Posts by V8guitar

  • Level II upgrade

    Im sorry but I just don;t get it...

    For the last xx years people have been clamouring for a smaller device that was cheaper and therefore less functionally rich. I never saw the need tbh but hey I understand why people asked for it.

    I'm pretty sure at the time one of the suggestions was for the option of paid upgrades (else Kemper would be undercutting their own market)...in any case this has been made clear from the start.

    Now we have exactly that and there seems to be people who are really disappointed to the point of saying they will leave the Kemper experience as if they have been screwed over?

    Although I thought I didn't need one I bought it as a backup only. If I was buying it as my main unit, I would have done the research to see how important the missing features are. I do miss morph but even if I switched to this as my main unit, I would manage. It a great feature but not essential for me, if it was, I would have held off as there was never a guarantee they were providing it, let alone as a paid upgrade.

    Kemper must again be thinking " what do they want from us as we gave them what they asked for"....and if you don;t like it, get a stage...they have given us options and yet we still have issues with it..

    Just seems nuts to me...

  • Third party guitar cab w/Kone or 2x12"?

    Quote from Old Rocker

    Just out of curiosity what PA do use to handle a full mix , i believe this might well be my 1st post :).

    Yey...welcome!

    In the past used a variety, mainly passive desk and active speakers. Currently using a bose tower system with a sub and recently moved from an analogue desk to a behringher air x18...I think....its all owned by the singer.

    I have 2 altos ( TS312's) and a basic mixing desk which Ive also used for the band successfully ( better than pure backline).

  • What kind of music are you listening to right now?

    Quote from GearJocke

    Reminds me of a ACDC tab book I once had. Can't remember if someone gave it to me. Anyway, I opened it and I could see how bad translated every song was. How could someone translate simple songs like ACDC and fail so bad? I threw it in the bin eventually.

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    I grew up on tab books and I know many people hate them....like you I've seen some awful ones. I personally used them as a guide, mainly for picking out the scales or the notes but not necessarily how they were played.

    I think the shocking ones on the video are the walk riff and run to the hills which are clearly wrong..

  • Third party guitar cab w/Kone or 2x12"?

    Quote from Bronchick

    That's if you play your cab on the floor. I put mine on a chair or stand. And, with small gigs where there's no soundman, playing FOH is not practical. In small pubs, there's no "front row." LOL!

    I understand what you are saying but you are missing my point...the sound is still totally directional and compromised.

    For any gig you need a PA. If the PA is that crap you can;t run Kick and snare as well as guitars ( bass is less of an issue as it carries way better) then you are going to sound crap anyway. Most PA's today are well enough equipped to handle multiple instruments well.

    I have played many many gigs with no sound man and once the sound is set up, its pretty stable, especially if you have your relative sounds sorted ( cleans vs rhythm vs solo).

    Most of my gigs I play are small pubs. Our PA is relatively simple and yet we put 2 guitars ( one is a Helix with no backline), bass and full drumkit, along with all vocals through it. Once set, you only have to make minor changes as the outputs are constant - one of the big advantages because you are not messing with volumes and mic placement.

    You also miss about 80% of the benefit of the Kemper live IMO.

  • Strange behaviour with output volume

    I have plugged my player in and tunred up the monitor out volume to maximum (0 db).

    When I then play, the volume reduces automatically down...how much down varies on the rig used so looks like some kind of automatic balancing of output volume. It only moves down and never up.

    Im not aware of this behaviour at all, is this normal?

    My set up is a player, monitor out into a Harley Benton power amp into a kabinet...

  • Level II upgrade

    I think its a shame the upgrades are that expensive but I don;t feel cheated because:

    1) The player is a cut down version which lots of Kemper users kept asking for

    2) Kemper have stated from day one that paid upgrades would be coming. As we didn;t know what they were nor the price, I think you would be daft buying on the premise that they would be what you want and at the price you want

    3) The upgrades are optional

    4) The upgrades have value and its up to Kemper to determine how much value

    5) The player still sounds great...

  • Kemper Player vs Quad Cortex

    Quote from Wheresthedug

    I love my Powered Toaster but I actually find the Player is ideal for 90%of what I need. I rarely use many (if any) effects so a good basic 2 chanel amp with a boost and a delay and I can do almost anything I need. A few more footswitches wouldn’t go a miss and a built in poer amp would be cool but not a deal breaker.

    Same, I tried adding the kemper dual switch but then I had no expression pedal input and then bought a wah. Then saw the Paint Audio midi pedal and thats pretty good and solves the problems.

    I miss the bigger display just for orientation reasons but otherwise its great!

  • Player Upgrade - goes with machine or linked to Kemper account?

    Quote from Ruefus

    I'm not ashamed to say I'm astonished. The amount of power in that *tiny* little box? My Head/Remote setup is great. but it's heavy, bulky and a general pain to move.

    I intend to get a Player and make sure my workflow/setup can translate without too much compromise/tap dancing. I've already got a small MIDI footswitch/pedal looper. Then I'll most likely sell my head/remote.

    I mean...My God how small.

    I was shocked (no idea why) that when I compared my Rack to the player....they sounded the same! I guess I did not expect it to have the same glorious huge sound from one so small...it is surely magical!

    Its definitely a compromise with the switching so I bought a paint audio midi captain which solves (for me) 80% of the problem. I will keep mine purely as a backup...

  • Deep Purple's rig/ pedalboard observation

    Quote from Dynochrome

    I would love to have him in my studio and I'd profile his ENGL isolated and see if he could pick out that 1%. I'd bet lunch he couldn't. The worlds top producers can't tell, nor will he be able to. This is agreeing with BadBadger and he would only get the sound he's sending to the audience through his mics isolated vs the Kemper. Not the "amp in the room". I don't have the heart to make my underlings lug all that gear when I could do the same thing with a small box. Not a soul in the audience could tell the difference, so why do all that work? Tube amps live in your head, not your ears. I have them and love them and was the biggest tube snob ever, but once you understand the Kemper is the sound after the speaker going into the board/console you start to understand it's power and how it makes tube amps unnecessary.

    I totally get you but....this will sound mad....if I was in a large pro band, Id probably use loads of valve amps because the "amp in the room" sound is addictive. Yes pointless if you then use IEM's and so I'd also make myself deaf...

    Us guitarists aren't logical - we buy loads of guitars that generally sound the same ( sound comes from your fingers) but we love them so we want different looking guitars etc.

    Logically it makes no sense but....

  • Deep Purple's rig/ pedalboard observation

    Quote from Wheresthedug

    I saw an interesting video on Andy Sneap’s Judas Priest rig recently too. It appears that Andy uses the Kemper for his IEM but FOH engineer wants a live amp and cab miced. So they run a hybrid system with two heads (one live and one for backup) going to FOH plus a Kemper in the rack feeding Andy for monitoring. Talk about making life difficult for yourself and introducing inconsistency into the chain for no apparent benefit 🤷🏻‍♂️

    Tenuous link alert - 12 months ago we gigged with a Judas Priest tribute and one of the guitarist was playing an ENGL. He had a valve go down and spent most of sound check getting it back up and running. I told him about my Kemper and he got to see it in action.

    We played with them last week again and guess what - he had bought a stage...and he loved it, couldn't understand why he hadn't moved across earlier!

    I'm expecting my commission payment from Kemper soon, it must be about the 3rd Kemper I've sold :)

  • Kemper updates

    Quote from BadBadger

    I think this is an irrelevent debate becuase Kemper is not a charity and so the updates are of course beneficial for the business. The point is, its a positive business model for us as well as it means we get an ever improving product, which maintains loyalty etc....so you are both right :)

  • what's next

    I think the player has a place in the market as a stripped back fly rig.

    For some it will be their main rig becuase they have a smaller need for effects etc. for me its the perfect backup.

    I will always take my full beans rig and have my player in the car just in case.

    So I have no need of additonal stuff as its only to get me out of a hole. I think there is an issue by trying to reduce the functionality gap...Id have no issue if they kept it as is....Id like morph but its not a significant issue.

  • First Things to Do?

    I think it depends on the person.

    I have never read the manual but I have referred to it when I hit a problem.

    The KPA is fairly intuative so its not essential, but if you can take the time to read it then its definitely sensible...

    Its well written as well....very readable...