After reading, reading, reading and watching endless hours of Youtube videos etc., I finally got down to purchasing a Powerhead and remote bundle. I updated everything thru the rig manager, hooked it up to my Hughes and Kettner 2 x 12 cabinet with Vintage 30's.....
Went thru every rig pre-loaded on the head and then went thru and auditioned each of the available rigs to download in rig manager and I am completely dumbfounded.
I will say this in no way trying to show any disrespect to anyone on this forum or using a Kemper. This is the worst sounding and feeling amp I have plugged into in 40 years of playing guitar. And I am saying that with confusion and not trying to be disrespectful in any way. I don't get it, I am completely bummed. I just don't get it. With so much hype around the Kemper I am just totally at a loss. I have heard countless sound samples on the net and Youtube and have heard great clips. I cannot get the Kemper to do anything remotely near what I have heard. I am not interested at this point with the FOH or thru recording software. First and foremost I need an amp and cabinet to sound and feel like a million bucks right up on stage near me. If I am not inspired to play like I play with what I am hearing coming out of that cabinet it is not going to matter what the FOH is getting.
Yes I have turned off the cab sim in the monitor out section (also controls poweramp out connection) going to the 2 x 12. I have messed with the input settings to set up a good input level. I have messed with the definition and clarity of each rig. I found a few clean rigs that sounded decent, but anything with any level of gain from breakup thru fairly overdriven is just not hardly useable let alone decent sounding.
Here are some of the main points that have just left me kind of shocked and confused with the Kemper:
1. The feel of the Kemper does not feel anything at all like any tube amps that I have played. There is a complete lack of a connected feeling from guitar to the amp. Almost like there is this subtle latency and disconnect from what you are playing and what is going on soundwise. Very prominent on solo type work with lead playing especially.
2. Most of the overdriven rigs all seem to have a awkward gain structure to them. They all seem overly gainey to get some push going for soloing etc., yet if you back down on the gain knob it's like you lose any type of what I would traditional call a natural compession from an output section of a tube amp. Most of the gain tends to be very raspy and fizzy. Very much more of a razor type drive. Backing down the Definition tames it down a bit, but it still seems like an unatural sounding overdrive.
3. I have played several different variations of digital gear so I am not all that unfamiliar with it. I played thru a Line 6 AX212 for 15 years. A buddy of mine still has one and we put my Kemper setup next to that amp and the Line 6 just sounds so much more natural and plays and feels like an actual amp whereas the Kemper feels nothing like a real amp.
I am using high end guitars so all of my other equipment is not lackluster. I use Suhr guitars. I was testing the Kemper with a SSH+ and SSV hum hum setup.
I run this same guitar thru Scuffham's S-Gear and the Steeler amp in that software (basically an old marshall model) and it sounds and feels so good. I can play on that software for hours it sounds and feels so real. Unfortuneately it is on my recording desktop and it is not a gigging amp.
Before I return the Kemper I just want to see if there are any of you out there that have any input as to what I could be doing wrong or what I may have missed. My only conclusion is that I have to being doing something wrong. I have to be missing something for my Kemper to sound this unpleasant from everybody else out there using it.
Any help would be much appreciated so I can make sure to explore the Kemper thoroughly before returning it. On paper it is a dream come true for ease of use and setup for gigs etc. But I have had to borrow some tube amps for the last two gigs that I recently played because there is no way I could use the Kemper with what I am currently hearing and feeling coming out of it. Not by a long shot.