Posts by bullpup597

I took a moment today to run my Kemper through the Mojotone 1x12 guitar cab today, once again, after gigging over a year with the FRFR Mission Engineering Gemini 1x12 and was reminded of how frigging amazing this passive cab sounds with the Kemper. I've had great results live with my Mission Engineering Gemini 1x12 cab, but damn, this passive cab with a Celestion Redback has got all the punch and "amp-in-the-room" sound too. It's good to have options, and this cab definitely lets me go smaller for certain gigs.

Quote from V8guitar

As per your other post, I was surprised that monitor out uses a different signal path as master out, i.e. the power amp is part of it..

Yep! News to me as well. Always learning with this Kemper.

No, I'm using a powered speaker with the monitor out. Nothing plugged in the speaker out.

Toggling the poweramp on or off changes the volume and quality of the sound from the Gemini dramatically, even when using the monitor out.

Quote from Syntek

According to your pictures your Gemini was connected to the MAIN-R out, perhaps that was part of your initial issue. The Main-outs should go to FOH or a mixer. (according to the manual).

Now that you are using high quality profiles and the MONITOR-OUT (cabs on), you may want to try the EmPower option of your Gemini, sometimes settings between 85-98% flat works fine shapping the speaker to your taste. Please notice, that this setup is not fully comparable to an amp in the room or on stage. Your kemper profiles are a snapshot of a miced amp+cab using a Gemini as a monitor. You should have the results you expect comparing both, the amp of reference (miced) vs. your profiles, both through FOH or studio speakers.

According to the manual (Working with Amplifier PROFILEs, Cabinet PROFILEs, Power Amps and Guitar Cabinets page 64), there should not be any damage leaving the Power Amp on, as long as you don't connect active devices to the Speaker-out. Please check manual sections: Power Amp Switch and Power Amp Booster, it may give you a good idea of the relation between the Power amp and the MONITOR-OUT.

Thanks so much Syntek. You're right. In the photo, I had tried an XLR from the main out, in addition to a high end speaker cable from the main out during those earlier tests. I was experimenting and testing for variation in sound coloring between the main and monitor outs.

So you're right on the money with the use of the EMPower on the Gemini. I found 85%-90% flat sounds the best for me and I'm using the speaker cable from the monitor out.

I find it interesting that via the monitor out, the sound from the Gemini changes when the poweramp is turned off or on. Dramatically better with the poweramp on.

I've noticed that with my Gemini powered 1-P connected through the monitor out, the Gemini sounds WAY better and even more punchy when the Kemper's poweramp is turned on.

Is this my imagination? When I turn the poweramp off on the Kemper, the tone from the Gemini is a bit lower in volume and loses character.

I'm guessing this is expected behavior, but I'm not sure why.

One question about using a powered Kemper with a powered FR (Gemini). Would it be a problem leaving the poweramp on in using a powered speaker? Just curious if this happens inadvertently, would anything bad happen?

I'm not using the speaker out when the poweramp is on, only the monitor out.

Well I did the deep dive into going through my performance banks of AC30's, Fender and Marshall amps and fine tuned high and low shift, along with character and particularly pure cab. I'm liking what I'm hearing now for sure. Seems like the profiles have come alive a bit. Way better than before.

What saved my bacon was backing up everything to a USB stick, and being able to try the full reset without losing all the work I'd put in for various performances slots, morphing and pedal assignments, etc.

Of course I did all this with a strat, so I'm sure I'm in for some surprises when I strap on a Les Paul.

Thanks for all the advice folks!

Quote from dm0410

Check out the Tone Junkie Youtube series Kemper Tips and Tricks, if you haven't already. Lots of helpful stuff in there.

I watched many of those videos. I'm gonna take some time today and experiment with EQ on the amp section in several profiles to see if I can bring a few of these profiles to life with the Gemini.

Quote from ElDoca

How does the Kemper sound through headphones or studio monitors?

The tones sound great in the headphones. That's never been a problem.

Thanks cheekyboy999 . Yes, these are profiles from Tone Junkie, MBritt and some others. I've been adjusting EQ in the profile typically to help compensate, but perhaps I need to experiment with EQ in the amp section as well.

I've had my powered Kemper for about a year now, and have tried using a custom built Mojotone 1x12 with a Celestion Redback, but have really struggled to get a good tone for any Fender, Vox or Marshall rigs. Cab-emulation turned off, and I'm still getting just thin, annoying tones as compared to other guitarists on stage with me using Orange or Princeton amps. Last weekend was the last straw at a live gig and another guitar player played through my rig and even out front it sounded absolutely awful. On stage it wasn't any better. Thin, no body, no presence. My bandmate right next to me was playing through an Orange rig that sound incredible.

So rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, I went out and bought a Gemini 1x12 powered FRFR cab. ($$$$). Thinking I'd have a GREAT rig now, I had a rehearsal last night and my rig sounded pathetic as compared to a Deluxe my buddy was playing through. (e.g. thin, no body, no presence).

This morning, I factory-reset my Kemper, turned off the power-amp, enabled profiles with cab-emulation turned on and tried a side-by-side comparison with numerous Deluxe profiles in the Kemper and an actual Deluxe Reverb amp. The amp was the clear winner with presence, oomph and tone in general. The Kemper sounded like a knock-off, even with the Gemini.

I'm still very excited about what this can sound like, based on what I've heard online and the numerous big names already using these in live situations, but I feel like I'm missing something SUPER obvious as to why I can't get meaty, present sounds from my setup. I'm not gonna give up, but if anyone has a suggestion, I'm all ears.

EDIT - Moved to public forum. [I couldn't find the delete post control]

I've had my powered Kemper for about a year now, and have tried using a custom built Mojotone 1x12 with a Celestion Redback, but have really struggled to get a good tone for any Fender, Vox or Marshall rigs. Cab-emulation turned off, and I'm still getting just thin, annoying tones as compared to other guitarists on stage with me using Orange or Princeton amps. Last weekend was the last straw at a live gig and another guitar player played through my rig and even out front it sounded absolutely awful. On stage it wasn't any better. Thin, no body, no presence. My bandmate right next to me was playing through an Orange rig that sound incredible.

So rather than throw the baby out with the bathwater, I went out and bought a Gemini 1x12 powered FRFR cab. ($$$$). Thinking I'd have a GREAT rig now, I had a rehearsal last night and my rig sounded pathetic as compared to a Deluxe my buddy was playing through. (e.g. thin, no body, no presence).

This morning, I factory-reset my Kemper, turned off the power-amp, enabled profiles with cab-emulation turned on and tried a side-by-side comparison with numerous Deluxe profiles in the Kemper and an actual Deluxe Reverb amp. The amp was the clear winner with presence, oomph and tone in general. The Kemper sounded like a knock-off, even with the Gemini.

I'm still very excited about what this can sound like, based on what I've heard online and the numerous big names already using these in live situations, but I feel like I'm missing something SUPER obvious as to why I can't get meaty, present sounds from my setup. I'm not gonna give up, but if anyone has a suggestion, I'm all ears.

Quote from Wheresthedug

I’m not near my KPA now but I think it has a pedal range from -5 to +5 if I remember correctly. Increasing the range to a + number should give a boost.

If that doesn’t work the. You could put a Lead Boost in that slot and control the Level with the Morph pedal.

You know, this approach sounds interesting.

How would I go about controlling the lead boost stomp level with the expression pedal?

What I ended up doing, is reorganizing my performances and set the 2nd position in each slot to increased amp volume, along with assigning a pure boost to the TAP button. So I've essentially got three potential boosts available. 2nd slot position, TAP button and expression pedal. I may end up no longer using the expression pedal if the other two options work out in live settings.

Quote from Wheresthedug

I would put a Wah Booster effect n one of the slots post Stack. The Wah pedal will become a volume boost in these rigs

Thanks I just tried that. Assigned the pedal 5 (to the expression pedal), made sure wah pedal function was assigned as well. Wah pedal booster didn't seem to give me any more of a boost than the normal volume pedal assignment.

Well my thought was using the pedal could give me a variable boost, depending on what was needed. I supposed I could assign another boost to a open button (tap, or effects). Two stage boost.

Just hoping that the 127 midi limit was something that could be changed on the volume/expression pedal.

Pardon if this question has been answered in the past, but I'm in a band with two other (non-kemper) guitarists and I've been using my expression pedal as a volume boost. My problem is when I really need to get a volume boost (as compared to the other guitarists), the max midi setting of 127 is all I can get. And consequently, the boost doesn't compare to the boosts the other guys are using. I've been exploring other ways to get even more of a volume boost assigned to my expression pedal, but I'm not finding one. Pedal to the metal and it ain't enough when I really need it.

Is there any other way to assign an even higher volume boost to the expression pedal than the max midi value of 127 WITHOUT having to morph my performance bank?

I ended up having a Mojotone 1x12 cabinet built for me with a Redback and I'm thrilled with it. Light, small but man, what a punch.

I've got my volume pedal set up to boost the signal from 100% to +5.00 for the output.
Curious if there's a way to increase that threshold or is the +5 a hard limit for boosting the output.

Location = Output
Range = +5.00 (is this a fixed ceiling?)

Ok, so among those using the powered KPA for live work in smaller venues, clubs where you don't have an FOH, and don't bring an amp, what are ya'll using for a cabinet and what are you happy with? Like I said, I'd like to keep things small, so using the speaker in my Princeton Reverb (powered off) and connected to my KPA seems to work pretty well. I have been turning off cabinet emulation as well.

The mic only there because I haven't switched over to the KPA's line out quite yet. Getting there.