Your thoughts on a Kemper

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The reality is Kemper is nearly outdated. When it comes to profiling, the Quad Cortex and even a $300 pedal called Tonex capture better profiles. This is something I've changed my mind on over time as I was formerly of the opinion that the Quad Cortex wasn't any better.

The thing is, I think Kemper has a great kind of sound, but there are a couple of things that you cannot tweak or dial out that's inherent in it's tone. The effects have gotten better over the years, and their Kemper Stage is pretty cool, but at the prices they're charging, it's almost foolish to choose one over a Tonex.

Yeah, it pains me to say it but I'm rather blown away by the Tonex at it's price range. It simply has better profiling than Kemper. In today's economy, spending $2000 on a Kemper isn't really prudent unless you just really love the way Kemper sounds. I happen to like the sound but not enough to pay $2000 for it.

I've been using Fractal for years, and considered parallel with Kemper. However, over time I drew nearer to Fractal and further from Kemper. Fractal may not do profiling but it sounds incredible and very true to the amps it models.

Unless Kemper comes out with an entry level profiler, nothing can beat the price of a Fractal FM3. It's full-featured, fairly compact, has tons to offer, and arguably sounds the best in my opinion. However, I urge you to give the Tonex a shot because you won't believe how good it is, and it's not just amazing because the price is good but because it's as good as the Quad Cortex and slightly better than Kemper in my opinion.
 
Is the new kemper out yet? I’m getting killer sounds with stl and the new neural amp modeler is just bananas….
 
Which has the cooler forum? I ask because I feel like some of the Fractal guys are complete douchebags. Like the Apple forum, where everyone wants to be condescending and show you how smart they think they are.
 
RevDrucifer said:
I‘ve been dialing in tones in my FM9 rig for the cover band I’m joining, FM9 going to two 2x12’s….here’s all the tweaking I did on the amp block. :LOL:

View attachment 206854

I love the direct stuff for recording, but for live playing, fuck everything else but real cabs. I’ll eventually throw a cab block on there to give to FOH if I ever need it, but yeah, there’s no difference between dialing in the front panel of an amp than there is dialing in an AxeFX/FM going into real cabs. Didn’t touch any deep parameters, no additional EQ’s, just the Treble and Presence and I was done.
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100 percent agree man. The axe is the perfect setup between control and authenticity. No profile having baked in shit micing techniques etc. and then with a real power amp and cab, it’s insane. It’s just the real deal, 100 percent convinced at this point. I pulled up the recto 1 orange modern ( rev F), put a parametric eq in the front to simulate the dirty tree ( try a low shelf at about 500hz, anywhere from 10-15db of reduction) and boom. It was fucking there. No extra tweaking, no nothing. It was spooky as fuck honestly.



I 100 percent think I could sell all of my amps minus my morin modded Marshall and rev F recto and be completely and feel no compromise. Especially since I have multiple real cabs to use. I honestly don’t have much Interest In using it direct for recording. I want to use it like a real amp and use different real cabs mic’d up for different flavor etc, the plexis, divided by 13s, dr , matchless, and anything Marshall period with my real EVH cab had my jaw on the floor. I mean they are freakin there, it’s insane.
 
I side lined my Eleven Rack, I replaced it with a Digitech 2112 SGS, it has analog Distortion/ Overdrive and Tube Distortion ( has two 12ax7 tubes) and Overdrive and the left / right outputs go into two VHT Valvulator 1's ( w/ one 12ax7 tube each) going into my Crate Power Blocks.
Total 100% tube sound and dynamics .
 
VESmedic said:
100 percent agree man. The axe is the perfect setup between control and authenticity. No profile having baked in shit micing techniques etc. and then with a real power amp and cab, it’s insane. It’s just the real deal, 100 percent convinced at this point. I pulled up the recto 1 orange modern ( rev F), put a parametric eq in the front to simulate the dirty tree ( try a low shelf at about 500hz, anywhere from 10-15db of reduction) and boom. It was fucking there. No extra tweaking, no nothing. It was spooky as fuck honestly.



I 100 percent think I could sell all of my amps minus my morin modded Marshall and rev F recto and be completely and feel no compromise. Especially since I have multiple real cabs to use. I honestly don’t have much Interest In using it direct for recording. I want to use it like a real amp and use different real cabs mic’d up for different flavor etc, the plexis, divided by 13s, dr , matchless, and anything Marshall period with my real EVH cab had my jaw on the floor. I mean they are freakin there, it’s insane.
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Hahaha I was 100% happy for about 4 years and then I got the itch for a tube amp again….and I’ve had a Deluxe Reverb sitting in the corner, unused, since I bought it. I literally plugged it in once, said “This is way too fucking loud for my apartment”, shut it off and haven’t turned it on since. Now that I’ll be gigging again I want to trade it for a HDRX20 but really, that’s only to appease the gear nerd in me, nothing to do with tone or practicality.

Frankly, I don’t even feel there’s enough of a difference between a tube power amp and the Duncan PS170/TC BAM200 I’m using to buy a tube power amp. I’ve ran the Fractal shit into the return of a Friedman JJ, a couple Dual Recs, a XXX, an OG 5150, it’s such a minimal difference that there’s no way I’ll buy a rack unit to replace the two little boxes I can shove in a bag.

Also, tweaking the Speaker Impedance Curves does some interesting things, those had a bigger tonal and feel difference than running it through a tube power section did. Using 2 entirely different cabs/speakers and applying a difference impedance curve almost glues the two cabs together like throwing a compressor on a mix bus, that’s the only way I could think to describe it. That Recto Straight Impedance Curve opens up those 2x12s, no clue how or what it’s actually doing on a technical level, don’t give a fuck, it sounds awesome.
 
RevDrucifer said:
Hahaha I was 100% happy for about 4 years and then I got the itch for a tube amp again….and I’ve had a Deluxe Reverb sitting in the corner, unused, since I bought it. I literally plugged it in once, said “This is way too fucking loud for my apartment”, shut it off and haven’t turned it on since. Now that I’ll be gigging again I want to trade it for a HDRX20 but really, that’s only to appease the gear nerd in me, nothing to do with tone or practicality.

Frankly, I don’t even feel there’s enough of a difference between a tube power amp and the Duncan PS170/TC BAM200 I’m using to buy a tube power amp. I’ve ran the Fractal shit into the return of a Friedman JJ, a couple Dual Recs, a XXX, an OG 5150, it’s such a minimal difference that there’s no way I’ll buy a rack unit to replace the two little boxes I can shove in a bag.

Also, tweaking the Speaker Impedance Curves does some interesting things, those had a bigger tonal and feel difference than running it through a tube power section did. Using 2 entirely different cabs/speakers and applying a difference impedance curve almost glues the two cabs together like throwing a compressor on a mix bus, that’s the only way I could think to describe it. That Recto Straight Impedance Curve opens up those 2x12s, no clue how or what it’s actually doing on a technical level, don’t give a fuck, it sounds awesome.
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I mixed my early 1980's Laney 4x12 cabs with Greenbacks, Fane and I use Peavey Sheffield in 2x12 speakers cabs for each Laney Stack .
I like the combination of those three speakers .
 
Diary of a Axeman said:
I mixed my early 1980's Laney 4x12 cabs with Greenbacks, Fane and I use Peavey Sheffield in 2x12 speakers cabs for each Laney Stack .
I like the combination of those three speakers .
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I’ve never played through a Fane but I can imagine the Greenbacks and Sheffield’s are a pretty slick combo.

I’ve got an old Mesa 2x12 with C90’s that can leave a lot of 4x12’s in the dust and another 2x12 with WGS Retro 30’s, they work pretty damn well together. Lots of mids at quieter volumes but cranking the rig up and the low end from those C90’s kicks in, fuckin hell.
 
I've been rocking a Kemper for about six months now. Started with the head and recently picked up a Stage. I traded my Axe FX II XL for the Kemper head. I've never considered the Fractal stuff as an option since. I found a killer 5153 profile and have been completely happy. I was always tweaking my AFX. With the Kemper, I spend more time playing. It sounds killer through a PA. The other guys in my band were so impressed that they bought Kempers as well. Here is a clip from last weekends show. While I love loud ass amps, the Kemper has been a game changer.

 
There's a free plugin called neural amp modeller that smokes every profiler out there.
 
Glad @VESmedic is on board with the Fractal ;)

How’d you dig my preset, bitch????

I used a Kemper for 7 years, but the Fractal is just the tits bro.
 
VESmedic said:
100 percent agree man. The axe is the perfect setup between control and authenticity. No profile having baked in shit micing techniques etc. and then with a real power amp and cab, it’s insane. It’s just the real deal, 100 percent convinced at this point. I pulled up the recto 1 orange modern ( rev F), put a parametric eq in the front to simulate the dirty tree ( try a low shelf at about 500hz, anywhere from 10-15db of reduction) and boom. It was fucking there. No extra tweaking, no nothing. It was spooky as fuck honestly.



I 100 percent think I could sell all of my amps minus my morin modded Marshall and rev F recto and be completely and feel no compromise. Especially since I have multiple real cabs to use. I honestly don’t have much Interest In using it direct for recording. I want to use it like a real amp and use different real cabs mic’d up for different flavor etc, the plexis, divided by 13s, dr , matchless, and anything Marshall period with my real EVH cab had my jaw on the floor. I mean they are freakin there, it’s insane.
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What poweramp are you using with it. I have the KSR PA50 which sounds great but always curious to hear what other people use to get good results.
 
Enough has already been written, of course opinions differ. I had both Kemper and AxeFXIII. I sold the Axe, kept the Kemper and have no regrets. But I'm mostly a home player, I have no experience with live playing both. Kemper works for me to quickly find the sound I like. I bought three tube heads instead of Axe :).

What always bothered me about the Axe and those were also the main reasons for the sale. Regarding the price point, these were for me the fundamental shortcomings of an otherwise excellent device:
1. headphone output hardwired to output 1, so the main output was unusable for me, this I consider being a big design flaw
2. low output levels on outputs 3 and 4
3. input clipping when using high output pickups
4. confusing mapping of USB ports
 
Donnie B said:
These days a few of them hang out here as professional stalkers.

Ask me how I know................ :D
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This is rich…..how many times has Cliff banned you from the Fractal forum and how many times have you been banned from TGP for stalking Cliff there as well? :LOL:
 
RevDrucifer said:
This is rich…..how many times has Cliff banned you from the Fractal forum and how many times have you been banned from TGP for stalking Cliff there as well? :LOL:
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I asked you if you wanted to hear the other side of the story.
Instead you come here and take a shot - IGNORANT OF THE WHOLE STORY.

Cliff Chase is a brilliant designer. Fractal stuff set all sorts of new benchmarks in modeling.
He deserves all of the props in the world for his creations.

He can also be an arrogant, insecure, and condescending asshole. Which he's proven time
and time again to those not looking at the guy with rose colored glasses.
He decided to fuck with me a long time ago and it turned out to be a mistake for him.
His problem - not mine. And certainly not yours.

Either hear the other side of the story or shut the fuck up in my regard.
Cliff's a big boy - he doesn't need you fighting his battles.

@cliffc8488

I'm right here son.
You got something to say?
Do it yourself and stop using your crew of flying monkeys to fight your battles.
 
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I've used the Axe III since 2018. It is a solid unit and sounds great. No question. I've run it into FRFR and into a power amp and cabs and it has some great routing options for this.

I've had a couple of Kemper when they first came out in 2011. I had an issue with the first one and it was repaired and then I got a powered rack a couple of years later which I traded the original unit I had for.
That one had to be returned as it would shut off randomly. I had not used one since.

I borrowed a friend's Kemper Stage for the past week and a bit and have to say with some profiles that I got from Bert M, it really sounds fantastic. The IOS app for adjusting is great and super convenient, especially if you want to make a quick adjustment between songs at a gig or rehearsal.

I'm running it through a new KSR PA 50 that I got and I can honestly say, it works for me at this point. That power amp is just outstanding!
 
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