Thank you. I guess i was hoping there would be a quick way to do it myself, but i really should have looked up the service center thing first. I just assumed, or 'misremembered' from some other user saying he had to ship it to Germany.... Thank you.
Any advice on how to get it out? Is there a simple, clean, bungleproof way to open this thing up? Do i have to open the Hex side screws or the bottom screw-screws? I have been using it happily for a few years, but may have to sell because of a job furlough.
I don't suppose there are any authorized service centers in the US, right? Everything has to be shipped to Germany?
Every time i use the Stage, after some brief period of time (5-10 minutes?) it crashes. Sound stops, and at first the screen is normal, but then the screen goes to the KEMPER PROFILER readout, but then it hangs and doesn't reboot itself. I have to unplug, replug and that corrects the problem, until the next time. Today, it happened after just two minutes.
I didn't do anything. I was just playing a simple profile, not tweaking, not footswitching, nothing. Just playing. That's the same experience each time it crashes—not due to my interacting with the Stage or the editor.
I'm running RM 3.4.57 and firmware is current, 8.7.10.38833
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I've been using the Kemper for around 6-7 years now and I have NEVER been able to get a profile to sound even remotely close to what it sounds like when I hear it on YouTube or elsewhere. At first, I thought I must be doing something wrong. But I've checked every setting on my Kempers (I have two, so I know it's not a faulty Kemper). I've tested the profiles through ATH-M50x headphones, through my Yamaha HS8 monitors and through our live PA setup (all QSC bins and tops). I've recorded them as single take guitars and double-tracked through my Clarett 4Pre USB interface into Reaper. No matter what I do, they never sound like what was advertised. And it's more than just the difference in tone from fingers.
For example, the Top Jimi VH packs sound nothing like what I hear when I listen to the demos. They're all quite thin and muddy/dark. TAF profiles all seem to have way too much low end. MBritt profiles don't have enough top end. I use Charvel Guthrie Govan signature model guitars; so I'm not using some cheap $400 guitar with garbage pickups. So that's definitely not the problem.
So I've given up on trying to recreate the sound of what is advertised. I usually now just start with something that is close, and tweak until I like it. MBritt seems to be the closest starting points for me and usually, just adding some high end clarity gets those to a usable state for me.
Don't get me wrong, I still love the Kemper. The pros of having everything I want in a small, transportable unit FAR outweigh the cons. I've got a bunch of sounds that do sound really good live. I just wish I could get sounds to be more similar to what I hear advertised online.
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Specifically, re the Top Jimi VH pack—I had the same experience. Bought the Kemper primarily on the strength of the promise of getting ‘perfect’ Van Halen tone, just like I heard in so many different demos, but in my hands, it was thin, weak, with not enough gain. I had to boost the profiles’ gain in the Kemper and tweak and supplement in other ways. This was all with an EVH Wolfgang guitar, so it wasn’t like I was trying to match my results with the wrong guitar…..
I ended up selling that guitar, for other reasons. I just wanted to build my own version of a Frankenstrat-ish thing. I put a Pasadena Black pickup in it. And Boom—that guitar makes those Top Jimi profiles sound exactly as they’re supposed to. Stock. No tweaking.
It’s a very hot pickup, and I guess it’s significantly hotter than the stock Wolfgang? Maybe there’s another way to equalize/normalize pickup outputs with Kemper settings—but I didn’t get these types of results with the methods I tried.
So, to you and theplayer —the OP— pickups may be extremely important if you are really critical in nailing tones. Not just pickup types, but the other more nuanced characteristics, as well.
The OP referenced getting tones like from Joe Bonamassa’s Les Pauls… but needs to be aware that the Kemper doesn’t model guitars. You have to feed it a Les Paul for it to sound like a tone that uses a Les Paul. If that was already obvious to him, I apologize, but it’s clear in other discussions that not everyone knows this.
Further—and specific to the Tone Junkies reference… it may help to identify one profile maker as your source. Because it becomes easier to recognize if their profile demo tones are realistically attainable for you. Tone Junkie is my primary source when I buy. I am able to use similar guitars to what they show in their demos and pretty closely recreate those results. You just get familiar with what you need to tweak to match a tone. But I will use profiles from where ever. I have a LOT of profiles, and if I am looking for something specific in a search through the rigs I already own, I will audition ten or so without really caring who made them. Usually I will choose one because it needs no tweaks.
That’s where the fun starts, though. I find 9/10 times that if I’m really loving a profile, if I experiment with swapping in one of my own IRs, I’ll find an IR I love and then if I go back to the normal/stock IR, and A/B them, the stock one will sound pretty lame in comparison. IRs are fantastic for making a great sound even better.
You can arrange cabling for two loops mono out and stereo in.
You can switch these on and off independently and use one or both at a time.
However, as you cannot feed a stereo signal through a mono cable, if you put both loops in series and activate both, the second loop send will merge the signal into mono. Otherwise a stereo send would be required. But if the two sends of the Stage had this capability to act as a stereo send, other sends would be lacking for a second loop as there are only SEND 1 and 2.
If you don't want to put both loops strictly in series, you could either play with the Mix parameter of the second loop or you put the two loops in the modules DLY and REV and try with the parameter DLY+REV Routing set to -100%.
Thanks, Burkhard.
I only partially understand this, though.
Okay, so if putting the two loops in Serial 'cancels out the Stereo' in one of those loops, is there a way to not have them in serial? Which would be, what, parallel?
And experimenting with the DLY+REV routing, is that a 'workaround' to simulate parallel? I'm assuming i lose something from both loops in doing this, correct? I'll try it, but it just sounds like a compromise.
The SENDs are mono and therefor perform a mono mix even if the modules ealier in the signal chain are stereo.
Huh? I get that the send is mono—it’s only one TS cable—but are you saying that my one effects loop is stereo, but then when I add a second loop, hoping to also be stereo, that second loop is being given only a mono feed and the two loops are then working through each other? I thought the point of two stereo loops wouod be for them to be independent and reaching the Kemper separately.
Bottom line—there is no way to have two independent stereo loops on at the same time?
So, i've been happily using one stereo effects loop with delay and reverb pedals. But, i've just acquired an Eventide H9 and i'd like to use the H9 in a separate stereo loop, so that i can put it Either before or after the amp block, depending on the type of effect i have it set on.
So, i have mono Send going into a Boss DD-200, which feeds a UA Golden Reverberator in stereo for the loop i've been using.
And now i have the second mono Send feeding the H9, and returning stereo to the Kemper.
In Rig Manager, it seems the H9's loop is only in stereo when the DD-200/Golden loop is OFF. When they're both on, the H9's loop works only in mono.
Is there any way to 'reset' the Stage? I've tried unplugging it a few times, which has worked in the past. Now, though, when i plug back in, the power is already on and it's already in a boot stage, but it ends in the error screen advising me to photograph the screen and email support (which i've done).
Just hoping to find a quicker response/solution here....
I guess i need to create a backup with Rig Manager and then do a factory reset?
This is the kind of thing that keeps me interested in products like the new UA 'amp' series. If i were in a professional/gig situation right now, oh. my. god.
Interesting - if I decide to dive back into IR's at some point, which ones do you recommend?
Also, do you find they help with profiles that didn't quite work tonally with certain pickups (e.g. too bassy or trebly), or do you really need to start with a profile that works well already?
I am not dedicated to any particular source for IRs. And, some of the darlings on TGP I don’t find to be up to the hype. I have some Ownhammer, Tone Junkie, York Audio, some random freebies. Just a mixed bag.
I don’t think I’m in the position to answer your second question. I don’t bother swapping IRs until I’m already happy with the profile I’ve tweaked. And I have profiles that are tweaked for each specific guitar. So, before I audition IRs, I have edited the profile for that guitar, it’s working and I’m happy. Then, finding a better cab is like turbo charging the profile sometimes and sometimes it’s like a significant modification of the tone.
It’s shocking, typically, to go back to the profile I was happy with (before delving into alternate IRs) and find that what I liked now sounds pretty bad in comparison. IRs make a huge difference.
Each time i buy a new amp profiles pack, or go on a tone-matching quest, i start with stock profiles and tweak them to reach a specific objective. I'm usually very happy at the conclusion of that little process. But, then i go into the IRs thing. I start by sticking the stock IR into a folder i call "A/B testing." And then i go through the 100 or so IRs i have been working with, but only with the appropriate IRs for the amp. And as i go through them, i drag the ones i like into the A/B folder. I eventually end up with about 10 in the A/B, and i just go through them and compare one to the next, and delete the copy that 'loses' that individual battle. From that, i end up with a winner. And 95 times out of 100, the winner is much better than the stock.
Which is bizarre, because i started the whole process really, really liking what i had done with the Stock IR. But, after A/B'ing all my favorite IRs, when i go back to the Stock, the stock sounds flat and muffled.
I think the key, though, is to create a process for auditioning IRs that keeps you out of a rabbit hole. Something that limits the number you will test and the time you spend. I do all of what i just described in five to ten minutes, just strumming the same few chords and just getting very quick impressions and making quick decisions.
The next day, there was another update. That 'cured' the most significant problem, where the profiler couldn't recognize the Stage At All. But, now i still get that message on occasion when i boot the Stage, and i have to Quit RM and restart it. Previously, i could just switch the Stage from Browser to Performance and back again and the RM would then be in sync and would show me all my amp parameters.
Now, though, that 'trick' doesn't work. Even if i don't get the error message about the Profiler not being recognized, the app doesn't communicate to the Stage. I will click on profiles but the profiles are not switching in the Stage... and i have to quit/restart the app.
Ideally, i want to be able to keep the RM app open at all times, and have it responsive when i turn the Stage on.
Seems like i just updated RM to Version 3.2.70 (17270), and now "Rig Manager cannot find a profiler or connect to the device."
The STAGE is at 8.7.1.13somethingorother.
No other changes. USB into iMac Mojave, 10.14.6.
Usually, when i leave RM running, but shut down the Stage when i'm not using it, when i turn the Stage on, i sometimes had to switch between Browser and Performance and back to Browser modes to get RM to work. That's not effective anymore.
The Hi- and Lo-cut thing seems to have helped me. I’m not certain, as i may have been messing with other things around the same time, but when I set these parameters, I reached a place where I am thrilled by the Kemper and I can’t imagine anything else sounding better—including real amps.
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So the time it takes to switch off the Stage is not because the device is doing necessary processing but just to avoid accidental shut off.
In other words: It is correct and safe to shut it off from the power distributor and it will switch on automatically when switching on the power distributor.
Correct?
It sounds fantastic to me.
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I said it was to prevent accidental shutoff, but I only read that in a forum response to someone asking the same questions. I don’t know that this is the actual reason. I don’t recall if that answer was for an ‘official’ source.
