Kemper to Axe-Fx 3

Hey Roddie,

I bought a Kemper last XMAS from Sweetwater and I knew it was not for me after playing it for about two hours.

I kept getting a slightly muffled lack luster tone from it (no matter what preset I used on it).

I returned it pretty quickly back to Sweetwater.

In early January, an artist friend of mine asked me to trade my mint Ultra for his back-up Kemper (brand new) since he had three Kempers but he wanted a second Ultra.

I did the trade since I knew that I definitely scored there since the Kemper sells for a lot more and I figured I could sell it after spending more time with it (I only played the other one for about two hours).

Once I received it and played on it then I found that I never really turned off the cabs when I played through my power amp since I had turned off the cab from the front but it only stayed off until you changed the preset (the reason for the slightly muffled lack luster sound, lol).

I guess I didn't notice that they came back on again :)

Well, I was definitely more impressed by the "sound" and "feel" of the Kemper once I understood it better and played on it for a few hours.

I had been given close to a 1,000 profiles from my friend on the Kemper plus he gave me thousands of profiles that were given to him by other well-known artists and recording engineers, so I spent a lot of hours messing with them since NAMM was coming up in about a week.

I went to NAMM this year specifically to learn everything about the Kemper and spent several days researching it and going back and forth to NAMM to ask more questions.

By the last day of NAMM, I believe I understood everything I needed to know about the Kemper, and I had many profiles to get the ideal amp for playing live and recording plus I was able to do some deeper tweaking with their Kemper edit.

Also, it "felt" like I was playing on a real amp (it had that resistance that you expect when playing on a tube amp in the room).

I kept telling many of my NAMM buddies that I was loving the Kemper and I was looking forward to getting home and playing on it.

Additionally, I had an AXE FX III sitting in the box and I was starting to think that I should just sell it (I already had another one at the studio).

However, I ran into a NAMM buddy just before I left the show on the last day (I have come to really hate this guy (you'll know why in a moment, lol)).

I told him about my goal for learning everything about the Kemper at the show this year.

He said he had one himself (he didn't look very enthused when he said it), and then he mentions that he could never get it to gel for him since he felt there was this harshness in the high end of all the profiles and he could just not dial it out of the profiles.

Really, a harshness in the profiles?

I didn't notice it when I played on it.

However, when I returned home I played on it and I noticed it right away.

I could not dial it out of any of them.

They were in EVERY single one of the profiles and I had thousands of them!!!!!

I spent MANY days/weeks researching it and trying different things BUT I could not get it to go away no matter what I did to it.

There was this one guy in the Kemper forum (and other forums) that had many, many, many, many pages related to this topic, and I came to the same conclusion that it is just a part of the profile process.

The cleans sounded pretty good and it did have the amp in the room feel to it but I could not live with that sound since it was annoying the hell out of me at that point.

I decided to take the AXE FX III out of the box and play on it.

I uploaded a few of my Silent Underground Studio and Austin Buddy presets that I purchased and it sounded AMAZING!!

No high end harshness, feels great, easy to edit, and a large number of tonal possibilities :)

I feel that I spent a good amount of time learning everything to know about the Kemper and there was some positives BUT the high end harshness was a deal breaker for me.

The AXE FX III gets firmware updates all the time, the routing capabilities are truly unbelievable, four amps within one preset, eight scenes, plus you can have up to four people play on it (if you wanted to share the love), and the people in this forum are amazing and very helpful whenever you have questions and need some guidance.

The AXE FX III really is an AMAZING device and I see myself having it for many more years, well, at least until a IV comes out :)
 
I got the kemper several years before getting an Axe. If I had gotten a III first I would not consider the Kemper. There is something about some of their profiles I really like but not sure it is worth the headaches. I have never heard the harshness and same sound in each profile many talk about. Probably going deaf! The issues with Kemper for me are 1. Workflow - first you have to find a profile that is close and then tweak it. The moment you tweak, it is no longer a profile but now a modeler and on things like gain their modeling is just not very good. Overall their drives and distortions are lacking IMO. The whole locking bits and pieces of the signal chain etc is a pain and The editor feels like an extra piece bolted on due to the customer demand unlike AceEdit which is seamlessly integrated to the Axe. 2. The company culture - updates are glacially slow (like 12-18 months slow after a feature is announced) and customer support can be rude and abrasive (for instance they solicited feedback on a beta and when I explained how something worked on the Axe vs Kemper beta they said something to the effect of “well maybe you should just buy an AxeFx then” )
 
boyce89976 said:
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
Click to expand...


This is honestly unbelievably sounding, would you mind sharing your preset? It's great! Thanks
 
LuVe said:
This is honestly unbelievably sounding, would you mind sharing your preset? It's great! Thanks
Click to expand...
WOW! Thanks, dude! I'm not sure it will help much but I'm happy to post it. Reason I say that, is that I run a pedalboard and use Axe just for amps. But more than that, I run my drives kinda weird (based on a tip I got from a friend that tours with the country artist Morgan Wallen). My first drive is set below unity gain and is always on. My next one is at unity and then my 3rd is a clean boost with a moderate boost (about 3dB boost). For these clips I was running my 1st and 3rd gain stages. What ends up happening is the breakup is about the same as the amp by itself, but I get the tonal benefits from the pedals.

I was actually playing with a couple of cab variants on the "pushed" preset last night. The cab combo is in the name. For example Bill's "Dumble Pushed 57/121" is the one in the first two clips. The last clip is the "Dumble Clean" preset. Hope that makes sense.
 

Attachments

  • Bill's Dumble Clean_20200414_210634.syx
    48.2 KB · Views: 27
  • Bill's Dumble Pushed 57121_20200416_201619.syx
    48.2 KB · Views: 22
  • Bill's Dumble Pushed 906121_20200416_201625.syx
    48.2 KB · Views: 22
  • Bill's Dumble Pushed 160121_20200416_201622.syx
    48.2 KB · Views: 22
boyce89976 said:
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
Click to expand...

That sounds great. Which cab model are we hearing here?
 
Handyman said:
That sounds great. Which cab model are we hearing here?
Click to expand...
Thanks dude! It's 4 IR's (2L and 2R) of the Bludo 2x12 - 2 IR's (left and right) with a SM57 and the H65 speaker and two (left and right) with the R121 and the ASW speaker. I like blending them that way... you get the low end and the smooth highs from the 121/ASW combo, and the midrange and bite from the 57/H65 combo. I think both are the "B" IR's for their respective speaker.
 
If you have a Kemper, you should definitely check out Jon aka Tone Junkie, at least his YouTube and podcast. I listened to all the podcasts and got a lot of great information. He has a lot of great videos as well. Kind of the Leon Todd of Kemper, except he also sells profiles (pretty big difference I suppose).

I can't say I ever heard harshness in all the profiles, or muddiness in them (although they do tend to have a fair amount of bass typically). But they certainly didn't sound as good typically as clips. That's probably true of presets too though. I can't play as well as the pros that demo them, so that makes sense.

The other thing with Kemper is to check and make sure the "space" and "pure cabinet" settings are either off or low. When I first plugged in it sounded almost out of phase. Well there were settings by default turned up that added a room simulation and smoothed the high end. Turning those down gave it a much cleaner sound.

But yeah, I still much prefer the Axe FX. Take one of your favorite Axe presets and put it on a random cabinet. It probably doesn't sound good, right? Well in the Axe you can swap out the cab easily and tune the EQ in a major way to get the right sound that you want. In the Kemper, you really can't, at least not more than a tiny bit without introducing weird artifacts to the tone.
 
boyce89976 said:
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
Click to expand...


At 1:30 ish area , is that original work ? Sounds fantastic. Tone and playing
 
boyce89976 said:
WOW! Thanks, dude! I'm not sure it will help much but I'm happy to post it. Reason I say that, is that I run a pedalboard and use Axe just for amps. But more than that, I run my drives kinda weird (based on a tip I got from a friend that tours with the country artist Morgan Wallen). My first drive is set below unity gain and is always on. My next one is at unity and then my 3rd is a clean boost with a moderate boost (about 3dB boost). For these clips I was running my 1st and 3rd gain stages. What ends up happening is the breakup is about the same as the amp by itself, but I get the tonal benefits from the pedals.

I was actually playing with a couple of cab variants on the "pushed" preset last night. The cab combo is in the name. For example Bill's "Dumble Pushed 57/121" is the one in the first two clips. The last clip is the "Dumble Clean" preset. Hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...

thank you for sharing so much these are incredible!
What is the idea with the two inputs though?
 
LuVe said:
This is honestly unbelievably sounding, would you mind sharing your preset? It's great! Thanks
Click to expand...
Thanks for sharing. The playing and the tones sound amazing. I have sold my Kemper and last night my axe Fx3 was at my door waiting for me when I got home from work. I set it up and was able to put in about 90 minutes of playing. Wow. I am blown away. I can’t wait to try out your presets and really start getting into this thing. It is just so amazing. The tones and feel and response are unbelievable. I am looking forward to really digging into this unit and being able to explore what it has to offer. I am also looking forward to setting up the sounds in my own head that I was never able to get just right with the kemper, it was always close which usually sent me on another search for another rig. Don’t get me wrong the kemper is a fine unit and it has some great features and sounds but for what my needs are I feel that the axe Fx3 ticks all the boxes. Thanks to everyone who has weighed in on my questions over the past several weeks. I was able to get some great info and hear some awesome tones and wonderful playing. I look forward to continuing to be a part of this great community and reading and hearing how all of you are using your fractals to continue to make great sounding and feeling guitar tones and music.
 
axl-fx said:
thank you for sharing so much these are incredible!
What is the idea with the two inputs though?
Click to expand...
Thanks dude! I'm really enjoying those too.

Two inputs: I run a pedalboard in stereo in front of the Axe III, so I use the front input and the 2L input. At some point I may go all Axe III, but right now, for me, I just can't give up my board... kind of a security blanket, haha!
 
Roddie said:
Thanks for sharing. The playing and the tones sound amazing. I have sold my Kemper and last night my axe Fx3 was at my door waiting for me when I got home from work. I set it up and was able to put in about 90 minutes of playing. Wow. I am blown away. I can’t wait to try out your presets and really start getting into this thing. It is just so amazing. The tones and feel and response are unbelievable. I am looking forward to really digging into this unit and being able to explore what it has to offer. I am also looking forward to setting up the sounds in my own head that I was never able to get just right with the kemper, it was always close which usually sent me on another search for another rig. Don’t get me wrong the kemper is a fine unit and it has some great features and sounds but for what my needs are I feel that the axe Fx3 ticks all the boxes. Thanks to everyone who has weighed in on my questions over the past several weeks. I was able to get some great info and hear some awesome tones and wonderful playing. I look forward to continuing to be a part of this great community and reading and hearing how all of you are using your fractals to continue to make great sounding and feeling guitar tones and music.
Click to expand...
Congrats! Axe III may be the best gear purchase I've ever made. Up until I got the Axe III earlier this year I was lugging an amp and a Kemper to every gig to be able to run stereo effects in front of the "amps" - Kemper's greatest shortcoming, IMO, is the fact that you can't run stereo into the front of the profile.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom