Congrats! And I share in your enthusiasm!
Thanks, this week has been a good experience figuring out a long lasting issue. I'm a fix it individual with a tad bit of ocd, I can't let something go until I get it resolved, I'll sleep better tonight. But I'll have another mental itch to scratch within a few days lol!
Just hit the finish transaction button at the Kemper US online store, Yee-haw!
Now I have some decisions to make, keep the Profiler Rack and Remote and find something smaller to mount the rack in or sell them along with my 6U rack and matching 112 cab and Kone as a complete rig. The 6U rack doesn't sit well on a Kabinet, found that out while testing a passive Kabinet at a music store, it was pretty unsteady.
If someone can point me towards a lighter weight solution to mount the Kemper Rack in and bags for the Remote that's easier to tote I'm all ears, then I could piecemeal out the remaining gear which might be easier to do. Otherwise I'll liquidate everything and get a Kemper Stage, but I'm open to suggestions from anyone who has been down this road already.
By the way, after trying the Kabinet at the store I'm as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning about the arrival of the Powered Kabinet, I don't know if that was obvious or not
Cool, is your rack a Power Head or what power amp did you use
Unpowered, I see vjelen already spotted the TC Electronics Bam200. It was nice to try it with the Kabinet, at least I know now it wasn't a weak link in the chain and walked away confident that my cabinet is the issue. I spent the day taking photos of a couple of my guitars, a combo amp and the Kemper rig, time to sell it all.
I've decided to go with a powered Kabinet and Profiler Stage, a lot less bulk and weight to deal with. After carrying the 6U rack and guitar in and out yesterday a couple of times I knew it was time to lighten the load even more. I play my acoustic on occasion out but have only played my electric out twice in the last 25 years, I'm ready to change that and want to make it as easy as possible to grab and go, I miss the interaction and have lost a lot just noodling or playing with backing tracks at home.
Its my cabinet, pure and simple, one year of disappointment and aggravation is all on me.
The Kone in my cabinet has never sounded very good, I get an occasional woo-hoo moment but it soon turns to sorrow. Tried every combination of settings over and over and still just left with a bad taste in my mouth and a little jealous of all the people on the forum that have had success😏
I went on vacation for a few days with my wife and two granddaughters, it's a yearly trip. On the way home we stopped at a city about 75 miles from home so they could have Panera Bread bagels which just so happens to be half a block from a music shop I hit every 2 or 3 years. Low and behold there sat a version one passive Kabinet, I've never seen one in person.
I asked to try it out with their Kemper Stage but not a power amp in the store period. So I drove the family home, grabbed the head with my Kemper Rack which in 5 years this is only the third time its been moved, it's never left the house. And of all people my wife says as I'm headed out the door "Take your own guitar so it will be the same as at home", honestly this never entered my mind, so my guitar had its first outing after three years here at home.
Well, 75 miles later I arrived, I thought I'd give the real Kabinet a spin but didn't expect much, my agenda was try it then go down the street a mile to another music store who had the Headrush frfr108 to give it a spin too. Sat down and powered up the Kemper, plugged into the Kabinet without adjusting a setting from home use, pulled up the stock Marshall, I think its the first preset but I've never cared for it, and presto, it sounded good. Tried the 2011 ac20 I believe its called, that so many speak highly of and presto, it sounded good, so far 2 for 2, each for a couple of minutes and sounding unlike anything I've been able to produce from my Kone and opened back cabinet at home.
About 45 minutes later I was in awe and severely depressed at the same time, I have burned so many hours and days up and it was simple, the Kone and Kabinet were designed to complement one another. Every profile I loaded up to tryout sounded great, reverb and delay were closer to monitors than a guitar speaker, great amp sound joined with great effect sounds.
The Acoustic in the Kemper I toyed with on my small monitors in stereo and thought it sounded pretty good, at the store I hit that profile and it was fantastic, mono mind you, the store salesman that was with me at that moment said "If I wasn't seeing an electric guitar I'd swear that was an acoustic plugged in" no exaggeration, that's what he said. I dont think any of the salesman working today had much of a clue about the Kemper or Helix they had on the floor, but they knew their Dr z amps.
It came down to this, I never made it to the other store. I'll purchase a Kabinet for now and sale my 112 cabinet along with a new Eminence em12. Kone, same thing, as time passes and I sell off a couple of electrics I haven't played in several years I fully intend to get a stereo power amp and another Kabinet. And for a reference I looked at the output section after arriving home, low cut was 78hz, high cut was 14,400hz, Kemper Kone checked so frfr mode (no imprints were tried), Pure Cabinet was off, and nothing was harsh or fizzy, first time ever for me! I'm glad I took the trip, I think my blood pressure will ease down a little now😉
Just watched that a couple of nights ago when it popped up on YouTube and it was a little underwhelming. I've seen a lot of videos over the years of Skolnick playing and it's usually quite inspiring and entertaining, he's a monster player. This didn't really compare to most of the videos you see of him as far as showing his capabilities as a player but it might have been one of the most fun to watch. A player of his caliber doing Toto licks with a big grin, gotta wonder if he was thinking "Dude, I'm playing Lukathers rig", I thought it was pretty cool.
It sounds a bit like you may be fighting against the fact that louder just sounds better.
But... when it comes to the FRFR at low volumes, my studio monitors sound way better than my ZLX15 speakers.
And...I always use the Kone for my own monitoring or just practicing/jamming. 🙂
I had the ZLX12 and plugged the Kemper into one of them the week I got it, it sounded horrible but that was all my fault. I had the EV set from the last event I had used it (outside with no sub) and didn't change the settings, on top of that I never even looked through Kempers output menu, or any menu to be honest.
I just plugged into the effect return of a combo amp I have and played the few profiles that sounded decent, zero tweaking on my part, and used it that way 3½+ years until I bought the Kone last summer. That's when I started going through the manual and finding out what exactly I had purchased. I've been messing with the Kone this past week, it sounds good using the speaker imprints and pretty good by itself without the Kemper Kone checked, but I don't care so much for the Kemper Kone checked frfr mode.
And yes, louder is always better! You should hear the old rehearsal room tapes I have, you can barely hear the drums, bass and vocals, I was a firm believer in gain and volume should be dimmed😅
I dial in separate profiles for playing at low and gig volume levels… brighter for lower volume play, darker for higher volume. Neither sound good when used in the unintended context. This holds true regardless of the speaker you are playing through.
I won't be playing at gig levels, very low to low volume. I'll probably try the Headrush 108 just to see if it will work for me. I've used similar speakers for small rooms that need to receive the FOH feed from an auditorium but at low volume and they've worked well, but I've never tried any type of guitar processor through one. My focus has been FOH for many years, playing guitar is a hobby for my enjoyment, I quit playing live in 1994.
I do agree with your statement, the years at a mixer forced me to learn just how many variables can affect live sound, that knowledge would have made me a better band member in my younger days.
Effect Buttons I-IIII
These four buttons can be flexibly assigned to switch effect modules on/off. They can also be used to toggle features in certain effects. Their respective assignments are stored per Rig. Each button can be assigned to multiple effect modules at the same time as Action & Freeze functions.
Assigning an Effect Module
Assigning switching functions to the Effect Buttons is simple: just press and hold an Effect Button on the Remote for example Effect Button IIII and press the desired module button, e.g. Module D, on the front panel of the PROFILER at the same time. Done!
It also works the other way around: press and hold the module button on the PROFILER first, then step on the desired Effect Button afterwards. The upper left LED of the Effect Button should now reflect the category color of the effect you assigned e.g. orange for a wah effect. Now, you can activate or bypass the selected effect module by stepping on the button on your PROFILER Remote. The lower left white LED indicates the on/off status of this effect module.
Unassigning an Effect Module
To undo a current assignment, simply perform the same assignment procedure again. Gone! The upper LEDs remain unlit if no effect is assigned.
Assigning a Second Effect Module
To add a second assignment to the same Effect Button, just repeat the process with another effect module. You will notice the right LEDs by the Effect Button indicate both the effect category and on/off state of your second assignment. Now, you can activate or bypass bot h effects by stepping on the button on your PROFILER Remote.
More Assignments
Even more effect modules can be assigned to the same Effect Button this way. However, the LEDs will only show the first two assignments.
At home I play the Kemper on studio monitors. I have stone age Mackie HR824, I find them non-fatiguing. The benefit is the backing track comes over the same monitors.
I plugged into my monitors for the first time last weekend, the clean sounds were phenomenal, especially with stereo effects, but they are subpar speakers and profiles with overdive do not translate well but I found they were non fatiguing as you said. I had a home studio for years but the PC I built gave up the ghost and my old Event monitors soon followed.
That's what prompted me to ask the original question about pa speakers, I was curious if they also sounded good at low volumes. My intent is, if a small pa speaker will work somewhat like monitors do I would still be able to take it out to play live. I've yet to do so since I've owned the Kemper and friends have invited me to jam sessions over the last couple of years, I miss doing that and would enjoy participating occasionally. If pa speakers are not a viable alternative then I will likely upgrade to a set of monitors that could handle the job, at least at home.
Have you tried head phones? Good ones can really sound amazing with the KPA.
Yes, unfortunately they aren't comfortable for me even at low volumes, it might have something to do with the close proximity, but that's speculation on my part.
I had quite a bit of trouble with ear infections in my 40's, to the point I had tubes put in for a while, more common for children than adults. I'm 56 now and it has flared back up again, I've had earaches with mild headaches since the middle of May, higher frequencies are especially brutal if above loud speech level right now. Its caused me to back off on running sound too, even for Bluegrass bands which I used to do 2 or 3 Saturday nights a month since 2018. That and playing guitar are pretty much my only hobbies I enjoy so I'll find a work around, at least for playing guitar.
In my hunt for the perfect tone, I have tried many of the "FRFR" solutions. The Headrush 108 is probably the best for low volume, in my opinion. I use it for smaller gigs, and it sounds great at lower volumes. Lightweight, and since it has two separate inputs, I can run another line in, if needed. From a vocal monitor mix, or something else. Mind you, this is my 2nd 108. My first 108 went up in smoke at a gig, and was replaced by HeadRush. So, there's that....
I've used Alto speakers as stage monitors a couple of times with good results, it could all be speculation but I have heard several times that they make the Headrush, not to say that they are just a rebrand product, I think the electronics have been changed.
I've been researching quite a bit but hearing from other Kemper users is more apple's to apple's information. I was waiting to hear if someone jumped in to confirm the lower volume was doable. There is one other small format speaker that looks interesting but you can't find out much about it, even from the dealer, the ISP Vector fs8.
I tend to look at guitar equipment in the same manner I do pa equipment as I plan for an install. Speaker x has a wood cabinet, sound great and is $1200 each. Speaker y is a poly cabinet and is $700 each and sounds really good. On a scale from 1-100 (1 being the lowest quality sound and 100 the best) x is at 100 percent and y is at 70-75 percent, is the cost difference justified for the application. At times it is and others it is not, for me right now I'm probably in the "is not" category.
I may try the headrush 108, if it happened to work for me I believe I would sell of my recently finished Kemper rig and just get the stage, my old body would thank me 😅
Thank you both for the input.
I had a shootout when i bought the Kemper. Strangely enough i found the JBL MRX512M to be way better than any other PA frfr. The shootout included speakers like Headrush, Yamaha dxr12, JBL Eon and others that i don’t recall anymore.
I’ve used at quite loud stage volumes, enough for the rest of a band to hear me.
It seriously was like there was no transition from an oldfashioned guitar cab when i went with the Kemper/MRX512m combi.
I would imagine the horn played a good part in the overall sound because of its dispersion pattern, 70 x 70, a little more even as you move around, unfortunately those are discontinued. I had really good luck with the jbl prx powered series in three of the A/V installations I did a few years back. Paired them with an X32 at each venue and they didn't require much eq to tune them to the rooms, very smooth speakers throughout the eq spectrum. I had my Kemper when I purchased the last set but never had them in my home state, they were drop shipped 750 miles away so no chance to try them.
I have a question for those of you who have used or do use a frfr solution such as a yamaha dxr10, ev zlx12, alto, headrush etc... Will they reproduce the sound well of a profile at pretty low volume?
Here's my dilemma:
Myself like many others desired the amp in the room sound. I bought a kone about a year ago and wasn't quite satisfied with it, changed to an eminence speaker about a month ago and it worked ok but not as varied profile to profile which I expected before purchasing. I loaded the Kone back up last weekend and have spent a couple of days messing with it. I've come to the conclusion my issue with both speakers is volume, I wasn't turning my amp up enough to push them so they were lacking when reproducing sound.
Both preformed better at a decent volume, but my ears are about done in after years of loud music and extremely loud work environments, I can't play very long even though the volume really isn't that loud without pain in my ears and a pretty good headache. This has also caused me to limit my FOH outings after 29 years, I only do acoustic shows anymore and those are becoming less frequent.
I hooked back up to what I was using for four years prior to getting a power amp and Kone, the effect return of a small combo amp, I set the volume where I used to on it and it was much quieter than what I'm using now, I attribute that to a pretty low wattage speaker that doesn't need much power to move, but it doesn't sound near as good though I can play for longer periods of time.
I know going through studio monitors works well but I want something that sounds decent that I can take elsewhere, taking the amp in the room sound out of the equation which was what I was originally trying to achieve returns me to the question above, do those frfr solutions reproduce a good likeness of a profile at lower volumes.
Your thoughts or experiences would be greatly appreciated, I don't want to spend anymore money without seeking some advice first.
I went for the Pedaltrain JR max and fits perfectly. Thanks for the suggestions, everything I need!
I like the small form factor of your Dunlop expression pedal, never been a wah user but would like to use volume and especially morph. Haven't paid much attention to expression pedals to be honest so I'm not up to speed on what's available, do these work well for the above mentioned purposes?
Yeah this is expensive stuff to experiment with!!
I just clicked with the Kabinet straight off the bat. However, I disagree with the cab miking...I never play off the backline, always go through FOH even at very small gigs. I've stuck with this principle because I've had too many comments about unbalanced sound.
Saturday just gone, I didn't even take a backline monitor and relied upon the on stage monitors. Ironically it was the first time the monitors sounded awful but I still knew my out front sound was good to as long as I could hear what I played, I was good.
The two venues I was referring to could probably be considered less than small . They usually have acoustic instruments and vocals only which I do mic up. The couple of oldies bands that play on occasion are vocal mics only, non mic'd bass and guitar amps at low settings are more than adequate and none of these guys have anything that can go direct to the console. Most of them are in their twilight years and been playing for decades, they really aren't open to newer technology. They are nice fellows and I enjoy our conversations when we have time to engage but when I've told them about my Kemper the usual response is "I'm real happy for ya"
Personally I avoided the complication of having a combo in-between ( and its potential colouration). I love my powered rack and Kabinet but also realized it takes time to "like" a sound as well. Sometimes I tell myself it sounds good, I just need to get used to it and then I usually do.
Intended use plays a hugh part too, I will use my rig 99.+% of the time as a combo amp at home. If I ever do take it out to jam with some friends the only places I would likely go are two smaller venues that I have ran sound at occasionally over the last few years, I don't mic guitar cab's up at these venues, no need to, so my participation would be the same as theirs, crank it just enough to blend in with the others which isn't that much.
The new speaker is working well for me, it's pretty flat as far as guitar speakers go which was it's designed purpose, it still colors the sound more than a frfr solution but even they vary one from another. Everything in the signal chain is a potential contributing factor.
I really wanted the Kone to work for me but after 10 months of trying it was time to explore another option. A couple of things may have had an impact on the sound reproduction I was experiencing.
One, putting the Kone in a slightly oversized open back cabinet, I'm sure this didn't translate as intended compared to the closed backed Kabinet design. Two, power source, I would have to borrow another class d power amp from a friend to compare but I suspect that the TC Electronic Bam200 may contribute somewhat to sound coloration, but without a side by side comparison this is pure speculation on my part.
If I would have purchased a powdered Kabinet instead of going the direction I did the results may or may not have have been completely opposite for me, but at this point I'm not willing to invest anymore money just to satisfy my curiosity. Going the direction I did is a trade off I can live with but my desire from the start was to be able to experience a more varied sound palette.🤷♂️
I've at best been the sound guy when no one else turned up, I know what i'm doing but i'm not a pro, or anywhere near close.
I've never done so and not experienced a primadonna musician that wants this and that, complaining that they can't hear themselves or someone else. If i get on stage to hear what they mean, I can always hear what they can't.
At the same time, some guys will make the most basic request and maybe another later in the show, play their arses off with a smile on their face.
I fully understand the desire to have a great mix but some act as if it's a make or break issue.
Most of what I do anymore, at least the last four years, has been with bluegrass bands. These individuals have played for decades but for the most part they are so used to not having adequate equipment at the venues and outdoor events they play at that when I ask each person to do a quick sound check for their vocal and instrument mic the initial reaction by the look on their faces is that I come from another planet
And having monitors on stage seems to be a rarity for them, so they take advantage of the situation and make a couple of requests, a little more guitar or dobro and one or two of the vocals and we are off to the races. It's been a very enjoyable experience for me and I've yet to do a show that I didn't receive a "Hey thanks, tonight was fun" from at least one of the band members.
As far as having the privilege to engage with a bona fide prima donna, that's happened a few times but under the same type of circumstances. One, while doing a few shows in Branson Missouri, two, working with some P&W bands at charity events, three, AV installations I've done in churches. In each instance they share some common denominators, inexperience on stage and little to no knowledge of live sound in general, but in their minds they know everything. So when you can't get enough of their vocal in the FOH mix or monitors and they refuse to believe that holding the SM58 closer to their mouth instead of against their chest 12" away it would make a difference and refuse to try, that's the type of situation I was referring to.
As for me being that same type of jerk it goes back to one instance in particular in 1988, but a short story that led up to the event gives some context. In 1987 at twenty years old the first band I had played in was at an all day battle of the bands in a local club that was a yearly event which had been around about a decade by that time. We were not by any means the best band there, we had only played live a few times before and all of the other bands had been around for years and were much better than us. But a couple of things helped us out, we played older songs and not hair metal which appealed to the audience that particular day and we didn't have our own sound guy, which you were supposed to have, so the owner of the rental company that supplied the sound system was kind enough to run sound for us and that clinched it, we won. The judges told us later that by the end of our first song the overall sound at the venue was about the best they had ever heard there, that was simply one man being intimately familiar with his pa equipment, it made all the difference in the world.
So to 1988, a year under our belts and we had gotten pretty good, enough so that a RCA records rep flew in from California to see a show in Tulsa Oklahoma earlier that year (worst show we ever played by the way). At 21 my head had swelled, I was the jerk that now knew everything. We were set to do the battle of the bands again and this time we hired a local sound engineer who had produced a demo for us at a local studio. At the quick sound check he came to the stage and made one request, would I dial the gain/distortion back on my amp for him and my reply was absolutely not. Some of my friends from other bands let me know after our set that we were good except for one thing, my guitar tone was ear piercingly irritating. I learned a great lesson that day and now I don't dismiss anyone's suggestions or opinions without some consideration first, you never quit acquiring knowledge and nuggets can be acquired from sources you may not have ever considered.
Long and somewhat boring post I know, but just for giggles Google Vance Powell, it was the sound engineer that made the request of me in 1988, I should have listened.....
My rack unit did something similar about a month ago, I just pressed exit to restart as suggested on the screen, on reboot everything has functioned as it should. Full disclosure, I was quite anxious for about a week after it happened
That’s one of the reasons I bought the Kemper in the first place. Although it has plenty of parameters to obsess over, the snapshot nature of profiles means I limit myself to rarely tweaking anything at all. Otherwise, I would disappear down the rabbit hole for weeks at a time and not play nearly enough.
That's the predicament I find myself in all to often, I tend to avoid all the Kemper has to offer on purpose. But I believe I will spend a little more time messing with the effects this fall, I'm bad about using whatever effects the creator of the profile loaded up.
5 years in with the Kemper Profiler and I've found the solution that works best for me. When I first purchased the unit my intent was to connect to a set of EV ZLX12 powered speakers I had at the time that weren't being used but that didn't work for me. I had a small solid state combo amp with a 12" speaker and ran the Kemper into the effects return and ran with it four years. Last May I bought what I felt was needed to build a proper rig for me, up to that point my non powered rack unit just sat on top of the combo amp. So I purchased a matching 112 open back cabinet and 6U rack, Furman power supply, Kone and a class D amp. I put in a lot of time over the last year trying to adapt to this configuration but as with the pa speaker it just didn't work for me.
While using the combo amp my choices with profiles were limited, everything sounded very similar which is to be expected but I did spend a lot of time playing, over the past year I've spent more time adjusting parameters in settings than actual playing time so last week I decided to pursue another avenue. I bought an Eminence EM12, I had considered this speaker before but the Kone presented itself a better option, but alas, as stated above, it just wasn't my cup of tea. The EM12 is not transparent in the signal chain, it is a guitar speaker after all but it is doing a pretty good job of letting each profiles character come through. It's a case of give and take, I may be giving up a percentage of a profiles character but for me I the benefit outweighs the loss.
I spent a few hours dialing in settings initially to accommodate for the newest component in my rig and the result over the weekend was I spent hours just playing, not chasing parameter settings. Not only do the profiles I've tried sound really good they feel good, that equates to big smiles and peace of mind for an older individual with a good case of OCD like myself, OCD and parameter setting choices are not friends lol!
I haven't even started exploring all of the profiles I have collected yet, whether purchased or content existing in Rig Packs folders. I've just used a 68 Mars 50 and 13 LDW from MBritts 2020 pack and one of my all time favorites, the Blackface Bass Dimed from Kempers Legacy Profiles folder. These will probably keep me occupied until fall when I will have free time to wade through profiles and find what I want to load into the Kemper, at the moment it has 8 profiles on it and I would like to keep the total number low, just a few options that can cover a lot of ground. Now time to noodle!
