Posts by joshriggs

Hey all. Returning to the Kemper Stage after trying out some different things, and I can't remember the answer: in Performance Mode, are the Pedal I-IV states saved / recalled when you switch between rigs 1-5 in the same performance? I.E., if I load rig 1, then engage the delay assigned to pedal I, then switch to rig 2, if I switch back to rig 1, will the delay (I) still be engaged?

Thanks! That looks like more time than I wanna invest, and I don't like my Kemper cabs that much. ?

Hey all! Sorry if this is covered somewhere else, but frankly the search function of this forum is pretty terrible if you don't know the exact phrase you're looking for.

Anywhoo. I would love to use some of my Kemper profile cabs in other plugins and modelers I use. Can I convert or export a Kemper cab to an IR?

Thanks!

Quote from Tom Sawyer

definitely could use an update as far as the “GUI (?)” the screen and user interaction with the device. Maybe even a touch screen would be sweet as hell.

Or a usb-c connection.

Whatever you do , PLEASE keep the full manufacturing in Germany and don’t cut costs with chinese production and I’ll be waiting in line for the Kemper II

Why does the manufacturing location matter?

Headphones sound brittle because in a sense, they are. Studio headphones typically pass much higher frequencies right in your ear than studio monitors or standard phone earbuds. Turn down your high cut to at least 7.5k for headphone practice, and that should help a lot. Just remember to turn it back up for recording. ?

Been running a Stage with Rug Manager on Big Sur for several weeks with no issues. I'm fact, the only piece of music software I have issues with is my Slate Digital all access pass which still doesn't support Big Sur. Funny, since they've had access to the Big Sur developer build for the same amount of time as every other software developer and plugin maker.

Tl:dr; as you turn the volume up, highs and lows get exaggerated. So you'll need to do your tone tweaking at the levels you'll be playing at. It's perfectly normal (and basically a requirement) to have different EQ and gain settings for recording / studio volume and live volume.

Quote from ericlCarde

On a related note, what is a 'clean' channel and a 'dirty' channel for a profile? Is it primarily the input sensitivity?

::peace::

There aren't channels on a Kemper profile. It's not like a typical modeler because it's not actually modelling the amp. A profile is like a snapshot of the amp and cabinet signal chain, so it's as clean or dirty as it was profiled. You can add extra gain with the gain knob, but that's in no way like switching channels on the real amp.

I do the typical metal trick - green scream with drive at .01 and volume at 5 into a high gain amp. Works just like it does in real life. ?

Works for me without any difference in performance compared to Catalina. ?‍♂️

Quote from YoavHanuka

Hello!

I have a terrible disease...

I can't settle for any high-gain profiles on the Kemper!

When it comes to cleans and crunches I choose pretty easily…

But drives and especially high-gain profiles - I just bounce all around and can't decide...

Can you relate?

Have any tips on that?

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Is your problem that you can't find any you like, or you have too many good options?

Quote from pippopluto

OP: from the discussion it seems likely that your issue is that you make your sounds at low volume; also, check for the cab placement in the room, specially if there're a lot of reflecting surfaces (naked walls, windows, large desktop(s), ceiling, floor... this will increase "disturbs" at the reflecting frequencies.

I know where you're coming from, but a linear cab is not like a guitar cab and, when properly designed and built, its function is to translate what the device amount outputs into moving air without colouring the tone.

In this respect, if the outcome is unpleasant it's the profile that needs to be tweaked (provided that the placement and the room aren't adding some issues).

The CLR is very linear and transparent; certainly there are some other so called "FRFR" cabs

out there that aren't so much.

I realise that if someone doesn't like the sound then they don't, but if what a user is after is a cab that faithfully translates the profile's sound, then they don't want a guitar cabinet's personality and should be using the most linear cab they can afford.
I doubt there's something more linear and transparent than a CLR out there for the money.

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I think you missed my whole point. People like what they like, regardless of how "linear and transparent" it is on paper. I was just saying that if he's having to fight it so much, maybe look for something he doesn't have to fight. I didn't see anything in the original post about looking for the most linear and transparent cab. He just wanted to sound good, which is subjective to everyone.

Its also possible that the CLR doesn't sound good to you. Just because it's popular and expensive doesn't mean it's perfect for everyone. A lot of people love Mission Engineering active cabs, and when I tried one, I didn't like it one bit. Also had a bad experience with another high end FRFR, the Friedman ASM-12. I ended up with a Laney FR-112, and it's great. I would say that if you keep having to fight it for good sound, then try something else out.

Now that I listened a few more times, I agree about the pedal. It sounds kinda like a Rat to me. So also try the Mouse distortion and see if that gets you close.

It sounds to me like a relatively standard Marshall-ish tone through some honky Vintage 30 speakers. I would check through various JCM800 and marshall profiles with v30 cabs, and maybe through a Green Scream in front of it. And crank the mids.

Quote from Ccunningham99

So I am on day four... I must say I was struggling a bit.. had paid for a few profiles figureD it may cut down the learning curve... still felt ..it is ok...

Today I thought I will buy some Top jimi profiles... and I am feeling like ok...there is what people were saying...

Well I locked one of TJ’s cabs... went to another profiler ... and the profile sounded completely different and very useable!

I was wondering if that is part of the magic find the cab or tone and build around that.. these were all Marshall or plexi, Friedman and SLO profiles so all in the same area...

What kind of sounds are you going for? Metal, hard or classic rock? And what is your playing situation? Are you playing loud through an FRFR, or in a studio situation with studio monitors?

Asking because I've found that different profiles sound better in different situations. For me, M. Britt's high gain amp profiles are too dark and muddy for studio use, but sound pretty good when cranked in a live situation. His clean amp profiles sound great in any situation, though. I personally think Top Jimi is kinda overrated, and have not found any of his stuff that I'm crazy about.

I personally play a mix of heavy, high gain profiles, and some clean and edge-of-breakup profiles. For the high gain stuff, I've found a mix of free profiles by Lars Luettge, Jevo, and Petr82 that sound amazing. For paid stuff, I've bought a few packs from ReampZone that also sound great. I have a preset list of my favorite cabs from those profiles, and they all work pretty interchangeably with each other.

Quote from lightbox

I'm not in a rush, publish yours first

Haha, well... it's hardly a hit, and I released it 2 weeks ago, but it *is* using my Kemper Stage for all guitar tones.

In all this time spent debating the technicalities of the new Kemper Drive, ya'll could have already found a bunch of great settings on it and recorded a hit single that sounds great. Just sayin'. ?

Quote from musicmad

I see this argument a lot. To me it's more about how you feel during the performance. You will simply play better. It's not about how the tone is in a mix.

I'm happy playing through a basic drive pedal and a decent tube amp and having more money to put in my 401k, but that's just me. I'm still convinced that the greatest amp ever built was the Mesa Rectoverb Series 2 that I so stupidly traded for some worthless gear. Quirky and hell but it played like an extension of me.

Quote from semguigui

On the debate about "is it better to have one complete model of each original pedal or Kemper Drive?", there's something else that could be said.

Some people like me didn't choose Fractal because tweaking was a nightmare for them, and Kemper proposed tons of immediately usable sounds, in addition to very intuitive settings that don't exist on real amps (and on their models by definition). Well, to me this Kemper drive does it again ! Ok some aspects of the logic is a bit hard to understand and I'll never be able to target a pedal type and retrieve the right numbers of the settings myself from scratch, but the presets with the right names are there anyway, and it's largely enough to make it very simple. The numbers I'll never remember, but the names Yes, then tweaking to taste from a good sweet spot is okay for me.

Another thing I was thinking is about the notion of "sweet spot" that I've never heard before and that I find very interesting. To me it means that among the say 10000 possible settings of a stomp (10^4 combination for a stomp with 4 pots from 1 to 10) only a portion of them sound "sweet", am I right? This explains mainly why tweaking is a nightmare for me... So we can see the Kemper drive as a pedal that navigates from sweet spot to sweet spot of different stomp models. And the good point of it is that among the 10000 settings now, you mainly (if not only) have sweet spots. That's at least the feeling I have when I play with it, and I like it a lot.

This +100000. I had a Fractal FM3 that was a usability nightmare. Sure, I could adjust the voltage and EQ curve of every drive pedal, but what good is all that when there's a noticable lag in scene switching while playing live? And the community response to all the bugs and usability issues was "BUT ITS SO POWERFUL YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF ITS GLORY." Ok, being a buy hyperbolic here, but I'll gladly take better usability and sweet-spot sounds than endless authentic tweakability any day.