Are Digital Amps Any Good? My thoughts on the Kemper Stage Profiler and Power Kabinet.

Рет қаралды 29,171

Күн бұрын

Are digital amps any good? I have just bought my first Kemper Profiler and in this video I talk about my reasons for going digital but also share my first impressions on the Kemper Profiler Stage and the Power Kabinet.
I decided to go for the Kemper Stage which is a floorboard version of the profiler which has all the same features as the previously launched Kemper Toaster and Rack units. The Rack and Toaster both come as powered and unpowered but the Stage version only comes as unpowered so I got myself the Kemper Power Kabinet to go with it.
The powered cabinet is a 200w transistor that comes with 1x12", the Kemper Kone which was designed by Celestion for Kemper. The Kemper Kone comes with 19 different speaker imprints that can give you different speaker characteristics. You can select the imprints from the output section of the Stage unit and choose between some classic speaker models.
I think it's worth mentioning that you guys are hearing the direct stereo out from the Stage unit in the guitar playing clips. I'm just using the cabinet as a monitor for myself while filming/recording.
I might however do another video soon where I talk about the cabinet in more detail and share some tones as well.
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00:00 Intro
01:02 What is a Kemper Profiler?
02:16 Why did I buy a Kemper?
05:01 Kemper Stage and Power Kabinet
07:05 Your thoughts?

Пікірлер: 60

@donnysarian 8 ай бұрын

Since buying the Kemper a while back, I have pretty much relegated my Marshall JVM 210H, My Blackstar HT20 and my Vox AC30 (I have 2 I use in stereo) to the studio and even then I am starting the use the Kemper for recording much of the time. It was, and is, a total game changer. I have have the Kemper Rack Mount with the Kemper Pedalboard and now I use 2 of their 200w powered cabinets with the Celestion Kemper Cone live for backline monitoring while sending the mains out to the console as we play in medium size venues and it has worked out perfectly. Perfectly! Plus, it is so much easier to transport than a full Marshall rig with a 4x12 cab and my old rack mounted TC G System (all in heavy flight cases). Once you learn the Kemper and all it's quirks it is so rewarding. Just the sag adjust on the amp settings is a game changer for "feel"! Great video and thank you! 🎸

@table72 2 жыл бұрын

Great video and amazing playing as always

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you man 🙏☺️ I believe it was you who first introduced me to the Kemper back in the day.

@davidjoel111 2 жыл бұрын

Ive been using a kemper powered toaster with a kemper kab, love it, I’ve been tempted to buy a tube amp, but nothing beats the convenience of a Kemper

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

I can imagine, I’m loving my Kemper setup so far. Still need to try it out in a band/live situation but look forward to see how it goes.

@rogerburk 2 жыл бұрын

Had a Kemper Stage for about 2 years. Using it with an un-powered Kemper Kabinet with a solid state power amp. Love it! So flexible, so easy to transport for gigs. Love Michael Britt and Tone Junkie profiles : )

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback. I've bought a couple more Michael Britt packs since I shot this video and I'm very happy with those. Got the modern, vintage and blackjack packs so far. Haven't tried Tone junkie yet but tried one from Bert Meulendijk which sounds awesome, some really nice Bogner profiles there.

@rogerburk 2 жыл бұрын

@@Kbald Being an old tube amp guy, I sought to find profile packs that were in the same tonal space that I’ve played in for years. After a while, I secured more solid tones than I will ever use. Now I just need to play more guitar! Good luck on your journey…it’s a fun one : )

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you man, I'm really enjoying it so far and look forward to learning more and to share more Kemper related videos. You are right, there are so many options of great profiles out there. It's going to take a while to play through them all and set up the performances etc. Just received my Mission expression pedals today and setting them up now. Might do a video on those soon.

@djolenis3 2 жыл бұрын

Could you please teach me how to connect it all? I can't get my stage+kabinet to sound good, i must be doing something wrong!

@jackk100 2 жыл бұрын

@@michelmeijer I use a powered Kabinet with a very loud punk/rock drummer and it’s plenty loud enough if you turn on Power Boost in the Kemper (available on non-powered head).

@merliphlan2 2 жыл бұрын

Nice choice ! Back in a day I struggled to choose between helix and kemper. I went for Helix finally, but I think both are great. So true that the digital option is so close to a real amp. Nobody could do the difference. Another good point is that you can have a really good sound even at low volume. Really nice for people like me who lives in an appartement 😅 Glad to see this content on your channel, wait to see more :)

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you man 🙏 I haven’t tried the Helix myself yet but I have only heard good things about it. A very good point you mentioned about home use, totally forgot to mention that in the video. I just really like the fact that I can now practice, record and play live with exactly the same setup. What bothered me a bit with my big and heavy analog pedalboard is that I never used it at home so if I wouldn’t have a gig for a while the levels and settings might be all over the place when I would play the next gig… and there haven’t many gigs since early 2020 unfortunately. I’m looking forward to exploring the world of Kemper further and will definitely make more videos like that soon.

@markinthemix6055 2 жыл бұрын

Thumbs up to you. I’m absolutely sold out to Kemper. Keep it coming

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you man 🙏 Same here, absolutely loving it so far!

@mikeq7096 2 жыл бұрын

Picked up a powered toaster just a couple months ago after years of tube amps. Still working on learning how it works but the fact that its no nut busting heavy is an A++

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome man, these Kempers are super portable. It's been about two months sinche I got mine and I'm absolutely loving it. Only used it in the studio so far and really look forward to trying it at a gig. Did you get some good profiles for your toaster?

@mikeq7096 2 жыл бұрын

@@Kbald I have not added any profiles to it and have been playing around with those that came one it.. I would like to get some from the carving legacy in the future.

@LykaonMetalMusic 2 жыл бұрын

Great video!

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it

@stephanschwenk 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the Kemper Profiler. I'm new on the Kemper Profiler Stage and I've bought one 2 weeks ago. Which profile have you used on your demo with the Fender Strat (starting at 7:09 in your video)? Sounds awesome...

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching! Hope you’re having fun with your new Kemper. I’m not 100% sure which profile I used for the strat. I shot this video about 2 weeks after I got my Kemper so I was using a lot of stock profiles at the time. My favourite Strat profile at the moment is the clean Marshall 72 from Michael Britt with a bit of Klon drive. Highly recommend his profiles.

@jayboy6895 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent episode. I’m a Kemper user. I want the looper pedalboard and a second cab to run stereo

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jonathan! Glad you enjoyed the video. I think I will also go for the second cab at some point.

@georgecraft007 2 жыл бұрын

I bought my Kemper Stage a week ago. I like it a lot. I want to start experimenting with the Morphing feature. I'm picking up a Yamaha FC7 expression pedal for it today.

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome man, hope you’ll have fun with it. The morphing feature is so much fun to play around with.

@georgecraft007 Жыл бұрын

The Kemper Rigs can be overwhelming. I purchased all of Bert Meulendijk's rigs. I have over 2500 rigs in my Rig Manager. I backed up the rigs on my Kemper and then deleted them all. I auditioned many rigs and then finally installed 25 of my favorites on the Kemper. This makes managing rigs on the Kemper much easier. I don't spend much time switching between rigs, because I only use the ones that I require at the time. If I need additional rigs, I go back to auditioning them in the Rig Manager while keeping the rigs on the Kemper to a minimum. The other thing that I did was to create a Rig Manager folder for each artist. This makes sorting the rigs much more manageable.

@J1Z06 2 жыл бұрын

Liked and subscribed I also have a Kemper... very cool piece of gear! You get great sounds out of it.

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Great stuff! Welcome to my channel man. I will definitely be posting more Kemper related videos soon. What type of a Kemper have you got?

@STRATSAFIRE 2 жыл бұрын

Kemper Stage through Kemper powered Kabinet & stereo to 18w Ugly amp (bridged across brite & normal channel) single closed back 12” green back cab. That’s my in studio ambient sound “practice” rig. I’m also known to reamp to my Ugly or to a 108 Headrush powered 2k watt cab on small gigs where next to zero FOH is available or there’s no need for pro sound guy. Big gigs: stage to FOH, I monitor via Harvey IEMS. With a great sound engineer dude this is music heaven.

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for your input. Looks like you've got a pretty solid setup there. I still haven't had the chance to play my Kemper live but really look forward to see how it goes.

@srhatfield 6 ай бұрын

I am now where you used to be ... everything I have is analog. I have a Marshall half stack, various pedals, an SM57 mic, playing around with recordings and what-not. I have found that it is actually very limiting. Just making changes is a pain... like if I want to get back to a certain sound without losing the sound I current have, I have to write down where the knobs on the pedals and amp head are, then change them to where I wanted to return to. Something like the Kemper would be so much easier... but I've always wondered about what all these different Kemper products are and whether or not the Kemper sounds as good as a "real" amp. Thanks for clearing up what all of the Kemper models are.

@h4mammal866 6 ай бұрын

Dumb question, do you use guitar cable or amp cable to connect the kemper profiler to the cabinet?

@stratslinger3921 Жыл бұрын

Hey so can you plug a Kemper stage into a standard combo amp? like a fender combo for example?

@Kbald Жыл бұрын

Yes that is possible. I once tried using the Kemper as a fx pedalboard with my combo and just bypassed the amp and cab sections on the Kemper. Worked pretty well.

@geoffreymerrifield5666 2 жыл бұрын

My love for Kemper grows and grows. Had it for around 2 years. Not a hint of buyer’s remorse, quite the opposite. Got profiles by Guidorist (Guido Bungenstock), Big Hairy Profiles, Maurizio70, Fero72, M Britt, Tone Junkie, BM Profiles (Bert M), Selah Sounds, Howard Benson STL, to name a few that I record with and love.

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Hey Geoffrey and thanks for your input. I am feeling the same way, it’s been nearly 2 months since I got my Kemper and it has become an absolute gamechanger for me. I will definitely check out the profile makers you mentioned there but so far I’ve got most of the M Britt profile packs but also got one from Bert M as well. Lots of great sounding profiles there.

@milankotevski1663 2 жыл бұрын

I returned mine after a week, and I tried everything to make it sound good, by good I mean 2000 usd good, I couldn't, so I sent it back. I get approximately the same results by using something like Overloud Rig Player, or Neural DSP plugins.

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

The quality of the sound you get from a Kemper really depends on the profiles you're using. The stock profiles on my Kemper were OK but for me to get some really good sounds I needed to buy some good profiles. I like the Neural DSP stuff but it doesn't beat the Kemper in my opinion.

@milankotevski1663 2 жыл бұрын

@@Kbald Like I said, I gave it a shot, I used profiles from MBritt, Tone junkies etc, but something was just not right to the point where I started to wonder if I got a faulty unit. Not only was the sound muddy, but there were also things like headphone amp that were driving me crazy. Kemper could not drive my Beyerdynamic dt990 pro 250 ohms headphones without cranking up the volume really hard, my 150eur Audient id4 mkii does it without breaking a sweat. I get sonicaly more pleasing results with my Fender strat into Audient and Rig Player.

@geoffreymerrifield5666 2 жыл бұрын

@@milankotevski1663 Maybe you got a faulty unit. I am 100% focused on recording, and muddy is unacceptable. The tones I get from the purchased profile packs are amazing.

@kennethmeeker6369 2 жыл бұрын

I’ve got the stage I play it thru a yorkville ps12p for home and practice and a Carvin v3 thru fix return Marshall cab 412

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome man. Those stage profilers are so practical.

@firdausHITMAN 2 жыл бұрын

how do you play a Kemper stage through a Marshall 4x12 cab? 🤔thanks

@timp.9582 5 ай бұрын

my question is - this is basically a computer, so what happens when the processor no longer functions correctly, how is this serviced? Does the unit become junk?

@frankbatistaperez4589 2 жыл бұрын

I like kemper brother, kemper😍❤️

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

So do I 🙌 An amazing piece of gear 👌

@BadRobotica 2 жыл бұрын

62 Brownface Princeton. Nothing compares to a tube amp when it’s saturated with goodness and the music starts to flow. It’s tugs at your soul! I know it sounds lame but if you think about it, the Kempers main ambition is to sound like a tube amp and although it is nice the feel is just not there. And isn’t that the destination ! Sorry for the Sappy message. Love ya Pookie

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

Hey man! You are right, nothing beats a tube amp moving the air in the room. The Kemper can never sound just like a Tube amp in the room but it sounds more like a mic'd up amp in a live room, hope that makes sense. The Kemper can copy the tone of any amp very convincingly and the reason I went for a Kemper myself is that it is super practical. You can load all your favourite profiles into the Kemper and play it wherever you want. I love to be able to play it at home late at night for example with headphones on. If I had a soundproof room where I could crank up my amps I might stick to the old tube amps but at the moment the Kemper is making my life way easier.

@iansimmons735 2 жыл бұрын

Sorry if you already know this, but - if you find the Powered Kabinet quiet, make sure you run it as Kemper recommends: 1. Run the volume flat out on the PowerKab 2. Adjust the 'Pwr Amp Boost' setting on the Output menu (page 8/9 in current firmware). Increase this value 3. On page 2/9, unlink the master volume from the Main Out, just leave it linked on Monitor Out. As you probably know the main output volume should be fixed on page 2/9 and not accidentally changed...) I have a powered toaster and a stage but because the stage as you say has no power amp, I decided to get the Powerkab for monitoring. After adjustment, it is now more than loud enough for my needs (pubs and clubs) and I try to use imprints that match the cabinets captured on the rigs (e.g. Celestion V30 etc.). I have not tried it on large venues, I rarely play them. I used to have a Helix but I had to work very hard to get convincing sounds out of it (It is definitely possible) but the Kemper was easy - just a matter of finding the right profiles. I sold the Helix for the Stage (actually my wife bought it for me!).

@jswm92 2 жыл бұрын

Lol I would love to just FaceTime and have you show me a 10 mins run through of do’s and donts 😅

@Kbald 2 жыл бұрын

I guess I have to spend a bit more time with it before I can start sharing proper lesssons but I will try to share some more Kemper related videos in the weeks to come.

@djurt02 Жыл бұрын

I hear it in stereo so it can’t be coming from the kabinet?

@Kbald Жыл бұрын

There is nothing coming from the cab in this video.

@djurt02 Жыл бұрын

Ok, so how can it help me to decide whether it’s a good thing to buy a kabinet?

@Kbald Жыл бұрын

You can check out my other Kemper vids. I filmed this one a few days after buying the Kabinet and as I mentioned in the video this is not a review. I was simply talking about my reasons for buying a Kemper. There are a couple of more recent videos on my channelwhere I talk about my experience.