Posts by mtmartin71

So I've got to say...it's nice to have the profiles dialed and not have to think about resetting them with each new FW that drops. I've dialed up all my guitar performances now. Yes...there will be the interest to play with new profiles/amps and probably some ongoing patch leveling, but I don't have to go through the constant game of mating models with IRs and resetting those parameters. The Kemper sounds every bit as good as the AxeFX. I like the smaller footprint of the lunch box though. I guess some AxeFX folks are mated to the rack concept which makes sense if you have other stuff racked. Anyhow, I'm digging the second time around with the Kemper. A lot has changed for the better since I was here in 2012.

Well...I solved this myself. The Large Room ER (and Small Room ER) did the trick. And I figured out my Space question. All good!

Was hoping to get some tips and maybe some clarification.

When I was on the AxeFX, I used something called "Room" to give some feel without getting too many reverb reflections. I'm using MBritt profiles but the default Hall reverbs are too much for me in terms of live use which is my primary use case. I've since changed most of them to the Ambience 1 preset. It's better, but I think I'm still after a different response and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on getting a more natural room feel. I don't like bone dry but just trying to get back to that Room parameter on the AxeFX.

Related...possibly...is the Space effect. Just so I understand it, that only affects the headphone jack via the Output section and turning it on? Unless I insert that effect as an X effect, then it won't affect the main output signal correct?

From a new user and someone who's pretty much just using MBritt profiles, my favs so far are the 70 SL 3 and the Boggy Helios 2 4. The Dirty Shirley profiles are good too for single coils when you need a bit more bass muscle.

Thanks guys for the welcome and all the info. I'm just about done with my set up of my performances. Collapsing them down to guitar pickups vs. one/guitar.

I'll be going live with the new set up this Saturday night. I'm using the MBritt profiles exclusively. Will run a feed to the board and will get back a feed for my monitor. Full FRFR using an Atomic CLR to monitor myself. I'm thinking things should be fine. My only concern might be how to cut (or not) for FOH. We'll be running our own sound. What I had been doing with my AxeFX is using Ownhammer IRs and cutting around 80-100 on the low end and 10K to 15K on the high end. I think our bassist (who runs sound) was slapping an FOH preset on my guitar (we use a PreSonus 16.4.2 board). What I'd like to figure out is to see if we can take the preset off and just cut the low end to tasted. I think the high end on those MBritt profiles is already tailored and I wouldn't want to shave it much more. Would be interested in what you all have done. From the man himself, he mentioned that they may only cut him on the low end.

Any thing else quirky or Kemper specific I should think about or pretty much the same path as my old Axe FX setup?

FWIW, I had the G50 a year or so ago and it worked like a champ. I tried the G70 late last year to "upgrade" and it initially worked for a few gigs and then for 3-4 gigs after, I would lose wireless connectivity. This was after all the FW updates and best practices. It wasn't like I was playing in wifi dense venues either. I finally had to get rid of it and went back to wired.

Will keep an eye on the G10 to see how it looks. The G30/G50 is the previous generation and I had not issues with my G50. The G70 and G10 look like their the same generation of tech.

Quote from mightypudge

Boot time is a bit on the long side (I can't compare to Axe, never owned one) but honestly in the months I've been using the KPA I have never had it go down mid-show and require a reboot. Besides, if power for the whole venue flickers you won't be the only one waiting.

My workaround on the db meter thing - I run my KPA into a DAW and set up a db meter there. That said, I will tell you perceived volume is more important than what the meter says, so my advice would be to tweak tweak tweak at rehearsal and get it right in a band setting. Anything less and you are gambling. I set my clean and overdriven patches to different settings because perceived volume on clean tones is louder than naturally compressed overdrive tones, but it's still not perfect. So I tweak at rehearsal.

These are just my opinions. They are essentially worthless.

Thanks...I can do the same thing in terms of getting in the ball park with my DAW too. Actually...to my ears...the MBritt profiles of the same amp/speaker are all close enough. Where this will require some doing is if I decide to mix multiple rigs into one performance bank or if I'm using different rigs with guitars. I don't know...coming back to the Kemper has me simplifying stuff even more and I'm digging that.

I've had my Kemper now for a couple of weeks. This is my second stint with it. I had one back in 2012 too. So far, I'm very impressed:

What I love

• Much less tweaking than I did with my AxeFX. I would always have to redo my patches for my guitars after the releases and I'd have to play with the speaker pages constantly to match the speaker settings to best fit the IRs I was using. Maybe I didn't have to, but it was the way to get the right response and I'm probably too anyl. The huge key though is having the right profiles. I bought MBritt profiles and I immediately bonded with them. But my favorite sound is the classic Marshall-based Plexi set up...low on the bass, high on the mids, and ample highs on the treble, adjusted to the guitar and space. Basically, I think he has the same ear for what he wants to hear so I really don't need to do any tweaking at all. They just work.
• The sounds are great. I don't have any amps right now to compare, but it certainly at the same level of sound and quality as my Axe FX was (I have the AX8 now and had the Axe FX II XL+). I do find the clean and light break up sounds to have more distinction and feel. I think the high gainers that I've tried are good but I might have liked the Axe models better.
• The Remote is set up nicely for a small footprint controller. Using it as I use it, I'll probably do an amp as a Performance and use the various cuts of the amp rig underneath it...kind of like scenes on the AxeFX. Still trying to decide my approach though...more in my questions...
• Cosmetically, I'm glad not to have a rack this time. I'm mostly playing direct to a board where we're running our own sound. The stages aren't big. I can set the lunch box in more places than I could my 19" Axe rack in it's Gator case. I think it looks cool, but that's me.

What I Don't Like

• The boot times. I fear this on stage if the power flickers and it reboots. It will be a painful wait.
• Editing in the Performance mode, particularly through Rig Manager. This was a pain in the but to try and load rigs into the slots. I would copy and paste and it would sometimes load rigs into the wrong slots. Plus, you have to save, it seems, after each rig goes into one slot vs. copying and pasting to fill the slots you want and then saving the performance. I ended up going with the Kemper interface and just dialing in the slot names. That worked fine.
• Lack of a db meter or something to level rigs/patches in the device. The Axe FX had this and it helped with one of my least favorite things ever...patch leveling across guitars and amps.

Questions

• Just curious how many of you are using performance to manage your sounds? On the AxeFX, I used to have one patch per guitar and then use 5 scenes to get different sounds. The sounds would be 4 different amps with different cabs. A cleanish Vox amp, and moderate crunch Plexi, a higher gain Plexi (Friedman, CarolAnn, etc.), and a lead amp like a Trainwreck. Each had their typical cabs. I'm changing my thinking here with the Kemper. Given the MBritt profiles give you a span of gain types on one amp, I'm going to line up my performance as an amp with a clean to mean approach and the last one being mean + volume boost for lead. My hope is that I will get a better stage sound as I did find changing the amp model and cab on songs was a constant EQ and volume dance to tweak something that cut the right way. I will miss out on easy way of being able to play a Plexi on one song and a Diezel on another, but I think no one cares anymore and I'd rather come through the same way all night
• Best practices on patch/volume leveling? Since there's nothing in the box, are you guys just using external sound meters? I have one and used to use it on the AxeFX until they put the db meter in the box.

I'm now seriously considering returning my AX8. I was thinking of keeping it for amp/cab applications, because I think it shines better there, but I guess there are profiles now that are designed for this application in the Kemper world? Instead, I'd probably pick up an Atomic Amplifire as something to back up the Kemper in a pinch. I'm very surprised on this as I used the AxeFX for so long but was never a schill or fanboy...just a happy and devoted user. I think the Kemper fits my workflow and sound targets a bit better in the sound space that interests me the most. I really need a Kemper live test though and that won't come until a week or so.

Quote from lonestargtr

[quote='mtmartin71','https://www.kemper-amps.com/forum/index.php/Thread/29425-Newbie-Questions-for-Live-Use/?postID=314607#post314607']Hey folks,

Here are my thoughts/suggestions, but they are in no way the only approach:

1. lead boosts - The "pure booster" stomp with about a 2db boost works great for me and if you want it to be a volume jump as opposed to just hitting the front of the amp harder, try it in the X slot. That's what I've been doing lately. You can also use EQ's for that too, depending on what profiles you're using the boosts are usually in the midrange area with slight cuts to the low end, similar to what a tube screamer does to the tone. I've also been using the morphing feature for lead boosts where I'll hit the preset button on the Remote to go to the morphed state of that rig and I'll program that state to slightly boost amp gain, and turn up the mix to 50-60% on a Screamer stomp in slot C (activated but mix at 0 in normal un-morphed state) and turn the rig volume up a little bit.

2. live EQ - There is a bit of variety between my profiles, but in general, I don't do a lot of EQ'ing for live playing. For most profiles, it's usually just a matter of tweaking the mids, highs, or presence up an led light or so. That's probably because I got them close to what I like to hear when profiling, so others might need more drastic EQ shifts to get the tone they want to hear. I always start at the amp section's Definition parameter to set the balance of the tone, especially the high end. If it's really harsh and shrill, turn the Definition down. If it's muddy, turn the Definition up to see if that clears things up. Then I move to the amp EQ section for minor adjustments.

3. rig leveling - You can use the rig volume on the front right, but I like to level the rigs with each other using the volume parameter on page 3 of the Amp edit section. I usually use the rig volume for slight volume boosts for certain parts in songs, especially useful with the morphing feature.

4. midi controllers - I'm not familiar with the MFC101, but most midi controllers work well with the Kemper. I used both an RJM Mastermind (small one) and a Ground Control GCX. For midi, I prefer running the Kemper in Browse mode as it's easier for me to assign the midi map in browse mode in the system menu. Most of the functions (volume, wah, etc) are available as CC#'s so with just about any expression pedal you can control those things if you're savvy on assigning CC#'s to the midi pedals' presets. The Remote is nice and small and has some great features (doesn't require separate power, has a tuner, can use presets buttons for morph function, large LCD display for performance names). It works best in Performance mode, I think. I used the Ground Control for most shows and RJM Mastermind for fly dates for almost 2 years and both worked great.

5. exp pedals - I used the Mission for Kemper pedals, but I've known other guys that have other exp pedals that work. It comes down to the pot value and sweep so you'd just have to try to see how compatible it is with the Kemper system. There are two exp pedal "types" in the system menu so try both if you're having any trouble getting the sweep right. I'm using the Dunlop Volume(X) now and it feels great.

hope this helps. There are plenty of helpful folks on here who will have more insight than me as well.

Display More

Michael...thanks a ton for taking the time to respond. Really appreciate it.

On the EQ piece, are they still cutting your highs and lows at the board/FOH or do you have them leave you flat at the board?

I ended up ordering a Kemper Remote to give that a go. I actually would prefer to go back to something smaller.

Appreciate all the other help from folks. Looking forward to getting this set up to try for a 7/16 gig.

Hey folks,

I'm a long time Axe FX II XL rack unit user. I decided to put that up for sale and pick up an AX8, but I also decided to grab a used Kemper un-powered toaster! I had one briefly about 3 or so years ago but felt it didn't lend itself that well to live. I'm mostly playing live vs. recording and even then, maybe 12+ times a year tops.

My first impression is I REALLY like the MBritt profiles and they just work with really no tweaking required. I picked up the 1969 Plexi and the JCM800 pack. Right in my wheelhouse. With the Axe, I love the tones in that too but I have to mess a lot with speaker page settings and EQing to get the disparate cabs and amp models together. I use Ownhammer stuff on that. Not an effects junkie so the lack of effects vs. the AX8 will not be an issue. Some questions though to help me approach on my Axe FX to the Kemper:

• Lead boosts - I was recently using the Wrecker or Comet models as a scene to get a thick lead tones and then used a passive Graphic EQ to boost that in the right frequencies. What I'm thinking will work best on the Kemper to keep it even simpler. I'm going to put a Graphic EQ in the "X" slot and lock it there. What I was a little confused on was the GEQ has the cuts by band and then it has a PEQ approach with Hi/Lo cut ranges. Any good GEQ settings that work for you guys in terms of cutting highs and lows for solos while getting a little more cut?
• MBritt Profile EQ - anyone know if those are already EQ shaped for live use or are they set up with the expectation that FOH is going to cut at around 120 and 6000-7000 in terms of low end and high end?
• Patch/Rig Leveling - one of my least favorite ventures on the AxeFX but made a little easier through VU meters. For the Kemper, is the best way to level at the Channel Volume portion? On the Axe FX, I always felt the relative volumes varied quite a bit. The cleans and distorted are different, which was expected, but there is a lot of variability on the distorted amps too.
• KPA Remote vs. other small MIDI controllers - to use it live, I could probably get by without the remote and just step back and press buttons on the fly, but I'd like to keep it on my feet for control. Seems like the Kemper remotes are hard to find in the US. I have a MFC-101 right now for my Axe II but it's not a have to have. I used a Liquid Foot Jr in the past and wouldn't mind going back to that size
• Expression pedal compatibility - I have a Mission Engineering expression pedal that works with the Fractal polarity. If I picked up the KPA Remote, my hope was to have my existing expression pedal work with either platform. Anyone know if that will be the case?

Thanks for any help or guidance you might be able to provide. I'm looking to use the Kemper for direct gigs and the AX8 to a Matrix 1600FX and Amp/Cab for gigs...or the AX8 direct as a change of pace. Who knows, I may determine I can live with just one but we'll see how it goes.

I reloaded the factory rigs and all is well. Not sure what happened though and why the effects went away in the browser. Thoughts?

I'm running 1.06. When I go to an effect and turn the "browse" knob, nothing comes up. It's completely empty. Amps and cabs are fine. Effects are done. However, the existing effects are still there. I just can't see anything in browse mode.

Quote from andrewwarne

Been playing with this profile for a couple of hours yesterday and have to say its brilliant

I have no amps to profile, so simply enjoy everyones else's hard work, so many thanks

I like this one so much i've saved the cab as a separate element and it sounded great with another vox I like

I don't know, because i have nothing to profile, what makes the difference, but some profiles are just alive, others aren't, but this one is one of the best, well done

Display More

I completely agree as well. Some profiles have a life to them that is evident and others sound very dead, like a dead room. I'm sure this will evolve over time in best practices. Like many, I'm dependent on the hard work and dedication of the Kemper community as I have no tube amps at present nor a good space to capture them in.

On my AxeFX2, it was pretty simple. I just put a null filter with a +4db volume lift and maybe a very slight notch on the upper mids. It's at the very end of the chain. With the KPA, it appears I'm more limited in how I can arrange this. If I don't want to push the amp model itself and I want a true volume bump for the rig, then I need to put the "Pure Boost" in the "X" slot. That's OK I guess. I'd prefer it after the mod, delay, and reverb. The other thing with using up the X slot for the boost is that I can't use a tone shaping EQ after the amp/cab blocks...or can I? Are the mod, delay, and reverb blocks fixed? I know you can put whatever you want in front of the amp in the 4 open stomps.

I've got a Nobels Single-Latch foot switch that didn't seem to like the Kemper. I wouldn't switch on and off without multiple button presses. That was with a mono 1/4" and stereo (TRS) 1/4". So, I guess I need something different. I do have a Liquid Foot Jr controller but that is set up for my AxeFX2 and I didn't have much success trying to pair it with the Kemper. I'm sure it can be done but I wanted to try the Kemper live with just a "boost" switch for leads.

Quote from ChrisBeaver

Your best bet is just trust your ears and go with what you think sounds best

I got ya. I guess I just wanted to understand the relationship of Cab Volume vs. Amp Volume. Are they basically the same thing? I'm unable to really tell the difference in raising or lowering the cab volume vs. the amp volume. Intuitively, I would think raising either volume would give you more of that thing you raised so if you want a stronger cab flavor, raise that. I don't know though.

Quote from XpennoKPA

Just been playing with this profile, love it!!!! It's not often I use a profile without Tills cabs but this one killed without, knocked the bass and mids up, treble and presence down a smidge, a bit of power sag, nice! Thanks for sharing.

Did the same thing. This one screams 80's Marshall tone but when I first downloaded, had a bit too much top end. Love this one and also that 72 Marshall SL.

Just curious. I discovered in the reading of another thread that there is a cab volume component as well. Is that like speaker drive on the AxeFX 2 (for those who have used that product)? As I look to balance out profile/rig volumes of the ones I want to keep, what is the best practice? Is there a cab volume setting that is ideal or is it better to use the volume adjustment on the amp.