I don't yet trust the internal OD/Dist. stompboxes

    Hello! I would preamble by saying that I have scoured previous threads thoroughly regarding this topic. Most replies are 2-3 years old, and I have been reading (from threads) that updates have addressed stompbox issues.


    My KPA/Remote/2x EP1-KP's have not yet arrived. I sold off all of my modulation, reverb and delay pedals, along with my valve amps. I am fully confident OS 5.1 has me covered in this area.


    I don't yet trust the abilities of the internal OD, distortion and fuzz stompboxes to get the type of tone I like. Therefore, I have kept the following pedals to experiment with running into the front of the input.



    - Analogman Sunface BC183 (aware of the KPA Fuzzface & Big Muff)
    - Wampler Ego Compressor (aware that the internal compressor is awesome, really just wanting to experiment with this)
    - MXR Univibe (I am also aware that the KPA has a vibe; holding onto this to use in front of the next two pedals, if I like the pairing with the KPA)
    - Badgerplex Vintage Pre (my desert island pedal - brings no drive or saturation, just a "sparkle" to clean & breakup tones)
    - Rockett Archer Ikon (Klon clone)


    All pedals will be powered with fully isolated power supply.


    1. Does anyone have experience with running any of these specific pedals into their KPA?
    2. If I want to boost a rig with either my Badgerplex or Archer, will I get a volume boost in addition to gain (depending on how the pedals are set), or will it just compress or clip?


    I gravitate towards Country, Rock and P&W music. I will be using a lot of Matchless, Vox, Dumble, Two Rock, Dr Z, /13 profiles by MBritt.


    I know the bulk of answers will come as a result of experimenting myself and tweaking according to my ears. I'm just excited to get it, and haven't seen threads that address the use of these pedals. I will sell the aforementioned pedals if the internal stompboxes work just as well. If it turns out I can't get a volume boost (in addition to gain) from external pedals, I will employ various settings on the expression pedals as well as morphing capabilities.


    I appreciate your replies in advance :)

    I kept my beloved Lovepedal Kalamazoo and Fuzz Face, and I have yet to use either. I kept the Kalamazoo because it has a certain characteristic that i love. It's been described as Klon-like. For me it ads an awesome mid range thwomp to the sound. It basically adds balls to just about any tone, weather clean or dirty. I have been able to find that sound in the Kemper.


    As far as the volume boost, I would assume for this to be possible the pedal would have to be in the effects loop like a traditional amp, but i may be wrong. *EDIT* (volume boost is also easily achievable in the Kemper)


    Also, I have found that many profiles come with multiple variations that will often include boutique OD pedals "baked in" to the profile. The gain knob works really well to add more dirt as well. It reacts very naturally, even on amps that were profiled fairly clean. You could always save the same rig setup twice and just add more gain to the second one if you are purely after more dirt.

    Quote from Sunshine

    I kept my beloved Lovepedal Kalamazoo and Fuzz Face, and I have yet to use either. I kept the Kalamazoo because it has a certain characteristic that i love. It's been described as Klon-like. For me it ads an awesome mid range thwomp to the sound. It basically adds balls to just about any tone, weather clean or dirty. I have been able to find that sound in the Kemper.


    As far as the volume boost, I would assume for this to be possible the pedal would have to be in the effects loop like a traditional amp, but i may be wrong. *EDIT* (volume boost is also easily achievable in the Kemper)


    Also, I have found that many profiles come with multiple variations that will often include boutique OD pedals "baked in" to the profile. The gain knob works really well to add more dirt as well. It reacts very naturally, even on amps that were profiled fairly clean. You could always save the same rig setup twice and just add more gain to the second one if you are purely after more dirt.

    Sunshine, thank you for the advice. My thinking aligns with yours with regards to how the loop would react to a pedal being used for a volume boost. I shall look for profiles with similar stompboxes already employed. This is somewhat confusing to me, because I have read that profiling a pedal is not possible, which makes perfect sense to me. I guess the profiling process, when used with a valve amp/stompbox combo, takes the cumulative IR's to make the profile? Cheers :)

    Quote from dallasclemyck

    Sunshine, thank you for the advice. My thinking aligns with yours with regards to how the loop would react to a pedal being used for a volume boost. I shall look for profiles with similar stompboxes already employed. This is somewhat confusing to me, because I have read that profiling a pedal is not possible, which makes perfect sense to me. I guess the profiling process, when used with a valve amp/stompbox combo, takes the cumulative IR's to make the profile? Cheers :)

    It is my understanding that the pedal cannot be profiled by itself and then used as a stomp box in the Kemper. (That would be f***ing amazing, though)


    However, if a stompbox is coloring the tone of the amp during profiling, it will be analyzed and reproduced by the Kemper.


    I have messed with some Marshall profiles with Tube screamers in the profile and you can def hear the character of the green pedal.

    I'm having great results using the tube screamer model. Having owned both a Maxon 808 and modded Ibanez TS9 I think the Kemper TS nails it.

    "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." - Douglas Adams

    @dallasclemyck
    The comp, Kemper has build in actually works fine. I've dialed in a few external stomps like FC FatBoost, a modded Boss BD, and (actually) a Suhr Riot dist using Pre-Effect loop. I'm using a RJM MiniEffectGizmo, which I assigned to Stomp B, so right after my Stop A, which is the interal Comp. This works fine, the Gizmo using MidiCC to dial in the pedal you have choosen.
    Finally, the build boost and dist and fuzz is ok - just matter of taste. I figured out, my config does provide a bit more flexibilty as I can change my external stomp boxes if I want.

    I really like the OD/dist/fuzz Stomps in the Kemper, though the fuzzes don't react exactly like the real-world pedals when using your guitars volume control. There are so many different flavours of fuzz though, so if you have a pedal that you like and can't do without, it makes sense to keep it. There's no Stomp that sounds exactly like a Klon, unless you're only using the pedal as a boost in front of a dirty amp, then I'm sure you'll be able to make do with one of the Boost Stomps or one of the ODs with the gain/drive turned down. The Green Scream sounds exactly like my original TS9 when I dial it in (taking account of the differences between the TS808, which it is modelled on, and a TS9), so no worries there. I've never liked Rat pedals, so never use that Stomp and don't know how authentic it is. The DS1 emulation is pretty neat. You can definitely get that Surfing/Flying in a Blue Dream Satch tone using that in front of a Marshally profile. Sticking a boost in front of the Kemper reacts the same way it does in front of an amp, by the way. In the beginning, I used my Kemper much like I would my AC30TB, running a pedal board in front. I never had any problems and volume boosts are certainly possible.


    I'd definitely hang on to the Univibe pedal. The workarounds in the Kemper (Vibe Phaser, Wah Frequency Shifter) just don't have the wobble that most dedicated clones have. The Kemper variants are OK to give some of that Univibe flavour, but you'll never get that Hendrix Machine Gun tone spot on, unfortunately.

    I think many of us still struggle with letting go of our favourite pedals. So I just decided to keep them and use them, they give me the sounds I want instantly (no fussing around). I use a Voodoo Lab GC and GCX, I can can punch in/out pedals, the Kemper effects with a single button push...so why not!


    The Kemper is a great amplifier platform, so approach it any way you would with a regular tube amp. Pedals are a fun add on.

    Quote from drog

    I think many of us still struggle with letting go of our favourite pedals. So I just decided to keep them and use them, they give me the sounds I want instantly (no fussing around). I use a Voodoo Lab GC and GCX, I can can punch in/out pedals, the Kemper effects with a single button push...so why not!


    The Kemper is a great amplifier platform, so approach it any way you would with a regular tube amp. Pedals are a fun add on.

    The struggle is real...


    I have a AnalogMan Prince of Tone with built in buffer on all the time. It's set to no gain boost and no coloring of tone and the buffer covers my long cables. Also using an AnalogMan AstroTone fuzz & a JHS @ndyTimmons because they sound better than the built in stuff. I did "model" my AstroTone and analogMan TS 808. I A-B'd them with built in "pedals" to get them to sound as close as possible to the real pedals. I use them on some rigs, especially since morphing. W A Y too easy to hit 1 button and have so many things change!


    I use a Catlinbread Andieko as my spring reverb kinda thing. Also a Diaz Tremodillo for tremolo, a Boss Super Octave for Neil Young drive tone, a Boss SY-300 Synth. These are all in a small rack box on the back line and controlled by midi with a Decibel Eleven Loop Expander, commands sent by KPA.

    Learn to Swim

    Quote from sambrox

    I really like the OD/dist/fuzz Stomps in the Kemper, though the fuzzes don't react exactly like the real-world pedals when using your guitars volume control. There are so many different flavours of fuzz though, so if you have a pedal that you like and can't do without, it makes sense to keep it. There's no Stomp that sounds exactly like a Klon, unless you're only using the pedal as a boost in front of a dirty amp, then I'm sure you'll be able to make do with one of the Boost Stomps or one of the ODs with the gain/drive turned down. The Green Scream sounds exactly like my original TS9 when I dial it in (taking account of the differences between the TS808, which it is modelled on, and a TS9), so no worries there. I've never liked Rat pedals, so never use that Stomp and don't know how authentic it is. The DS1 emulation is pretty neat. You can definitely get that Surfing/Flying in a Blue Dream Satch tone using that in front of a Marshally profile. Sticking a boost in front of the Kemper reacts the same way it does in front of an amp, by the way. In the beginning, I used my Kemper much like I would my AC30TB, running a pedal board in front. I never had any problems and volume boosts are certainly possible.


    I'd definitely hang on to the Univibe pedal. The workarounds in the Kemper (Vibe Phaser, Wah Frequency Shifter) just don't have the wobble that most dedicated clones have. The Kemper variants are OK to give some of that Univibe flavour, but you'll never get that Hendrix Machine Gun tone spot on, unfortunately.

    Sambrox, I really appreciate your reply mate. It confirmed a few things for me. I'm glad I held onto these pedals. I always buy pre-owned stuff to mitigate the loss of investment. I'm counting on using the amps for distortion, as opposed to overdrive, so I am hopeful that the results of pushing clean or slightly broken-up tones with said pedals will be positive.


    Apoholic, I feel ya mate. I was put on the waitlist for a King of Tone a year ago. When the time comes, I'll probably buy it and experiment. I hear you can get your money's worth on those too, if you sell them haha.


    A big thank-you to the rest of you, as well! This community is so helpful and knowledgeable.

    Quote from dallasclemyck

    Sunshine, thank you for the advice. My thinking aligns with yours with regards to how the loop would react to a pedal being used for a volume boost. I shall look for profiles with similar stompboxes already employed. This is somewhat confusing to me, because I have read that profiling a pedal is not possible, which makes perfect sense to me. I guess the profiling process, when used with a valve amp/stompbox combo, takes the cumulative IR's to make the profile? Cheers :)

    @dallasclemyck You can't profile effects pedals, but you can profile some dirt/boost pedals. They basically just become part of the gain structure/eq that is saved with the profile in my understanding. Mbritt has several flavors of this in his amp packs (since I know you are looking at using those). He has several with a Klon and Tim pedal in front, they are just whatever settings he was using on the amp + the pedal. I mentioned to you in another thread that I use the built in stomps exclusively, but there are one or two OD's I'd like to have, one being a Superbolt (or something similar). I'd like to use that for leads in conjunction with a slightly broken up amp. Or I could just get a supro profile I guess!