Posts by JedMckenna

    Not using the ID-14 anymore, but about your feedback issue, I think you have to mute the monitoring in the Audient software or you'll have a feedback loop. About the gain difference issue, sorry if this sounds obvious but it's usually a matter of volume going back in. Make sure the tracks you reamp from Logic (and your DAW master volume) goes back into your interface at +/-0 Db. If you lowered the volume of the track or the master volume in your DAW, the gain will be lower. You can watch the Kemper video about reamping, it talks about this and how to compensate with "reamp sense".

    First of all, your band needs to chill before dissing your rig after the first live use as you clearly haven't totally wrapped your head around the variables yet. Nothing more annoying than getting this pressure when you are trying to figure things out, it's a complex problem they have no idea about. Although it's often the truth, you can't just say to the band "don't worry if it sounds awful on stage, I actually sound great through the PA".


    Get a recording from your PA from a rehearsal; that's what it will sound to the audience. If that's no good to you then work on your profiles and tweaking tips that many will contribute to in this thread. If it is good to you, then the problem is the monitoring. Of course you need to adjust your monitoring individually from the Mains but while I haven't tried the Kemper Kabinet yet, I've come to believe that there are certain situations with modellers (or KPA) where you just can't win monitoring-wise. In certain situations, people are used to and expecting the amp in the room sound and some "push of air" and sometimes all other monitoring solutions (short of an amp) seem inadequate. In those scenarios, you have to decide what is the most important in that specific situation (having a great sound in the room versus all the other advantages the KPA gives you). There are many types of gigs and the answer is not always cut and dry. I strongly believe there is no "one rig fits all".


    When it's a gig with no in-ear monitor, my first time with a new band where I'm being hastily judged on the tone in the rehearsal room, if there is an "old school" producer/bandleader, a very low volume gig/rehearsal, etc, I would often go with an amp + pedalboard instead. I also often do the rehearsals with the amp and use the KPA at the gigs only. Again, maybe the Kemper Kabinet or various power amps solves that (or maybe not), but straight through the monitors I'm being provided in various rehearsal rooms, etc the problem usually remain to some extent.

    After those second clips, I don't think that anything is wrong with your unit. Make sure your pickups are not too high, when the magnet starts to pull the string especially with single coils, it creates artifacts that make the sustained note go weird as you probably know, also make sure you are working in the correct bitrate as someone else pointed out. I have a first generation Kemper so having to deal with the internal clock change and the slave/master every time is just another annoying thing on my mind so I don't bother anymore and just record through the mains now. Also, when they are tried out of context, there are lots of plain bad sounding profiles out there.


    Another issue regarding artifacts I had in the past was a floating tremolo that made a tiny "crackling" sound into the note anytime it was touched the slightest, and I had never noticed it when playing but it was quite obvious on the recording, so beware of tremolos.

    About this particular product, I don't quite see the appeal of an expensive box like this that's stuck on one sound at a time, which I'm sure I can recreate with either the Kemper reverbs, an H9, a Strymon box (or even a cheaper one - I've been happy using a cheap CKK Space Station lately). Live, you won't be able to feel the difference your $500 reverb makes in a mix. For recording, I'd take those those Valhalla plugins over any reverb pedal. Personally, things like inspiration, time or opportunity are the real factors to be prioritized over redundant gear acquisition.

    I used the H9 in an FX loop from Kemper. I use a Morningstar midi controller with the H9. I think I have it wired so that I can use the tap tempo from the remote to go in the H9. I just haven't used the rig much lately due to big venues being shut down (covid)... I'm more into pedalboard + amp these days.


    I think the only problem seems to be that there won't be delay/reverb trails from the H9 when I change rig on the Kemper.

    Depends for what purpose the recording is, what style and even the particular client/team (because they have different workflow) but in general when I record to provide tracks for someone else, I 95% of the time record in mono and let them deal with the effects/delay/reverb for the most part (except for compression). However, I sometimes add the effect I have in mind in post (with plugins or by reamping with pedals or kemper effects added in) and provide that as a reference but otherwise most engineers I've dealt with like to have the flexibility to manipulate this stuff themselves. For example, a delay might sound great in isolation but in a whole mix, the guitar might be lower and that delay will get lost - if you've baked it in, you can't make it come through. You can also record the stereo wet only and blend it, but then you double track and it becomes a bit much to handle depending on the project. Committing to a sound is great in principle and I see people say that all the time with great confidence but it takes serious experience before you can assume that the sound you've committed to is the ideal one and even that, a lot of the times you have no idea what you are supposed to even commit to because one instrument still hasn't played his real/final part, or something else will be added down the line (for christ sake, I even sometimes hear a different harmony in the final recording because the producer decided halfway through the recording process to change a chord or something.) In recording, I spend the bulk of my focus on the creativity/delivery/precision of the part, the tuning/intonation, and getting the best possible core (mono) sound.

    I used to use it all the time while in college. There was no similar program that could register complex chord progressions at the time. The UI and stock sounds were awful, although I'm sure you can/could run it through a better sound library - I just didn't know better at the time. I'm using iReal Pro for jazz these days, and make some of my own backing tracks on my DAW. Depending what you want your backing tracks for, I'd say doing them on a DAW is probably the best option; I use Logic and it can be very fast to make midi part or even drag and drop drum or bass loops. I am still curious about finding a good customizable, easy to use play-along software and I keep looking but I can't seem to find one.

    Yes, for those kinds of small gigs, I always choose one of my pedalboards instead of the Kemper. I guess the latter can work but it seems to fall short in small venues when you and the band kind of need the amp in the room feel. If there is a decent amp in a venue, I'll always use my board instead and be happy much quicker. For me, the Kemper shines at bigger gigs/venues.


    I replaced a guy on a hotel gig once, he used one a top modeler of some sort that he plugged straight in the PA. I showed up half-assed with my cheap Blues Junior, an old SD-1 - mic'ed it with a 58 and the band was raving how amazing my amplifier sounded compared to the guy's modeler... but it was just the "amp in the room" sound that the band really notices in small venues. Nowadays, maybe the Kabinet would change all that but I still greatly enjoy my pedals through a good amp.

    "Recombinant engineering"? I say REDUNDANT engineering. That's what the Helix LT and their iterations of the same thing in various format are. Going for such a marginally smaller footprint than the stage is useless in the studio and it would be annoying as hell to gig with a footboard whose switches are 1 inches apart from each others. I get that miniaturization of everything is appealing to engineers but this thing is not meant to be a tiny toy to fiddle with, it's pro gear that needs to withstand abuse and be large enough to be stepped on and be functional.


    Also, if the stage of the venue is too small to fit a Kemper stage... you probably don't need to be gigging with a Kemper stage.

    This discussion has already veered of course with the "penis length" argument above. Seriously, what a weird viewpoint.


    Music has become progressively commodified, first through magazines and now with youtube content full of advertisement but the truth is that the need for effect is grossly over-represented. According to the narrative out there, you need to have access to everything under the sun to make music; you see it on every music forum since the beginning of the internet. Then, within this narrative emerges another one where you actually need to disproportionately focus on "stuff" as if your gear pool was the crux of your music-making endeavor. Your guitar heroes don't come out to talk about how much grind they went through; they come out to introduce the new Tone Print ®™ delay preset or some other sponsored trivial crap and this further confuses less experienced players as to where they should focus their mental energy. The "no-effect" crowd comes-in to take an extreme stance against this, and rightfully so because there are a lot of professional situations where little or no effect is needed and cutting the crap and going back to basic would benefit many inexperienced players by instantly revealing what they really need to focus on to get the job done well (assuming the job is playing guitar and not playing effects).


    It makes me remember a gig by Adam Rogers some 15 years ago, all the top cats came in town came to check him out and he totally blew everyone's mind in the venue. He had brought a TS9 and a delay, but didn't even turn them on once. Didn't need to. Then you come on the internet to see a bunch of YouTube channels and people arguing over which company will make a phaser that can best match their tap tempo...

    Been dealing with all sorts of playing related injuries all my life. In fact, I think the stats are that 80% of pro musicians did at some point. As Nietzsche said, "gaze long into abyss and the abyss will also gaze into you", in other words, the things you do for too long end up changing you and it's pretty much inevitable to run into a physical/auditory/mental problem if you are doing this full-time. There is no quick fix, except trying to identify the cause (usually related to tension, repetition or posture), and work your way around it. Once, it was as silly as not having a music stand and having my desk 6 inches too high... which I realized just after a thousand $ of physical therapy.


    Those shots just alleviate pain temporarily but don't solve the problem. Resting and learning to work inside your boundaries is essential when dealing with injuries. For me, making practice more cerebral and less focused on physically strenuous exercises has helped a lot (for example, by working on harmony/composition instead).

    Agreed that as is, the relevance of the "star" system is questionable but at the same time, the indication of popularity is useful. RE has accumulated a couple of rigs that now have quasi-legendary status and just by paying attention to their popularity, those can fast track someone in the right direction. Maybe a "number of thumbs up" like Bommel suggested could achieve that without discouraging people to contribute more to RE?

    My last funny problem happened during a gig. I have programmed the last button on the right for an effect switch, and instead I pressed the button above ( the tuner).

    Suddenly there was no sound anymore, we were playing Are you gonna go my way and I was for 30 seconds trying all sorts of things till I realised the real cause. Unforgettable...

    "Officer, I planned on braking at the red light but I pressed the wrong pedal!... "

    I have to vent . Lately my partner and I submitted a nice jingle we did for a kid cartoon and it got rejected. They said it was not "kid music" enough and the example they provided was mediocre, generic infantilizing garbage. I remember that things like Fraggle Rock for example always had creative, catchy songs and the band was smashing; I dug it when I was a kid and now it seems like I missed the memo where kid stuff had to be dumbed down. Anyway, in many similar contexts, uninspired and formulaic tunes and jingles now seem to be regarded as the norm unfortunately. People like you gives me faith that there is still some folks out there whose compass is oriented towards cool and creative stuff. I see you putting out awesome "noodles" everyday lately and I have huge respect. I hope you have an avenue where your songwriting is valued and appreciated. 8)

    You set up your expression pedals in System (page 6 through 11), with the appropriate mode and function, then calibrate. Make sure it's plugged in the right spot (in one of the 4 remote inputs or 2 of the KPA), then in the stomp block set the wah at whatever pedal mode you want (bypass at heel?). If by "activating" the wah you mean turning it on/off, well you can assign that stomp to a remote button or leave it always on if it's set to Bypass at heel/toe or touch.

    Nice! While Kemper is still my primary rig, I've actually been using a similar small board a lot this year. The scene has shifted a bit since the pandemic and live sessions have been mostly with jazz artists, singer-songwriters, duo/trios and other situations that don't justify the KPA horsepower or a bigger board so this makes it much easier. I also use another H9 with the Kemper and it's pretty crazy what you can get out of them once they're programmed properly.


    I usually put a graphic EQ on the X slot, crank the mids by doing an inverted "V" shape and add a bit on the EQ Volume parameter. Check in your DAW that the volume when the EQ is engaged goes up about 4dbs. I usually combine this with a Kemper Drive stomp pre-stack and a short stereo delay.


    That being said, not sure why you say "increasing volume in AMPLIFIER is not recommended, increasing VOLUME beyond 0.0 dB is also not advisable". Regardless of what you heard, increasing amplifier volume or rig volume is certainly doable but if volume boost is your issue, it is easier to just put a Pure Boost stomp post-stack.

    Live, I either use an Eventide H9 in the stereo loop with a midi controller, or nothing at all depending on the gig. When I record, I rarely use external effects, (maybe a Digitech Freqout sometimes). However, Kemper has pretty much all you need already and I usually record dry anyway. Those Youtube pedal/gear videos are a nuisance, making people shift their focus from where it's supposed to be.