Preliminary review from a new Kemper user ;)

    I'll start off by saying that I worked over the Kemper profiling rack last night after work until into today before I finally went to sleep.


    The overall impression is outstanding. I haven't played guitar for 8 straight hours since I was a kid ;) The bad news is that my fingers are sore, the good news is that the Kemper sounded so good that I got up this morning and just played through the pain.


    Enough gushing on about the product in general and on to specifics.


    I am a fender user. I have two American Strats. One with Fralin pickups, and the other with Kinman pickups. I have been playing covers in my band using a VHT Pittbull 50ST for the last 10 years or so. I play rhythm guitar and am the lead singer. I am an engineer for my day job and work extensively with hardware, firmware, software, and internet technology.


    The MAIN purpose of getting the kemper was so I could quit hauling around my heavy (but outstanding sounding) tube amp rig. I have recently upgraded our PA to all powered speakers, and an X32 Rack mixer. This is the final piece of gear I needed in order to optimize my load in/ load out size, weight and time.


    After hearing all the glowing reviews (it is actually hard to find a bad one), I was convinced that the Kemper was the right choice.


    Navigation


    Well... not how I would have done it, but it gets by. The sorting is fine (alpha, gain, author, etc), but there really isn't any easy way to move through it fast (book marks, bof, eof, etc). Usage might also be a nice way to sort (metal, blues, classic rock, modern rock, ska, etc). Sub classifications to get you quickly to the group of amps you are interested in would be great. I feel this is the weakest part of the product at this time.


    Controls


    Better ;) For the most part, I was able to figure out how to get around without looking up information (which is how a good UI should be). Some of the "press and hold" functionality is hard to find. What would make things better would have been a cross-tab of all the fixed button controls (not soft keys), and their usage when pressed, and when held (if applicable).


    The quality of the knobs are very good and have a great solid feel. The unit in general feels like it is built like a tank.


    Sound


    All I have managed to do in my 8-10 hours with the Kemper is to run through the ~500 preloaded profiles and mark the ones I liked in favorites for a final review (which will have to be done on my full PA rig since for me, that is all that matters). I won't go on and on about it, but it sounds like a good tube amp in every way .... and feel. It feels like a tube amp.


    I still have LOTs to do:


    • Review my "favorites" and pick out 2 or 3 cleans, 2 or 3 soft break up, 2 or 3 classic rock crunch, 2 or 3 high gains
    • Create performance settings with volume leveled patches
    • Upgrade my FCB1010 to the UNO4KEMPER chip and integrate it into my rig
    • Bring my X32 Rack home and play along with some of our previous multi-track recordings to put the fit and finish on my patches as well as possible while away from the FOH rig
    • Evaluate and tweak the patches on the full FOH rig.


    This is why I haven't changed rigs in around 15 years. I know how long it takes to get things right. With the Kemper, I am positive that "Right" is attainable. Maybe even "perfect" ;)

    Check out the newly adjusted CAB parameters (low, high shift) of 2.4.0's release. Really cool sound carving.


    I too primarily used my Strat, Tele and MM Axis Sport and recently upon getting a LP Trad Plus I am finding distortions and clean profiles entirely different that I love for that guitar.


    Every new guitar opens up the Kemper to a new world of possibilities. The options are pretty near infinite for me. 10 guitars, 8,000 profiles, 500 amps, at this point it's just grab one, pick something that sounds good, and go with the flow.


    So far: Never a Bad Day with Your KPA!


    Registerred Trademark, Kemper Team, ha ha

    Thanks guys.

    Quote from londonjeepster


    Nice post welcome.and yes a lot to do,and you havent even started on the commercial profiles or sorting through the rig exchange. its practically a full time job..

    I started listening to the TAF profiles and some others a couple of weeks ago when I was still mulling over the purchase. Considering how good the stock profiles it is hard to imagine the commercial profiles being too much better .... isn't it?


    I even find that among my favorites, it is hard in many cases to pick a "best" rig. They are all uniquely "best" at what they do.

    Quote from db9091

    Check out the newly adjusted CAB parameters (low, high shift) of 2.4.0's release. Really cool sound carving.


    I too primarily used my Strat, Tele and MM Axis Sport and recently upon getting a LP Trad Plus I am finding distortions and clean profiles entirely different that I love for that guitar.

    I will definitely give that a go. Thanks for the heads up.


    Even with 2 strats, the different pickups cause a noticeable difference. I would imagine that a LP would be quite different than any strat ;)


    So here is more review:


    I categorized a bunch of my favorites, figured out how to edit performance mode, and created banks of similiar sounds to see which ones I liked the best.



    After doing that, I got my FCB1010 hooked up so I could quickly and seamlessly move from rig to rig for comparison.


    As a side note, my Uno4Kemper chip is on its way from the UK and according to the site will take between 1-3 weeks to get here. I guess I will be on simple MIDI for a while. That works alright though. I have been getting the feel for my new rig all day today (it is a Kemper weekend for me ;) ).


    After all that, I put together 2 performance entries (sets of 5) specifically designed so I could make it through our set list with only 2 banks of 5 patches (although I may have to re-think this ..... I am missing too many good sounds with only 10 rigs).


    After all this, I did my first backup.


    Some comments if anyone from Kemper is listening:


    • It was difficult to figure out how to get performance slots filled. The documentation is not complete, and I couldn't find anything easily here or on YouTube to help me. Once I figured out the combinations to do it, I initially didn't save and lost information and had to re-do the work (quite frustrating).
    • If a performance or rig has been edited, you should nag the operator before allowing them to navigate away from the performance/rig without saving.
    • The USB stick is up-side-down? I am guessing this has something to do with internal board layout and mounting. Weird.
    • MIDI worked flawlessly. Changes were instantaneous and even without the Uno4Kemper chip, it was easy for me to follow where I was in my performances.


    I have practice on Tuesday. I'll be bringing home the mixer to do some integration recording (play along with the band with the new Kemper).


    Question: For those of you that go straight into the PA (not micing a cab or powered speaker), do you use the stereo main outputs, or the mono output?


    Fingers are still sore ;)

    Quote from whippinpost91850

    Welcome OneEng, Hope your fingers heal soon, but probably not poosible

    Thanks! Eventually, they will toughen up again and it will be like I am 18 again ;)


    Ok, maybe my fingers will play like I am 18 again. Perhaps hoping the rest of me reverts to my 18 year old self just because I now have a Kemper is putting the bar just a little too high :)


    Loving on the TwoRock amp profile!!! I also downloaded my first amp from the free exchange. A clean which sounded simply fantastic!


    Wow. Just .... Wow!


    I have practice on Tuesday. I will be putting the Kemper into service at practice for the first time with the band. I will be bringing my VHT rig home and putting it up on eBay (I already sold my 4x12 cab, just my 2x12, VHT 50 ST and Digitech 2120 left in my old rig).


    I will be kind of sad to see it go. It has been a rock solid rig for me for around 15 years. My heart will miss it, but my back won't!

    Another night playing around with my performance setup.


    Man! After you weed yourself down to a group of amps that are in your taste range, it is just hard not to like them all!


    I just don't see how it is going to be possible for me to decide on a single patch from each genre. There are several in each range of gain that are uniquely just fantastic.


    First practice with the kemper tomorrow, first gig at the end of the month.


    Still waiting on the Uno4Kemper to arrive.

    "I have practice on Tuesday. I will be putting the Kemper into service at practice for the first time with the band. I will be bringing my VHT rig home and putting it up on eBay (I already sold my 4x12 cab, just my 2x12, VHT 50 ST and Digitech 2120 left in my old rig).


    I will be kind of sad to see it go. It has been a rock solid rig for me for around 15 years. My heart will miss it, but my back won't!"




    Hopefully, you used your new Kemper to profile multiple settings of the amp you are about to sell. Pretty cool trick to both sell it and "keep it"!

    Quote from nightlight

    Did the OP just change from OneEng to OneEng1? How did that happen? Is that supposed to happen?


    Welcome to the forums! Which is the real you? :)


    I signed up as "OneEng", asked how to upgrade my account to an owner after I received my Kemper, and still haven't figured it out. Since I wanted to start downloading and trying out some of the great free profiles here, I ended up making a new account as "OneEng1".


    Both are me ;)


    I would be happy to ditch the new one if I could figure out how to put my SN into the old one and have access as a KPA owner!


    On with the review:


    Well, practice was a mixed bag. Some things simply sounded great, others were either too loud, or too quiet .... or just didn't sit in the mix properly.


    Sigh ....


    I also received my Uno4Kemper chip just before practice, but decided not to tempt fate ;) I just installed and tested it tonight and it appears to work fine and has all the features I would expect from a dedicated foot controller.


    I need to figure out how to get a boost of ~4-6db for leads. I could always just have another position within a performance, but I would prefer to simply add a boost to my output chain and be able to boost any patch I am playing on in a pinch for a lead. Any thoughts? I know I can get the floor controller so that I can use the top row of switches to turn on/off the 4 output control assignments. Can I put a boost into the output?


    Another issue I had was that through my headphones, and through the headphone jacks out to speakers, the kemper had a high frequency edge to it. I rolled off of the treble on my guitar and strayed from patches with too many highs in them.


    When I hooked up the XLR main outputs to my full PA, the patches were kind of dulled out a bit. The good news was that using my bridge pickup solo sounded great! Very cutting sound with no harshness. The bad news was that without being on my bridge pickup, things were a bit washed out.


    My plan is to clean up my performances a bit (my volume levels between patches needs some work which wasn't obviouswhen playing by myself, but that was pretty clear when playing with the band). I have a multi-track of the band and plan on going back next week early and spending a couple of hours jamming with the virtual band and adjusting my volume levels between tracks, and in the mix.


    Is there a different tone you get between the head phone output and the main L/R output?


    As an aside, last night was the first time I have ever ran a guitar rig stereo ..... I always thought it was silly. Some of the clean patches were fantastic in stereo in our IEM's. The intro to "Kryptonite" was simply fantastic using a tweaked version of "Chorused Surface". Just lots of WOW. Also the cleans I used on "Slide" were a big hit.


    The heavy patches need some work go make them sit in the mix better. I need to get a handle on the eq on my new rig.


    Brought the VHT home. Sure is a nice looking head ..... and pretty darned heavy too!

    Sonically the sound should be the same from the headphone output and the main outs. Unless you have some different EQ set at the output or using the space feature. Check the output section and see if the main out EQ is flat etc.


    But going through a PA will definitely color the sound in some way. It really depends on the quality/brand of PA that is being used, as well as the room the PA is in, volume etc. lots of variables when you add the PA into the mix. No pun intended :)


    Sean

    Everything colours sounds. Your HPs sound differently from your PA, unless you use calibrated stuff you just can't expect to get the same sound through different devices.
    Specifically, most probably your HPs render much more highs than your PA.
    Check the channel strip on your moxer anyway, to be sure there's no EQ or special setting going there :)

    Regarding lead boost: Put a Pure Booster or a flat EQ with increased volume into X- or Mod-Slot, lock it (then it is available in all your rigs) and you're done.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    Edited once, last by Kempermaniac ().

    Quote from Joptunes

    Sonically the sound should be the same from the headphone output and the main outs. Unless you have some different EQ set at the output or using the space feature. Check the output section and see if the main out EQ is flat etc.


    But going through a PA will definitely color the sound in some way. It really depends on the quality/brand of PA that is being used, as well as the room the PA is in, volume etc. lots of variables when you add the PA into the mix. No pun intended :)


    Sean

    Sean,


    Thanks for the reply. At home I have a small ZED 10Fx I will run into from the mains to more completely resemble my setup with my full FOH.


    I use a pair of DSR112's over PRX618S-XLF's and a Behringer X32 Rack for my mixer. The system sounds very good and relatively flat on DJ and Karaoke material, so my thought was that it would sound fairly flat for my Kemper.


    The Headphones are Sennheiser HD280 Pro (64ohm). They are perhaps a little light on the bass if anything.


    On our giging rig I use IEM's where we have Furman HDS wired systems into Shure E215's. I didn't have time to do recording and playback at last practice, but am going to go back this week and use some old recordings to play along with to see how the patches sound in the mix. Normally, the X32 is pretty transparent. What you put in, comes out. The speakers are setup a bit bass heavy (we play classic and modern rock and I like the kick and bass to punch).


    On the pure boost. I found it (thanks). How do I "lock" it so that it will occupy this slot for all my rigs? That is exactly what I would like to do! Thanks!!!

    Quote from OneEng1

    [
    On the pure boost. I found it (thanks). How do I "lock" it so that it will occupy this slot for all my rigs? That is exactly what I would like to do! Thanks!!!


    Press LOCK and while pressed press the slot with the pure boost in it (x slot is recommended). Done.
    To review what's locked simply press LOCK and check what slots light up.

    Quote from Ingolf


    Press LOCK and while pressed press the slot with the pure boost in it (x slot is recommended). Done.
    To review what's locked simply press LOCK and check what slots light up.

    Got it. Thanks!


    I was looking for a soft menu that said "Lock" ;)