New guy...Patiently saving $ for a Kemper

No prob man god bless

Quote from Bear

Thanks Monkey_Man..very very cool of you..you seem like a great guy and I appreciate you making feel welcome..thanks a lot.and im loving forum pages where it says to Post pics of your Rigs..and videos too...thats a great place to see what everyone is using..i was curious about the powered Kemper and using my Marshall cab instead of monitors ect..seems like it will work..but will it work as good as say, a Marshall head sitting a top of a Cab..will it sound the same or not?..i hear the Kemper has more of a Mic'd/PA sound to their amp profiles..is this true or will it sound just like a Marshall plugged into a Cab.?.

another thing I was wondering is..how do the effects sound..are they created from pedals like BOSS pedal or others.or are they their own sounds..?.and are they very professional sounding effects..or do they sound kinda computer-ish...ha,ha,..I like lots of Gain and some great Delay..for the most part..?.thanks Monkey_Man..thanks a lot..God Bless ya brother..Barry..

Well, it'll sound like a Marshall head plugged into a cab... in a studio. Exactly which studio it sounds like it's in will depend on the mic/s used to create the particular profile you're using, as well as the placement of 'em and the room used. If the profiles themselves sounded like you were standing 10 feet away as you might in real life from your cab, then when you add that to the 10 feet you're actually standing away from your cab it'll sound like twenty feet, and the reflections (echoes, room coloration and so on) would get doubled up too, so the approach of striving for the cleanest, most-uncoloured representation of a rig whilst profiling is the correct one IMHO, and it's the way the Kemper's designed to be used. Heck, even if there's a little unpleasant harshness / coloration in the room the amp's miked up in, the Kemper, when creating the profile, will pretty much extract just the "pure" sound of the amp and cab. Brilliant stuff, mate.

If you're worried, remember that there's a plethora of options out there for any given amp setup you'd like profiles of, made by folks here for free (on the Rig Exchange) as well as by most of the commercial entities. This would be especially true of most Marshalls, so you should be as happy as a pig in gravy.

The effects, whilst at least some of them are "modelled" on popular pedals / stomps, are, IMHO, consistently of a very high and immediately-usable quality. In fact, I've not encountered any other digital unit where the bog-standard, default settings of the stomps sound so good and are so instantly-useable. The wahs are a classic example. In every unit I've had 'til now I've had to fight my way to a wah sound I could live with - typically they're just so damned harsh to begin with. Even when toned down, I still found all the Line 6 wahs, for example too rough and ear-piercing to handle; I gave up every time and didn't use them. Enter the Kemper. I can't remember how many models there are right now, but I know more are on the way. Every one of them seems appropriate in its own right, but I remember dialling through them and straight away there were a couple that nailed it perfectly for the badly-wired, rough-as-guts el-cheapo Behringer and Squire strats I tried (my brother was playing, so I got to tweak... except that no tweaking was necessary!). I'm talkin' smooothe man! I couldn't believe it. My brother was shocked too 'cause those strats had no right to sound as good as they did. Seriously. I honestly reckon the effects are the most tasteful, mature implementation I've ever encountered. The reverb block could use a spring 'verb, which I believe is coming soon anyway. The delay options could be enhanced with a tape-based emulation, and I think that's coming too, but as far as your choruses, flangers, phasers, pitch-shifters and wahs go, I honestly believe we've been well spoiled, something I didn't anticipate as it was all about the amp profiles for me when I bought it. I'll be using it only for recording, so the FX won't be used much if at all, which is such a pity. If only I had plug-in versions of these things so I could whack them on whilst mixing...

So, you see, you needn't worry, bro'! You've even been blessed through UnderOath; what more could you ask for? LOL

It'll be worth it, as I keep saying. It truly will, mate. 'Bless.

I'm so glad you appreciate my efforts, Bazza (that's the Aussie way of sayin' your name). Typing is actually quite difficult for me 'cause of a serious long-term injury to my hands and the cold as I can't afford heating. Chilblains are standard fare for me from April 'till October. Coldest morning in 20 years today, by the way. Lots of "cold" records have been set in Aus this month. We've got global cooling, man.

On the rack thing, nothing's missing on it except the LEDs around the tone controls that're on the toaster version. Oh, and I think some knobs under the stomp section. It really doesn't matter 'though; this thing's ridiculously easy to tweak. Personally I went for the unpowered rack 'cause it's for recording only. A power unit can be added later (internal), if that concerns you. Whether used for recording, live or both, my preference would always be a rack unit. I'm just used to the stability / security of having something housed in a rack. No chance of accidents etc., especially at a jam or gig. For me, the only advantages of the toaster are that it looks cool (as does the rack) and that you can see the tone settings from a great distance 'cause it has the LEDs there. With the rack it's not an issue 'though, 'cause the Kemper presents a solid bar graphic in the middle of the screen, so once you start tweaking a tone setting, the bar pops up and it's thick, solid and dark-coloured. Even I, with my pathetic eyesight, can easily see what's going on.

Bottom line: You can't go wrong with either, IMHO. This one really is up to you, bro'. I know - you're worried you'll choose the wrong one, right? As I said, you can't go wrong!

GB, be well, and keep saving those pennies, Baz.

Yeah Bazza, it's winter. We've got the shorter days now. It's Down Under brah, so everything's topsy-turvy.

Coldest start to winter in 60 years. Coldest morning the other day in 20. Coldest July in at least 18, and so on. The records keep falling... along with the temperature.

You know, even our summers have been cold these past few years. We usually get 6 or 7 days over 40C, but 3 years ago we only had 3 or 4, then last year 1 or 2, and this year... none! First time since I moved to Aus 34 years ago that this has happened. Heck, we only had 2 days over 35C. Very mild, and definitely not extreme. I've had to figure this sort of stuff out myself 'though, 'cause if it doesn't support Global Warming™, you just don't hear about it in the LameStream™ media in these parts.

Baz, you'd normally be called Baz here. Bazza would be used more when someone's sayin' "Bazzzaaaa!" as if he / she's sayin' he / she's glad to see you. It's the same with Murray. Murray is Muz, and Muz would be Muzza in that scenario. Gary is Gaz, which becomes Gazza. You get the idea. If you forget someone's name you just say "mate".

Sorry I've got nothin' else for ya Baz. Hang in there mate, and GB.

Monkey Man, perhaps you could record your track and then pass the line level recorded signal back through the Kemper and use the effects to record a duplicate track? That way you have the original track and a wet track. In theory you could do several tracks this way, each with their own effect or stomp. I haven't received my Kemper yet but I intend to try that when I do. I suppose there could be some introduction of noise but you do nt know until you try. Yeah, I know, why would you do that when most DAW's these days have pretty good effects? Well for one thing, DAW effects use a ton of processing power! And outboard gear doesn't. Plus you have virtually unlimited track counts in most DAW's and you can A/B identical tracks with different processing on the fly.
sorry a bit off topic, I know, but you sounded bummed about not being able to use the Kemper effects in the studio.

I totally hear you, Danger. I thought of this too, of course, being an engineer 'n all; it's the way we think.

Yes, in cases where Digital Performer's stock guitar-stomp plugs (which are all good) can't provide the magic certain sounds might demand where the Kemper can, I'll certainly try this. The obvious trick would be to turn the amp and cab blocks OFF!

Noise shouldn't be an issue, especially 'cause the "noisiest" blocks will be turned off and the Kemper's nice and quiet with tonnes of headroom.