Posts by V8guitar

Quote from Brad Ogden

Thanks so much for the help all.

I think I was a bit vague on #3 sorry.

I currently run the kemper main out L > XR18 > IEM. I was just wondering if I feed the main R direct to FOH (for shows that are too tight to bring my 4x12 stacks lol) would it impede anything in anyway if Ive set both setting to mono. 🙏🏻

Ive spent years just stack>plug>play and rely on fallbacks but to hear yourself and the guitar through IE is so much better for me 🤘🏻

In principle should work but again gotta reference a couple of points:

1) You should always go through the PA. 4x12's will not fill a room and are amazingly directional so to get enough volume for people to hear you, you will rip the face of people right in front of you. Even with my old analogue set up, I would mic my amp all the time ( except at very rare occasions where the PA wouldn;t take it, always resulting in a crap sound for the band). In the same way I'd always mic kick and snare as a minimum for drums. This has nothing to do with venue size or volume, it is to do with balance.

2) Why use the XR18? Just go FOH (which I do with main out L mono) and take your IEM feed from the desk? Why split it?

Totally agree IEM's are the way forward as you can hear yourself and the band, resulting is a tighter band as well along with protecting your hearing.

Quote from Brad Ogden

3. What is the best way to connect an IEM system along with a feed to FOH? Is it have L and R mono and feed one to each?

Prob not the answer you want but I never really understand why people want a direct feed into IEM and rely on ambient sound for the rest of the band.

I always take an IEM feed from the desk, so that I get a proper IEM mix. Yes you are reliant upon sound checking it properly, but it avoids the one ear in and one out I often see etc

I know others will disagree, but that for me is the best solution.

Quote from circletrack15

One thing I already love is the fact that this Forum community is way better than the Fractal site? Not in any way putting down anyone over there, but I get a much better response here and everyone actually will go through in detail what they want to convey to me in a simple fashion rather than answering me like I should know already what I’m needing to know? I guess for me I have come to the conclusion that at the end of the day, Fractal’s are Modelers not Profilers? Maybe this is why now days when Fractal releases new firmware it does sound different and they ad other things that you need to change adjust or tweak to get back to where it sounded? Maybe this why so many love Kemper and even the Tonex? I have a Tonex and as I stated before I play it far more than my FM9? That’s crazy but why? I believe it’s because it captures an amp not models an amp? One of my friends who has a Kemper Rack told me that if I like the Tonex pedal, your going to love the Kemper! This has me pumped to get one!

Yes, we are lovely

I think the approach is just slightly different to achieve the same goal - the best possible sound.

I don;t think you will find anyone on here denying the sound quality of the Fractal stuff, along with Helix and Quad cortex ( although there are differences no doubt) and many users here have both - I think they are just greedy

The bigger differentiation is the workflow, ease of use/editors, ecosystem etc to get to "that" sound.

If Kemper didn't exist I'd probably have no qualms in using fractal or others but the KPA has a really good balance of it all. we also have to remember this is all a huge step up from a regular map set up. I can do all of things I wished for previously and even stuff I didn't think of ( like Morph).

I don't think you can go wrong here, its just finding which platform hits your sweet spot.

As an aside, I had an issue with my Kemper (this has only happened once in 10 years so please don't think there is any quality issue here - I've had more failures with guitar electronics than my KPA!) and I had to use my £500 Blackstar Amped 3....sounded awful. I immediately went and bought a Kemper player as my emergency backup and the sound difference was night and day. I also have never had so many compliments from listeners about my sound...despite my ropey playing!

Quote from OneEng1

The complaint I have been hearing is that if you need (or want) the new updated capabilities and bug fixes, you must accept the reworking of all your tones you have setup. As a Kemper user, this is simply impossible to get my head around since this has never been the case with the KPA.

As an example, when the reverb engine was greatly updated (overhauled), it was done by adding NEW reverb modules in addition to the exiting (legacy) reverb modules. If a rig was using the legacy reverb engine, it continued to sound exactly the same after the update.

I very much like this approach :).

Some of the great rigs on the rig exchange (exe the magnificent Morgan AC20) for free are still some of my favorite rigs and they sound as glorious today as they did a decade ago. This is ALSO a big advantage for Kemper as the rig exchange contains decades of great rigs that you can try at a click on the PC screen through Rig Manager. Trying out new sounds off of the Rig Exchange is a great strength of the KPA. If the rigs had been effected over time, then these rigs would now be useless to anyone running up-to-date firmware (like Fractal).

While the Rig Manager is a poor rig editor when compared to the crazy wild routing capabilities of the Fractal editor, when used as a tool to QUICKLY find and tweak a rig to a desired tone.

For my use, if I can't get a rig I try on Rig Exchange into a great tone within a few minutes, I move on to another rig that might more closely meet my needs. I can tell within a few seconds if a rig is even close to what I am looking for.

When you get your KPA, I would recommend immediately getting hooked up to the Rig Exchange, and searching these forums for some of the "best rigs on the rig exchange" threads (there are quite a few). Some people are perfectly happy with the stock rigs that come from the factory; however, my entire gigging performances are made up of a combination of Rig Exchange favorites and paid rigs from Michael Britt.

Welcome to the family

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Again totally agree. The backwards compatibility has been carefully considered in virtually all cases ( I'm sure there is an issue somewhere but I can;t think of 1).

I think the KPA encourages a simple workflow and not "overtweaking"...

Rig manager seems to be the weakest part of the ecosystem but that has also been improved massively over the last few years. I find it easy to use although just a few little blips around saving and connectivity.

I use 2 Moog EP3's, one for volume, one for pitch, no pedal droop.

I use a converted crybaby for wah so it feels very similar, no pedal droop and use @stop bypass

Quote from OneEng1

On another forum, I have been debating the value of a device like the Kemper that I have had since 2013 ..... that through over a decade of updates, the original rigs that I have from the very beginning, still sound exactly the same today.

I was surprised to hear that when Fractal updates the firmware, the users sounds can all be changed. People who own a fractal pedal all seem to think this is just normal. For me, I (like others) have spent a great deal of time making rigs that sound good live for the set lists I am doing live. If I had to go through and tweak every rig every time a firmware update was released, I might have to throw myself off of a cliff! .... and yet, there are some who are OK with this (I am thinking they don't play live much, but maybe they do?).

I have a buddy that has an Axe III Fx. We have spent several weekends jamming back and fourth between each others rigs and playing around with the settings. My observations are as follows:

• The rigs I have honed on my KPA Rack for live sound better live than what we were able to obtain using the Axe III Fx
• I can obtain a specific "tone" faster on my KPA than he can on his Helix.
• The efx on the Axe III Fx are generally better than the KPA and are much more flexible; however, the reverbs and delays are close to my ears (I know there are some that really feel the need for an Eventide ... but good Lord knows there is certainly nothing wrong with that pedal either).
• The KPA is considerably less expensive than an Axe III Fx (but not an FM9 I think). A Kemper Stage is comparable to an FM9 in price.

I personally like the KPA rack and the Kemper Foot Controller as a live rig as I have only a single Ethercon cable going out onto stage which reduces the clutter around my live stage position. Also, it is a very robust gigging rig. If you don't gig much, this might not mean as much to you.

I personally think that the amps with more "touch" sound better on Kemper than on the Axe III Fx. They also "feel" better to me (if that makes any sense at all).

Take this all with a grain of salt though. I am MUCH more experienced with the Kemper than the Fractal. I do love their PC editor though (I am an Electrical Engineer though .... so I like complex routing capabilities).

At the end of the day, since I play guitar in a band, I like to have the ability to create a sound quickly that sits in the mix well, and that doesn't need tweaking forever (and doesn't change when a new firmware is released!). Because of this, I feel the KPA is a better tool for the job I want done.

I don't think anyone in the audience would be able to tell the difference between a Kemper and an Axe (or a real tube amp that is miced for that matter). Both are the top-of-the-line for digital amps.

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Great summary and this is where I think Kemper have go it right...they have focused on the core sound and functions along with stability

Unfortunately you missed one of the best parts of Kemper ownership...us...we are a fab community!!!

Quote from wwittman

I’ve just found that the Ethernet connector on the Kemper has become too flaky to trust in a big touring situation.
Even though I’ve always had it built into a rack with a short Ethernet connector to an ethercon connector on another panel so that the connection is never ‘stressed’.

So for this upcoming touring I’m doing the British Audio mod and so would need ethercon all round.

The sticking point is that they want to hide the Kempers offstage and potentially at least more than 25 feet away.

Thanks for all the input.
I’ll check the Thomann.

But any other sources please chime in!

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Ahh so the british audio mod will have the ethercon output.

I guess the alternative is short ethercon to ethernet into poe, ethernet to ethercon socket loaded into a rack, ethercon output.... its messy but would work as the PoE will drive the cable length....

Quote from LordByron

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried the PaintAudio Midi Captain with the Player?

Yes I have it. Its pretty good, especially with the display now showing the rig name (despite it being very small) which is more reassuring than just lights.

The display real estate isn't best used but great to have 5 switches to align to the KPA 5 slots.

Not used it in anger at a gig but simple top set up etc.

Quote from StefanErtle

Thought about chasing a player but not sure how to remain switching options of my current remote 🤷🏼

Paintaudio midi captain I've found is pretty good and not a crazy price..

Quote from marco97

I think my noise gate could have been part of the issue, however I'll have to check later when I get home. Partnered with the fact that I am using a new compressor and trying to get used with the settings.

Thanks.

The Kemper should not really differ much from a regular amp and so should provide the right level of sustain. I don't use any compression but have never had any issues with sustain although I tend to use high gain sounds which obviously have more amp compression anyway.

I would start without your new compressor first and then try the internal compressor to see where that takes you. Also switch off the noise gate for now to see if that solves it

What I have done is put a POE close to the Profiler and run from the PoE to an ethercon socket. Then I bough an ethercon converter to convert my kemper cable to ethercon at both ends.

I did mine to protect the sockets rather than a long cable run the impact should be the same..

Also check your noise gate - if that is too aggressive it can kill sustain.

I've never owned a fractal but run my kemper rack for 10 years now and would never change because it does everything I need.

I think the advice above is generally spot on...fractal stuff is great stuff and the sound differences between the platforms are probably more influenced by settings and the player than the platform itself. I've heard a Helix sound awful and brilliant - like anythign depends on the set up.

Couple of other things that sold it for me - the rack and toaster have the option of the power amp - so I can drive any cab I want. Also, the dedicated Kabinet has been a game changer for me, I love it.

Like anything, psychology and personal preference play a huge part but I think you will like the "complex made simple" approach from Kemper ( Kemper marketing - you can have that one for free ).

...oh and this community is also pretty good!!

Quote from GearJocke

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Used to play 7 o'clock in my old band....great song...

Quote from deadman42

Brilliant! What an awesome playground and GAS universe

The much I like my super lean "Kemper only" concept the much it still excites me to see that stuff. And super nice DIY. Looks great! Eye-catching Mesa Triaxis with its incredible (physical) depth

I could not agree more!

Looks like such a fun project and great to see some of the old stuff revived!!

Quote from deadman42

Short and crisp one here... Mike keeps delivering

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I've decided I'll never be as good as Mike because I don't have long fingers......its nothing to do with his talent, genius, musicality etc...

It makes me feel happier to blame something

Just love his playing...

Check your junk mail as support are normally very quick.

Having just seen Vernon/Living Colour for the first time live during their support with Extreme, I can confirm he can play this flawlessly. I love Living Colour and whilst his soloing can be a bit.....loose, his phrasing, riffs and brilliant. Love him!!

Not convinced this isn't one of the spoof videos but if it is real, then just a rough day and shows we all need to keep practicing.

Quote from ajbsmirnoff

I knew what you meant

My plan is to try as much cool stuff as I can. A rack with some Alesis (I'd like an Akira !), Lexicon 90/91, and a Yamaha SPX900 is my plan.

The great thing with most old gear is..... you get all of your money back if you don't like it and sell it on.

I just love your plan!

Quote from DonPetersen

I tried a number of different IEM headphones from a wide price range and chose a surprisingly 'cheap' set purely by sound. More expensive doesn't automatically mean better.
The Sennheiser bodypack is a pretty good one, though it just sounds cleaner than the Shure we used before.

Yeah I've had similar results in my very limited experience but even " cheap" is still a fair investment for people like me who are a pure hobbist.

I did invest in some Ultimate ears but not used them much

Its a minefield!