Any Kemper users on here?

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Bothand Nether
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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by Bothand Nether » Wed Sep 28, 2016 8:26 pm

I inherited a tube collection when I was young, & have been collecting them ever since.
I got an amp that was designed specifically to roll tubes, so I was more than a little skeptical of the Kemper.

I got to borrow one for almost a year, & here's what I gathered:

I played ALOT more guitar.
It fooled me (& several producers sitting at eldo's ssl who's records we all listen to)
It profiles what we heard through the mains, not what we heard through the amp's speaker.
Profiles are built around pickups,so choose other people's profiles accordingly, imo.
Far-micc'ed profiles sound fuller to me, in eldo's main (drum) room.
The optional internal amp is only available in mono output,but kamplifier makes an internal stereo frfr (full range flat response) amp, fwiw.
If You go into a good recording studio & use a real amp, profiling it right then & there is a serious stitch in time.
There are folx that make magnetic faceplate skins with whatever you want on them.
The rackmount unit has 2 less physical knobs, I think.
TAF profiles have been well worth the money, His coppertop AC-30 profile is the best clean tube amp sound I have ever produced from a digital source.
I can now sell my amps and take that money, buy a toneking and suck the soul out of it, and then lather, rinse,repeat!


I will be ordering one in a few days, since sweetwater is foolish enough to offer me a 3 payment plan :freako:

I am constantly trying to get somebody with a Dumble into the studio :whistle:

Fryette amps has some invaluable youtube vids on frfr amplification.

Friedman is now making an frfr wedge, as well, sigh.

Also, @ winter NAMM '16 I asked Mr. Kemper about the possibility of a legitimate on-screen editor (it's only con, imo) & was told a very kurt "yes"

When it fools the guy that helped custom design the amp it profiled:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INJ_H5PiuTE
"No short-haired, yellow-bellied Son of tricky dicky's Gonna mother hubbard soft soap me"
-The late Mr. L.

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Embenny
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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by Embenny » Thu Sep 29, 2016 5:37 am

Bothand Nether wrote:I inherited a tube collection when I was young, & have been collecting them ever since.
I got an amp that was designed specifically to roll tubes, so I was more than a little skeptical of the Kemper.

I got to borrow one for almost a year, & here's what I gathered:

I played ALOT more guitar.
It fooled me (& several producers sitting at eldo's ssl who's records we all listen to)
It profiles what we heard through the mains, not what we heard through the amp's speaker.
Profiles are built around pickups,so choose other people's profiles accordingly, imo.
Far-micc'ed profiles sound fuller to me, in eldo's main (drum) room.
The optional internal amp is only available in mono output,but kamplifier makes an internal stereo frfr (full range flat response) amp, fwiw.
If You go into a good recording studio & use a real amp, profiling it right then & there is a serious stitch in time.
There are folx that make magnetic faceplate skins with whatever you want on them.
The rackmount unit has 2 less physical knobs, I think.
TAF profiles have been well worth the money, His coppertop AC-30 profile is the best clean tube amp sound I have ever produced from a digital source.
I can now sell my amps and take that money, buy a toneking and suck the soul out of it, and then lather, rinse,repeat!


I will be ordering one in a few days, since sweetwater is foolish enough to offer me a 3 payment plan

I am constantly trying to get somebody with a Dumble into the studio

Fryette amps has some invaluable youtube vids on frfr amplification.

Friedman is now making an frfr wedge, as well, sigh.

Also, @ winter NAMM '16 I asked Mr. Kemper about the possibility of a legitimate on-screen editor (it's only con, imo) & was told a very kurt "yes"

When it fools the guy that helped custom design the amp it profiled:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INJ_H5PiuTE
Thanks for your input! I don't have a ton of studio experience with it so it's great to hear your experience (though it doesn't surprise me). I agree 1000% about profiles and pickups. People sometimes forget that a profile is a snapshot of an amp at a specific setting. I have had very few amps that sound amazing with both a strat and a les paul at the same settings. Profiles are much the same. Fortunately, with the Kemper we are just a footswitch away from the perfect tone with each guitar (I even go as far as to have a slightly tweaked tone for neck vs bridge pickup on my offsets). Actually, the Kemper ended my eternal quest for Jaguar and Jazzmaster bridge pickups that perfectly balanced with the neck. I just set up a patch for each guitar, and then save two slightly tweaked versions optimized for bridge pickup or neck pickup/middle.

Would you be willing to share some of your profiles you made at the studio that you find work well with offsets?
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by eggwheat » Thu Sep 29, 2016 5:56 am

what would happen if you profiled an amp with effects on such as chorus reverb or whatever?

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by MechaBulletBill » Thu Sep 29, 2016 6:04 am

I don't know or care very much about these Kempers, but I will say that I see a lot come up for sale used. Do people buy them for one project - their labour-of-love magnum opus recorded in the best studio their savings could buy - then move them on because they're less useful in day-to-day rehearsal/gigging and they need to recoup some of the costs of getting it?

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by Bothand Nether » Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:16 am

I didn't try to profile anything with fx or pedals,
there are acres of threads over on the KPA forums, though.

I'll be happy to share profiles with anybody that wants them,
-but I won't share the TAF profiles because it costs him alot of time & money to steal souls.
(I heard that He got to profile Mr. Gilmore's little fender,fwiw)

Some people think it's wrong to sell profiles,
but I happen to know it costs alot of cash to do a profiling session at an expensive studio.

It's prettymuch required to profile an amp when it's in a studio,
but it is only for that artist's overdubs. (prettymuch pays for itself in those instances)

I plan on doing a full suite of sessions at eldo, but it will be on the owners timetable.
(& the more important clients)

The best frfr amp I've heard so far was a Fryette, haven't heard the Friedman yet, though
Fryette's youtube channel goes into all kinds of technical frfr stuff about things like speaker dampening and such.

I've only played it through the monitors I listen to the world with, event Tria 2.1s or 20/20s, or NS 10s through a yamaha p2200, or My AKG K-340s.

I only found one used atm on eBay, for a rather hefty price, due to the purchased profiles.
I would imagine that some people don't understand or necessarily need what the Kemper can bring to the table.

I think it is a Major time saver in a 1500 a day studio, plus the engineers/interns etc.
I'd rather use a real vintage tube amp if I was going to do a rare live set,
-unless it was somewhere scary, like Fais Dodo, lol.

I run my '61 6G15 through it because the reverbs are not close,
- but imo, nobody yet has come close to what a vintage fender 'verb chamber adds.
Image
an older shot of where I spend 80% of my life,
kemper was right where I can touch it without moving My left hand from the neck.
"No short-haired, yellow-bellied Son of tricky dicky's Gonna mother hubbard soft soap me"
-The late Mr. L.

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by Embenny » Thu Sep 29, 2016 8:57 am

MechaBulletBill wrote:I don't know or care very much about these Kempers, but I will say that I see a lot come up for sale used. Do people buy them for one project - their labour-of-love magnum opus recorded in the best studio their savings could buy - then move them on because they're less useful in day-to-day rehearsal/gigging and they need to recoup some of the costs of getting it?
I think it's because of how misunderstood an "amp" it is. If you go in expecting a modeler, i.e. "This is a Fender Bassman, so I should be able to load it up and just move treble and bass knobs to find the right tone for my guitar", you will be frustrated. The EQ knobs are like a post-EQ on a mixer. Useful for adding or subtracting just enough to get it to sit right. Most of the magic is in pairing the right profile with the right guitar. This takes time and patience, and if you're not profiling yourself, you have to either sift through thousands of free profiles online (ranging from incredible to terrible), or pay for some professional ones.

It's a much more trial-and-error process than other modelers where you can just click through presets. But when you get the right profile for the right guitar, it's like fireworks go off. I spent about 6 hours with mine before I had my first "A-hah!" moment. 6 hours of sweating bullets and thinking "Oh crap, did I make a $2000 mistake on this?" followed by a year of being thrilled with it.

Bothand - I would never ask for sharing paid profiles. I own about 400 profiles from M Britt and TAF and they deserve what I paid for their hard work. But I'm interested in any amps you profiled yourself and were happy with that you would like to share ;D
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Bothand Nether
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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by Bothand Nether » Thu Sep 29, 2016 9:19 am

Oh yeah, the tube pre that is sitting on top of it is a Frenzel FM-DP1, I use it on certain Profiles.
I also use the cabs & fx loop on the eleven kak, I mean, rack.

I only used about 10 of the 1,000 or so profiles I grabbed/bought.

But that will all change everytime I get a new axe/pickups,
-that's when the fun starts, imo.

I just realized looking at that crappy pic,
that I can see/understand every setting except what's on that tiny-ass screen.

sorry to blabber, but as a serious tube freak,
I'm in love with what it can bring to my recording setup.

but I'll never sell My '60 Gibson Titan Amp,
as it may be the closest I'll ever get to a Vintage Deluxe.
"No short-haired, yellow-bellied Son of tricky dicky's Gonna mother hubbard soft soap me"
-The late Mr. L.

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by eggwheat » Fri Sep 30, 2016 12:23 am

Bothand Nether wrote:I didn't try to profile anything with fx or pedals,
Anyone else here tried it?

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by paulitik » Fri Sep 30, 2016 3:04 pm

eggwheat wrote:I'm quite interested in these. Would definitely like to try one out in the studio. Seems a very useful studio tool if it's as good as it proclaims.

Find it weird how the power amp version is only a mono amplifier though.
I'm not a professional musician by any means, so maybe I'm clueless, but it seems like it would be better as a gigging rig, since it would be far less expensive to ship, and set up since you can pretty much hook it up to any soundboard or venue's proprietary cabs, and any nuance differences in tone compared to a tube amp would be less noticeable in a live band situation. I went to see Jonny Marr in DC a few years ago, and his tone was amazing, and I went to peek at his rig at the end of the show, and he was playing through a much maligned Boss Multi-Effect. (GT-10, I believe)

Not to say it wouldn't be amazing in a studio, especially a home studio where space is an issue. But I think it would be a great way to keep your vintage stuff at home or in the studio where it can shine.
Great buying/selling experiences with therizzla, blake480, will.

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by OffYourFace » Sun Oct 02, 2016 5:31 pm

The only real issue i've seen with Kempers is overheating. While doing festival runs in Australia and South America, i saw many bands using Kempers and they kept shutting down due to the summer heat. They ended up with blocks of ice nearby with a fan blowing the cool air off the ice onto the kemper. I'd rather have an amp live.

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by Domm » Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:40 am

saw garbage at a festival, they were using either kemper/quilter stuff. rigs kept dying throughout the show!

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by eggwheat » Mon Oct 03, 2016 10:43 am

Ugh...should be no prob in the UK though hah.. I'm interested in it for studio work..the possibility that I can profile my own sounds and 'recall' them. Or for things like re-amping with my own selection of profiles.

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by OffYourFace » Wed Oct 05, 2016 9:54 pm

eggwheat wrote:Ugh...should be no prob in the UK though hah.. I'm interested in it for studio work..the possibility that I can profile my own sounds and 'recall' them. Or for things like re-amping with my own selection of profiles.
I think you'll like it for that but i'm gonna wait... For what it does and what it is, I think it's overpriced. I'm going to wait until someone makes the $300 version... you know it's coming eventually!

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by Embenny » Sat Oct 08, 2016 5:13 pm

eggwheat wrote:Ugh...should be no prob in the UK though hah.. I'm interested in it for studio work..the possibility that I can profile my own sounds and 'recall' them. Or for things like re-amping with my own selection of profiles.
It's a dream come true for those purposes.
OffYourFace wrote: I think you'll like it for that but i'm gonna wait... For what it does and what it is, I think it's overpriced. I'm going to wait until someone makes the $300 version... you know it's coming eventually!
Some day, sure. Right now the Axe and Kemper are in their own league (axe being the effects master and kemper the amp tone master IMHO). And neither come cheap.

Man, a $300 Kemper floorboard unit...I'll be down for that someday.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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Re: Any Kemper users on here?

Post by tade » Sun Oct 09, 2016 2:46 am

I'm pretty sure that will happen, mostly if it comes as a computer based solution.

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