The Dark Side of Kemper

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ElephantDNA
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The Dark Side of Kemper

Post by ElephantDNA » Fri Jan 28, 2022 10:35 am

I recently went to a show that because I'm old I would probably call metalcore. I guess now you'd call it deathcore maybe? I don't know. Anyways, I appreciate that this type of music uses mostly digital distortion and isn't going for the tube amp sound. For this reason, all the bands pretty much were using Kempers to go straight to the front of house. The problem they ran into was that this venue's sound system wasn't set up to really handle that. It was a smaller venue with a smaller PA. For some of the opening bands, the guitar was just completely inaudible. For the headliner, I could tell that the sound guy was having to do extensive fader moves to constantly balance the level of the DI guitars with the drums and vocals. He did a good job, but it was definitely audible if you had the ear for it.

It was just kind of an interesting experience seeing as it's the fad or the trend or whatever to use these systems instead of tube amps. It hadn't really occurred to me that decent-sized bands can play a venue where the PA just wasn't designed for this purpose. My wife kept asking me where's the guitar :D

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Embenny
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Re: The Dark Side of Kemper

Post by Embenny » Fri Jan 28, 2022 10:42 am

That's why, since the day I started using a Kemper 7 years ago, I've had a backline solution.

I've got a mini-stack of two 1x12" powered Mission Engineering cabs with my AxeFX (formerly Kemper) on top of it.

Huge volume for rehearsals, as much stage volume as desired for gigs. Either as a way to monitor, or a way to project the guitar and not rely fully on FOH at smaller venues.
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JSett
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Re: The Dark Side of Kemper

Post by JSett » Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:36 pm

Now, I have zero time - or the aptitude - for a Kemper. I'm too simple in my tastes. However, the dude playing bass in my band has been using his for bass duties through a powered cab. Despite looking like some kind of supercomputer it sounds great and he can just switch between a 60's SVT, a Bassman, a Highwatt 200, OR120, etc at the drop of a hat. Try out fuzzes, try a clean blend.... the options seem endless. And for a gig he can just DI the perfect signal

I would definitely have option paralysis if I even managed to work out how it worked :D
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hulakatt
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Re: The Dark Side of Kemper

Post by hulakatt » Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:57 pm

I've done too many gigs with a PA for just vocals or just no PA at all. Ican't wrap my head around relying on something that I'm not carrying in myself, I guess.
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Embenny
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Re: The Dark Side of Kemper

Post by Embenny » Fri Jan 28, 2022 1:20 pm

johnnysomersett wrote:
Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:36 pm
I would definitely have option paralysis if I even managed to work out how it worked :D
In my experience, the Kemper actually lends itself to avoiding option paralysis, especially compared to things like the AxeFX.

I found one really good Marshall profile, like "blow your mind at how touch sensitive it feels and how amazing it sounds" when I had my Kemper.

I literally just used it for everything. I saved patches where I tweaked the gain down for cleans. Ones where I added boosts in front of it, and fuzzes. I made banks of patches where I took my 4-5 basic variants, and just tweaked them for each individual guitar.

So I'd load up the "Red Mustang" bank and have "Red Mustang clean," "Red Mustang grit," "Red Mustang OD," "Red Mustang fuzz," etc right there on my foot controller.

Each patch had the same types of effects on the same footswitches (Reverb, delay, boost, chorus, etc).

It was the most wonderfully elegant and simple pedlaboard and amp setup I've had in my entire life. All I had to do was tweak the global EQ for whatever room I was in, and I had a consistent, reliable, insanely good sounding amp, with my powered cabs ensuring I was never stuck with an anemic PA.

Its weight, DI, and the ability to have everything instantly tweaked for every guitar made it the perfect live setup. I could change my mind about which guitar I was taking and not even worry about twiddling knobs on pedals or an amp - it would sound just the way I wanted, every time (which isn't to say it made all guitars sound the same - on the contrary, it let me bring out whichever characteristics of a guitar I wanted to flatter).

I only swapped to the AxeFX when I stopped playing live, since the AFX has much more powerful studio tools (like its own built-in audio interface, so you can track clean DI and reamp to your heart's content without latency or any new signal routing, while playing and monitoring the q9tone you wanted to go with).

But even with the Kemper, you could skip the million patches I made and set it up as simply as you like.

Once I found my Marshall profile, there was no going back for me.
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Re: The Dark Side of Kemper

Post by JSett » Fri Jan 28, 2022 2:12 pm

mbene085 wrote:
Fri Jan 28, 2022 1:20 pm
Yeah, there's no doubt it's a very powerful tool and with that obviously comes the power to be simple, but refined. My 'tone' - especially live - has always been very simple...mostly just a boost or Rat into a crunchy amp. Real lowbrow stuff :D

I think my greatest fears are a) becoming too reliant on it's precise control or b) the thought of it going down or crashing mid-song. I'm sure they're pretty stable but at the end of the day they are a computer. And I can guarantee my laptop/desktop/iPad/etc crashes for no apparent reason way more frequently than I've ever had a tube amp die.

For home use, sure, no pressure there. Live, I'll take my chances with a simple tube amp I think. That's my comfortable space.
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Re: The Dark Side of Kemper

Post by Embenny » Fri Jan 28, 2022 2:38 pm

johnnysomersett wrote:
Fri Jan 28, 2022 2:12 pm
mbene085 wrote:
Fri Jan 28, 2022 1:20 pm
Yeah, there's no doubt it's a very powerful tool and with that obviously comes the power to be simple, but refined. My 'tone' - especially live - has always been very simple...mostly just a boost or Rat into a crunchy amp. Real lowbrow stuff :D

I think my greatest fears are a) becoming too reliant on it's precise control or b) the thought of it going down or crashing mid-song. I'm sure they're pretty stable but at the end of the day they are a computer. And I can guarantee my laptop/desktop/iPad/etc crashes for no apparent reason way more frequently than I've ever had a tube amp die.

For home use, sure, no pressure there. Live, I'll take my chances with a simple tube amp I think. That's my comfortable space.
For sure, I won't try to convince someone to use something they don't want to. But FWIW, I've never had a modeler crash in the many years I've used them, but I have had a tube amp blow a component and fail mid-performance!
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Re: The Dark Side of Kemper

Post by marqueemoon » Fri Jan 28, 2022 5:32 pm

Knock on wood I’ve never has a laptop fail at critical moment, but hardware digital modelers are more in that category for me.

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