Thanks for the suggestion! In the meantime I have already decided not to get the remote yet, only problem now is if I go non powered r powerhead and f I should get the Kemper Kabinet too, regarless of what head I choose...
Thanks for the advice, I may end up getting the Torpedo too along the way, but I will go Kemper for now because of the flexibility, I want to be able to record away from home easily and many weekends (i.e. when I have more time for that) I have to be away
Thanks again, I can probably afford the remote if I skip the Kabinet, but until now it seemed like a good idea to skip the remote and try my midi pedalboard first. The Tonelab SE is really sophisticated midi wise and most of its controls are freely assignable to any midi controller message, I think it can even do sysex. I am not going live yet and it will take some time for the band to get ready for that, until then I believe I will have sorted things out and if the Tonelab SE doesn't cut it, I could always get the remote later. Still, I have started thinking about getting the remote now. If I did this, an option would be to skip the powered Kemper head, go unpowered and get both the Kabinet and remote. I lean towards getting the powerhead just for the sake of convenience, but it might turn out to be overkill.... On the other hand the powerhead seems perfectly matched to the Kabinet....I really don't know what to do now....
Thanks, your post was the second reassurance that the Kemper is at least equal to the loadbox route and undoubtedly loads more convenient. As I said I have already decided to get the head, but I am now confused as to which configuration I should choose, at the moment I have to leave out either the Poweramp, the Kabinet or the remote....
That was invaluable info, thank you very much!
Kemper has a 45 day no-questions-asked return policy.
That would be awesome. I will ask the store in Athens, Greece about that, I wasn't aware....Thnx again!
Thanks for the input. I am leaning towards the Kemper indeed and it is nice to hear reassuring voices, I really hope I get constantly and consistently blown away by the Kemper, I have tried it twice in a music store in Athens, where I am located, and the first time a month ago it blew me way indeed, equally through headphones and through powered studio monitors. Second time I went there yesterday with a lead guitarist mate from another band, also a tube afficionado, with the prospect or leaving the store with at least the powerhead. My friend was impressed by the stack (amp + eq + cab) profiling and also by the dynamic response in playing, but after 1 and a half hour he told me he felt the unit a bit digital-ish and in addition he was not impressed by the effects, while I was. I, too, had the feeling that most of the profiles we scrolled through had the same "core sound", if I make sense. Truth be told, I didn't get to play as much as the first time nor was I as concentrated, nor I messed up too much with gain and eq as I did the first time, and it was messing with these that blew me away... Plus, I have enough experience of digital stuff to acknowledge that it is impossilble to evaluate the full potential of such an advanced device within such a short trial time. It is clear that one has to own a Kemper for some time to get to explore its merits.
Nevertheless, I didn't buy the Kemper yesterday, as my friend's view somehow stopped me, got me into second thoughts. But later the same evening we went to his band's rehearsal, where he initially was trying to demonstrate to me how much better and more lively his HIWATT Custom 200 Head plus 4x12 HIWATT cab combined with an Eventide H9 harmonizer and various analog pedals would come out, only to find himself a bit later admitting that there was no substantial difference to the quality and dynamic response of the sound of the Kemper. Totally different situations, I know, and not a fair comparison, but an experienced guitarist will undoubtedly know what I mean.
I will probably get the Kemper tomorrow, but I was wondering about whatnyiu commented about the remote... Wouldn't this money be better invested in a Kemper Kabinet to marry with the powerhead, since I already have a super capable midi pedalboard? What would the remote give me that I won't be able tomachieve with the Tonelab SE? I could of course get the full package (powerhead + Kabinet + Remote) at once, but in this case money starts to be an issue...
Thanks for the reply, sorry to hear about your powerhead having been stolen... Currently I use a MacBook Pro M1 with Logic paired with the Audient iD14 USB interface, I believe it has spdif/adat in out with good results, but have yet to use it to find out. I would like to pose to you the same question as above....Do I really need the remote? And what about the Kabinet?
@ JEverly
Thanks for the detailed and very helpful reply. I understand that you chose to keep both a kemper setup and a reactive loadbox, which is something I was cosidering too, I just do not have any experience with either for recording and as I said, I am trying to avoid getting equipment I will not eventually use, if it is possible. I have a good deal of analog and digital synthesizer and studio equipment background so I am confortable with the kemper interface and if I went with KPA I would probably go the head route (powered/unpowered) as I think it is more convenient to carry around and use in any enviroment plus it has better controls than the stage for recording use. If I go Kemper, do you think I should go powered or unpowered and Kabinet or no Kabinet? And do you think there is a point to also get a loadbox for my tubes , regardless?
Since "Money is not an issue," buy a Kemper and see if it works for you, if not sell it and don't look back. In the end, YOUR opinion will be the only one that matters.
Thank you for your reply, I have indeed this option and I guess I will need some time with the kemper anyway, to decide if it is for me, but, still, I posted here in the hope that I could gain some insight prior to proceeding with the acquisition of the kemper, as, out of experience, the reselling process always consumes time and effort and time and effort spent this way is always an issue. By the way, I meant money is not an issue regarding the purchase of the full Kemper package minus remote...
Hello everyone!
I am new to the forum and this is my first post, but I have been scrolling through the values threads for quite some time now. I know similar questions have come up before., but I would appreciate some unbiased input from the experienced Kemper users, about what it would be best to do in my specific situation. I ask in adavance for your sympathy for my fairly long post...
I do not yet own a Kemper, but I'm very seriously considering pulling the trigger tomorrow on one. I have been using solely tubes for three years now, after two decades of using modelers and plugins, during which time el. guitar was not my primary instrument. This last period though my compositions rely heavily on guitar and I don't want to go back to digital, as I find the simplicity and warmth of tube heads unsurpassed, extremely inspirational and very much suited to my ear and my current way of composing.
My setup consists of a Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 36 head with EL84s, a Conrford Roadhouse 50 head with 6l6s and a H&K 2x12 cabinet with V30s. I am perfectly satisfied with this rig, as I compose mostly grunge - punk - alternative metal with elements of black metal and this setup has turned out to be almost perfect for my needs, save for the extremely high gain tones, which still can be manageable and passable.
The thing is I have recently formed a new band and we are working on an album. Since I compose the band's music, I have been bent on creating demos of the upcoming album tracks and I found myself short of equipment to record my tubes the way I would like. Due to demanding work hours, I usually only have the time to record in my house in late hours, meaning I cannot crank up the volume of my tubes to get the desired tone, plus the room space is not ideal anyway, even though I have good mics. We have a basement for rehearsals, but I cannot use that for composing and preparing the demos due to the reason I mentioned above (difficult hours) and when we start recording the album we will probably go to a prof. studio for the guitar, bass, vocal and drum parts, but until then I must have already prepared the demos.
Trying to sort this out I have thought of two possible solutions. 1) To get a reactive loadbox with cab ir sim (probably the two notes torpedo studio, as it seems maybe the best ofmthe bunch) so as to be able to use my heads at full volume at any hour of the day or 2) Get a Kemper profiler, which I have already tried and liked for it's tube -like dynamic response. The second solution seems more appealing, as it gives me the flexibility, say, to recond on my laptop even if I am away from my house for the weekend (Taking the KPA with me is very easy and convenient).
Now the questions are .... Firstly, if recording quality is of the highest priority here, would I be better off with the torpedo, or with the KPA? Secondly, if I choose to go with the Kemper, should I get the powerhead or with the unpowered version (given that I also have an Alesis RA 300 stereo power amp which can also be bridged - getting the powerhead would save me carrying around the heavy Alesis PA, but the powerhead us only mono) ? Thirdly, in any Kemper scenario, should I also get the Kemper Kabinet (As I understand it, a full Kemper concept is Powerhead plus Kabinet for getting the sound inteneded by the Kemper designers). And last, is there any value in getting the kemper remote too to have the full product line, provided I already have a Vox Tonelab SE, whuch can be used as a very capable midi pedalboard featuring 2 progammable foot pedals?
Money is not an issue, but by pronciple I don't any more want to acquire stuff that I will not use adequately.
Apologies again for the huge post, still I keep hope that this thread might help others in a situation similar to mine.
Any input more that welcome and appreciated!
