Posts by PHILBERT

DRY PAN instead of PANORAMA

THE PROBLEM:

When you perform live and want to place yourself in the stereo mix, if you use PANAROMA (or you use PAN on the mixing console...same thing) your Kemper stereo effects get cut on one side of the stereo field. This takes the life out of great stereo effects!

And if I want to use the Kemper stereo effects on recording, it's the same problem. You can't place yourself in the stereo field mix without losing the full stereo effects. This forces you to use outboard effects. That's a wast of the built-in effects in the Kemper.

SOLUTION:

Change PANORAMA to DRY PAN for the RIG output into the EFFECTS MODULES. And you would need to store this in Performance presets so when you go to solo, or want the PAN position to change, calling up your preset on the Profiler Remote changes the DRY PAN position to where you want it in the stereo field.

QUESTION:

Do we need this for Main Out L & R only...like to the FOH or mixing desk? Or do we want it elsewhere? If I use MONITOR OUT and DIRECT OUT for FRFR L & R stereo wedges (or FRFR L & R stereo backline speakers), I probably want equal dry signal on both LEFT and RIGHT all the time to avoid any volume drop. My main concern is that the FOH or mixing console gets the correct PAN mix without losing the stereo effect(s). In almost every case I would think the MONITOR OUT and DIRECT OUT would want center PAN. And what about S/PDIF? Same as MAIN OUT?

Thoughts?

I tried it in the Kemper, and agree. It's not as good as something like a POG. I love the sound of a POG set one octave low with just the right mix.

+ 1

And maybe I missed it, but is there a way to change the Transpose pitch with some sort of up/down button on the Remote?

I would also like some metering, but also on the guitar input for setting "Distortion Sense". I set my pickups lower than most, so having a meter with a Peek Hold at a optimum Target Value would be a bonus.

Although I have not run into any clipping issues yet, I can imagine it could be a problem if I push some setting just a bit too much.

Welcome!

I'm also new to the Kemper. Had it about a week now. I do not believe in "honeymoon" phases. It either has the right stuff, or it doesn't. This box has "it", and is a dream come true. Tones I have wanted for eons are now a reality. I just added a MixBerlin Vox AC30TB and a Top Jimi Fender 5F8-A Twin Tweed that both totally blow me away. But the key is how good the initial amp was tuned and captured. I'm discovering that if it was done right, it translates and acts just like the real deal.

Have fun!

I finally got a chance to give this profile a go. No $#!+. That's good. Just a touch more gain and tiny bit of bass (for my low pickups). Right there! Sounds, feels and acts like a real (good) amp. So, I go back to the distortion "masterpiece" I've been working on all this week and think it's going to sound drastically out of the EQ realm and nasty, right? No! Not at all. That was a shock. I guess I'm finding out these profiles can and do stand up pretty well...being new to this and all. Bonus!

Thank you Michael for that great amp profile.

Quote from grappagreen

Phil,

On the Stomps/FX question are you aware that you can LOCK on the KPA? If you're happy with your settings for both (and have a desire for them to apply to all rigs) then just lock them. Just hold the stomps/fx button and press LOCK.

There's no level meter in the KPA.

As you're digging deep (and on a related theme) are you aware of the ability to create input presets (clean/dist sense) for your individual guitars and lock them per mode? Once you're happy with the dist sense setting create an input preset for the guitar and then you can unlock - select - lock again when you change instrument. Worth remembering this is per mode i.e. you have to lock it both Browse & Perform.

Hope this helps.

Si

Display More

Hi Si,

I knew about lock. I locked something global (I think) because it made sense. I didn't think about locking the effects and stomps. That would do it. I did save my stomps and effects, and that is easy enough to pull up and install them where I need them. Actually, while creating Performance bank presets, I used Copy and Paste a lot...then modified levels and effects slightly to enhance solo, reverb and delay settings. All of it was pretty easy to dial in and save. And there will be times when I replace pieces within the setup with other effects, but for now my general stomp and effect chain is:

A - WAH / VOLUME with real TOE SWITCH ACTIVATION
B - WHAMMY with real TOE SWITCH ACTIVATION (normally turned off for pure signal)
C - DISTORTION (Rat for more aggressive bite when you need it) Footswitch II
D - COMPRESSOR (just enough adds drive and a great feeling response...love it!) Footswitch I

X - 4:1 NOISE GATE (takes all the Stack "hiss" out, yet soft notes ring out) Footswitch Looper (optional)
MOD - STEREO CHORUS (just enough lushness) Footswitch III
DELAY - STEREO DELAY (set to taste for the preset) Footswitch IIII
REVERB - HALL or ROOM REVERB (set to taste) Sometimes sharing Footswitch IIII

As far as Distortion Sense, maybe that is the one I locked. The loudest guitar I had was my Explorer with EMG's. I sold that. My 87 ESP Mirage Custom with the original EVH Frankinstrat pickup might be my loudest now. I might have to see what setting it peaks out at, but I have a feeling the Kemper was never meant to hit "peak". I bet there was deliberate headroom calculated there. All my guitars work on my H & K amp rig, so it just a matter of finding one setting that works for all...without squash or weakness. But a meter with a target area would be nice to have for setting that up.

I REALLY WISH THERE WAS A DRY SIGNAL PAN INSTEAD OF PANORAMA (nothing but a total balance control). I read about Wet-Dry-Wet signal routing, but then I have no Monitor and Aux out for stereo stage monitoring, and no control over the FOH panning in my presets. Perhaps I'll make these feature requests.

Thanks for those ideas!

Howdy. Welcome!

I'm lovin' mine!

Thanks! Can't wait to try this out tomorrow.

I found the WahPedal > Vol on SYSTEM page 5. That answers that.

And I found a way to save my STOMPS as a group profile, and also my EFFECTS as a group profile, but not all of them together. Good enough, I guess.

EDIT: Found the AUX and Monitor out provision to have a wet stereo output for monitors. Also, found the Panorama soft knob, but that is more like a balance control that also effects the wet stereo signals...not what I need.

Got my first Performance bank written complete with footswitch names and rhythm/lead levels and effects. Getting closer to my goals. Just didn't want anybody answering questions I answered by trial and error.

Phil

Quote from PETERFR

Hi Philbert
it was a 12 string accoustic guitar with broken body on a barbecue grill
I cant remember exactly with one or two beers I think

...or maybe more!

Must have been some party!

Thank you:

Raoul24
Deej09
whippinpost91850
Armin ! (you are an IR cab legend...good to see you here!)

I've been learning the equipment and effects setup a bit. It just hit me that I have tons of options, and it's a bit overwhelming. Not "difficult" in any way. If fact, pretty easy to configure. Before I go crazy setting up all my presets, I want to see if I can work out my general preferences on ONE rig before I go crazy creating and recreating all these effects modules. The goal is to get organized and hopefully save time. Just a few questions remain after reading the manuals...

- Can the Wah pedal also be a volume pedal when Wah is switched off? (EP1-KP into Remote 5 & 6)

- Once you set up your favorite stomp and effect modules, can you copy and paste all of them to other rigs so you don't have to keep setting them individually in each rig?

- Is there any provision to PAN the dry "Stack" signal so you can position it in a stereo mix, but keep reverbs and delays full stereo panned?

- On the Mix Out, there are stereo XLR and 1/4" jacks. Can I send the XLR to FOH and also use the 1/4" outs for stereo amplified FRFR stage monitors?

- Is there a level meter I can use while adjusting my Distortion Sense level? I actually prefer my pickups lower than most. I find a sweet spot where fullness starts to kick in, but no higher where harmonics start clashing. This means my output is usually lower, and profiles will probably need this compensation. But I need a way to tell I'm at optimum output...like some metering. Does it exist?

Maybe I should ask these questions in the appropriate section.

Phil

Hello Rafael and welcome!

Sounds good! Very natural and organic tones. Oh the joys of creating music. Nothing like that feeling. Have fun!

Phil

I just discovered the "Like" button.

Thanks...

grappagreen - not too much tweaking needed
musicmad - I've been told I'm too long winded...and believe it!
CJGOMEZ - agree on the evolve
suseguitar - rock on!)
DeanR - thanks
PETERFR - is that a Tele on fire in your avatar?

Been playing my fingers off with this thing. And it's not a honeymoon thing. No delusions...this time. Just easy to get natural good tone. Time to restring some of my other guitars and give them some Kemper time!

Phil

Quote from stfuzz

I recently switched from tube amps to the kemper and I feel like home.
Hope that helps you:)

Yes, feels like home...but in my case I now have so many more choices. Haven't played this much guitar in a long time. Too much fun!

Phil

Quote from JiveTurkey

Awesome journey indeed! Welcome Phil!

...and JiveTurkey.

Phil

Thank you Zapman and MuddySludge.

Phil

This thread is a little old. Did the OP ever get a Kemper?

After reading everything here, I can relate...even though I'm new to Kemper. My very first impression, after finding a profile that hit me as "usable", was how realistic the Kemper is when responding to true tube amp dynamics. And a realistic "clean amp" just on the edge of breakup is hard to get on a "simulation". Just some quick simple adjustments on the Kemper put me right in "the zone". It really sounds and responds like a real tube amp...if you pick a profile that captured what you like to hear. That's important (I believe). But when you understand the complexities of how these tones are dialed in on premium amps, then captured off the speaker cab in an actual "room", simulating that is harder than "profiling" it. And that is where the rubber meets the road. It sounds like the OP wants not only the great amp tone, and the true dynamics real amps have, but also "the room". I hear evidence of that in some profiles, although the right reverb and almost unnoticeable short delay can create a room. Still, the cab mic (or multi-mic) position on the profile has so much to do with the tone. I actually prefer some distance to capture the full character of the speaker cabinet.

And much of what I see here concerning "feel", and I guess also tone, has to do with your monitoring equipment. Just like real tube guitar amps, monitors benefit from having "headroom". You have to be able to respond and deliver power-demanding deep bass when you "ask for it" in your playing. Solid state amps may not have big transformers and speaker coils, which "respond" in concert to create the "feel", but do need to "deliver" it when the profile produces it. Of course, you also need speakers that cover all the frequency ranges of interest, as well. And let's not forget your own room environment and how well (or not so well) your monitors behave with room reflections.

I've only had my Kemper for a few days, but in almost no time I have experienced exactly what I wanted from a real tube amp and well miced speaker cab in a good room. And it didn't take days to get it. I was 90% there in minutes. After a couple of hours doing as much fine tuning as I had much access to (including deep amp and cab parameters), I was absolutely floored with how great this Kemper sounded. The point is that it's possible IF you start with a profile that immediately sounds like what you like. Then it's just a matter of dialing in perfection, which is easy and painless. Of course, good ears help. I've been blessed with perfect pitch and good ears, although ageing somewhat by now.

Phil

Quote from nightlight

Welcome to the forums, Phil! Quite a gear journey!

Thanks, nighlight.

Quote from paults

Welcome! My sonic journey was pretty much the same as your's, with much of the same gear, too. For example - I loved the Chorus sounds I could get with my A/DA Fl

Those were cool flangers. One of my favorite settings was to stop the sweep on a fixed frequency. I found it in the garage a couple of years ago and sold it. Went for stupid good money. Must be considered a classic.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. And yes...that was a book.

I just finished jamming out with this thing. I feel no difference adjusting my sound on the Kemper from my Hughes & Kettner, except I have many more options on cab sound and amp response that the amp never had. But it's the same playing experience and has the same sound quality. I almost forget there is no cabinet in front of me! That's a good thing, as the sound I hear now will be the sound out the PA. Getting my real cabinet tone was never perfect. Mics color the tone...unless you use a high quality condenser mic at some distance. You can't do that on stage. So this is a better solution. Dialing in tones takes only a couple of hours to get them perfect...not a couple of weeks or months (like with a noodler)! You know how to tell you got it right? Take a break and come back with fresh ears. If it still makes you grin with joy, you got it right. That was almost never the case with the noodlers...at least not until you spent days on it. This Kemper is EASY to dial in, just like real tube amps. And I noticed the levels are even. I have not needed to mess with any of that. That was a surprise! There is so much (painless) fun ahead, I can't wait.

Thanks, Dave. I'll certainly let you know what my FRFR choice is once I know. When I purchased studio monitors, I did the same type of side-by-side test with my favorite "big sound" music CD's. Kings X Dogman was one of my demo CD's. That's a "big sound" CD! Mackie was the rage back then, but I hated the shrill sound I heard out of those. I went for the ones that had everything I liked, and also brought out the backing instruments that you don't normally notice. KRK did that. S10's were my second choice, but the bass in the V8's sold me. That is the sound I aim for when recording. Maybe I need to use 8 (better yet 16) of those on stage!

Phil

Hello fellow Kemper fans!

I'll try to make my intro brief but, there was a long road getting here. Although guitar and amp money in the 70's was almost non-existant for a youngster in his teens, mowing many lawns I eventually bought my first Gibson SG (a 68) and a proper tube amp (a 64 Bassman) in the mid 70's, and traded up to a 76 Marshall JMP in the late 70's. Improved the tone with great tubes and the right speakers until I was real happy with the what I had although, we all know it was almost a one trick pony. Got a few stomps, but just the basics. Mostly some help driving the amp harder and a little delay and chorus (actually an ADA Flanger). Gigged with that (plus a couple of more guitars) through the 80's and got enticed with the variety of tones artists were getting from all those refrigerator-sized Bradshaw rack systems. There was no way for me to all afford all that, so I had to be resourceful if I wanted to do the MIDI (new at the time) switching thing. I had one of those cheesy Rockman practice things that I used at home on my stereo while my rig was either at rehearsal, on stage or in the truck. It sounded real "boxy" with almost nothing but mids, but it had a clean sound with delay and chorus that I actually liked and used in front of my JMP on channel 2 for something sort of clean sounding.

One day at home I got so frustrated with the Rockman sound that I decided to put a 10 band EQ after it into my stereo. That helped a great deal, but really good things started to happen with an MXR boost in front of the Rockman. It almost sounded gigable! (is that a word?) MIDI was taking off. Rockman rack products were being rolled out, and a Rockman half 1RU MIDI controlled switcher was purchased. I put relays in the Rockman to go from clean to distortion, turn on/off the effects and turn on/off the gain boost in front of it. Then a Peavey MIDI controlled 28 band EQ was released, purchased and installed in my new experimental rig. With that I tried to "dial in" different "tones" by ear until I got this idea...What if I used that super-expensive Rhode and Schwarz spectrum analyzer in the sound lab at work to "analyze" my favorite guitar tones on records...and "matched" the tones as best I could with the EQ in my "cheese-box" rig, then stored them all in the EQ? Well now, It kind of worked! My "FRFR" gigging rig was born! Mind you, this was in the late 80's!!! Added an Alesis (spelling?) Microverb and Yamaha half 1RU delay to the small 3 RU ATA case (my amp head), made a rear plate with all the connection points...including AC power, and had something to "work" with. But what to do about a stage backline? That is when I found some "full range" amplified Peavey monitors and put 8 of them (in stereo) on stage. I added an ADA MIDI footswitch to control everything and actually took "flat" signal out of the EQ to run to FOH! Then I sold the Marshall, which sounded boring in comparison. I gigged the darn thing. Lots of fun, Not real tube, but crunchy and had fairly good tone.

No one knew what the heck I was doing back then. It was my "resourceful" way of getting more sound options and more control. And as things go, the band broke up, I moved to Florida, got married, started a family...and watched technology pass me by while I put my gear to rest for a while. The memory battery eventually leaked in the EQ and all the "tone presets" were gone. When I finally got some time to play, the Line 6 POD hit the market. I jumped in, and then did the EQ tricks to try and improve the tone. Just dull sounding no matter what I did. Then came the XT models, which were now brittle. I was sharing my tones and EQ files on the Line 6 forum back in the early to mid 2000's, and it was fun and all (made some great friends there...hope some of them are here!), but updates wiped out my tone and EQ work, and I had to often start over. It got to a point that I couldn't really reach a natural amp tone and feel no matter how many EQ curves and notch filters I threw at it. It never had the natural tube sound...and "fizz" was always a problem. That was the "noodler" problem. Endless "tweaking", and never "real" sounding in the end. I was done with it by 2007. When Hughes & Kettner came out with the Switchblade, that was my ticket back to real tubes with full MIDI control of everything. Wow! I missed that tone and feel. Awesome! But, no more FRFR and direct feed. Speaker choices were good, but mics and placement issues always changed the sound. Three steps forward, one step back. Played it for years, and liked it, but the amp blew a fuse and the job situation sucked (changed) in Florida. Another life changing event. Moved back to New York and put the amp in storage for a while. I needed a small home solution...again. But this time I planned on also using it for possible gigging situations.

I watched and listened to all the "noodler" marketing garbage on "the latest and greatest" offerings...and passed on them all. Not "real sounding" to my ears! Always that exaggerated midrange thing and fizzy brittle top end. Not interested! Then Kemper came along. My ears immediately picked up on that natural tube tone and dynamic quality the "noodlers" just didn't have. And none of that "brittle digital top end". Game changer! Once I looked into the difference between "profiling" and "modeling", it was clear that we were dealing with something revolutionary here. I figured I'd get a Kemper one day, but have to admit I was cautious about jumping back in for a number of years. I've been burned by the "latest and greatest" marketing before, and feared a "new and improved" Kemper might come out, so I waited. It never did. Mind you, I signed up for this forum years ago and watched from a distance. But when I heard the excellent MixBerlin and Top Jimi tones...all with that full bottom end and natural tube top end clarity (and dynamics)...that was it. How much better could it be if you can't tell the difference of a great natural tube sound from the Kemper profiled sound? I'm in! (finally)

I received my Rack and Remote a couple of days ago, just got my computer updated (missing a Microshaft DLL for Windows 7 64 bit..ugh!), downloaded and updated everything, got the free packs and sample Top Jimi pack...and started to dive in. I'm learning fast, as the unit is intuitive, but not playing with any stomps or effects at the moment. That will come in time, My first interest was hearing how good the amp profiles were (on my old KRK V8 monitors), and see if I could dial them in for what I really like to hear. Oh yeah! That's good, but just like I approached "rig building" in my past, I put the same strategy to practice with the Kemper. General tweaks to get my guitar in the ball park (nothing too drastic), then the smallest adjustments to refine the sound. OK. That sounds great! Feels great! Now what about these deep amp and cab settings? I was blown away by how the smallest changes (most less than 0.1) made a subtle but positive sonic improvement. Talk about a honed tone! With only two amp profiles dialed in (JTM45 and a Recto), I'm happy...real happy. Much, much more to come. Yes, this is a MAJOR game changer. Considering where I started, and what I had to resort to over the years to get more than a single amp tone, this is a dream come true. It really is as good as the great tube amps used on the better profiles, and has no digital harshness...like all the noodelers have. And you can't beat the value when you consider everything you get...which could be a never-ending thing. Thank you, Kemper! It's everything I could have ever wanted.

So now I'm back to hunting for the best FRFR solution. There are tons of options these days. Unlike the late 80's, where you had to basically build a mini-PA system as a backline, we have many wedge and stage cabinet offerings. This I understand from many years of dealing with so-called "flat sound". Your guitar sound will only be as good as your "reference". I've been there, and done all that. Basically, you have to work on real flat reference monitors...and check it against music mixes you know well (and like) that translates on all your audio equipment. The smallest notch or peak in your monitors, or even changes to tone from standing waves in a room, can and will mess you up when shaping your rig tones for FOH situations. Hopefully, I get to try all the FRFR choices some day in the same balanced room setting. I would definitely run my favorite music through them to listen for holes or peaks in the sound. Whatever sounds like what I like to hear from my music, those will probably be the ones I choose.

I'm sorry...This got to be too long. Darn! Forgive my boring diatribe! But I'm excited to be here. I know I will learn a lot from everyone here. Nice group!

Phil