Made a difficult decision but...

    I think it's time to sell my Kemper. I absolutely love the technology and what it can do and what it will be capable of in the future. I recently went back to playing my old reliable Marshall JCM2000 live recently and enjoying myself more than ever before. My KPA hadn't been turned on in 2 months or so until I did the 2.5 update the other day. Even today, I hooked it up and ran it through my studio monitors, an Alto powered monitor and even through my Marshall/cab. I just prefer the actual amp in the room sound than the mic'd amp sound for playing live.


    Nothing touches the KPA for recording purposes though and that's the reason I've been hanging onto to it. I just can't justify having it sit in it's case for months on end when I know I'm not really going to be doing much recording, if any, in the near and distant future. I have some debt I want to pay down as well which is another factor. The KPA is not the only piece of gear I'll be selling so this isn't about just getting rid of it only. I'm at the point in my life and my career where I'm stripping down to only what I REALLY need to perform with my band. The KPA is so popular that if the time ever comes, I can just buy another and keep all the profiles I have purchased or downloaded. My FCB with gator case and uno4kemper chip will be going too. I'll probably post it on this forum in the appropriate section when the time comes...might be today, tomorrow or next week.


    This forum and it's members are awesome and I've met some really cool guys here. I'll probably lurk from time to time to keep up to speed on everything but I gotta do what feels right for me now. Thanks for all the help here and good luck on your kemper journeys!


    I do reserve the right to change my mind but for now, this is the direction I'm heading.

    Well, for a bedroom warrior there's really no beating an actual tube amp. Not for rehearsals either.
    Live is another matter. You will never sound as good as you did with a Kemper.
    If that doesn't bother you, seems like you've made the right choice.


    The money i spent on the Kemper an an FRFR solution would have bought me a couple of nice amps, but only i would have heard them live.
    My audience wouldn't, so as someone who gigs regularly it seemed an irresponsible decision. That's my two cents, anyway.

    "But dignity is difficult to maintain
    stamina requires constant upkeep
    repetition is boring
    and you pay for grace."

    You can try PREAMP profiles.That means you can make profiles of your amp taking the signal from the SEND of the loop and play back to the RETURN (power amp in) of your amp, or any other available tube amp.If you compare the sound of the actual amp and this profile you just made, are almost identical,- maybe the real amp sounds a little "warmer"- but in the mix of the live band it's hard to notice this subtle difference. Good luck.

    Quote from grorig

    You can try PREAMP profiles.That means you can make profiles of your amp taking the signal from the SEND of the loop and play back to the RETURN (power amp in) of your amp, or any other available tube amp.If you compare the sound of the actual amp and this profile you just made, are almost identical,- maybe the real amp sounds a little "warmer"- but in the mix of the live band it's hard to notice this subtle difference. Good luck.



    Yup, tried those too. I've had the KPA for well over a year so I've pretty much ran the gamut. It's not so much the mix. It's me feeling comfortable playing a real amp. My playing is much smoother and it sounds better, not only to me, but to others. I would love to keep it at home but I can't justify it when it's not being used and I have debt I can pay down.

    Skyhighrocks, a question: is your KPA powered or unpowered? If unpowered, which poweramp do you use? And in either case, did you use it with FRFR speakers or guitar speakers?
    Before selling it, I recommend you do the following: profile you amp's preamp (preamp only! Go from KPA send to amp input, and from amp's send to KPA return), then see the result. In my experience, this is sounds amazingly close to the real thing...and this we all know. But what I want to say is: you might still love your KPA if you couple it with the right poweramp and speaker. I had a non powered rack that I was using with an Engl tube poweramp, and absolutely loved it; then I decided to upgrade, got a powered toaster...and I honestly don't like how its poweramp sounds. At least, going straight to my guitar cabinet: maybe with a FRFR cabinet it's again a whole different story. But bottomline: I am now using the powered version like a non-powered one, through tube amp and guitar cabinet. And it kicks ass :)

    Going through an Alto you not going to achieve the sound desired. In order to have the Kemper running at optimum you have to optimum equipment. Just what laimon says Kick ass.