Posts by MikeStoner

I love 80s shred, it's great.

I've found some pretty good profiles that get the Kemper into the right ballpark, but earlier today I watched this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLmKK5p9E80

...and thought it sounded amazing. So I dug out my old Yamaha THR10X, used the settings mentioned at the end of the video and got this incredible sound. Not only did it sound awesome but the notes just flowed and it made shredding much easier than with the Kemper. In fact tricky licks that I'd struggle to play normally were a piece of cake.

So my question is - how can I get my Kemper to sound like this and have the same ease of playability?

I used to have a MESA Dual Recto and the solo tones on that were always a bit harsh and staccato, the Kemper is nothing like that, but I've never come across a profile that is quite as easy to play as this THR10X sound. Any suggestions? Thanks!

On the M Britt blog there’s a free “Steve Stevens” profile which is great for heavy stuff, worth checking out, I use it when plugging my PowerRack straight into a 2x12 cab.

Thanks. I thought that might be the case, but there's still something strange. Even with "Monitor Cab Off" the CAB button on the front of the Kemper is still lit and when I press it, so it's now unlit, I swear the sound changes.

If Monitor Cab Off really disables the cabinet from the speaker output then surely the CAB button being on or off shouldn't have any effect on the sound at all? Maybe I'm just going crazy...

I have a specific question, can anyone help?

I only use my Powered Kemper one way - a speaker cable going from the "speaker output" into a 2x12 guitar cab. I don't record with it or go FOH.

I've set up all of my performances using DIRECT profiles and have the CAB button on the front of the Kemper turned off for all of them, as I'm using a real cab. It sounds brilliant.

However when I'm looking for new profiles that I might like in the Browser mode they all have the CAB button ON. So I have to remember to switch it off every time, which is a real pain if I'm trying out lots of them. Is there any way to use LOCK or something to turn the CAB button OFF for ALL profiles in Browser mode?

(I don't think it's "Monitor Cab Off" as the manual says that affects the monitor outputs and main outputs but doesn't mention the speaker output, which is the one I'm using. Also it doesn't turn off the CAB light on the front and, of course, that's what really counts!)

Thanks!

If there’s another guitarist in your band don’t worry about tweaking EQ, just make sure you’re louder than they are. (This is a joke, but you know it’s true!)

The most confusing thing about the Kemper is that there are usually several ways to achieve the same thing, and different people prefer different methods. If it works for you then that's all good!

Yes, as said above use the transpose and LOCK it so it applies in all cases. Alternatively copy the whole performance and create a -1 version and a -2 version, then switch between these performances as required with the remote.

This is either a great bit of trolling or the funniest thread on the forum!

Powered. Just plug it into a cab and you're good to go.

Wow, great video, love the tone of the solo! I'd definitely be interested in that too. My band also plays "From Out of Nowhere" by Faith No More and I do the keyboards part for that on guitar, but never been quite happy with the tone I'm using. Any suggestions appreciated!

It’s amazing what you can get away with live. Years ago I was in a band and the singer would go crazy if we made any tiny mistakes. It drove me and the other guitarist nuts! So the two of us had a quick chat mid-gig and came up with a plan. The next song in the set was “Fight for your right to party” by the Beastie Boys. A nice simple song that most of the audience would know. What did we do? I played it in A and he simultaneously played it in Ab. It sounded horrendous! And the audience all sang along and at the end we got a huge cheer and applause. Ever since I’ve had no worries about the occasional wrong note!

As mentioned above back your guitar’s volume off slightly. If “max” is 10 then roll it down to 9 or 9.5 - this really makes a huge difference to the tone, smoothing it out nicely, without actually reducing the volume in any noticeable way. I play all my rock & metal solos this way. Give it a try!

For live use I've got a Powerrack and just plug that into a 2x12 cab and I'm good to go. Guitar - Kemper - Cab controlled by the Kemper Remote and a Mission expression pedal. That's it. It sounds brilliant.

I run a Kemper PowerRack into a Marshall cab, using Chop Tones DI profiles. It sounds superb. The tones you want are definitely in there, keep experimenting and you'll find them.

Live I'm using just one performance.

The slots are CLEAN (with some chorus) - DRY ROCK CRUNCH - METAL CHUG (with a little reverb/delay)- SOLO (with some FX) - SCREAMING SOLO (with LOTS of FX!)

All morph to something special that I need during the set, for example clean can morph to the intro sound of "She Sells Sanctuary" and the metal chug can morph to the intro to "Spirit of Radio".

I've disabled the looper button (after accidentally turning it on mid-gig one too many times!)

Each slot has its own mix of FX that I can turn on and off during a song for extra variety. I've also got the -2 transposer locked and can control it using the reassigned TAP for the dropped songs in our set.

I'm using a Mission pedal to control Wah/Pitch so it can be a Cry Baby or Whammy as required.

So my whole set-up is guitar into Kemper into cab, controlled by the remote and the Mission pedal. That's it!

Yes, I've noticed that random flicker too. Always makes me worry that something has gone wrong somewhere, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. Strange!

I wasn't impressed by the Freqout pedal to be honest. The feedback is so "fake sounding" and often, especially on high gain settings, you get a lot of digital "artifacts" messing up the sound. Also, after around 8 seconds, the feedback just stops. Not a gentle fade but an instant cut off. Mine's going on eBay.

If you want to be able to accidentally turn on the looper mid way through a gig then the remote is the only way to go.

At the last couple of gigs I've run a 20' long TRS cable from my Mission Expression pedal back to the Kemper to control Wah/Pitch.

But recently I got a much shorter 3' long TRS cable so I can plug the pedal into the remote and run it that way, reducing the mess of cables on stage.

I plugged it into the Pedal 3 socket and went into the System menu to calibrate. However no matter what I did the range would only go from 0 to 122. Very annoying. So I tried it in the Pedal 4 socket and when I calibrated it there it gave the full range of 0 to 127. Very weird! Any ideas what's going on?

If you find the right profile there's no need for an overdrive pedal too. I used to run a MESA Dual Recto or Diezel Einstein with various BOSS or MXR ODs in front, but with the Kemper the sounds are all there without needing any extras. I literally run guitar into Kemper into cab and that's it - and I can easily get awesome rhythm/solo sounds for rock, metal and thrash.