A bit of ramble....feel free to jump to the *** for the actual questions!
I used to use a Kemper for a prog rock / metal band. Did a great job. I had a couple of issues with it doing a 'nasal' half-cocked wah thing occasionally but overall great. I loved the ability to have each patch (I forget the terms) a completely different amp. I loved the morph function for controlling mulitple factors at the same time - eq / delay / gain / volume.
I also found the global eq really great for 'sounding out' a venue......far more in depth trying to sort out the multiband global eq for the AX8.
I recall that the gain pedals weren't great and I didn't have the best luck with musical lowish gain sounds.....
The slow boot was a bit of a worry too.
Sometimes the gain sound was a bit congested and I did some recording with my mate's AX8....but I could just be bad at dialling in sounds.
I changed from the Kemper to an AX8 after the prog band folded and I was in a covers band. The rehearsal room always sounded awful, I always struggled to hear myself....I changed to the AX8 and for whatever reason, I worked with that and sold the Kemper.
I could never get the AX8 to do the morph thing.....and found the whole patches/scenes thing more difficult to manipulate to my needs.
Ironically I ended up reverting to my Engl Ironball and pedalboard (with ES-5 and various gain pedals etc) for the covers band, and used a CaptorX for straight to PA. The sound in the rehearsal room was still awful...but always good on stage.
Currently I play in an Americana 7 piece band....and an orignals band that does everything from pop-ish to heavy. I use my Engl/pedals/CaptorX.
I've used the AX8 for the country band for convenience. Fine for the handful of gigs that we've done but have been using the Engl for that recently in rehearsal. And the gain pedal settings change between the originals and Americana band and it ends up being a pain in the butt to revert each time.
***The Americana band has its first festival gig....less than an hour slot and I've been wondering about going back to the Kemper. I find it much easier to use than the AX8 (even with AX-edit). There are great deals on them these days secondhand.
But should I consider other units? I borrowed a Helix Stomp and although I only spent one evening on it....it didn't do great things for me.
Big names have moved from the Kemper to the Quad Cortex....but does the price, whatever is needed to have enough switching options and the learning curve make it worthwhile?
And at the same time as all this, I think about things like the Revv series with built in two notes, the PT15IR and even the Bogner 3534 as it sounds intriguing. But all those things are expensive and difficult for me to try out geographically.
I guess I could just get the Kemper and probably not lose more than a couple of hundred quid in the time it takes me to decide....
But yeah.....ideas / opinions?
Thanks,
Andy
Comments
I'd be the same with a Helix. I've had one for 5 years + and I know how to make it sound exactly how I want. I do not have that experience with other units. Even if I liked the sounds of other units more, "close enough" combined with ease of use and problem solving knowledge wins every time for a gig situation.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
and yes.......pedalboard, ES-5, two delays, noisegate, eqs, volume pedals etc.......EBS cables.....it soon adds up!
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
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Football is rubbish.
I realise how much this sounds like a QC ad, but I was just excited, got it used for a bargain a few weeks back and haven’t been disappointed
I did see a review of a midi device - Morningstar maybe, that had a work around....but of course new firmware may have changed things. Can you comment?
Also can you set patches / scenes so one switch would be a clean amp, the next a totally different high gain amp etc?
But yeah, as far as modwlling, they all sound great if you can dial in a good tone, so after that its just deciding which one you prefer the UI, or which has thwe special features such as amp capture or different switching you want
Enjoy your new kemper!