Don't like pedals in front of the Kemper

  • I've been comparing various OD type pedals in front of the Kemper and then in front of my Lonestar. The pedals in front of the Kemper just don't sound like the pedals they are. In fact, I think a pedal in front of the Kemper makes my favorite profiles sound thin and less like a "real" amp. I tried using my new Bogner Red pedal in front of a Kemper clean profile and it sounds NOTHING like the Bogner Red pedal in front of the Lonestar clean channel.
    I started messing with the Kemper on-board ODs and I think they sound way better than external Pedals in front of the Kemper. The Kemper Green Screamer sounds great since 1.6 so I guess I'll start using that. It's a shame though because the Bogner Red pedal in front of my Lonestar's clean channel is absolutely stellar and has so much flexibility!!!
    Watcha think?

  • Hmm, should be alright then. Though you could try lower them further i guess. Is there any difference if they're put into the loop instead of in front? (if so maybe the noise gate is messing things up for you, so turn that off).


    I guess the real question is not whether the pedal in front of the Kemper to your studio monitors sounds different to the pedal in front of your amp, but whether pedal in front of Kemper with profile of your amp sounds dramatically different to pedal in front of the real amp when recorded through the same signal chain that the profile was made with.

  • Make sure that the Noise Gate and all blocks from A to D are not active if you want to compare.

    "Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" Serghei Rachmaninoff


  • The Kemper doesn't have the actual tone stack of the profiled amp. It doesn't matter if to your ears the profile sounds really close to the actual amp. A pedal will know the difference!


    The fact that it is not the exact tone of the actual amp, & the profile is using a generic tone stack, means that a pedal will sound different when used with the KPA profile.


    Real is real & a profile is a profile no matter how close your ears think it is. A pedal can't be fooled like humans can! lol

  • The Kemper is not a Lonestar. :)

    This. Did you try it with a Lonestar profile and tweaked it a little? Even then it'll sound different since it's a miced sound with a different cab on the Kemper.


    Then again, op didn't specify his setup. Is the KPA amplified the same way through the same cab as the Lonestar with the cab sim turned off? Or through studio monitors or what? First eliminate the variables, then I think you'll be able to get closer to the Lonestar sound. :)

  • I've had excellent results with pedals into the Kemper. However, as the Kemper has such a wide gain range and sounds so good, I've stopped using them. I'd suggest to the op if you want to perfectly mimic the sounds of the pedals with your specific amp, why not profile the amp with the pedals engaged?

  • Well, I'm not really trying to get the Kemper to sound like my Lonestar. I'm just saying pedals in front of the Kemper do not have the same character they have in front of a live rig...by a long shot. So much so, I don't find them as useful in front of the Kemper as the Kemper's own internal pedals especially after 1.6 fixed the Green Screamer.

  • Well, I'm not really trying to get the Kemper to sound like my Lonestar. I'm just saying pedals in front of the Kemper do not have the same character they have in front of a live rig...by a long shot. So much so, I don't find them as useful in front of the Kemper as the Kemper's own internal pedals especially after 1.6 fixed the Green Screamer.


    Yours and my experiences differ greatly. In the case of my pedals versus those in the Kemper (granted there's not much overlap) I vastly preferred my pedals. I do not like the stomp box models other than the new screamer, and even then I prefer the sound of the gain from the amp models over it.

  • I agree with Will. I bought the Kemper so I didn't have to use so many pedals any longer--just switch to different profiles for gain levels.


    Otherwise, having built around 40+ pedals so far and having several amps, I can tell you that running the same pedal on the same settings through 3 different amps, they all sound quite a bit different. For example, take even a humble Tube Screamer pedal. If you put that in front of my Fender Deluxe Reverb, Mesa Rectifier, and Marshall JVM, all on the clean channel, the pedal sound and character changes considerably. Same with fuzzes, high gain, low gain, you name it. The preamps handle the input differently, the power amps and speakers all react differently. In fact, before I modded it, my Deluxe Reverb sounded TERRIBLE with all OD and distortion pedals. My Marshall sounds good with anything in front, the Mesa is really picky, it's either 100% good or bad.


    So, I expect the Kemper to have the same trial and error factor.


    J

  • Yours and my experiences differ greatly. In the case of my pedals versus those in the Kemper (granted there's not much overlap) I vastly preferred my pedals. I do not like the stomp box models other than the new screamer, and even then I prefer the sound of the gain from the amp models over it.


    It's a YMMV deal.


    I am an old schooler in the sense that I never liked using any drive or distortion pedals. At a point, it was a must do as some venues got tougher in volume tolerance, even in the 500 plus venues attenuators did more harsh things to amps that could produce the hair I needed.


    Talk about a money pit... really nice drive pedals I could get along with were stupid money or expensively modded off the self stuff. I use one pedal as I prefer a boost type, and my Himmelstrutz Over Under allows me to not have to shift banks for what I use the most songs I do live that need multiple channel / A-B-C tones. Otherwise, I would set high gain - extreme gain same amp rigs to switch.

  • When I have pedals in front of the KPA I swear they suck tone and life out of the signal when they are not engaged. Pedals sold now-don't need them with my KPA anymore


    Instead of putting then in front of the KPA, you could put them in the back using a distortion loop. They will not suck signal when the distortion loop is off.