another overwhelmed user

Hello ScottM.

Here are some thoughts on Rig Manager.

There are three main sections - All rigs, All Presets and All Performances. (There's also the Rig Exchange and the Kemper Rig Packs as sub-folders under All Rigs).

Under each of those main sections there are folders for My Profiler and Local Library. Anything under the My Profiler sections show what is physically stored on your Kemper. Anything under Local Library are Rigs, Presets or Performances that you've stored locally. You can use anything in Rig Manager while you're connected, but if not connected to Rig Manager (like at a live performance) you only have access to what is stored on the Profiler (anything in the My Profiler sections).

you can create your own folders (and subfolders beneath those folders) in any of the Local Library sections. This is how you can organize your own rigs/presets and performances to use however you'd like.

All rigs - these are the actual rigs you would open on the Kemper to preview or play.

All Presets - these are amps, cabinets, effects used to make rigs.

All Performances - named performances of up to 5 rigs each. These are completely separate from All Rigs, so edits to any rigs are only to the performance rig,

An example of how you might manage cabinets:

Make a folder beneath All Presets\Local Library named My Cabinets. You can only make folders beneath the Local Library section, not the My Profiler sections. Local Library is your library of components.

Load any rig that you like in the Kemper - either from the Kemper or from a rig in All Rigs.

You can now copy that rig from your loaded rig into your new My Cabinets folder. Repeat this for any profile you find where you like the cabinet and may want to reuse it. Remember that you can also make additional sub-folders beneath My Cabinets, such as Celestion, 4x12, IR files, and so on if you want more organization. Also keep in mind that if you have any third party IR files, you can save them as cabinets in your folders as well.

Once stored, you can now use these cabinets from your folders in any rig that you load. Just save the rig with the new cabinet if you want to keep it.

In the same way, you can do this from Amps (maybe make an All Presets\Local Library\Amps folder or similar), or Effects that you might like or customize and so on.

Another thing to make use of is the LOCK button. Say you find a cabinet you really like. Load a profile with that cabinet, then lock the cabinet. You can do this by right clicking the top right of the cabinet icon in Rig Manager. Then this cabinet will remain as you change through any other Rigs. Although they would only be saved with the new cabinet if you saved that Rig. But this gives you a quick way to preview lots of rigs with that cabinet you selected. And as already described, this would also apply to any Amp, Cabinet or Effects that you may also lock. Like maybe a favorite reverb or delay, etc.

Performance management can be a bit trickier, but this should at least get you started.

Hope that helps.

Hi ScottM

You're absolutely right. The options that Kemper offers can quickly overwhelm you at the beginning. Just tackle it and grow into it step by step. I think the sound banks you want to create are a very good step. To do this, you can use the performance mode and you'll probably learn a lot. You can find good videos about Kemper content in general at Tone Junkie. I hope this helps you a little.

Quote from ScottM

I'd really like to get into this thing but im pretty intimidated by it

It is an incredible machine, super flexible and with infinite capabilities. That might seem very complex indeed. Don't let it overwhelm you and start small and go step by step to explore it. It is in the best sense a learning journey. Take your time - it is worth it!

Quote from ScottM

Does anyone just keep theirs fairly minimal?

I do, and actually I do not care about how much profiles I really do have in the KPA. I clean it up fairly often and only leave a handful in there to be used in "crisis situation" if other things would fail. Never needed that though.

My real stuff is organized in the Performances for the work with bands in rehearsal and on stage. In the studio situation I always have the Rig Manager connected and load profiles from there as needed. And though you can get lost in an incredible amount of profiles with countless options I do very often use the machine with just one profile, more or less as a one channel amp with only few variations of effects. In my rock band I can easily survive a long evening with one Performance which has one profile with a few effects options and still get great feedback from the bandmates on how good the sound is

Still it is super much fun to explore different profiles... play around and get a feel for different types before you narrow it down again to what you stick to...

I've had my Kemper for 3yrs now and finally getting comfy with it to where it's no longer intimidating. I thought I could load up a Plexi and be satisfied with that, but no way, I want them all. I've learned not to get hung up on just a few amps but to try as many as I could and then decide.

Quote from cmbrowns

you can create your own folders (and subfolders beneath those folders) in any of the Local Library sections. This is how you can organize your own rigs/presets and performances to use however you'd like.

An example of how you might manage cabinets:

Make a folder beneath All Presets\Local Library named My Cabinets. You can only make folders beneath the Local Library section, not the My Profiler sections. Local Library is your library of components.

Load any rig that you like in the Kemper - either from the Kemper or from a rig in All Rigs.

You can now copy that rig from your loaded rig into your new My Cabinets folder. Repeat this for any profile you find where you like the cabinet and may want to reuse it. Remember that you can also make additional sub-folders beneath My Cabinets, such as Celestion, 4x12, IR files, and so on if you want more organization. Also keep in mind that if you have any third party IR files, you can save them as cabinets in your folders as well.

Once stored, you can now use these cabinets from your folders in any rig that you load. Just save the rig with the new cabinet if you want to keep it.

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All of this ^

I made several folders and I drag and drop CABs into those folders. In rig manager just click on the CAB block and drag it into the new cab local folder.

Since the folder only has CABS, I can then double click on a cab in the folder and it loads into my current profile. Then I just use my LEFT-RIGHT arrow keys to move thru that list. Just dont go fast, the Kemper needs time to pass the CAB data thru the USB. Easiest way to sort thru CABs looking for the right one.

HINTS:

- It is best to probably have a pretty flat EQ before you go scrolling thru IRs.
- I always do my profile edits in a LOCAL folder, not in the profiler itself. It runs much better and you dont fill your profiler with 5 versions of every amp and CAB combo.
- I name the profiles with the CAB name. Like FedDLX01 becomes FedDLX01_Mars1960.

I’m kinda in the same boat in regards to the 100s of profiles on the unit however after playing thru them I have been able to find 5-6 clean tones and 5-6 dirty tones that I like and I going with that. I have stored them in the banks and I’m now I’m in the process of getting the effects the way I want them. Trial and error and research but this unit has so many possibilities tone wise I have really had to adjust my approach to getting tones that sound good to me which has been a learning curve but I’m the end I will believe it will be worth it.

Quote from ScottM

yeah versatility was one of the things that drew me to the Kemper. at one point I had 11 100 watt Marshall heads that I could never turn above 2 so, that was stupid on my part. I also figured this would be a good recording tool but now im thinking about just grabbing a couple of those UAX IR pedals, but I already have this and am sure its the better option if I can just tame it

Just because the options are there doesn’t mean you need to use them. I am a super simple old skool amp dude. I basically use a single performance all the time. I change this around every so often just to keep things interesting but on a day to day level its just a single amp with increasing levels of gain like a channel switching amp.

Do you still have any of your Marshalls? If so stick a mic in front of one and make your own profiles. Its super easy and you will end up with a handful of rigs that are perfect for you.

I'm at the point that I can make any profile sound good to me, I anyway tweak them all (don't be shy to use the controls, that's why they are there), the rest is just about searching the flavor and gain structure you are after.

A tip from myself: when you audition/tweak profiles, have always some backing track playing, at the end it always comes down to how well your guitar sits in the mix. If not, you'll probably end up with the wrong eq or fx mix (btw: the eq of the fx themselves, specially delay and reverb, makes a huge difference). Just my 2 cents...

Quote from ScottM

yeah versatility was one of the things that drew me to the Kemper. at one point I had 11 100 watt Marshall heads that I could never turn above 2 so, that was stupid on my part. I also figured this would be a good recording tool but now im thinking about just grabbing a couple of those UAX IR pedals, but I already have this and am sure its the better option if I can just tame it

I honestly believe its a complex as you want to make it.

I treat mine just like a regular multi channel amp with a few effects built in.

I would split it into 2 stages -finding the base sounds you like, and then storing/accessing them.

People often try to mix these steps up and get confused.

For finding your sound, which is the hardest bit) I would:

1) Use Rig exchange to look for the type of amps you like - sounds like Marshalls, and some of the Mbritt stuff included is a good place to start

2) Think about how you listen to them - via a cab or headphones etc, volume and in a mix

3) create a shortlist and then compare

4) Tweak the sound ( but I tend to limit this - if I'm not feeling it, move on rather than swap cabs or the multitude of changes you can make)

5) Add effects to taste

6) Use RM to make the changes as its quicker and easier to visualize

Storing and access ( the easy bit)

1) Use performance mode to store a group of sounds. I have clean, crunch, solo and a couple of variations, but doing Marshall sounds and fender sounds is also fine...or do both...there are 125 performances to use up if you want . This depends on what you use it for, live or just easy access when playing around at home

2) Keep the majority of your sounds in RM. I have about 10 profiles on my KPA as I don't need any more on there. So use RM for moving stuff around

Home that helps a bit...

Quote from V8guitar

3) create a shortlist and then compare

ScottM Guy has nailed it. His 3rd point above can be made easier if you create a folder in RM for your shortlisted rigs only. You might even want to create a folder for say Marshalls and a different one for Fenders and one for Voxes etc

Once you have a handful of rigs in the shortlist folder you can easily scroll through them for comparison purposes. As soon as one doesn’t make the grade remove it from the folder. It makes comparison much easier than trying to jump around in a big list. Another comparison trick once you are down to 5 or less in your shortlist is to load them all into a slot in a Performance and play as normal but footswitching between them on the fly. Any differences will jump out immediately that way.

Also, (this might have been mentioned but I didn't read the whole thread)

On the unit itself, once you pull up a rig with the amp that you want, you can press and hold the cabinet button and use the browse knob to scroll through all the cabinets in your rig library.

Example:

You pull up a Princeton Rig that you like but you want to audition different cabinets.. Press and hold the cabinet button till it flashes, use the browse knob and start scrolling until you find say a 4x10 super reverb cabinet (idk if that's a real thing but it's what my brain went to). This is my favorite way to mix and match amps and cabinets! (you can also do the same process with Amplifiers by pressing and holding the amp button)