External stomp boxes

    Hi there, just signed up and finding my way around having posted in the "Introduce Yourself" section.

    A few questions on stomp boxes more or less related so hopefully ok to post in one thread...

    1. Internal Stomps:
    Are the internal Muff and Screamer stomps models or are they some sort of profiles of the actual units? If they are profiles does anyone know which of the various Muff and TS variants were used?

    2. Placement of external stomps in chain:
    Having the ability to patch external stomps into a rig via the send/return loop and then assign those stomps as a whole to an internal stomp slot in a rig is a neat idea. However, that seems to add an extra analogue/digital conversion round trip.
    Is there any downside to just connecting the output of the pedalboard into the input of the KPA?

    3. External Boosters
    How does the KPA deal with the huge amount of extra signal from an external treble booster at the input ADC stage? I know the Fryer Brian May boosters kick out an extra 24-30db which normally do their job by battering the tube pre-amp to it's will in the analogue domain. Is it feasible to use something like this with the Kemper or does having to run through the analogue to digital conversion (which has no tolerance to overload) kill the effect by the time it gets to the amp profile? (I realise that there are internal boosters with the KPA but all these analogue stomps have their own character and I would like to use them if possible)

    Quote from DavidA

    Hi there, just signed up and finding my way around having posted in the "Introduce Yourself" section.

    A few questions on stomp boxes more or less related so hopefully ok to post in one thread...

    1. Internal Stomps:
    Are the internal Muff and Screamer stomps models or are they some sort of profiles of the actual units? If they are profiles does anyone know which of the various Muff and TS variants were used?
    the stomps are modeled.


    Hi David.

    I'm not exactly sure about the Muff (I'll have to ask Christoph and will get back to you), but for the Green Scream (which was originally based on a reissue TS-808) we were playing and listening a lot to a Maxon OD808, as suggested by members of this forum. :)

    Quote from DavidA

    2. Placement of external stomps in chain:
    Having the ability to patch external stomps into a rig via the send/return loop and then assign those stomps as a whole to an internal stomp slot in a rig is a neat idea. However, that seems to add an extra analogue/digital conversion round trip.
    Is there any downside to just connecting the output of the pedalboard into the input of the KPA?

    yes, you can't switch the pedalboard out of your signal path by changing rigs for exsample, as you could by using the fx loop.

    Quote from DavidA

    3. External Boosters
    How does the KPA deal with the huge amount of extra signal from an external treble booster at the input ADC stage? I know the Fryer Brian May boosters kick out an extra 24-30db which normally do their job by battering the tube pre-amp to it's will in the analogue domain. Is it feasible to use something like this with the Kemper or does having to run through the analogue to digital conversion (which has no tolerance to overload) kill the effect by the time it gets to the amp profile? (I realise that there are internal boosters with the KPA but all these analogue stomps have their own character and I would like to use them if possible)

    generally, the Profiler behaves like an amp when pushed. Just watch the Input LED to make sure you're not clipping it when you feed it super hot signals.
    the internal boosters might surprise you, give them a try and don't forget that you can use a studio or graphic EQ in front of the Stack section to build a custom boost (and save that one as a local preset for quick recall in other rigs).

    Thanks for this Don. :)

    Gilmour hunting at the moment and from what I have gathered so far there seems to be a big variation in the various Muff models so I await news from Christope with baited breath!

    The reason for asking if the internal stomps are profiles rather than models is that it seems that quite a big part of the tone is the way that the analogue Tube Driver/TubeScreamer and Muff interact with each other. Thinking that these analogue devices share some of the sonic complexities when pushed hard that the KPA has solved for amps.

    I know that his HiWatts are very clean with the distortion and drive coming from the pedals (rather than overdriving the amp). I think I will have to get hold of a couple of pedals and experiment with them into a KPA HiWatt rig and then see if I can get there with the KPA stomps.

    Good news about the KPA being able to handle hot signals. I will have to find my Fryer booster and experiment some more. Will also have a play with the internal boosters and EQ as you suggest. So much to learn!

    Thanks again :)

    I use my Wampler Ecstasy in the loop and it sounds fantastic. I like being able to switch with my FCB1010 to different channels and choose whether the Wampler is in or out as well as where in the chain. It sounds great in front of the KPA as well, just not as versatile.