Another Kemper vs. Axe Fx II thread...

[zentman]

there is something to be said for simplicity...

For simple minded men that is true. ( just had to, sorry )

Some people like the simplicity of a Fender Champ, some like a Mark V. Still other feel the need to change circuits in their amps (modding). Then there are guys like Alex Lifeson, David Gilmour, or The Edge that have so much complicated shit going on it fries the brain.Who cares.

I personally like options. I play anything from jazz to rock to country to space cadet jam-a-thons.

You don't like it, we get that, hence your need to fill the thread with your opinion. Cool man.

If you can't make great sounds with an Axe or a Kemper the problem may lie not with the gear itself. Jus' sayin'.

Just to show I'm not a bad guy and I don't think you are either, I will treat you to a song. One track Axe Fx for electric guitar. The solo is a fiddle.

https://soundcloud.com/zentman/geoff-thurman-step-up

 

[animal]

there is something to be said for simplicity...

For simple minded men that is true. ( just had to, sorry )

Some people like the simplicity of a Fender Champ, some like a Mark V. Still other feel the need to change circuits in their amps (modding). Who cares.


You don't like it, we get that, hence your need to fill the thread with your opinion. Cool man.


If you can't make great sounds with an Axe or a Kemper the problem may lie not with the gear itself. Jus' sayin'.


Just to show I'm not a bad guy and I don't think you are either, I will treat you to a song. One track Axe Fx for electric guitar. The solo is a fiddle.

https://soundcloud.com/zentman/geoff-thurman-step-up

Its not "simple minded" if it is just efficiency...if I can turn one knob instead of scrolling through 20 pages well thats more time to do other things I enjoy....like playing guitar.
I'd bet 80% of the users wouldn't even know what half of those advanced parameters do let alone how to use them in a way that would improve their tone.

I'm lost in where I said you can't make great sounds with both?!?!
I certainly got great sounds from both , one I got more great sounds and a lot less work.
No need for a "motor drive" when a profile kicks ass from the get go.

have a pleasant day!

 

[Anonymous]

The Axe Fx has incredible sounding on-board effects from the clips I've heard, but I already have effects covered via ADA STD-1 Chorus, TC2290 delay, Lexicon reverb and some floor boxes. What I'm after are the most realistic amp tones I can get. I've heard that once you take away the effects from Axe Fx models, it doesn't sound all that great. I find that ironic, as the same has been said about the Virus line of synthesizers, all of which are made by Christoph Kemper. So is it a matter of source tone then? The Kemper 'profiles' from a true analog source... i.e. a real amplifier. Still, given its extreme architecture, I can't help but wonder what tones are possible with the Axe Fx II?

I have a Kemper and I love it. I also had an Axe-FX Ultra and loved it and the only reason I sold it was that I wanted to try the Kemper and I didn't want to have all that cash tied up in two modelers.

As far as realistic amp tones, you be the judge using these Axe-FX Ultra clips. I was going for the VH album tones on these clips so flame away if you wish. They were made with the Guitar Hero tracks so there is ZERO of EVH's guitar on the backing, just vox, drums and bass, which you can tell by my fuckups, but here ya go. Fooled a lot of people with these (until they find out it is the Axe and then they start hearing 1s and 0s

Romeo Delight (the full song)

Jamie's Cryin' (snippet)

I feel that whatever RECORDED tone I want I could get it with either the Axe-FX Ultra (nevermind the Axe II which I'm sure is even realer ! ) OR the Kemper. From the heaviest of heavy to cleans. That said, I prefer my real amps through 4x12s in the room hands down and that is the only way I jam... Neither the Kemper nor the Axe sound as good to me in the room through a power amp and 4x12s as my real amps. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, maybe I should try full range, I dunno, but the real amps sound better to me in the room. For recording, NOTHING beats the Axe or Kemper and you couldn't go wrong with either - if I didn't need to make clips of the Cherry Bomb to market it, I'd ALWAYS record with a modeler. As far as choosing between the Axe and the Kemper, to me, you either have real amps you want to model or want to get access to an ever growing library of incredible amp models OR want the mind boggling array of effects in the Axe - that is what makes the decision. I wanted to try the Kemper and I have effects covered, so it is what I'm sticking with because I want to model my own amps and I dig getting this huge and growing library of amps.

Steve

 

[gibson5413]

Here's an Axe Fx Ultra based rig doing Boston... Sounds fabulous!

Great pieces of gear.

Here is a Boston tone I used for a Rock n Roll Band cover that I thought turned out pretty good to my ears (using a JCM800 profile https://soundcloud.com/gibson5413/kempe ... ll-band-lp

Here is Pete's (stratotone) profile that does the Boston tone from his KPA: https://soundcloud.com/okstrat/peace-of-mind-edit

 

[zentman]

Its not "simple minded" if it is just efficiency...if I can turn one knob instead of scrolling through 20 pages well thats more time to do other things I enjoy....like playing guitar.
I'd bet 80% of the users wouldn't even know what half of those advanced parameters do let alone how to use them in a way that would improve their tone.

I'm lost in where I said you can't make great sounds with both?!?!
I certainly got great sounds from both , one I got more great sounds and a lot less work.
No need for a "motor drive" when a profile kicks ass from the get go.

have a pleasant day!

Ok, one last answer for you. When I said "If you can't make great sounds with either" I was referring to the general "you" as in anybody.

If you personally have to scroll through twenty pages to get a good sound then it really isn't for you. I don't have to and my sounds are as good as they get. I get that you just DL a profile and you probably know you can download presets from Pete Thorn, Periphery, etc. Same thing.

BTW, takes some effort to create Amp Factory quality profiles or else they wouldn't be selling like hotcakes , would they? He also tweaks them with....wait for it...... it's coming.....parameters!

Have a more pleasant day than me. See how nice I am?

 

[Anonymous]

Here's an Axe Fx Ultra based rig doing Boston... Sounds fabulous!

Great pieces of gear.

Here is a Boston tone I used for a Rock n Roll Band cover that I thought turned out pretty good to my ears (using a JCM800 profile https://soundcloud.com/gibson5413/kempe ... ll-band-lp

Here is Pete's (stratotone) profile that does the Boston tone from his KPA: https://soundcloud.com/okstrat/peace-of-mind-edit

IMO, Pete's is closest to the album tone/sound wall, but I like your profile the best as it sounds more organic than the other two, just less like the album. Just picking a "pure" guitar tone (not trying to exactly match the album), I like yours the best! Killer stuff...

Steve

 

[gibson5413]

Here's an Axe Fx Ultra based rig doing Boston... Sounds fabulous!

Great pieces of gear.

Here is a Boston tone I used for a Rock n Roll Band cover that I thought turned out pretty good to my ears (using a JCM800 profile https://soundcloud.com/gibson5413/kempe ... ll-band-lp

Here is Pete's (stratotone) profile that does the Boston tone from his KPA: https://soundcloud.com/okstrat/peace-of-mind-edit

IMO, Pete's is closest to the album tone/sound wall, but I like your profile the best as it sounds more organic than the other two, just less like the album. Just picking a "pure" guitar tone (not trying to exactly match the album), I like yours the best! Killer stuff...

Steve

Thanks Steve! I wasn't trying so much for the exact tone as a somewhat slick Marshall tone. TBH, I wasn't a huge fan of the signature Rockman Boston tone. The first album had great tones but I didn't like Don't Look Back through today's tones. I can't wait to give the Cherry Bomb a try. I'm sure it delivers huge Marshall tones.

 

[TrueTone500]

Wolf Hoffmann talks about his Kemper.

http://www.guitarworld.com/dear-guitar- ... balls-wall

"Here’s a little-known secret: I recorded the whole album 'Stalingrad' with a Kemper Profiling Amplifier which provides a range of emulations and lets players create a sonic profile of their own amp. I came across it a year ago, and when we started working on the album, we really put it to the test. We had my regular setup, and we fed everything into the Kemper. We A/B’d the sounds, and they were identical. It’s the same sound, just coming out of a different box.

So I used my handful of old Marshall, Randall and EVH amps, along with my main Wizard amp, and we fed them all into the Kemper amp. Then we used the Kemper to fire them back. When Stalingrad first came out, I didn’t tell anyone that I used a Kemper, because you know how people are... They’d be like, “Oh, I can hear that it’s not a real Marshall.” But now that the album is out and people like the tone, I’m telling everyone about the Kemper."

- Wolf Hoffmann

 

[Anonymous]

If you can't make great sounds with an Axe or a Kemper the problem may lie not with the gear itself.

Troof!

Steve

 

[animal]

I get that you just DL a profile and you probably know you can download presets from Pete Thorn, Periphery, etc. Same thing.

BTW, takes some effort to create Amp Factory quality profiles or else they wouldn't be selling like hotcakes , would they? He also tweaks them with....wait for it...... it's coming.....parameters!

Have a more pleasant day than me. See how nice I am?

I guess it is the same thing until whoops, the guy did that preset on FW9 hence it won't work on any lower FW's and it won't sound the same on any higher FW's (at least going up in steps of 1) because the unit just became more real (and got 5 new advanced parameters added to it as well!)
(not to mention the inclusion of a 'pick' parameter ...wonder where the inspiration came from that one )

Sorry but it isn't the same.

I went thru a few of the amp factory profiles just then ... a few had the definition changed....1 parameter lol

 

[zentman]

Dude, you definitely exhibit "fanboy" syndrome. Get over it. They both rock and to die hard tube guys, they both suck. And so it goes on the internet.

 

[TrueTone500]

It's getting a little windy in here...

I just discovered that the KPA rack version does NOT have the trippy LED's that the head version has... This is a huge disappointment! Certainly there is enough room for the LED's, so...? The mod knobs are also missing on the rack version.

 

[zentman]

It's getting a little windy in here...

I just discovered that the KPA rack version does NOT have the trippy LED's that the head version has... This is a huge disappointment! Certainly there is enough room for the LED's, so...? The mod knobs are also missing on the rack version.

You can still get your knob on man, just a few less. The rack would be the way I would go I think. Then I could have my power conditioner and maybe an effects rack as well just for the spacey stuff and all in one box.

I hear a lot of talk about tweaking on the fly but as long as I have been playing live I can't think of anything I ever touched 'cept the volume knob. That's 40 years of amps. I set it at sound check and that was it.

The profiles are so dang good already that FOH will be perfect and so will your FRFR's on stage. It's getting real easy to have great tone live with all this new stuff.

 

[TrueTone500]

It's getting a little windy in here...

I just discovered that the KPA rack version does NOT have the trippy LED's that the head version has... This is a huge disappointment! Certainly there is enough room for the LED's, so...? The mod knobs are also missing on the rack version.

You can still get your knob on man, just a few less. The rack would be the way I would go I think. Then I could have my power conditioner and maybe an effects rack as well just for the spacey stuff and all in one box.

But... But...the LED's look so cool!

 

[GITTarzann]

I am NOT a fanboy by any means, but the Axe beating here is pretty funny.

I play an Axe II now, have had an Ultra, but have not played a Kemper. I have listened to a Kemper and will not bad mouth it...they do sound pretty good. I will say the Fractal Axe II has relieved me of rver looking for another amp again. I have chased amp tones for years and had a 30-40K rig set up with a gigantic refrigerator rack that drove me freaken crazy.I won't ever go back to analog.


I would choose the Axe just for the horsepower,plus I have found all the tones I need and then some, but if you went the way of a Kemper ... I think if you aren't set in stone on a certain tone and feel...you could find it.

We live in great times....digital is here and we get to experience it happening. I dreamed of it years ago and it is happening. I love it.

Try whichever one you can get your hands on and then try the other, you won't be sorry.

 

[animal]

Dude, you definitely exhibit "fanboy" syndrome. Get over it. They both rock and to die hard tube guys, they both suck. And so it goes on the internet.

I guess I am an axe fanboy since I own a ultra and a II

I love tube amps also ...I just prefer the kemper for the profiling and stream line use

sorry to hurt your feelings

 

[zentman]

Dude, you definitely exhibit "fanboy" syndrome. Get over it. They both rock and to die hard tube guys, they both suck. And so it goes on the internet.

I guess I am an axe fanboy since I own a ultra and a II

I love tube amps also ...I just prefer the kemper for the profiling and stream line use

sorry to hurt your feelings

Whatev.....bye now.

Edit: Hey man, sorry I engaged you so discourteously. Old habits die hard. Peace.

 

[Shark Diver]

.I won't ever go back to analog.

I get every thing I need with a single channel amp and PedalPro. All analog. Digital is my LIVE. Perfect blend.

I would never go back to all digital.

 

[DADA]

I just like German stuff more

1 Diezel amplification
2. An exact copy of 1 and in Germany made

The axe is only Germany sold.

 

[Rogue]

The AxeFX lacks something, something you may not know until the next the update. Or that you may know but be called a hater for knowing it.....

First off, you don't always know what you are missing till you have something to contrast it with in context. A new firmware with major modeling changes can often be better whether or not a specific 'lack' was ever noted before in any way.----Scott Peterson

It is unknown which update will be without any lack.