Posts by Jonelli

  • Stage Pedal Board Case build.

    I was transitioning from a pedal board+tube preamp/rack fx. After setting up the Kemper Stage, I still needed two pedals plus my vocal pedal, but I didn't need the big 26"/66cm pedal board case.
    I also wasn't sure what to do with the Kemper Stage for transport, so I initially bought a pelican style case for it, but wasn't happy because it's a useless case other than for transport.
    I really liked the Thomann cases, they looked really nice, but wasn't willing to order from Europe and pay the $200 just for the convenience.
    Instead, I looked for a smaller version of the case/briefcase that I could use for the remaining pedals, and decided to cannibalize my old Coffin Black Kross case to fit the Kemper. Nothing off the shelf in an aluminum briefcase would quite fit the Kemper. Everything I could find was about 1 inch short in width. And anything dedicated for guitarists was too wide and not deep enough.
    The Coffin Case Black Kross pedal case was 26x12(66x30.5) just right for the kemper if I shortened it.


    I had to be careful to cut all the pieces correctly so I can re-use everything:


    I re-riveted it all back together:


    Then, to figure out how to permanently and safely mount the Kemper into the tray. I used a 1/2" plywood covered with 2mm EVA foam and some black felt for nice looks, and then used longer screws (keeping the rubber feet of the Kemper still in place, so there's air space under it) to mount it all the way through the base board:


    Then after pressing the whole thing into the lid, I secured the wood to the case lid with 4 screws around the outside:


    Finally, for the remaining pedals I needed to keep in my rig, I bought an off-the-shelf briefcase, removed the rear hinges and added 2 more latches, then re-used the pedal board ramp that used to be inside the Coffin case and fit it into the new briefcase:


    A trick I learned a long time ago for attaching pedals is to use a Bicycle Chain, break it apart and use all the tiny links as screw mounts for the pedals:



    This will be my final rig setup:


    Two briefcases:

  • Impulse Response profiling

    It would be interesting to know how different it could sound between IR merge and the "studio profile".
    I'm new as well, and I've been playing with direct profiling of my electronics. I have lots of acoustical measurement equipment to measure and create speaker IR's all day long, but from what I'm reading, the profiling function does some measuring of the dynamic coloration of the speaker cab that you can never really get out of an IR.

    I'm wondering if I make an IR using noise at extreme levels, essentially capturing the compression dynamics of the cabinet, how different that could sound?

    I think I have a bunch of experiments in my future.

  • Never thought I'd go "virtual"

    I play in a punky original band, and over the years I've made my favorite sounds I like with a TubeWorks RT922 Pre Amp, Ramshead Muff, Morley Silver Wah, a GMajor2, and a Rickenbacker 330, all through custom stereo 2x12 self-powered guitar cabinets I built myself on a CNC (I work for a loudspeaker manufacturer for 20+ years). The amps in my speakers are Class AB Mono 300 Watt with Linear power supplies.
    I never considered going emulation-based for whatever emotional perceptions I had. Instead I bought things like a Mesa TriAxis to try and control all my sounds. But a good friend guitar player who is in a famous punk band told me he did finally, and I started considering it. I realized how fragile and limited even the Mesa TriAxis was, and thought that this level of complexity with low reliability was not a great solution.

    I had heard and seen Kempers, but honestly, I ignored everything about modeling processors, so I didn't pay attention. When someone told me about the profiling function of the Kemper, I got really interested.
    I contacted my famous friend again, and he happened to have a couple of them at his studio and brought one home for me to try out.
    I called another friend who is a tube guitar amp engineer to come over, and with a few beers we started digging into the Kemper. Needless to say, our heads exploded with excitement of what this thing could literally do. We tested out the profiling functions and laughed to ourself how rediculously good it was. I was sold.

    So, I bought a Stage Profiler to purely model/profile my own rig that I have spent years making my own sound out of. I plan to expand from there, but that's my starting point.
    I guess I was already halfway there having been using self-powered guitar speakers, profiling my electronics and putting right back into my cabs is as good as it gets.

    I'm still stuck with a couple of pedals I can't get rid of yet, so my pedal footprint hasn't shrunk too much yet. I'll work on that over time.
    I don't think I need too much help with anything. I have found all the relevant info online and in videos that I've needed to know so far. The manual, while extensive and complete, is not very good at answering application or workflow questions.

    I'm in SoCal, USA.

  • Tremolo // Square Wave tremolo.

    Quote from Finally

    I know it's nice to have it all in the Kemper, but I use a Bogner compressor, Bogner distortion, the Freqout, and a tuner with offsets anyway. I've been toying with getting a Strymon Mobius for some better and more flexible modulation effects, but I think that'll be a bridge too far as I'd want to use it in stereo and don't even know if that's feasible with the Kemper.

    This is not the same thing at ALL. There is already a trem with a triangle /\/\ wave form. The math is already there, it just needs to be adjusted. Nobody's asking for a completely new modulation effect.
    This seems like a "should be easy to do" feature from a software point of view. All the controls are there already. Just change the waveform math.

    My guess (being that I also work for a manufacturer) is that this feature is so low on the priority list for software development resources, it gets overlooked/forgotten/pushed out, and may never get done unless more people raise a flag.