How do you use your Kemper?

[flyingfinbar]

Myself I DO want a single amp it’s a simplicity thing for live playing

Edgy man like simple. Also, Edgy man like ironic, snarky responses and reading his own words, and is frightened and confused.

more on topic. I’ve been dying to try out the Kemper stuff on bass! A good friend of mine who techs for a really famous metal band that you’ve heard of deals with Kempers on a daily basis. He loves the simplicity, but insists there’s something lost with regards to touch sensitivity on the six string. Is he right? I dunno, but I’d like to give it a shot.

 

[Former Rogues]

I play five strings tuned to Drop C and the Kemper does just fine. Picking and plucking, it sounds just as real to me as playing through any backline amp I have gigged on. Not sure how it compares in 'feel' compared to an all tube head, but my Laney Nexus tube will make it to our new practice space real soon for an A/B comparison.

The Kemper is also wonderfully straightforward to use and dial in if you are a 'simple' bassist. Plug and play, tweak the bass/mid/treble to taste. Minimum reading or youtube watching to figure it out.

But it also offers some amazing deep dives. I always parallel my signal, do different cross-overs with distortion patches, alter EQs, etc, etc. This takes more time to figure out how Kemper works, and it has a few shortcomings that I personally noticed (inflexible parallel signal injection along the signal chain, no multiband compression). If you can live without these, no worries, but if you like to tweak and tinker, compare thr Kemper with other modellers out there figure out what you need precisely.

For me the Kemper made sense because I track bass, guitar and another guitarists guitar in my apartment studio. Now we have profiles of our amps, making the process quieter and more streamlined. Another win is to use guitar amps as distortion engines for bass, which I am just starting to dive into, instead of relying on the Kemper's distortion pedals, which are just OK.

Now for the really fun part. Another guitarist in my band has a Kemper so we can actually profile OD/distortion pedals as well. Another step to digitizing the tones we already use and love instead of using someone ear for the tone we want.

 

[seamonkey]

Not sure how it compares in 'feel' compared to an all tube head, but my Laney Nexus tube will make it to our new practice space real soon for an A/B comparison.

Not too much to do there. Sag, and other dynamic response is captured in modeling along will all the harmonic response.
"Feel" only shows up with sighted A/B comparisons. Do a blind comparison and it's not there. Feel is only used as some supernatural can't be proved myth around here.

Kemper can do Solid-State amps also, and would capture the same feel if it existed.

 

[Geri O]

Maybe I’m not being clear, give me an amp that does ONE amp not a profile in a list of many.

Good luck with that. Common sense marketing won’t let that happen. They will never sell enough of your single pet amp model to justify the development costs.

Good thing you know what you like. You are stuck with it, for better or worse.

 

[Geri O]

Maybe I’m not being clear, give me an amp that does ONE amp not a profile in a list of many.

Call me lucky. My favorite tone is my bass through a REDDI straight into the mixer channel and to my in-ears. Don’t even need a Kemper for that. Single amp or otherwise.

 

[QweziRider]

3) The best profiles are the ones you make yourself, if you take the time to learn how to make good profiles.

This is what I want to get into. I have several amps and cabs laying about the house that I love for different reasons. I need to profile them and put them "under one roof." So far, all I've used the Kemper for (on bass, at least) is on amp-less gigs. FOH loved it, it was adequate through monitors being rushed in sound checks. I've not even scratched the surface with it, I know.

 

[Former Rogues]

@seamonkey I agree about the voodoo behind the feel, but people's perceptions are a strong factor since most of us listen to gear with our eyes first and ears second. There might always be people who are just biased to tube amps or the otherway around, and that is totally fine. To each their own.

@Geri O You are right. It is actually hard to find certain amp profiles that I really like and if no one profiles, there are no options. There are already a lot of amp profiles that I want but that don't exist, so the likelihood of a modeller catering to a rare, old or undervalued amp is unlikely. At least with the Kemper, if you find one of these 'dream' amps, you might be able to convince the owner to a) let you profile it or b) have them share a profile with you if they have a Kemper.

One thing I found while profiling, some amps are easier for the Kemper to acurately profile than others. My VHT Pittbull 50/ST needed a tone of refinements and adjustments to the Tube shape, Pick and Clarity. Last night I profiled a Marshall JCM2000 DSL, and it immediately sounded right, even before refining. Either way, I dialled in some awesome profiles that I am happy with so far. Still waiting to profile my bass amps, because they are currently stored at my old practice space. I will keep everyone posted when I actually profile them.

It is also interesting to hear how other people's ideal tone is WAY different from what I think sounds good. We are using this to our band's advantage to make a roster of profiles for recording and dual tracking, where each guitarist gets their tones right from plugging in. Then, I can take the time to tweak or even make a new profile for my bass to fit into the mix.

Bascally we are using some great IRs and adding a post amp/cab EQ in the profile signal to boost/remove frequencies we would mix out in recording anyways. This makes for a more 'mix ready' track from the moment we record. It will also gives us more control over the live mix we send to FOH. And, just as a back up, we can make a second profile with all the same settings minus the post EQ for the full frequency range as an alternative option if we want a different mix.

Add a DI when recording and then it is always possible to reamp the whole performance at a later date.

 

[semiprohooker]

Maybe I’m not being clear, give me an amp that does ONE amp not a profile in a list of many.

So, load the profile you want into your first bank and never ever move past the first model. Hell, make it the first 4 and the last 4 patches in case you accidentally bump it.

I'd really like to try a Model T, myself

 

[seamonkey]

Kemper Yes concert footage with Lee Pomeroy on bass:

You are likely hearing DI from the kemper

I don't know what Geddy uses but he can sure play and fit in any situation

 

[DigitalMan]

I don't know what Geddy uses but he can sure play and fit in any situation

For this performance he used the Tech21 GED-2112 exclusively (so we are told).

 

[Rufus X]

I originally purchased a Profiler for guitar but have been using it as a bass preamp recently and am very pleased with the results. Loads of options for different models, ODs, and FX. I’m running into the power amp section of a 1x15 bass combo, which is less than ideal but sounds surprisingly good. That part of the rig I still need to work on.

I’m not sure I’d buy a Profiler for this purpose alone — it is a fairly expensive option in that respect — but its versatility is hard to beat. I’m not a tube amp purist but and fairly picky about my tone (both guitar and bass) and have not experienced any issues with the Kemper being digital in the way I have with modelers, etc. in the past.