New to Playing Live: How do you use a passive Kemper Kabinet on stage?

This can be explained and you can find it in the manual with diagrams of how to set it up. I would suggest that you will not have it sorted for a gig tomorrow since you don't have it sorted today. It seems you need a plan B or something approaching a miracle.

When we say "direct to FOH" or "straight to the PA" that just means the Main output(s) are plugged into a channel in the mixer, with all of the guitar amp sound, stomps, cab, effects... the whole thing. So the audience hears that.

Since it can be hard to hear yourself on stage due to the PA facing away, the Kab plugs into the RED speaker output and you use that to provide your sound to you and the band at a level that works for all.

You need to look up "unlink volume" and do that, so the Main outputs can be sent at the proper and unchanging volume to the mixer and you can adjust the Speaker output separately.

It reminds me an advice i read for photography ; don't buy a brand new camera just before doing a trip to the other side of the world....

It means ; use the one you know.

You've never done shows before, so you'll be stressed, don't add complications with a device you don't master.

Finally explained how to link all together....It's pretty simple but you have to set it too ("unlink volume"), and he didn't talk about "imprints"

You will have time after your shows to make tests..

It's very simple... Main out(s) go to PA(mixer). Passive Kab goes to power amp. You can use main outs with Kab for audience or use main outs for audience and Kab as a your monitor. No mics needed unless you sing.

The sound guy plugs an XLR cable into your Kemper Main Output.
Your Kemper cabinet plugs into the Kemper powered monitor out (red output).
Set your main output to -12db ( soft button)

Unlink your main Kemper volume so that you only control your monitor output and not the main output. This way you can control the sound level of your cabinet onstage without affecting the volume at the soundboard.

I use this set up and in principle its really straight forward as has been said, BUT you need to be familiar with your set up before you gig.

In principle you "just" need:

1) a good set of sounds

2) Connect the speaker out to the Kabinet

3) Master out XLR to the PA. Do NOT mike and do NOT play off your backline. Output set to master mono.

4) make sure the 12db pad switch activated

5) Unlink volumes

6) Test it via a PA

At least to start - my advice is to not get 'cute' with a bunch of sounds. As V8guitar says, get one good set of sounds. Base everything off those.

Just because you *can* use 50 different amps, doesn't mean you need (or even want) to. Eric Johnson built an entire career with two basic sounds and augmented (fuzz, dirt, mod etc) as needed.

Quote from Ruefus

At least to start - my advice is to not get 'cute' with a bunch of sounds. As V8guitar says, get one good set of sounds. Base everything off those.

Just because you *can* use 50 different amps, doesn't mean you need (or even want) to. Eric Johnson built an entire career with two basic sounds and augmented (fuzz, dirt, mod etc) as needed.

This is really good advice. I approached it much the same way at the start. My first gigs were with one profile, some simple effects with a guitar cab. I used browser mode and a simple foot controller. I used the Kemper like a more traditional pedal board with a single amp approach. This worked very well.

I then got 'cute' with it over time for a rock cover band that had many different sounds and profiles. I got a Remote and started using performance mode with many different profiles and effects with all the bells and whistles. That approach is very versatile and also a pain in the ass. Lot's of programming involved which the Remote help simplified. Using a different controller would have made it much more difficult. The biggest issue for me is balancing the volume of the many profiles and effects pedals. This is a real hassle for me as it seems to be a bit of a moving target. It is not like using a single amp with pedals. It is very easy to get it wrong and very difficult to get it totally right. I keep tweaking levels in what feels like a slow convergence cycle. It is no fun when you change a performance slot mid song and something happens that you don't expect. It's not like you can reach down to your pedal board and bump the volume on your fuzz pedal for instance. Diving through menus on the front panel to correct it mid performance is not something I am willing to do.

The Kemper has a lot of power that requires time to harness. Which leads back to my original comment of getting it all sorted before you take it to a gig.

there is great advice above ... the "complaint" many have about Kemper and all the modeling/profiling amps is that there are too many options and you get sucked down the rabbit hole of endless tweaking and trying different amps. That palette of tone is also the biggest benefit.

For live work, however, you just have to focus on core tones. I love having the Kemper live, where I use maybe 4-5 different amp rigs, because our band covers a very wide range of music. I've never had the "luxury" of being in a band where I could just have one tone (a marshall, or a vox, or whatever). We go from Steely Dan to Deep Purple to Steve Miller. I'd have to have 3 amps on stage and a massive pedalboard to cover the tones needed (which is what I used to do before the Kemper).

Now I have one performance for strats (containing 3 different rigs), one for 'buckers (containing 2 rigs), one for acoustic, and then a couple miscellaneous performances that contain favorite Marshalls, Fenders, and Dr. Z's that I use on a whim if I feel like it. It took months of testing out different things to finalize this, but it started literally with me sitting down and making a list of the minimum amps I wanted, and the effects I needed. Then programmed them in and tweaked settings, determining when I could lock some effects in for the entire performance slot, and then tweaking rig volumes for balance.

Sometimes it feels like I'm leaving a lot on the table given I probably have 2,000 profiles in Rig Manager -- but most of those are really of no use to me (metal, heavy reverb delay) especially in a live (i.e., not recording) setting, and the ones that are useful are likely not very different from the few I've settled on. It's the "fear of missing out" that makes us want to load 100 amps.

Thanks guys for sharing all the good ideas for using the kemper in a live situation.