Axe-II Ownership in a Nutshell

[TrueTone500]

I love my Kemper Profiling Amplifier! The KPA lets me take my favorite tones anywhere I want, with none of the hassles associated with toting heavy gear. I have 10 rigs loaded: Marshall JTM45/Jubilee, VOX AC15/AC30, Fender Tweed, Cornford RK100/Harlequin, Boogie MKII C+, Diezel Schmidt, and a Soldano SLO100. I've owned all of these amplifiers, and the KPA recreates these tones with stunning accuracy! I can run W/D/W (Powerhead version), or as a mono stand-alone half-stack. FW updates are a breeze, and does not adversely affect any of the rig tones. My advice to perplexed KPA owners is to delete all of the rigs, then upload only those rigs you know you will use. Create varying effected versions of those rigs, and tweak them to your personal tastes.

The future is bright!

 

[ptgold]

I love my AXE2. It allows me to do things that wouldn't be possible due to volume. It also lets me test drive different amps to see what all the fuss is about...that is awesome.

I can jam with headphones, a PA or just studio monitors at any volume I want with whatever tone I want. Unlike most of you guys I dont have the luxury of being able to have a VH4 and a 4x12 and just wail away. I wish I could though!! Not possible where I live.

 

[animal]

This is PRECISELY why I have steered WAY clear of the Axe and the Kemper. It just seems too damn complicated and refined for rock and roll - all those 1's and 0's and all.....

The Axe and the Kemper are really very different boxes. Not trying to sell you on one or the other, just laying it out there.

I was an EARLY Axe FX owner (March, 2008), and I lived through the constant FW updates, where EACH FIRMWARE UPDATE F'D UP YOUR RIGS. That sucked hard. And since the Axe shipped premature and still sounded kinda crappy (for the money), the FW updates were really needed. But it still sucked to have to rewrite your presets every month.

The Kemper was good out of the box. There were a few quirks here and there, but mine sounded great from the first minute. It was much better than the Axe, and I'd never go back. And Kemper FW updates don't change your presets, so that's a big friggin' improvement over Fractal right there.

And lastly, the Kemper has LOTS OF KNOBS TO TURN Seriously, that was a big plus for me. I gig my gear, and if I need to make an EQ, gain, or volume change during a set (or even during a song), I can do it with the Kemper. With the Axe? Forget it.

+1
haven't touched the AFX since I got my way around the kemper.

 

[amiller]

I don't gig out any more. I just write and record my own stuff in my home studio. The Kemper is perfect for that. No fussing with mics, cabs, tubes and amp repairs. I also don't have to blow my ears out every time I want to record and I don't have to worry about any neighbors complaining about the noise. I don't have to worry about the tubes sounding one way on a dry day and another on a humid day. I don't have to worry about the washing machine or dryer comming on and changing the power to the amp which changes the tone. Nope, there's none of that. My presets sound exactly the same every time without fail.

I still have my tube amps for when I want to play "rock star" and feel the power blowing past my pant legs. Yeah, that's lots of fun every once in a while but not something I want to have to do when I'm recording.

 

[blackba]

I personally really enjoy getting the firmware updates! For me I love tweaking and turning knobs and seeing what new amps or features were put in there. The best part for me is it does not cost any more money than my original investment.

Ironically, this is a major reason I have stayed away from tube amps. If I got one, I am stuck with it until I find someone to buy it. Then I would have to go and find another one, and maybe I would get the amp I wanted, but the tubes would be bad, so I would have to swap those out. Then I would have to find a different cabinet cause the one I have doesn't play nice with my new amp. But I can see what people would enjoy about that process I suppose, it just isn't for me.

Just goes to show one mans issue with a piece of gear is another's main selling point. I think the firmware updates are a good thing, they would help the unit from getting stale and if you don't want to upgrade, you don't have to.

 

[TrueTone500]

After spending the day profiling several amps, I've changed my mind... I'm selling my Kemper Powerhead.

 

[Tone Zone]

This is PRECISELY why I have steered WAY clear of the Axe and the Kemper. It just seems too damn complicated and refined for rock and roll - all those 1's and 0's and all.....

+1

 

[BYTOR]

After spending the day profiling several amps, I've changed my mind... I'm selling my Kemper Powerhead.

That was a quick change of heart! You just said you love it & it profiles all your amps amazingly well.......what happened?

 

[Anonymous]

After spending the day profiling several amps, I've changed my mind... I'm selling my Kemper Powerhead.

That was a quick change of heart! You just said you love it & it profiles all your amps amazingly well.......what happened?

You try to make your profile sound like the real amp
Not quite it
You start over
Hmm something's not right
Tweak a little
You haven't played guitar yet
Close but still not the same
You start to lose patience
One last try
Kemper in Classifieds

 

[TrueTone500]

After spending the day profiling several amps, I've changed my mind... I'm selling my Kemper Powerhead.

That was a quick change of heart! You just said you love it & it profiles all your amps amazingly well.......what happened?

Today was the first time I did an A/B comparison between the KPA and my tube rigs. I did one profile last week, but I didn't spend time comparing tones head-to-head. It does sound amazing, but there's something about my tube amp tone that just isn't coming through when played back through the Kemper. It sounds nearly identical toggling between the two tones once the profile is complete, but then seems to loose the 'magic' once the profile is saved? It is barely noticeable when profiling clean and crunch tones, but it is quite noticeable (to my ear) when profiling high-gain settings. Maybe it's the monitor speakers I'm using, I don't know? I tried various mic positions, but nothing seemed to help. I ended by doing a 1 hour head-to-head comparison, and I definitely prefer my tube amps for high-gain.

 

[Ventura]

I tried various mic positions, but nothing seemed to help. I ended by doing a 1 hour head-to-head comparison, and I definitely prefer my tube amps for high-gain.

Enter the Two Notes Torpedo Live....

 

[TrueTone500]

I tried various mic positions, but nothing seemed to help. I ended by doing a 1 hour head-to-head comparison, and I definitely prefer my tube amps for high-gain.

Enter the Two Notes Torpedo Live....

Looking at those now, but they don't make a 16 Ohm unit...

 

[Ventura]

Looking at those now, but they don't make a 16 Ohm unit...

Is your amp 16 ohm out only?

Don't forget, you can utilize the "thru" jack on the back to go direct to your cab while still feeding a clean signal through the unit for processing.

 

[Shask]

Eh.... It takes all of 20 seconds to update. No big deal.....

 

[squank]

After spending the day profiling several amps, I've changed my mind... I'm selling my Kemper Powerhead.

Are you sure you are getting the most out of the profiling process?

I don't mean this to be insulting at all (it took me a long time to make really accurate profiles of my amps). But a small movement of the mic ended up making a HUGE difference to my profiling tone. And trying to monitor via headphones was pretty useless with gainy amps, IME. It was trial and error. But when I did capture and amp correctly, it was truly amazing.

The second question I have for you is this: how are you amplifying? FRFR or guitar cab? If it's FRFR, what speaker? I have found this is so much more important than I originally thought (and I always thought it was important).

Anyway, I thought I'd throw out a few thoughts before you totally throw in the towel.

 

[TrueTone500]

Looking at those now, but they don't make a 16 Ohm unit...

Is your amp 16 ohm out only?

Don't forget, you can utilize the "thru" jack on the back to go direct to your cab while still feeding a clean signal through the unit for processing.

My amp is 4/8/16, but my cabinet is 16 Ohm.

What I want to do is run my head into a Two-Notes w/attenuated output to the speaker cabinet, and then go mono out to a TC2290 with ADA STD-1 in the #5 stereo effects loop of the TC2290. I would then go out of the TC2290 into my mixer/FR monitors. I considered the Palmer, but it doesn't do an attenuated output signal... It acts as a load only (or speaker thru w/o attenuation and of-course speaker simulation into the mixer. The Rivera RC Recording is an option, but the Two-Notes looks like it has so much more to offer. Does the Two-Notes have a stereo effects loop?

 

[TrueTone500]

After spending the day profiling several amps, I've changed my mind... I'm selling my Kemper Powerhead.

Are you sure you are getting the most out of the profiling process?

I don't mean this to be insulting at all (it took me a long time to make really accurate profiles of my amps). But a small movement of the mic ended up making a HUGE difference to my profiling tone. And trying to monitor via headphones was pretty useless with gainy amps, IME. It was trial and error. But when I did capture and amp correctly, it was truly amazing.

The second question I have for you is this: how are you amplifying? FRFR or guitar cab? If it's FRFR, what speaker? I have found this is so much more important than I originally thought (and I always thought it was important).

Anyway, I thought I'd throw out a few thoughts before you totally throw in the towel.

I'm using a Sure 57 which may not be the best mic for profiling, I don't know?

I'm using FRFR as wet/cab simulation on, and a 2x12 cabinet in the center as a dry signal only with speaker sim turned off. Do you think the center cab could be bleeding into the profiled tone?

 

[Rogue]

Today was the first time I did an A/B comparison between the KPA and my tube rigs. I did one profile last week, but I didn't spend time comparing tones head-to-head. It does sound amazing, but there's something about my tube amp tone that just isn't coming through when played back through the Kemper. It sounds nearly identical toggling between the two tones once the profile is complete, but then seems to loose the 'magic' once the profile is saved? It is barely noticeable when profiling clean and crunch tones, but it is quite noticeable (to my ear) when profiling high-gain settings. Maybe it's the monitor speakers I'm using, I don't know? I tried various mic positions, but nothing seemed to help. I ended by doing a 1 hour head-to-head comparison, and I definitely prefer my tube amps for high-gain.

I'm not sure what your standard tone is (clean, crunch, high gain), but your experience is similar to a friend's that had a Kemper. We profiled my plexi clone, did several different captures and takes. In the end the analogue tone was slightly better than the digital. Just slightly warmer, more pleasant to listen to. The Kemper did great, but it lacked that slight bit of "magic" you refer. It isn't magic, it's real. There is something in an analogue capture that isn't replicated in digital matching.

Ultimately, that isn't to say the Kemper or the AxeFX are "bad" units. They do the job 99% of people won't know or care about. And that isn't to say either can't sound better than an analogue setup....but a good analogue setup just has something in there that makes a difference. On the other hand, the digital units have a great deal of flexibility in multiple tones that is "almost as good tone" that your single amp can't accomplish.

In the end I prefer a real miced cab, but a digital setup can be made to sound really, really good....enough to where it doesn't really matter to the vast majority of listeners.

 

[shane159]

I want knobs
1 knob = 1 function
Guitars amps, analog or digital synths, pedals, whatever
FUCK menus, scroll wheels and hidden functions

This, I bought an Axe FX Ultra and I never could get anything good for live applications. I ended up selling it to my father so I still have access to it, but everytime I mess with it, I end up frustrated.

 

[Ventura]

My amp is 4/8/16, but my cabinet is 16 Ohm.

What I want to do is run my head into a Two-Notes w/attenuated output to the speaker cabinet, and then go mono out to a TC2290 with ADA STD-1 in the #5 stereo effects loop of the TC2290. I would then go out of the TC2290 into my mixer/FR monitors. I considered the Palmer, but it doesn't do an attenuated output signal... It acts as a load only (or speaker thru w/o attenuation and of-course speaker simulation into the mixer. The Rivera RC Recording is an option, but the Two-Notes looks like it has so much more to offer. Does the Two-Notes have a stereo effects loop?

K, the TNTL ain't what you're looking for - I don't think.

It doesn't "do" attenuation; but it does "do" cab/IR out to FOH or DAW or both. Additionally, it'll run your cab via the "thru" jack on the back, at equal amp volume, and the amp only sees the cab, therefore, 16 ohm out, 16 ohm in - regardless of the TNTL. What the TNTL will take from this is the line-out (for lack of a better term) from the amp and allow you to go to FOH without mics, or, to DAW without mics.

If attenuation is what you need, they also offer this new product called the Re-Load, maybe check their site to see its specs.