I tried the Kemper Player... 

Get one? sweetwater.sjv.io/GmkgGV Tip Jar - paypal.me/stevensterlacci

Got the Profiler for years already. And now finally got the Player. Tried so many other stuff incl. UAD pedals but always came back to the Kemper. It's a no brainer for me.

Man… Steve, I really like your insight and perspective. Good common sense and honesty. Thank you for taking the time to help us out.

Just got mine today. Really impressed with the tones. Great sounding unit.

I’ve been waiting for this for a long time

Best demo I’ve heard so far! Just got mine in the mail a few minutes ago but I gotta go teach right now. My direct solution right now is a Kingsley Maiden tube preamp into Two notes CabM+ in the effects loop of an HX Effects. I’ve never used a Kemper either so I’m curious to try it. Thanks for the vid!

Sounds fantastic. 👍 Great video some sweet guitar playing. 👋

when you first played you had me sold. What a sound. Perfect for RU-vid videos and if its anything like the Kemper Stage amazing for live as well. Its limited but still very much a perfect solution for so many needs. I wish it had an effects loop. It would be nice to hear what the sound is like with ex. an overdrive before the player and a delay/chorus after the player into speaker monitors maybe it doesn't need an effects loop.

Very good review, thanks for the info!

I just used mine live and it ruled!! Had my phone on my stand and it was simple. 7 songs and I used 3 presets in a row in a bank. Could not have sounded better or been easier .

I’ll be honest I had a change from line 6 which are awesome. And bought an underdog the headrush core , I’ll be honest tried it for a few weeks now and it’s a great sounding unit. With some excellent added features Wi-Fi Bluetooth practice tools vocals, profiling for £759 worth a look at. Great content love your videos and your input, thank you

FWIW.. I sincerely appreciate your honesty on these gear reviews. It really helps me a ton whenever even considering to try out various products. Thanks again for all you do and have a great 2024!

The review I've been waiting for, before going into debt!!!

This type of product update mechanism is our worst nightmare. Basically we are looking at video game DLC. People are going to start selling "unlocked" players

great review brother

Thanks for another Great Review Steve. I see you still have the KNAGGS. That Guitar is so Beautiful.....

In rig manager you can set the maximum banks to 1 bank so that 5 Presets Loop back around to #1

Great looking Knaggs

Thank you for this video, have been thinking about buying this myself. What do you think of the new Hotone Ampero II Stage? Can you make a video about that as well? Always curious what your professional opinion is 😉👌🏻 But thanks again for this video! 🙏🏻

Damn I need to look up this auto-gain leveling. I have a toaster and that is new to me, thanks lol. One tip I have is to start with the "Definition" knob before anything else when adjusting your tone in 3rd party profiles, especially non-Liquid profiles. Christoph never revealed exactly how it works, but it's basically a brightness adjustment that maintains the characteristics of the amp. Works great for me. Performances are Kempers equivalent to snapshots. I don't know how the Player works, but you should get 5 snapshots per performance. I would be interested in how you would go about organizing things live, being that there is no screen.

I’m not sure about the price of this unit, you can use effects but just basic effects, would the effect that it has enough for it to be a stand alone unit? If not then the tone x will serve the same purpose for $300 less. And if you’re looking for an all in one unit in that price the hx stomp is hard to beat, I prefer the amp profiles from kemper than the amp models in the hx stomp but I would still go for the stomp just because it has more to offer for a similar price. What’s the power requirements for this unit? can it be powered with a normal pedalboard power supply?

Another Amazing video. Chock full of great info. Amazing production. Great audio. You even have that "james dean bad boy haircut" which totally gives the video an incredible authenticity. #justiceforjessicalynn

haha been waiting for you on this 😁

I have the Stage and it is excellent.

I have the Toaster for the studio, I have the Stage for live it works great but I always wanted to use my pedals so I got a player made a pedalboard with a switcher my pedals and the player it is the best of both worlds I will pay to get morphing that feature is amazing

Steve, I think you’re going to end up with a toaster at some point. I got mine used with 950 some odd profiles from MBritt and Tone Junkie for $750. I added the floor remote used as well ($300), but it’s not necessary if you want to just use midi controllers. I think a used toaster head is a way better entry into the kemper universe than the little player. But if you are looking for compact gigging, the new player looks neat

The issue with paid upgrades is that they add up on top of the $700... Maybe a ToneX with the HX FX would be easier on the pockets haha. I wanted a smaller unit, like the Stomp and was considering this one since it's newer, but man, it's so difficult to make a decision right now...

I have Had A Kemper for 4 years! there are so many Great profiles on the Rig exchange or paid platforms that I still have not made my own... And may Never! IMHO Kemper is King...😎👍

cool video thx ...by the way, Leo Gibsons did a video kemper player vs. tonex with surprising results😉

I know everyone hates the DLC thing and the extra expense stuff; But I actually kind of like it. I would rather have it this way than releasing a basic and a pro version. With no upgrade options If they released a fully equiped Kemper at this size for $700 then they completely lose market for the bigger units. But at $700 people can get a Kemper at a pedal size for running amp sims and having everything built into 1 board. Then if I decide that Im missing the few of features that I dont have with the player, I dont have to go through the hassle of selling it at a loss, and then rebuying a more optioned unit. Plus at $700 it competes with the HX Stomp, if the released a fully capable unit even at $1100 they wouldnt get the same market share. At $700 they can get people who want this pedal for what it is. And then even if they release a DLC that fully unlocks the Kemper Player at a later time for say $300, then people who want the extra stuff can still get a almost Fully featured Kemper for $1000.

Could you make a tour of the fx? (Especially chorus ones) thanks :)

How would you run that with a stomp or even the POD Go from Line 6???? Great video 😊

For recording, I like being able to go in and switch amp models in post. Having to record a DI tone along with a baked Kemper amp tone is a faff. I guess this is a performance tool?

Universal audio amp pedals have the same compensation feature

I own the HX Stomp and although amazing, it’s overkill for me and I have zero patience to profile on Kemper or work with the HX stuff… the thing is that Kemper tones are top tier and for me this’ll be a no-brained and I’ll be selling the Stomp and getting this. I play in a Deathcore band and every single gig people that have a Kemper blow my HX sound out of the water… Being in the market for so long there’s ton of stuff that’ll meet my needs wether in Metal or Rock or Soul or Jazz etc…

I had the Kemper Rack for a little while, and I kind of wanted to like it, but I felt like it smooths out everything in such a way that I didn’t like as much. I also think there’s a lot of sag built into their base models, and that combined with the high end roll off combine for what people describe as it feeling good, I think. But it was really just kind of the feeling of editing it and messing with profiles that I didn’t like. Somewhat tempted to pick up this little player, but I honestly don’t have a need for it at all right now.

Since your wife sings, do you have any outboard mic preamps laying around? I watched the Tone Junkie video the other day to where the plugged Guitar-Mic Pre-Kemper I’d be curious to hear someone else’s experience with that setup

Hey Steve, I have the Helix Floor and I'm constantly running out of DSP for the type of stuff I want to do that are mainly FX Loops related. I mean, what's the point of having four FX Loops even using just one seems to cut your DSP by 30+%? How does the Quad Cortex perform in relation to DSP and in comparison to the Helix? Perhaps a video idea?

All you need is the Free Kemper Rig Packs. The Michael Britt and Thomas Dill packs are great.

I have to admit it sounds amazing from this video

Is this a single effect per preset? Or can I customize a complete sound and dial in multiple effects on in a single preset? Like button one has reverb delay and compression on and dialed in how i want, etc

I would really love to buy a Kemper Player: The product design is great and from the I/O point of view it shows how much you a company can actually sacrifice without making it fairly unusable as small standalone board (I love the fact that it still features two pre and two post effects plus a single balanced output - and yes, I am looking at you, unbalanced non-delay ToneX pedal...). But it sounds as plastic-y as my Kemper toaster sounded when I sold it three years ago. And that ruins everything. I daresay the (fewer) profiles available for my QC (especially the factory ones) beat the Kemper from every perspective.

I never had to profile any of my amps, because they are all already profiled by MBritt, Tonejunky etc. So, that´s no disadvantage. I´m excited by the footprint of this pedal...

How you connect other pedals in pedalboard with Kemper Player? How connect other effects after kemper player because Kemper dont have fx loop?

Simply put, the tones l heard are really good. It’s a pedalboard amp. Hook it up to your 3K pedalboard and take on the world. I have used Kemper for the past 8 years and l run to house and absolutely monitor out to a real amp cab.

We need a Helix Vs Player demo, the tones sounded bit bright, I’ve always been interested in using my stomp for FX and having a preamp separate from it, but nothing has really stood out as better than yet

I think they should have named it the Kemper Traveler, since it can't currently make Profiles. The business model of having to pay to unlock features is potentially problematic. Good way to make your customers feel like a fish on a hook.

Too bad they left out midi and screen :( I have a tonex board built that's controlled by Morningstar MC6 PRO and a ML10X switcher which controls the ToneX and all my pedals so I don't use the internal effects at all except noise gate. Great time to be a guitar player nowadays!! The Kemper, QC, and ToneX are all great options.

I have the Kemper rack, had it a few years and love it but when travelling and smaller gigs the player is appealing. Shame it's not stereo out, midi footswitable and from what i have read limits on effects. But those beautiful amp sounds are what really matter, which Kemper has. Apparently the Tonex which is cheaper sounds a bit better but is not very user friendly.

I’d rather have the Knaggs guitar than the Kemper 😝 Any chance we could get an artist price on a guitar as a friend of Steve? 🤠

I don't know why people complain about all the things missing on the Kemper Player? If you want all the features spend the money & get the floor or the rack and you've got it all! Do you think that Kemper is going to give you everything the big boys have & have you not buy the top of the line Kempers? Come on! I have had the rack then got the floor & I'm very happy! To me as far as amp sounds the Kemper is the best with updates all the time! I love the Helix & the way it's laid out, but the guitar tones can't complete with the Kemper period. and you can sample your amps. Sure the Tone X can do some of the same things the Kemper can, but way to comlicated, more the the Kemper. And the Helix you can't sample your amp. I have friends that have the Quad Cortex, and are always complaining about it. Lack of updates etc. There is a reason why the Kemper is in major studios and on stage, because it sounds real! Also I think you're still getting a lot with the Kemper Player. It's a just another option. Also this review is coming from a person who has never owned or used a Kemper. Go to a Kemper users group have them give you the real lowdown, Also, look how many major famous users are using Kempers I think that says it all!

I've heard that the Kemper is great IF you have good profiler; If I have to pay for a good profile then it seems like the video game industry where there are a lot of in-game purchases. If the profiles are freely available (through a forum/community) then that's fine

Can you use this device as a preamp with effects? So bypassing all the speaker simulations and plug it into your regular amp's FX loop, and a real speaker cabinet? I don't want to use in ear monitors or a FCFC monitor....

If you like this, then you might want to take a look at the MOD Dwarf.

So if you’re like me and have minimal effects on your board, I could see this as an all in one…

I like Kemper's idea, a little late... but I'm here; profiling an amp is difficult, they want to make it look simple but this is what sells, the result is not always what is desired, I used Kemper and QC, I made some profiles and I didn't like them... when I bought a pack of profiles the story was different, a professional recording studio is not the same as doing it in your mini studio... for now I'm still with my real amplifier, good job!

Can you plug the Kemper player straight into a combo amp? Or only a frfr cab?

I see it has limited efx. Does it have whammy and harmonizer like the big units. Ty

iam not shure about the paid upgrades. In the past they gave ous free content update. I am curious to see how it will develop in the future. Maybe if the player sells good, they are more willing to give free fx updates.

Considering i got a two notes cab m+ a hx fx and a tonex pedal for about $750 this just doesn't cut it

Well the Pod Go doesn't have all effects in the Helix... so even Line 6 does this.

Hi, is there a way to have a preset with the amp black disable (in case i want to use the effect of the kpp in the effect loop if a real amp ? ). Tks

Had a Kemper head for years. Used it for everything, although I have recently bought a ToneX as a backup, or if I want to do a gig pedalboard only. It's price and software is a biiiig plus. The quality of tones is irrelevant as they're all so capable these days, it's more about variety, and Kemper has most units beat thanks to it's age

Would be a really stupid marketing if Kemper would sell the Player with the same FXs and Bells and Whistles as the Stage or Rack or Toaster. Kemper would counteract its entire product line. It's logical that the player is a slimmed down version of its big brothers and therefore represents a device that wants to reach a very specific target group. The Kemper profiles have been "state of the art" in most studios and among musicians for years and the player reproduces these presets great, with fewer effects, but that's more than enough for a lot of people. For those who don't have enough, they have to resort to other Kemper products or other brands anyway.

If you bought this thinking it would profile you should read the product description first. Or the name of the product even 😂 I have a kemper profiler since 10 years next April, know it inside out, have more profiles than I could test out in 10 lifetimes and use the profiling feature quite often since I have a nice vintage tube amp collection . I don’t feel any urge to compare Kemper with QC,helix, fractal, ToneX or any of the others, since I’m totally satisfied with what the Kemper has to offer. I would by the player in a heartbeat if I would be traveling more

I actually think it's capable of everything the bigger brothers are. That's part of their pitch. Just because modifying on the spot is less feasible doesn't seem to change that for me.

when you say 2 efx before adn 2 efx after amp, can you play all 4 at once or just the 2 before or 2 after but not all or a combo of before and after ? no one has answered that one clearly. thanks.

I have the Kemper Stage and I do love it. I personally had to mess with every profile (most seemed very dark) and it took time but once you do you're all set. That said I really feel this pedal should of came in at $549. If you have nothing like it, it would be a fine pedal to go with especially if you are going to buy or use just the existing profiles. I think the better choice would be ToneX (have it as well and it's very good) and add your pedals or get some you like and would be the smarter choice unless you do step up to the Kemper Stage or a Quad Cortex or FM9 or other. I just really feel the price needs to be between the ToneX and HX Stomp to make it the smarter choice. Then like you said buy the upgrades you want.

According to Christoph Kemper himself, the Kemper Player uses the same (very elderly) DSP chip used in its bigger brothers and does have the power to run full Kemper rigs - they don't allow it because they don't want to cannibalise sales of the larger units, which is perfectly sensible at this price point.

I gave up Line 6 for Kemper about 1-2 years ago!

I can’t believe folks are defending a more expensive, less capable, device, when compared to the competition. Kemper can shove his video game style DLC. I’m not paying for features that should come baked in at that price.

I guess the “pay as you go” is the mew trend, however, for an idiot like me, there’s enough there to keep me busy for a lifetime…great stuff as always Steve👍

Well, for me it is not too expensive,... the QC, Kemper Stage, Fender Pro is expensive!!!!... and no one forces anyone to buy it... a product of this style made in Europe and not in Asia is already rare and that is also going away to note in the final price. I bought one before selling the Tonex because I had to spend on effects and for now I am happy with the purchase... also because I don't need a thousand effects in a chain, I have more space on my pedal board and It's pretty easy to edit anything.

I think everything thats in the AXE FX 3 is in the FM3.

Whenever I see a really expensive piece of gear that has the most outdated USB connections, it gives me pause.

I refuse to buy something & then have to pay to use the features of rhat product. The sounds aren't so magical that we can't live without them. These days just about every unit is going to sound good. It comes back around to what's being offered to make them stand out? Right now it almost sounds like they're about to take a step backwards

It’s like the h9 You have the core and the max same deal

I would have bought this product if it had a screen. Without one it's a fail for me. What a shame. I'll stick with my Two Notes M+

I think Kemper totally missed the mark. It’s really sad, I had a lot of hopes for it. Expensive and with limited features. Paid upgrades. Just to slap it on a pedalboard and use external effects… add in the cost for the effects, external switches, a DI box, etc. You’re even forced to use a computer or phone/tablet to do even the most basic editing… might as well just get a Fractal FM3. That will do a lot more than a Kemper Player based pedalboard for a lower total cost of ownership, will sound just as good and will be more compact. If it were priced at $500, then it would really be serious competition to ToneX, UAFX, and HX Stomp and all the other smaller modeling units.

It's going to sound amazing no matter what, it's kemper. But I personally wouldn't shell out $700+tax for one. Rather just go with a Stage and have all the features (been there done that). Personally, of all the modelers that I've had (all except Axe Fx and Tonex), I'd have to say the FM3 Mk2 is my end all be all. Captures are cool and all, but I was constantly trying to find profiles, and spent too much doing it. QC was nice, but high gain tones sounded more artificial than they were already. Helix was perfect, but not for the style I play. Too each their own, but I believe we're at the peak of modeling. Anything "coming soon" is just a money grab. And it's starting to show with the "paid advertising" RU-vidrs.

I wish I had a neighbor that played guitar

Finally

Is this powered?

I think we will see the price being reduced pretty soon cause this just can't keep up with the competition. I think they are hoping to appeal to their hardcore fan base to get this but that's not gonna propel the company forward they need new people, let's be real. For the price it's a big disappointment

If you already paid for the unit, then you already paid for the profiling it can do. They're not selling these things at a loss, so the cost is already built in. For them to withhold features that are already built into that are already built into the cost and paid for by every customer, they're just going for a little bit of icing on the cake. I don't think it's morally wrong, but it definitely damages their brand in my eyes. I would have respected them more if they actually rolled out something like a tonex and priced appropriately, and then rolled out a true Kemper profiler pedal for like $999.

I honestly can't understand why anyone would choose any Kemper product any more. It's just not as good as other products out there and it EXPEXSINVE!. Give me a Two Notes Opus and a couple of pedals any day over Kemper.

Mono input and mono XLR output. No thanks.

Wait… Ensambled in Germany but components are def made somewhere else I mean Asia… C’mon 😅

Wow this sounds like the old Rockman but not that good :-)

Desperate need of new models? Kemper is in desperate need of serious competition. Stable platform is a huge plus. It's not a phone.

Okay, so no midi in/out and no fx loop? I’ll pass then.

You Left and' I wanted to hate in your description. You've slipping.

Noooo way there's auto leveling!

modelers are made to make you feel stupid too many bad options and now it's smaller....if youre going to use pedals with it the friedman ir x eats this mini computer for breakfast and it's 200 dollars cheaper. less knobs better tone clean and dirty, a superior design made by someone who actually plays guitar! not some marketing team that works for a keyboard player.

The funny face Thumbnail image doesn't match the very positive review. 😂

I absolutely hate this type of unlockable paid update scheme. It signals a horrible shift in an industry already rife with way too many subscriptions. I shouldn’t have to pay to unlock more from my HARDWARE. It’s already an overpriced piece of gear as is in the current market imo too…

why would you pay for any new feature? You're just encouraging companies to rip us off "You'll own nothing and be happy (always paying subscription for what you used to own outright). The Tonex already at nearly half the price has capturing abilities and sounds more accurate to the real thing - it was proven by Leo Gibson on youtube by a scientific null test. The only thing that would make me get this is more captures because it's an older unit but you can be sure that Tone X will keep coming with new captures and considering the pedal is lot cheaper, more accurate, and can do capturing unlike this, you gotta be kinda a Kemper fanboy to get this over that.

Silicone lips amplifier.. who cares :)

great digital confusion for guitar players , guitar is dead at definitive !. nothing is better today! or get an Greek Bouzouki and play real music , simple is the best😎 nothing

I told you, you wasted your money.