A lot of people will disagree with my hardware modeler ranking

Not without these. Hahaha.🤣🤣🤣🤣

17427420_800.jpeg
maestro.gif
 
I like the live features of a rack mounted digital guitar amp with a foot pedal. I am certainly not alone. Anyone that can't understand the advantages of such a stage setup, hasn't likely played on many stages ..... or is used to doing so with some pretty crappy conditions.

As for all the negative Kemper comments:

As I have already stated, Kemper does not have the most advanced capture capability (I believe that title goes to ToneX). It doesn't have the most powerful editor (that title goes to Fractal IMO), and it isn't the lowest priced full sized stage digital amp either (that title goes to Helix .... but only by $100).

It does do a tube amp better than Helix though.
It is much easier to understand than a Fractal Axe III Fx (and much less expensive)
It has the most advanced on-line sharing system of any digital amp
It doesn't change the sound of your patches/rigs when the software us updated or new features are added
It is more stable and more ergonomic to use live than the QC

Anyone that can't see how there are lots of live gigging musicians that would find a Kemper the best-in-class simply aren't being level minded about the discussion.

Best for everything and everyone? Certainly not. Better for many people? Certainly so.

FWIW, I have heard enough people having issues with the QC that I wouldn't even think about buying one. If you play live, one of THE MOST IMPORTANT aspects of your rig is that it is reliable ..... every night ...... and tough and road worthy.

I do agree that too many Kemper owners try relentlessly to explain away why it doesn't capture as well as other options in the market (or why it doesn't matter). This doesn't matter to me (I don't do captures at all), but for those who do, it should be a consideration in their purchasing decision.
 
Frodebro said:
There was a time when guitarists of very high standing performed entire shows plugged straight into a single channel amp...
Click to expand...
Yes, and it is still a perfectly valid way to gig for many. Nothing wrong with a Vox and a Les Paul.

But .......

Anyone who is in the market for a digital amp isn't likely going to be satisfied with a single tone .... don't you think? Seriously, just because you can listen to music on a record player doesn't make a record player a good reason not to subscribe to a streaming service..... and anyone looking to subscribe to a music streaming service isn't likely to go out and buy a record player instead.
 
OneEng said:
Yes, and it is still a perfectly valid way to gig for many. Nothing wrong with a Vox and a Les Paul.

But .......

Anyone who is in the market for a digital amp isn't likely going to be satisfied with a single tone .... don't you think? Seriously, just because you can listen to music on a record player doesn't make a record player a good reason not to subscribe to a streaming service..... and anyone looking to subscribe to a music streaming service isn't likely to go out and buy a record player instead.
Click to expand...

The presets I use with my band all center around the same basic amp and cab for the sake of consistency. Things start to get freaky in a hurry if you're changing everything up for each song.
 
OneEng said:
Yes, and it is still a perfectly valid way to gig for many. Nothing wrong with a Vox and a Les Paul.

But .......

Anyone who is in the market for a digital amp isn't likely going to be satisfied with a single tone .... don't you think? Seriously, just because you can listen to music on a record player doesn't make a record player a good reason not to subscribe to a streaming service..... and anyone looking to subscribe to a music streaming service isn't likely to go out and buy a record player instead.
Click to expand...
I’m not going to say you’re wrong, but you are making big generalizations. I’ve done plenty 3 button device rigs. Because some people just need clean, dirt, lead. But they want a device that’s tiny AF.

The one guy I did a GT Core rig for is running it into the return of an old solid state head. But we’re redoing his board (basically the bigger nano size) to be his Core, Boss wireless, and a SD PS170. His entire rig (sans cabinet) will fit on a tiny board.
 
SeeD said:
I understand a lot of what you writing, and had the same problems with my presets when owning the Ultra, and then the Axe FX II.
Firmware updates where a lot of fun in the first few years, and I love to get new things but it messes with my presets I had in my bands and as you say we need bug fixes, so I had to update. And if I waited too long without updating the sound would change a lot!

I will say I have read of a lot of problems with the QC, but myself and my other Friends don't have any problems. 3 years owning it now.
I have stopped live gigging, but my other friends are still gigging and they don't have any problems.
With my Axe FX II, I had to repair the value wheel (after 4 years), I had to take it in for modification on the outputs in the first 4 months. I had problems with reamping (the DI level was too low) I tried to get some help but there was none to be had. That bug ed me a lot, As I was recording quite a bit. So that's a lot of problems in my book in just one unit. Axe Edit would crash all the time, with me having to restart the computer. That sucks when you're recording

Like I said so far.. so good with the Quad Cortex.

Ps: I would never ever buy presets for the Axe FX products, as it's too much changes, all the time. And you would have to wait until the maker updates the presets.
Click to expand...
Wow, you're like a walking, talking billboard with your bad luck with Fractal.....sorry to hear about that!

I started with Fractal in 2011 with the Axe-Fx II, and moved on to the Axe-Fx III when it came out.......my experience is 180 degrees from yours....never had anything but perfect performance out of the hardware and software.

Luckily, experiences like yours seem to be in the minority of owners, as the majority seems to be positive. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Fractal device to anyone. That being said......enjoy your QC!
biggrin.gif
 
Frodebro said:
The presets I use with my band all center around the same basic amp and cab for the sake of consistency. Things start to get freaky in a hurry if you're changing everything up for each song.
Click to expand...
Yeah for "FRFR", I strongly urge people to keep the same IR for their stuff. Otherwise it sounds disjointed as hell. Unless, you’re going for that I guess.
 
paisleywookiee said:
I’m not going to say you’re wrong, but you are making big generalizations. I’ve done plenty 3 button device rigs. Because some people just need clean, dirt, lead. But they want a device that’s tiny AF.

The one guy I did a GT Core rig for is running it into the return of an old solid state head. But we’re redoing his board (basically the bigger nano size) to be his Core, Boss wireless, and a SD PS170. His entire rig (sans cabinet) will fit on a tiny board.
Click to expand...

I was that clean/crunch/lead guy when I was in a cover band in my younger days, and that was all I needed. Could I have gotten a bit more mileage out of having a slew of effects? Sure, but I discovered early on that they weren't absolutely necessary. There were plenty of times where I would play an entire set on the crunch channel, just working the guitar volume to clean it up.

Even now, with an FM9, I keep things as simple as possible with my band.
 
some guitarists can do a whole gig with just guitar and amp…others have a warehouse full of gear with complex switching. Nice to have gear that can handle both.

For Kemper when I was happy with the solo tone I started recording tracks and found I was completely buried in the mix. All my favorite MBritt stuff was kinda useless without significant tweaking. That was beginning of the end for me.
 
Chalk me up as one of those idiots that thinks Kemper is still the best. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don’t know if it wins on the graphs but it sounds and feels amazing to me compared to the rest. Its biggest advantage aside from that is the sheer amount of top quality profiles available for it.

Tone X has mostly god awful captures of nam, pods and other modellers, QC is overwhelmingly DI captures that need an IR which defeats the point completely IMO.

Also after using most of them, parallel amps suck for the most part and I reckon 99% of use cases is a couple of pedals up front, amp in the middle and delay and reverb in the end, you don’t really need fancy routing.
 
Rock Chalk said:
Wow, you're like a walking, talking billboard with your bad luck with Fractal.....sorry to hear about that!

I started with Fractal in 2011 with the Axe-Fx II, and moved on to the Axe-Fx III when it came out.......my experience is 180 degrees from yours....never had anything but perfect performance out of the hardware and software.

Luckily, experiences like yours seem to be in the minority of owners, as the majority seems to be positive. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Fractal device to anyone. That being said......enjoy your QC! View attachment 27381
Click to expand...
Hmm a Billboard? :idk
I could lie, but why would I do that... these were some of my problems with the unit I had.
I had a Line6 Vetta, and after 6 months something broke ( a chip ) and wait for it... I had to wait 1 year to have it fixed. That was a big problem, as I was told that, yeah.. that part is coming, something came up, no info for months etc.

I really hope that your Axe Fx III will be in good shape for many years to come! And that everyone`s unit is good, nevermind what unit you guys have, I hope it holds up in tiptop shape!

But I do see some folks say that the QC is a bad product.. for me it`s just right, I love the sounds I get, and it`s easy to use. And if something was to go wrong, I know I can get it fixed, if it`s not something I did wrong, like brake something.
 
Digital Igloo said:
The current Helix Core modeling engine is from November 2022. It was further improved in November 2023. There will be further tweaks to the underlying engine this fall. Anyone implying Helix's engine is from 2015 hasn't been paying attention.
Click to expand...
If I read this correctly then the core modelling engine updates in November were not included in 3.7, but the 3.8/4.0 update this fall will include them and more refinements?

Also, while checking the dates for this I stumbled across the Helix Timeline. This really is an excellent testament to how much work and support has gone into Helix as a product.
 
fiftyshadesofjay said:
Chalk me up as one of those idiots that thinks Kemper is still the best. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don’t know if it wins on the graphs but it sounds and feels amazing to me compared to the rest. Its biggest advantage aside from that is the sheer amount of top quality profiles available for it.

Tone X has mostly god awful captures of nam, pods and other modellers, QC is overwhelmingly DI captures that need an IR which defeats the point completely IMO.

Also after using most of them, parallel amps suck for the most part and I reckon 99% of use cases is a couple of pedals up front, amp in the middle and delay and reverb in the end, you don’t really need fancy routing.
Click to expand...
Apart from the first bit, I genuinely agree with most of what you're saying.

ToneX quality is very poor. NAM is quite poor as well. Capture quality I mean; not the tech.

But when you're rolling your own, I don't think you really need to care about that. And anyone using these products definitely should be rolling their own IMHO - otherwise I literally don't see the point in them using capture tech at all. Because it isn't any more accurate or flexible than using a proper algorithmically modelled version of an amp.

Unless you're capturing your own amp, there's simply no advantage in my opinion.

DI captures are more useful than full-rig captures I think. A lot more flexibility when you pair it with an IR, and if you capture your amp with it connected to a real cab, you get the correct impedance loading as part of your capture too.

100% agreed that for most people, parallel signal paths and W/D/W type rigs and stereo and all the rest of it... nobody wants it nor cares about it. Which is exactly why the big debate about workflow is so silly IMHO.

The base experience of plugging in your guitar, creating a chain of effects, then an amp and cab, then some post effects, and routing it out to a monitor wedge or front of house, as well as a on-stage amp for monitoring that way.... they're all basically the same. Very very little difference.


And to be frank... a lot of people invent problems and go looking for solutions, instead of just focusing on playing their guitar.

My live rig isn't and hasn't ever been a "modelled" rig. The closest I've come is using Helix for effects only. I use an amp, and I use some pedals. I have a fancy switcher, but use about 2% of its functionality. The reason is, playing guitar is just so much more enjoyable when you're not thinking about the gear.

At the same time, I'm a gear junkie. Always have been!!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

GuitarJon
Mesa Dual Rectifier vs 8 modelers!
2
Replies
30
Views
1K
dk_ace
D
laxu
How complex are your go-to presets?
2 3
Replies
45
Views
2K
Joshual-L
J
Orvillain
A 4-cable-method comparison
Replies
15
Views
2K
laxu
laxu
Jarick
Amp Modeler Tier Ranking
11 12 13
Replies
241
Views
30K
JCW308
JCW308
KingsXJJ
Welp, looks like I am a Fractal Wh*re now.
2
Replies
37
Views
2K
Stone
Stone
Back
Top