Posts by wpleary

Hi everyone. I'm a brand new Kemper user. I received my unpowered "toaster" and floor controller about a week ago. Definitely really enjoying the sounds I'm getting out of it so far. I have to admit I felt completely overwhelmed the first couple days, as I spent hours going through the 287-or so included rigs, and then diving into some of the packs and then the Rig Exchange. I told a friend it was like walking into a guitar store that had 15,000 amps. I realized I was wasting too much time, so focused on trying to record a song, and then selected the few tones I thought would work for those, and then start trying to record with it, to focus my learning.

I think the biggest observation I have so far is how different it seems to sound between various guitars. One guitar will sound epic with one rig, and another one not at all. The difference between "perfection" and "meh" between guitars on a single rig seems more than I'm accustomed to before. Also a given rig may sound perfect with a certain pickup selection, but not so much on another. I've just started playing around with other settings like Definition and Direct Mix, and really liking the results.

So far I bought a few rig packs, from Big Hairy Sounds and Selah Sounds. I do wish there was some way to preview various offerings before you buy within the Rig Manager for a limited time. That would be a killer feature. The various packs have all been inexpensive, so not a big deal.

I've been playing guitar since about 1987, but my playing ability doesn't reflect that amount of time. I also have generally been a fan of bands that don't have the most complicated guitar parts (The Cure, Nirvana, Weezer, Pixies, etc...) and wish I'd been more influenced by more complicated stuff when first starting out. When young spent a lot of time jamming (I was always the rhythm player) with friends in garages, but after getting married, took about a 7 year hiatus. When my wife started to go back to school, I had tons of time, and realized I should start playing again, and haven't looked back. While I do a lot of covers, my true love is writing (crappy) original songs.

I've never been a gearhead; for years and years at a time I've been content with one or two guitars, a single amp, and a tuner pedal. We live in an apartment, so I can't be loud, and I can't store too much stuff. The past year or so, I've been starting to get into recording, and was using Reaper and a Focusrite, initially both mic'ing and using direct out of my BOSS Katana, and then mostly AmpliTube and BIAS FX. While the sounds were OK, I still didn't think what I heard back was as good as what I wanted to hear. I kept seeing YouTube videos about the Kemper, and just didn't want to get it because of the cost. But, finally decided to pull the trigger, and think I'm glad I did. I think it fits the bill of what I need perfectly. (Though I do hope Rig Manager gets quite a bit better...) My first recording with the Kemper is here. Just tried an old Cure song I like, with no EQing or any other effects, just to hear the guitars. With VSTs, I always heard what I would describe as some kind of 'hiss' or 'fizz'...hard to describe, that I just couldn't get to go away with these kinds of distortions. I was pleased with the Kemper tones, and can't wait to play more with EQing and additional effects.

I am afraid now this is the beginning of getting more Kemper products, as I'm pretty sure I will now want to buy the Kabinet, as it isn't super satisfying playing constantly through headphones or studio monitors. Here is my "studio" now, which is our kitchen table. I used to have a little music corner, but ever since COVID, my wife has been sewing a lot, and needed to take over the standing desk, due to getting back pain. Hopefully someday I'll have a nice, dedicated music room.

Thanks whippingpost. Will probably do this weekend, as working now. I didn't sleep well last night, and woke up around 4:30 AM this morning, and had nothing else to do so started playing around, really focusing on trying to get some rigs I liked dialed in. While I was successful...I think...(I would turn off the Kemper, close Rig Manager, then turn the Kemper back on, and then open Rig Manager, to confirm things were indeed saved as I thought they should be)...my frustration and confusion grew. I'm pretty sure I will grow to love it, as the tones so far are indeed way better than anything else I've heard. I live in an apartment and can't be loud. To record, so far I've mic'd my Katana Artist while on .5 watts, used the direct out on it, same with a Tech 21 amp...used VST plugins...the KPA is definitely far superior to all of those. I also really love the physical layout and design of the toaster. Only took an hour or two to get it, and now it makes so much sense. Just wanting the RM to get better.

Thanks for the reply GString. I’m glad I’m not missing something fundamental. Looking forward to the next version. My KPA OS version is 7.3.2.16239.

New KPA user here. Definitely having a love/hate relationship with it as of this point, and most of the hate portion is frustration with Rig Manager. Trying to understand how it works. I've read the manual, which is frankly horrible. The main manual for the KPA is great, but the Rig Manager manual is a different story. I'm on Win 10 version 3.0.120.16236.

Here are some of the confusion around the orange buttons on bottom right, specifically "Store Rig in Local Library", "Store Rig in Profiler", and "Store Rig".

1. "Store Rig in Local Library" is always lit up, as if I need to do this. After selecting any rig...anywhere...this button is always lit up. I would think this button only lights up if you are browsing a rig somewhere on the Rig Exchange, but no mater what I do, this button is active. If I do click it, such as from a folder within the Local Library, it simply takes what I'm working on and copies it up to the parent, out of all the folders. Aren't the folders part of the Local Library? Why is this button always lit up?
2. "Store Rig" is almost always lit up as well. If I select any rig in my local library, this button is perpetually lit up orange, except for immediately after I click it (after making some changes) and then it goes dark, along with 'Store Rig in Profiler'. (Yes, 'Store Rig in Local Library' stays orange, as mentioned above.)

With these issues, its almost impossible to at a glance know what the status is of the rig you are on? Does it need to be saved? Is it stored locally or not? While I love the tones of the KPA (got it as I was unhappy with Bias FX and AmpliTube tones), this is the worst software I've ever used. It is really taking away from my enjoyment of my Kemper. I am mostly sitting in front of my computer, as I'm working with Reaper and other plugins, so was really looking forward to controlling the KPA primarily from this software.