...oh and the Kemper Kabinet is a great alternative to a guitar cab. Although you love your cab, the colouration will be huge....but that's purely a personal view 
Kemper convert here
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...oh and the Kemper Kabinet is a great alternative to a guitar cab. Although you love your cab, the colouration will be huge....but that's purely a personal view
Yes a regular speaker & cab will color it a bit. Thing is, so will the live P.A. and the room so no matter how "accurate" your monitor is it probably won't match the FOH anyway. Going in front and comparing that to what you think you hear is the key for me. After a while, I know if my guitar cab sounds like this,the front will sound like this. A Kemper cabinet wouldn't change the need to do that, you still need to know what the FOH is doing. Once that is dialed in pretty well, it's just a matter of slight EQ for the FOH person.
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Yes a regular speaker & cab will color it a bit. Thing is, so will the live P.A. and the room so no matter how "accurate" your monitor is it probably won't match the FOH anyway. Going in front and comparing that to what you think you hear is the key for me. After a while, I know if my guitar cab sounds like this,the front will sound like this. A Kemper cabinet wouldn't change the need to do that, you still need to know what the FOH is doing. Once that is dialed in pretty well, it's just a matter of slight EQ for the FOH person.
I agree that:
1) Accuracy between FOH and monitor is not a viable goal. They are and will always sound different
2) FOH sound is the most important.
My point was that guitar cabs add a huge amount of colour. A much bigger part of the sound that you might think. This had the effect for me of "smothering" the profiles so they all sounded very similar. A guitar cab is quite some way from FRFR....but FRFR is clinical. The Kabinet is middle ground which, in my opinion, is far more preferable.
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I agree that:
1) Accuracy between FOH and monitor is not a viable goal. They are and will always sound different
2) FOH sound is the most important.
100%. My belief is an open back cab with a clear neutral speaker is best for a traditional setup. Anytime I have used closed back, it might sound decent but too colored in the low end. Plus open back cabs are great if not using IEM as it projects the sound more omnidirectional. To me IEMs and FRFR cabs take the "rock" out of it. It's so important to have that cab/guitar interaction to make the feel right for me. People wonder why they may not like a Kemper through their monitor speakers vs their "real" amp and IMO most of that is because they don't use the Kemper like a real amp. I've reported this before but I think it's vital to have a "real" cab in the studio along with my studio monitors when recording to supply the natural feedback and interaction between strings and volume. Without that interaction, the feel is not natural to me.
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100%. My belief is an open back cab with a clear neutral speaker is best for a traditional setup. Anytime I have used closed back, it might sound decent but too colored in the low end. Plus open back cabs are great if not using IEM as it projects the sound more omnidirectional. To me IEMs and FRFR cabs take the "rock" out of it. It's so important to have that cab/guitar interaction to make the feel right for me. People wonder why they may not like a Kemper through their monitor speakers vs their "real" amp and IMO most of that is because they don't use the Kemper like a real amp. I've reported this before but I think it's vital to have a "real" cab in the studio along with my studio monitors when recording to supply the natural feedback and interaction between strings and volume. Without that interaction, the feel is not natural to me.
Yeah and I think that was the whole point of the Kabinet. You lose the "amp in the room" sound with an FRFR speaker but a guitar cab just adds so much to the sound that you also lose something ( IMO) using a cab - I feel you lose more than you gain. The Kabinet was, of course, designed to hit that compromise.
I started with a 4 x12 with celestions in it ( G12H's and V30's - classic rock set up) and miked it up. I thought it sounded OK.
I then realized I was missing a fundamental advantage of the KPA - going direct. So I plugged it in....yuk! It put me off....but....turned out my profiles weren't good and in fact I'd eq'ed the hell out of them to get them to sound good via a Cab.
So I started again, but using FRFR as my reference - it was like taking a blanket off my speakers. I could hear the difference between the profiles AND an changes I made were obvious. I had my FOH sound.
I then went FRFR so I could hear that goodness but it just seemed clinical. Definitely lost something. Then enter Kabinet and Im happy.
I don't expect it to sound the same as FOH BUT I do want to hear differences in the profiles. The Kabinet is the closest compromise I've heard so far.
...but there is no right and wrong. I love the fact we have all these options....
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started with a 4 x12 with celestions in it ( G12H's and V30's - classic rock set up) and miked it up. I thought it sounded OK.
I then realized I was missing a fundamental advantage of the KPA - going direct. So I plugged it in....yuk! It put me off...I had almost the exact same journey, using same speakers and for sure those awesome rock speakers add something to the Kemper that's already there. Like putting a speaker sim on a profile that has a speaker sim on it. Those speakers do a great job with a direct amp sound but you don't need what they do with a Kemper. That's why I went with a very uncolored "regular" speaker. At first like you I didn't like the direct sound until I realized my recordings sounded better having clear pure professional sounds. It was the sound of an amp miked properly going to tape, not "amp in the room"
The Kabinet was, of course, designed to hit that compromise.
I guess I didn't think of that, makes sense. But since it doesn't matter out front where it matters the most, I'm fine with a transparent "regular" speaker. Mine really does sound great cranked and if it works it works. I was jamming with a new drummer that never heard of or seen a Kemper, looked at my tiny amp and 1x12 telling me he was a loud drummer and I'll possibly get drowned out. I told him I had the power here to blow him off his stool. He didn't believe it so I had to show him
. I rattled a model car right off of a shelf onto the floor. (mostly unharmed) Of course I blamed him. -
I rattled a model car right off of a shelf onto the floor. (mostly unharmed) Of course I blamed him.
love it.
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Mine really does sound great cranked and if it works it works. I was jamming with a new drummer that never heard of or seen a Kemper, looked at my tiny amp and 1x12 telling me he was a loud drummer and I'll possibly get drowned out. I told him I had the power here to blow him off his stool. He didn't believe it so I had to show him
. I rattled a model car right off of a shelf onto the floor. (mostly unharmed) Of course I blamed him.Agree, if it works, it works
Love that story!!!
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Thanks V8guitar , much appreciated. Yes, please, I'd like to know about your ethercon upgrade, sounds like a perfect solution. And, yes/agreed, to all other suggestions. I've been neck deep in editing and trying to get set in time for gigs. Still sorting out the plethora of details for my particular requirements; at times frustrating. Currently trying to resolve an issue with the Direct Out.
One way is to send it out to British Audio and they will put a Ethercon jack on it. Another is to go out with a short ethernet cable into a panel mount Ethercon and mount a panel to the back of a rack. If it goes bad, 20 bucks will make it like new again. There are even some places that make Kemper panels that have most if not all connectors so that you're never plugging/unplugging directly to/from the unit. Of course the challenge is if you have a head, you pretty much have to install it in a rack which is why I wish I had a rack instead of the head. I love the head for space and operating it from the desktop but for live a rack makes more sense to me. I was going to try to sell mine and buy a rack but I didn't want to take a big loss.
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Thanks V8guitar , much appreciated. Yes, please, I'd like to know about your ethercon upgrade, sounds like a perfect solution.
Sure, its pretty simple really...
I have a PoE ( TP link one from the Kemper approved list) and an ethernet connection from Kemper into the PoE which remains permanently connected. This reduces the strain on the KPA.
Then I have an ethernet connection to an ethercon socket mounted on a patch panel in my rack (as I have a power rack in a rack case).
I took the current KPA remote lead and converted the ethernet end to ethercon ( you can buy a Neutrix conversion kit) and boom - all done.
The key here really is where to mount the ethercon socket....as I had a patch panel it was no issue for me.
Hope that helps..
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Welcome!
