Kemper Gang?

so i got a power rack and remote recently and it is freaking awesome. still have and love my helix but i gotta say the kpa feels slightly more amp like which is my primary goal. the effects are better than when i last had a kpa 7 years ago too. they did a good job on the updates.

our next show is 1/7 and i cant wait to try this thing out live. now i just get my cab on stage, put my rack on top. one power chord from my power conditioner powers everything, one speaker cable from rack to cab. put the remote where i stand, no extra power needed for it. wireless on top of rack. boom. super easy setup and tear down. i love it!!

the guys said it sounded great in the room too and our other guitar player plays a tube amp so that's a good compliment.
 
First time I had something weirdly concerning.... I have a bank of 10 presets where I've shifted all of the post-amp effects one spot to the left, so the last one becomes "LOOP" instead of reverb.

I leave the loop permanently on in that bank so I can run external shit (IE: My Looper) but wanted to make sure I could work around it when I'm not using the looper, so I put my Spark Mini on the left side of the pedalboard. It works great because if I ever have a patch that needs to be a little louder, or a little more "unhh" then I can step on the boost knob with my toe to set the "unhh" I want, and tap it.

Well patches 2, 3, 4, and 5 all worked as expected.... but patch 1... didn't seem to be reacting the same way. Then I put an extra tuner in there and... um.... I was getting 50% bleed through with the tuner kicked on. :confused: It was kinda like the Mesa parallel effects loop, but I'm reading the settings and it says mono - series - Loop. I'm hearing differences when I turned in on and off... I looked at it in the Profile editor and it
looked normal.

I ended up taking the loop out... put a reverb in it's place. Then patched the reverb in again (twice because the first time it was saying to use loop 2-3 when I wanted loop 1!). Once I got mono loop 1 back in place, I resaved the rig and it was fine. That's the thing about digital shit though.... You always need to keep a backup or whatever, because if a bit gets glitched... it could be an effect, something wonky.... or your entire signal path.

I'm still loving the Kemper though... I would say it's my Third best purchase ever.... Thorn SoCal R/S is my #1 in all respects, Allen & Heath digital mixer is the next must have for anyone who has ever had to run the PA for their band, particularly when changing venues and needing the mixer right behind you. I would have to put the Kemper ahead of any tube amp I've ever owned... not because I think it sounds better per se, but because of the versatility, and single "God Mode" that it can bring out in the gigging situation. :baimun:
 
BlockInlay said:
What do you mean w h en you say you put an extra tuner in there??
Click to expand...

as a test I put an outboard tuner, which on profiles 2, 3, 4, and 5 … turning on the tuner would mute the channel. Before I fixed #1 it would reduce the volume, but not cut it out. It was odd but pretty easy to fix.
 
Fruit huggers rejoice!!!

iKemper.png
 
BlockInlay said:
To those of you using the main outs and/or monitor outs to a PA, power amp&cab, or frfr…

what do you set the output level to in the kemper output menu? Do you crank the kemper volume? Keep it low?

what works for you? @baimun @Dexter Inferno @sleewell and others
Click to expand...

By default, I set the levels around 75% to give me the most flexibility to go up or down... as it stands the big knob changes all volumes up and down with the exception of the XLR main outs... I keep those on the dedicated menu and smaller knob so FOH won't be affected if I want to change the level of my stage monitor.
 
BlockInlay said:
The stage has WiFi?? I had no idea
Click to expand...

I disabled it because I'm paranoid and never want it to accidently update before I've had a chance to do a full backup.

I'm usually 1 update behind (unless I have pleeeennty of time before an upcoming gig to test stability) and always do a full manual update, and then use a thumb drive to update, so I can repeat or rebuild if necessary.)

I do use the wifi to update my Aeros Loop Studio as I can always fall back on my Boomerang. Again, being extra cautious... I've only gigged with the loop studio once, even though I bought the looper almost a year ago. I'm just now getting to the point where I'm as comfortable with it as the Boomerang, and they've recently updated the Midi controls so I can use an outboard midi controller (I forgot that I own a Looptimus... So I was just reading the other day how to program it so I don't need to buy the Singular Sound foot controller.
 
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Usually main outs are set somewhere between -10 and -20 dB on mine, depends on how hot a signal the FOH guys want - some desks have way more (or less) headroom than others when it comes to their preamps. Monitor out is usually set at 0 dB, I've recently got the powered Kabinet and I adjust the stage volume on that.
 
Dexter Inferno said:
:lol:

Long running tradition of "what you see on stage isn't necessarily what you hear".
Hell, in one of my bands we've actually often brought a Marshall cab (when I've used the Kemper) on stage to make things look "right". It's never been connected to anything. :grin:
Click to expand...

I'm collecting so much Live Looping gear, that I've considered making a custom enclosure with little boxes and shelves for the cables, power supplies, etc.

Even if the cabinet is made out of lightweight luan plywood or something... I probably should Tolex the whole damned thing and make it look like a speaker cabinet so I won't have to wheel it offstage... just leave it in back. :lmbo:
 
baimun said:
I'm collecting so much Live Looping gear, that I've considered making a custom enclosure with little boxes and shelves for the cables, power supplies, etc.

Even if the cabinet is made out of lightweight luan plywood or something... I probably should Tolex the whole damned thing and make it look like a speaker cabinet so I won't have to wheel it offstage... just leave it in back. :lmbo:
Click to expand...

Or you could do the Geddy Lee thing and just use something roughly the same shape as a cabinet. On one tour he had washing machines on stage. :lol:
 
I finally tore the bandaid off Friday night and used the kemper stage at a gig. I ran the monitor out to my orange pedal baby and into a closed back 2x12 slant cab with V30’s. It sounded great!!

Then my other guitar player decided to crank his rig and left it that way so I couldn’t hear shit the rest of the night, yay!


I have the monitor out set to about -13 or -12 db. I guess this is fairly normal?? The volume on the pedal baby stays pretty low and it’s still loud as hell. I guess I should play with that more.

I’m going to make a copy of my set list performances and experiment with dialing back the gain and increasing the mid range. I’m hoping that will help with stage volume situations.

The band got a Zoom L20 and the plan is to switch to silent rehearsals very soon. I’m excited about that
 
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