Doing this has taken a few days, but it has removed quite a few unused cables from the looms, and made the cabling way simpler and easier to deal with.
The rack is only 30cm deep (its still Ikea Ivar based). If I'd had space, a 40 or 50cm deep one would have been even better.
..................I love how your Helix patch is called "Kemper".
I made templates for different hardware rig setups. Kemper ones are all called Kemper(then an identifier if I remember), with the Helix setup as a Kemper midi controller (the helix is a very good midi controller). Kemper and Helix are linked via SPDIF i/o so signal goes from GTR > Helix (top row) > Kemper > Helix (bottom row) > poweramp/headphones - minimises ADA conversions. I could swap the rack for a Kemper pedal....... but the K-rack looks uber cool.
The extra space around the rear of the patchbays made this really easy to cable (that and my large collection of coloured cables)
Last job(s) will be to cable the drawers. I'll make a loom for each with power/signal/midi/usb.
And make a new bottom drawer that fits a bit better.
So. I've been making my Ikea rack taller to accommodate new gear every couple of years. Its gotten to be 'too tall, and I need to add a drawer for the quad cortex and H9.
So I've made a new 'shorter and fatter' rack.
So its modern modelling and profiling in the left, and old school valves and FX on the right, with some pedal drawers.
Still have a few jobs to do. Need to remake the pedal drawers, and re-cable it, but its a big improvement on the old one.
The central patchbays should make it way easier to cable.
If you're not strutting around your room singing a made up eighties rock anthem to this, then ..... we're not chums.
I'm curious about the difference between running it in a loop compared to just in front of the Kemper. Do you put effects before it? Cheers
Flexibility.
Infront of the kemper you can't put any FX blocks infront of the JMP-1, and the first 4 FX blocks are between the JMP-1 and the Cab.
In the loop - you can put the JMP just infront of the amp/cab , you can put FX infront of the jmp-1.
~At the end of the day - you can put it anywhere,
yep.. the jmp-1 preamp is like a really big drive pedal. Set its output to instrument level
WOO... and I can't stress this enough...HOO !!
That doesn't answer my question.
I was asking as a serious question. To compare the kemper which has a over a decade of profiling versus tonex and nam which are cheaper and free buy respectively but only out for a few years.
Your answer makes it look like you're just stating an opinion rather than actual data. And sounds fan boyish
To stop the arrogant fan boi arguments I'll end this thread here.
Kemper and NDSP public libraries both have thousands of captures and I would guess are about the same size. Both are dwarfed by the number of NAM and Tonex captures of course.
How many nam and tonex captures are there ?
The kemper rig manager library is 21000, but that's less than an 1/5 of the available profiles
I’ll be getting one of these to keep on my desk beside my Player.
Bamboo Ipad stands from Ikea. Very handy.
Regarding the number of available profiles....... Kemper profiles are so numerous its not a fair comparison
I think... [TLDR - the unit is pretty darn good]
The number of footswitches is fine as long as you don't need 'stompbox' mode with more than 4 stomps. (I don't). Its simple to page through banks/presets and scenes with the 4 switches, left/right pair, and hold function with your foot (being able to modify the hold time is very cool). It is a bit awkward doing this with your hands though. The touch interface is very good, very intuitive, the FS/encoders are very good for editing too.
I do most editing on PC - the Cortex control software is ok its on par with Kempers and Helix editors.
Soundwise - its excellent. Just like the Kemper and Helix are. Am i going to back to back compare profiles and models......... eh no. Life is too short.
I/O - I had a long think about this - with a few 'Y' cables, a pair of xlr cables, and a jack/DIN midi cable - I could definitely replace my helix (which is almost fully populated on the rear) and Kemper - freeing up 6u of rack space. Which I find to be almost ludicrous for a unit this small. If I had a dedicated midi pedalboard- I'd do this - but the Helix control/Boss FV500/midi splitter combo is too good !
There is a whole bunch of negativity on Farcebuuk towards it. Regarding the price and 'why do you buy a device then buy a midi controller... buy the full QC'. The trolling always seems to assume that a dude buying a thing has no other gear, and must conform strictly to some unwritten price rule on what they must purchase.
I'm fairly sure the price has been very carefully arrived at (£1100) - I doubt its much cheaper to build the same device in a smaller box - especially considering the development costs. Its a full on QC multi FX profiler (£1450) (the equivalent of a Helix (£1000)/Kemper profiler (Mk2 at £1000)) with good i/o but is just a bit bigger than a Helix Stomp. Its comparable in price to the FM3 (£1100 with a free T shirt). Or the iphone that the trolling is done on.
Personal opinions are fine, but I remember why I rarely go to FB now.
I've tried all of the plugins - they are excellent (the demos are still on my laptop). The Morgan amp one is my fave.
Don't know how they appear on the qc - the one you can use are listed in the profiles section of the device (with 'licence not found' after their entry.
At a guess - you get the 3x amps, pedals and presets inside the device. The QC isn't an amp - its a small computer with ADA and an audio interface. So if you play out through the same monitoring as your pc - they should be the same (like the Helix and Helix Native). But we'd need an A/B to check.
I'm debating the location Desk - on an ikea bamboo book / ipad stand -or cabling it into the rack and having it on a shelf. I like things to be permanently cabled in the rack - zero wear and tear, and protected from dust and fingers.
The power supply isn't very confidence inspiring. BUT it only need 1.2A at 12 volts. So its easily replaced. It won't run from my MXRCAE rack pedal power supply though. 
That second picture looked like a radio console for a car. Caught me off guard.
I thought it was one of those uber midi controllers at first.
Me too. I'm not a 'If I have this then I have to sell that' person. As long as a device works well - it can stay.
I can see that having very few physical switches might be an issue if you did alot of preset programming - but the touchscreen and pc editor are very good indeed.
The recent updates look like they've improved the device with new models, and and improved cloud based profiling alternative. Although I don't make lot of profiles, I like the idea that its not pc based (looking at you Tonex/NAM) tying up my computer.
So. Been thinking about buying a Helix Stadium for a while and how I'll integrate it into my rig or my rig into it......
This came as a surprise.
Its very good (modern gear is very good), simple to use, and its tiny considering that its the full QC minus the footswitches (for 75% of the price, and cheaper than a used one in the UK - your taxes and pricing may be different).
The size is perfect for using on a desk, on the floor its easier to use the footswitches properly (bank up/bank down uses left and right pairs), the scenes function works instantly (like Line6 snapshots). However I don't need the footswitches, I have a full on midi control setup with footswitches and exp pedals, and use pc editors almost exclusively so this is perfect.
The i/o is good - midi in/out, usb, inputs, XLR outputs, 4 mono or 2 stereo loops, and capture i/o. I could in theory use this to run my rack instead of the Helix.
Would I ditch the Kemper (or the Helix) ? Nope - I have alot of profiles which I really like (the collection of rack preamp profile I got to stop me buying more rack preamps for instance), and use the Helix as an I/O hub and midi controller for the rest of my collection.
And the sounds - excellent so far. I have pedals, rack FX, Helix, Kemper, and plugins to compare it to. Its very good. YMMV.
I use a patchbay. Bear with me.
My Kemper's i/o - including the fx loop is connected to my racks patchbay - as are my rack FX and pedals. It takes literally (and figuratively) seconds to move patch cables to reconfigure where the FX are. So I put them where they sound good. Reverb delays - maybe after the kemper. Micropitch - maybe in the loop...... maybe not - takes seconds to move the patch cables to try a different setup.
NB - not having to reach around to the back of the rack to move cables to change a setup is soooooooooo good.
I'm getting ready to record a track. Turn on computer, DAW, and Kemper. Roll up the guitar volume knob and nothing. I kept checking my input and output settings then restarted the computer, DAW, and Kemper and still nothing. WTF?
Oh, I forgot to jack in the guitar.
been there, done that
