Posts by ancientmariner

    Evening folks.


    For the past 3 months I have been focusing on using my kemper powerhead live and setting up tones that work with my 1960a cab. But recently I have been using my kemper for home recording, mainly high gain tones using my gibson voodoo explorer using the 2 outputs on the kemper. I bought the focusrite 2i2 (bad choice due to low level clipping) and have been achieving mixed results, particularly compared to the sound clips i have heard from users here and in other places despite using the same profiles. I am mainly using reaper but have used other software to compare results and all the tones sound essentially the same so I know software isnt at fault.


    For example the LL Grease patch used in the recording here Tips on recording Kemper?? sounds fantastic. When I use the patch it sounds thin, scooped and lacking any character. Most of the high gain profiles I have been using produce similar results, i have managed a good recording tone on a rare occasion but I am thinking I need some advice to get the most out of the recording side as I am clearly doing something wrong. None of my high gain tones sound anything like the examples I have heard from sellers and users on this forum. Also, I am still a little unclear regarding the use and, more importantly, choice of cabinet to go with. I notice there are a few cabinets in the cab preset section and hundreds in the "from rigs" section. Should I be downloading cab profiles or mix and matching? I not clear on the best way to approach it as up to now I have had cab off to go straight into the 1960a. I plan on uploading some of the clips i have saved but would welcome any suggestions on setting on the kemper for recording and any advice on cabinet choice.


    Many thanks


    .

    I have the same problem, if you go to output you can use the power amp boost. You can also raise the amp volume in the amp section and do the same with the cab. That should help give things more volume.

    If it's a marshall cab, use the 4 ohm input. MUCH louder. You'll just have to be careful with running it so loud that the power amp overloads and goes into thermal protection. I noticed this too live with mine - the 16 ohm wasn't quite loud enough, but changing to 4 ohms helped a lot. Also depends on how loud your profiles are too, some are certainly louder than others and if you have a quieter profile or scoop your mids much your cab isn't going to be as loud.


    Hi,
    Yes it is a 1960a marshall cabinet...one from the jcm 900 line but sounds very nice and tight. I can run it in 16 or 4 ohm mono mode but had been wary about 4ohm for fear of damaging cab or head. I imagine the volume increase is quite significant so i may well have to go down this road if volume becomes an issue again. I dont generally scoop mids much with the kemper, the 5150 i use is a stock factory profile with some small eq adjustments. The tone fits well within the band mix and the only issue i had was volume. Have you used 4 ohm mode much for gigging? If so, how far can you push it without fear of thermal protection or speaker damage?

    I bought a powerhead recently so perhaps i can be of help.


    As I have been discovering, the cabinet is colouring the tone. In fact about 90% of the tone is down to the cab. Plugging into a p.a or frfr speaker will give you the results you hear on youtube, this is why the headphones sound better to your ears. I recommend using d.i or direct profiles as these are profiles straight from the amp and a cab was not used in the process. This will give you a better, more workable tone for the cab. I use alot of high gain tones so it has taken a bit of time, but i am very happy with the tone i have now. Am not sure about the routing to the cabinet out on the Kemper, am sure someone else can explain this. But definetly look into direct profiles and make sure the cab sims on the kemper are off.

    Well, the source of this problem might be the suspected: the output volume links.


    Check the page in the output menu.
    If more than one volume is linked to the Master Volume Knob AND the volumes have been offset manually, than the lower linked volume will stop increasing, when the highest volume has reached its maximum.
    This is not a bug, but a feature.


    Solution: link the Monitor Volume exclusively to the Master knob, or control it by hand in the output menu.


    Thanks for the reply!


    As i mentioned in my first post, i suspected it may have had something to do with the way i had the output linked. Testing at home achieves face melting volume so most likely a setup error on my part. It sounded so good through the house p.a that the other guys in the band started asking the other guitarist to go direct from his fractal.


    viabcroce I may look into getting the cab rewired for 8 ohms to simply have a bit more headroom in general. I dont generally use many stomps..usually delay, chorus or reverb but will bear that in mind.


    Thanks for all the replies

    Thanks chaps,


    paults i had read through that, however with reaching max volume so easily at the show, i thought i had misinterpreted the info.


    Frodebro, i was pretty much in front of the cab all night, the same sort of way i would usually be using a valve head and cab.


    Since posting, i have been experimenting with a few things. Tried the cab in 8ohm mode, which meant only using half of the speakers in the 4 x 12 but there was a discernable increase in volume. I had also forgotten that all the amp profiles themselves are defaulted to -5db so by increasing them to 0 there is a greater volume to ramp up using master/monitor volume. Am still genuinely surprised however that maxing the power amp and monitor volume wasnt enough volume for me.

    Our drummer is very hard hitting lol and our bass player is incredibly loud too... The volume on stage last night was ferocious, we were all half deaf coming off stage last night. The only thing i can think of was the way i had the output volumes linked. Can the monitor output and master volume be controlled independantly..so for example...say monitor volume is set to 12 oclock..can master volume then push the powerhead volume higher without affecting the monitor volume settings? As i mentioned in the first post, master volume did not affect volume due to the way it was linked in output section...did i have it setup incorrectly?


    I am 100% sure the cab is fine as i tested it with a 100watt tube head and it blew my face off.

    Hi folks,


    I play in a traditional metal band and last night I did my first show with my powerhead. Was using a 5150 profile and it sounded amazing. I was using a 1960a on stage and went direct out to foh. As happy as i was with the tone, i had volume problems....I was maxed out on the power amp boost, maxed out on the monitor volume and my patches were around the 3 oclock mark and I really struggled to hear myself over the thundering drums and bass. We had nothing from the stage monitors so we all relied on our cabs etc...It was a small stage and all our gear was crammed onto the stage with little separation. I was using the cab in 16ohm mode and am now concerned that it wont be loud enough for future shows. Not sure if i had messed up settings somewhere but using the master volume control did nothing due to the way i had set the outputs. Any clue what I might have done wrong? I had thought the kemper could handle the volume required with ease but maybe I was expecting too much? Would switching to 8ohm on the cab be worthwhile to increase the volume?

    The issue i was having was too much top end at high volumes with high gain. I discovered that using the power amp boost was much easier at controlling high gain sounds instead of pushing master volume. The 1960a cabinet i use has alot of top end so had to balance it properly. All sorted now, sounds killer.

    I made the backup earlier while i was on 3.2.0 and sent it to support. Am using 3.1.4 presently to ensure there isnt an issue with the memory module on the kemper. I had been using the kemper for over 2 weeks on the f/w it came with 3.0.2 and never encountered a problem, I only encountered the crashing after the update. I have a show coming up and need to make sure the kemper is stable so Im gonna stick to 3.1.4 for a few days and see how things go.

    Hi there,


    Last night i performed my first update on my new kemper..went from version 3.0.2 to version 3.2.0. Shortly after i did the upgrade i noticed the kemper was running slowly, buttons unresponsive etc and eventually it displayed a software error message on the display. I have contacted support and sent them my backup. However, while waiting for them to get back to me, i had the system freeze up on me today and was again was totally unresponsive...no software error message this time and again a system reboot resolved things. I had nothing plugged into the kemper with the exception of my guitar cable. So I was thinking of either reinstalling 3.2.0 or an earlier version incase the firmware was corrupt. What is the best way to either reinstall or install an earlier fw version? Do i need to perform a reset first as i cannot see any options within external storage to reinstall.


    Thanks