Hi everyone - my first post here.
I’ve pre-ordered a Stadium XL. The TL DR is that I’m excited about lots of the bells and whistles which is moving me over from a Kemper. This is a bit of a leap of faith which I didn’t see coming!
I’ve never actually tried a Helix or any of the other current digital gear out there beyond my current Kemper ownership…. History-wise, I had a first generation Pod rack back in the old days, a bass Pod and finally a Pod XT. I then went Vox Tonelab before going real amps for a while then settled on Kemper - I’ve been a happy toaster user for 12 years and believed I’d go that way when I finally upgraded.
The reason that moving back to L6 after all these years is looking likely for me? I don’t play live any more but I *might* have the chance of some very small cafe gigs (myself and my daughter). A unit that has a better looper which can cope with vocals and guitar plus have backing tracks built in is really appealing to me for this reason. In terms of playing, I’ve played much less in general the last few years and really need to get myself back into the game. I’m hoping that learning a new toy will inspire this.
Other things - The new focus view with dragging in vague directions on the amps / fx is looking really great - with my Kemper, I do not really tweak beyond the basics and I know that perhaps I should - I instead just load a different profile. Focus looks like a good match to my brain. I like the idea of a touch screen plus lots of physical controllers.
I am hopeful that the actual sounds in the new Stadium are a step forwards vs my Kemper and, as I’m upgrading from 12 year old hardware they should be! Not just with the new L6 modelling method but also the upcoming cloud based capture which should *at least* match my current Kemper and hopefully outdo it. I’ve got no guarantee of this but logically it will do so.
Reading on this forum, Kemper seem to get a lot of stick and seem to be considered to have fallen behind sound-wise. Me in my bubble has had no exposure to competitor gear - my toaster still sounds good to me still and my original intent was to upgrade to the Kemper MK2. Although I’m sure they’ll get the sounds even better vs what I have now, I’m struggling to want to upgrade to a unit where the only benefit to me would be to improve the core sounds. I don’t use tons of effects per patch so the extra slots there aren’t really an upgrade that I need. Also, as mentioned, I’m in a bit of a rut and something that has *exactly the same functionality*, as good as that is, isn’t causing me to hit the ‘buy now’ button. I shouldn’t go looking for inspiration in gear but it’s worth a try! For sure, you can argue the sound is the most important thing but for what I do, I’m not unhappy with the sounds I get now in the original. It’s all the other cool stuff here that is driving the change.
I feel bad as my toaster had constantly and incrementally improved vastly over those years - delays, reverbs, fuzz etc really weren’t great at first but they’ve had a really good track record of updating for free. It’s been a solid platform for me and I’ve never considered moving till now. I’m glad to see that Helix has had 10 years of improvements too - that’s important to me. I get the impression that the last upgrade greatly improved the core sounds due to the cabs being redone for instance.
Enough from me - I’m looking forward to learning more as their (very good) teaser campaign continues and hopefully I’ll get my mojo back learning a new toy this side of Christmas.
I’ve pre-ordered a Stadium XL. The TL DR is that I’m excited about lots of the bells and whistles which is moving me over from a Kemper. This is a bit of a leap of faith which I didn’t see coming!
I’ve never actually tried a Helix or any of the other current digital gear out there beyond my current Kemper ownership…. History-wise, I had a first generation Pod rack back in the old days, a bass Pod and finally a Pod XT. I then went Vox Tonelab before going real amps for a while then settled on Kemper - I’ve been a happy toaster user for 12 years and believed I’d go that way when I finally upgraded.
The reason that moving back to L6 after all these years is looking likely for me? I don’t play live any more but I *might* have the chance of some very small cafe gigs (myself and my daughter). A unit that has a better looper which can cope with vocals and guitar plus have backing tracks built in is really appealing to me for this reason. In terms of playing, I’ve played much less in general the last few years and really need to get myself back into the game. I’m hoping that learning a new toy will inspire this.
Other things - The new focus view with dragging in vague directions on the amps / fx is looking really great - with my Kemper, I do not really tweak beyond the basics and I know that perhaps I should - I instead just load a different profile. Focus looks like a good match to my brain. I like the idea of a touch screen plus lots of physical controllers.
I am hopeful that the actual sounds in the new Stadium are a step forwards vs my Kemper and, as I’m upgrading from 12 year old hardware they should be! Not just with the new L6 modelling method but also the upcoming cloud based capture which should *at least* match my current Kemper and hopefully outdo it. I’ve got no guarantee of this but logically it will do so.
Reading on this forum, Kemper seem to get a lot of stick and seem to be considered to have fallen behind sound-wise. Me in my bubble has had no exposure to competitor gear - my toaster still sounds good to me still and my original intent was to upgrade to the Kemper MK2. Although I’m sure they’ll get the sounds even better vs what I have now, I’m struggling to want to upgrade to a unit where the only benefit to me would be to improve the core sounds. I don’t use tons of effects per patch so the extra slots there aren’t really an upgrade that I need. Also, as mentioned, I’m in a bit of a rut and something that has *exactly the same functionality*, as good as that is, isn’t causing me to hit the ‘buy now’ button. I shouldn’t go looking for inspiration in gear but it’s worth a try! For sure, you can argue the sound is the most important thing but for what I do, I’m not unhappy with the sounds I get now in the original. It’s all the other cool stuff here that is driving the change.
I feel bad as my toaster had constantly and incrementally improved vastly over those years - delays, reverbs, fuzz etc really weren’t great at first but they’ve had a really good track record of updating for free. It’s been a solid platform for me and I’ve never considered moving till now. I’m glad to see that Helix has had 10 years of improvements too - that’s important to me. I get the impression that the last upgrade greatly improved the core sounds due to the cabs being redone for instance.
Enough from me - I’m looking forward to learning more as their (very good) teaser campaign continues and hopefully I’ll get my mojo back learning a new toy this side of Christmas.
