The Kemper thread

kennedydream1980

My new Kemper stage arrived today. I briefly switched it on and It says it’s on firmware 7.1.1

What are everyone’s go to profiles? Is M Britt still the main man?

Also can I update the firmware straight to the latest version or does it have to be done in stages?

Jonathanthomas83

MBritt isn't the be all end all. Start with your favourites that are already on the unit :-)

FarleyUK

I'm a huge fan of TopJimi's stuff, especially the Caswell AFD modded JCM and the Superleads (especially the '74).

kennedydream1980

kennedydream1980 said:

My new Kemper stage arrived today. I briefly switched it on and It says it’s on firmware 7.1.1

What are everyone’s go to profiles? Is M Britt still the main man?

Also can I update the firmware straight to the latest version or does it have to be done in stages?

Updated everything fine. I was struggling with noise with the Stage connected up to my computer, but I’m putting it down to the cheap USB cable I was using. It was ultra quiet once disconnected from my Mac.

I went straight to the M Britt website and bought his 3rd power CSR pack. It sounds absolutely fantastic, right up my street. I like the fact they are all balanced volume wise for live playing and his choice of effects are spot on.

Freebird

kennedydream1980 said:

Updated everything fine. I was struggling with noise with the Stage connected up to my computer, but I’m putting it down to the cheap USB cable I was using. It was ultra quiet once disconnected from my Mac.

I went straight to the M Britt website and bought his 3rd power CSR pack. It sounds absolutely fantastic, right up my street. I like the fact they are all balanced volume wise for live playing and his choice of effects are spot on.

What computer is it? If it has a two-pin connector, you will get ground noise from any electrical equipment that you connect. Does it play nice with other gear?

kennedydream1980

Freebird said:

kennedydream1980 said:

Updated everything fine. I was struggling with noise with the Stage connected up to my computer, but I’m putting it down to the cheap USB cable I was using. It was ultra quiet once disconnected from my Mac.

I went straight to the M Britt website and bought his 3rd power CSR pack. It sounds absolutely fantastic, right up my street. I like the fact they are all balanced volume wise for live playing and his choice of effects are spot on.

What computer is it? If it has a two-pin connector, you will get ground noise from any electrical equipment that you connect. Does it play nice with other gear?

It’s a MacBook Pro. It’s been fine with my GT-1000 but that has its own power supply adapter. It was always noisy with my AX8 and Helix as well.

Freebird

kennedydream1980 said:

Freebird said:

kennedydream1980 said:
I was struggling with noise with the Stage connected up to my computer, but I’m putting it down to the cheap USB cable I was using. It was ultra quiet once disconnected from my Mac.

What computer is it? If it has a two-pin connector, you will get ground noise from any electrical equipment that you connect. Does it play nice with other gear?

It’s a MacBook Pro. It’s been fine with my GT-1000 but that has its own power supply adapter. It was always noisy with my AX8 and Helix as well.

Have a look at something like this..

http://orchid-electronics.co.uk/dual_isolator.htm

chrishill901

I'm having a user error with the Kemper remote and wondered if there was a way around it as I now have a complex about it and am looking at amps again. I find it very difficult to switch on effects without pressing the rig button directly beneath it. The way I am running the Kemper though is that I've got my guitar tuned half a step down and each rig is pretty much the same but has transpose on, one to return it to standard tuning, one to reduce it a further half step and one with no transpose (our set has covers in all 3 of those tunings so it is necessary). In rehearsal I keep hitting the rig button which is retuning my guitar and it's doing my head in. Is there a way to disable to rig switching and just use the footswitch for effects? I don't mind physically going to the Kemper to change the rig between songs, its preferable to the alternative. No amount of preparing for the stomp seems to help, it seems like it doesn't take much of a press to activate the switches and I'm just a numpty! I'm finding the Kemper hard to use live!

FarleyUK

chrishill901 said:

I'm having a user error with the Kemper remote and wondered if there was a way around it as I now have a complex about it and am looking at amps again. I find it very difficult to switch on effects without pressing the rig button directly beneath it. The way I am running the Kemper though is that I've got my guitar tuned half a step down and each rig is pretty much the same but has transpose on, one to return it to standard tuning, one to reduce it a further half step and one with no transpose (our set has covers in all 3 of those tunings so it is necessary). In rehearsal I keep hitting the rig button which is retuning my guitar and it's doing my head in. Is there a way to disable to rig switching and just use the footswitch for effects? I don't mind physically going to the Kemper to change the rig between songs, its preferable to the alternative. No amount of preparing for the stomp seems to help, it seems like it doesn't take much of a press to activate the switches and I'm just a numpty! I'm finding the Kemper hard to use live!

How about using the switch toppers on the top row...? People typically use Barefoot Buttons, but you can get similar stuff online for a fraction of the cost, like these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=pedal+toppers&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

chrishill901

FarleyUK said:

chrishill901 said:

I'm having a user error with the Kemper remote and wondered if there was a way around it as I now have a complex about it and am looking at amps again. I find it very difficult to switch on effects without pressing the rig button directly beneath it. The way I am running the Kemper though is that I've got my guitar tuned half a step down and each rig is pretty much the same but has transpose on, one to return it to standard tuning, one to reduce it a further half step and one with no transpose (our set has covers in all 3 of those tunings so it is necessary). In rehearsal I keep hitting the rig button which is retuning my guitar and it's doing my head in. Is there a way to disable to rig switching and just use the footswitch for effects? I don't mind physically going to the Kemper to change the rig between songs, its preferable to the alternative. No amount of preparing for the stomp seems to help, it seems like it doesn't take much of a press to activate the switches and I'm just a numpty! I'm finding the Kemper hard to use live!

How about using the switch toppers on the top row...? People typically use Barefoot Buttons, but you can get similar stuff online for a fraction of the cost, like these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=pedal+toppers&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Didn't even know these were a thing, certainly worth a go! Thanks

BBBlues

Seriously considering entering the Kemper world. Anyone in/near York have one who wouldn't mind demoing theirs over a few beers?

BBBlues

(I'll bring the beer )

vonLayzonfon

I've had the Helix and Kemper Stage on my watch list for a while.

Friday night there was a band in the pub and the guitarist /vocalist was using a Kemper Stage and sending that and his vx through a single Bose column PA (also something I'd been looking at but ended up going trad box-on-a-stick).

Sounded great. So I had a chat with him after they finished and he was enthusing about how great the Kemper was, demonstrating all the different 'patches' he had set up: "On 1 I've got a [blah], on 2, a [blah] ... and on 5 I've got... oh... 5 doesn't seem to be working."

And that's where I lost interest. You don't need that shizzle in a live scenario. I guess I'm lucky my ToneLab SE is still going strong after all these years. 

FarleyUK

vonLayzonfon said:

I've had the Helix and Kemper Stage on my watch list for a while.

Friday night there was a band in the pub and the guitarist /vocalist was using a Kemper Stage and sending that and his vx through a single Bose column PA (also something I'd been looking at but ended up going trad box-on-a-stick).

Sounded great. So I had a chat with him after they finished and he was enthusing about how great the Kemper was, demonstrating all the different 'patches' he had set up: "On 1 I've got a [blah], on 2, a [blah] ... and on 5 I've got... oh... 5 doesn't seem to be working."

And that's where I lost interest. You don't need that shizzle in a live scenario. I guess I'm lucky my ToneLab SE is still going strong after all these years. 

Personally, I wouldn't get a Stage. Far too many issues have been reported with it. However, a Kemper toaster or rack and footswitch are fantastic - easily the best 'modeller' I've used both at home and live.

TeleMaster

I'd say it's fine to get a Stage now. The issues are less and less now.

kennedydream1980

FarleyUK said:

The new OS updates are pissing me right off. I’ve had no end of issues just trying to use Rig Manager with it. For example -

- when you copy and paste a performance, you can’t rename it without moving away and coming back

- two instances of creating performances in new skits, only to have them then be duplicated when turning the Kemper backs on (so instead of two performances as saved, it’s two performances of the same thing suddenly)

- selecting performance slots in other performances selects the slot you’re currently in the performance of 

Very very frustrating - especially as I have to re-do everything yet again!

EDIT - I left the Kemper alone for 5 minutes - came back, and the performance slot had changed back to what I'd originally saved it as....! It showed both slots originally as the same names, same profiles etc. (slots 18 & 19). Went away, came back, and slot 19 had changed to the original saved performance from last night.... very very weird.

I was having similar issues with Rig Manager and my new Kemper Stage trying to setup a couple of performances for my gigs this weekend. Copy and paste sometimes works then other times it doesn't. I was renaming slots on Rig Manger but it wasn't updating on the stage. I was trying to import a rig into slot 2 and it kept changing slot 1. It just seems very glitchy. I was getting very frustrated to the point the stage nearly went back in the box.

I went away, took a deep breath, decided to ditch rig manager all together and did all of the editing I needed to do on the unit itself. It was fairly intuitive once I got my head round it. 

kennedydream1980

So the ‘pure cabinet’ parameter. Where does everyone set this?

FarleyUK

kennedydream1980 said:

So the ‘pure cabinet’ parameter. Where does everyone set this?

I used to have it at 3, then on but at 0, now I keep it off. A lot more of the cab's characteristics come through with it off.

It's great for smoothing it out a bit though. And don't forget you can set it per profile / performance slot as well.

kennedydream1980

First gig done last night with my Kemper stage in my covers band.

I covered the whole gig with one performance using profiles from the Michael Britt 3rd power CSR pack. I didn’t touch any parameters on any of the profiles, I just went through and picked the 5 profiles I preferred at various gain stages from clean to lead. I love the fact you don’t have to mess on with high/low cuts and EQ, it just sounds ‘right’, right off the bat.

Anyway the stage performed flawlessly and sounded fantastic. I even ran my In ear monitors through the Kemper and it sounded noticeably better than the Behringer P1 I normally use.

Very happy with the purchase of the stage.

PVO_Dave

Looks like the first Editor beta seems to be out!