Axe-Fx User Considering Kemper Powerhead - Convince Me (seriously)

First off, I have never owned or even played through the AxeFX unit, but my main concern was getting something that feels like a real tube amp. I was pleasantly surprised by the KPA in that area, and the sounds are great as you already know. KPA interface is extremely easy to modify and adjust on the fly so two thumbs up in that area.

The Kemper is very easy to adjust on the fly. That's one of the things I really love about it, as I often do very improvised gigs. It's also one of the reasons I chose the lunchbox over the rack; because of the leds around the bottom knobs. I owned the Axe II for more than a year and really missed the immediate parameter access on live gigs.

I preferred a non-powered unit myself, as I felt the added $ was a bit much, and I like having a stereo setup at times!

I own both. I prefer the tones of the Kemper for all genres, but I also love what the AXE does. I also think the Kemper community offerings, both commercial and free, are superior to the AXE community(this may be a product of Cliff's endless FW updates though).
I would be surprised if you need to tweak the Kemper THAT much. With so many profiles (4000+ or so), surely every conceivable tone is covered several times over. The Kemper can hold 1000 profiles, so you could pre-load your performance without any worries. Still, if you must tweak in a live situation, the Kemper is very easy and intuitive. The knobs/interface are much more amp-like than that of the AXE. NO MORE TWEAK FESTS!

Many key sound parameters are immediately accessible from the front panel at all times. And, with all the available knobs and buttons, the graphic interface is not many layers deep.

You can replace a rig with an edited version with two button pushes, or, if you want to save a copy with a new date stamp, that also can be done with two button pushes.

Just by owning and dialing in an AXE, you have already overcome some hurdles that many people coming from tubes deal with so we can eliminate that right off the bat. To be honest, the main arguments of AXE being better boil down to number of effects. With the way CK and crew have been adding and refining the ones in the Kemper that will eventually change as well. You will have a hard time finding anyone owning a Kemper that will say they are hard to figure out or dial in with the layout that is present. (We are still awaiting an official edditror, but for live use, this is a non issue anyway) Another big plus is that with firmware revisions, your tones are still the same, so you can rest easy that your hard work dialing in a tone will still be there when you need it.

The only two things I can see being a big debate here a powered head and cab vs non powered and FRFR due to some of the amp tone being in the cab sim. You can make either work but if loosing weight is a plus for you then it might be worth it to test drive some FRFR. Then again if you already have your AXE dialed in for your cabinet, then it may be easier and more convenient to get the powered Kemper so they can share the same speakers since your AXE is dialed into the cabinet already.

So really it is not an issue of if a Kemper is going to work, it is an issue of how you want the Kemper to function and work with your other gear.

You know what you need!!
You know how to get the sound you want!.
You know the Kemper will do it for you!.
your definitely trolling

Now go buy one!

I haven't owned or tried an Axe FX 2 yet but I had an Axe FX Standard (got it very very cheap and wanted to try out and compare) for about 3 weeks and compared it against the Kemper. Apart from the fact that I liked the Kemper better soundwise and as far as feeling is concerned I can tell you that using the Kemper is so much easier than tweaking the Axe.
I got my Kemper 3 hours before rehearsal, quickly browsed the rigs, took the very first rig I liked, did some EQ and was done. Rehearsel went very good and it already fealt good, not quite where I wanted it but it was very good. Now after some weeks with the Kemper I think I haven't spent more than a day alltogether tweaking and creating my rigs. The rest of the time I went trying out some rigs but for most of the time I was just noodling around, praticing and writing some new material. I haven't played guitar at home that much for years.
Compared to the Axe which I got 1 week earlier than the Kemper I spent hours and hours tweaking and trying to find the sound that felt right. Although I was using the editor software I felt so complicated that I didn't enjoy it at all. To many parameters I didn't know what they did and just to many optiones and virtual knobs to adjust.
Once you unterstood the concept and the way the Kemper is organized it is a lot easier to use it even without an editor on you computer. I've been through various digital modelling gear like some Pods, the good old J-Station etc. but the Kemper is different. I currently have about 700 rigs but I don't feel like I'm overwhelmed by the possibilities. It feels more like I have a big shelf with 700 (variations of) amps that I can browse through and every rig will sound good without big tweaking. I almost never touch any of the advanced parameters. Some basic EQ and usually thats it. So it basically feels like taking a real amp of the shelf and doing the adjustments you would usually do with it.

Welcome, smokinhalfmnote!
I'd say: Convince yourself!
Play one, tweak one!
You'll be convinced for sure!

I use the Kemper to record bands .... I don't use the Axe FX to record bands.

QED.

@ TKustom:
I felt the same as you write, even with the Axe FxII. I think the Axe FxII is not really more "real sounding" than the Standart. Of course,you can use more FX and virtuall Amps, but it´s not really a plus in sound. I play in a Band with 13 musicans and I´m the only guitar player! Its hard to push through the other band members. Now with the Kemper it´s really easy, much more easily than thought!
But that's just my experience

Smokin, congratulations, I don't think you'll be dissapointed. Been, gigging with mine for over a year and have never regretted it once.

I own a ultra/II and the kemper lunch box (non powered)
The kemper IMO beats both the former hands down tone wise.
Another thing not mentioned is not only is it quieter (hum/hiss distortion wise) ...there is no fan!
Might not sound like much but it makes a huge difference in a studio enviroment.

You can profile your old patches (which is what I did) and the front EQ controls are very musical.
There is not one advanced parameter I miss in any shape or form.....

Man it is hard to hold back buying the Rack KPA......(dead dogs..dead dogs..dead dogs (Ron Jeremy technic))
But I promised myself to wait after the KPA footcontroller hits the market. But beeing shortly Ractal free would also be a blessing.

So please hurry with the footcontoller CK

Quote from DADA

Man it is hard to hold back buying the Rack KPA......(dead dogs..dead dogs..dead dogs (Ron Jeremy technic))
But I promised myself to wait after the KPA footcontroller hits the market. But beeing shortly Ractal free would also be a blessing.

So please hurry with the footcontoller CK

Don't get on his nerves
I'm sure, they'll try there best to finish it soon.
But it's but better to get a 1000% working footcontroller than a bad one, 1 month earlier...

Bought an AxeFX Ultra - sold it
Bought an AxeFX II - sold it
Bought an KPA - still here

Quote from gui7arhero

Don't get on his nerves
I'm sure, they'll try there best to finish it soon.
But it's but better to get a 1000% working footcontroller than a bad one, 1 month earlier...

I don't think CK will start stressing of a small "Ractal Chucklehead" post. Indeed better a good build/working foot controller if that takes some more time. And please take some extra time for an 7-pin MIDI phantom power connector .... Plzzz.

I do not know if this was published already but I find this also very interesting:

Dino from Fear Factory:
Dino uses the Kem­per Pro­fil­ing Amp. “They have new ones out. It’s rack mount­able and it has a dig­i­tal power amp in it. A 600 watt dig­i­tal power amp. But the beauty of the thing is you’re able to cap­ture sounds. If you have a Mar­shall head, a Diezel, a 5150, an EVH what­ever, and you like that tone but you don’t want to bring that head with you, you can record it and cap­ture that tone that you like and put it into your Kem­per.” Some play­ers have even gone so far as to use the Kem­per to pro­file sounds they’ve cre­ated on their AxeFX, a sim­i­larly flex­i­ble device. “Of course! Do you really want me to get into that too?” Dino laughs. “I can get into that! Every­thing that I have, I’m in the process of dump­ing every­thing into the Kem­per. Let’s say you add more than a thou­sand amps or dif­fer­ent tones of amps in your Kem­per: you can store it on a USB stick. You can trade it with any­body with a USB stick! It’s amaz­ing! But the beauty of it is that you can cre­ate your own tone. Not a tone that some­body else already cre­ated for you that you can just tweak a lit­tle bit dif­fer­ent, no. This is where you can cre­ate your own tone and record it into the Kem­per. All the patches I had on my AxeFX: in the Kem­per. All my patches that I’ve had on other stuff like the AxeFX: in the Kem­per. Other heads that I have: in the Kem­per. And now I just travel with a Kem­per and it’s much more cost-effective, it’s eas­ier to travel around the world, and your tone is there!”

Would love to know from Dino what he use for poweramp and cabinet/drivers.

DINNNOOO ARE YOU HERE?????

Hey Dada, would you supply a link to the above? Thsnks!