Kemper rigs, by just making IR of the Kemper cab, load that IR to the Iridium and dial in one of the 3 amps as close as possible.


    Thumbs up for the Strymon Iridium - pedal lovers should at least try it in the music store :thumbup:

  • Luv my Iridium as well! I use it in one of the aux loops in my Helix, which then allows me to place effects before and after Iridium in the chain! Works like a charm too:thumbup:

    If you use FRFR the benefit of a merged profile is that the cabinet is totally separated in the profile.


    For my edification only... ;) Kemper/Axe-FX III/ Quad Cortex user