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I own a Kemper Rack and just pre-ordered yesterday...


glideman
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It probably won't be a hub... it'll probably be all by itself on the stage.  One pedal into some form of amp.

I love my Kemp, but the extra gear at small gigs is a pain in the rear.  I want the simple life again since it's a hobby,

not a primary job.  :)

 

I'll keep the Kemp, though...  rack, pedalboard, amplification.  Now, pedalboard, amplification again.

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Anyone else own a Kemper and jumping off the cliff on this pedal, too?

Not unhappy with my Kemper, either.  I just want another option.  :)

 

Curiosity definitely has killed the cat as well.........    :wacko:  :D

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Anyone else own a Kemper and jumping off the cliff on this pedal, too?

Not unhappy with my Kemper, either.  I just want another option.   :)

 

Curiosity definitely has killed the cat as well.........    :wacko:  :D

 

I own a Kemper and pre-ordered the Helix a couple of weeks ago.  I've already lined up a buyer for the Kemper.

 

I certainly wasn't unhappy with the way the Kemper sounds (provided the right profile is loaded), and in fact I'll be amazed if the Helix sounds anywhere near as good. But I was getting frustrated with its flexibility, or lack thereof, particularly where floorboard integration, MIDI I/O, and routing were concerned.  Enter the Helix - where Line 6 seem to have been specifically focusing on all of the things that were driving me up the wall in Kemper-land.

 

If the Helix sounds even half-decent, I will be in heaven with this new UI and all of the routing options.  And I won't have to spend all my time worrying about which footcontroller to use, how to program it, wire it, etc.

 

No knock on the Kemper - if you're in the studio and want uncompromising tones, or you're on stage and don't mind a more complex set up, the KPA is a great solution.  But I need something simpler, and hope the Helix delivers.

 

Fingers crossed that the amps will be on par with e.g. Postive Grid's Bias Amps, but with lower latency.

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I'd be surprised if they haven't improved the modeling 10 fold after taking so long between the HD line and the Helix.

I'll be keeping the Kemper and FCB with UNO4KEMPER chip, but I like the idea of Helix for live use.  Simplicity...

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I'd be surprised if they haven't improved the modeling 10 fold after taking so long between the HD line and the Helix.

 

I hope you're right (not that I have any real idea what tenfold would mean in this context LOL.)  I am going insane waiting for a product demo that actually includes a variety of amp tones - i.e. the one reason we all use modeling amp rigs in the first place.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm about to come into an inheritance from my dad who died recently.  He loved my playing guitar so it feels 'ok' to spend some serious money on getting the rig of my life.  So I'm gonna get a helix rack, controller and a kemper to go in the loop.

 

Frankly its mahoosive overkill since I'm a bedroom player but its the one chance in my life to buy top of the range and not feel bad about it. 

 

I'm currently rocking a digitech rp500 so I hope there will be a modest increase in feel and tone  ;)

 

Plus all those knobs and lights look pretty lol.

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....

 

Frankly its mahoosive overkill since I'm a bedroom player but its the one chance in my life to buy top of the range and not feel bad about it. 

 

...

My sympathies about your dad, markybird. Since he loved that you play guitar you can rest assured that he would endorse your decision. And don't feel bad about it for a second! Sometimes a person just needs to do what feels good and right for themselves, and indulge themselves despite what a financial adviser might say. You won't regret it, even if it stays in your bedroom.

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  • 2 months later...

Selling Kemper, I hate it.

 

I do mostly recording anyway so I may not need it for live application for a while.

 

I'm a little surprised at this. IMHO the Kemper's impossible to beat for recording, Mathias. Many folks have foregone micing up their amps in favour of the KPA. 

 

Perhaps you'll be able to get closer to what you want sound-wise with the Helix. If indeed you do, that's great, man!

 

It's all good. We truly are spoiled for choice these days.

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No knock on the Kemper - if you're in the studio and want uncompromising tones, or you're on stage and don't mind a more complex set up, the KPA is a great solution.  But I need something simpler, and hope the Helix delivers.

 

Fingers crossed that the amps will be on par with e.g. Postive Grid's Bias Amps, but with lower latency.

 

 

Well let me know how you think it sounds vs Kemper. I Feel the Kemper wouldn't be a hard setup especially with the remote. But I am looking to purcahse either the Helix or Kemper asap. 

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Well let me know how you think it sounds vs Kemper. I Feel the Kemper wouldn't be a hard setup especially with the remote. But I am looking to purcahse either the Helix or Kemper asap. 

 

Alas, it will have been months since I've heard a Kemper by then.  I'll basically be able to post whether I'm happy or not, for whatever that's worth.  I'll probably compare it directly with Bias Amps and offer my opinions there.

 

As for the ease/difficulty of a Kemper, it depends on how you intend to use it.  If you're just running one signal path (4 stomps, 1 amp, and some post effects) and using a footcontroller to select presets, it will deliver.  And yes it sounds amazing and can be made to sound like just about anything you want through the acquisition of new profiles.  I need a few things that 95% of guitarists have no interest in, which made me the token malcontent amongst Kemper-owners LOL.  But the KPA might serve you very well.

 

If, on the other hand, you want real flexibility with effects, routing, expression pedal assignments, USB integration, multiple amps, etc... then the Kemper may fall short regardless of how good it sounds.

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If one has the money, Kemper in the FX loop of Helix would be ridiculously powerful.

 

Sacrificing the $$$ is one thing, and sacrificing the elegance is another.  If I'm going to add another processor, another power cable, a bunch of audio (or spdif) cables, hassle with getting one unit to control the other over MIDI... the difference in tone would have to be so drastic as to imply the Helix itself just made random cartoon noises when I played guitar.  I know some guys will go to any lengths and all that, but I put a premium on simplicity - which is why the Helix is so attractive in the first place.

 

Now if Kemper would license the technology and let you guys put a KPR loading block in your OS, that would be another story...   :)

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Sacrificing the $$$ is one thing, and sacrificing the elegance is another.  If I'm going to add another processor, another power cable, a bunch of audio (or spdif) cables, hassle with getting one unit to control the other over MIDI... the difference in tone would have to be so drastic as to imply the Helix itself just made random cartoon noises when I played guitar.  I know some guys will go to any lengths and all that, but I put a premium on simplicity - which is why the Helix is so attractive in the first place.

Now if Kemper would license the technology and let you guys put a KPR loading block in your OS, that would be another story...   :)

What CK should have done was in some way charge those who are using his machine to profit from the profiles being made for sale. Free profiles would be no charge, Even a small fee for those selling profiles would have brought him in some huge $$$ that he could put to more R&D for even newer products.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...

So old post but it still pops up #1 on Google search

 

Ran through this at a buddy's place...not impressed. Essentially the same amp lineup as the HD500 with some noticeable upgrades but nonetheless at the end of the day...it still sounds like a Line6 version of an amp. 

 

My two cents...If you want simple setup, an unlimited choice of amps and a great sound right out of the box then Kemper's the clear winner. 

 

If you want to spend hours nit-picking your routing and effects, you want an unlimited choice of amps and a great sound then Fractal's the clear winner. 

 

If you want hours of nit-picking your routing, using the same amps that have been modeled for over a decade (the same exact amps BTW), months and months in between updates and an alright sound then Helix is your go to. Congrats, you've saved yourself $500. 

 

 

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The routing is a piece of cake and very fast to set up.  You say "exact same amps" like it's a bad thing.  If they were the exact same models then I would agree.  But the HX models sound a lot better than the HD models did.  It's also not "months and months between upgrades".  Yesterday's 2.0 upgrade was huge BTW.  We got all 3 channels of the Mesa Boogie Mk IV, a couple more new amps, several new effects and Snapshots (similar to Fractal's scenes).

 

I'm also a fan of the Kemper and Axe FX.

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Ran through this at a buddy's place...not impressed. Essentially the same amp lineup as the HD500 with some noticeable upgrades but nonetheless at the end of the day...it still sounds like a Line6 version of an amp. 

 

My two cents...If you want simple setup, an unlimited choice of amps and a great sound right out of the box then Kemper's the clear winner. 

 

If you want to spend hours nit-picking your routing and effects, you want an unlimited choice of amps and a great sound then Fractal's the clear winner. 

 

If you want hours of nit-picking your routing, using the same amps that have been modeled for over a decade (the same exact amps BTW), months and months in between updates and an alright sound then Helix is your go to. Congrats, you've saved yourself $500. 

 

Screw it; I'll bite. Unless your ears are somehow more finely tuned than those of the world-class LA recording engineers we invite to double-blind A/B/X shootouts, sounds like user error, a faulty Helix, cognitive bias, or extremely poor trolling.

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Helix amps sound nothing like HD or other POD amps.

 

Gotta agree with user error.

I've owned a ton, Axe FX Ultra, Axe FX II XL+, Kemper, HD500, X3 Live, Helix, Vox Tonelabs, etc... Anyone that subs their noses at Helix modeling is either a fanboy of something else, or doesn't know how to use this gear very well.

 

Fractal, Helix, and Kemper are all operating on a high level, and it's really mostly personal preference and such at this point.

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