Anyone on here gone Kemper?

Norwegian_Blue

@redrighthand Been borrowing one from a friend lately... it was the very same AC20 profile that knocked me out as well! 

Bork

I got one for Christmas and I'm still exploring it.  There are a couple of Mesa Quad profiles that absolutely nailed the sound I wanted to hear from that kit.  The noise floor is exceptional as well.  Quite a bit of tat in the user defined rigs but there are some gems as well.  I learned one thing though, all amps are derivative of four basic types.  It's a great respite from GAS if you can't afford to indulge in the real thing.

PAL

Most of these units do sound good and it's like the real amp in a room with a mic in front of it but they don't do what a real amp does in as much you don't get that power translated through the speaker in a real way. You may adjust a like this as silent
stages are becoming more common. I'm sure you can adjust to any type of amp if you want to.
The thing is you won't know until you try one for yourself.

CaseOfAce

Bork said:

I got one for Christmas and I'm still exploring it.  There are a couple of Mesa Quad profiles that absolutely nailed the sound I wanted to hear from that kit.  The noise floor is exceptional as well.  Quite a bit of tat in the user defined rigs but there are some gems as well.  I learned one thing though, all amps are derivative of four basic types.  It's a great respite from GAS if you can't afford to indulge in the real thing.

I'm intrigued to know what the 4th basic type is?
I'd say Fender, Marshall and Vox for the first 3..

Mesa recto chug sound as 4th?

ragingben

Wow necro bumps, I'd forgotten about this thread!

So in the end I bought a power head in 2014. Fantastic bit of kit, the remote came out which made it easier to gig and I was generally happy. Sonically it's awesome, I played it through a 112 H&K can and then a Zilla 212. Never let me down and always sounded excellent however I rarely use it these days. I just don't get a buzz from it like I do my valve amps. I missed flicking the toggle from standby to play and hearing the clunk of the switch snapping in to position. Also, option paralysis kicked in and I got fed up faffing with presets, balancing volume between rigs, updating firmware etc.

Personal things but in the end they added up to reduce my overall satisfaction from playing.

Musicwolf

I've had mine (unpowered rack version) since May 2015 and I still love it.  It's my go-to in the studio and I've gigged in many times although I nowadays use a Helix for portability / better MIDI capabilities.  I do own a ‘proper’ amp (a vintage Fender Pro Reverb) so I completely understand the lack of amp in the room feel but, in my opinion, the only person who benefits from that is the player and I’m very much about audience first (and since I’m on in-ears it doesn’t really matter to me).  At the end of the day it’s all about personal preference so, amp or modeller, go with whatever floats your particular maritime vessel.

I did find the vast choice of amps bewildering at first but these days I use two, or maybe three, amps 90% of the time.

roberty

A mate of mine got one the other week. He's going to come over and profile some of my gear. Should be a fun day. Will try to get some A/Bs recorded

elstoof

ragingben said:
I just don't get a buzz from it like I do my real amps.

Might want to get the grounding wires checked out on those amps

BGG

Been gigging the powered rack one for a couple of years and it's been brilliant. Kept in a rack case and the Remote easily fits in the lid of a 4U rack case.
Started off using it through one or two MatrixNL12 cabs for some on stage noise, stopped after a couple of gigs as couldn't hear them ... bloody drummers
Now i just have a bit of me in the monitor and let the PA do it's job, it's been working really well for me. Another plus I find is that I can place the rack anywhere on stage, it doesn't matter. It's usually on it's side and inbetween the drummers stands LOL.

Now a couple of weeks ago I became interested in the simplicity of the Quad Cortex menus, so easy to set up. Went and tried one today, and it's as easy as it looks on YouTube and it sounds superb. Had to have one, not gigging it yet but if it sounds as good as the Kemper then it's a keeper, as I hate tweaking.

Bork

CaseOfAce said:

Bork said:

I got one for Christmas and I'm still exploring it.  There are a couple of Mesa Quad profiles that absolutely nailed the sound I wanted to hear from that kit.  The noise floor is exceptional as well.  Quite a bit of tat in the user defined rigs but there are some gems as well.  I learned one thing though, all amps are derivative of four basic types.  It's a great respite from GAS if you can't afford to indulge in the real thing.

I'm intrigued to know what the 4th basic type is?
I'd say Fender, Marshall and Vox for the first 3..

Mesa recto chug sound as 4th?

1) Fender-ish (includes Vox, Mesa, CAE etc.)
2) Marshall-ish (includes Friedman, Soldano etc.)
3) 70's UK 'glam' amps Orange/White/Matamp/Burman/Hiwatt/Sound City
4) German high gain amps (e.g. Diezel)

Number three is  up for debate. 

Bork

ragingben said:

Wow necro bumps, I'd forgotten about this thread!

I thought better to resurrect an old thread rather than start a new one and have someone point out I'd missed earlier ones. 

ragingben said:

option paralysis kicked in and I got fed up faffing with presets, balancing volume between rigs, updating firmware etc.

I've become fed up with my pedalboard for pretty much the same reasons. Although, if I'm honest, I've been happiest with rack gear anyway, mainly a Marshall JMP1, a Mesa Studio pre with Lexicon and Rocktron multi effects.  The Kemper takes that one step further with a convenient user interface plus opportunities to tonehunt hundreds of thousands of quid's worth of gear at next to no cost.  The one drawback is planned obsolescence in the software - I hope that in ten years time, the rig manager will still be compatible with all previous versions of the profiler.

elstoof

Not sure I’d classify vox as a fender-ish

susbemol

elstoof said:

Not sure I’d classify vox as a fender-ish

I would suggest most people wouldn't.

grappagreen

Used a Kemper Stage exclusively for the last two years live and wouldn't go back..

Running a single Powered Kabinet at the mo and will be adding another one this year..

It's a tool and does a great job.

Si