Bedroom Guitarist about to pull trigger on a Kemper. Need Reassurance! lol

  • OK, I'm a hack guitar player for 30+ years (self taught, poorly...), but am taking lessons now, dedicated to improving and loving playing.

    I've read other threads on here and elsewhere and I'm 99.9% sure the Kemper will be what I want. FYI I have been following this forum for a few months, read similar threads on here, and elsewhere, researched, etc. but... I just want to get some reassurance! LOL I'm planning on getting the unpowered toaster BTW.

    That being said, I just play at home in my home office/man cave. I generally have to play at lower volumes 90% of the time, later at night, etc. I have a 15 year old Marshall DSL401 I bought stupidly not realizing how loud that is (in apartment at the time). Haven't used it in over 2+ years, and have never turned it up past 4. LOL Anyway, I've been strictly playing through Scarlett 2i2 audio interface and amp sims (Bias FX and Amplitube 4), and using JBL LS305 powered studio monitors. I may eventually upgrade the monitors, but they are pretty good to my ear. I will probably upgrade to a Scarlett 6i6 as well. I was able to play a friend's bandmate's Kemper at a rehearsal they had, but it was through a Marshall cab and wouldn't be my setup exactly. Just starting to learn to record as well (mostly for my own critique, and my teacher's benefit)

    I play mostly rock, classic rock to hard rock, some blues... Steely Dan to Rush to VH to Metallica. I like being able to get a wide variety of tones, similar tones to artists I like for songs I'm learning, etc.

    I guess my one unknown question is just playing at home, will the Kemper be a lot better sounding than Bias FX desktop/Amplitube, with my setup?? My guitar teacher has a large home studio as well, and has like 30+ amps (Marshall, Laney, Splawn, Fender, et al), hundreds of boutique stomps, and does re-amping, etc. I'm thinking I could always use the Kemper and do some profiling of his gear as well, since I don't have my own to profile.

    Any insights, advice, reassurance, welcome! LOL Thanks! I'm looking to order in the next week or so. Hoping to be a full-fledged member of the club soon.

    John

  • I have the same history and needs as you (i'm playing 99% of the time through headphones).
    I have both the Kemper and Bias Fx, and although i was satisfied with Bias FX, i find the Kemper better. It behaves more like an amp (no need to do lot of tweaking to get a good sound), accepts pedals, and some sounds are more realistic.
    Now It's better but not night and day better.
    The onlay drawback for me was that i thought i could carry the toaster trough my apartment. This is not the case since it's still relatively big and heavy. For noodling in front of the tv with my wife on the couch, i still use Bias Fx on the ipad.

  • The Kemper is the best option in the digital realm. Amps are great, but heavy and loud (even some 5-watt ones), and expensive, and whimsical, and tubes die, and you need a large place...The Kemper is great in many situations and for a bedroom player and home studio recording VERY hard to beat if price is not a problem.

    Never too old for rock'n'roll

  • I can tell you with 100% confidence that Kemper will sound and feel much better than any available software only sims. If you ever plan to gig, I'd get power head to be able to run it through a guitar cab. As far as wide variety of tones, I am yet to find anything which Kemper wouldn't cover (I play jazz(fake)/metal/rock/blues (if I want to fall asleep ;) ) and sometimes country for fun.

    Recording is really easy, even re-amping. Make sure you have SDPIF in available in your sound i/o, it's the most convenient method.

    I have many really high end amps at arm length and can crank them up whenever I want, they do feel better/sometimes sound better than Kemper profiles, but Kemper is very close, as close as it gets, it's sometimes uncanny. Also doesn't weight a ton if I want to take my sound with me.
    At this point there are a lot of very good commercial and free profiles available, so you don't really need to profile yourself if you don't have room/gear.

    There is 45 days or so return policy if you don't like it.

    p.s. if that helps, being an elitist and what not, personally I'd not touch a software sim or any other digital modeler than Kemper (except Axe II) with a mile long pole :)

    Edited once, last by mdeeRocks (July 13, 2017 at 6:53 PM).

  • I'm in a similar situation as you. I play at home. Record at home. Have kids and an office job, so time is limited. Plus I live in a unit.

    I tried a ton of amp modellers. I had BIAS. But once I bought a Kemper it was over there was just now comparison. GAS for Amps is absolutely gone. I haven't looked back at all and I haven't touched my amps since I bought the Kemper.

    There are people here with much better ears than mine but for me the Kemper nailed it.

  • I'm in a similar situation as you. I play at home. Record at home. Have kids and an office job, so time is limited. Plus I live in a unit.

    I tried a ton of amp modellers. I had BIAS. But once I bought a Kemper it was over there was just now comparison. GAS for Amps is absolutely gone. I haven't looked back at all and I haven't touched my amps since I bought the Kemper.

    There are people here with much better ears than mine but for me the Kemper nailed it.

    Ditto, I also have had a LOT of Legacy Amps. I don't miss those amps at all.

  • Thanks everyone for all of your input! :) You've pretty much confirmed everything I had in my head, just wanted to make sure (even if not "night and day" difference) that it would sound better and be a noticeable improvement than just the amp sims, etc. The amp sims can sound good for some things, but cleans especially sound thin, and tinny, not rich... like the Fender'ish blues tones, or cranked but not super distorted lead tones for like Gary Moore, et al Finally bought myself a new 2017 Gibson Les Paul about 4 months ago which I love (have wanted one since I was 13, but parents couldn't afford it, so got me an 1977 Ibanez Les Paul copy... which I still have and plays well). Just want to play it through something that sounds better to me than what I'm using.

    I probably won't be playing live (at least for the foreseeable future, until I get decent then I might get to sit in for a couple songs with a buddy's band! LOL). This is purely for my own enjoyment, satisfaction, and getting a good sound is part of the fun for me, and my "suspension of disbelief".

    Thanks again, and I'll let you all know when I get it. :) And then I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions after that. haha

    John

  • Well, I don't think kemper vs some other amp sims is a night and day difference.

    Some of my best commercial profiles on KPA I have matched with bias and gotten very close. Few people have done this. But it's do-able, if you know what you're doing. Nuances ARE different though and the different modelers for sure feel different -- some better for you, some worse.

    Also, you can compare something like the Marshall from S gear 2 vst to a few Mbritt profiles of plexi... And you may be surprised at how good other options can be as well, S Gear in this instance, with no "amp matching". I would recommend such tests to really know where you stand in terms of what you prefer and what you think is worth it.

    For me it comes down to kemper being a hardware solution and also the wealth of tones on offer from a few people profiling amps that I highly trust. I'm not a fan of using VSTs for my guitar tones; and I also want something I can use live that is more reliable to my ipad running bias fx.

    I still prefer my real amps too. But without torpedo, which I don't have atm, it's very difficult to match some of the best commercial profiles in quality of tone unless you have a high-level studio space. Kemper is a great solution for such amp tones.

    It's not perfect -- and it does have its own tonal signature. I'm no kemper fanboy who can only say positive things about KPA and wants to believe any other solution is poo poo. But it's pretty damn great. Credit where credit is due.

    You may also check out big hairy profiles and sinmix... depending on what tones you are after. These are the best for me. Easily.

    That's about it :)

    Edited 4 times, last by Dimi84 (July 13, 2017 at 10:48 PM).

  • Also I have the same monitors as you. I don't see a reason to upgrade. You could get something to add for extra bass response; but I think room acoustics come first.. by a long mile. If you want my opinion :) That's usually a way bigger upgrade to "better" monitors.

  • Thanks for the information Dimi! Also, thanks for the confirmation on the monitors as well. I've been very happy with them, and bought them on the recommendation of the guy at the local music store (who usually gives good advice... said to go with the JBL or the Yamaha HS-5). I normally research everything thoroughly ahead of time, but didn't on this. I was pleasantly surprised by reading the reviews and specs on them after purchasing.

  • I'm basically in the same boat as you. I'm self taught (poorly, with a lot of bad habits). I am typically just playing through monitors. I've had my Kemper about a month and a half, and am really enjoying it so far. I've been playing more than I have in years. I am happier with it than others modelers and lower priced tube amps. I don't live somewhere where I could get my money's worth out of bigger, better tube amps.

    For desktop VST, I liked Amplitube 4 and Mesa Boogie, but didn't really like anything else. I couldn't get anything I liked out of Bias, without a lot of effort, but others have had more success with it. The HD500x through a DT25 sounds pretty good, to me, but I really have to put a lot of time into the patches. The Kemper, I do very little tweaking or eq, and can get tones I like.

    I have some clips on soundcloud of a very below average dude, with normal gear, playing through some hardware and software modelers, if that is any help to you.

    https://soundcloud.com/patrick2099


    (couldn't figure out how to list a playlist directly into the thread)

  • Thanks for the information Dimi! Also, thanks for the confirmation on the monitors as well. I've been very happy with them, and bought them on the recommendation of the guy at the local music store (who usually gives good advice... said to go with the JBL or the Yamaha HS-5). I normally research everything thoroughly ahead of time, but didn't on this. I was pleasantly surprised by reading the reviews and specs on them after purchasing.

    No problem :) And btw, if you want to compare KPA vs bias or anything else, you can send me a DI and I can reamp through kemper ;)

    I use kemper a lot, including for professional stuff.

    Cheerios

  • If i were only a bedroom player, i would choose sgear....its really close to the KPA, sound and feelwise.
    Offcourse not as many options, maybe 4/5 amps, but you are likely to get what you need from it.
    Also, having a hardware device with quick knobs to turn is more convinient.

    I even tried cabs off running into a power amp and cabs...sounds very good!!

    They have a 2 week free trial...try it before you invest in a KPA, theres a very big price difference :)

  • @jrowland96

    Reading your post I thought I'm reading my own story. I'm 30+ as well. Self tought. Currently learning with a teacher and improving. I also play mostly at home, usually late at night. Gear wise I use the JBL LS305s through a Scarlett 2i4. Couldn't get any closer. :D

    I never used plugins though, always opted for a hardware solution. Had several amps over the past few years. Decided a few months ago to go with the Kemper over the Two Notes Torpedo Live with an actual tube amp for the sake of flexibility.

    At first I had some mixed feelings. I thought the quality of the tone is not up to what I was expecting (I build up my expectations based on those phenomenal Kemper tone/profile videos on youtube). Once I dove deeper I completly changed my mind. It was a kind of acquired taste thing for me. Kemper is a fantastic tool and I love it.

    I run it mostly through the Scarlett 2i4 and the JBLs. Works great. Do not feel the need to upgrade to better monitors any soon.

    If money isn't an issue, go for the Kemper.

    Cheers!

  • Thanks Ksawery! Really appreciate your input and insight (and everyone else's). It's nice to see someone with a similar setup give their experiences. I'm not looking for a "magic" solution right out of the box (attempting to curtail my expectations), and I know I'll have a learning curve, tweak for my guitar/room, etc. I'm planning on ordering it this week when it's back in stock at Sweetwater. :)

    Thanks again, looking forward to officially joining the club... been reading this and other forums for months, learning, researching, etc.

    John

  • I'm not looking for a "magic" solution right out of the box (attempting to curtail my expectations)...

    You're setting yourself up to be... pleasantly-surprised, mate.

    You may well find that you stumble upon perfectly-usable tones that satisfy you right-out-of-the-box. Don't be surprised if you spend the first night (or many more) just jammin', man.

  • Hey John, I was a band leader and traveling gigger for many years, got a Mesa Boogie Mark II in the early 80s, traded for a Mark III and then a Mark IV when it came out. Been through many Fenders and Marshals. I woke up one day and I was old so it's rather crazy to have 100 watt amps around. I've tried many modelers and the Kemper is the first one that works in a mix for me. I just modded a little 5 watt amp and getting exceptional tone out of it so can't wait to profile it. Remember that once you get a good solid tone to work with, just with the compression options there are universes of tone to explore! (Currently that's what's blowing me away)

    Just a thought, if your music teacher will allow you to profile a bunch of his gear you're sitting on a gold mine with a Kemper! Oh, and I also have your JBL monitors. :)

    Welcome to the club, and be sure and ask questions, this group is the most intelligent bunch I've found around!

    Edited once, last by David C (July 26, 2017 at 5:43 PM).

  • Thanks David!

    FYI I ordered the Kemper through my sales guy at Sweetwater last night! They were getting another batch in today, so should be going out in the next day or so! Very excited! Also got some Iso Acoustic monitor stands to put on my desk (just in the middle of redoing my whole office man cave, so want to have a nice clean roomy setup).

    Yes, already asked my teacher "If I get a Kemper, can I come over one day and we can profile all of your amps?" LOL He was very enthusiastic about it, and said he'd like to be able to check it out, do A/B checks, etc. He does recording for bands, reamping of DIs sent to him, in his basement studio, etc. He said "well, I *THINK* I'm pretty good at mic'ing an amp and getting good sounds out of it", and it seems that's the key to making a good profile, so it should be fun to try and do. :)

    Here's the studio page on his site... http://www.gregsguitarlessons.com/studio/

    He has a lot of cool stuff, variety of amps, and shelves of pedals (many boutique types), lots of mics... Orange, Hiwatt, Vox, Fender, several Marshalls... JCM800, Splawn, etc. Says he has a lot of friends with cool amps too that he borrows to record at times.

    Thanks everyone for the help and wisdom... really been enjoying this forum for months, just learning, and can't wait to get started learning this thing. lol