Has anyone gone 100% kemper?

[Bill McCloskey]

I have a kemper toaster and the kemper player. I often wonder if I should go 100% kemper and sell all my amps and effects pedals.

[Doug Taylor]

What are you using for a speaker? I had a fender fr12 and was less than satisfied so I returned it. I am sure it was user error but I could not get it loud enough!

[Bill McCloskey]

I have a Laney 2x12. It is LOUD (but heavy). and I have a Neo 10"

[Michael Hartz]

I am 100% Kemper now, sold all effects pedals. Love the Kemper effects onboard.

[Bill McCloskey]

What are you using for your speaker Michael? And do you have any profiles you really love?

[Michael Hartz]

I am going direct stereo to our board as we all use in ears. I love Michael Britt’s Little Walter 50 profiles and use those exclusively for all my rigs

[mtulbert]

Am now 100% Kemper.

Bought a rack mount to experiment with and the Profile Player stomp box to use on gigs. It works great and really cuts down on the weight. I use a Fender FR-12 full range speaker amplifier for monitor on stage on it works to give me exactly what is going through the mains.

Hope this helps. I have a couple of good Sarno Octal Revelation rigs that sound really good to my ears that I will share if I can figure out how to do it..

Mark T.

[mtulbert]

Am now 100% Kemper.

Bought a rack mount to experiment with and the Profile Player stomp box to use on gigs. It works great and really cuts down on the weight. I use a Fender FR-12 full range speaker amplifier for monitor on stage and it works to give me exactly what is going through the mains.

Hope this helps. I have a couple of good Sarno Octal Revelation rigs that sound really good to my ears that I will share if I can figure out how to do it..

Mark T.

[Bob Snelgrove]

For live use, doesn't your own speaker/amp vastly change however the profile was created? Wouldn't the profile sound totally different using IEM's, stage monitors, rig amp?

Is it true that changing tone controls with a profile in different venues alters the same change if applied to the amp that was profiled?

I'm still deciding if profiling is for me after 40 years playing through combo amps (session/ltd 400's)

thx

bob

[Bill McCloskey]

You wouldn't use it with an amp. You use it with FRFR speakers or through the PA system.

[Bob Snelgrove]

Using live, how does changing EQ affect the profile? I heard it's not the same as changing EQ on the amp that was profiled?

[Bill McCloskey]

The kemper comes with EQ controls so you can dial in your profile to your liking. You can include various Equalizers in the rig itself and tweek to your hearts delight.

[Bob Snelgrove]

Right, but I heard the amp tone controls on the Kemper don't mirror the same as they do on the real amp?

[Bob Snelgrove]

So what happens if you go into the front of a PV steel amp (EQ flat) Amp will explode, or?

bob

[Bill McCloskey]

There are two types of Kempers; powered and non-powered. You'd want to use the non powered if you want to plug into an amp

[Michael Hartz]

Bob, what you are asking about is “ Liquid Profiles” where the tone controls on the Kemper affect the tone of the profiles just as the actual knobs on the original amp would. This came out on the Kemper in an OS software (always free) update and you have to use liquid profiles I believe that were created for this feature. I know Michael Britt sells some now. There are several youtube videos that explain it in detail if you look for them. The beauty of the Kemper isn’t even the Kemper itself, hell the hardware of it is now going on 15 yrs. old. It’s the constant free OS updates that improve functionality and provide new features. And the biggest thing is the amount of community support for and around the Kemper over the years. Tone X and the Quad Cortex are both increadible pieces of gear and constantlly improving but the Kemper was first to the dance and has much more community support behind it. That all could and probably will change in the future. There’s a reason Michael Britt, Jimmy Olander(Diamond Rio), and even Mark Knoppler are still using 15 yr. old hardware on tours right now. Just my two cents.

[Tim Harr]

I am 100% Kemper for live work and some recording. I have the powered Kemper that I use with an actual speaker, Eminence PF-350 (12”).

I also have the Kemper Player pedal that does what the big Kemper can do except make new profiles and use profiles with a ton of effects. Also, the Player is best suited for going direct and not using anything except IEM or stage monitors. Amazing gear.

[Bill McCloskey]

I have never used in ear monitoring. How does that work with the kemper? You need to have some sort of broadcasting unit hooked to the board right? It isn’t something you can attach directly to the kemper player?

[Tim Harr]

Bill - that is a very large topic.

The Monitor board runs an XLR line to your IEM receiver, usually in a rack close to where you are sitting. I use the Sennheiser XSW. Then, the receiver has a body pack that is wireless to the IEM receiver. The ear buds plug into the body pack. You control the various instruments in the monitor mix via iPhone/iPad device. You connect to the mixer via wifi and have an exclusive connection to the board. This way, you can control what you want to hear.

This is an example of what a personal monitor mix looks like on an iPad. You can add reverb or compression, etc. It gets way complicated beyond this simple set up. When you use an IEM rig, there are typically no speakers on stage. This is where the non-powered Kemper, Sesh 400, etc shine. You don't need a power amp or a speaker.

Your Kemper is sending a direct line XLR to the main mixer. You are getting the monitor mix of that. Each person in the band using a monitor (or IEM)has their own monitor bus (channel). The one the monitor mix is sending you corresponds to the monitor channel you are on the main board.

[Bill McCloskey]

Thank you for that detailed explaination

[Bill McCloskey]

Thank you for that detailed explanation

[Tim Harr]

A powered Kemper would not plug into a guitar amp.

The non-powered Kemper unit could serve as a pre-amp and plug into a "power amp in" on an amp like a NV400 or Fender HRD. This way the only thing that you are using the amp for is the power amp and speaker.

[Bob Snelgrove]

A powered Kemper would not plug into a guitar amp.

The non-powered Kemper unit could serve as a pre-amp and plug into a "power amp in" on an amp like a NV400 or Fender HRD. This way the only thing that you are using the amp for is the power amp and speaker.

Is that why it was smoking? Just kidding

Is the rack power head the same as the lunch box?

bob

[Cappone dAngelo]

Bill - that is a very large topic.

The Monitor board runs an XLR line to your IEM receiver, usually in a rack close to where you are sitting. I use the Sennheiser XSW. Then, the receiver has a body pack that is wireless to the IEM receiver. The ear buds plug into the body pack. You control the various instruments in the monitor mix via iPhone/iPad device. You connect to the mixer via wifi and have an exclusive connection to the board. This way, you can control what you want to hear.

This is an example of what a personal monitor mix looks like on an iPad. You can add reverb or compression, etc. It gets way complicated beyond this simple set up. When you use an IEM rig, there are typically no speakers on stage. This is where the non-powered Kemper, Sesh 400, etc shine. You don't need a power amp or a speaker.

Your Kemper is sending a direct line XLR to the main mixer. You are getting the monitor mix of that. Each person in the band using a monitor (or IEM)has their own monitor bus (channel). The one the monitor mix is sending you corresponds to the monitor channel you are on the main board.

And for additional context:
- especially for players who aren’t jumping around the stage, you can still do IEMs without the wireless. I general prefer wireless, but if playing PSG or another instrument where I’m staying one place a wired solution is fine (for me)
- iPad/iPhone control of the personal mix is one (very common) option assuming you’re using a digital mixer that supports it, but there are other options for those who prefer tactile controls over using a touch screen. For most gigs when I’m using IEMs I use a Rolls unit with level knobs for my instrument, for my vocals, and for the band mix, as I find that once I have the band mix tweaked it’s rare that I need to change it mid-set, whereas I like to always have the option of reaching down and tweaking the relative mix of my instrument or vocal

[Michael Hartz]

I run my iem’s a little different as I love the stereo sound directly from the Kemper itself. I run left/right stereo out of the stereo monitor outputs on the back of the Kemper directly into the left/right inputs on my Mipro iem transmitter, that way I’m hearing my Kemper without going thru the preamp/eq of the PA mixer (our case a Midas M32). Then the Kemper has an xlr mono aux input on the back so I run my xlr monitor send from the Midas to the aux xlr input on the back of the Kemper and blend the level of the band with the Kemper aux level knob into my Iem mix. It sounds increadible but you have to make sure you have your steel level from the board in your monitor mix at 0 so you don’t get wierd phase issues with your direct Kemper sound.