Kemper on the Way

A student of mine has a Kemper and brought it in last week. It sounds great, but dynamic-wise it looses big time against my AXE-FX-II. I can do clean sounds just by pick attack and/ or guitar volume from a highgain sound in the AXE where the Kemper profiles I tried wouldn't clean up nor transition that good.

Your opinion of course. There are pros using it that would disagree, as I do. Keeping with this though, I can't remember any high gain amp I've owned where I could get a clean tone by rolling down the volume, especially if I had the gain cranked, so maybe it's more realistic than you think. This video, although a crappy recording, seems to contradict your comments.

 
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I have an AxeFx Ultra, a Kemper rack and the AX8. They all have their benefits and nuances and I'm a fanboy of them all. If you get a great profile for the Kemper it's awesome. As you start to tweak it like a traditional amp (adjust drive/pre-, treble, bass, presence, etc), it starts to get a little weaker and doesn't behave exactly as an amp would. (I have a JCM800, Mesa Boogie and Silverface Fender Twin to compare). The AX8 is great from a portability standpoint and I find tweaking those parameters tend to react and be more amp like in its response.
So if you don't mind 100 different "snapshots" of the same amp, the Kemper works. If you have a single preset//profile and want to tweak off that, it doesn't react exactly like an amp so it might not be as fulfilling. The benefit of the Kemper is basically it's limitless and you never run out of amp models and don't have to wait for Quantum Rev 5.0 (hint! hint!). Your only limited to the size of your wallet to download commercial profiles (most of the shared ones are "ok"). In some cases, the amount of profiles can be overwhelming so it can be a double edge sword too. I initially was buying everything but decided to lock up paypal and listen to all the profiles I've purchased and found more than enough from clean to insane, vintage to modern.

I use the Kemper at home, take the AX8 to gigs and use the ultra as a backup. Britt profiles are great. He really tweaks them for live /stage volume so your home/bedroom experience might not be optimal.
I run all of the above thru a Matrix GT1000FX running thru a Xitone 1x12 cab (and FOH). No complaints. Sometimes you want smooth peanut butter, sometimes you want chunky. YMMV.
 
I have an AxeFx Ultra, a Kemper rack and the AX8. They all have their benefits and nuances and I'm a fanboy of them all. If you get a great profile for the Kemper it's awesome. As you start to tweak it like a traditional amp (adjust drive/pre-, treble, bass, presence, etc), it starts to get a little weaker and doesn't behave exactly as an amp would. (I have a JCM800, Mesa Boogie and Silverface Fender Twin to compare). The AX8 is great from a portability standpoint and I find tweaking those parameters tend to react and be more amp like in its response.
So if you don't mind 100 different "snapshots" of the same amp, the Kemper works. If you have a single preset//profile and want to tweak off that, it doesn't react exactly like an amp so it might not be as fulfilling. The benefit of the Kemper is basically it's limitless and you never run out of amp models and don't have to wait for Quantum Rev 5.0 (hint! hint!). Your only limited to the size of your wallet to download commercial profiles (most of the shared ones are "ok"). In some cases, the amount of profiles can be overwhelming so it can be a double edge sword too. I initially was buying everything but decided to lock up paypal and listen to all the profiles I've purchased and found more than enough from clean to insane, vintage to modern.

I use the Kemper at home, take the AX8 to gigs and use the ultra as a backup. Britt profiles are great. He really tweaks them for live /stage volume so your home/bedroom experience might not be optimal.
I run all of the above thru a Matrix GT1000FX running thru a Xitone 1x12 cab (and FOH). No complaints. Sometimes you want smooth peanut butter, sometimes you want chunky. YMMV.

I don't know too many guys that use 100 different setting of the same amp during a gig but for the most part you hit the nail on the head.
 
Depends on how you monitor your Fractal/Kemper ...... if you use Cab IRs into 1x12 FRFRs it just ain't going to sound like a real 4x12 guitar cab in the room which might be the thing you're feeling as missing.
 
I have to wonder how much playing style and genres have to do with all of this? I mean how can it (it being axefx\helix\kemper) feel\respond like a tube amp to one player and not to another? I am sure skill\playing level plays a part also. But being a player for 25+ years and being on this site for 7+, skill levels seem to be on a good level for the most part.The rest I believe is in the players own perception and expectations. Nothing wrong with all of this, just the way it is.

I also believe that post#25 is very, very relevant. All in all, isn't it grand to be a guitar player today..................
 
I have an XL+ and a Kemper rack.

I was really expecting to be blown away a little more than I was by the Kemper. I've got a small but decent selection of profiles from MBritt, TAF, TopJimi and Southside, and the ubiquitous Vox profile from the Rig Exchange that everyone likes.

It has some really cool output options for wet / dry that I like.

Some of the TAF profiles that were done using a Big Muff Fuzz are really special vs. the Fractal. They sound more authentic to my own vintage Big Muff to me.

The feel of the Kemper comes and goes for me. For some clean profiles it does surpass what I have been able to achieve with the Fractal. There is a snap or bounce to the notes coming off the fretboard that is more like my real amps. Palm muted notes with a loud clean amp are more realistic.

Clarity between notes of chords is interesting. It's not as good as the Fractal but it is more like my amps. I give the Fractal the nod there because I actually prefer the extra clarity in chords. So the Fractal gets the nod over my amps too.

Overall I like the Kemper but it's not THE game changer vs. the Fractal for what I like and do.
 
Neither of them blows me away. They're both really good but if I had thousands in expendable cash, I'd have a room full of tube amps and cabs, not a box full of fake ones.

The funny thing about all this Kemper vs Fractal thing is that there are big name pro's using both units, that has to tell people that they are both relevant units. If I need validation for the unit I use I'll go check what the pro's are saying, not what a few weekend cover band warriors think.
 
Neither of them blows me away. They're both really good but if I had thousands in expendable cash, I'd have a room full of tube amps and cabs, not a box full of fake ones.

The funny thing about all this Kemper vs Fractal thing is that there are big name pro's using both units, that has to tell people that they are both relevant units. If I need validation for the unit I use I'll go check what the pro's are saying, not what a few weekend cover band warriors think.

I've got a room almost full of tube amps and cabs too lol

But the Fractal and Kemper still have their place for what I do.
 
I've got a room almost full of tube amps and cabs too lol

But the Fractal and Kemper still have their place for what I do.

Lucky you. I wish I could have a Splawn Quick Rod, a BE100, a CA Tucana, a '69 Plexi, an 80's JCM800, a Mark IIC++, and about 12 cabs with an assortment of Celestion speakers. That's my dream but at roughly 25-30K for all of that up here in Canada, I have to settle for the next best thing! I'm OK with that and for the most part I'm happy. I don't gig anymore so wanking in my bedroom with the AX8 or Kemper is good enough and they're easy for recording.
 
Lucky you. I wish I could have a Splawn Quick Rod, a BE100, a CA Tucana, a '69 Plexi, an 80's JCM800, a Mark IIC++, and about 12 cabs with an assortment of Celestion speakers. That's my dream but at roughly 25-30K for all of that up here in Canada, I have to settle for the next best thing! I'm OK with that and for the most part I'm happy. I don't gig anymore so wanking in my bedroom with the AX8 or Kemper is good enough and they're easy for recording.

That's it for me, I can't afford to keep both.

Funny, while I'm typing away here, my wife is watching the food networks Chopping Block, sums it up for me, one of them will get the chop by the end of the weekend.
 
I don't know too many guys that use 100 different setting of the same amp during a gig but for the most part you hit the nail on the head.
Neither do I, but I know people (including me) who use an expression pedal to morph between a low-gain tone and a high-gain tone, and that takes you through 100 different settings on several different parameters.
 
i've already been through this. I had both for several months. The only sound I liked better on the kemper was mbritt's robben ford amp. I felt it sounded more like a real amp than the axefx, particularly when you turn the guitar down. It just reacted more like the mark kane dumble I once owned. However, this was prior to firmware 4 and I i'm pretty sure cliff addressed some of these issues in v4 and v5.

The effects suck on the kemper. Not even as good as mediocre boss pedals. For the most part you are simply limited to the setup the guy had when he did the original profile. I realize that for most "hardcore" stuff it probably doesn't matter so much but for cleans it matters greatly. Virtually nobody out there knows how to profile cleans. I found ridiculous stuff like topjimi profiling a twin with all the knobs on 10 or all the tone controls on 5. Nobody playing clean sets their amps like that. I suppose if you are going to create all your own profiles and use external effects the kemper would be a decent choice...Oh yeah, I had the kemper hang in the middle of sets or practicing sessions multiple times. Support was very poor for those types of issues which is odd since they don't have to deal with the multitude of hardware that say a windows computer has to deal with. It was far less stable than windows 7 just as an example.
 
How can people in Chicago call that stuff "pizza"?

Ok, those are fighting words! Eat at Gino'a East in Chicago, and you will never make that comment again!!!!!

The only real pizza is in New York.............Thank You Very Much.............

How can people in America call that stuff pizza ;)

I know a few Danish top players that use Kempers on tour. They get their tones set up on their favorite tube amps, then go to a pro studio and make profiles for their Kemper. That seems to be the perfect way to use a Kemper. Personally, I would hate going through endless profiles to find something I like - Just like, I don't really enjoy downloading numerous Ax8 presets from AxeChange.
 
I am a low to mid gain player, from my experience so far, that's not something fractal does well. I gain I do very well, but mid to Logan, I've just not been impressed so far.

Regarding the effects of the Kemper, the thing I've been reading lately, is the firmware has made a significant difference, with the profiles as well as the effects. Depending on how long ago a person tried the Kemper, it could be day and night different today from what I understand.
 
You're the poster that talked about throwing the AX in the trash, right? :eek::D

I have heard good stuff with the Kemper. It isn't the form factor and feature set I would choose but to each their own. There are definitely good tones to be had with it.
 
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