Hi,
So, I started an indie rock project and playing with a reggae band aside from my usual prog rock/metal thing. I took my DXR10 to reggae rehearsals, but would use both my 2 x 12 cab (powered Kemper) and DXR10 for the other two projects (in my home studio); I find the DXR10 gives clarity and the 2 x 12 warmth.
In a couple of bad rehearsal rooms for reggae (quite a minimalist set up for reggae....one guitar, no brass) I missed the warmth of a tube amp at times, and multiple delays / delay expression control......and with the indie rock, I found using an old Carl Martin Plexitone (the old 3 button version) into the clean channel of the Kemper gave much more harmonically pleasing sounds to my ears than the patches I generally use.
I got it into my head to find a small Fenderish clean head and use my Plexitone, DL4 with expression pedal and wah into it as a nifty little set up for the reggae band. Long story short, finding a sub £600 tube head to the job was proving difficult. As an example, the Fender Blues Junior sounded great but clearly didn't have the power to stay clean over a drummer. People started to suggest heads and combos that were more like £1000 and dual channel.....at that point I thought....if I'm going to spend more money, I may as well get a head with a great full on "Chug" channel, and then I'll have a set up for clean to light/heavy crunch (Plexitone) and metal mayhem....
I auditioned various amps including Mesa mini heads but the Engl Ironball won out.....preferred its cleans and chug and clarity over the Mesas. I re-assembled my little pedal board.....got a Joyo American Sound to get a more Fenderish clean from the Engl and an ISP Decimator G String II for the noise gate.....and ended up with a delay and EB Jr in the loop and the board out front. A really nice sound.
When I first played it with the reggae group it was nice and with the Prog Metal outfit the drummer loved the aggressive sound. I had some concerns though over how much it was cutting through the mix.....and listening back to handheld recordings my concerns seemed supported.
I had a similar experience with the indie rock band.
I tried using an A/B pedal to switch between the Kemper and the Engl set up initially, and the Engl was clearly better sounding....but that was the Engl through the 2 x 12 and the Kemper through the DXR10 alone.
Later, I found one of my trust Radial headswitchers that is designed to let you plug a solid state and tube amp into a cab and switch between the two. I did so and the Engl still sounded better.
Another couple of rehearsals and recordings with the Indie Rock and Prog project and my concerns increased.
So today I went in and properly compared the Engl chug with my Kemper chug rig - and of course I considered I mighty simply need to try other profiles. My soundgate had crept up and was making note attacks odd, so I backed that off and pushed up the treble and presence. It was soon sounding much better; I'm hoping that will prove to be the case with the bands. The clean rigs were already closer to what I wanted than the Engl though again needed a bit of EQ tweak for more presence.
I will try my next few rehearsals back with the Kemper. My point is this - what sounds great playing alone, is totally different to how things might sound in a band mix. It's similar to when I got an Orange Rockerverb 100 MkII. In the shop and back home, just me, it just sounded amazing (to my ears at the time) both clean and drive channels, but in a band mix, for me, it was terrible and got sold - at a big loss.
I probably also ended up trying a tube set up as the last time I spent a long time auditioning rigs and then using them with the band, they didn't work in the mix so it was a hassle.
I don't regret getting the Engl. I think it's good to have alternative rigs, and I sold a bunch of bits and pieces I wasn't using (including an OR15) to fund it. The stuff I added to my pedalboard was all bought secondhand at a good price, is top quality, so worth keeping....and easy to shift if/when I choose. Of course I'd lose money on the Engl if I sold it....but it was £620 (GBP) compared to £1,200 for the Mesa Rectoverb 25 I almost got!
Anyhow, for my question although I may end up posting separately, as how many people will bother reading all of this ?!
I like having a master volume. But I also love the ability to put the volume pre-stomps to control gain. Is there a way to use one of my volume pedals (I have a passive Ernie Ball Jr and an active Morley PVO+) in a loop that is universally engaged so that I can use that as I would between pre amp and post amp with a traditional amp that has a loop.....allowing me to use that as my pure volume control.....but the volume on my Uno4Kemper as the gain control?
I'll just have to use my DL4 with expression pedal for multiple delays / delay mix control till that feature gets enabled by the clever people at Kemper 
Cheers,
Andy