Hey Matt, Here's an idea. Why not use the Kemper to model an amp that you've got in your offices, and then run a blindfold test. Play the actual,amp then the Kemper (or vice versa) and don't tell people which is which. It would be great if you could somehow get people to vote on which was which before you told us. That would shut up a lot of the people commenting here. Nonetheless, hearing the Kemper side by side with the amp you just modeled would be very informative.
+Mike Austin There's a few YT videos around of folks doing that. The ones from Andertons on Rob Chapman's Channel are quite extensive and show how close the Kemper gets.
I was trying the Kemper PowerRack in a store this week where the guy didn't tell me to turn off the cab simulation and everything sounded very dull and bassy with a cabinet. The moment I've realized this and turned it off, everything came to life and I bought the Kemper. I knew something was not right .. Very unprofessional video.
I recently heard a Soldano Hotrod 25 and was flabbergasted at the incredible Van-Halen like tones and it's extremely authentic 'brown' sound with sparkling top end also very complex mids; better than a Vox AC-30! The thing is... with export tax to the UK they are running nearly 3 grand ( I want it clothed in Purple or Sea Foam Green Leather/tolex) but I feel nothing else will do now I have been so massively impressed and the Holy Grail tone I have had in my head could (eventually) be my reality!! I know the Kemper is much cheaper but can it really profile the Soldano and blow me away so much so I cannot hear the difference to the wonderful HotRod 25?? I have always been disappointed with digital pre-amps in the past especially anything from Line6 and Zoom although I enjoyed some of the pre-sets on the Rocktron units and a few others. I live many miles away from a good music shop that is likely to have one in stock so again can the Kemper do the job good'n'propper, and if so, I would love to save myself a huge amount of money that taking me a very long time to save up:))
Mickeyislowd Get Kemper. It's cheaper & you can store every amp ever made. It's not 100% exactly the same, but it's very close & getting closer. Real amp is a real amp & nothing but a real amp will ever sound like a real amp. There are also things the Kemper can do that the Soldano cannot. Kemper is an incredibly impressive profiler & well worth having as you can carry hundreds of amps around in one box.
Those stock profiles really don't do KEMPER any justice ......like with any of this type of devices it ALL depends on the profile quality ....if you want ot hear this truly in action check Michael Britt vid on youtube...he is using this touring live and did a vid ...AMAZING profiles .
you can also just profile the preamp of an amp by taking the FX-loop send and doing the profiling. it's not as elaborate as the axe in terms of effects, but the amp sounds are waaaaaaaay better than the axe. but it has an fx loop, so if you have a device that can do the more fancy effects you can use that. . The ultimate combination would be KPA and TC G-force, but that would be a bit expensive...
Surely you should have taken the cab sim out whilst playing this through a cabinet? I got the power-rack version and realised that the cab sim makes the whole thing sound terrible whilst going thru a speaker via the power amp.... could you advise if you had bypassed the cabinets please... it looks to me that you hadn't done so.... thanks
I've got the Headrush pedal board and it's freaking amazing ! The cab sim is impulse response that you cab updates with whatever speakers you want and I can contest you on any if the sounds odd the Kemper with my Headrush ! The Headrush is just amazing with thr 7 inch touch screen making it super easy and on top of that the Headrush pedal board just sounds real like an old amp abs the effects pedal part really sounds like my old analog pedals into an old tube amp !
I went "the direct recordings of Kemper were much better sounding. There should be smth wrong here." Then i read your comment and faced the truth :) Yes that cab button should definitely be off!
When you plug in a power amp or use the powerrack, the output from the power amp bypasses the cab sim so you can still go straight into a desk or audio interface :D
Jason Dorne The Kemper should be able to profile YOUR cabinet and then apply the inverse of that to "remove" it from the equation.. In other words just make your cabinet sound transparent and then apply the profiled cab sims back so that each amp sounds different. It wouldn't be 100% but probably better than nothing. But I agree with you it defeats the purpose of running an amp profile into a 4x12 that colors the hell out of the tone. Maybe they just use it for stage volume and monitoring and then run a DI with cab sims to the front of house.
brandon9271 Apparently, the new 3.0 update for the Kemper allows you to profile the amp separately from the cab (Direct Amp Profiling), to be able to play it later on stage with your cab. And you can apparently also import different cab profile and cab impulse (from what I read on the website).
it sounds so close. like i really cant tell the difference. ive spent thousands on amps and effects and never could get a good mix. i need one. one of my setups was a carvin legacy (steve vai amp) with a pedalboard through a 4X12 cab and it sounded great but only at 8-10 volume. let me tell you, at that volume, it was violently loud so i just sold the amp and got a yamaha thr10x and its ok but just need something all in one that gets all of the tones and not just 3.
I have the power head and you can turn off the cab emulator globally and the light will stay lit. That is for when you run through a cab and a mixing board, it will use the cab for the mixer and not use it for the guitar cabinet.
+Abraham Kashani Not at all. Same exact unit, just different layouts for different applications. The toaster is more of a studio/desktop unit while the rack is more suited for touring as it can be mounted on an ATA rack case.
hi guys ! i was wondering if you must plug the powered head into a cab while you record or just play with headphones ? or you can disconnect the cab ? or it is nor recommended, like on a tube amp ? thank you :))) ^^
$2,600.00? The pre amp's models did nothing for me & I thought the effects were on par with Line6. I don't see what adding a SS mono amp is going to add.
I don't think it's sounding like $2,000 rig to me, it's about the sound of the new line 6 spider solid state amp's ! Honestly my fender mustang V mk2 stereo head unit sounds way better than what we're hearing here on this demo.
Would there be very big tonal differences between using this powered head direct to cab and using the non powered version through a separate power amp?
It really depends on the precision of the listeners ear but the actual answer is yes. It will make quite a difference. Answering no is like saying that all cabinets (all eras, all makers, models, materials, mic configurations etc) sound exactly the same. This idea in and of itself flies in the face of the Kemper and what it does and is capable of. At home, I run my Kemper through a pair of M-Audio studio monitors (and/or headphones) and get an exact replication of the profiled rig. When I first bought it, I ran it through the return (thus avoiding the preamp) of my Hughes & Kettner TubeMeister 36 but with the cabinet side of the Kemper disabled so as not to be adding the colour of a profiled cabinet to the colour of the H&K. When I go rehearse in town, I run through whatever 4x12 is available. Same thing at a gig but there I also send the main outputs to the house desk rather than micing the cab on stage. Each of these scenarios sounds quite different to me and likely would to you as well. All that being said, to the untrained ear there really would only be a slight tonal difference overall.
How does the effects on this unit compare to AxeFX II? Could it do delay shimmer ala' U2? On every profiled Amp, the power amp, cab and mic are also profiled right? how does it work as a preamp for an ext power amp then?
I was interested in changing from my Line 6 Helix to this unit. I play through a Marshall 4x4 cabinet, with a DT-25 head. But my helix, 4x4, & DT-25 sounds way better than this demo.
Why would you not go directly in to the mix or use full range monitors to do the demo on this unit or at least remove the cabinet simulator on the Kemper??? It's like re-miking a miked amp, that's why it sounds so dull...Very unprofessional!
orbithesun1 True.. but then again.. how else would you demo the *powered* version of the Kemper? I mean, I guess he could've connected it to a PA cabinet but that's not what they designed it for is it?
brandon9271 Unless you are using full range cabinet(s) you are supposed to turn off the cabinet emulator on the Kemper when using a Guitar cabinet. Otherwise the guitar cabinet is going to color the sound!
brandon9271 PS. The Kemper sounds best when applied direct into a mix. The Kemper captures a full snapshot of the signal chain, no need to re-amp with cabinet and a microphone. That's the whole point of the Kemper PFA.
You can use a kemper direct through a monitor mix and through the house system or you can use your own cab provide you turn the cab sim off. I Use it both ways. I have the rackmount profiler. Into a Mesa boogie stereo 2: fifty power amp. and into 2. 1-12 Mesa boogie cabinets, one closed back and one open back. I turn the cab sim off. I get an awesome sound. The power amp is tube so I still get the warm sound which is what I am accustomed to. The second way is i run the profiler through 2 atomic CLR in stereo. Using the cab sim through this system, I also get a terrific sound.
The ethics of this are interesting. You can now go to guitar center, buy a kick ass amp, steal the tones, then return the amp! Or just do it right at guitar center! Sort of like Napster back in the day. Thoughts? Is this stealing intellectual property? Is it? Hmm.
Awm Joeyjoejoe Yes but i am using a marshall halfstack right now so i still want to use the cabinet. I just asked if i would be able to still use the kemper if i was somewhere where i dont have a cab around.
It looks like you still had the "CAB" enabled (cab simulation)? When playing through the KPAs poweramp into a real guitar cab you need to turn this off. I suspect this why everything is sounding extra "woody" in this demo. Signal with Cab simulation on being fed into a real cab. Or am I seeing your kemper lights wrong?
Don't like the sound of a miked amp coming from a cab... the sound comes with artefacts like room reflections resonnances and mike range... boxy, bass heavy , roomy and muddy.
bcjoly The powered version I feel tends to encroach into live music territory (which is perfectly fine if you want to use it for that) but this device was built to dominate a recording studio and for that, nothing I've ever seen, heard or used can touch it and for that purpose, a built in power amp is not necessary. My kemper stays in my studio and my mesa boogie stays on stage.
+bcjoly It depends on what your tone is if you have lets say your 5150 and dont need anything else shure i mean why ever would you buy a kemper but if you need 4 different amps for your dream sound than i would give the kemper a go.
THIS really sounds like shit! I've got a 1968 Stratocaster plugged into two Selmer T/B-50 amps with split 4x12 cab. My efx are Binson echorec 2 and a Boss DS-1. This load of crap can never match that. Sorry DIGIheads! Go home!
Post your sounds big guy. I heard the Outlaws Guitar Player use this amp , Heads above the other bands , The best live sound I have heard to date, This ain't no Wall-Mart boy.
Mrtruthofguitar Maybe LIVE, but not recorded. You'd have to have a tube amp for that, which is something none of this plastic junk will ever be able to duplicate correctly because it's impossible.
