Posts by ancientmariner

Quote from OhG

I would not personally recommend the DXR10 or the Friedman. IMO, the DXR sounded better than the Friedman, but the DXR wasn't even close to being capable of handling the volume I play at (especially when palm muting as the speaker would reach it's limits and fart out). I went to the DXR15 and couldn't be happier. Sounds amazing, and since it's a bigger speaker, it can handle more volume, more low end, and also pushes air a little better, so it'll give you a closer feel to the "traditional cab" than a 10" or 12" will. I don't find it bass-heavy at all. Of course, it's all about how you EQ rigs. I have my speaker set completely flat, with all built in EQ options set to "off." If my DXR15 ever broke down, I'd buy another just like it. Oh, and the warranty is great too! The Friedman had way too many things that I didn't like about it (including the sound).

Now I am totally confused lol. How is the bass response on the dxr15? I play in standard tuning, occasionally a semi tone down and play at maiden/megadeth gain levels. Is it tight sounding ont he palm mutes? I discounted the dxr15 as i thought the bass might be boomy etc?

That's good to know about the cutting through as i plan to use this to replace my cab at rehearsals and gigs.

Quote from Ingolf

My high gain is probably your clean, haha.Seriously: I tread into Maiden territory once in a while.

Thanks for the reply. I do mainly iron maiden type stuff so not too much low end palm mutes, but it has been known lol. So would you think a dxr12 would handle this type of stuff better? I dont want to have to change monitors or add a 2nd one, I would like to purchase something that can handle the type of music i play and cut through in a band situation.

Hey Ingolf,

Are you using yours for high gain?

Afternoon,

I have decided to make the transition to an active monitor and to hopefully ditch the cabs for good. I have been using a 1960a with my powerhead but never been truly satisfied with it, expecially compared to the results I get from recording. So after much thought, I am going to retire the poweramp in the kemper and switch to active frfr. I have been looking at the dxr10 and dxr12 and friedman asm-12 and wondered what people thought would be the best choice for high gain, rock, metal etc? I have read the dxr12 can be boomy with bass so I had kind of ruled it out but not sure. Would love to hear some opinions and peoples experience with some of the above, particularly for rocl/metal.

Many thanks

Some beautiful Guitars in this thread. This is my latest acquisition.

[Blocked Image: https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/14333735_569566339896628_4898256323755278606_n.jpg?oh=218f1e7587e5daee7b3ef81df393a737&oe=587B420D]

Thanks for the replies.

I have had the kemper for a year now so I know it pretty well at this stage. Cab sims are always off and always have been when using it with a cab.

Would be good to hear from someone who has made the transition from cab to frfr and uses high gain as this is where I think I need to go.

Cheers

Hi there,

I have had my kemper for a year now and for most of that time I have been using it at home for recording or playing with my 1960a cab. I did a show with it a few weeks after I got it and it was a baptism of fire of sorts, had difficulty with cutting through the mix and getting a satisfactory onstage tone. Tone to FOH was great but onstage was a disaster. I have spent alot of time since then getting familiar with the kemper and recently started rehearing with a new band and have been using it with a cab for rehearsals I play in a metal band so have been using high gain profiles mainly, i have bought packs from all the big players and have a few profiles i like to use with the band. My biggest problem is achieving a satisfactory tone at high volumes. I find with the cab it can be a very harsh experience, very high top ends and sharp character to the distortion and obviously losing the character of the profiles due to the cab colouring it. My first question is are there any tips to setting up high gain at high volumes with the kemper while using a cab? Perhaps there are a few profiles that excel with a cab that someone could recommend? Secondly, for the reasons above, I have started to seriously consider an active frfr monitor/cab and ditching the 1960a permanently. How does the like of the dxr10/12 handle high gain at high volumes? As this is the direction i am leaning towards.

Thanks in advance.

Had been looking forward to this video for a few weeks since the captain mentioned it on that pedal show. It did not dissapoint, I loved seeing them getting both amps wrong and believe the reactions were genuine. I did expect the 2 kemper and amp tomes to sound different, I suspect if they had profiled the amps using a di box then the difference would have been less obvious. Both tones sounded good but the kemper had more dynamic than the real amps imo.

Hi Chris, send me a message mate and lets talk

Hi there, my live requirements have changed so I have decided to part with my powerhead, i will pickup the non powered version at some point but for now it has to go.

Ideally looking for an axe fx rig for trading. Axe fx 2 or ax8 is at top of the list.

Am based in the uk, the powerhead is just less than 1 year old. Mint condtion, literally not a mark on it. Lcd display still has protective cover on it. Comes with official kemper bag and a tonne of commercial profiles.

Thanks for reading.

Thankyou, I have heard great things about these. Much appreicated.

I too have the powerhead and have been using it for gigging, recording and home practise. When I first got it, I was a bit dissaspointed with the overall tone from the cab. I use a 1960a and for a while really struggled to find a tone I truly loved. First gig was a bittersweet affair, the foh sound was simply immense, but on stage using the cab I didn't cut through the mix at all, i had made mistakes on the output section settings so was at a disadvantage anyway but the whole experience forced me to question the way i approached setting up a profile. This led me to start using the kemper through my home cinema amp, although far from frfr, it did give me more of an idea how my tone sounded and allowed me to develop better setup methods. These methods have translated to how I setup my cab sound now and I have really started to fall in love with some of my patches. But as much as I love my cab tone thesedays, I still want a frfr system, preferrably a monitor I can use at my feet so I can properly hear how the profile should sound and to allow me to tweak knowing I am hearing something close to the foh tone. I am not sure how much help this will be to you as I think we want the same thing but the first thing I would do is work with the cab for a bit and see what you can come up with. If you use high gain profiles, like i do, send me a pm and i can send you a few patches i use through my 1960a cab so you can see if they work for you.

Thanks for the reply, and for the confirmation that the feature isn't curently present. I suspect this could be achieved with software, only elements of the profile would have separate values but you may be correct. I feel there could be more support for the powerhead version of the KPA so any revisions would be welcome. I will take your advice and post it in the feature request, suppose it can't hurt.

Evening folks.

6 Months of owning the powerhead and I am still uncovering it's secrets everyday, loving it the more time i spent with it. Had a baptism of fire using it at first show however (I had only had it 2 weeks at this stage), I play in a metal band (similar stuff to iron maiden) and although I had an unbelievable FOH sound, my onstage tone was utterly lost amongst the band onstage. I discovered later that I had 3 outputs linked to the master volume and with the main out set to -20db, it meant I wasnt at full volume on stage. I have found that using a 4x12 1960a cabinet with the powerhead has pros and cons, the main con being the tone similarities between amp models. The 1960a massively colours the tone. Recently I have been using the kemper with a home cinema amp and 2 speakers as it gives me a more accurate profile sound, and I have been comparing different elements of my tone to the cabinet tone. It seems when it comes to high gain tones with my setup, the cabinet requires more gain to achieve the desired tone, whereas with the cinema amp setup requires a much reduced gain setting. The same applies to recording, the same profile requires more gain when used with cab. I would love to see a feature where gain could be set to separate vaules for each output so i could reduce gain to FOH and keep it higher for stage use. As far as I know, this feature does not exist, would it be worth requesting it as a feature?

I have had a bit of this at high volumes using a regular 4x12 with powered toaster. I either use the clarity function to filter some out normally around 9 oclock, and for other profiles i simply use a studio eq and reduce the low gain with preserves the tone and removes the flub.

Why Distorted Sense at zero out of curiosity?

Things i do after learning what not to do.

Ensure main output voume is set to -20db to ensure you wont blow the crap out of the p.a
Ensure no other output volumes are linked to master volume (only have monitor volume linked)
Once you are satisfied with tone from p.a use the monitor eq to adjust stage tone
Use the power amp boost if you need it.

Thats pretty much it, enjoy!

I have a kemper powerhead to trade for an axe fx, are you based in the uk?

I only got the conversations icon after i had registered my kemper on the site.

Additonally, if you are in the uk. I am considering selling my other powerhead, so might be an option for you if you deicde to get one.

Quote from viabcroce

Well, different guitars produce a different sonic result, in general. This might well be the case, but also what you use for listening to your recordings makes a difference. Are you using the same medium for listening to the online clips you like?This is very important in order to get comparable results.

I assume you kill the cab profile when you use your real cab: you should now switch it back on, since you're most probably using a more linear medium (monitors or HPs) for listening to your recordings.
If you did not kill the cab when using the 1960, and tweaked from there in order to get the best tones with the real cab, the results on a linear medium will be sonically... unpredictable

Unless otherwise specified, the rigs you hear in the clips come with their own cab, so when you d/l them you should get the whole package, so to speak No strict need to change cab.

Apart from the above, I'd check two things:

1. Have you tweaked the rigs in order to get a great sound with your cab? If you did this, and are using the same tweaked rigs for your recordings, most chances are you get a bad result. Start from the untweaked rigs, and tweak from there through your monitors\HPs.

2. is the Output EQ flat? For recording you're using the Main outputs, which have a separate EQ from the Monitor Output, the one you use with your real cab. Check it's flat.

HTH

Display More

Thanks, yes cabs are switched on when i am recording, it is only ever off when i am going into my 1960a. Output eq is flat. I use the same platform for listening back as i do with all things audio. I use a mixture of seinheiser headphones and an audio amp connected with stereo speakers. The examples i hear are also played back in the same way, so I can easily compare my results to the results of others. I would love to hear a clip from someone and use their profile to record a clip, to illustrate the differences i hear. I was convinced I had changed a setting somewhere but cannot find anything obvious.