Axe v Kemper (my first real life experience)

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Fractal Fanatic
No it's not that type of thread! Just a tale I thought you might like to hear - no flaming of Kempers intended or wanted!

Our band was offered a late call support gig in a venue with a proper house PA and full time sound engineer

However the gig organiser told us that the headline band would supply the backline and we should just bring our 'pedalboards' or be prepared to use their rigs as they were.

With this in mind I'd decided I'd be able to get through an hour slot just using the other guy's rig - a clean, crunch and lead sound would be fine for the occasion and he'd surely have those basics set up and show me how to switch between them.

I've been updating and re-organising/re-thinking things in my AxeFX and it's pants were halfway down so to speak - but that would be fine - I just leave the AxeFX at home and bring my guitars, a tuner and leads - easy peasy.

Then .... a very late call came in ... literally 3 hours before the soundcheck. I was told I would need to bring my amp after all as the other guitar player used a 'DI device' and In Ear Monitoring.

Instant shit myself moment.

I left work early and instead of loading backups I just decided to set up the AxeFX with 6 basic presets from scratch - no scenes: Clean and Clean with chorus and delay (Shiver amp used), Crunch dry and Crunch with chorus and delay (Friedman BE) and Lead with delay Lead with delay and chorus (US Lead +). Fired up the GT1000FX and my 1x12 cabs and routed to them from the FXL block and tweaked just the basic tone parameters at a bit lower than gig volume.

I had a Cab block at end of each preset going to Output 1 because I thought if the other guy was DI'ing then I'd have the option available too in case the sound engineer got ratty about needing to mic one of my cabs. I would have no time during soundcheck to tweak things so I just decided to use factory cab 103 on all the presets - totally stock no tweaks done and just had a quick listen via headphones.

Time was up, just enogh to shower and pack my gear and get to the soundcheck (1 hour drive).

When I got there the headline band was soundchecking - the guitarist had a Kemper! No amp/speakers - just an IEM.

They played a few songs and out front sounded pretty damn good.

Our turn to set up and soundcheck came and took longer than expected - turned out the other band's drummer was a lefty so our drummer had to set up his own kit.

I just told the under pressure sound guy to use the DI from my AxeFX warned him it was line level and hoped it would do.

We played a couple of half songs to set monitor levels and that was all time gone as the doors were opening. I had a big old good quality house Martin stage monitor all for myself so I kept my backline low volume and just got a decent feed of my DI to it from the FOH desk.

I only got a quick chat to the Kemper owner as I set up and we laughed about the forum wars that went on.

We played our set and when the sound guy came up to set up again for the other band as we tore down our stuff he came up to me and said that my FOH feed was a very good tone and he was asking about the Axe as that was his first experience of one.

I hung about to watch about half the other band's set and I thought the Kemper sounded great on some songs but got a bit lost tone wise on others. It got shrill when the guitar was being played up in the high frets with both an Ibanez and a Les Paul. Mid and low frequency stuff sounded better.

So the general concensus from all the people I talked with was that my very hastily set up AxeFX with all presets using that Factory 103 cab sounded pretty damn good - the sound guy actually said he hardly touched my fader and never had to tweak the channel eq all night. (thanks mostly to the VU meters as I used them to guess balance the rhythm level presets and lead level presets)

It wasn't a competition - but I'm glad I was able to stand up alongside a well tweaked and refined over time Kemper rig - and the Kemper owner seemed genuinely impressed too.

Moral of the story: The AxeFX of today does not need tweaked to death to produce a good live tone in a hurry.
 
"hey, it's cool, just use our backline made for a lefty can kicker and loaded with a bunch of shit 95% of other musicians don't use."

F'n Hell. This is why I'm a Nazi about shit.

Glad it worked out for you!
 
Excellent! Great story. This parallels my first experience playing out with the Axe. I had never done the FRFR thing before, had never gigged the AxeII, and had zero time to audition presets at gig volume. Set up four patches that I knew I'd need, and figured oh well, if it sounds bad then I'll know what to fix. To my amazement, it sounded great. Very similar to how you set your patches up.

In fact, it may be the best live tone I've ever had. Stage volume was super reasonable, and I heard myself more clearly than ever before without being asked to turn down.

Glad it worked out great for you! Thanks for sharing that.
 
Max,

It was great to hear a story about a Kemper that was balanced in that way. Especially that part about laughing about the Forum wars. As Scott Peterson has said many times, it's just gear. Terrific story and I'm glad that things worked out well at your gig.

Scott
 
This story is a testament to knowing one's rig in order to achieve an end goal.

Well done, sir.
 
Somewhat unrelated, but since we're vs-ing...

There is one kinda nice thing about the K-forum. It's divided between public access and verified owners.

Having been here a hot minute, I think we could use something similar, maybe a public sub-forum, "Will the Axe do [whatever]?" and just have a bot reply "yes" every time.
 
Once you learn to use both units properly you have pretty much unlimited options.

I thought the Kemper sounded great on some songs but got a bit lost tone wise on others. It got shrill when the guitar was being played up in the high frets with both an Ibanez and a Les Paul.
Click to expand...

I remember gigging with my "real" Boogie rig back in the day and I definitely had lots of problems similar to what people are now blaming on the "digitalness". Harsh top end, scooped mids, too much low end... these are all things that exist in the analog world also and every venue is different. Especially if there's a different sound guy on these venues.
 
Cool story.
Man, I hate using other peoples gear or house backlines. When I spend so much time developing my sound, and detailing my show, I'm not about to just toss that out the window. It would be difficult if not impossible to do given the sounds and effects I use, but with the versatility of the AXE and it's direct to FOH nature, you really never have to use the house gear. You can always slip the AXE in, but the trick is usually going to be getting the sound guy to flatten his EQ out for you.
 
How can it be? Everyone on 'rig talk' and 'guitar amp board' says Kemper is 'more realistic' and Axe just has better FX.
 
All the ass you want yet still cuts like a razor. I don't know how you can bitch about the tone yet it always gets better!
 
I've been spending very little time tweaking myself lately. I usually set an amp to default settings and scroll some IR's til I get in the ballpark. Then it's a few basic adjustments and all's well. Before you know it the Axe FX will have an "Auto Tweak" function based on your playing habits...
 
The other thing that makes it all difficult to gauge is that people listen to youtube clips from years ago and say device "X" sounds "bad." Well... yeah back then maybe it did, but that was 10-15 firmwares ago and that comment is as relevant as saying humans are dumb because we used to live in caves and pick each other noses. Well, some of us still do I guess, so there goes that argument :D
 
rsf1977_again said:
The other thing that makes it all difficult to gauge is that people listen to youtube clips from years ago and say device "X" sounds "bad." Well... yeah back then maybe it did, but that was 10-15 firmwares ago and that comment is as relevant as saying humans are dumb because we used to live in caves and pick each other noses. Well, some of us still do I guess, so there goes that argument :D
Click to expand...
I don't know, the age old FW8 "all factory presets" clips from SoloAWeek are still kicking ass as of today. To be honest, if Fractal stopped developement of new firmwares there, I bet nobody would have ever complained, because it's obviously your playing that is to blame, not the unit. ;)
 
Cool story! The Axe-Fx is incredible good and easy, if you want it easy! Last time i "destroy" all my presets and came to rhearsal only with guitar, cable and Axe-Fx. No footcontroller - nothing. So i had to program a "one trick pony" preset in a minute: JCM800 + one of the Axe-Fest 2015 Marshall 1960AX Cab-IR, a bit Cab room verb (we play in-ear) - ready. From clean to crunch i used the Guitar Volume and for solo i place a 808 drive in "boost mode" before the Amp block (and press just bypass FX button on the unit lol...). I was flashed how good it works! It was fun! Why the hell i sit hours and hours to tweak stuff, if it works that easy - i asked myself with a big smile on my face .... ;)
 
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