The Kemper thread

WiresDreamDisasters

The head turned up this morning. The ground loop/interference noise I was getting is not present with this model. Andertons forgot to include the remote that was supposed to come with it though. Boooooooo. Time to get on the chase

octatonic

Quite a few people have complained about the Stage being noisy now- perhaps there might be a design issue?

WiresDreamDisasters

My suspicion is they had one or two bad batches and there are still units kicking around from that.

crunchman

PSA:  OS 7.5 has officially been released (acoustic simulator).

FarleyUK

The Kemper website is possibly the flakiest website ever. It's down AGAIN.

BintyTwanger77

Has anyone tried the Kemper Kone/Kabinet yet? People say it gives the Kemper a more realistic "amp-in-the-room" feel, but that is just opinions on the internet, so... (looks around) oh. I mean, opinions on the internet that aren't on this forum.

Does it work with any power amp used with an unpowered Kemper (like the Seymour Duncan), or would you need the Powerhead/Powered Rack?

FarleyUK

BintyTwanger77 said:

Has anyone tried the Kemper Kone/Kabinet yet? People say it gives the Kemper a more realistic "amp-in-the-room" feel, but that is just opinions on the internet, so... (looks around) oh. I mean, opinions on the internet that aren't on this forum.

Does it work with any power amp used with an unpowered Kemper (like the Seymour Duncan), or would you need the Powerhead/Powered Rack?

I was going to buy it, but read that the solution I use (2 RedSound LG12 cabs) gives a very similar feel (albeit without the option to load speaker imprints).

My understanding is that you need either a powered head / rack or use an external poweramp as they're passive cabs. So the SD PowerStage should be fine.

richh

Looking at the issues reported with the Kemper Stage, can I just ask if there are any known issues to look out for with the Kemper rack units?

I had a 'toaster' before and loved it.  Somebody has offered one as a trade on some of my stuff, and I'm good with his offer, but would appreciate a heads up if any known issues to look for?

I don't honestly need all the fancy stuff in the Kemper, and sold my last one, as I wasn't using a fraction of the sounds or effects.  But what I do miss is the quality over headphones!  I've got some good amps that I love, but it would be great to be able to play and get an inspiring sound when it wouldn't be possible to play through amps.

Thanks!

PVO_Dave

WiresDreamDisasters said:

My suspicion is they had one or two bad batches and there are still units kicking around from that.

Still considering selling my toaster and remote to get a Stage, as it'd be more useful now I'm doing band stuff again. Loads of reports of the type of noise you reported and replacements seem to have worked, so I think you might be right, a duff run hopefully. 

I see Andertons are getting a new delivery in tomorrow hopefully, I might bite the bullet before selling my existing setup

WiresDreamDisasters

PVO_Dave said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

My suspicion is they had one or two bad batches and there are still units kicking around from that.

Still considering selling my toaster and remote to get a Stage, as it'd be more useful now I'm doing band stuff again. Loads of reports of the type of noise you reported and replacements seem to have worked, so I think you might be right, a duff run hopefully. 

I see Andertons are getting a new delivery in tomorrow hopefully, I might bite the bullet before selling my existing setup

Let us know how you get on if you do take the plunge.

Being totally honest, I wanted the Stage because I prefer the form factor. But I can live with the separate head and remote.

WiresDreamDisasters

richh said:

Looking at the issues reported with the Kemper Stage, can I just ask if there are any known issues to look out for with the Kemper rack units?

I had a 'toaster' before and loved it.  Somebody has offered one as a trade on some of my stuff, and I'm good with his offer, but would appreciate a heads up if any known issues to look for?

I don't honestly need all the fancy stuff in the Kemper, and sold my last one, as I wasn't using a fraction of the sounds or effects.  But what I do miss is the quality over headphones!  I've got some good amps that I love, but it would be great to be able to play and get an inspiring sound when it wouldn't be possible to play through amps.

Thanks!

I've not heard anything similar about the rack units myself.

Kemper is pretty straight forward really. Load a profile, add a few effects. But it sounds really damn good.

FarleyUK

WiresDreamDisasters said:

richh said:

Looking at the issues reported with the Kemper Stage, can I just ask if there are any known issues to look out for with the Kemper rack units?

I had a 'toaster' before and loved it.  Somebody has offered one as a trade on some of my stuff, and I'm good with his offer, but would appreciate a heads up if any known issues to look for?

I don't honestly need all the fancy stuff in the Kemper, and sold my last one, as I wasn't using a fraction of the sounds or effects.  But what I do miss is the quality over headphones!  I've got some good amps that I love, but it would be great to be able to play and get an inspiring sound when it wouldn't be possible to play through amps.

Thanks!

I've not heard anything similar about the rack units myself.

Kemper is pretty straight forward really. Load a profile, add a few effects. But it sounds really damn good.

...with the caveat being it's a good profile

Interestingly though, the reason I went with the head and remote was precisely so the 'brains' of the unit wouldn't be within reach of drunk punters and their drinks - At least if some plonker spills beer on the unit / lands on it, it's 'only' the remote and not the entire thing.

PVO_Dave

WiresDreamDisasters said:

PVO_Dave said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

My suspicion is they had one or two bad batches and there are still units kicking around from that.

Still considering selling my toaster and remote to get a Stage, as it'd be more useful now I'm doing band stuff again. Loads of reports of the type of noise you reported and replacements seem to have worked, so I think you might be right, a duff run hopefully. 

I see Andertons are getting a new delivery in tomorrow hopefully, I might bite the bullet before selling my existing setup

Let us know how you get on if you do take the plunge.

Being totally honest, I wanted the Stage because I prefer the form factor. But I can live with the separate head and remote.

They had a delivery of 7 units in yesterday, spoke to them today just to 100% make sure I was covered from a returns point of view, then ordered, should be here tomorrow. 

Fingers crossed! - I've had my Kemper toaster for 6 years now without issues, it's just a bit of a pain for band practice stuff, this means one less thing to carry around.

PVO_Dave

Well the stage turned up this morning, finally had a chance to plug it in, can only really hear that kind of hum if I put the master volume up on a high gain profile, so fingers crossed I've got a good one.

Was there a particular profile / anything I can try see if I get the same issues @WiresDreamDisasters ?

WiresDreamDisasters

PVO_Dave said:

Well the stage turned up this morning, finally had a chance to plug it in, can only really hear that kind of hum if I put the master volume up on a high gain profile, so fingers crossed I've got a good one.

Was there a particular profile / anything I can try see if I get the same issues @WiresDreamDisasters ?

No particular profile, just any high-gain one.
Turn off the noise gate completely.
Unplug your guitar from the Kemper. Observe the noise floor.
Plug in guitar into the Kemper, turn up the volume on the guitar to full, don't play any strings.
Observe the noise floor now. If you get a high pitched buzzing, or a low pitched humming, then you might have a dodgy unit. But will be hard to determine without an audio recording. If you get normal high-gain noise floor like you would with a real amp, then it's probably okay.

PVO_Dave

WiresDreamDisasters said:

PVO_Dave said:

Well the stage turned up this morning, finally had a chance to plug it in, can only really hear that kind of hum if I put the master volume up on a high gain profile, so fingers crossed I've got a good one.

Was there a particular profile / anything I can try see if I get the same issues @WiresDreamDisasters ?

No particular profile, just any high-gain one.
Turn off the noise gate completely.
Unplug your guitar from the Kemper. Observe the noise floor.
Plug in guitar into the Kemper, turn up the volume on the guitar to full, don't play any strings.
Observe the noise floor now. If you get a high pitched buzzing, or a low pitched humming, then you might have a dodgy unit. But will be hard to determine without an audio recording. If you get normal high-gain noise floor like you would with a real amp, then it's probably okay.

@WiresDreamDisasters ;;;

Tried the same profile on both units and there's not much in it, BUT, it's hard to do the same test volume wise as on the Toaster under output when you set master volume out (mine was always on -21.8db - must have been a recommended setting when I first got it or something) it doesn't affect the volume knob, on the stage, it limits you to the volume level, so the master volume won't go past that. 

Tried setting them both to -10db, but the stage was louder, fiddled a bit until they were closer, but in logic when the power chord is played, on the stage is -3.6 at peak, on the toaster it was -4.7.

When I checked the noise of both of them against the output in Logic, the difference was about the same as the chord, so I don't think there's an issue. Not tried the ground settings yet either, as they were all untouched on my Toaster.

Audio is Toaster with no guitar, with guitar and chord (mainly for me checking volume), Stage with no guitar, with guitar and chord. 

Same guitar and profile used both times

EDIT - I normally use S/PDIF but for this I used XLR L on both

WiresDreamDisasters

Doesn't sound like my clip, think you got a good one.

PVO_Dave

WiresDreamDisasters said:

Doesn't sound like my clip, think you got a good one.

It was from a fresh batch they just had in if you fancy 3rd time lucky!  

Just need to get mine setup how I want it, wipe the old one and sell it on. Even had a custom made case for the head from Swanflight before there were other options available. 

Freebird

PVO_Dave said:

I may steal this for my phone alarm!   

PVO_Dave

Freebird said:

PVO_Dave said:

I may steal this for my phone alarm!   

If the white noise doesn't get you, the power chord will