Digital Disease - Kemper!

[playpunk]

So about 6 months ago I bought a Kemper profiling amp. I was looking for a silent stage solution, and didn't want a Helix or axe fx.

Long story short, this thing freaking rules. The onboard drives are meh at best but the amp sounds are amazingly sweet, and the wet effects are good too. I'm still running an unnecessarily huge pedalboard, but can't imagine going back to an analog amp for my current playing situation, which is either at home with the chilluns sleeping or at church with an otherwise silent stage.

Has anyone here gone over, in whole or in part, to a digital solution?

[somnif]

I use a Fender Mustang amp as my current rig, and its.... worth the 90$ I payed for it. Its modelling is somewhere between "ok" and "meh", and most of its effects models are fairly decent. Its control scheme is a pain though...

But i live in a tiny apartment on a grad student stipend, so it works. 99% of my playing is through headphones these days.

I'm considering saving up for one of the new(ish) Vox neon tube amps. They have good reviews and even the cab simulation for headphone play seems to be pretty good.

[Muadzin]

Axe user and proud of it. Saving up to buy a 2nd unit. Since I've starting using the Axe I barely build pedals any more. It was reaching ridiculous levels anyway, but with every build I could still rationalize to myself 'I might use this on my pedal board'. Not anymore. This thing rocks!  Once you've figured out how it works you can build a signal chain however you want it. Until you run into DSP overload. Which I doubt any modeler will ever avoid, as they are like modern computers. The moment you make them more powerful, so will the apps running on them. The net result being that computers are still as slow as they ever were. On the downside you are limited by DSP power, which isn't as limited as I make it sound, I just run into it occasionally because I use a godawful lot of FX. Plus for every preset you basically have to build a pedal board from scratch. With pedals you have what you got always at hand and for every song you use what you need. With the Axe for every song (if it has a dedicated preset) you basically start all over. On the plus side, this means you also have the freedom to create unique pedal boards for each song.

Learning the Axe was a challenge. Using Axe Edit helped, but the manual is big and therefore daunting. But the amp sims sound great and get better with every firmware update. It's an amazing gizmo, and I love the ability to go direct. Silent stage for the win! My last band's final EP recording was fully done with the Axe. There are a few sounds I like that I can't get from the Axe (yet). A few of the crazy Line 6 sounds, like the particle verb, or the filter delay come to mind. Or a good in your face gnarly fuzz sound. Or some of the Big Muff variants that I like. But enough to haul additional pedals for along? Nope.

[WormBoy]

Has anyone here gone over, in whole or in part, to a digital solution?

I have played for years through a digital effects pedal with amp/pedal modelling, but at some moment ditched it all to go analog again. There was 'something' not quite right about the sounds, but can't define it. Then I discovered pedal DIY and it's been analog pedals mostly since then. I do have a Boss Cube with COSM, that I occasionally use for small gigs; it's ok, not great, but highly practical and compact. I also have a Boss multitrack with COSM, and the clean and slightly-gritty sounds are really convincing. Heavier drives not so much though it may be matter of more tweaking. For me, mixing in digital effects like delay, reverb and chorus are totally fine, but I like my basic sound analog, and I am too lazy to try out all the new fancy digital stuff that's coming out to see if it there's one out there that works for me. And, the most important thing, in the end, is not your gear but what you have to say, musically, and how you say it .

[gordo]

in the end, is not your gear but what you have to say, musically, and how you say it .

+1 on that.  I've used one of everything, although the digital stuff hasn't stuck with me and I don't want to spend Kemper/Axe/Helix levels of $$$.  If it's "your" sound then how you get it makes little difference.  I've played the Axe floor version and dug into a Kemper for a few minutes and was very impressed with both.  I'd think if you're gigging without a road crew or are playing stuff that needs a ton of different sounds these things would be ideal.

What scares off a lot of folks is the learning curve to get these dialed in (as previously noted).  It's not as simple as plug in and turn it up.

[Frank_NH]

I used to use a Digitech RP1000 multi-effects pedal for my gigging pedalboard.  Compact and convenient, with zillions of effects, amp, cab, wah models.  Sounded great.  Then it crapped out on me in the middle of an outdoor gig, and I had to use my amp alone (no pedals!!).      But it turned out to be - liberating!  My amp had a crunch channel and I was able to do most of our songs with that alone.  And I could just focus on my guitar and not all of the pedal settings.

Since then I've gone with a completely analog pedalboard and have been able to dial in great overdrive tones with only a few relatively simple pedals.  Lesson learned.  My amp is a Roland Blues Cube Artist (80W), which I set to run clean with reverb to taste.  I could just as easily use a clean tube amp (like a Deluxe Reverb) - but I don't because I find most tube amps are too heavy for regular gigging.  The cube is only 35 lbs!   

[sonnyboy27]

I got to play a Kemper a couple weeks ago. It sounded really good. I was playing a Matchless model so now I'm kind of gassing for a Kemper and wanting to build a Spitfire.

[playpunk]

I got to play a Kemper a couple weeks ago. It sounded really good. I was playing a Matchless model so now I'm kind of gassing for a Kemper and wanting to build a Spitfire.

It is really good. No way around it. Waaaaaaay easier, in terms of live sound, than a 15 watt amp. I sold a bad cat cub to fund the kemper, and it was totally worth it.

[Aleph Null]

I haven't gone digital, but I have gone amp-less. I use an analog pre-amp and cab simulator. Everything fits on a Pedal Train Jr. This has the benefits of a quiet stage, but prevents me from the endless tweaking and knob fiddling I would do with something like a Kemper. To be clear, I think a Kemper (or similar) is an excellent solution for some people. I also know myself well enough to know that I would tweak obsessively and never actually make any music if I used one.

[playpunk]

I haven't gone digital, but I have gone amp-less. I use an analog pre-amp and cab simulator. Everything fits on a Pedal Train Jr. This has the benefits of a quiet stage, but prevents me from the endless tweaking and knob fiddling I would do with something like a Kemper. To be clear, I think a Kemper (or similar) is an excellent solution for some people. I also know myself well enough to know that I would tweak obsessively and never actually make any music if I used one.

I thought about going this route. When Rej dropped off the face of the earth I decided to forego the preamp and cab sim. When I started having some amp issues I just ordered the stinking kemper. It is really really really good. No tubes to change, no volume issues.

[Muadzin]

What scares off a lot of folks is the learning curve to get these dialed in (as previously noted).  It's not as simple as plug in and turn it up.

True. But doesn't the same basically apply to DIY? A lot of people are scared off building their own pedals because soldering is like magic to them. They would rather spend €200 on a boutique pedal, then solder one themselves for a fraction of that cost. And if you master the art of building your own pedals, guitars and amps, can you then not master the art of dialing in a digital modeler? Which in my opinion is a lot less difficult then doing the former.

As for being afraid you will end up constantly tweaking all the time, is that any different then constantly building new pedals all the time? I built like 4 to 6 pedals a month on average. I've lost count in how many dirtboxes I've built, but the number of Big Muffs alone numbers in the dozens. Considering what I read here all the time I don't think I was the only one building a lot.

[Aleph Null]

As for being afraid you will end up constantly tweaking all the time, is that any different then constantly building new pedals all the time? I built like 4 to 6 pedals a month on average. I've lost count in how many dirtboxes I've built, but the number of Big Muffs alone numbers in the dozens. Considering what I read here all the time I don't think I was the only one building a lot.

With pedal building and guitars, I'll obsess over something until I settle on the mods/pickups/values or whatever, and then I build it and I'm done. It's a workflow thing. With modeling, there is little friction in editing and nearly endless parameters to edit. With a pedal, once it's built, it's built, and I rarely have more than three knobs to consider. It's the same reason my amp has one tone knob, I use only a Pedal Train Jr., and my guitar only has two pickups; the more choices I have onstage, the more time I'll spend tweaking onstage and the more I invite disaster.

I guess what I'm saying is I, personally, don't have enough self control to just use presets onstage, or to be content with presets for any length of time. I think Kemper, et al. is a great solution for someone who is more disciplined. Working in the analog realm makes the "cost" of tweaking for me just high enough that I will pause and consider before cracking open an enclosure or rewiring my whole pedal board.

[gordo]

What scares off a lot of folks is the learning curve to get these dialed in (as previously noted).  It's not as simple as plug in and turn it up.

True. But doesn't the same basically apply to DIY? A lot of people are scared off building their own pedals because soldering is like magic to them. They would rather spend €200 on a boutique pedal, then solder one themselves for a fraction of that cost. And if you master the art of building your own pedals, guitars and amps, can you then not master the art of dialing in a digital modeler? Which in my opinion is a lot less difficult then doing the former.

As for being afraid you will end up constantly tweaking all the time, is that any different then constantly building new pedals all the time? I built like 4 to 6 pedals a month on average. I've lost count in how many dirtboxes I've built, but the number of Big Muffs alone numbers in the dozens. Considering what I read here all the time I don't think I was the only one building a lot.

100% on both counts.  I've spent years getting to where I am with builds.  You could extend that analogy even further...if I'd spent the same amount of time just practicing the guitar I should be pretty smokin by now :-)

It's a discipline no matter how you approach it.  The flip side is that a buddy of mine plays a Les Paul thru a 50w plexi with a 4x12.  And a cable.  That's all he owns.  He gets one of the best live sounds I've ever heard.  It's time that he's spent learning the nuances of his set up.  Same thing only different.

[peAk]

Digital simulations brought me back to analog.

[Leevibe]

I drum a lot with a friend who has gone over to the Kemper. It's Amazing. I hate how good it is. Haha. Profiling is serious next level. Nothing like the line 6 modeling etc. It's seriously legit.