Posts by SteinbergerHack

Quote from kevinduren

Brief answer is yes, you can assign multiple effects/stomps to any one of the controller buttons. You can also assign effects and stomps to the tuner, tap, and looper buttons.

And there is Morphing.

So thats a possible 12 or so different "scenes" per performance slot times 5 slots....

OK, so how would that work?

Let's say that I need to have 6 FX patches available:

1) A simple light chorus

2) A moderate compressor with a light reverb

3) A slapback delay

4) A heavy compressor with phaser

5) A heavy chorus with heavy longer delay

6) A sharply boosted mid with moderate reverb.

How would I build and access these with the FX buttons and keep them independent of the basic amp profiles?

How flexible are the Kemper FX buttons? I know that the rig buttons are effectively limited to the 5 rigs in the current performance page - BUT - what can be done with the 4 FX buttons? Will they only turn on/off one FX channel per button, or can each one control a complete set with different settings (as well as on/off)? Can this come anywhere close to the flexibility of the FC-12 switching channels and scenes?

Here's the reason for my question:

I'm looking at going [back] to all-digital in the next 60-90 days. I'm already running most shows direct with my head through a loadbox/IR, so digital vs. tubes isn't the issue, and I have plenty of monitoring options.

I have used the Kemper before, but never with the dedicated controller (I used my MIDI controller). I love the way it sounds, but found it VERY limiting due to the 5-rig limit in performance mode.....but I am questioning whether I may have sold it short based on the MIDI approach.

Given the advantages of going all-digital (weight, flexibility, weight, size, weight, etc.), I think I need to re-visit the ways in which the Kemper can operate with the dedicated controller. It still doesn't have enough inputs for all the instruments I use, but I can keep my XR-12 in the rack and continue to use it as my master mix point.

My use (mix of theater and band gigs) often calls for wide swings in sounds in very tight time frames, i.e., country to traditional jazz to metal all within a single "song". My tube-based rig is simple - a controller for the amp that gives me 6 gain levels, and a MIDI board that gives me up to ten totally different FX patches per bank. That means I can access up to 60 different sounds with no more than two presses.

While the KPA can easily recreate all of the sounds, the way I've tried to program it before meant building a whole lot of performance pages for each and every new show.....ugh. Workable, but way too much effort; trying to work around it by changing performance pages is way too slow, and doesn't work within a song. I thought about keeping my rack FX and using the KPA just for the amp section....but If I'm dropping this much coin it needs to result in a far more streamlined gig rig, preferably with a single floor controller.

What say you - can the Kemper let me access a series of radically different FX groups across the 5 rigs without changing pages, or am I looking for something that it really isn't intended to do?

Why not just get a rackmount Kemper?

Quote from Mikeyg00

and thanks for the welcome!

I've been a fractal user forever, and finally found a Stage locally. I was sold in about 5 minutes.

What was the difference that got you to switch?

Still available?

Quote from Wheresthedug

personal taste applies everywhere Dan ?

whatever, sounds good to the person playing is good. For me I’ve spent 35 years gigging and being frustrated by having to use guitar cabs on stage. Getting the Kemper and some IEM was a revelation that finally freed me from that and allowed me to hear myself on stage and also sound more like the studio sound I like. However, I understand I am a bit of a weird fish and in the minority in that respect.

I don't see that as "weird" at all. I agree 100% - using a really good monitor on stage or in studio allows you to get the benefit of the cabinet profiles rather than just getting the pre-amp profile from the Kemper.

Simply put, if you play the Kemper through a nice 4x12 cabinet, every profile you select will still sound like that 4x12. If you play through a monitor, it will sound like whatever cabinet was used when the profile was made. This gives you a MUCH wider range of possible sounds.

Where is it located? How old? Any photos?

The cabinet or IR is a big part of the total sound, so as long as you are running into a 4x12, it's going to sound like a head running into that 4x12.

To really hear the range of sounds available from the KPA, get a powered monitor cabinet (PA-style) and use that instead. By putting the cab sim back into the loop, you'll hear the difference between the 4x12 and, say, an open-back 1x12 combo. This changes the overall character of the sound more than you might expect.

Get the best powered PA monitor cabinet you can afford. This will be the closest you can get to what the FOH PA system will sound like,

How do you have the Noise Gate set? I have found that the profiles with high gain characteristics often have a lot of noise due to the compression effect of high preamp gain setting, just like the real amps do. The Noise Gate solved this for me. Good luck!

Quote from DaleOz

Yes - SteinbergerHack... That's my situation too.

I am reading Guitar 1 off Mamma Mia in a theatre pit with no amps and monitoring is IEM... (so no cab, no FRFR)

I am looking for something that gives me "take off" to send me a harmonic feedback an octave higher than a sustained note

Typical theater pit work - we closed a local production of We Will Rock You last night.

If it's pointed right at you, you will go deaf long before you blow that speaker.

It would be very nice if the Kemper had a way to use the Rig Manager software with a wireless tablet / iPad. This would be similar to how most mixing consoles operate today, allowing us to go out into the house to hear what the audience is hearing while adjusting the rig.

+1

I needed this over the past weekend - stage volume requirement was too low to get proper feedback, even though the score called for it.

I saw a used Stage at my local GC, priced at $1699.99. I asked the guy why it was priced so high, and he was completely clueless that the new ones are $1700. I thought it was ridiculous pricing, but if they are on a long back-order, they might be able to sell it.

With powered monitors, you generally get what you pay for. Both the QSC and Yamaha are good options in their price range,

I use the DXR12s and am very satisfied with them, with the only issue being that they are just a bit heavy on the low mids (~1-2 dB). Using the "floor monitor" DSP setting gets them very close to being a true flat response, which will allow you to run the same exact feed to your monitor as you run to FOH.

Resist the temptation to go cheaper. The few extra $$$ you spend on the monitor cabinet(s) goes a long way.

Look like the song was written by Richard Marx, and Lee Ritenour was credited as a performer on that album...but that doesn't sound like him at all.

The backing band for that particular track sounds a lot like the guys who worked with Marx on his first two albums - maybe Michael Landau or Bruce Gaitsch.....hope this helps.

Quote from guitarguy316

So it sounds like crank the volume on the speaker and use the kpa to adjust volume?

No, the opposite. You want as much signal from the KPA as you can get without overloading the speaker input, in order to keep the noise level down.

Quote from Burkhard

If you edit a Performance on the front panel of the PROFILER, these edits are just temporary until you store the Performance. This also applies to selecting another Rig from the browse pool via BROWSE knob. If you leave the Performance without storing, these edits are lost.

If you modify a Performance in Rig Manager, changes take immediate effect. This also applies,, if you drag & drop another Rig into one of the Slots.

I cannot reproduce any exceptions from these rules under OS 7.1.19 and RM 3.0.99 beta.

I found this to be very counter-intuitive, and lost a number of hours' work when trying to set up a loaned KPA for a one-off gig. After having set everything up in performances while attached to my laptop (Win8), fighting through software crashes and lock-ups about every 15-20 minutes, I unplugged and all seemed OK. When I plugged in my MIDI controller at rehearsal everything I had done vanished. Very embarrassing, and not easy to recover from.

I love the way the Kemper sounds and feels, and I am tempted to purchase and make it my gig rig. The UI and software is giving me all sorts of problems, though.....and it has me on the fence. I get that some of it is a matter of not doing it the way the KPA wants me to do it, but should it really be this difficult?

Quote from Calaban

I would have purchased a Stage or Remote if they had one included.

I found another solution with a built in pedal. Works great.

Yeah, that's pushing me in the direction of a rack Kemper and a non-Kemper floor controller. The Remote is a bit of overkill in total controls and lacking a couple of key pieces from my perspective, and I really want a single-piece solution.

The combination of simplicity and completeness should be the goal of any user interface, right?