Posts by OhG

Awesome. Thank you both.

I bought a Kemper Stage to replace my toaster. I'm keeping my toaster as a backup but would like to copy everything from my toaster over to the stage so that they are identical in every way (rigs, settings, output settings, morphing, pedals, etc.). If I do the simple USB backup process, does that copy EVERYTHING (including all settings, presets, etc.), or does that only copy things like rigs & performances?

Are there updated step-by-step instructions on how to set up reamping using USB recording? I tried reamping in the past using SPDIF with Reaper as my DAW but couldn’t get it to work. So I’m hoping USB audio might make a difference.

I’m assuming the audio quality of recording via SPDIF vs USB is negligible, correct?

I don't always double my solos. It depends on the sound I'm going for.

As far as tone, it's not as simple as anyone telling you what settings to plug in. It totally depends on the sound you're going for, the profile you're using, the guitar you're using and yes, you're own fingers.

Some general tips would be, once you have the tone you want, I'd record your solo out of the Kemper totally dry (e.g. don't use any of the Kemper delays, reverbs, or other effects, etc.). It's usually best to add those effects using plugins through your DAW. If you record your solo with Kemper's effects, those effects are going to be baked into the .wav file with no way to change them if you don't like how they sound in the mix. Record your solo dry, and then you can add, remove, change effects however you want using plugins. This allows you to adjust things like the timing and amount of delays so that they blend perfectly with your track.

If you're somewhat new to recording and you want a doubled solo sound, the Double Tracker is a good effect to use. I sometimes find myself using the Delay Widener instead of the Double Tracker because I hate how if you listen to the Double Tracker, you can hear the signal shifting from left to right; I want a doubled sound, not a panning effect.

Most people on the forum would recommend using mono for live because if someone is sitting on one side of the stage and not dead center, they’re not going to hear your stereo effects the way they’re intended.

I still prefer to run stereo live because I use a little delay widener in my last FX slot (the reverb slot) and it makes my sound in my in-ears so much better. I’m the only guitarist in my band, so my main guitar signal is equally loud in both channels and I don’t use a ton of ping pong style delay. So it works for me.

I use the delay widener in the last slot instead of the “X” slot because I’ve found that if I put that widener effect before my delays and reverbs, it has a negative effect on their sound. I go with the delay widener instead of the double tracker because even on low settings, you can hear the guitar signal panning from left to right when using the double tracker (a major flaw in my option because if it weren’t for that, the double tracker is amazing).

Awesome. Thank you guys!

This is a 2-part question.

1. Is there a way to clear all morphing settings for a particular rig? For example, I have a rig and really like the sound of it but have a bunch of different morphed parameters in it. I want to use this rig as a starting point for another rig, but without the morphed settings. Is there a way to clear all of them?
2. All of my morphing settings are activated on my foot controller. For example, I'll step on Slot 1 to activate that slot. Then later, I'll step on it again to activate whatever morphed settings are in that rig. I know how to edit the morphed settings if I have my toaster hooked up to my Kemper foot controller. But how do I change those morphed settings if I'm editing on my toaster without having it hooked up to Rig Manager or to my foot controller?

I've always gone with the old school, but trusted method of creating a separate rig for my solos. I create a lead tone that I like and then just store it in the last slot of each rig so my solos are always in the same spot. I like having them as separate rigs because I can then add different effects and parameters that may not have been in my rhythm tones. For most of my leads, I have the rig set around 3dB higher than my rhythm to give me the boost I need, but the volume may be lower on something that I don't need to be as "in the face" as others.

Quote from V8guitar

Its a great song BTW!

That would be a good feature request - i.e. to switch between intervals and actual notes ( although obviously need to be able to state which actual note i.e. which octave).

I'm surprised there isn't a way to do this with an expression pedal (like the old Whammy pedals). Switch from one set harmony in the heel down position and to another harmony in toe down. Could probably do it with morphing.

Yip. I think I'm going to go with the approach that Finally suggested. Wheresthedug if I tried doing all of what you wrote, my head would explode. That one small harmony part isn't worth it considering it's just a cover tune. haha

One thing that I can never seem to wrap my head around with the Kemper is how to set it for correct harmony notes.

For example, what should be a REALLY simple tune, is beyond me. I'm trying to figure out what to set the parameters to in order to play the harmony part in Robert Palmer's "Bad Case of Loving You." Link to the song is below. Skip to 1:30 to get to the part I'm talking about. It's a really simple harmony with the lead guitar playing on the "B" string at the 15th fret and ultimately ending on the 12th fret just before the solo starts. The low harmony plays on the "G" string bending at the 14th fret and then ending on the 14th fret of the "D" string.

I put the Harmonic Pitch effect in the "x" stomp, and set it to the key of E, with voice 1 interval set to -4th. This sounds right for the first half of the harmony, but when I end on the 12th fret, it's still playing the 4th below and the correct harmony is the 5th below. How do I set this so that the Kemper knows to play the 4th below for the first part of the harmony, but switch to the 5th below for the end note?

Quote from paults

Have you tried using the Direct Out? You can set the Direct Out's Output Setting to "Git Analog", and send the original guitar signal to your vocal processor.

From Main Manual 8.5, page 112:

"the volume control of the respective outputs will have no impact on the "Git …” source settings, because they are made to reproduce the original instrument volume."

Thanks paults. I'll give that a try. I did see that part in the manual, but I wasn't sure if the volume aspect also applied to when the tuner is engaged and everything is muted. I wasn't sure if they considered that a volume control.

Hey Guys,

I have a vocal harmony pedal set up so that the monitor out sends it the signal/chords so it can detect what pitch the harmony should be. Sometimes, I turn my volume pedal all the way down so that I can play the guitar and continue sending the chords to the pedal even though no guitar will be coming through the mains. I've realized that this is the ONLY time I actually use my volume pedal and I'm thinking it's a waste of space.

My question is, if I were to mute my guitar signal from going out of the mains by stepping on the tuner button, will the monitor out still send the signal/chords to the harmony pedal? If not, is there a way to set things up so that I can still play the guitar and have the chords sent to the harmony pedal without actually having any sound come through the mains? Or am I going to need to keep my volume pedal for this?

I've been using the Kemper for around 6-7 years now and I have NEVER been able to get a profile to sound even remotely close to what it sounds like when I hear it on YouTube or elsewhere. At first, I thought I must be doing something wrong. But I've checked every setting on my Kempers (I have two, so I know it's not a faulty Kemper). I've tested the profiles through ATH-M50x headphones, through my Yamaha HS8 monitors and through our live PA setup (all QSC bins and tops). I've recorded them as single take guitars and double-tracked through my Clarett 4Pre USB interface into Reaper. No matter what I do, they never sound like what was advertised. And it's more than just the difference in tone from fingers.

For example, the Top Jimi VH packs sound nothing like what I hear when I listen to the demos. They're all quite thin and muddy/dark. TAF profiles all seem to have way too much low end. MBritt profiles don't have enough top end. I use Charvel Guthrie Govan signature model guitars; so I'm not using some cheap $400 guitar with garbage pickups. So that's definitely not the problem.

So I've given up on trying to recreate the sound of what is advertised. I usually now just start with something that is close, and tweak until I like it. MBritt seems to be the closest starting points for me and usually, just adding some high end clarity gets those to a usable state for me.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the Kemper. The pros of having everything I want in a small, transportable unit FAR outweigh the cons. I've got a bunch of sounds that do sound really good live. I just wish I could get sounds to be more similar to what I hear advertised online.

Quote from KjStrat62

Seem to be having luck not using the EQ Do you all use yours? KJ

I use the Studio EQ in the "X" slot on almost all of my moderate to high gain tones. Mainly to put a high cut on there and get rid of the nasty high frequencies (generally around 7k and up) and then to take a small amount out around 3.5k. I've got a low cut set in the universal settings for all of my tones around 90hz. These all change slightly depending on the profile. But to me, it makes the most sense to use the EQ rather than having to do it at the board/house system each time. No matter where you play, if you're playing through a profile that has nasty frequencies in it, those frequencies are still going to be there regardless of what you're playing through for a house system - it's just a matter of to what extent. So my thought process is to eliminate the problem or nasty frequencies from the start of the signal chain and then it's more consistent and less tweaking to have to deal with at the time of the show.

Quote from V8guitar

For my band we have a few intros to songs that are pre-recorded. I have struggled to find inexpensive hardware ( £100 or less) to play it back, but settled on a mobile phone ( no sim) with a sample playback - so just hit a button and it plays a 1 shot MP3.

This is connected into my KPA with a splitter cable to the input jacks.

Problem is, the volume out of the PA is significantly lower than my guitar volume, even with the phone and Aux in at max. The audio levels are reasonable volume as well without clipping and I don;t think my guitar rigs are set particularly high

Recently I want to move away from the phone as its clumsy etc. and so looking at looper pedals, specifically the Digitech Jamman ( bought another loop but found it doesn't do the "one shot" so keeps playing in...yes you guessed it...a loop...Doh!!). I am assuming that I might get more gain out of that device than a mobile phone headphone out.

So questions to the group:

1) Anyone else do the same and what hardware do you use. The trigger pad devices are very expensive, the Akai MPX8 was awful.... Loopers are generally way more functional than I need but seem the closest..

2) Anyone know if I'm likely to get more volume out of a looper pedal than the phone - line level versus headphone level ????? The Jamman has stereo out and I wondered if using both outs would make any difference than the current splitter to the separate outputs.

3) Any other way of balancing the guitar output without reducing the volumes of each rig. I think reducing the volume to the main out will affect both guitar and MP3 output

If this doesn't work then I might need a dedicated output to the PA. I'd rather avoid this as its extra hassle to set up.

My utopia longer term would be to have the ability to import files to the KPA and play them as a single shot, triggered by the remote!

Any suggestions???

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My band plays along to click tracks so that we can have samples playing at the right times during the songs. Doesn’t sound like you’d need the click part of the equation but the same setup would solve your problem. I just use my iPad with the Soundcue app on it. You can load any MP3 you want (I have over 40 on mine). I run an 1/8” cord from the output of the MP3 into a direct box that i have mounted on my pedalboard and then a mic cable out of the direct box to the PA. It sounds like a lot to set up, but it’s really not. All I do each show is mount my iPad to my mic stand and plug in the cable from the direct box to the PA. Literally takes less than a minute. But then you get far more control over your samples than you would with a looper. You’d have a dedicated channel on the board so you could adjust the volume or EQ however you need.

Quote from graoully

I dig this tread up. Is there a way to adjust the volumes off rigs at the same level (Rig manager or directly on the profiler)? I have plenty of them, set at very different levels, and I would like them to be homogenized.

There is no automated way to do it. The only way to do it is manually. I'd suggest using one of the rigs that come stock on the Kemper as your baseline, and then manually adjust all of your other rig volumes to that one by ear. Once you get them all matched, what I usually do is build my new rigs off of one that has already been volume matched. If you're using a completely new rig, you'll want to volume match against one that has already been done. And I wouldn't totally rely on volume meters as a sole reference point. Just because something is the same volume in terms of a volume meter, doesn't mean it'll cut through in a mix as well or seem as loud in a mix. Using your ear is the best way to go unfortunately.

Quote from paults

Are you using the Direct Out to send the guitar signal to the harmony pedal?

I am.

I use 2 pedals with my setup. Both are Mission pedals. One is always a volume pedal set after the amp. I can use my volume knob on the guitar to clean up the signal or reduce the gain. So having the volume set after the amp section for this pedal allows me to reduce volume but not reduce gain. I also need this volume pedal because there are times when I'll set the volume to zero on it, but I need to keep playing guitar chords to feed my vocal harmony pedal. This allows me to send the chord info to that pedal without having the chords actually come through the PA.

The 2nd pedal is always set to a wah, regardless of what rig I'm on, except for songs where I'll need some sort of pitch effects like a whammy. For those songs, I've got my rigs to use the 2nd pedal as a whammy pedal.

As others have, I would STRONGLY recommend you don't go "budget" for IEMs. For guitar, you need at LEAST triple drivers to get a fairly full sound. I'm currently using the Westone PRO 5-Drivers and they are awesome because they are strong enough to really make everything sound full, guitar, bass and drums. If you go with some cheap single or dual drivers, it's going to sound like you're listening to an AM radio. Your guitar is going to sound really thin. The 5-drivers I have cost around $400-$550 depending on what kind of deal you get and where you buy them.

Another option you have is to just use a nice set of headphones instead of IEMs. There are a LOT of pro bands that go with this option (Linkin Park's guitarist has done this for over a decade). The sound you'll get out of a $100-$150 set of headphones will absolutely blow away any single or dual driver IEM that you buy.