Bought a Kemper in 2022 & Sold My Helix. Was it Worth it? 

Yes! That's what I like about it. It has proven itself for a decade! No new releases that decreases the value of the unit, just firmware updates. Its great!

Happy to hear it mate! 🙂

Dude that means a lot! Thank you so much! 🙂

That's great to hear! Kemper are ridiculously good and sound phenomenal! 🙂

Let me know what you think of it! 🙂

The Kemper stage seems phenomenal! 👌

@@alexradsby yup, just 1 device for practice, live gig or recording. all we have to do is just update firmware. Kemper team is genius

This is how I will use it anyway. Find amps I like then buy the real thing. I definitely have a preference when it comes to amps. Since I got the kemper I've only used a Bad Cat Panther & a Friedman BE-50 haha. Option Paralysis is definitely a thing though, Kemper is easier to me when it comes to that but the Line 6 Helix was even worse with all it's additional amp settings for Sag etc etc. Drowned in options.. 😅

Oh I’ve heard nothing but good things about Bad Cat amps, I’d definitely be interested in a video of that if you looking for more things to produce demo videos for 😉

@@Andy86L I will definitely try to get hold of real bad cat amps at some point but I will do videos on Kemper profiles for sure 🙂

Im very happy with the kemper as a simple dumb idiot who just want to play with great profiles haha

​​@@alexradsbyYou've pretty much convinced me to go Kemper. I'm far too dumb for helix! Just got to save for it now I suppose.

Thank you! It means a lot! I'm definitely more into real knobs. It just feels better to twist and turn a real thing instead of dragging sliders around 🙂

It definitely helped me. I have my goto presets that I use now. They sound great with minimal tweaking. I really love this workflow compared to the Line 6 Helix.

Yes as long as you get good profiles you're good to go. I can say that basically anything from Tone Junkie is amazing. They just nail most sounds. If you want heavier profiles I'd check out Beu Burchell's Kemper pack from STL Tones 🙂

The Helix does sound great for sure! It was just too much tweaking for me. It's great that you're happy with it 🙂

​@@alexradsbyI'd say helix CAN sound great if you put in the time to really refine the sound. Also having the knowledge of a studio engineer helps. Lol. I just found it far too complicated for my simple brain.

Dude that's so awesome to hear!

@@alexradsby I just realised I already answered your post - sorry! Anyway the sentiment remains

@@iansimmons735 Haha it happens man, I really enjoy hearing your thoughts on the subject 🙂

Yes! Definitely one of the reasons why I didn't even look at the fractal. It probably sounds amazing but too much tweaking 😅

You bring up some super valid points! Can't argue with how good the hx stomp is. Im seriously thinking of buying one just to have extra effects. Such a good unit! I think I just fatigued after a while tbh. Will definitely make a tone comparison video at some point. I have a lot of custom IRS I'd like to try out for the Helix. Still havr Helix Native so might try that out soon 🙂 Thanks for commenting! I really appreciate it!

Unfortunately the HXStomp is very limited in the DSP department, I’d get the boss gt1000 core if form factor is an issue. I have both the Kemper and the GT-1000 Core, I prefer my Kemper but like to use the Core on a pedal board with my valve amps. I used to use a helix floor for about six years, I buy profiles from tone junkies or Michal Brit etc so don’t waist time searching for great profiles.

Thank you! Praise & worship always have the best effects too. Happy to hear the kemper works for you in that context! 🙂

I really feel that way too about the Kemper. Such an amazing tool that just works

This is definitely interesting. I haven't gotten the remote yet. Would love to try it out! 🙂

Ah yes! Real amps are always the best pick for sure and yes, as long as you find the right profiles the kemper sounds incredibly good! 🙂

Fractal have the best effects! I have a kemper and love it. Butt fractal have the best sound. I use de kemper as amp over my old fractal 2. Perfect.

Whit the fx3 you need only some padels and go.

Never heard anyone doing this. That sounds pretty damn awesome actually! 🙂

Yep - I do this too. Its the best of all worlds setup. The Helix works great as a controller for the Kemper too.

@@AnthonyBullock1968 Damn, didn't even think about that. Maybe should've kept mine haha 😅

@@alexradsby Sometimes its difficult to justify having 2 expensive bits of kit - but I think the Helix effects make a great addition. The routing and control are a bonus. :D

I might take a look into it later on again. For now I will be checking out the floor pedal for the kemper, never used one so it would be interesting 🙂

I do own some MBritt profiles definitely very nice profiles. I'm a sucker for Tone Junkie profiles and I actually really prefer Beu Burchell's SLT Tones Pack. Though it's more alternative rock focused. His JCM 800 profile is really really good.

I will definitely see if I can do something like that. Would be a good excuse to buy the helix as a rack unit 😅 (had the LT floorboard before)

@@alexradsby Even just an HxFx unit would be cool.

Dude, Kudos on making the PODXT pro sound awesome! Personally I've only owned the Pod HD300. But I never got it to sound as good as the helix or the kemper. Maybe I'm just a bad tweaker haha 😅

Ha ha that's cute

I'm from Sweden actually! Close though haha 🙂

Ooh i'll definitely check that out! Yes I got a Lundgren The One pickup I wanted to try out. Stay tuned for the review of that one 🙂

I totally agree with you. It sounds phenomenal all the time. Its great! 🙂

@@alexradsby Once you get to the level of tones the Kemper has , if it sounds bad to you, it's your playing!😂

Agreed! Never tried the Kabinet! Would love to try it some time 🙂

I agree with you. That said. I never used presets on Helix, always buildt mine own rig because it was a modeller, compared to a Kemper and adding profiles. It only has profiles so, it's basically set and go. Don't think I've ever tweaked a profile, I have however tweaked the effects if the profile had any. I definitely did the same thing as you. Used 2 profiles and then the rest was for fun and learning how new amps sound etc. But I sold the Kemper in favor of the real amp after a while too, Kemper for me was a great learning tool about amp characteristics so now I own a Bad Cat Black Cat instead haha.

So you're saying i need to buy a cab eh? I do have a powered kemper so I definitely need a cab at some point. Any suggestions of what to buy? 🙂

@@alexradsby Hi, it really does depend on what you play and what your criteria are... I wanted to save my aging back from lugging too much gear around, so I got a super-light Matrix Neolight NL212 (2x12). which weighs in at only 13.5Kg (30lb). It sounds fabulous and surprisingly massive through that. But you can of course put it through almost any standard speaker cabinet, using normal speaker cables. Of course, the sound of a profile through a standard cabinet will be different to the sound of the Main Out, because normally you would disable the cabinet sim to the speaker or monitor, while leaving it on when sending to the PA. My second Kemper is a Stage, however, and not powered. I was attracted to the Kemper Powered Kabinet, so I got one, which uses Monitor Out instead of Speaker Out. This can act as FRFR or with Speaker Imprints (so NOT FRFR, more like amp-in-the-room). However it would be redundant to have a powered Kabinet if you already have a power amp built in, which it sounds like you do. So maybe you could look at the Kemper Kabinet, which is not powered, but will also take speaker imprints from the Kemper. Both Kemper products use Imprints. These are like IRs but without the mic, so they sound more 'real' - so they emulate one of 19 common speakers (Vintage 30s, Celestion various, many others) You can set a Global Imprint as a default and vary the speaker imprint by rig. It's also worth remembering that the Kemper has a Power Amp Boost - this increases the level of output to the speakers. It also has a wattage meter so you can check it's not sending too much power out., though you'd really have to be going for it if you did!

Thank you for giving me such a detailed answer man! I appreciate it immensely! I will most definitely check the Kempet Kabinet out at some point. I will probably look into normal cabs as well too 🙂

Haha living the dream mate! I want to start buying amps as well at some point for sure!

I think you actually can plug the output from the captor into the return Kemper to make profiles. I haven't tried it myself though. It is possible to make 1 profile using 2 amps + 2 cabs + 2 mics. As well as having two amps running into the same cab but then you need to make sure each amp go to a different speaker i believe. You can't blend two already made profiles either sadly. That would actually be a nice feature for Kemper but I don't think it's possible for them to make it happen. Kemper is fairly primitive that way. It profiles 1 amp and cab.

I think performance mode on the kemper makes it possible to switch between 5 presets gapless at the time and delay + reverb spill over. So I would assume you set it up song by song. I don't have a kemper footpedal so I can't demonstrate it. But I will definitely buy one as soon as possible so I can try these things out and review it.

@@alexradsby I would love to setup song by song, however our bands setlist changes a lot and we often switch out songs, depending on the mood of the crowd. So i'm thinking of a 5 preset "bread&butter" setup. 1-Clean, 2-Crunch, 3-Rhythm, 4-Lead, 5-Mute And keeping the rest of the banks for special songs that i can access quickly when needed. Could you maybe record a demo , demonstrating the gapless switching, while you switch the preset on the kemper itself (with the buttons)? That would be very helpful as i'm just about to bite the bullet to order the kemper stage, IF it's really gapless :D

I think this video clears most things up: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VaPWmikqHkM.html You can do a lot of things with the Kemper. 5 presets with gapless switching, each preset you can stomp twice to change values. Like increase gain etc. Plus you have 4 stomp boxes for effects to toggle on/off for each preset as well. I can possibly try to shoot a quick thing to demonstrate it. I haven't tried it myself at all yet haha 😅

www.dropbox.com/s/qovma53h5u49rhg/Rig%20Switch.mov?dl=0 Made a quick video of the switching between rigs. Nothing fancy, just filmed it on my phone haha 😅

Ah I've found them to be pretty good. Though I'm definitely not a metal guitar player so I wouldn't really know tbh. What profiles do you like for the Kemper? 🙂

@@alexradsby The STL Northlane "ALIEN" pack is pretty kickass has some fantastic atmospheric pad style guitars and some pretty brutal metal profiles too. Im digging the Colin Richardson pack also by STL it has the classic metal tones from some of the biggest names in metal that Colin actually produced . But most of the time metal presets are pretty dog arse ya really have to sift through alot of shit to find a decent one...well for me anyway. Maybe its because i own an actual amp (Rockerverb) which IMO is the greatest amp EVVURRR is why i just cant really connect to my toaster on the level most users do. That sounds mean right? lol

I really love Rockerverb. Definitely planning on buying the real thing too. Haven't found a good profile for the kemper for it though, yet. I'll definitely check those out man! I appreciate it!

@@alexradsby I dont even think a decent one exists lol ive tried many on the rig exchange and none come even close but then again the exchange is a place where any old Joe can upload a profile so sadly alot are not the best quality tone/mic placement etc but ya DO find a pretty solid random profile now and again after loads of "I'll try the next one" lol.

Haha yeah that's no good! Ever tried profiling your rockerverb? I'd buy your pack 😛

Sansamps truly sounds great! I totally agree with you 🙂

Haha yes we are definitely the same! I do the same thing for kemper. If it doesn't sound good out of the gate, then i definitely move on. I don't have time or the motivation to endlessly tweak the presets/profiles to make it sound decent. I would love to try the Fractal FM3!

The double tracker the Kemper added not too long ago was a game changer for me. I usually use a tc mimiq but this Kemper one is really well done. I’m glad they didn’t put a trashy low effort one in when they added it. I can actually use it with very professional results, better than the Mimiq I think too. I have nothing against the helix and enjoy it, but the Kemper really is amazing for my needs and I’m glad I got it.

Yeah i definitely would go with a Kemper and if you want additional effects get a hx stomp or just normal pedals. 🙂

I havent tried the double tracker yet! Definitely need to check that out! Thanks for reminding me! 🙂

I got this one used. And the quad cortex have the same tweaking abilities that the helix has. I like kemper mainly because I don't tweak much, that said. I will probably pick up a quad cortex in the future

I totally understand your decision! How do you run your kemper? Original amps with cabs or custom irs? 🙂

Now this I believe! But that's the reason why Kemper introduced the Kemper Cab & Cone right? I've never actually played my Kemper or my Helix through real cabs. It would be super interesting to hear!

@@alexradsby unless I'm playing church music, I never run direct with helix. I use a Duncan power stage power amp into mesa cabs. Barely have to tweak anything. Pick an amp, adjust gain and volume , that's about it, just make sure your not using any cab sims cause then it will sound crummy

Ah that's really cool man! would love to test that out at some point. 🙂 thanks for the advice & new knowledge!