Thinking of selling everything and getting a Kemper...

[daver101]

Do it. The Kemper is everything people wish the Axe was but isn't. It is the game changer people are waiting for.

[edit] a small Kemper clip,

Just a 1977 JMP profile into a V30 using my JJ1 guitar with JB pickup. Plug n play!

I'd really like to have this profile......

Just the a 1977 stock profile. Comes with the unit!

REALLY? OK, I need to dig into this a little deeper....that was awesome!!!

I've been messing around with an Egnator model and the Dimed Bassman model.....

 

[zentman]

So basically guys with a Kemper say it's the best evar! Guys with an Axe II say it's the best evar! Guys with both say it's toss up. Do I have it about right?

No, I had both and I did not like the Axe FX.....

And others who had both sold the Kemper and kept the Axe II. Again, pretty much proves nothing to the average reader. Folks just need to try stuff and buy what they like. Me? I think the original POD will never be topped.

You know, I loved the original POD and thought "this is the BEST thing since sliced bread." I felt like I was from the future!

I met the Roland rep at the music store in 1996 and he convinced me the Roland GP100 was replacing all tube amps in major LA studios. I can't tell you how many hours I hunched over that little screen trying to make it sound like a Marshall stack. I still have it in the loop of a Peavey Rockmaster rack as delay and verb.

 

[daver101]

So basically guys with a Kemper say it's the best evar! Guys with an Axe II say it's the best evar! Guys with both say it's toss up. Do I have it about right?

No, I had both and I did not like the Axe FX.....

And others who had both sold the Kemper and kept the Axe II. Again, pretty much proves nothing to the average reader. Folks just need to try stuff and buy what they like. Me? I think the original POD will never be topped.

You know, I loved the original POD and thought "this is the BEST thing since sliced bread." I felt like I was from the future!

I met the Roland rep at the music store in 1996 and he convinced me the Roland GP100 was replacing all tube amps in major LA studios. I can't tell you how many hours I hunched over that little screen trying to make it sound like a Marshall stack.

LOL! Yeah, it's been a fun ride. I actually downloaded a ROCKMAN profile to my Kemper! Old Dave meets Future Dave! But you are correct: It all comes down to what works for you!

 

[VESmedic]

I did sold my dual head rack with. VHT ultralead and diezel Herbert, 6 space rack on top etc.... Don't miss it, or it's weight, in the least, and I am a VHT but. Now, I have a 6 space rack with furman, line 6 g90, a VHT 2902 and a rackdrawer. Also have a mackie hd 1531 for FRFR. The thing is an absolute godsend and completely blows my mind daily. I am also lucky enough to have a few profiles recorded by highly respected engineers, who also use the kemper... Flat Out amazing, and I haven't regretted it since selling everything. Anything that is good enough for Andy sneap is good enough for me.


Check out theampfactory.com these are arguably the best profiles on the net, and are flat out amazing... The train wreck profile is worth the price of the kemper alone, go listen.

 

[Gainfreak]

The Kemper can also do the weird mids ala Ronni LeTekro

 

[Vrad]

The Kemper can also do the weird mids ala Ronni LeTekro

HA!
That's awesome! Dude it sounds like a tube amp... Period. I can't pick out anything digital about it. In a mix? Fuggetaboutit...

 

[Juggernaut]

Whitechapel were using the Kemper with a VHT 2150 on the Mayhem tour.

 

[Gainfreak]

The Kemper can also do the weird mids ala Ronni LeTekro

HA!
That's awesome! Dude it sounds like a tube amp... Period. I can't pick out anything digital about it. In a mix? Fuggetaboutit...

Vlad, I'm really blown away by this thing and I haven't even profiled any of my amps yet!
I'm also not a big fan of direct recording but the Kemper has changed my mind....... and in a mix? Id have to say that I could not tell if it was an amp or a modelor. This thing is definitely a game changer for me!

Hope all is well!!

~R~

 

[glassjaw7]

Seems like the modeler I've been waiting for for 10+ years. I can't wait to give one a spin...

Vrad, if you can swing it why not pick up the Kemper, play it for a couple months or until the novelty wears off, and then decide if you can live without your other amps?

 

[Vrad]

The Kemper can also do the weird mids ala Ronni LeTekro

HA!
That's awesome! Dude it sounds like a tube amp... Period. I can't pick out anything digital about it. In a mix? Fuggetaboutit...

Vlad, I'm really blown away by this thing and I haven't even profiled any of my amps yet!
I'm also not a big fan of direct recording but the Kemper has changed my mind....... and in a mix? Id have to say that I could not tell if it was an amp or a modelor. This thing is definitely a game changer for me!

Hope all is well!!

~R~

It's not overly polished like most modelers. It has the real-tube amp imperfections. Sounds like it feels good too.

 

[Vrad]

Seems like the modeler I've been waiting for for 10+ years. I can't wait to give one a spin...

Vrad, if you can swing it why not pick up the Kemper, play it for a couple months or until the novelty wears off, and then decide if you can live without your other amps?

Unfortunately I'd have to sell a bunch of stuff to afford this thing... LOL!

 

[Gainfreak]

The Kemper can also do the weird mids ala Ronni LeTekro

HA!
That's awesome! Dude it sounds like a tube amp... Period. I can't pick out anything digital about it. In a mix? Fuggetaboutit...

Vlad, I'm really blown away by this thing and I haven't even profiled any of my amps yet!
I'm also not a big fan of direct recording but the Kemper has changed my mind....... and in a mix? Id have to say that I could not tell if it was an amp or a modelor. This thing is definitely a game changer for me!

Hope all is well!!

~R~

It's not overly polished like most modelers. It has the real-tube amp imperfections. Sounds like it feels good too.

You pretty much nailed it. What is cool about it is that the profiles are pretty raw sounding (just like an amp sounds when you Mic it up)

You can make it polished sounding if you want or leave in some of the rasp. The sky is pretty much the limit on this thing. What I like about it is that you can profile your own amps, tweak them and have YOUR sound with very little tweaking. I'm loving this thing and it's not going anywhere. I'm going to continue to work on some stuff but as of now I'm really happy with the results I'm getting and I haven't even really dug into this thing yet. I've been able to get a lot of the tones that I wanted already and I haven't even profiled my amps yet

 

[thegame]

When you profile an amp, you're getting the essence of it through a conventional speaker cab, right ? So your amp profile is married to whatever speaker its going through during the profiling process ?

So then, in the studio you plug into the Kemper and play through clean studio monitors ?
And live, the Kemper goes direct into the PA and you play through stage monitors ?

Lastly, how would you play it through a guitar setup like Juggy mentioned (VHT 2150) since you're sending a profile "sample" integrating amplifier plus speaker/cab coloration, then pumping that through a power amp/speaker cab setup ?

 

[redrol]

When you profile an amp, you're getting the essence of it through a conventional speaker cab, right ? So your amp profile is married to whatever speaker its going through during the profiling process ?

So then, in the studio you plug into the Kemper and play through clean studio monitors ?
And live, the Kemper goes direct into the PA and you play through stage monitors ?

Lastly, how would you play it through a guitar setup like Juggy mentioned (VHT 2150) since you're sending a profile "sample" integrating amplifier plus speaker/cab coloration, then pumping that through a power amp/speaker cab setup ?

Yes when you profile you capture the speaker, the cab, and the mic and mic preamp tone all in one. If you want to remove (most) of the cab/speaker effect there an option on the monitor outs to disable them. This enhancment was done recently so people could more realistically play through real amp heads and cabs while sending the cab emulated tone to the FOH.

 

[thegame]

When you profile an amp, you're getting the essence of it through a conventional speaker cab, right ? So your amp profile is married to whatever speaker its going through during the profiling process ?

So then, in the studio you plug into the Kemper and play through clean studio monitors ?
And live, the Kemper goes direct into the PA and you play through stage monitors ?

Lastly, how would you play it through a guitar setup like Juggy mentioned (VHT 2150) since you're sending a profile "sample" integrating amplifier plus speaker/cab coloration, then pumping that through a power amp/speaker cab setup ?

Yes when you profile you capture the speaker, the cab, and the mic and mic preamp tone all in one. If you want to remove (most) of the cab/speaker effect there an option on the monitor outs to disable them. This enhancment was done recently so people could more realistically play through real amp heads and cabs while sending the cab emulated tone to the FOH.

Cool, thanks. What happens when you want to change the treble setting, for example, on your profiled amp, after its profiled ? Even if the Kemper has its own tone parameters, how could it change it the same way as on the amp ?

 

[VESmedic]

When you profile an amp, you're getting the essence of it through a conventional speaker cab, right ? So your amp profile is married to whatever speaker its going through during the profiling process ?

So then, in the studio you plug into the Kemper and play through clean studio monitors ?
And live, the Kemper goes direct into the PA and you play through stage monitors ?

Lastly, how would you play it through a guitar setup like Juggy mentioned (VHT 2150) since you're sending a profile "sample" integrating amplifier plus speaker/cab coloration, then pumping that through a power amp/speaker cab setup ?

Yes when you profile you capture the speaker, the cab, and the mic and mic preamp tone all in one. If you want to remove (most) of the cab/speaker effect there an option on the monitor outs to disable them. This enhancment was done recently so people could more realistically play through real amp heads and cabs while sending the cab emulated tone to the FOH.

Cool, thanks. What happens when you want to change the treble setting, for example, on your profiled amp, after its profiled ? Even if the Kemper has its own tone parameters, how could it change it the same way as on the amp ?

Okay, so for instance, you profile a 5150 head, and then after the profile is made, you want to turn up the treble on the kemper, and you want to know if it reacts like the 5150s treble pot correct? The answer is no, it can not do that....YET. According to kemper, he is building a huge library of tone stacks that will be available for the kemper sometime. When it happens, not really sure, but what you are asking out of the kemper is supposively in the works, available for a later firmware upgrade.

 

[Gainfreak]

When you profile an amp, you're getting the essence of it through a conventional speaker cab, right ? So your amp profile is married to whatever speaker its going through during the profiling process ?

So then, in the studio you plug into the Kemper and play through clean studio monitors ?
And live, the Kemper goes direct into the PA and you play through stage monitors ?

Lastly, how would you play it through a guitar setup like Juggy mentioned (VHT 2150) since you're sending a profile "sample" integrating amplifier plus speaker/cab coloration, then pumping that through a power amp/speaker cab setup ?

Yes when you profile you capture the speaker, the cab, and the mic and mic preamp tone all in one. If you want to remove (most) of the cab/speaker effect there an option on the monitor outs to disable them. This enhancment was done recently so people could more realistically play through real amp heads and cabs while sending the cab emulated tone to the FOH.

Cool, thanks. What happens when you want to change the treble setting, for example, on your profiled amp, after its profiled ? Even if the Kemper has its own tone parameters, how could it change it the same way as on the amp ?

The Kemper has bass,mid and treble just like a regular amp. If you profile an amp and you want it brighter, you can hit the treble knob and it will make it brighter. It might not react like the regular amp but if you goal is just to brighten or darken up the tone a bit, It works in spades. You also have access to parametric and graphic eq's and you can even change the characteristics of the cab to brighten/darken up the tone.

The best thing you can do is to spend time adjusting the mic when you profile you amp and get the tone that you want and once you have it, the rest is gravy. There are guys who take multiple profiles of their amps using different settings/amounts of gain etc etc. There's lots you can do with this thing

 

[thegame]

When you profile an amp, you're getting the essence of it through a conventional speaker cab, right ? So your amp profile is married to whatever speaker its going through during the profiling process ?

So then, in the studio you plug into the Kemper and play through clean studio monitors ?
And live, the Kemper goes direct into the PA and you play through stage monitors ?

Lastly, how would you play it through a guitar setup like Juggy mentioned (VHT 2150) since you're sending a profile "sample" integrating amplifier plus speaker/cab coloration, then pumping that through a power amp/speaker cab setup ?

Yes when you profile you capture the speaker, the cab, and the mic and mic preamp tone all in one. If you want to remove (most) of the cab/speaker effect there an option on the monitor outs to disable them. This enhancment was done recently so people could more realistically play through real amp heads and cabs while sending the cab emulated tone to the FOH.

Cool, thanks. What happens when you want to change the treble setting, for example, on your profiled amp, after its profiled ? Even if the Kemper has its own tone parameters, how could it change it the same way as on the amp ?

Okay, so for instance, you profile a 5150 head, and then after the profile is made, you want to turn up the treble on the kemper, and you want to know if it reacts like the 5150s treble pot correct? The answer is no, it can not do that....YET. According to kemper, he is building a huge library of tone stacks that will be available for the kemper sometime. When it happens, not really sure, but what you are asking out of the kemper is supposively in the works, available for a later firmware upgrade.

Interesting, thanks. The way I see it, presence/treble/mid/bass are for adjusting to personal preference, and equally importantly, adjusting to room acoustics. Any amp needs to be EQ'd to the room, let alone profiling it by itself, and then having that profile live with competing instruments. Those aforementioned settings on the profiled amp may need to be substantially tweaked when the Kemper is brought to a different environment, and if the Kemper cannot change those variables the same way, then you're going to get further and further from the original amp sound.

 

[VESmedic]

When you profile an amp, you're getting the essence of it through a conventional speaker cab, right ? So your amp profile is married to whatever speaker its going through during the profiling process ?

So then, in the studio you plug into the Kemper and play through clean studio monitors ?
And live, the Kemper goes direct into the PA and you play through stage monitors ?

Lastly, how would you play it through a guitar setup like Juggy mentioned (VHT 2150) since you're sending a profile "sample" integrating amplifier plus speaker/cab coloration, then pumping that through a power amp/speaker cab setup ?

Yes when you profile you capture the speaker, the cab, and the mic and mic preamp tone all in one. If you want to remove (most) of the cab/speaker effect there an option on the monitor outs to disable them. This enhancment was done recently so people could more realistically play through real amp heads and cabs while sending the cab emulated tone to the FOH.

Cool, thanks. What happens when you want to change the treble setting, for example, on your profiled amp, after its profiled ? Even if the Kemper has its own tone parameters, how could it change it the same way as on the amp ?

Okay, so for instance, you profile a 5150 head, and then after the profile is made, you want to turn up the treble on the kemper, and you want to know if it reacts like the 5150s treble pot correct? The answer is no, it can not do that....YET. According to kemper, he is building a huge library of tone stacks that will be available for the kemper sometime. When it happens, not really sure, but what you are asking out of the kemper is supposively in the works, available for a later firmware upgrade.

Interesting, thanks. The way I see it, presence/treble/mid/bass are for adjusting to personal preference, and equally importantly, adjusting to room acoustics. Any amp needs to be EQ'd to the room, let alone profiling it by itself, and then having that profile live with competing instruments. Those aforementioned settings on the profiled amp may need to be substantially tweaked when the Kemper is brought to a different environment, and if the Kemper cannot change those variables the same way, then you're going to get further and further from the original amp sound.

I guess I see what you are saying, but I think you are making it more complicated than it is. For instance, How is that any different when you take your amp to a live show, and it is miced up? The sound guy decides you need more bass. or mids, less treble etc or whatever, he is essentially doing the same thing. He is adjusting an EQ that is not attached to your amp whatsoever as well you know? Make no mistake, the kemper is FANTASTIC for live use. I use it exclusively now, as well as metal guitarists White Chapel, Unearth, august burns red ( I believe anyways) etc. It is tried and true with Andy Sneap, arguably the biggest producer in metal on Earth.

You are right in a sense, that if you go way overboard with the treble, bass, mid etc, you will get farther and farther away from the "true" profile. But if it needs that much EQing, try a different profile, or better yet, a different cabinet. I think the Kemper is far enough along that if you don't like a certain profile, there is probably tons of profiles of the same amp that you may like available for download, guarenteed.

 

[Meathead]

Normally I would say "are you crazy?" but from what direct modelling devices are sounding like these days, I say why not?
You aren't gigging.
You don't need 100 watts.
A good direct tone for recording and jamming is all you basically need.

I see tube amps going down in value and not being a wise investment. I can't even get $900 for a Budda SD18 combo locally on Craigslist or Kijiji. I'm getting offers between $500 and $700...it's pathetic. I don't think tube amps are a good investment. The guitar in general is becoming less and less relevant in music these days whether we want to admit it or not.

With the Kemper the deal breaker for me is the look/design of it. I won't buy a product like that until it's in a rack form or something much easier to carry around.

You don't play out, you aren't in a band...I'd say the tougher argument would be "why should I keep all of these expensive tube amps when I don't really need them?"