The Kemper thread

WiresDreamDisasters

Jonathanthomas83 said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Had an interesting email from Kemper on those questions today. Suffice to say, they put no real stock in using the Kemper Stage for effects-only. Comparisons to owning a Porsche and not using the engine were made.  

It made me giggle, but it also pissed me off a bit. I wanted a technical response, not a marketing response claiming the Kemper made all valve amps obsolete. Pretty much word for word.  

Fractal get stick for this, but Kemper are just as bad. That's a shit show of a response.

ie. "You're not big enough to help as you won't showcase our equipment on a stage or to an Insta following of thousands, so please move on and take your technical questions, that we've not even considered in our architecture, elsewhere."

I guess Fractal's saving grace is that they have indeed thought of most things and have integrated into their product.

I did respond with a cheeky "okay I wont buy one then"  

But I may still try one. I just want to know if I'm going to get some sort of level or impedance mis-match when going from the Kemper main outs into the front of a valve amp.

I know it doesn't make 100% sense to do it that way, but it's a use case I am very interested in. I will work my way up to using the full capabilities of the thing, but the initial thing I would want to do is setup 20 or so presets strictly for FX only usage with my valve amps, complete with cool pitch morphing capabilities and delay oscillation capabilities, and essentially replicate my old Helix rig and my single-stomps rig.

Jonathanthomas83

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Had an interesting email from Kemper on those questions today. Suffice to say, they put no real stock in using the Kemper Stage for effects-only. Comparisons to owning a Porsche and not using the engine were made.  

It made me giggle, but it also pissed me off a bit. I wanted a technical response, not a marketing response claiming the Kemper made all valve amps obsolete. Pretty much word for word.  

Fractal get stick for this, but Kemper are just as bad. That's a shit show of a response.

ie. "You're not big enough to help as you won't showcase our equipment on a stage or to an Insta following of thousands, so please move on and take your technical questions, that we've not even considered in our architecture, elsewhere."

I guess Fractal's saving grace is that they have indeed thought of most things and have integrated into their product.

I did respond with a cheeky "okay I wont buy one then"  

But I may still try one. I just want to know if I'm going to get some sort of level or impedance mis-match when going from the Kemper main outs into the front of a valve amp.

I know it doesn't make 100% sense to do it that way, but it's a use case I am very interested in. I will work my way up to using the full capabilities of the thing, but the initial thing I would want to do is setup 20 or so presets strictly for FX only usage with my valve amps, complete with cool pitch morphing capabilities and delay oscillation capabilities, and essentially replicate my old Helix rig and my single-stomps rig.

I'll be honest and say that your previous post sounded quite involved and I didn't get time to respond, sorry. I've no doubt that Kemper can handle some of the things you need, but I know that it's nowehere near as flexible as a Fractal for morphing etc. I suspect you'll be left wanting - but sincerely hope that isn't the case. I love the Kemper and would recommend it to anyone.

WiresDreamDisasters

Jonathanthomas83 said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Had an interesting email from Kemper on those questions today. Suffice to say, they put no real stock in using the Kemper Stage for effects-only. Comparisons to owning a Porsche and not using the engine were made.  

It made me giggle, but it also pissed me off a bit. I wanted a technical response, not a marketing response claiming the Kemper made all valve amps obsolete. Pretty much word for word.  

Fractal get stick for this, but Kemper are just as bad. That's a shit show of a response.

ie. "You're not big enough to help as you won't showcase our equipment on a stage or to an Insta following of thousands, so please move on and take your technical questions, that we've not even considered in our architecture, elsewhere."

I guess Fractal's saving grace is that they have indeed thought of most things and have integrated into their product.

I did respond with a cheeky "okay I wont buy one then"  

But I may still try one. I just want to know if I'm going to get some sort of level or impedance mis-match when going from the Kemper main outs into the front of a valve amp.

I know it doesn't make 100% sense to do it that way, but it's a use case I am very interested in. I will work my way up to using the full capabilities of the thing, but the initial thing I would want to do is setup 20 or so presets strictly for FX only usage with my valve amps, complete with cool pitch morphing capabilities and delay oscillation capabilities, and essentially replicate my old Helix rig and my single-stomps rig.

I'll be honest and say that your previous post sounded quite involved and I didn't get time to respond, sorry. I've no doubt that Kemper can handle some of the things you need, but I know that it's nowehere near as flexible as a Fractal for morphing etc. I suspect you'll be left wanting - but sincerely hope that isn't the case. I love the Kemper and would recommend it to anyone.

That's actually not really true. The Kemper has essentially an A state and a B state, and *all* continuous parameters (IE: parameters on knobs) can be blended between. It works much like a Strymon pedal does where you set your minimum and maximum values, but this works across the entire Kemper parameter count.

And you press the selected preset switch a second time to move to the B state. It's quite clever on the surface of it.

On the Axe FX the parameters that can even be modulated are quite limited For instance you can't modulate the passive EQ knobs on an amplifier from any source. Well, that's certainly true on the AxeFX II but I don't know about the III. @octatonic could clarify that.

The Helix allows you to assign up to 64 parameters to the snapshot selection. But no true morphing of those same parameters.

So IMHO when it comes to morphing, plus expression pedals for wah, volume, pitch, and also you can control morph from an expression pedal too, that's more than enough realtime control for me. In theory anyway.

On the the delays sound great, the reverbs sound great, the pitch effects sound great. Not fussed about the distortions or the modulations in the main. You also get completely seamless preset changes which you do not get on the Axe FX or the Helix, which is quite important for my style.

Trust me, I wouldn't be considering it if I could find a fatal flaw. So far none are apparent.

Jonathanthomas83

Well I stand corrected. Probably user error that lead to my confusion when trying (and failing) with complex morphing. I'm proper chuffed it's ticking those boxes for you! :-)

WiresDreamDisasters said:

On the the delays sound great, the reverbs sound great

I've been saying this for months and months...I'm pleased someone finally agrees :-)

If they released a Kemper FX unit or Kemper Delay and Reverb pedals, I'd be all over them.

Freebird

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Had an interesting email from Kemper on those questions today. Suffice to say, they put no real stock in using the Kemper Stage for effects-only. Comparisons to owning a Porsche and not using the engine were made.  

It made me giggle, but it also pissed me off a bit. I wanted a technical response, not a marketing response claiming the Kemper made all valve amps obsolete. Pretty much word for word.  

Get a used FX8 if you only want effects. When it comes to the Kemper, the amps are the main event (engine)  

WiresDreamDisasters

Oh I actually think the Kemper delays and reverbs easily compete with the likes of Strymon and Meris. I think they're brilliant. Way way WAAAAAAAAYYYYY better than they were when I owned a Kemper back in 2013/2014.

Jonathanthomas83

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Oh I actually think the Kemper delays and reverbs easily compete with the likes of Strymon and Meris. I think they're brilliant. Way way WAAAAAAAAYYYYY better than they were when I owned a Kemper back in 2013/2014.

I've been banging this drum for so long, it's so good to hear someone else saying the same things! I agree 100%.

Freebird said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Had an interesting email from Kemper on those questions today. Suffice to say, they put no real stock in using the Kemper Stage for effects-only. Comparisons to owning a Porsche and not using the engine were made.  

It made me giggle, but it also pissed me off a bit. I wanted a technical response, not a marketing response claiming the Kemper made all valve amps obsolete. Pretty much word for word.  

Get a used FX8 if you only want effects. When it comes to the Kemper, the amps are the main event (engine)  

For the above reason, I wholeheartedly disagree, sorry mate! ;-)

Freebird

Jonathanthomas83 said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Oh I actually think the Kemper delays and reverbs easily compete with the likes of Strymon and Meris. I think they're brilliant. Way way WAAAAAAAAYYYYY better than they were when I owned a Kemper back in 2013/2014.

I've been banging this drum for so long, it's so good to hear someone else saying the same things! I agree 100%.

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Freebird said:
Get a used FX8 if you only want effects. When it comes to the Kemper, the amps are the main event (engine)  

For the above reason, I wholeheartedly disagree, sorry mate! ;-)

I do sometimes use the excellent delays & reverbs Post amp, but that is all. The FX8 is wired 4CM, so using this arrangement I can tax the Fractal CPU Pre amp if I need too.

octatonic

WiresDreamDisasters said:

On the Axe FX the parameters that can even be modulated are quite limited For instance you can't modulate the passive EQ knobs on an amplifier from any source. Well, that's certainly true on the AxeFX II but I don't know about the III. @octatonic could clarify that.

I can't remember if this is true or not with the Axe FX III- it certainly was with the two and I believe it is with the III.
My III packed up right now as I move in a couple of days- I can check once it is set up in the UK.
I have to admit it is something I've never tried to do- I use modifiers for wet/dry mix for the most part.

Fiftyshadesofjay

@WiresDreamDisasters I’ve played around with my Kemper for effects and it didn’t work that great. In my experience it added a fair bit of noise and the levels were tricky to sort.

Bear in mind this was just messing about, you may get better results if you spend some serious time with it but it’s much harder to get it sounding good then a Helix/FX8 etc.

Best results I had were profiling the preamp section of the amp and then running it into the return. Sounded pretty damn close and then all the effects in front and behind work as they should.

WiresDreamDisasters

Fiftyshadesofjay said:

@WiresDreamDisasters I’ve played around with my Kemper for effects and it didn’t work that great. In my experience it added a fair bit of noise and the levels were tricky to sort.

Bear in mind this was just messing about, you may get better results if you spend some serious time with it but it’s much harder to get it sounding good then a Helix/FX8 etc.

Best results I had were profiling the preamp section of the amp and then running it into the return. Sounded pretty damn close and then all the effects in front and behind work as they should.

Awesome, that's kinda what I wanted to hear! Cheers Jay.

TeleMaster

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Had an interesting email from Kemper on those questions today. Suffice to say, they put no real stock in using the Kemper Stage for effects-only. Comparisons to owning a Porsche and not using the engine were made.  

It made me giggle, but it also pissed me off a bit. I wanted a technical response, not a marketing response claiming the Kemper made all valve amps obsolete. Pretty much word for word.  

@WiresDreamDisasters ;;;;That’s exactly the response I had!!! Burkhard?

’You’re using the Porsche without the engine’

Wasn’t that impressed. 

I also wanted to buy a part from them. I kept emailing my details and they kept asking me for them. Their email service is a shit show. They say they don’t get them or they sent them and no one gets anything. I gave up in the end. Couldn’t be bothered with it. 

Not quite as bad as those guys at Atomic. Once I wanted a refund and I emailed them 5 times and got no response. They were replying to other people and I had to threaten them with the police. I will never buy an Atomic product again. 

‘Have you checked your spam folder?’

FarleyUK

In other news - official firmware 7.0.9 is released for all units. No longer in beta.

Freebird

FarleyUK said:

In other news - official firmware 7.0.9 is released for all units. No longer in beta.

How close is the editor? Does it depend on 7.0.9 firmware?

FarleyUK

Freebird said:

FarleyUK said:

In other news - official firmware 7.0.9 is released for all units. No longer in beta.

How close is the editor? Does it depend on 7.0.9 firmware?

No idea - nobody knows.

I'd assume that now the firmware is stable, it opens the way for the editor and Rig manager 3.0.

Also - who here uses Pure Cab? I've gone from having it at 6, to 3, to 1, to on but set to 0, to just now trying it as being off...

chrishill901

FarleyUK said:

Freebird said:

FarleyUK said:

In other news - official firmware 7.0.9 is released for all units. No longer in beta.

How close is the editor? Does it depend on 7.0.9 firmware?

No idea - nobody knows.

I'd assume that now the firmware is stable, it opens the way for the editor and Rig manager 3.0.

Also - who here uses Pure Cab? I've gone from having it at 6, to 3, to 1, to on but set to 0, to just now trying it as being off...

I have it on as I much preferred it through my studio monitors but I have never switched it off now I’m going through a Laney LFR112... will have to try it!

I’m after some advice... am I just missing something here? I’m using my Kemper at rehearsals and I can’t see the remote screen from my standing position and I can barely distinguish the colours on the foot switches to determine what kind of effect is on/off and I’m having a real hard time working out which switch is for which effect. It feels limited for effects switching in this regard. If I only used the same 4 effects then it would be easier to remember but some rigs have different types of effects and in the heat of a song I can’t hit the right switch! I’m starting to get jealous of Helix people... Does anyone else have this problem? Also, can you use one of the switches as a momentary morph to stomp on a dB boost for solos?

im ordinarily a no-fx kind of person but this band is a lot of covers and I’m having a hard time working out how to logically programme it to cover everything without going purely down the 1 rig per song basis!

WiresDreamDisasters

Okay so I tried the Kemper as effects-only tonight. Unfortunately it just doesn't work that great. A bit too fuzzy and over-gained on account of the line level outputs I'd say.

Which probably means the Stage isn't usable as an effects only device. Which I think is a great shame, because it could really really slay in 4-cable-method with a valve amp. Best of both worlds like.

I'm still strongly considering it though. Will just have to account for a poweramp if I do get one.

cbellanga

chrishill901 said:

I’m after some advice... am I just missing something here? I’m using my Kemper at rehearsals and I can’t see the remote screen from my standing position and I can barely distinguish the colours on the foot switches to determine what kind of effect is on/off and I’m having a real hard time working out which switch is for which effect. It feels limited for effects switching in this regard. If I only used the same 4 effects then it would be easier to remember but some rigs have different types of effects and in the heat of a song I can’t hit the right switch! I’m starting to get jealous of Helix people... Does anyone else have this problem? Also, can you use one of the switches as a momentary morph to stomp on a dB boost for solos?

im ordinarily a no-fx kind of person but this band is a lot of covers and I’m having a hard time working out how to logically programme it to cover everything without going purely down the 1 rig per song basis!

Hey man are you aware you can tweak the screen and buttons lights / colours etc? It's somewhere in the menu and maybe that will help to make everything more visible

handsomerik

Just reading a few of these comments about other manufacturers has really highlighted how exceptional the customer support from the line 6 folks really is. 

They reply to emails, readily engage with their customer base on forums and Facebook and I’ve heard many accounts of them standing by their product and fixing/replacing things even out of warranty and going above and beyond in making sure customers are happy. They even on occasion give out their personal private contact details to make sure things get sorted adequately. 

These things all go a long way in my book when you’re spending 1k+ on a product. The other companies could stand to learn a thing or two. 

WiresDreamDisasters

handsomerik said:

Just reading a few of these comments about other manufacturers has really highlighted how exceptional the customer support from the line 6 folks really is. 

They reply to emails, readily engage with their customer base on forums and Facebook and I’ve heard many accounts of them standing by their product and fixing/replacing things even out of warranty and going above and beyond in making sure customers are happy. They even on occasion give out their personal private contact details to make sure things get sorted adequately. 

These things all go a long way in my book when you’re spending 1k+ on a product. The other companies could stand to learn a thing or two. 

Line 6 are fantastic, absolutely.