Kemper to Axe-Fx 3

I have played both, but have only owned the Axe FX III personally. Some of my friends and guitar stores have Kempers that I have been fortunate enough to try out.
The Kemper is an amazing tool. If you are an amp-lover, you will probably love it. Hell, if you're a guitar player, you'll probably love it. However, at the end of the day, I went Fractal, and have absolutely zero regrets.

Both are tools, and both will get the job done (assuming the job is getting killer tones!).

I prefer the Axe FX workflow. I like learning about audio engineering, signal paths, tweaking random buttons to see what they do. I'm a control freak. It's incredibly inspiring to just select a random preset (especially one of the whacky ones!) and try to write some music that sounds good. There's a YouTube video out there in which Synyster Gates (a guitarplayer I don't care much for) says that the Fractal can be used to write new and different ideas. I think that hits the nail on the head. There's no way a Kemper could inspire me in the same way.

Then again, lots of people on the Kemper forum are super happy, and they all defend their purpose. To each their own, I don't really think anyone would be upset if they had either product.
 
Own both, KPA first for 3 years. Love both, AXE3 wins in the FX and flexibility of your setup. The KPA is a different beast, not a modeler, so it will not react to tweak as you would an amp. If that's what your looking for, or used to, stick to the AXE3. Never having owned any nice tube amps, I can't judge. It sounds amazing either way and I get lost for hours in tonal bliss.
What I can tell you about the KPA, is most profilers supply enough of a range of gain structures and cab/mic choices, that you can find a lot of magic. I find I can get to where I want by turning the gain down, where turning up is where it get unconventional. You may wind up with something great, it just won't react the way the real amp would if you make the same changes. I can see how it would be harder for more experienced tube amp owners. It's really meant to take a sonic thumbprint of how you set your amp up in the real world, and replicates that. Also the delay, and verbs have come a long way in the last 2 years. Supposedly the drive will be next, now that the Kab and Kone have been released.

BUT! no one, no one, with any product I've ever owned, provides the rate of of continuous improvement, both in quality(bug fixes) and quantity(added features and models) as Fractal does. This has to be more than just a business to Cliff, it seems more like a labor of love.

Happy and healthy holiday to you all
 
With the Kemper I had to find a profile that was already that magic combination of amp settings because the gain and tone controls don't work like the real amp at all. I did not like the workflow with the Kemper either, things just weren't organized in a way that flowed well for me. The Kemper has very limited routing capabilities. The Kemper has limited dynamic control options. The Kemper effects are just not on par with the Fractal units.

That is the exact same thing for me...
 
Hey Rod,
I work as a tech here in LA so I get to run the gamut of building and programming touring rigs for a ton of bands. Many are household names. I see Kempers, Helixes, Analog Amps and of course the AxeFXIII

For most tours of a higher level, most touring guitarists have gone the direct to IEM and FOH route. This is for night to night consistency, stage volume, ease of transport and reliability to deliver a picture-perfect show every night. In addition, most of the rigs have midi switching capability with the aid of ableton or other DAWs all the switching is automated.

Rig after rig, in all situations, bands, artists and styles of music the AxeFX III beats the kemper hands down. Here's why:

1) The kemper is severely lacking in effects as compared to the AxeFX3. A lot of guys on the big stages are still using their pedalboards with a Kemper. If you see a Kemper on stage and the guitarist is still having a host of strymon pedals, overdrives etc. on his pedalboard, that should tell you plenty of the capabilities of the Kemper.
2) The AxeFX III just sounds better, especially in FOH and IEM. Kemper profiles are usually digital photocopies of an amp profiled at a specific setting. Do yourself a favor and take a profile and crank any of the Bass/mid/treble/gain knobs to their extremes. It's like stretching a photograph in photoshop. There's only so much you can do with the profile before there's either weird sonic artifacts or that the knobs don't behave or respond in the same way an amp does on the real-life counterpart.
3) Ease of programming. This may not apply and could be subjective to you. But getting the AxeFX to communicate via midi and very complicated program changes, effect switching and syncing with a DAW is much much much easier on the AxeFX. Most rigs I program can send a very simple program change to the AxeFX and you can get it to switch scenes specific to a song as well as controlling all the effects including expression pedals etc. I've even programmed an entire guitar solo to have the wah be controlled automatically for a client as if he was playing the wah manually with his foot. Easy to do with the AxeFX

There are many other reasons I would be happy to list, but let's start here.
 
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Do the amp packs take up a lot of memory?
No, they are kilobits in size... it's more a quantity thing. I think the KPA will hold up to 1000 profiles. I never kept more than a couple hundred on mine 'cause it started to get sluggish past that.
 
So, I've been staying away from the Dumble models in the Axe III (just like I did with Kemper) I guess because I didn't want to be disappointed. Growing up in the 80's I have this Dumble sound in my head... some of you probably have the same sound in your head too... It's SRV's 150 watt Steel String Singer, pushed with either with a boost or a TS808.

A friend of mine posted a video of his new Amplified Nation SSS clone and I had to try. This Dumble Clean model in the Axe III is SOOOO GOOOOOOD! It's a little dirtier than the SSS, but its so close to that full spanky SSS tone.

Mayer police, don't shoot me... 3 sloppy attempts at some JM... 'cause I can't play SRV... haha
 
So, I've been staying away from the Dumble models in the Axe III (just like I did with Kemper) I guess because I didn't want to be disappointed. Growing up in the 80's I have this Dumble sound in my head... some of you probably have the same sound in your head too... It's SRV's 150 watt Steel String Singer, pushed with either with a boost or a TS808.

A friend of mine posted a video of his new Amplified Nation SSS clone and I had to try. This Dumble Clean model in the Axe III is SOOOO GOOOOOOD! It's a little dirtier than the SSS, but its so close to that full spanky SSS tone.

Mayer police, don't shoot me... 3 sloppy attempts at some JM... 'cause I can't play SRV... haha



That sounds kinda tasty!!! Hmmmmmm.... Might have to play around with that puppy!
 
That sounds kinda tasty!!! Hmmmmmm.... Might have to play around with that puppy!
The touch sensitivity is insane. In that last clip (which I think is "Slow Dancing"?) the preset has a little hair if you dig in, but I'm also hitting it with a Morning Glory and a clean boost, and it still cleans up, or gets dirty with pick attack. I can also get it pristine by rolling back the volume knob. Crazy!
 
So, I've been staying away from the Dumble models in the Axe III (just like I did with Kemper) I guess because I didn't want to be disappointed. Growing up in the 80's I have this Dumble sound in my head... some of you probably have the same sound in your head too... It's SRV's 150 watt Steel String Singer, pushed with either with a boost or a TS808.

A friend of mine posted a video of his new Amplified Nation SSS clone and I had to try. This Dumble Clean model in the Axe III is SOOOO GOOOOOOD! It's a little dirtier than the SSS, but its so close to that full spanky SSS tone.

Mayer police, don't shoot me... 3 sloppy attempts at some JM... 'cause I can't play SRV... haha

Holy crap...this might be my new favorite. Thanks!
 
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