Posts by Grooguit

Being a Kemper user for about 6 months now, my impression is that they don't release something till it is darn good and ready. You don't see a lot of issues popping up on these forums with things. Sure, there are a few but not many. Thing is, an editor will be awesome. But the fact that Kemper makes a small market product, you have to figure there are a 100 Pod users for every one Kemper owner. With the size of the company, it's certainly understandable if it takes a while as they just don't have the human capital to do everything really fast We finally got performance mode, long wait. The result: awesome. The same thing will be true of an editor and the dedicated controller. We finally got pitch effects, the result there, awesome as well.
Consider too, that they don't get any more money from releasing updates that make current users happier. We already bought our Kempers. The only profit to be made from new features is the incentive to attract new buyers.

Kemper's biggest obstacle to growth is it's price point, and the difficulty to advertise. Think about it for a second. They claim, "you can sound like any amp, and even copy your own amps." When I first read their advertisement I was like, ok, another modeler that talks about sounding like any amp, which is what every manufacturer of modelers has been saying for over a decade. When I read the "you can profile your own amp" I was like, great now I can make a 2 dimensional lifeless copy of my budget amplifier instead of a 2 dimensional lifeless copy of some of the best amps on the planet. My curiosity at why the thing was so darn expensive led me to do a little research and discover why. Which it turn led to me making the best musical purchase of my life. However, I wouldn't be surprised if the Kemper organization is on a tight budget, because relatively few guitarists have even heard of Kemper, let alone own one.

How about every pedal made by Wampler pedals?

Thanks for the info. Good to know. I've learned from my visit, though to take my Kemper as a carry on, as people from my party had bags lost going and coming from Brazil. Both times it appeared to be American Airlines fault.

Hello, I looking into using my Kemper amp in Brazil for possibly an extended amount of time, several months to a year perhaps. Having just been there, I know you can use a cheap adaptor to use American devices, like I did with my iPhone. However, I've heard it's not good to do this a lot. So my question is: will the European plug that came with the Kemper work in Brazil? Brazil has 220v outlets and the plug that came with the Kemper looks like its the same size as I remember, though the plugs look a little fatter than I remember. Anyone here have any knowledge about this? I'd like to take the Kemper with me if I'm going for an extended stay, but if I can't safely power it, I'm gonna take a few battery powered stomps and possibly a tech 21 character pedal that also runs on batteries. I've seen that there are supposedly EU/Brazil adaptor out there. Would the Kemper fire up safely and reliably using one of these?

Just got my Behringer FCB1010 with the Uno for Kemper integrated circuit. Absolutely love it, totally lives up to the hype. The only thing I can't attest to is to how it will hold up to wear and tear. It seems quite sturdy, tough. However, it's not unreasonably heave either. Very pleased

I'm in New Jersey, the Uno crossed the atlantic and I got it 8 days after ordering. Not too shabby. It totally rocks btw. I had just received the Behringer and didn't even bother using it until the Uno arrived. It works great, don't see why anyone would pay the at least twice the price for a two expression pedal board made by other manufacturers. Even ones that don't have expression pedals cost as much or more than the behringer. Extremely pleased. Love having the tuner on the board and heel down tuner mode.

Go with the Behringer. Get the uno for Kemper chip. It's the most compatible midi device available. Also the cheapest. Anything cheaper is some tiny little thing that doesn't give you much flexibility. If you swap the chip, there's nothing to program, much simpler than the Rocktron midi mate that I was using, which costs $220 and doesnt have expression pedals. The behringer costs $150, the chip I think I paid $20. Nothing but positives on this site in terms of build quality. The only complaints people have expressed were programing it, but that was when trying to program it without using the uno for Kemper chip.

Lately, a lot of users are stoked about the Yamaha DXR10. Supposedly, it is really flat and street price is $600. I have a QSC k10 which does a good job. I find that if I cut the highs on monitor output of the Kemper the slightest bit, it sounds pretty darn flat as far as I can tell. No complaints.

Cool thanks guys, good to know

Just got my FCB1010 today. Have the uno4kemper on the way. Only concern is that the expression pedals seem flimsy. I'm no so much worried about breaking the plastic, because I'm generally gentle with pedals and such. I'm concerned about the internal potentiometer and such that get wear and tear with every movement. However, have you users found the expression pedals to hold up to regular use? I suppose that if the thing lasts a couple years, I can always replace it if it goes, considering it's half the price of anything else with dual expression pedals.

In general, once in a while I'm asked to do volume swell stuff, not often, and I seldom use wah or expression. However, I would like to mess around with some things using the expression pedal, perhaps I'd use them more if I had them, as I used to do back in days of owning the original floor Vox Tonelab. The main reason I am switching from the Rocktron midi mate is because the rocktron doesn't have dedicated bank switches. Banks must be accessed by hitting a second function button, then banking, then hitting the second function button again, then choosing a preset in a new bank. Very annoying and a pain to do between songs, forget doing it during a song. Plus, the behringer gives me one extra CC switch, since I no longer need to dedicate one to the tuner, as the Uno chip allows Heel down volume to enter tuner mode. That, and the fact that I can see the tuner and the programing is easier.

I highly doubt a company is going to design a cover so that no one knows that their product is being used. One of the biggest source of potential new customers are individuals who hear a Kemper being used. If they don't know what it is, they won't buy one. New customers are the fuel that fund Kemper's continued efforts to improved this already great product. Otherwise, if it remains a best kept secret, they'll go out of business, or at least not be able to afford to pay people to continue to develop this product.

Quote from ckemper

This is possible since day one with the volume pedal.
Do you get the trick?

Yes, I figured as much. Actually did that trick back in the day when I owned the original blue vox tone lab. I don't currently have a volume pedal, preferring simplicity in set up, only using a Rocktron midi mate, though I'm holding out for the future Kemper controller. The only thing I would like a volume pedal for is quick silent tuning, (so that I don't have to dedicate of my CC stomps to tuner) and manual swells, which I'd lose the ability to use if I programed the volume pedal to be a boost. Which reminds me of another effect I'd love to see: an auto-swell. I had one in my Pod HD500 and was pretty useful. I own a line6 m3 which has this feature, but don't like to bother to drag it to gigs as it's one more power adaptor and cable. Once in a while at my church, I'm asked to do some swell stuff in the background for slow songs, but find the pedal dance necessary to pull this off silly, and it's easier to get your timing right.

Thanks for the feedback, Chris. Not every day the owner of a company answers a forum question. BTW, the Kemper amp is the best piece of gear I've ever owned and can't think of another product which the company continues to improve at this level. The pitch effects being awesome. I bought this thing because I mainly just want really good tone, with effects being of secondary concern in quality. Particularly for live use, most of what comes through the mix is your core tone anyway, not the quality of your effects. In the studio, you have pluggins. (I'd rather have an awesome amp tone with a mediocre delay than an mediocre amp tone with awesome delay) However, I've found the effects quite amazing, as good as the effects in the TC electronic G system I sold before getting this. (and I loved those effects)

Would be cool if there was a global volume boost that could be set. It wouldn't even have to take up a block. Rather, it could be assigned a midi # and would automatically bump up all selected outputs by a certain number of decibels. The limitation would be if the volume hits the ceiling, but in most cases we're not setting any of the Kemper's outputs to max anyhow, at least I'm not. Thus engaging it would boost all the outputs by six decibels, if you'd like. Yes, I'm aware that you can place such a boost within a preset, but then if you decide that if your boost in general is too much, you'd have to go and edit each and every Rig. Globally, you could do this once without affecting any of your rigs. Plus it would free up one of the slots for something else. My T.C electronic G system had this feature and it was really useful.

Personally, I often don't want a high gain Rig for a lead, I just want to boost the volume of the current Rig I'm playing without increasing gain, just to jump out of the live mix. It would be nice if I could just adjust this globally at a gig and eat up one of my four post rig slots to do so. Since many of my rigs use some post EQ, I use a touch of reverb in all my rigs, usually want some delay to engage, I only have one slot left, which I'd prefer to use for some sort of modulation.

Hello all, first I know that an entire encyclopedia has been written about this controller on this forum at this point, so that it's quite likely that this question has been addressed. There lies that problem, it's hard to sift through all the info. I done quite a bit of research on this forum and haven't had my questioned answered.

I know, from watching a youtube clip with the FCB1010 and Kemper, that you can assign switches 6,7,8,9,10 to control CC messages such as turning on and off the any of the 8 effect slots or tap tempo, among others, just like you can on other midi controllers. However, are these global? Meaning, when I select one rig, can switch 6 control slot A, while on another another rig can switch 6 control Slot B? My current controller, a rocktron midi mate, can do CC messages, with 5 rear switches, but they are global, for all, thus switch 6 always controls the same slot, regardless of what preset I choose. This is annoying, because on some Rigs, I have one slot that I'd leave on all the time, but on others, I wouldn't want in on all the time.

thus my 5 rear switches control:
5: Slot A
6: X slot (for volume boost)
7: Mod block
8: Delay block
9: Tap tempo

Thus I must put any effect that I want control of before the amp in Slot A. I'd prefer to be more organized within the Kemper and use effects in their best order, rather than putting things where they don't belong because I want to be able to accommodate the limitations of my foot controller. Can the FCB1010 with the new Uno chip do this?

Dude, buy the Kemper. It's cheaper and has the best possible organic tone you can get, and is easier to use. Most of it's apparent weaknesses that you may have read on this forum have been solved, it being such a new product. The performance mode has finally been added, so have pitch effects, which was a common complaint. It also appears that an editor is in the works as well as a dedicated foot controller and a built in looper. With some of these other demands and requests met, the Kemper team can now focus on completing these other needs.

The power versions can still do everything that the non-powered versions can. So it you want to go FRFR and bypass the built in power you can, but you can of course drive a guitar cab or any passive PA cab. It comes down to if having that option is worth $700 to you. (it is after all, a mono 600-watt solid state power amp). For half that price I could buy a Carvin power amp, which could drive any type of cab and has alternative uses as well. You could also buy a fender mustang head for $300, and use the effects return jack to bypass all the modeling. Then you'd have a backup guitar amp as well. Any PA rack style power amp or the Mustang would also give you the ability to run stereo through two cabs or a single cab that can be used in stereo. and of course mono as well. So to me, it's a waste of money

To me, the only benefit in purchasing the power amp version is that it's nice and compact, as opposed to having to lug around another piece of gear to power your speakers-should you decide to play through a standard guitar cab. (which I don't since I go the FRFR route) For many, spending an extra $300-$400 is worth it, if it means they don't have to transport additional gear. I have a used Crate power block that I can use to power a standard guitar cab. It's quite small, like a foot wide, half a foot deep and three inches high, so both it and and the kemper fit neatly on top of a standard 2x12 or 4x12 guitar cab. Only cost $140 used. I just bough this as a backup, though and so I have the option of using my cab with the Kemper. It also serves as a back-up guitar amp. However, I prefer my QSC k10.

Long expensive journey, as I've needed a good live direct tone for playing at church for the past 8 years, though I did use an amp from time to time.

Korg something (a little silver box) set clean as the tail end of my stomps.
Vox tonelab SE (the blue 2 pedal one)
TC electronic Nova system with speaker sim turned on and wampler OD pedals
Line6 Pod HD500
TC electronic G system with wampler OD pedals and a Tech 21 blonde sansamp pedal set clean for my amp modeling (not a bad set up at all)
The Kemper- no regrets G.A.S. is over (until they come out with the Kemper 2 in a few years)

I like the idea. But why stop there? Why not give the user the ability to have any of the EQ options available in the pre and post slots available within the amp block (to be placed before or after) so the user doesn't have to use up slots for it. Of course, this might mean that you couldn't switch them on and off, as there's no convenient button to do so, but a useful option, for users that just want to set these eq's up and leave them on all the time.

One nuisance I've found is using up slots with Eq's. I don't like having multiple Rigs of the same amp just because I don't have enough slots available to turn all the effects on and off that I might want to use with that basic sound. Some presets in the kemper have the eq also used as a booster. It would be cool if there was a global boost that could be set up that didn't use up a slot. Perhaps it's functions could be controlled in the output menu.

Quote from paults

If you haven't tweaked for the Powerblock yet:

The RCA inputs on the back Powerblock are designed to give you flatter response than the effects return jack.

I usually play through a Bose L1, but did a one-time gig using a Powerblock and the matching 1-12" open back Celestion cabinet.

Using the the RCA inputs of the Powerblock, I was able to adjust the Kemper Monitor Out EQ instead of updating any of the Rigs I use with my Bose L1.

Thanks for the tip. I haven't tried this yet, will need to get adaptors to go from quarter to RCA.

Would be cool if you could set a rig to automatically go to tuner mode. My foot controller, a Rocktron midi mate only has 5 CC switches and they can only be set globally, meaning that they can control only one thing for all my presets. I have one set to the tap tempo and one set to a solo boost, one in a stomp slot and the last two for the mod slot and delay slot. I can't afford to dedicate one of these to entering tuner mode.

A useful work-around is to create a Rig that has it's volume turned all the way down (so it's effectively muted) and just look at the green-white-green tuner that you can see on the kemper when it's not in tuner mode. That rig can be assigned a midi number just like the rest of your rigs and therefore be accessible on your controller.

I second someone's suggestion of the ability to hold down buttons and have them continuing to scroll. I really hate having to hit the rig buttons 100 times to go through my presets, would be nice if I could simply hold the button down. Yes, I can press up or down to go through the alphabet, but I still end up pressing the button 20 times to get from T to B, for example.