Posts by JEverly

Quote from JEverly

As proof, I saw a guy playing in a local bar that had a killer tone going. I had to see what he was using for a rig. He was using a Boss GT100. I talked to him at his break time. He was running it into the amp's effects return so he wasn't using it's preamp at all. ALL of the sound I was hearing was coming from the GT100, the power amp and the speaker in the amp. His EQ was dialed in perfectly. I was as shocked as anyone when I saw what he was playing through. I gave him some high compliments on his tone and his ability to dial in that Boss unit.

I noticed that I had a typo in my post. This guy was not using a GT100. He was using a GT-10. There is a pretty big difference in these two units. I gigged with a GT-8 for a good hand full of years. I basically just used it for effects. I got all of my drive tones from my amp along with reverb. To hear what this guy did with a GT-10 blew me away. I didn't know you could make one sound that good.

Another one that changed my mind on modelers was a guy in a band named Hyper Static Union. He played a show that I was in the second row for. He had a line 6 Pod kidney bean on the floor by his mic stand. That is what he was running into and that was run into the FOH and monitors. His sound was huge and he had a really good tone. I completely changed my mind on modelers at that moment.

For me the bottom line is that someone who knows what they are doing can make these things sound and feel fantastic to play. I think most people don't understand the units well enough to get there, at least the ones that complain about them. I have been asked to come up on stage and play a few songs quite a bit with friends bands. I have played tube amp rigs that had no feel to them. They were either full on or off. It isn't just a digital thing. It is how you set this stuff up. I have had a few friends tell me that my rig is way more touch sensitive than theirs. This is the first thing that I noticed about the Kemper. I can roll my guitar volume back just a little and it acts like my gigging amp and pedals. I was hooked at that moment. I then profiled my own amp and I can't really see me needing anymore profiles than what I have right now.

Quote from Finally

There are also a lot of amps with digital preamp sections and tube power amps, not just 0.1%. Just like the guy with the GT100.

I have seen tube preamps and solid state power amps but have not seen a digital preamp with a tube power amp. Interesting...

Quote from steinweiner

Digital- lacking organic natural sound....not as open and grand....Digital can sound compressed, lacking cut and some definition, a "digital synthetic" version.

Quote from Finally

One thing that always sounds "digital" is taking the tone of a cranked amp and playing it at low volume.

There's no tube amp version of that unless you use heavy attenuation or a really low wattage amp. In those cases it still sounds a lot weaker than when your hair is moving a bit.

I created a post on TGP asking this exact question. The responses are telling me exactly what I thought. Most people have no clue what that term means. Most people can't describe it. They use other vague terms to support it like sterile, non organic, artifacts, flat etc. I even had a couple of people suggest that they get these thing with tube amps. Hello? There is nothing digital in 99.9% of tube amps. The rest have digital effects in them that should never have been put there. I tried an amp like that once and it left very quickly.

What I have picked up from the responses is that what a good number of people term as "sounds digital" is the fault of the user. If you crank the gain up on anything, it gets more compressed, including a tube amp. Using too much gain on anything will create a poor quality not clear tone. The cut through argument can be fixed with the proper EQ settings.

I am not trying to purposely offend anyone. I just find it interesting that a lot of people use vague terms that they cannot define without using more vague terms. I know that some of the early modelers were not great. I am not a huge fan of digital drives and that comes from the early years when they were really bad. Kemper has changed my mind on that btw. However, today's modelers and profilers are running at bit rates that IMHO has solved these issues. I personally think the term "sounds digital" is just a catch all for something someone doesn't like the sound of. I also think that with the right knowledge these things can be overcome. As proof, I saw a guy playing in a local bar that had a killer tone going. I had to see what he was using for a rig. He was using a Boss GT100. I talked to him at his break time. He was running it into the amp's effects return so he wasn't using it's preamp at all. ALL of the sound I was hearing was coming from the GT100, the power amp and the speaker in the amp. His EQ was dialed in perfectly. I was as shocked as anyone when I saw what he was playing through. I gave him some high compliments on his tone and his ability to dial in that Boss unit.

Quote from ThrashFlesh

I think the main thing that holds Kemper from being a game-changer, is that it is built more like a guitar rig: you have amp+cab section, you have pedals before and after, and the hardware interface reflects that as well. Which is fine by itself, but if you look at the competition, all AxeFx, Helix and QC are built more like a signal chain processor and their interface is more instrument-agnostic and they feel less guitar-centric. Though I must admit, that all these devices are used primarily by guitar players and this is the market to target, so Kemper's guitar-centric interface should not be a big problem, but maybe something to reconsider. But still, it will just bring up to competitors, not take it to another level.

I actually prefer the way Kemper has developed the interface. You can find many complaints about how it is to work with the Fractal interface. I have not used a newer Fractal product but will be in the near future. I was really hoping that they had made some major improvements in the interface and menu system. It looks like it is pretty much the same as what I used over 10 years ago. It is too complicated in my opinion. I found the Kemper really easy to figure out and work with right from the start. I am used to using tube amps and pedals. This interface makes perfect sense when coming from that environment. I think the vast majority of Kemper's customers are coming from that experience so the interface makes sense.

I really want people to explain what "sounds digital" really means. I see that posted a lot about profilers and modelers a lot. I have been seeing that for well over 10 years and still have no clue as to what that term is supposed to mean. Maybe for fun I will start up a thread about that so we can all see what the various descriptions of this sound are.

Quote from BayouTexan

Add a Treble Booster or pluck strings directly above the pickup. You can split the 59 if you want to go that route. If you are playing with gain then there is not much of a difference between single coil or humbuckers in a live band setting - the audience can't tell. Single coils are best for cleanish tones, IMO.

There is definitely a difference between single coils and humbuckers with overdriven sounds in a live setting. If I am in the audience, I will surely know the difference.

You can try to EQ out some of the thickness but it will not sound exactly like a single coil pickup. To my ears the smaller humbucker like you have, I have one of those in one of my telecasters, is a little thinner sounding than the full size humbucker. Try boosting a little of the high end and high mids. It would be good if you have something with a single coil in it to try to match the tone of.

I got the answer to this question over at The Gear Page. Here is a link to the thread if anyone is interested. The way people were describing these vent holes was very confusing to me. The older version has slots for vent holes and the newer version has round holes for vent holes. I wish someone had said it that way.

https://www.thegearpage.net/bo…ge-this-and-that.2190614/

+1

I watched the video and liked it. There were a lot of good points brought up that I agree with. I like that it was an "honest" conversation about digital units.

Sorry if this is a duplicate thread. I searched and couldn't find it.

I remember seeing somewhere that there were two hardware versions of the Kemper Stage. One way to tell the difference is by looking at the vent holes on the back of the unit. What is the difference in them? I thought my Kemper Stage was the version 2 but now am thinking it is version one even though I bought it new from a large retailer. I am thinking they had stock and it may be a version one. Not that it matters all that much but I am now interested to know which I have and what the difference are. Any pictures of the two different vent hole patters are appreciated too.

I think it all depends on what you want from the units. To me the interface is a huge part of that. I found the Kemper to be very easy to work with. I have used a Boss unit and my Old AxeFX and the Kemper is by far the easiest for me to use.

I don't have any experience with the QC but I am betting you can go down an adjusting rabbit hole there as well. One thing I saw someone post was that they started turning off all of the effects in the QC to get to just the profile of the amp and they all sounded nearly the same. Maybe it is an effect that you liked better that could possibly be adjusted in a similar way on the Kemper?

I too profiled my gigging amp and got a really good result from that so for me the Kemper is doing exactly what I wanted it for in an easy to work with interface that logically makes sense to me. There are multiple successful units for a reason. Some like the interface better on specific units. They are all capable of very good tones in this day and age. Some just like the sound of a profiler and others like the sound of a modeler. I also think they each have their shortcomings. People also seem to want one unit to do everything that every unit on the market can do. Honestly, most people wouldn't use half of those capabilities in one unit.

Quote from Awesome_Elvis

What do yall do? Anyone here choose an edge of break up or slight crunch profile and then save two morph settings that has one cleaner and one wayyyyyy dirtier? Gonna give that a go here in a bit but was wondering what yall think or what y'all do when doing this idea. Chairs!

I didn't know you can set up multiple morphs per rig. Is that what you are saying? Can you actually do that? Or are you saying two different settings that you morph between?

Quote from nightlight

OTOH, first the Quad Capture, and now another device that apparently profiles an amplifier. Who's next? Line 6? Fractal Audio? That would be something interesting.

Fractal Audio has something called Tone Matching in the Axe III. I don't know the details of it but it is only in that unit out of all of the units they sell. From posts I have seen it is a different technology similar to profiling.

Quote from Wheresthedug

interesting. Is the treble booster sensitive to input impedance in a similar way to fuzzes? That could explain putting it in front of the wireless.

Good question. I know from the show that he uses a specific treble booster and it is put before the wireless pack and that they are very close to overdriving the belt pack with it. They said it took them a good while to get that to work to where he was happy with it. They didn't really go into all of the good details on it. They gave just enough to make a person curious.

Quote from DonPetersen

One of his tones that kinda fit your decription is the neck + middle pickup in series with the neck being out of phase.
"Somebody To Love" and "Bohemian Rhapsody"

I saw an interview with him last year where he was talking about his guitar rig. He did mention that he never uses just one pickup. It seems like the guitar and the way it is wired along with how he uses the treble boosters is a sort of secret of his. His guitar tech said that they run the treble boosters out at the guitar and they run them as hot as they can and almost to the point of overdriving the wireless belt pack. He has one back in the rack for another purpose. It was a very interesting interview. It was on one of the streaming services I use. I can't remember which one it was on.

Quote from Awesome_Elvis

I don't see why they layed the buttons out like that

They could've done one up top and then two rows of 4 for a tighter form factor

I am a little confused at the button layout as well. It looks like they just took the FM3 and an FC6 and put them together next to each other in one unit. I would think that having the up and down buttons on the left like the Kemper has would be more intuitive as well. They default to the right. I have been looking at the unit quite a bit and the button layout and how to set it up for an easy use at a gig is still not clear to me just yet. If my Kemper Stage could do the two signal chains like the FM9, I wouldn't even be looking at it. I am running my second line with a small pedal board right now. That is working and sounds good. It would just be nice to have it all in one unit, less things to carry.

Quote from jon9max

I use them as well. I did not know it wasn't covered if stolen from a trailer. I was under the understanding Stolen meant stolen. Musicians gear travels a lot of the time in a trailer. We always make sure everything is locked up in a well lit spot with a camera on it. A lot of my gear will be in one this whole weekend.

That stipulation was specifically spelled out in my policy. I just make sure that my guitars and amps are in the car and it is locked when I leave it. I also cover my stuff up with black blankets in the car to make it much less viewable.

The first thing I would try is hooking it up at home with the XLR cables and see if you get the same result. More than likely it is just a setup setting that is causing the issue.

I am on the waitlist as well. However, from what I am seeing, it may not do what I need it to do in an easy to operate fashion. I put a post on the Fractal forum to see if I can get some answers. Honestly, from what I am seeing, I can get more of what I need the way I am doing it now with the Kemper and a Fishman Aura. If I can't work out how to make it fit my needs before my name comes up, I will probably not buy it.

I still have my old Axe FX Ultra. I was very unhappy with how quickly they discontinued it after I bought mine. I bought mine in late 2010. I spent a lot of money on that unit. I never got it to do what I needed it to do so I am going to make sure this unit will do it before I buy.

Quote from jon9max

....And get insururance on your gear. It's cheap and it's worth it. Someone spills a beer on your Kemper at a gig? Someone breaks into your car? you open your case when you get home and your headstock is broken? Guess what? You're covered. I've used it . I've also learned my lesson when my house burned down 10 years ago and lost everything. Home owners insurance only goes so for. Insurance for your gear Is very inexpensive.

I have been a customer of Heritage Music Insurance for more than a decade. I have only had to use them once but the piece of mind is priceless. They also cover your guitars during shipping. About the only things they don't cover is your gear being stolen from a trailer or an unlocked car.