About to Pull the Trigger on a Kemper. Some advice needed!

    Hey Everyone,


    I am new to this forum and I need some advice. I have been looking at the Kemper for a month or so now, watching all the YT video etc.. and I think I am convinced that this can certainly replace my tube amps and give me a lot more options as far as tones are concerned. So for now I am thinking it will be used more as a studio tool as opposed to LIVE use but that could be a possibility in the near future so I am considering going with the powered head as opposed to non powered. However, I wonder if it makes sense to maybe go with non-powered Kemper and add something like the Freytte power station which is a Tube amp? I realize that I would need to rack that and it woudl be another piece of gear to drag around but woudl something like the Freyette have a better tone than the on-board Kemper amp? I guess that I would already have the tube tone from the profiles themselves and in that case does it really matter if I were to add a tube power amp? Just not sure which way would make more sense so I am hoping that someone here could share their experience. From a cost perspective it woudl be the same as the Powered Kemper is about $600 more than the non-powered. I woudl try to run either a 1x12 or 2x12 guitar cab I believe to start. I'm not all that interested in spending money on a FFR P/A. speaker.


    Thanks in advance for your help


    David
    http://www.HomeRecordingMadeEasy.com

    The internal amp has plenty of power, even when driving my 4 ohm bass cab. You won't see any appreciable performance difference using an external amp. Also, there is no point using a tube amp unless you plan on over-driving it, but there is no point doing that with the Kemper. And the convenience of the built in amp can't be beat.

    I hate emojis, but I hate being misunderstood more. :)

    I have the non powered kpa. My advice: Dont use it with a tube amp. Choose a linear power amp.
    I tried it with the rocktron velocity amp and it has a tube sim cirquit. It makes the sound dull. After that i followed an advice from deadlight studios and i bought a cheap 800 watt linear amp. The t- amp e800 from thoman. I drive a mesa boogie 2 x12 celestion v30 cab with this amp . I briged the amp to mono. The only negative thing is the noise of the fan from the amp, but i didnt hear it at rehearshal because this killer setup is very loud. But i hear it when i play with low volume at home. But for the 170€ i dont care for it. Bought it a year ago and wont miss it. Lots of punch and it didnt crash my cab.


    My other system is a frfr from rcf. The rcf nano sma 10" with 400 watts. I use it as a stage monitor. The main outs go directly to foh with xlr. Also a very fine solution and you can play the frfr on a very low volume level at home with a great sound. So i can choose between both worlds.


    Cheers
    Frank

    Thanks everyone for the friendly advice. I think I'll go with the powered head for now and it I'm going to use it LIVE I can always add the foot controller. Oh, one more question, when using it in my studio as a preamp going though my studio monitors can I shut off the power amp in the Kemper? Is that the correct thing to do? My monitors are active. Also, can the cab sim be bypassed on the main outs when hooking up a guitar cab but on the 2nd outs that would go to FOH the cab sim can be on?


    Than you again


    david

    There's no problem leaving the power amp on if nothing is plugged into it. The amp is Class D, which is fine with an infinite load (open). If you aren't using the amp frequently though, you can turn it off from the output menu.


    Regarding cab sim on mains but not monitor, I think so but I'm not sure. Someone more enlightened can help there. :)

    I hate emojis, but I hate being misunderstood more. :)

    Hello David,


    welcome here :)


    You can indeed keep the cab profile on to FOH and kill it for your personal monitor.
    In the Kemper jargon the (stereo) Main Out goes FOH, while the Monitor Out is conceived for a mono monitor. The power amp's fed by the latter.



    Quote from davidvignola

    woudl something like the Freyette have a better tone than the on-board Kemper amp?


    Well, tastes are tastes, but if you find rigs (patches) you like, your goal would be hearing them as they are. all the colourations are provided by the profile, the task of a power amp should be magnifying the signal leaving it ideally untouched.
    This doesn't mean, of course, that a certain (number of) profile(s) wouldn't sound better to you through whatever is able to change them sonically... This would defeat the purpose and the philosophy of the Profiler IMO tho, so that it's better for me (and more consistent) to look for the profiles you like best and tweak them according to your needs. The Profiler is easy to tweak, but has got some very effective controls... not to mention that each profile's cab is basically an enhanced version of an IR, which can be tweaked with specific controls and can be applied to any other rig... ;)
    Plenty of material to create your own sounds and tone from IMO!


    HTH :)

    Well, I made the purchase today. I picked up the powered head version in black and it should arrive here tomorrow! Super excited and I plan to do a lot of videos on the kemper that I feel have not yet been done and I will post them on my YouTube channel if anyone is interested.


    https://www.youtube.com/channe…itNFJO3c6w?view_as=public


    Thanks again for the advice


    David
    http://www.HomeRecordingMadeEasy.com

    Quote from davidvignola

    Well, I made the purchase today. I picked up the powered head version in black and it should arrive here tomorrow!


    Woohoo! Ripper man.


    Quote from davidvignola

    Super excited and I plan to do a lot of videos on the kemper that I feel have not yet been done and I will post them on my YouTube channel if anyone is interested.


    Yes! I can't wait to watch 'em mate. Like you, many of us are aware, especially since the demise of Scott Minchk's Toaster Tips TV, of the need for such video goodness. Bring it on, bro'!