Posts by alwainwright

    I've had the pleasure of owning the Kemper amp for over two months and I can't turn it off. Everything else I've bought (guitars, amps, pedals, whatever), the fun would wear off and I could put it down. Not so far with the Kemper. My fingers are growing calluses like I've never had before, but my finger tips are hurting like never before also.


    Part of my addiction is due to all the wonderful rigs folks are posting in RE. I can't resist trying them all. Plus I've indulged in several commercial rig packages as well. When I read that someone has trouble finding a good sound, it astounds me. I struggle to find a bad sound. Some may not be my cup of tea, but they are still great sounding rigs. Kudos to all the folks that have taken the time to profile their amps and post them for the rest of us to enjoy.


    Ok. Gotta run. I see that some more rigs were posted tonight and I have to give them a try. :thumbup:


    Tony

    They must advertise the powered Kemper differently in Europe versus the US. All the music supply chains in US (that I've seen) list the powered Kemper as 600W in all the advertising titles. In fact, that is why I decided against the powered version when I bought mine earlier this year. 600W was may more power than I would ever need and speakers to handle that much power were way out of my price range. Hope you find a solution that works for you.


    Tony

    viabcroce you have a valid comment/concern for me. I haven't decided my exact path, yet. But, I would like to play through the Kemper to the monitors (without having to have the PC on) and also to playback from the PC to the monitors as well. I do have a nice Bose speaker system on the PC, but that would really color the sound and defeat a lot of what I would do recording. I do like the features of the Focusrite 6i6 audio interface (SPDIF, powered via wallwart not USB powered, good quality product, some nice starter software, ....), but it doesn't have a direct solution (that I know of) for playback from the PC as well. Maybe come out of the sound card to A/B box. Then to Bose (A) and Focusrite/monitors (B)? I need to spend more time looking at mixers to see if I can get the same features/quality as 6i6, but also solve the PC monitor issue. Thanks again for you input.


    Tony

    Many thanks to everyone that has replied. Some really good info and many,many things for me to think about before I head down this path. To clarify, I would only be recording for my personal enjoyment. I would only be recording my guitar over backing tracks or mp3s. I'd like to, at some time, be able to add drums (electronically) so I could record something from the ground up. Since I'm only planning on one guitar input (plus backing tracks or mp3s) does the mixer still add value for me versus just an audio interface.


    I think part of my near term problem will be with my older computer. The 1/8" into the sound card and USB seem to be the only way to interface. It doesn't make sense for me to buy a better sound card for this old PC. So that may leave USB as the best way to get from the audio interface/mixer into the computer. (Edit: Looking on the web at different hardware options, looks like Vista OS will really be a limiter. Most seem to only support WIN 7 & 8.)


    Another noobie question: I assume SPDIF out of the Kemper is mono and not stereo. True? (Edit: Reading on web it looks like each interface can handle 2 channels ---> Stereo?)


    Again, thanks to everyone (especially the summary from meambobbo) that has provided input. Hopefully, this thread will help other beginners as well.


    Tony

    Thanks viabcroce. I think I'll try to get to Guitar Center in the next few days to get more in depth on specific products. Will probably try to start out with very basic hardware & software to get through the learning curve. If I survive that, and want to get more sophisticated, I'll replace/upgrade as necessary.


    Tony

    Thanks Ingolf and viabcroce. Is the audio interface (Ingolf) and simple mixer (viabcroce) the same thing? If not, could you point me to a mixer to start out with? Looking up Focusrite, I can see several different models that could work for me.


    Looks like Reaper would be a good piece of software for me (free trial and only $60 if I decide to keep). Thanks for this direction.


    Thanks
    Tony

    I think I'm ready to dip my toe into recording (not re-amping) from my Kemper. I have the non-powered Kemper rack with the mains going to JBL monitors. My computer is a windows PC (Vista 64) with a Creative Labs sound card. I've figured out how to go from the Kemper with a 1/4" mains out 'y' cable to the 1/8" line input on the sound card and get it to record. But this is really limited.


    So...for a beginner amateur, what are the options? I've looked at the Wiki, but it seems to focus on re-amping when I searched for recording. What is a good beginner set-up (hardware and software) recording on a PC?


    Thanks
    Tony

    RM has made previewing rigs so much easier, I find myself rolling through them much quicker than before RM. At first I was just previewing each rig as posted. But I found myself gravitating toward the ones with lots of effects turned on and ones where the volume was louder. Then I started slowing down and adjusting things to see how they sounded when changing volume, turning off effects, adding effects that I liked, .... What I was finding was that I was really missing out on some really good rigs that were posted just as they were profiled without any added bells or whistles. So I then created some stomps and effects presets that seemed to best fit what I liked. I made some for clean profiles and then made some for crunch/distorted profiles. I can then load my presets, lock them and then go from profile to profile and get a better idea of how they would sound for me. As part of the presets, I have a basic EQ (1 clean, 1 crunch) that seems to work fairly well with my JBL monitors. It's not perfect, but it allows me to roll through the profiles more quickly and not miss out on some really good profiles.


    After reading another post about locking the stomps and effects sections with nothing in them for preview purposes, it got me wondering how everyone else was doing this. I'm sure we all spend a lot of time just previewing all the great profiles in RE. I use this same method when I go through profiles that I purchase in a commercial pack.


    So, how do you preview?


    Tony

    I was thinking I was missing rigs from RE as well. Then realized that some of the rigs had different dates in the RE versus RM. After discovering that, I realized I was getting all the rigs, but had to look back on the RE to see them. Could be wrong, but I'm assuming that the RE date is the date it was loaded to RE and the RM date is the date of the profile. Maybe someone can confirm this or provide a better explanation.

    Thanks everyone for the nice welcome.


    Just added a pair of JBL LSR308 monitors to the setup. Really improves the sound quality compared to using amp/speakers from the guitar amps. Several places have a buy one get one 1/2 off deal on these monitors which really brings the price down. They are bigger than I'd like for the room, but willing to give up the space for the improvement in sound.


    Tony