Posts by GCNC8068

Sire L7. Plays very well, satin finished neck, rolled edges, locking tuners. How they do this for $700 delivered is a mystery. Love this guitar. Added a little bling to it (2nd photo)

it does make sense -- and I agree the mix should be the easy part, but rarely is. At least 50-60% of live bands I hear (including major touring acts) have a mix that is far out of balance. One or more instruments or vocals is either much too loud or much too soft. In small club settings, when the band is mixing itself, I agree that often whoever is adjusting the faders will tend to favor what they like (keys, guitar, etc.) without considering the overall mix. I've often wanted to go the sound board and ask the engineer, "can you not hear that the backing vocals are missing" or "do you really want the bass and kick that loud?"

Eq'ing, for me, is waaayyyy more subtle. The sonic space is more a function of what instruments you have, making sure they all have their space (i.e., the keys and guitars should not all be playing in the same register), and learning to have folks not play during certain parts of songs (to create space and dynamics).

For live sound, the Eq is more of an accommodation to the room ... every room is different, has different reflections, different resonant frequencies, etc. This is really where eq'ing improves the overall sound.

I'm always amazed when someone uses a 50w or 100w tube amp, that never gets anywhere close to tube overdrive, and then puts a TubeScreamer in front of it and remarks how great the amp is in overdrive. All you're hearing is the solid state TubeScreamer. If you can't push your tube amp to power tube overdrive - which means cranking the overall volume -- you aren't really getting the tone from the amp. For 99% of players, cranking any tube amp over about 20w doesn't happen because the volume is way too much.

So, my love of Kemper is being able to have that output tube drive recreated at any volume. I have some amazing tube amps, but to get them to their sweet spot I need another arsenal of attenuators and re-amping devices.

I also like the prior comment about not spending a lot of time tweaking a rig -- if it doesn't "speak to me" on first listen I move on. Kemper can be a black hole of tweaking into which you never emerge. I play live and don't record, so I just need a small handful of great rigs that work, without hours of futzing with the settings.

for me, a great sound guy is like another musician in the band. But like many, we too mostly have to mix ourselves (no sound guy). I think the biggest issue in FOH mix is not eq'ing, but mixing the volumes of the various instruments and singers. Eq'ing and effects will enhance a singer or instrument, but won't make a bad input (voice or instrument) sound good. BUT, getting the overall mix right (balancing drums, bass, guitars, keys, singers) is huge to the audience experience. We've all heard bands where the bass or the guitar overpowers everything, or the vocals (main or harmony) are too low.

Getting the mix right is, to me, 90% of the FOH quality. All other adjustments just "enhance" a good mix.

our 4-piece has been using Mackie SRM450's for a long time. We have guitar, keys, e-drums, bass, and 4 vocals. Great sound. We also use Mackie SRS1500 powered subs. We also use a Mackie ProFX16 board. We love Mackie -- great sound, built like a tank, great support.

I've used a Fryette Powerstation until very recently. I had one so it was easy to put in the rack and it's a killer piece of gear.

But ... it's heavy. And lugging my rack with the Kemper, the Furman power conditioner, and the PowerStation was too much. So i bought this: Monoprice Class D Power Amp

Inexpensive, Class D, 300 watts bridged. More than enough to run my FRFR monitor. And very light in the rack

Quote from kpahuitsing

please try to use decent/high quality USB cables / adaptors.

The updated USB communication is running at a higher speed than before, that is why the quality of the physical USB connection (cable/adaptor/hub) itself has become more critical than before.

with the RM and Profiler connection being sensitive to what USB cable and adapters are used, and given that many new computers (Mac's) no longer have USB-A outputs but rely on USB-C, so an adapter is necessary, it would be great if Kemper could list the USB cables and hubs/adapters that it recommends. Much like was done with POE injectors.

It is hard to objectively determine what a "decent/high quality USB cable and adapter" would be from most advertisements.

I'm using a USB-C hub on my 2020 MacBook Air M1 and connect my Profiler Rack (to use Rig Manager) and my Mackie ProFX 16 to the MacBook for audio. Generally no problems -- occasionally RM won't see the Profiler, but just unplugging and re-plugging solves that.

this is the hub i bought - USB-C Hub

Wow -- lot's of interesting opinions on Kemper's news.

For me, the Kemper's value proposition (for me) is being able to have and control multiple amps and effects from one box, with one relatively modest pedalboard. I don't record (other than band demos for gigs), so everything else the Kemper can do is amazing but is in the basket of "I don't need that." This is a device that replaces the multiple amps I used to have to lug to gigs, have switchers for, and a huge pedalboard to go with it.

If liquid profiling actually means, as some as said, that I can use one '69 Plexi profile and reach over and tweak the knobs and get essentially the same result I'd get from the "real" amp, then this would be a HUGE game changer. As other have said, no more having to have 10 profiles of the same '69 Plexi to get different basic tones.

I've thought for some time that the Kemper user universe could be somewhat divided by those who use the Kemper as a recording device (which I sort of feel like was its design purpose) and those who use it as a live performance instrument designed to replace a backline of multiple amps. The current Kemper can be tweaked in a million ways ... but those tweaks we now use to improve or change a profile are many menu's deep, not really intuitive (without dozens if not hundreds of hours of tweaking and testing - I know others will disagree with that observation), and are not tweaks one makes from the stage.

It would be tremendous if the liquid profiles results in a more intuitive, "amp like" interface and response, which I realize appeals more to live performance users perhaps than recording gurus. I've thought that if there were ever a "new" Kemper it would be great to have one for tailored to the live use audience.

so, under "Kemper For Dummies," liquid profiling means (among other things) that the tone controls on a "liquid profile" of a '69 Plexi will behave as the tone controls would on the actual amp (within reason)? Same with gain? Will gain affect just preamp tube saturation? What about power tube saturation?

this sounds awesome but not sure I'm following it completely.

there is great advice above ... the "complaint" many have about Kemper and all the modeling/profiling amps is that there are too many options and you get sucked down the rabbit hole of endless tweaking and trying different amps. That palette of tone is also the biggest benefit.

For live work, however, you just have to focus on core tones. I love having the Kemper live, where I use maybe 4-5 different amp rigs, because our band covers a very wide range of music. I've never had the "luxury" of being in a band where I could just have one tone (a marshall, or a vox, or whatever). We go from Steely Dan to Deep Purple to Steve Miller. I'd have to have 3 amps on stage and a massive pedalboard to cover the tones needed (which is what I used to do before the Kemper).

Now I have one performance for strats (containing 3 different rigs), one for 'buckers (containing 2 rigs), one for acoustic, and then a couple miscellaneous performances that contain favorite Marshalls, Fenders, and Dr. Z's that I use on a whim if I feel like it. It took months of testing out different things to finalize this, but it started literally with me sitting down and making a list of the minimum amps I wanted, and the effects I needed. Then programmed them in and tweaked settings, determining when I could lock some effects in for the entire performance slot, and then tweaking rig volumes for balance.

Sometimes it feels like I'm leaving a lot on the table given I probably have 2,000 profiles in Rig Manager -- but most of those are really of no use to me (metal, heavy reverb delay) especially in a live (i.e., not recording) setting, and the ones that are useful are likely not very different from the few I've settled on. It's the "fear of missing out" that makes us want to load 100 amps.

ok - your earlier post indicated you could use a USB hub if it's active (powered). My passive hub works as well as a direct USB C to B adapter from the laptop, in that both work but the connection is still a bit finicky. I think the Profiler just doesn't like to have any adapter or hub between it and the laptop -- which is tough when many laptops no longer have USB-A ports.

wondered how this turned out, and if it was the board input/gain causing the issue?

why would the Profiler need a powered USB connection from a laptop? A USB stick isn't powered and its works fine. And RM will update the Profiler using a passive hub, it's just not 100% reliable.

my personal observation is that the RM to Profiler USB connection is pretty finicky. This is especially troublesome when a lot of laptops no longer provide USB-A ports and only USB-C ports (so you end up using a hub or other connector/adapter). RM/Profiler does not seem to care much for hubs and adapters in my experience.

Quote from Dynochrome

There's a company that makes a complete set of "remote" ins and outs for the rear of a rack that plugs into the Kemper. I can't remember where but I saw it when I was looking for something like one of those Thom racks.

I got my Kemper panel from BTPA (BTPA Panel). you tell them what connections you want, they fabricate the panel with all connections. You just mount it in the 19" rack and connect to your kemper and you're done. Excellent work by these folks.

yikes -- $325 for a piece of plastic? I applaud the ingenuity and engineering, but Jeez!

i put a Warmouth neck on one of my strats, it was "roasted maple" and unfinished. I added Tru-Oil and it's my favorite neck. Going to be sanding down my ASAT neck and using Tru-Oil on that. For me, it's a stellar improvement. I have several other guitars with lacquer and satin finishes, and they play well, but the sanded/Tru-Oil necks are really something.

I saw Ray Charles and his 15 piece band in a 500 seat club in San Diego back in the late '80's. About 20 minutes or so into the set they lost the PA. The techs were running around like crazy working on a fix.

Ray, cool as a cucumber, just turned up his monitor amp on his Rhodes, and played and sang without a mic. Just him -- the band would have overpowered him if they had played. He did 3 songs, brilliantly, and the PA came back online. It was a gift for the crowd ... seeing and hearing him like it was an early gig in the '50's. Master showman, and I felt like I got waaayyy more than my money's worth.

what is "QC?"