Posts by guitarmike

  • Best Live Rigs..Suggestions Please.

    When you gig with the Kemper you are going to compromise on your tone. If you sound great through the pa you may or may not sound good through your monitors. I have found that regardless of what you use (amp with mic or direct as with the Kemper) you have to make sure you are happy with the tones you are sending to the pa, and that you would want to hear those tones through the mains and then forget about it. The sound guy will eq your tone to his liking each and every time if he eqs it at all. Make sure the sound you send is eq'd for a pa system (relatively flat) and that is it. Too much bass or highs will make you sound terrible live.

    I bring my own monitoring solution to each gig. If stage volume is not a concern I bring my ISP Stealth power amp and an old Jackson (as in Jackson guitars) vertical 2x12 with 1973 Celestion grey backs. That rig produces MY tone hands down. If stage volume is an issue, I run the Kemper mains to the pa and the monitor out into a Shure PSM200. When stage volume is an issue you can usually get your own monitor feed (I ask to have my guitar removed from it), and I run that into the other side of the Shure and mix the monitor and Kemper to taste.

  • Too much emphasis on "in the room" sound....Flame suit on!

    Quote from VESmedic1

    Why did your bass player go direct only? THAT I Can completely understand, and would never do unless I had some serious side fill:monitor action going on. I've been running a Yamaha dxr12 behind me lately at shows in FOH of mode( yes not in ground monitor mode) and it fills the backline more than any directional 4x12 could, it simply wasn't a comparison. But I still find this thread informative to see what's important to others.

    I am not saying that it is bad having everything go direct, I think it is the best way to go in a small pub. The lack of instruments in the air threw the drummer and we all noticed it felt different. Having your monitor or a cab behind you, on the side, or as a monitor will add stage volume. I do not think that is a problem if you can control your volume. I have played many gigs at lower volume levels with a 100 watt 1/2 stack, as long as you resist turning it up its ok.

  • Too much emphasis on "in the room" sound....Flame suit on!

    Quote from Michael_dk

    So what kind of things do you typically need to adjust to get it there? (genuinely interested)


    My band played live last Saturday and we were all direct into the pa except the drummer. This is the first time we have done this at a gig. In church we us Aviom's for personal monitoring, so we are used to the band sounding different in our ears.

    It did not go well at the gig because we lost the "presence" of the 2 guitars and bass. Having them go through the PA means you lose the thump of the bass rig and the overall ambiance of the band. It sounded fine through the PA but the band felt lifeless without amps singing on stage. That is the "in the room" feeling everyone is talking about. It will take a few gigs to get used to it, it's just different.

  • Qsc K 12

    Thank you for the help.

    I worked on the profiles and eventually 4 -5 of them are shining.

    I did not mess with the EQ on the K12 because it is a pa speaker, not my personal wedge and I need to deal with it the way it is (EQ is flat). Here is what I did to get good tone out of the K12 (and going through the power amp and cab):

    • I placed the volume pedal I use for solo boosts at the front of the loop and set the base level to -1.2. This gives me a decent solo boost and insures I am not hitting the power amp or KSC with too much signal or an overloaded signal. I think hitting the poweramp or PA with an overloaded signal was my main problem.
    • I used different cabs. On Soundside's Axe Friedman I use baldringer's Mars Studio 25, on the TAF Plexi Cranked I used Till's mixed 4x12 010.
    • I put the studio EQ in slot X with settings I got from another post (I forgot who :( :( - studio EQ (LF: -3/-6db between 80-300hz, HF: -3/-6b (6-8Khz,, MF: +/- 3db between 400-1200Hz, qfactor >1 up to your choice).
    • I lowered definition to 5-6 and clarity the same.

    This seemed to help, it sounded good at church yesterday and we will see tonight at practice,

    Thank you,

    Mike

  • Qsc K 12

    I started with stock TAF, Pete's, and Soundside profiles and they sound terrible. The Soundside profiles are old Marshalls, plexi era profiles, TAF is the Friedman profiles. Friedman had too much bass and a high end treble sound. - This is right from their dl page. The plexi profiles were weak and thin. I spent all day trying different cabs, eq, levels, and lowering gain to no avail. I was at gig level and Yuck!!

  • Too much emphasis on "in the room" sound....Flame suit on!

    Quote from Ingolf

    Actually I get what VESmedic1 wants to say in his initial post.
    And I agree completely.
    The term 'in the room' as I see it used in all the forums over and over describes more the inexperienced guitarist who wants to bathe in his own sound and has zero experience with
    - his potential FOH sound.
    - the sound of his band altogether.

    This is also the kind of guitarist who is stepping into frequency territory with their bassplayers and keyboard players as well.

    It doesn't mean they are bad players, they often do amazing clips on YT with some boutique gear.
    But they are totally inexperienced from a live/FOH/band perspective.

    With all due respect I do not believe everyone that talks about "in the room" sound is inexperienced in live performance. I have been playing live since 1982 and played many bigger gigs where I could not hear my amp out the mains, only through the amp. Here is an example of me unable to hear the mains:
    http://youtu.be/1893HX30dno

    Most of the first year I owned the Kemper I used it like a traditional amp/cab. Recently I started going direct and the sound of my patches (and the rigs from Pete, TAF, and soundside) do NOT sound good through the PA out of the box. And unfortunately, unlike a traditional amp where once you understand where to place the mic you end up with reasonably consistent tone AND the "in the room" sound, the Kemper must be adjusted for either direct or through power amp.

    When I hear people talk about "in the room" sound, I get it and recognize that the Kemper (or Axe) are not the same as a traditional amp and needs to be set up differently. The Kemper can get you there but it takes time to learn how to use it. If you think about, whether you play at home or in arenas, the same learning curve applies.

  • Qsc K 12

    I have a question I hope is easy to answer. :)

    My band uses KSC K12 powered speakers for the PA. I have one at my house, and it really wipes out my profiles. They sound like they are in a box or honking and trebly. I am wiling to eq 1 profile set for going direct and one for the power amp and cab, is there anything you recommend I do to make the Kemper shine through the KSC?

    Thank you,

    Mike

  • Too much emphasis on "in the room" sound....Flame suit on!

    Quote from VESmedic1

    Over the years as modelling has progressed, people more and more are turning to modellers live and in the studio, and trying to get their favorite tones. I've noticed that you can't go more than a day or two on various forums without a thread about getting that "elusive" "in the room tone". Quite honestly, It gets old, and kinda makes me laugh...


    Can someone PLEASE tell me what GOOD that "in the room" tone is???? Seriously, WHAT is it good for? So you are playing live: your band is rockin, the FOH is pumpin: What does the crowd hear? NOT your in the room tone, they hear the FOH, and that's really about it.

    You are rocking out to your favorite CD in your car, your flying down the highway, top down, your chick is lovin your tunes: Any in the room tone in that? NOPE. CLosed micd (more than likely) on a guitar cabinet is what you are hearing....SO what gives? Why do people care about this so much? For what it's worth, I am semi professional musician, playing out every week, approximately 10 to 15 gigs a month sometimes more, and I can not for the life of me after playing live over the years wonder why people care so much about it. Quite honestly it sounds rather selfish, and as if your mind is not in the right place as it should be when you are playing live. Have any of you playing live ever HEARD your tone through a SOLID FOH system with a good sound engineer??? You mean to tell me your "in the room" sound is more impressive/important than THAT!? Couple that with the FRFR ground monitors (my Yamaha DXR 12's blow away any 4x12 I've ever heard) and I just can't help but laugh at some of these threads....After having reduced/controlled stage volume over the last couple of years using FRFR and the kemper, our live mixes have never been better, our stage volume/monitoring has never been clearer as well. no more laser beam 4x12 cabinets 15 feet out pissing off the sound guy, making his life and his job ( MAKING YOU SOUND GOOD!) harder. Sure, having an amp is great and I will probably always say nothing will ever "beat" having a real amp on stage pound for pound, in the perfect scenario. But for that ONE positive (in the room tone) that the amp does, I can give you 30 reasons why it will never be better than my setup in the grand scheme of things, and in the world of importance (again, making the band sound good) it's quite low on the list of my priorities..../rant....discuss

    I guess I should clarify as well, this is for the crowd who uses the Kemper live, not for the hobbiest sitting at home playing.,,,


    I use the Kemper live and here is my take on "in the room sound."

    When I played live with my half stack the stage volume of the amp was enough to hear what I was playing and to get sustain and feedback. The amp was mic'ed and more often than not, the FOH sounded like my amp. To me that is what I expect. The Kemper is no different, when I play live with it I expect the monitor and FOH to sound about the same. If it does, I am happy.

  • New album with Kemper

    Quote from Songwritersoul

    Cool song, great tone and great playing. Sounds to me like Hardline meets Mr. Big.
    That kind of music may still be at the top of the food chain if Nirvana hadn't come along and
    driven a sledge hammer through our spandex pants and hair mousse. :)

    thanks for sharing

    I hear Hardline and Mr. Big too, very nice! Nirvana only paused the party, grunge was and is not strong enough to kill it! 8)

  • LA 80 clean rack sound - do the "schmoo" - including a Youtube tutorial

    Mats,

    Close but more like this:

    http://youtu.be/LlZhumclOOc

    The first 30 seconds represent my dream clean tone. :)

  • First time live, not convincing.

    Quote from PBGas

    I always wonder what 4x12 cabinet folks are using with their Kempers. I've tried a few different versions of various manufacturers. From all of my tests, I've found V30 speakers to be the least desirable with the Powered Rack at least to my ears. That is not that they sound bad, it is the fact that every single profile sounds the same through them. I started with my previous custom Mesa 2x12 with V30s. Everything sounded great but the same. I borrowed a friends Bogner Uberkab with the V30/T-75 combo and it sounded a bit better. I finally picked up a slightly used but nicely broken in Marshall 1960AX with Greenbacks and I can say without a doubt that this is a fantastic setup for the powered rack if you are not able to get used to an FRFR solution and really want a cab. For me, it works. I've made a couple of output changes when playing louder and stored those and all works fine. I can distinctly hear the difference between patches, etc.

    It works for me.

    Quote from michaelmellner

    I concur 100%. there are places in which the kemper, while sounding superstar at home, sounds like garbage. for example, I gigged at the Hard Rock Cafe in Florence, couple of weeks ago. the place's acustic was so bad the kemper was almost not playable. I had to anyways but it was a torture because I had to play a very hard and difficult repertoire.........with a smile on my face!

    as a matter of fact, I'm thinking about having a plan B for places like this, which will comprise the use of an ISO box (hooking the kpa into the return of an amp) since I'm tester/demonstrator of a magnificent one (the montarbo iso box).

    in places like the mentioned, there is no way to have the kemper to sound good, either on a poweramp or into the consolle........the use of an isobox, being virtually sealed, solves all the acustics trouble.

    and consider that I tried various solution. for instance: I have gathered many profiles for both poweramp/cab and consolle use, with the same timbre but different harmonics. so sometimes while a plexi isn't sounding ok, a mesa might as well. but in the room like the HRC, no amp was sounding playable........

    Everyone has experienced this from time to time, I have played gigs that were horrible sounding but the crowd ate it up.

    Any new rig will take time to dial in and getting it to sound its best. The Kemper is no different than any other amp live, what sounds great at home will not necessarily sound good in a live band situation. The power amp and cabinet choice is important and you need to adjust your settings to accommodate different amps and cabs. How is the Kemper getting to the pa? Direct? Or are you mic'ing the cab? Take your time, start out with a basic sound and build from there, you'll get there. It took me 2-3 months of using the Kemper live to get it dialed in. I use a MosValve MV-962 into a vertical 2x12 with 1973 Celestion Creambacks in it and it sounds great live. I do not like going direct but like having the option. When you want to sound good with a minimal amount of gear, go direct.

  • What amps did you sell?

    After I blew out my back and was told to stop lifting over 20lb if I want to keep walking (I had 5 back surgeries already) I sold my Cameron CCV to fund the Friedman Pink Taco. It did not work for me, sold it to buy the Kemper. It works! I just sold my Friedman BE-100 and bought a Mahaffey AW99, it is a 20lb head with 3x33 watt output to run in stereo. etc. I also bought a 1974 Marshall superlead, sent it to Friedman to get modded. I need one old Marshall to be a complete person :) I will rarely take the Marshall out of the house, I just cannot lift it without hurting my back.

  • New owner here - hello everyone! and a few questions.

    Quick answer is to treat it like an amplifier if that is how you want to use it. It is what I do., I do not like playing it through a FRFR pa speaker. Just my preference. I run the Kemper into a Mosvalve power amp into either a 1x12 or a 2x12 depending on how much air I need to push. Just like a traditional amp I tweak everything a little to work together but it is not hard. I turn the cab sims off of the monitor out and use that as my feed to a power amp. My Kemper sounds just like my Friedman BE-100 I profiled, when we a/b'ed them it was hard to tell the Kemper from the amp.

    Good luck and enjoy!

    Mike