Giving up on modelers & profilers

[PBGas]

Amps are things of beauty! There is nothing that will replace them for those that have grown up playing them. That being said, with some of the great reactive loads out there, you can have your cake and eat it to. They work great and sound great.

What I don’t mind giving up is hauling all of that heavy gear around to weekly gigs or rehearsals. It’s a pain in the rear and not easy on the back when you are north of 50. These days I Like taking a lighter load and run it to FOH. I have one the line 6 212 Powercab + units and it is fantastic. Lots of bottom end and projects great. No issues being heard with a loud band. Many nights, I don’t even bring it because we have some great monitors and I just use those.

I have an Axe III and a Helix now. They both sound great. The Axe is an outstanding piece of gear. I have found also that with the Helix, there is a ton of great tone to get out of that box, even with the stock IRs. I simply switch out the mic to a 121 and drop some of the 120hz and they sound great. The placater model with a V30 Uber and T75 Uber mixed works nicely for me.

Again, not every can use them or be happy with what they hear and that is a-ok! Use what you love and enjoy it!

 

[errrrrl]

Still relatively new to Kemper, so far its ok for what it is. Def not a tube amp replacement in my book.. but it is a quick fun and easy to use tool for recording or laying down scratch tracks. So far i'm finding the high gain stuff a bit too fizzy and digital sounding at times.. in a mix its harder to tell. I was just playing with a Dr. Z Wreck profile that was on my Kemper from the previous owner. It sounded like a real tube head to me, noise and all. Just used it for a fuck around recording yesterday

 

[Bardagh]

Having owned a Kemper previously I think it’s strength is really in using it to make profiles of your own stuff. It can be fun to sort of get to try a lot of different recording signal chains with it as it can give you an idea of what those amps/cabs/mics sound like, but it is also the ultimate unproductive rabbit hole.

Because of how the Kemper works, you really want the base profile to sound as close as possible to what you want in the end, because the Kemper’s built in EQ makes everything sound weird and the same the more you apply it. It’s much more effective to do all your tweaking on real gear and when it’s right, make a profile of exactly that tone for immediate and easy recall. I would go so far as to say you that even for similar tones with different guitars you would want different profiles - anything to make it as close to load and play as possible.

I sold my Kemper last year and started rebuying amps and cabs. I immediately started enjoying playing more and spent less time falling down the rabbit hole. Now that I have a Suhr RL I feel like I’m in a much better place than I was with the Kemper. I know there are some guys it works great for all by itself, but ultimately it was just counterproductive for me.

 

[Six Stringer]

I gave modeling a shot and it turned out not to be for me. I have more fun with tube amps, cabs and speakers. It was just too matrixy for me.

 

[marvcus]

At some point the tweaking takes up all the time rather than playing and it can really suck the fire away, especially in modeling stuff with endless profiles. I had the same issue with modular amps, and they were tube. Sounded fantastic, but I would spend forever trying to dial it in. Same with Mesa Marks. Sound good one day, bad the next, get to tweaking...

Everyone's got their favorite flavors and they are all right. At some point you just got to play and not worry about it, because in reality, all the stuff out there sounds 89% the same.

 

[stratjacket]

Different strokes... Long time lover of both amps and modelers. On my Axe-FxIII I have 3 main patches, set each up in just a few minutes, sounds great and I never tweak. I actually tweak more on amp and pedal knobs than I do with my AxeFx. If it sounds good, just play, I’m a set it and forget it type person.

 

[ClintN667]

I just sold my HX Stomp. I really enjoyed it though. I had a Kemper that I never bonded with. I tried a cab with a tube power amp, with an FRFR, etc.

I think I appreciated the HX Stomp more because I kept my amp this time instead of going full force with digital. Its a tool but tubes are for better or worse just nicer.

 

[ultimatemetalguitartones]

At some point the tweaking takes up all the time rather than playing and it can really suck the fire away, especially in modeling stuff with endless profiles. I had the same issue with modular amps, and they were tube. Sounded fantastic, but I would spend forever trying to dial it in. Same with Mesa Marks. Sound good one day, bad the next, get to tweaking...

Everyone's got their favorite flavors and they are all right. At some point you just got to play and not worry about it, because in reality, all the stuff out there sounds 89% the same.

Spot on comment!!! My Suhr reactive load + torpedo cab combination is a life saver though.. I highly recommend both...

 

[Norton666]

Different strokes... Long time lover of both amps and modelers. On my Axe-FxIII I have 3 main patches, set each up in just a few minutes, sounds great and I never tweak. I actually tweak more on amp and pedal knobs than I do with my AxeFx. If it sounds good, just play, I’m a set it and forget it type person.

I am the exact same way. Had an Axe and have a Kemper. I dialed in my high gain , my crunch and my clean and haven’t fiddled with it since. Works great!

 

[sleewell2]

i barely tweak on my patches at all now that they are setup. just depends on the person. my bandmate uses pedals and an amp and he tweaks his stuff more than i do.

if anything having everything right on the floor with a big screen is easier and quicker to make adjustments than having pedals in front of you and then also having an amp a few feet away.