The Kemper thread

FarleyUK

My Kemper is being returned to me today.... after Kemper claim there's nothing wrong with it. They say it was operating normally the entire time they had it.... which I find hard to believe as it's locked up and error'd at the last 3 gigs I've used it at.

Raised this with Andertons, and they've just said that if it happens again, I'll have to send it back again.

Not very impressed, TBH.

And weirdly, my original post about this on the Kemper forums is no longer there....!

joeyowen

FarleyUK said:

My Kemper is being returned to me today.... after Kemper claim there's nothing wrong with it. They say it was operating normally the entire time they had it.... which I find hard to believe as it's locked up and error'd at the last 3 gigs I've used it at.

Raised this with Andertons, and they've just said that if it happens again, I'll have to send it back again.

Not very impressed, TBH.

And weirdly, my original post about this on the Kemper forums is no longer there....!

I've worked in tech support before, it's not unusual to have a device that is reported broken, but unable to replicate the issue in house (although I can see that it's a massive pita and you have probably lost a lot of trust in the unit).  Wonder how many times they tried.

Did you get any pictures/videos of the errors to send with it?  They probably do believe you, but it may help if it happens again.

However the Kemper forum thread disappearing is a bit suspect for sure

FarleyUK

joeyowen said:

FarleyUK said:

My Kemper is being returned to me today.... after Kemper claim there's nothing wrong with it. They say it was operating normally the entire time they had it.... which I find hard to believe as it's locked up and error'd at the last 3 gigs I've used it at.

Raised this with Andertons, and they've just said that if it happens again, I'll have to send it back again.

Not very impressed, TBH.

And weirdly, my original post about this on the Kemper forums is no longer there....!

I've worked in tech support before, it's not unusual to have a device that is reported broken, but unable to replicate the issue in house (although I can see that it's a massive pita and you have probably lost a lot of trust in the unit).  Wonder how many times they tried.

Did you get any pictures/videos of the errors to send with it?  They probably do believe you, but it may help if it happens again.

However the Kemper forum thread disappearing is a bit suspect for sure

Unfortunately not - was more in straight-up panic mode as it was at a gig. Better make sure my HX Stomp is up to date and ready to go, just in case...!

WiresDreamDisasters

So now I'm pretty much sold on the Kemper Stage plus a Seymour Duncan Powerstage 170.

I went to GuitarGuitar earlier to try out this pairing, through an EVH 4x12. Even just using stock profiles and turning the cabs off, got a lot of great sounds. I may go back with some custom profiles to do another test, but I'm pretty blown away by it.

The Kemper Stage is seriously cool as a bit of kit.

TeleMaster

Yea the Powerstage is amazing with the Kemper. It’s the first power amp I’ve used but it’s so compact and loud, and it sounds great. 

FarleyUK

Editor coming this week...?

https://www.facebook.com/kemperamps/photos/a.185127881503543/3070138219669147/?type=3&theater

WiresDreamDisasters

FarleyUK said:

Editor coming this week...?

https://www.facebook.com/kemperamps/photos/a.185127881503543/3070138219669147/?type=3&theater

I love how every 3rd comment is a joke about an editor  

Freebird

WiresDreamDisasters said:

FarleyUK said:

Editor coming this week...?

https://www.facebook.com/kemperamps/photos/a.185127881503543/3070138219669147/?type=3&theater

I love how every 3rd comment is a joke about an editor  

What editor? 

FarleyUK

Here's a question I asked on the Kemper forum... would be interested in your thoughts.

I'm auditioning for a new band, and the rhythm player is using a Helix. He mentioned that they play each song in the tuning on the record, and he has a performance slot for each song. So most things are standard E tuning, some might be Eb tuning, and there's one in C# tuning.

What I'm thinking is that I would do the same on the Kemper, and use the rig option to detune the entire chain (apologies, I cannot remember the exact name of the function).... but I'm a bit wary that it can sound 'warbly'; is there a better way to manage this (aside form having one guitar for each tuning!)?

Thanks!

chrishill901

FarleyUK said:

Here's a question I asked on the Kemper forum... would be interested in your thoughts.

I'm auditioning for a new band, and the rhythm player is using a Helix. He mentioned that they play each song in the tuning on the record, and he has a performance slot for each song. So most things are standard E tuning, some might be Eb tuning, and there's one in C# tuning.

What I'm thinking is that I would do the same on the Kemper, and use the rig option to detune the entire chain (apologies, I cannot remember the exact name of the function).... but I'm a bit wary that it can sound 'warbly'; is there a better way to manage this (aside form having one guitar for each tuning!)?

Thanks!

I do just this every week. Most of what we play is in standard, half step or full step down so I keep my guitar half a step down so I’m generally only going +1 or -1. I wasn’t aware of any global setting for this, I just use the transpose in an effects block for each song. I think it sounds great, I monitor myself with IEMs and it sounds great in ears and out front. We do one song which is two steps down and it handles this fine too but I probably wouldn’t push it any further. Bassist uses a digitech drop for the same purpose and it all sounds great

dangriffiths

I think Transpose does a good job but I turn off Smooth Chords as it adds warble and pitch issues when I have it on. 

TeleMaster

I find that if it’s clean it can be very noticeable and almost unusable. I haven’t tried it in an effects block though. Where are you guys placing it? Thanks. 

WiresDreamDisasters

You'd want to put it in the very first block I would've thought, and not use a parallel chain.

TeleMaster

WiresDreamDisasters said:

You'd want to put it in the very first block I would've thought, and not use a parallel chain.

Yea that’s what I thought. Maybe it’s exactly the same as setting it in the ‘Rig’ setting. 

WiresDreamDisasters

Just back to the Kemper in front of an amp thing. I tried it with the unpowered toaster. Noise floor seemed okay. But the outgoing level was either too high or too low. The "tone" itself didn't sound bad. No loss of high-end and no extra muddiness or anything like that. But it didn't drive the amp in the same way that plugging your guitar directly into it does.

So I think the impedance difference is a red herring. I think it's simply about finding what value works best, when the STACK section is completely disabled and all effects are at unity gain.

By default it has too much gain going into the amp. The master -12dB option undergained it too much. So I'm thinking something like -6dB would do it.

I think the best way to figure out what the output level needs to be is this:

1. Plug guitar into DI box splitter that splits to an amp and to a computer. Record the DI.
2. Reamp the DI through the Kemper, feeding it back into another track on the computer as well as the amp at the same time.
3. Compare the output coming from the Kemper to the original track.
4. Offset the master or monitor output (whichever is connected to the real amp) by whatever amount it takes to even up the two DI tracks on the computer.

Doing this with zero effects loaded up on the Kemper and with the stack fully disabled should give you a master figure that will be valid for all amps. Again I'm thinking around -6dB.

I'm still very interested in Kemper Stage as multi-fx only *in SOME instances* - reason being, I could flog a bunch of my single pedals (not all of them) to fund the KS.

Jonathanthomas83

What's the point of owning a Porsche and not using the engine, FFS.

;-)

WiresDreamDisasters

Well I sent the above over to BurkyBerk, and he just said "thanks for the insight"  

Jonathanthomas83

That is dreadful isn't it! 'kinell!

TeleMaster

That guy... said the same to me. I think he’s got it set as his bloody signature or something.

WiresDreamDisasters

Or he's a robot