Posts by ToneDeaf

While I love these guys who make these tube amps for their skill and artistry, I think they are just on the wrong side of a technological wave.

A few days ago I posted about trying actually a Friedman in a store. Beautiful amp, I would never buy it. Heavy, and did not sound good quiet. (And mind you used it costs 1.5 times the price of a new Kemper.)

The next generation - like my 12 year old - would never consider one of those pitted against a Kemper. This is the generation who grows up with heavily optimized computer (and phone) apps surrounding them 24x7. They will choose convenience (weight, workflow, ability to play quiet or loud, etc) over history and a perceived 1% tonal difference.

I totally acknowledge that we would not have a Kemper/Axe FX/etc if it wasn't for people like Friedman. However he definitely sounds a bit like Lars sounded when he complained about people stealing Metallica's music with Napster. Look what happened, the entire music distribution industry changed and whomever did not adapt is gone by now.

Can only echo what the other said.

No need to mic the cab, just go straight to the PA - after making sure you sound as awesome through it as you can.

I have the Eureka chip for the FCB, I think its display is just not that great for the tuner functionality. It works just not that great. So I would recommend you keep the Boss pedal.

Disclaimer : Don't listen to me, if it does not sound like a square wave or someone hitting a steel rope with a lead pipe, I probably won't like it.

The profiles 'Hey Jim' and 'Wooly Coats Spanky MK2' are both great and to my ears are clean profiles.

(Hey Jim is a factory rig, the Wooly is up on the Rig Exchange.)

Beautiful. Bonus points for the headstock.

Also, I think I am developing a love-hate relationship with Floyd Rose. Right now we are in the hate phase so props to you for handling that situation

That would be great to have the full list.

So much faster to search on a computer than with the browse knob.

On a similar note, if I told you guys how many times I looked up on the computer the same Roland synth full patch list, you'd laugh

End of May? That's like forever more waiting....

for the Sweetwater timing.

The Rig Manager does make things much easier. Search, sorting, etc, all really fast.

Also, marking the rigs you like Favorites also speeds things up. Then you just have to select to Browse from Favorites and things get simpler - at least for a while, until you have a hundred favorites

Quote from MikeKatanaFX7

Can this thing like auto-enable effects on and off during parts of a song if I’m playing to a click?

Like V8guitar said, with MIDI yes. It makes the setup a bit more convoluted as you have to have something that will sync your clicks and send MIDI to the Kemper but if you don't mind having for example an extra laptop, it works.

Also, if you have the Remote or another MIDI foot controller, you can do this yourself naturally live.

Quote from V8guitar

I think we underestimate the level of change that the KPA ( and Helix/fractal etc) have on the way we think about our amps now

Absolutely.

And I think it is most shocking in the next generation. My 12 year old does not really hold tube amps in reverence like I do. On our way home in the car he just said casually "I did not like the Friedman that much, I think the Kemper sounds better." For him now, having a super high gain tone (like the Corpse) at low volume is the norm.

LuxuryLee Welcome to the board! I'll try to answer the ones I have some faint clue about

1) I don't remember the actual workflow but I am positive that you can save as any profile once you tweak it as I have done this before. If I remember correctly the "Store" has a rename option.

3) There are guys in here who use MOTU interfaces. I can only tell you that using analog works perfectly fine and sounds perfect in the DAW. As a matter of fact, it may even be simpler to use as you don't have to worry about clock masters and such things.

Quote from MikeKatanaFX7

Looking forward to seeing what this thing can do.

We had ours for ~9 months or so and it still keeps amazing me. Just today, we wanted to play Message in a Bottle and the tabs (actually Guitar Pro files) we had, had a capo on 2 for my son who plays the guitar.

Also the tab was written in a way that the capo was already "calculated in" so 3 really was 5. I did not want to spend time transposing in Guitar Pro or finding another tab so I just hit the MOD slot and did a transpose effect for +2. Worked like a charm, perfectly in tune, no lag, and we could play the song. (I play bass through a simple DI box, I wish we had 2 Kempers so I can sound as good as my son. )

Again, this is a trivial thing on the Kemper but the workflow is just as amazing with this box as the sound it produces.

My only advise would be - and I said it before - don't forget to eat and drink once you receive it!

I have an (unpowered) toaster because I also loved the look.

If you are going to haul the gear around with other rack mounted stuff, you probably are better off getting the rack one.

Other than the looks, you won't lose much, I believe the rack does not have the MOD knobs that frankly I have not once touched on our toaster.

Also all but the gain knob on the bottom don't have LED lights on the rack. Thinking about it, the only one where I look to check the setting is the gain so I would say that's not a big loss either.

Are these issues with the new release 5.7.2.14219?

Cool project.

For the Kemper part, is there a way you could post the profile names and some audio so we can hear what you're hearing? Even setting the latency issues aside, my son and I play 80s stuff all the time (mostly high gain stuff) and the Kemper has some fantastic profiles for 80s music. Also we seem to get great sustain on harmonics so maybe some settings need to be tweaked.

I am sure the more experienced Kemperites would have ideas who to do these tweaks if they could hear what you are hearing.

Check this one out, you will likely need a cable that they show in the video to hook the mp3 player up but it's all supported:

We had some time today to "waste" so Jr and I went to a local music store.

Jr played the most expensive setup of his life - a $2K+ telecaster on a used Friedman that was selling for $2.8K. The two observations he made (he is 12 years old btw).

1) The $400 Mexican Fender Cyclone he also tried felt and sounded better than the expensive Telecaster. And it wasn't just him thinking that, as he started playing Seek and Destroy, other dudes came by the check him and the guitar out.

2) (This is the real killer) Naturally I could not dime that Friedman in a store. And with that nice Marshall 4x12 it was hooked up to, it did NOT sound nearly as good as our Kemper sounds (here) at home.

Obviously I know this, I can play the Kemper at low volumes and still sound good. What was surprising is how much we got used to this. And while I am positive that the Friedman would have obliterated half the town with amazing sound if I could crank that thing, it was really sub-par at that 2-3 that we had to have it. (Just for scientific purposes, the Friedman only went to 10, not 11 so it was probably not the loudest one )

The strange thing is, if we had that beautiful Friedman at home, we still would NOT be able to basically ever enjoy its tone.

I have to say - big props to Kemper - when you just have to have that physical pedal, they actually make it easy. We have three actual pedals hooked up to ours. One is a Frequout, right after the Polytune and before the Kemper input. (I know the Kemper has a tuner but that Polytune is just impossible to beat with the speed and visuals - don't hate on me )

The other one is a Mimiq in the X slot as an external stereo pedal. And they both work perfectly and the stereo external effects wiring is also both supported and very simple with the Kemper.

So I know you probably don't want to hear this but having actual pedals running with the Kemper is totally cool and works just fine.

The flip-side is that (of course) our boost pedals are all gathering dust (even the ones I myself made) because we just use profiles with the right amount of gain "built in".

Quote from nakedzen

Perfect test track for your studio monitors and subwoofer

Whoa, this bird is boss. As a bonus 'Ruffed Grouse' is a great band name!

I will try the same test with the FCB and our (only) Kemper. This is naturally not the same test but if it also takes ~0.5 seconds to switch from performance to performance when an actual MIDI command is received that could indicate that it has nothing to do with the remote, just the time it takes to react to the command.

There is only one thing to keep in mind, do NOT turn on the power amp with no load attached to it.

So basically plug in the speakers (or just one if you feel like for start) and you will be fine. With just one 16 Ohm speaker the max power will be 300W. (Needless to say, use speaker cables, NOT instrument cables for the cabs.)

Also, I would recommend starting at a low volume (not so much for protecting the gear but your ears).

(Solid state amps are much more tolerant of not having a load compared to tubes but in general I think it is a good rule to NEVER turn on a power amp without some sort of load / speaker attached.)