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This really isn't helping my kemper curiosity....
On the pro side:
The Kemper sounds fantastic (with the right profiles), is easy to use, easy to change sounds on the fly, easy to create good original sounds, lots of good sounding commercial profiles on the market. Touch responsive, the way the Kemper responds to playing nuances, like changes in pick attack, is at least as good, probably better, than any of the tube amps I used before.
Built in effects sound great. I sold my Strymon Timeline, because the Kemper delays are better, and stopped using my pedalboard.
On the con side:
It crashes a lot. If you look at rigs of pro players, they always have 2 or 3 Kemper amps in a rack. There's a reason for that.
Doing live gigs with only one unit, without backup, is not a good idea.
Kemper support is, arguably, the worst in the industry. Their attitude is 'blame the customer' for any kind of issues. When I got several crashes per hour, I was told they were caused by using the Looper and some Delays at the same time. Instead of fixing the issue, they told me to buy a looper pedal (which I did - TC Ditto X4 - great), and stop using the built in looper. No joke.
A recent software update changed how to the amp interprets a specific parameter (Input Swell in Delays). That means, applying the update screwed up all sounds of all players, worldwide, that used the Input Swell parameter. Most of my sounds became completely unusable. You pick a note, nothing happens for half a second, then a farting sound. Kemper support says they 'improved' the way the parameter behaves, and how Input Swell sounds. Software updates should never screw up user content, like existing patches.
The only fix was to roll back to an older release of the OS, and stay on that indefinitely, never update. Even trying to re-create the existing sounds from scratch is not an option, because the underlying sound of the Input Swell has changed (for the worse..).
Rig Manager software is so poorly written, it borders on being unusable - especially if you try to edit Performances. Copying Rigs from the Browse pool to Performances sometimes works, sometimes only a random selection of parameters of a Rig are copied. It allows duplicate names of files with different content. Randomly forgets how lists are sorted. Communication with the amp is hit and miss, not reliable.
If you have any hardware issues, you have to send the amp to the manufacturer in Germany. Long turnaround time. No authorised repair centres in other countries.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
The Helix was great to programme but I personally found it sounded a bit sterile, hard to get the sound I was personally after.
The Kemper was superb through headphones but the experience didn’t translate as well live. I may revisit it a third time though as Im sure it’s a great unit. I spent a lot of money on MBritt patches which were the best I found for my taste...
My current fave is the Boss GT-1000 as it's compact, I find it really easy to configure, and it sounds alright too. I originally bought it as a controller of the AF2; however, I've started to use it as a modeller + multi-fx beastie. It's delightful.
So.....what the pros are endorsed for and what they use live might not actually be what is on the record. I reckon if you like rock music from the last 5 years or so there are undoubtedly tones you like that were got from a kemper.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
When I went in to do an extra track we just used the profile, seemed pointless to mic an amp again when we had the same tone more or less ready to go. No other band members could tell the difference.
I did the same with Tone Match on the Axe FX II, but Kemper is better for this.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
For home thrills and playing out, I would probably choose a real amp, so ideally everybody should have both! Given this mindset I would probably choose a Kemper, as I think it has the most accurate amp models.
I was thinking of trying an AXE FX-III.... but looking at the cost - and the general attitude of the business, plus the lack of foot controllers - made me think twice. From what I hear though, they still don't match the Kemper for playability.
You get more DSP, so can run many more blocks, but the basic sound of it is essentially the same.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
I have a GT-1000 and really like it. It's easy to edit the patches and the Boss Tone Studio is very good. Boss are constantly updating the GT-1000 too and are actually listening to their users - there is a Boss Facebook group with some Boss reps on there who take feedback regularly.
Not sure if it's amp like or not as I don't have enough experience with "proper" amps to compare.
I view the GT-1000 as creating an overall tone, which I see as its own entity. I don't think about amps or anything when I'm creating a sound. Sometimes you can get too hung up on trying to get something to be "amp like" and that takes the fun away from playing.