Posts by GCNC8068

Likely unrelated, but FWIW I had a hell of a time with a random wah tone on my Kemper Rack using Mission pedals. I tried bypass at stop, bypass at toe and heel, recalibrated many times, and nothing eliminated the issue. It seemed to be very random. Finally, I just connected the toe switch of the pedal to the remote and that fixed it - haven't had the random wah tone since. I have to step on the pedal toe switch to activate the wah, but that's how all my "real"wah's worked over the years so no big deal (the bypass on stop feature would have been nice, however).

I had a Fulldrive, an OCD and a PlimSoul on my board. All are different ODs. I liked the Fulldrive and Plimsoul best, and they worked well together. OCD was very good, but for me I just didn't use it that much. I'd like to have a Plimsoul in the Kemper.

about 15 years ago or so I played with a keyboard player. We wanted to form a band but couldn't find the "goldilocks" musicians we needed (guys who were very good, had played in bands, shared our goal of fun gigs, but now had families and jobs so rehearsal would be limited (hence they had to be very good), and weren't interested in the "rock star" thing). We ultimately went down the backing track route - this allowed us to run everything through the PA so we could control overall volume very well. At that time, we had to use a laptop with Cakewalk/Sonar and used midi tracks we mostly got off the 'net, then spent untold hours tweaking and improving. We used a Yamaha tone generator to improve the sound quality of the midi tracks. Since we had the laptop on stage now, we then added control of digital effects (mostly for vocals) and a Digitech Studio Vocalist to add harmonies to our "organic" harmonies, and ultimately DMX control of lighting. As a duo, we could play anything, anywhere, and put on a good show. We got booked as much as we wanted, and got paid very well because we could play corporate gigs, country clubs, and private parties where a "rock band" was wanted but volume was an issue. We did relatively few "bar" gigs, mainly because they just weren't worth the hassle. It was great fun for a good while. And we had very few technical glitches - and when we did, we just stopped and started again (same as if a guitar or amp failed).

Ultimately, though, it was a constraining process because you had to play the songs exactly the same way every time --there was some possibility of putting loops in the midi tracks to allow extending solo's, but triggering those was a problem. So we dropped all that. Now, years later, we (the keyboard player and me) have a traditional 4 piece, but our drummer plays electronic drums and I'm using the Kemper - so we still have great control over band volume, which to me is the single biggest issue in getting booked at decent paying gigs (unless, of course, you're doing this full-time and play large venues).

I didn't start with the Toaster, but FWIW had to decide between it and the Rack last year when buying a Kemper. Ultimately I decided on the Rack because I use the Kemper 99% of the time for live work, virtually no recording, so it moves around frequently. The only difference I saw between the Rack and Toaster was the LED lights on the some of the dials of the Toaster that are not on the Rack.

I use a 6U Gator rack and have a Furman power conditioner, the Rack, and my Fryette Powerstation 2 (from top to bottom). I also got a custom back panel from BTPA so connections to the PA, guitar monitor, laptop, etc. are really easy.

thanks, all. Kempermaniac - re-read the manual and I thought that's what you would do. thanks for clearing that up.

buckynuts - if you use the Main Outs, you don't get to use the Kone imprints, correct or am I missing something?

thanks -- are you using the Mon Out and the Direct Out from the Kemper, or using a splitter on the Mon Out? Trying to get a grip on buckynuts comment on running stereo to 2 Kabinets.

how are you guys running stereo out of the Kemper into the two channels of the LXII? using the Main Outs and keeping the ability to use imprints?

BTW, I should add that for any cab i'm using that I didn't wire, I check the cab's impedance with a multimeter on the speaker cable plugged into the cab. For daisy chained cabs, I'd measure impedance on the speaker cable that would be plugged into the amp, i.e., the final impedance the amp will see. Note that the actual impedance will not be exactly 4, 8, or 16 ohms using a multimeter -- you'll get a ready about 15% or so lower than the labeled value (I've got 16 ohm speakers that measure ~13'ish ohms, and 8 ohm speakers that measure around 6-7).

this is like watching a mini series -- I want to know how this ends!

I love my PS-2 ... 50 watts isn't providing enough headroom? Yikes! you play some really big rooms. In my 4 piece band playing outside I don't get close to driving the PS-2 into power tube distortion. I do like the fact that the LXII provides stereo output -- that would be a nice option.

You can easily wire two Kemper Kones (each 4 ohms) in a 2x12 cabinet in series to yield an 8 ohm load to the amp. If you wire in parallel you'll only have a 2 ohm load.

It's a little more tricky to connect two separate 4 ohm 1x12 cabinets (each with a 4 ohm Kone) in series -- not hard, but you need to be sure you've got them in series, otherwise you'll have a 2 ohm load to the amp (and most amps, including the Kemper PowerHead and PowerRack, are not designed for that low a load). 99% of cabinets that have "daisy chain" outputs are wired in parallel.

There are boxes that allow you to handle any multiple cabs, in series or parallel (like this one: http://procablesnsound.com/ite…py-cab-/HAPCAB-detail.htm), or you can build an interface pretty simply.

Edited to add: I just noticed the Kemper Kabinet outputs are labeled "series" so they can be directly connected to each other in a "dual cab" configuration.

I have vertical 2x12 from TRM Cabs and it is a great and sturdy cabinet. I put 2 Celestion F12-X200's in it and it sounded great with the Kemper (I've since gone to a 1x12 Thiele Cab from TRM to have a smaller total rig). TRM also makes a vertical ported 2x12 that I would imagine would sound tremendous with the Celestion's or the Kemper Kones.

Tim's cabs are very well made and high quality. You can order them unfinished, oiled, or tolexed. I highly recommend them.

http://www.trmguitarcabs.com/index.html

+1

being able to use Rig Manager to program the remote without begin hooked up would be a great feature -- I'm often not in my music room, but have the laptop and could do some programming if RM allowed.

thanks guys. I too much prefer a true acoustic guitar (mine are all equipped with good pickups), but the idea of not switching guitars is very appealing, especially in songs where both electric and acoustic sounds are needed. I've got a nice Godin LGX that can easily switch between piezo and hum buckers, unfortunately the switch on mine is no longer working and the electronics on a Godin are circuit card driven so I'm not able to repair it (and Godin repair facilities don't really exist).

I tell you what I did ... I first started by thinking "if I could go out right now and buy any amps I wanted, what would I get?" I focused on just that list for starters (for me it was some Dr. Z's that I already had (Z Plus, Z28, Maz 18), a Deluxe Reverb, a Marshall JCM800 and Plexi, a Vox AC 30TB, and a vibroverb). I listed just to profiles of these until I found the ones I liked. That formed my first couple "performances" on the remote.

From there, I just auditioned other amps as I went along to augment those. It kept the hunt manageable. I've never actually played Top Hats, /13, Friedmans, etc., so I didn't try auditioning everything.

so I just goofed around a bit with the Acoustic Sim and it does seem like something I'd like to try for real. So my question is: how exactly do you implement this thing? Since it's an EQ effect, you have to put in a rig of some kind, yes? Since you're turning off the amp and cab blocks, does it matter what rig you start with? Should all effects and be turned off other than the Sim to start (I'm assuming you maybe can/should add other eq or processing that you might add to a true acoustic - e.g., chorus or light flange, light reverb, etc.). Thanks.

I got a patch panel from BTPA for the rear of my rack. When I plugged in my kemper remote cable the first time, it "kind of " worked but not reliably or well. I had read that even the short cable from the rack remote jack to the rear of the new panel could affect the ethernet connection. So I added a POE injector and, voila, no issues. I recently bought a different remote cable that has a much more flexible jacket than the OEM (why Kemper uses such a stiff cable is a bit of a mystery), and it works perfectly.

Well, the random wah tone came back

So I connected the toe switch and that seems to have solved the issue. Really like the "off when stopped" setting when it worked.

I swore when I decided to "go Kemper" I would avoid at all costs having hundreds of profiles on my Kemper Rack. The thing that terrifies me of devices like Kemper is falling down the rabbit hole of constantly checking out new profiles, tweaking old ones, etc., so that you spend 100x more time tweaking than playing.

So far that approach is working -- I have maybe 50 profiles on the Rack, and of course over 1,400 on my local library on my MacBook, but most of those are what came with the Rack. I bought MBritt, Dr. Z, Jim Lill, and some Selah acoustic profiles. Loaded just what I needed after demo'ing dozens and dozens. Everything else stays on the MacBook.

I have put the Thiele 1x12 on an Ultimate Support AMP-150 Ultra Compact Amp Stand to lean it back toward my head instead of aimed at my ankles. You do lose some bass response with the cab not on the floor, but its more "airy" like an open back when uncoupled from the floor.