Posts by Bluesman

I only bought a few which I needed. Have to say that I am very satisfied. They are worth every cent.

Thanks for your input. Can anybody try a profile with JBs amp settings? He always uses the 2555 as the base of his sound and adds another amp depending on what he needs. So it's always to amps at the same time, but the 2555 is the most important. Even though he uses 2 amps at the same time, there is only one signal coming out of the PA system at the end. So it must be possible to dial in and out the missing behavior of the added amp. Not 100% for sure, but it should come close.
With the existing amps it already goes in the right direction. Maybe others are interested too and we work on it together. Because JB uses such a sophisticated rig, it is a real challenge for the KPA. Let's see how close we get.

Unfortunately Joe Bonamassa's skills are really great. So the amount of sound comming out of his fingers is very big. But we are not bad also, are we??

Just take a looper and play along with the original line. Your drummer has to play with click track then. Our your keyboarder plays the second voice.

I just checked out the recommended profiles. Yes - it's going in the right direction. I had to change the speaker though, but the amps sounding great.
Thanks for helping out with your hints.

I am searching for a Marshall silver jubilee 2550/2555. Couldn't find one in the rig exchange. Anybody here who owns such an amp and would do a profile?
Still trying to get this Bonamassa tone.

Using the monitor out sounds different from the using only one main out. Does one main out (left or right) deliver the combined stereo signal or just one side?

That's also my idea so far. Using both worlds till I found the perfect solution. Most of the monitor speaker I tried sounded like total crap. I would lose the fun to play guitar period with such sounds, though there are surlely better devices which I didn't come across yet, because I refuse to pay more than 500-700 Euro for such a speaker.

Till now I can live very good with one Alto monitor in front of me for the direct and more "transparency" sound and one or two EV12L Thiele cabs powered by a Matrix GT800FX for the real amp feeling. For rehearsals and small clubs the Alto is enough for me.

I am only using a handful of sounds. Your are one of them at the moment. Great profiles.

It also could have something to do with "disturbing" the boot process by touching the wah or the midi board. I remember reproducing a failure by doing so.

The bottom end is a bit wobbly and untight. But as a budget solution absolutely ok. You can dial it out a bit and you can try the EQ-presets. Also I found out, that both of the speaker, which I tested side by side, sounded different. But that's normal with all speaker. It's always good to be able to pick one out of a big pile, when buying budget stuff. Another advice for the Altos: You really don't need two of them, unless you want to go stereo. One is powerfull enough.

Same problem here. Had no issues before. I suspect heavy adjustments of some parameters. While I was testing different speaker I had to turn the main volume / monitor volume up and down many times. Maybe this is a reason?

Yesterday I continued my search for FRFR solutions. I tested Yamaha DXR 12, LD Systems LDEB 122a - both sounded totally crap, useless for my taste. Another option was way better - HK pro 10xa. Very tiny but powerfull. Worth to have a closer look.

Then I borrowed 2 APG 8" and APG 12" from a friend (PA Company). What a difference. These are passiv monitors. I used my Matrix GT800FX for power amp. Wow - cristal clear. 8" is maybe a little small. But the price tag is way out of what I could accept anyway. My friend says the 8" version is about 1000 Euro a piece. I didn't ask about the 12 " version anymore. Regardsless how they sound (very good), not my deal. After playing a while I switched back to the cheap Altos.

It sounded as if somebody threw a heavy blanket over the speakers. All the clarity gone and a honky midrange added. Not really an improvement. But after a 2 minutes this impression vanished and it sounded somehow better. Yes - in a way even better than the expencive high tech APGs. It just sounded more like a real amp in the room.

I than decided to take one of the Altos to a jam session later on. I am totally convinced, that the Altos are a serious option for everybody who is looking for a budget solution. I had to struggle (musicwise) against 2 other guitarplayer (both with tube amps). The Alto monitor was standing on the floor and it still filled the room. I had to stay a step sidewards of the speaker in order to not go deaf.

Before I finally will try the so often mentioned RCF NX, I am still interested in other cheaper solution. Which ones would come close to the RCFs. I also think, the concept of using coax speaker is the way to go, because the spread the sound very nice. They seem to be ideal for guitar tones. Any recommendations for me?

Keep the Kemper - just owe your bank and tell them : I am too small to fail!!

Hope you are comming back!

Yes - I know, but that shouldn't influence the distortion (that's what I actually meant by gain). Is that right?

Today I picked up the second Alto for testing. Soundwise no big changes (expected). Fuller, stereo (nice). Real loud.

What I found out not only with the Altos, the monitor output produces more gain than the main outs. Is this normal or did I miss a setting?
I am using the quarter inch jack. Is that the same as the XLRs?

I just dicovered a possibly perfect solution for many guitarists. Myself I am trying to go towards FRFR, but I have difficulties with the typical monitors on the market. The all might be good for vocals, drums and whatever, but for guitar the all sound artificial for me. I didn't check the all time recommended RCF NX-12sma. I probably will not do that in the future, because I refuse to pay such money for a monitor. I rather wait for other solutions.

At the moment I am using a Matrix GT800FX into two EV12L Thiele Cabs (TubeTown). So far I am quite satisfied, but I still feel the need for checking out FRFR. Yesterday, while I was on tour for testing monitors in the local music store scene, a friend (owner of a store) pointed on a little speaker and said: You might want to try this one out. Mmmh - I didn't know the brand and on the back I saw a knob for dialing in different tones, labeled as "Twin" "Drums" "Stage" etc. It looked like a built in modeller. I first refused to carry this thing home, but he insisted. So it went into my trunk.

Later after ending my unsuccessful tour, I tried this little speaker and was quite surprised of the sound coming out.

I am talking about the ALTO SXM 112a.

This speaker I would see somewhere in between FRFR and amp/cab. It is for my oponion not a real FRFR monitor, because it has an emphasized midrange (good for most guitar tone) and a not so high resoluted high end. But it fits very good to good guitar tones. I compared it with my amp/cab setup and for sure it is not the same ( it shouldn't be) but it is not such a big step far away from the typical amp/cab feeling.

The price is somewhere in the 300 Euro area. That's cheap for a powerfull (400 Watt) monitor with 12" coax speaker. For everybody who want to go "a little bit" FRFR and still want a portion of amp/cab feeling this might be worth a try.

Today I get me another one in order to play stereo. I could imagine that this will be a very good budget setup. Once the speakers broke in properly after a while they even could lose the bit of a "stiff" feelling.

There is a thread on axefx-forum where somebody is comparing it to the RCFs, mentioned above. This comparison is like comparing a Gibson to a Fender and stating the Fender sounds more briliant. Look at the price, the weight, the size. It is another animal! But worth a try I would say.

Quote

I think most
people pay only if they have to and then only if they want the profile
bad enough.

What are you dreaming of? Guitarists are better people? When somebody writes, I definitely will donate, it is meant as an accelerating insentive.

If you expect money and if your profiles good, you should charge for it like And44. If not, you might have to live with only compliments. I think it is possible to make a good amount of money with good profiles in the future. But they have to be the best on the market and on top done with the original equipment of famous artists.

In short Peter Weihe is saying that the A/B comparison within the KPA is not comparing the real thing with the profiled amp. The sound of the real amp is already modified by the buffer inside the KPA and again altered when passing the A/D section in order to route to the monitors.

Not bad at all. The SRV sound goes in the right direction but it lacks bit of punch and bite for my taste. That last bit of liveliness I have never heard from a modeller so far. I suspect that it has to do with the interaction of the speaker and the pickups (feedback, phase canelation etc). This is were the Kemper Team could think about in the future to add this portion of unpredictable sound developing under louder live circumstances. Even with my amp/cab setup it is hard to produce a real nice controlled feedback. Through the DAW with headphones there is no reaction at all indeed.

It must be possible to add this behavior of a rig when played loud. It's a bit like adding the "human feeling" on midi drum tracks. Artificial - but still improving.

When the KPA is able to convince one of the very expressive players (Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Jeff Beck, Michael Landau, Scott Henderson, just to name a few) it would be the final break through.

Thanks for your links again. If there is anybody who already tried to work out something in this direction, I would be really curious about their results.

Most user here asking for certain rigs or amps. How about asking for a special tone? I know, that most of the tone is coming out of the fingers. But the right amp profile would be a good starting point.

For instance, who has a profile what could be used to imitate the famous SRV sound? I never was satisfied with all the tries I did so far. Maybe it's now possible with the KPA?

or

It would be a real challenge to copy the tone of Joe Bonamassa. Especially because he is using a very special equipment.