First gig with my Kemper Profiler

    Nice after action report! I am encouraged and stoked by the good live reports here. My first KPA gig will be tomorrow. My pedalboard hasn't arrived yet, and I really wanted to mount everything on it first which is a bummer, so pedals and controller will get christened laying directly on stage the cold stage floor. It is time consuming setting everything up, but the KPA is really intuitive and I'm finding it easy to learn... And looks like I will be able to handle pretty complex show of diverse cuts and effects with a single performance.


    ...how do you change where the volume pedal is in the signal chain, exactly?

    @Section8 - Good luck with the first KPA outing. I hope it goes as well for you as it did for me.


    I haven't got my KPA close by so can't check, but I think volume position was an option in the rig menu. Options were off, pre-stomps, post-stomps, pre-effects and post-effects I think.


    @jessefildes - Yes, I purchased a second hand FCB1010 and installed the UNO4KEMPER chip. It works well, but Im sure the Profiler Remote will have many advantages.

    Thanks for the info! Here's my after-action report: We didn't do a real sound-check, much to my chagrin, especially since I mentioned the importance of it earlier in this thread. Guitar was muted or channel was turned way down, or "something", for 1st song in both FOH and (shared) stage monitors, and sound guy was struggling to figure it out, even though we had checked the guitar (and other instruments individually before playing first song)... bummer, but I slid over and quickly cranked up the KPA main output to monitor, so my bandmates and I could hear a little guitar, at least. I never got an explanation why guitar was absent from mix when we started the show, and obviously that was an anti-climactic moment for my first outing with the KPA. 2nd - 35th songs, sounded great! I was a little awkward with the controller during some transitions, because I was used to my old rig, so I just need to develop new muscle memories for instinctively stomping on these new buttons. My old rig I could switch things without even looking down, after 6 years of shows with it. Expression and volume pedal worked great! The wah, vibes, phasers and such sounded much cleaner and better than my old rig. I had a guest guitarist come up and play one cut on guitar, so I got to hear the Kemper from the audience and the tone, clarity and dynamics were a massive improvement. Guest guitarist was using my "guest guitar", which isn't nearly as good as the one's I play and it still sounded amazing. The guest guitar has cheaper pickups and it's one of the two guitars I use only for rehearsals or guest players, but not for performances, because it costs 10% of what my live guitars costs, so I don't mind if people bend the neck or grind up the back of it with their belt buckles and such. Anyway, except for the sound man glitch, at the beginning, the KPA performed amazingly for me, and sounded incredible. I was able to employ a variety of different tones and different effects "scenes" with a single performance setup, as well.

    @Section8 - Good to hear the first KPA outing was a success from song 2!


    I have used my KPA on a few band gigs now and am still working on my sounds. I occasionally play a duo gig with a female vocalist using my 7 string archtop through a Polytone. The set is a mix of styles from classic jazz to modern pop songs. A last minute decision (again!) had me using my KPA in the duo last night. I quickly set up 5 slots in performance mode with various clean sounds and added a few effects. This way I could quickly change to a different rig if one wasn't working for me. As my gear wasn't set up in my studio, I did the setting up through headphones so was very worried that the sounds would not work for the gig.


    The vocalist sent me a text asking what gear I would be using and when I told her that I was going to try the KPA, she asked if she could sing through my DXR10 and not bring her speakers. The resulting set up was Guitar - KPA - DXR10 and vocals - small mixer (for effects) - a second DXR10 input. It was a small venue, so I figured this could work.


    The result was that I preferred playing through this rig than my Polytone. Apart from a reverb pedal, I don't use any effects in the duo. As I had my FCB1010 on the floor, I found myself breaking this rule last night. I couldn't remember what effects I had stored in which slots, so I randomly engaged some sounds. Great fun! This has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. Everything went much better than expected apart from when I decided to stomp on a sound from a different bank thinking it was an alternative clean sound. It was hilarious when during the subtle ballad, I engaged a huge, overdriven lead sound. I then panicked and frantically stomped on FCB1010 buttons to try and get back to where I was. Oops!!

    Quote from Monkey_Man

    Fantastic, man! Well done.


    I have guest guitars too. $80 each. Squire and Behringer. The Behringer's still got the original strings on it after 10 years. ;)


    I bought a cheapo Behringer strat-style guitar like you are describing for my eldest son, as his first guitar. It's not bad, actually. Good to hear that others have "guest guitars", as well.



    That's a cool setup for a duo, good to hear that that sort of setup is a possibility. I had taken for granted the learning curve and rigor involved in naturally interacting with my old rig's floor units, and underestimated how awkward it was going to be to, initially, to use something different on the floor. I have two of the Mission KP-1 pedals, one spring-loaded, which I really enjoyed using at the show. That was a huge upgrade from my old, loose expression pedals.

    I am having the same problem of getting used to a different floor unit. Gradually building a pedal board over a period of time, adding pedals as you go and getting used to one variable at a time is not so bad, but suddenly having a completely different way of thinking under your feet is quite a challenge!


    I will probably order the Kemper Remote soon and will need one or two expression pedals. The Mission KP-1 sounds like a good choice.

    Quote from Guitarjazzman

    suddenly having a completely different way of thinking under your feet is quite a challenge!


    I can see how moving from individual stomps to a MIDI controller would be a big adjustment. But, you suddenly have so many more sounds available, it makes it worth the effort to get comfortable. I was fortunate to be able to set my Remote up exactly like the G-System it replaced (with 5 presets per bank),


    If your band works with a Set List, you can add the Performance Slot Numbers to the list, next to each song. That is a great way to learn which Slot goes with which song :)

    Quote from Guitarjazzman

    Thanks everyone. I thought a summary might be helpful to other new users.


    Indeed. I've been hesitant to play the Kemper live because I feel like I still have a ton of learning to do on the functionality of the device and all the options, but I took a step in this direction by down-selecting and marking a few of my favorite profiles. I'm going to set up some performances and take it on my gig next week. Thanks for sharing your experience!

    Quote from Guitarjazzman

    I am having the same problem of getting used to a different floor unit. Gradually building a pedal board over a period of time, adding pedals as you go and getting used to one variable at a time is not so bad, but suddenly having a completely different way of thinking under your feet is quite a challenge!


    I will probably order the Kemper Remote soon and will need one or two expression pedals. The Mission KP-1 sounds like a good choice.


    Yes, in some ways my current Kemper Remote setup is a little more footwork than I am used to. I need to figure out better ways to toggle between two things with a single switch, which is what I had setup on my old rig. I need to study the midi programming part a bit more. The KP-1 is awesome and I highly recommend the spring-loaded version for expression... this particular setup blows away any expression pedal setup I have ever used. That part is definitely an upgrade that has made life easier, especially with the stop@heel feature. If I want wah or pitch in my solo, I just start moving the pedal and "Voila!", then it turns of wah/pitch when I lift my foot off.

    Quote from Section8

    I bought a cheapo Behringer strat-style guitar like you are describing for my eldest son, as his first guitar. It's not bad, actually. Good to hear that others have "guest guitars", as well.


    Yeah, it's the Behringer El Toro.


    The PUs kick like a mule too. LOL