Kemper at low volume.....

Two quick comments:
1) I know a guy with a Boss GT8. And he swears by a Nobles OD in front of it. Amazing tone always.

2) A speakers output may change a lot at loud volumes. The speaker will go into mechanical compression (ie have trouble moving back and forth linearly for the volume). So you get some compression and a mid boost, I think, when the speaker is driven. May sound thicker, more present, and be more responsive to touch. Or you can have it too loud and it sounds like crap, but will ascend you to Valhalla

Keep your volume knobs at 10 and use a volume pedal.

If the V pedal is before gain it rolls gain off like the V knob on a guitar would but… you still retain the fat tone from the guitar V being on 10.

I run the V pedal after gain so I can retain the saturation but just lower volume. This way it’s like a master volume and gain knob you can tweak real-time (more gain options)

Quote from RosboneMako

Two quick comments:
1) I know a guy with a Boss GT8. And he swears by a Nobles OD in front of it. Amazing tone always.

2) A speakers output may change a lot at loud volumes. The speaker will go into mechanical compression (ie have trouble moving back and forth linearly for the volume). So you get some compression and a mid boost, I think, when the speaker is driven. May sound thicker, more present, and be more responsive to touch. Or you can have it too loud and it sounds like crap, but will ascend you to Valhalla

I think if he's a great guitarist he'll make anything sound great.

I bet he could make a Kemper with the Nobles in front sound better than his GT8. ?

Quote from RosboneMako

Two quick comments:
1) I know a guy with a Boss GT8. And he swears by a Nobles OD in front of it. Amazing tone always.

2) A speakers output may change a lot at loud volumes. The speaker will go into mechanical compression (ie have trouble moving back and forth linearly for the volume). So you get some compression and a mid boost, I think, when the speaker is driven. May sound thicker, more present, and be more responsive to touch. Or you can have it too loud and it sounds like crap, but will ascend you to Valhalla

At volume you get the impression of a bass and treble boost, which is why you will always need to put more mid in a sound intended for live use. Wheresthedug explains this earlier with the hifi analogy.

Some Kemper patches sound amazing for me at low volume, but they don't usually translate so well when loud. I always adjust tones used on a recording for live use.

There are very few amps that sound good at low volume as they are not designed for that. Unless you go for a dedicated low volume solution then a 12" speaker run by an xx Watt amp will always sound different/substandard.

The KPA takes out 1 issue - no power amp colouration required to run it "hot" to get that sound. Doesn;t solve issues but for me make the KPA sound pretty good at low volume.

"Sounds digital" has been a derogatory term used in guitar circles for many years, meaning " sounds fizzy/thin/weedy" etc. This is of course out of date but not worth getting excited about.

I can only repeat what others have said but I find even at apartment levels, the Kemper still sounds great, and it sounds AMAZING at gig levels.

If I need to get quieter than that, I plug my in ears (or another headphones, you have to experiment with what kind work well with Kemper) in to the headphone amp. Boom, quiet and sounds great.

For me the Kemper always sounds great in headphones, but I was struggling with what to use for playback at reasonable home volume. I kept turning it up to enjoy it. The Kabinet has been a literal ear saver for me. I am totally enjoying my Kemper now without driving everyone in the house mad.

Quote from madbanjoman

For me the Kemper always sounds great in headphones, but I was struggling with what to use for playback at reasonable home volume. I kept turning it up to enjoy it. The Kabinet has been a literal ear saver for me. I am totally enjoying my Kemper now without driving everyone in the house mad.

Do you find the Kabinet works better than monitor speakers? Surprised to hear that since my experience is quite the opposite.

Quote from Kaschko

Do you find the Kabinet works better than monitor speakers? Surprised to hear that since my experience is quite the opposite.

I do. You probably have better monitoring than I do. I have two different powered PA speakers, both were harsh sounding with my modelers. I also have a Spark amp that I would connect to the headphones out to aux in that was ok but not great. a little too bass heavy.