I bought another Kemper!

    Just got a brand new Kemper Rack yesterday. I have been using a used Kemper Stage that I bought back in Jan 2022 and it's a whole new experience. The Stage came with a ton of profiles that were unusable for me (high gain and lots of distortion) so I deleted all the rigs and loaded a few profiles that fit my music better, The new Rack unit came with only factory content. I was surprised at the quality of the factory loaded rigs, much better than I was expecting. I will be busy for weeks going through all of them.


    I did not order a remote for the Rack because it sits right next to my desk and figured I can live without it. I'm guessing there's nothing I can do with a remote that can't be done from the Rack unit itself. (?) I hope it's not needed because I'm short on floor space around my desk, I didn't even hook up a volume pedal for the Rack.


    I'll probably have to ask a few questions because of the differences between the Rack and the Stage but hopefully not. First thing I am wondering is what the heck is the Quick button for? The stage doesn't have one (as far as I know). I had to read the manual before I could even turn the Rack unit on, I was looking for a simple power button and never would have thought that power on/off was done with the chicken head knob. At any rate I am very happy with Kemper and am sure I will be busy for quite a while.


    "Faith don't need no second opinion"

    Like 4

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    My next question is, what is the best (easy and cheap) solution to using wi-fi with the rack? I found a video that recommends using a wireless wi-fi bridge dongle;

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005…o2ov_dt_b_product_details


    I have a router in my setup for my Behringer X32 mixer, can I just run a Cat6 cable from the Kemper Rack to the router? The router has no internet access but I don't think that's needed for the iOS Rig Manager app. If this can be done, does the cable need to be shielded and does it need PoE?

    "Faith don't need no second opinion"

    Quick Button Assignment and PoE information are on page 16 and 17 of the 8.7 Addendum to the manual.

    Quick Button Assignment information is on page 34 of the Main Manual 8.5, page 43 states this about the network connection port "NETWORK: Here, you can plug in a KEMPER PROFILER Remote", I can't find anything else on that connection but I might be just be missing it elsewhere.

    Quote from Edward Dixon

    I have a router in my setup for my Behringer X32 mixer, can I just run a Cat6 cable from the Kemper Rack to the router? The router has no internet access but I don't think that's needed for the iOS Rig Manager app. If this can be done, does the cable need to be shielded and does it need PoE?

    From my understanding, the Cat6 cable does not need to be shielded, internet access is not needed to use iOS Rig Manager with your Rack, and you do not need PoE if you re not using a Remote.

    Just going back to your original points:


    1) there isn't anything you can't do without the remote ( except perhaps the looper) that isn't done on the unit but its less easy to access. I assume you are using Rm to manage it which is the easiest.


    2) There are very few differences between the stage and Rack unit, almost identical so you shouldn't take long to acclimatize


    Have fun!

    I'm havening a ball. So far I've gotten about half way through the installed rigs and found a couple of new favorites. When I get to the bottom of the list I plan to remove all the rigs that didn't sound good enough (to me) to give a rating to. So far, that means all but about 10 rigs.


    I'm using Rig Manager and the front panel of the Rack. It has actually taught me more about the Stage unit. Running RM with 2 Kempers can be a little tricky if one is not paying close attention.


    I don't use the looper on my Stage and won't miss it on the Rack. I may eventually want more pedal inputs but I'm just using 1 pedal for volume at the moment. I have 3 loopers and 2 drum machines that run completely independent of the Kempers. The looper inputs are fed by aux outs on the board (X32) so I can route any channel on the board to the looper.


    The main reason I have a second Kemper is for wireless use with my pedal steel and other instruments when I have a friend over.

    "Faith don't need no second opinion"

    Like 1