Kemper Profiling Amplifier Rack BK

I've been a valve amp man for over 15 years and thought i'd never stray from my Mesas and Diezels, but as i've got older it's not as easy to 1) Carry all that around to gigs, rehearsals 2) Jam or record without waking or annoying my kids or the neighbours.

The Kemper seemed like the perfect solution, and so it is. The sound quality is outstanding, truely outstanding. Yes i may take you a while to find your way around it, but once you've got things dialed in the way you want you'll not hear any difference from the real thing to the Kemper. I've profiled and bought some great profiles of my favourite amps, and every one sounds incredible and if it doesn't try it with a different cab or pop some eq on it. The options are soooo vast.

The layout is fairly straight forward, and adding effects to profiles is soo easy. With independent buttons for each effect you choose. Want some delay? Tap it in with the tap tempo button then set your mix level and save. It's as easy as that. Having owned a Mesa Dual Rectifier and Diezel Herbert, the profiles you can get are soo close you'll think you are playing the real thing.

I got the non powered rack head, and its super light. Accompanied by a Thomann rack it's bomb proof and soo much lighter to carry to gigs and rehearsal.

This is the best piece of guitar equipment i've ever owned, and the pros that are dumping their big heads and cabs for a Kemper are testimony to this.

Don't think about it, do it, and buy it from Thomann...obviously.

For my cleaner, plainer amp sounds, I have only ever found/tweaked a few clean patches I really liked on my AxeFx2, and nothing that every felt/sounded much like my favourites: my Dc30 or Ceriatone BM (John Mayer Type Dumble clone)

However, Straight away, on day one with the Kemper, from the free shared KPA patch database online, I have patches that are close enough to these 2 for me to enjoy. Certainly at present, simpler cleaner patches with a lot of amp feel that I would often use are more plentiful on this KPA

I was not initially too impressed with the factory-supplied cleaner or metal/rock sounds on the KPA, and the FX are a bit fiddly from the control panel (although that is compared to the dedicated main controls - volume and EQ - still easier than the AF2). Having the dedicated Bass/mid/treble/presence is such a pleasant change, along with the input gain and volume controls

As I said, the sounds I was looking for were available on day 1 with the KPA (not from the KPA-stock rigs though). The Thomann USB stick had a lot of very good sounds, the free Lasse Lammert Signature Rig Pack is exceptionally good for rock and metal, and the KPA forum has quite a few good ones. I went to specialist profiling suppliers for more ones, you can find a few online

KPA is not as heavy or solid as the AF2. Who cares though, it lives in a rack
KPA has no fan - what a relief, the AxeFx2 fan is very noisy
KPA does not try to blow your speakers when you power off if you forget to mute it first - the AF2 does create a big pop
The AxeFx2 FX are way better (delays and reverbs, pitch, etc), the PC.Mac based AF2 editor is better than using the front panel, making routing etc easy on the AF2, in comparison, the KPA is very simple and inflexible
The KPA deals with different guitars & pickups better (using the clean sense control, and the always-enabled input gain knob etc)

Overall I feel much more like I am playing and hearing a guitar amp with the Kemper, it is perfect for recording. For more ambient and effect-driven sounds, the AxeFx2 would be better

I came from an Axe FX II to this, for use in the studio..
I like to set up my parameters from the front panel, with no computer connected, and the Axe FX was pretty tiring in this respect..
The Kemper is much easier to set up from the front, very simple in fact, and the sounds are of excellent quality..
I found the parameter system a bit alien, not much like anything I've used before.. A bar traversing the screen which increases or diminishes according the the amount of effect.. The descriptions of the parameters too, are unusual in general.. There's nothing wrong with this, but I must admit that personally, I prefer a simple numbers system, and classic parameter descriptions, as per most other multieffects. I feel more at home..
Everything sounds great, but I would have liked a parallel routing option included, and I must admit that after loading the USB amps bundle I got from Thomann, I found that there was simply too much choice.. It's pretty tedious trolling through all those amps to try and find one that suits- some sound quite similar.. but if you don't mind that, there's a mountain of choice.
I loved the automatic volume compensation on the compressor, and particularly on the amp gain.. That saves a lot of messing about.. A great feature.. add as much gain as you like, but the volume level stays the same..
I didn't use the amp profiler, as the available sounds are good enough anyway, so I can't comment on that.. I imagine this would be perfect for someone who wants to sample their own amp sound, and have it at their fingertips in a lightweight box.
This is a great product, but I'm going to change it for the Helix, which wasn't yet available at the time that I bought the Kemper. This is mainly because the set up from the front panel is so easy, and the routing options permit more inventive algorithms.. This is important to me.. However, I can highly recommend the Kemper, it is excellent..