Keep Rockin Buddy!! Great story.
Drummers need to have their drinks taken away anyways.
First live gig w/Kemper. Here are my complaints.
- OhG
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Awesome story, OhG!
So sorry to hear the gig presented all those challenges. Kemper is obviously a negligent company; I've seen no warnings anywhere about the possible issues this unit can bring to a gig. Shame on Kemper!
Display MoreGreat post!
I had my first gig with my Kemper on Saturday night. I've had the thing since January, but finally got familiar enough with it to set it up to use it live.
I experienced most of the same "problems" you did, only I didn't steal the drummer's girlie drink, I grabbed the bassist's Jamesons on the rocks instead...
Wonderful tool for the bar gigs we do!
Welcome to the forum, Slipkid!Glad to hear it went well too. That first one's always gonna be accompanied by a few "What ifs?" floatin' around in the back of your mind...
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Welcome to the forum, Slipkid!
Glad to hear it went well too. That first one's always gonna be accompanied by a few "What ifs?" floatin' around in the back of your mind...
Thanks!
LOL on the "what ifs".... I fly airplanes for a living, so I naturally, the first things I think about are failures and backups.
I've been using my JTM-50 clone and a few pedals for band stuff the last few years. I used a JVM combo before that, and a couple of Hiwatt DR504s before that. The backup was an Orange Micro Terror with a 5751 in V1 to give it usable headroom. The MT fit in the band mic case, and my pedals for the JTM sounded good through it, so it was perfect. I brought a 2 channel Traynor combo as a backup for the Kemper last week, and will probably do that until I get a backup KPA.
I can get by with just plugging into the Traynor with no pedals in a pinch.I am still wrapping my head around the Kemper.
To be honest, I bought the KPA in in January, and kept it in as new condition in case I decided to send it back. I came close a few times. It is not the most intuitive piece of gear I've ever had, but once I understood the basic philosophy behind the menus etc, it got much easier.
I've had a few modelers (I still have a few Pods lying around), and while I always enjoyed them with headphones, I have never been able to EQ them so that they didn't disappear in the band mix. It also "felt" like someone else was playing them, even at loud PA levels. The KPA sounds and feels just like a tube amp, even through the PA.
So far, I am using 4 of the mbritt profiles, and one of the talkbox profiles one of the members here did (thanks!) with the band. I LOVE not having that giant Rocktron banshee 2 on my board. I use the "talkbox pedal" profile in the KPA, and it sounds almost as good......
My rig:
KPA Power Rack with a Kemper remote, and Mission Eng. Kemper pedal setup for volume and wah. I'd been using an EB MVP with my tube amps, and I typically had it on the left side of the board, and the wah on the right. I prefer playing wah with my right foot, but I played the rig below for one band practice, and switched the pedal to the left side afterwards. I found it fairly easy to adapt to using my left foot for the wah for the few songs I use it on.
[Blocked Image: http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/HiwattJP504/Band/IMG_3397_zpsdasqtxqt.jpg]
[Blocked Image: http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/ww250/HiwattJP504/Band/IMG_3399_zps30vpcawf.jpg]This invisible man approves!
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I finally had the chance to use my Kemper at a live gig. And by “chance”, I mean, I finally had the guts to try it live. Here are my 4 biggest complaints:
1.Setup time – This is going to be a problem. I had my entire live rig set up much faster than normal. I mean, I was done so fast, I then had to figure out what to do with all that spare time I had before the gig started. This resulted in me consuming more alcohol than anticipated before the night began and then had to concentrate a little more on songs due to being rather intoxicated. I blame it on the Kemper.
2.Too much room on stage – I’m using the Kemper to replace what was once a 65lb pedalboard monstrosity. The Kemper does everything my old board did, and does it great. The problem is that it now takes up far less room than my old pedalboard, which means there is more room for me to run around on stage. I didn’t plan for this type of cardiovascular workout while playing on stage and found myself to be more covered in sweat than I usually am at the end of a show. Again, I blame the Kemper.
3.The looper – I found myself taking advantage of the looper on a couple of songs where the guitar repeats the same chord progression for a long time. By “taking advantage”, I mean, I looped the chord progression to play over and over again, set my guitar down, went and stole my drummer’s drink while he was playing, then picked my guitar up and played. Unexpected intoxication. Again, the Kemper’s fault.
4.The tone – The tone was too good. And this is going to be a problem on multiple levels. First of all, I couldn’t believe how I was able to replicate the sounds of different amps for different songs. It gave a whole new life to our sound. The problem? Well, now I’ve set the bar high, and my bandmates are going to expect to hear even more of the signature sounds from other bands that we cover; which means I’m going to have to spend more time dialing in tones. This is unacceptable. I deliberately try to set the bar low so that nobody expects too much of me. Now they expect me to sound even more fabulous than before.
Thank you so much sharing your thoughts OHG! I was just about to pull the trigger for a KPA, but happened to read your comment before. I have to overthink my decision deeply now - I honestly could see me fallen in the same trap! Thanks again!
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Give the man a T-Shirt...
