Kemper Stage - Dual Use with Amplifier

    Hi all. Andrew (aka Mightypudge) here, again.


    I have a question for all you tone masters out there. I am doing a session for a friend, laying down some tracks for a few songs he's written, and he's keen on me using his Mesa amplifier for the primary amp tones. (Yes, I told him I have about a zillion amps at my disposal, and they're his songs, so I am respecting his wishes.)

    But I digress. While my friend has the amp, neither of us have any pedals to use with it. I do have the Kemper Stage though, so I thought it would be cool to use the Kemper for all the effects, both in front of the amp for overdrive and distortion, and in the effects loop for time-based and modulation effects.


    I'm wondering a) if this setup is possible, and b) may there be any degradation of tone due to my signal going through so many cables and round-trips through the Kemper?


    Thanks all!

    Husband, Father, Pajama Enthusiast

    I think you can use your loop send to the front of the boogie and get overdrives, compressors etc. you’d have to put the loop in front of the amp block and your fx in front of that. You could also use the 4 cable method if you wanted delays and reverbs after the boogie preamp.

    A brace of Suhrs, a Charvel, a toaster, an Apollo twin, a Mac, and a DXR10

    Like 1
    Quote from Morph

    You could also use the 4 cable method if you wanted delays and reverbs after the boogie preamp.


    Yep, this is what I was hoping to do. Would this 4-cable method allow me to use both overdrives in front of the preamp and delays after the preamp? If so, sounds like a winner.

    Husband, Father, Pajama Enthusiast

    Quote from mightypudge

    Yep, this is what I was hoping to do. Would this 4-cable method allow me to use both overdrives in front of the preamp and delays after the preamp? If so, sounds like a winner.

    as I recall and off the top of my head, cable 1 into the KPA, cable two from the KPA send to boogie input, cable 3 from boogie send to KPA return, cable 4 from KPA out to boogie return. You have to put the loop in a slot and enable it, use mono for this. Turn off amp and cab blocks. It’s pretty convoluted when you could just use a profile straight into the desk but needs must I guess. Distortions and comps before the KPA send, revs and delays after. Good luck man

    A brace of Suhrs, a Charvel, a toaster, an Apollo twin, a Mac, and a DXR10

    Like 1

    If I were you I would just focus on getting a great miked sound on the Mesa and add effects later in the DAW.


    I would be tempted to use a splitter to send your guitar signal to both the Mesa and the Stage and record both (and the raw guitar sound on another). That way you can choose whatever you want, or just have the effects on the Stage side.

    The other obvious option is to profile the Mesa...


    But I would agree, try to record dry and then add effects post recording. Quite often you want to strip back the effects at mix down and if you record with them on obviously you can't do this...