I have both. Like the sound of both but I use the Kemper more often. I just have some profiles (Tone Junkie, M Britt and TAF) that just work for me.
QC has nice usability but is lacking in substance (editor, models, effects, plugins). So - at least for me - QC is more of a promise while Kemper is already there.
I luv my TJ and RM profiles,,still use the Morgan AC,,,
as far as the sound of the units go,,maybe someone smarter then me can chime im in, but as far as I have read/ heard, these units dont have a "sound" of their own, maybe im wrong, I think the more power/speed it has, the closer it can reproduce what its given/or samples,,,,Its a profile player,,that can can altered it after its loaded,,,,, I would love to know, not that it matters,prob not that simple,,( but I am)
I've been a kemper guy for over 10 years ,as well as all the others,,I have my kemper set up, in the quad,now,,I worked years to get it to sound and work the way I like,, I Use what I use now because I'm old,and my back is shot,,I'm mostly blind, cant read the kemper window, under stage light condions, or dark studio, without huge reading glass's, and it fits in a backpack carry on, had nothing to do with sound,but thats just for me,,kemper now has a home in the studio, and the others travel,,Love me a KP-V2........man can dream cant he???
The Kemper definitely has it's own color to the sound. Personally, I just EQ things until my ears tell me it is right.
Thought I should give an update to this thread that I started a while back. I'm still using my Quad Cortex, the Kemper is in the rack in the studio as a spare, the bass player uses it occasionally.
I really do prefer rack gear for studio and gigging, I still long for the always on tuner over the on switch, tuner activated when volume pedal 0, and some of the lovely reverbs and delays.
I hate draping xlr cables across the floor to the iem and recording rack, potentially midi cable, usb and speaker cable from my Seymour D Power amp etc to trip over or fail.
But to me the QC sounds incredible. I'm nothing special on guitar, but I do chase tone and have produced a fair amount of music in the genre I like.
I mostly play quite sludgy drop tuned rock, the signal chain in the QC might help explain why I'm loving it.
The input now has a noise gate built in, that goes into an always on modelled compressor, modelled wah, then profiles of a Klon, (sounds slightly nicer than my tumnus) into a profile of my tube screamer, then into onboard models of an mxr flanger, tremolo and boss chorus, then the signal splits into three separate outputs... (normally i'd have the modulation later, but I'm pushing the QC to its max and this is a compromise).
1) goes to a profile of my Black Big muff, into a model of an analog delay, into an amp profile of a Marshall 2204, model of a cali76, then model of plate reverb, then out to my power amp and 4x12
2) goes to fx loop 1 with green big muff, then back again into modelled delay, 2204 amp profile, model of dual 4x12 greenback with ribbon and 57, modelled compressor and modelled reverb, then out XLR L
3) goes to fx loop 2 with orange big muff, and back again into delay, Sunn Model T amp profile, then models of dual 4x12 V30s with ribbon and 57, compressor and reverb, then out XLR R
All of it has a global EQ and limiting
The switches work so that all 3 big muffs are activated on one foot switch, same with the identical delays on each channel.
I've also got the big muffs profiled and deactivated but available on the grid if the pedals fail. I still prefer the real pedals but its so marginal I could easily live without.
This set up gives me:
on stage 4x12 (which could be swapped out for a cab sim and recorded), and then two separate amps and chains for FOH and IEM monitoring (plus recording)
To get round the rack issue i've recently bought a bluetooth midi adapter and battery powered blue tooth midi foot switch, works perfectly. But I'm still wishing it all had the form factor of the Kemper.
The Kemper is still wonderful, especially at cleans, reverbs, delays, but I've barely touched it since owning the QC and can't achieve what the QC does in the setup above.
I have an old Kemper Head. I have not had a chance to try QC or Fractal or Helix hardware, so I cannot tell about the difference. I read everywhere about the "Kemper sound". I have not heard it in my unit so far, maybe it is because I did not try any of the above side by side.
What I have started though is to use the Kemper via digit i/o and use my Focusrite Clarett+ IOs for guitar in and monitor out. This is in my bedroom studio only. I find it much better, and it actually sounds stellar to me. Few comparisons I tried since I have been using it like that are some plugins. Free ToneX player with factory captures, Helix AU plugin, Logic Pro X amp emulations. My verdict on sound quality: 1. Kemper, 2. ToneX, 3. Logic 4. Helix. None other than the Kemper has the harmonics as an amp has. If you play anything on the Kemper on higher notes, you hear as if the strings you play on were thicker physically. It's thick and harmonic rich.
I would be quite curious to compare the Kemper with better external preamps and converter to QC and some newer Fractal units (Axe-FX III or FM3). This would tell a lot about the real tone properties of the algorithms themselves.
