Best amp/speaker combo for the original Kemper?

Hey guitz,

it will be enough to send the Roland the Monitor Output with cabs set to off.

And yes, of course expect the monitors and the Cube to sound quite differently. Usually this setup is used in two ways:

• keep both the monitors and the amp active at the same time, to enforce the sound (or to create a W\D\W setup);
• send the Main Out to FOH and use the amp for personal monitoring.

As you see, none of the above makes the difference between amp and monitors critical. In the latter case, the player basically disregards the sound audience is hearing, leaving it to the sound guy.
OTOH, if you want to play the same patches through the monitors or the amp, you'll end up liking one of the two better, since they will never sound the same, but for a lucky chance X)

A good option (maybe for the future) would be to use a cab which works well as studio monitor and as main monitor for the Profiler, such as the AA CLR. A couple is a bit expensive tho... but the rumours are Mr. Mitchell and AA are working on a studio monitor à la CLR...
There are much cheaper options for the Profiler to sound great and more like an amp, such as the yamaha DXR. But I'd not use them as studio monitors

Overall, it's a choice between guitar speakers or full range, like you'd find in PA or a stage monitor.

Full range is probably the best option for you, since you have the flexibility of using all the cabinets in your KPA. After that, it really depends on how much you're willing to spend. I have a Xitone wedge that sounds really good, and close enough to my desk monitors that I can fix them up with some EQ in the DAW - you'd probably want the powered version, or you can buy a separate power amp to run the passive one. If price isn't an issue, the Atomic CLR and Matrix monitors are probably the most popular choices for this kind of setup. If money's an issue, I've heard that the Behringer Eurolive and Alto TS112A are decent choices.

As for a guitar cab, I haven't spent much time running my Kemper through one, but I'm pretty sure you'd have to spend a fair amount of time tweaking. The best case, in my opinion, would be if all of the rigs you're using are running the same cabinet in the KPA when you record, at which point you might be okay with tweaking the Kemper's output EQ and leaving it.

This is my thinking exactly. While there is no doubt to the great sound for a quality FRFR and the fact that you get the full advantage of the speaker cab that was profiled with the amp, I haven't been able get around without using some type of cab on stage or when I am playing around at home. I like the sound of that. The cab does colour the sound. I just sold my custom Mesa 2x12 and am now using a custom Bogner 4x12 UberKab that I picked up for an awesome price. It is absolutely bad a** sounding with the profiles I have on my unit!

If I need to get the full emulation, I can run it through my studio monitors. I'll still look at the good FRFR setup but I'm going to wait it out to see what else come to the market in the next year. Since I have a powered rack, I have quite a few options I can consider.

Quote from guitz

Here's the situation...The Kemper amp is great for recording. Gets exactly what you need for any track. What I'm finding however, is that for the MANY times in my home studio when I'm writing/noodling/jamming, I find that the sound thru a pair of excellent studio monitors that I have just doesn't give me the 'real amp' push of air and sound that you get plugging into a traditional guitar amp....so, with all the many output options on the Kemper, I'm thinking I can keep the L/R output pair I currently have hooked up to my DAW , and then use a 2nd output into some kind of amp/speaker combo or all in one.......so, does anyone have any suggestions? I hate to say this, but I find myself using my tiny Roland Micro-Cube more than the Kemper for general jamming because it gives you that traditional push of air and tone that you can only get from a guitar amp/speaker combination, as opposed to the super hi-fi sound of studio monitors, albeit a tiny sound due to the small speaker.....Anyone have any suggestions? I don't need massive volume obviously....

Another question, assuming I find a guitar amp/speaker combo that works well for the above scenario, would you have to drastically alter your patches/rigs, etc to sound 'right' with a real amp/speaker combo, since the Kemper already has the cabinet simulation settings?

If you like what you hear from the micro cube, then you can use it as monitor for the KPA, connecting the output of KPA to the AUX input to the back side of the micro cube.
Consider that the speaker of micro cube isn't a traditional guitar speaker but a full range speaker, therefore the cab sim of KPA must be on.