Posts by ClassicMetal

  • Why does it sound sharp and harsh

    Quote from viabcroce

    This can happen... As long as you put something behind that button beforehand :)

    Are you sure you're already mastering al least the Amp section's controls? They are extremely easy to manage, and powerful at the same time.
    My advise would be: forget the Axe for a while. Choose any tone in the ballpark and use only the tonestack and the Amp controls in the Profiler to forge it towards your ideal. Great school. Tone is there, like the Moses' statue in the marble block :thumbup:

    Thanks. No I haven't mastered even that aspect of it yet, I'm so new. With so many profiles and rigs, I was just feeling a bit pressured for time, since I planned to either use it with my band instead of the Axe, and have 30 days to return it if I decide against it. However, now I'm pretty sure I'll keep it no matter what, even if only for recording rhythm guitar parts--although I'm sure you're right, my tone is in there somewhere!

  • Why does it sound sharp and harsh

    Quote from viabcroce

    I'd advise you to work on your tone using free/factory profiles. You'd benefit a lot from realizing what makes a good tone.
    Believe me, it's impossible that the issues you're having are related to not using commercial profiles. Work on mastering the device... and your sound.

    As a side note, what you hear on demos strongly depends on the guitar/PU used and, mostly, on the player. Most of the times you d/l a rig and it sounds very different from the demo you heard.

    It's true, I have more work to do. I'm going to note all the settings on my real JVM410 OD2 channel and on the Axe-Fx JVM preset and try applying them to the various JVM profiles. I'm just spoiled from having so many amazing, useful default rhythm tones in the Kemper and lead tones in the Axe, I want to push a button and hear "Mark's Ideal Lead Tone." :)

  • Why does it sound sharp and harsh

    Quote from guenterhaas

    PC speakers and even the most expensive headphones are unusable to get an objective opinion about sounds, because they change frequencies drastically. You need "as-linear-as-possible"-monitors and a good room acoustic, too, otherwise all discussions will be useless.

    I play a lot of sessions and no producer ever had just one complaint about my Kemper-profiles, they all sound great and everybody is thinking that I'm using "real amps". The same with live-performances, on a big venue-tour I played recently (60 shows) everything was done by the KPA, 100% positive reaction from the FOH-guy and all musicians I had invited.

    Very often sound-problems may come from another source, f.e. every VST-plug-in I know (Guitar Rig, Amplitube ect.) sounds more "harsh" than the KPA. Guitars play a very big role, too.

    If you want to hear my KPA-sounds, just listen to the "Guenter Haas"-demos at Soundside.de or to the tracks 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 11 on my own album .

    I listened to a number of your demos on the soundside.de page, and they'e as encouraging as they are impressive--outstanding playing, and a demonstration of awesome and authentic tone. I know what Danniee means though, I feel a little of that. The rhythm guitar sounds of the Kemper are better and more realistic to me than what I've gotten from my Axe-Fx. However, I've had a harder time getting lead sounds. They often sound thin and a little like a solid state. However, I've only had it a couple of days, and hearing your amazing demos tells me that the problem is surely with me, rather than the Kemper.

    I'm playing through 2 QSC K10 powered monitors.

    Actually, listening to several of your demos and many others on the soundside,de page is one reason I bought the Kemper. Now I think I want to buy some of those profiles and probably some from The Amp Factory, and continue to work with the KPA to get the lead tone I like: full-bodied, creamy, and with long sustain. I've been using the Axe-Fx's JVM410 OD2 with a Tube Driver for my lead sound and like it better than my actual JVM410. With the Kemper, I miss that Tube Driver, but I think probably with the right profiles and more work on my part I can get the leads I want and keep the Kemper and use it instead of the Axe-Fx.

    Thanks to everyone for sharing expertise and experience.

  • Best Way to Access Downloaded Rigs

    I've read the wiki and the Rig Manager manual, but I'm not sure the best way to access rigs I downloaded. I have Ola Englund's rigs and the bass rigs from the Kemper site in my Downloads folder. I want to put them into the Rig Manager to audition them from there with the Profiler before importing them to the actual Profiler.

    Should I drag or copy the downloaded rig folder under All Rigs or Local Library?

    I looked under Macintosh HD/User/User Name/Library/Application Support/ for Kemper Amps/Rig Manager, also in other paths to Library/Application Support, but did not find Kemper anywhere.


    And is the best way to move rigs into the Profiler to select, copy, and paste from one folder to another in Rig Manager?

    Thanks!

  • List of Rigs

    Quote from viabcroce

    Feel free to tweak, as long as you don't save a rig no tweak will be saved, and as long as you switch to a different rig or shoot the unit off you won't change any rig.

    I do it all the time, just tweaking rigs to get different sounds. I almost always switch to another rig w/o saving :D

    Glad for that confirmation, that's just what I finished doing. :)

  • List of Rigs

    Quote from bigHF

    welcome!

    Make sure you make yourself familiar with RM - it is an awesome tool and will help you digging through the thousands of profiles on the RE.
    I also find free rigs section of the forum very helpful for pointers.

    Kemper & Axe share peaceful coexistence in this forum.

    Thanks! I'm sure this will make accessing the rigs easier.

    I searched for a while about storing rigs and it seems there's plenty of space for me to Save As rigs and then experiment on them. I feel like the Kemper provides many incredible rhythm guitar tones right out of the box, which I had difficulty with finessing on the Axe. But to get the kind of leads I like (with lots of sustain), I need to make some safe copies and start tweaking. Thanks for the free rigs tip, too.

  • List of Rigs

    Thank you very much, guys!

    I can see there's a lot to learn, but I still think it may be simpler than the Axe-Fx, except for maybe navigating presets.

    But the KPA sounds a lot more like real tube amps, a lot more live and in your face. The Axe-Fx is exceptional, and I can see how some would prefer it, but my initial impression of the Kemper is that the tones are better, with far less tweaking, and I expect the tweaking to be easier.

  • List of Rigs

    Is there a list of rigs online somewhere I can print out?

    I just fired up my new Kemper and was blown away by the first AC amp--and I don't even like clean. :) So then I started looking for a Plexi only to find I have to scroll through enigmatic names like Mr. Phil Kay, which I have no idea what that means.

  • KPA and FCB/Uno Live Use Questions

    Thanks, Ingolf! Come to think of it, I usually don't turn the delay on and off, I just have it set differently for lead and rhythm presets, and never turn reverb off, so I guess that's really a non-issue.


    In Performance mode, can you move both forward and backward, and not be locked into progressing in order through the slots? So you could stomp on the lead switch at will?

    I wouldn't want to have to select a different performance for each song, so I kind of ruled Performance Mode out, but I may have to adapt my process for the new system. You're right, having a copy of the lead preset in every Performance would be convenient.

    I currently use 5 rhythm presets and 2 lead ones. I guess worst case scenario is I could create Bank 1 with the 4 most used rhythm rigs and 1 lead.

    Can you have two rigs that are exactly the same amp and cab, but with different settings, or is Performance Mode the only way to do that?

    With the Axe-Fx, I copied a JCM 800 preset, and use one for rhythm, with volume at about - 4 db, and the other for lead, with the volume at 0 db, plus a distortion pedal on. You can also create different "scenes" for each preset, and the foot controller lets you switch between scenes for each preset, so I have a lead and rhythm scene for every preset.

    I know that I will need to answer many of my questions myself with the actual Kemper in front of me, I just wanted to avoid buying it and immediately running into a deal-breaker, so I appreciate your wise advice. Probably soon I will be experimenting with it and shut up for a while! :)

  • KPA and FCB/Uno Live Use Questions

    I think I'm ready to buy the KPA. I expect that it will excel in terms of tone quality, ease of use, and versatility. I've been reading the manuals and forums for months, but I still have a few concerns, mostly about using it live with the FCB1010 controller with the Uno chip. I've been researching all day and my brain is numb and confused, so I hope this makes sense. If anyone has the patience to answer, I'd be grateful!


    REVERB & DELAY

    The FCB1010 controller with the Uno chip only has switches for slots A, B, C, D, and Mod. I’m confused as to whether Reverb and Delay need to use slots or if they’re separate from the stomps and included for every preset, so all the stomp slots are available for other effects. And if they don't reside in slots, can you not turn the delay on and off with the FCB?


    PUTTING RIGS IN ORDER ON FCB

    With the Axe-Fx and MFC, I’m used to swapping the numbers of presets to put them in the order I want them on the MFC pedalboard. For the Kemper, to assign your favorite presets to the first 2 banks of the FCB1010 (with Uno), would you assign a PrgChg number to each preset in the order you want them on the pedals, such as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10?

    And then would you need to find the presets that previously had those numbers and assign them the old numbers of your favorites? Sort of manually swapping them?


    ACCESSING LEAD PRESET IN EVERY BANK

    I usually use one rig for my leads, with multiple rigs for rhythm. With the Axe-Fx, I have the MFC foot controller set for the bottom 10 switches to be “rigs” and the 5 above them to be stomp boxes. So I can use any rhythm rig between 1 to 10, and easily switch to #5, my JCM800 Lead Preset.

    But with the FCB, I can only access 5 rigs at a time. So say I have the lead rig assigned to 5; but if I go up to the next bank for a different rhythm rig, I still need to access that lead rig without changing banks in the middle of a song. And I’d guess you cannot assign the same preset to 2 footswitches. So this strategy just won’t work?

    Or could I some how copy or create an identical lead preset for each bank?

    Thanks for your insights!

  • Head on Stand

    Quote from Ingolf

    The feet can be removed if need be.

    Thanks. You're always helpful!

    I've been reading the manual, the reference, and the forum and making notes on things like lead boost, run to monitor and FOH, etc. But work and life keep interfering, I think I'm going to have to take a leap of faith and just buy the thing and figure it out. It seems highly likely I can do everything I need with it live, although maybe differently than I do with the Axe-Fx and did with the Marshalls.

  • Head on Stand

    I've read forum posts on the relative advantages of the head/toaster and the rack and I think I'm going to get the head.

    I currently have my Axe-Fx on an On Stage Stands tilted amp stand. The Kemper head is wide enough to fit on it, but I notice it has feet. Does the Head sit level on the stand, or does the spacing of the feet cause the feet on one side to be on the rack bar, and the feet on the other off? Or can you remove the feet?

  • FCB1010 and Eureka

    Quote from Ingolf

    Great. Did you order? ;)

    Not yet. Being OCD, my plan is to read the user guide (done), read the reference manual (in progress), plan my routing for gigs and recording, then list questions, search the forum, research the FCB and the Uno, then buy everything. And I have a deadline for a book due in a couple of weeks, so that might slow me down.