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Got my Helix a Kemper friend


ZSchneidi
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Hello guys,

 

yesterday i decided to myself and my Helix a Kemper.

Mainly because the amp modeling on the Helix couldn't convince me to 100%.

I love the Helix don't get me wrong. And its a total blast to play with this bad boy.

 

But the amp modeling hasn't the kind of character I was searching for.

I get the concept behind Helix and it works just fine for the purpose it was build for.

Its perfect for studio use and even live use. BUT the amp sounds are way to clinical.

 

That may be good for recoding and live no one would even give a f**k.

 

But for my practicing hours which make 95% of my playing time this isn't the sound

I want.

 

So I decided to give the Kemper a try. The first time I played through the Helix I

was disappointed. Doesn't sounded good at all. But after a couple of days I started liking

it.

 

Yesterday I got the Kemper plugged it in and started playing. I had such a grin on my

face. I was absolutely killer. The sound the Kemper provides is on a whole new Level.

 

This may not be everyones opinion. But this special "amp in the room sound" many people want.

The Kemper can provide this. But only character wise not in terms of air movement and sound wall.

 

For me this is perfect and totally true to the original. I'm pretty amazed.

 

But the Kempers effects section is not that good. So i wanna use the Kemper amp sound with the Helix.

Because i term of effects chain management the Helix bosses it. I will take some time to set them both

so the Helix controls the Kemper.

 

Its so much fun to have them both and I already love them both. This is not against the Helix I love it

but the Kemper sound is just so much better.

 

Maybe i do some videos in the future or the rig. And maybe do some comparisons between both.

 

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well.. I went to the store to buy a Kemper.. instead picked up the Helix because a well trusted rep informed me unless you buy the pro profiles I'd be disappointed.
Decided to give this a try and haven't looked back. 
I've had doubts.. but mostly in my ability to set it up properly.. after hours of experimentation I am rather pleased. 
But yes to each his own is right. 
 

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Having come from a Kemper to a Helix I have some thoughts. Keep in mind, I've only had the Helix for a couple of days while I had the Kemper for 5 years. Right out of the gate, I was disappointed in the Helix tone wise. Kemper is really plug in play. Try a profile, if you like it great, if not move on. Most of the user made profiles sound pretty bad, with the exception of a few. So yes, you need to buy profiles usually if you want a great sound. My favorite profile was the AC Morgan 20 which was a free profile and I played on that profile for 5 years. That's kind of why I let my Kemper go. I only need one tone with a lot of effects.

 

The Helix has to be dialed in. It definitely takes more work, however the tones are in there. To say that one box is better than the other is pointless. It's taken me 2 days to dial in a great sound and to get to know the Helix. The routing and effect capability of the Helix is just really top notch. Very sophisticated yet intuitive. I think both units are great. One thing I really love about the Helix that I didn't care for with the Kemper are the dirt pedals. Really really good on the Helix. I'm a huge fan of the chains in the Helix as well. So far I'm happy with Helix. I'm certainly hoping for a more sophisticated IR management system though. Thats the one thing that's pretty ugly with the Helix. Not a huge deal though.

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Having come from a Kemper to a Helix I have some thoughts. Keep in mind, I've only had the Helix for a couple of days while I had the Kemper for 5 years. Right out of the gate, I was disappointed in the Helix tone wise. Kemper is really plug in play. Try a profile, if you like it great, if not move on. Most of the user made profiles sound pretty bad, with the exception of a few. So yes, you need to buy profiles usually if you want a great sound. My favorite profile was the AC Morgan 20 which was a free profile and I played on that profile for 5 years. That's kind of why I let my Kemper go. I only need one tone with a lot of effects.

 

The Helix has to be dialed in. It definitely takes more work, however the tones are in there. To say that one box is better than the other is pointless. It's taken me 2 days to dial in a great sound and to get to know the Helix. The routing and effect capability of the Helix is just really top notch. Very sophisticated yet intuitive. I think both units are great. One thing I really love about the Helix that I didn't care for with the Kemper are the dirt pedals. Really really good on the Helix. I'm a huge fan of the chains in the Helix as well. So far I'm happy with Helix. I'm certainly hoping for a more sophisticated IR management system though. Thats the one thing that's pretty ugly with the Helix. Not a huge deal though.

Well said.. that pretty much covers it.

I've decided even if I DO get something else the HELIX will be controlling it. /

But for now... I was running my Boogie dual rec. Half stack with HD500.. ran pedal to FOH.. and had amp for reference. 

I like this so much I am probably going to do the L3 or whatever the Line6 speaker deal is with the built in mixer.. etc. It's a no brainer. 

I only need a few tones.. clean.. maybe effects.. blah blah.. dirty nasty, clean nasty, and solo w/wah and delays.. this thing is really fun to play with and experiment.

Any tone you DON'T like.. can be removed. Unlike the previous releases. 

There are a lot of tools, and pedal combinations that can get virtually any tone.

I've added a few OWNHAMMMER IR's..still trying things out. But overall I feel it's well worth the money and can't see myself without this pedal

And no line 6 isn't paying me to say that

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I own both. I can assure you, at least in my experience, they both sound great and you'd be unable to discern the difference between them in a blind test. To each their own...

 

Its not like one sounds lollipop or anything but the Helix isn't on the same level right out of the box. There are many comparisons out their which leave the Helix behind.

Most of then indeed because they weren't dialed in properly. Ola did a really good comparison were he compared the Kemper, Axe FX, Bias and Helix. They are all pretty

close but you can definitely tell which on is the Helix. In a mix no chance to tell but isolated you indeed can.

 

 

well.. I went to the store to buy a Kemper.. instead picked up the Helix because a well trusted rep informed me unless you buy the pro profiles I'd be disappointed.

Decided to give this a try and haven't looked back. 

I've had doubts.. but mostly in my ability to set it up properly.. after hours of experimentation I am rather pleased. 

But yes to each his own is right. 

 

 

I'm already looking for pro profiles and don't mind to spend money on them. Its not like we can spend money on Helix profiles which I wouldn't do

because its always a matter on which kind of speaker setup they were made. The Kemper is more likely to sound good everywhere.

I have at least 2 month of experience with my Helix and had struggles in the beginning and have spend days and days dialing in a single Preset.

 

 

 

Having come from a Kemper to a Helix I have some thoughts. Keep in mind, I've only had the Helix for a couple of days while I had the Kemper for 5 years. Right out of the gate, I was disappointed in the Helix tone wise. Kemper is really plug in play. Try a profile, if you like it great, if not move on. Most of the user made profiles sound pretty bad, with the exception of a few. So yes, you need to buy profiles usually if you want a great sound. My favorite profile was the AC Morgan 20 which was a free profile and I played on that profile for 5 years. That's kind of why I let my Kemper go. I only need one tone with a lot of effects.

 

The Helix has to be dialed in. It definitely takes more work, however the tones are in there. To say that one box is better than the other is pointless. It's taken me 2 days to dial in a great sound and to get to know the Helix. The routing and effect capability of the Helix is just really top notch. Very sophisticated yet intuitive. I think both units are great. One thing I really love about the Helix that I didn't care for with the Kemper are the dirt pedals. Really really good on the Helix. I'm a huge fan of the chains in the Helix as well. So far I'm happy with Helix. I'm certainly hoping for a more sophisticated IR management system though. Thats the one thing that's pretty ugly with the Helix. Not a huge deal though.

 

In your case the Kemper would be indeed a bit of an overkill. For only the Morgan you may be getting this from the Helix as well with an awesome effects section.

Like I said above i spend already many days of work for a single preset. And couldn't even get close to what i wanted.

Mainly because the Helix has a Mark IV Model but I want a Mark V sound. So there is no way getting there.

Because 2 different amps. Thats one big reason for me to bet my money on Kemper in that regard. Because I need a variety of amps mainly metal oriented Amps.

Like the Mark V, Randall amps, Engl (the one on the Helix isn't the one I like the most), Mesa, Diezel and all that kind of stuff.

And even if the Helix could provide these amp models. I had to spend too much time dialing them in. This is pretty annoying. I want to spend my time playing

not going through deep editing for days.

 

The IR management you mentioned is a big deal breaker for me too. In my setup I run at least 2 different IRs and its a hell lot of work to even find the right ones.

This gets boring after some hours. So yeah Line6 should definitely work on that feature.

Because the IRs are a big plus for the Helix I would even like to use DI profiles of amps and run them through the Helixs IRs to get the most out of it.

 

 

Well said.. that pretty much covers it.

I've decided even if I DO get something else the HELIX will be controlling it. /

But for now... I was running my Boogie dual rec. Half stack with HD500.. ran pedal to FOH.. and had amp for reference. 

I like this so much I am probably going to do the L3 or whatever the Line6 speaker deal is with the built in mixer.. etc. It's a no brainer. 

I only need a few tones.. clean.. maybe effects.. blah blah.. dirty nasty, clean nasty, and solo w/wah and delays.. this thing is really fun to play with and experiment.

Any tone you DON'T like.. can be removed. Unlike the previous releases. 

There are a lot of tools, and pedal combinations that can get virtually any tone.

I've added a few OWNHAMMMER IR's..still trying things out. But overall I feel it's well worth the money and can't see myself without this pedal

And no line 6 isn't paying me to say that

 

I love the fact that i can use the Helix in perfect combination with over gear. And the Helix will always be the master while the Kemper is the slave

providing me all the amps I want. So i can setup my effects chain in the Helix because the effects management in the Kemper seem pretty garbage compared

to Helix. So like I said they both offer different things for me. Neither the Kemper nor the Helix alone would satisfy me.

 

Indeed you have to use IRs to get even close to a descent sound but like jeff mentions the IR manager is crap. So its too much work to get the right IRs.

 

And yes you get get an almost endless number of different tones from Helix which is nice. But for me its more the one tone I try to get but I would never get

there if the amp model isn't in the Helix. So yeah... what should I do.

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I own both too, love both! don't know witch is better, they're different, like a blonde and a brunette :-) ( helix is the blonde )

 

You are absolutely right man ;) They are both gorgeous models with a nice pair of .... .... knobs ^^

And each with her own special "talents" :lol:

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I own and use both equally...  Helix is usually for church and gigs I want a minimal setup for.

Kemper is when I want to Cadilac mode it and don't care about the extra pedal and head unit.

 

I slightly prefer the amps I have in my Kemper, but it's mostly a wash once you learn to tweak Helix and make tones.

Effects slightly favor Helix.

 

They're both awesome units and if you can afford both, it's really worth it!

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I own and use both equally...  Helix is usually for church and gigs I want a minimal setup for.

Kemper is when I want to Cadilac mode it and don't care about the extra pedal and head unit.

 

I slightly prefer the amps I have in my Kemper, but it's mostly a wash once you learn to tweak Helix and make tones.

Effects slightly favor Helix.

 

They're both awesome units and if you can afford both, it's really worth it!

Which one would you say produces best recording results? 

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Mainly because the Helix has a Mark IV Model but I want a Mark V sound. So there is no way getting there.

 

I love my Helix, and mostly use it 4CM with my Triaxis, occasionally with my Mark V. I don't miss my Mark IV at all. If it's the 'extreme' mode you're missing from the V, I was really surprised to discover that the Helix's Recto Pre was the closest sounding thing I could get to the Mark V's extreme mode preamp .... REALLY close, as compared A/B, Mark pre in the Helix loop vs Helix modelled pres. this was before the Mark IV models and EQ were introduced, FWIW.

 

I really wish that Helix had modelled poweramps without preamps, to support mixing and matching, it'd probably have way more messy combinations than good ones, but from what I can tell, a modelled recto pre into a real simulcasts poweramp sounds awesome.... almost just like a Mark V.

 

 

YMMV

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Yeah thanks man this will all take some time to figure out which profiles are good.

Michael Britt seems to be an icon in term of profiling. So yeah i will definitely check him out.

 

I already had hours of fun exploring free profiles and there are some awesome ones out there.

 

Today i hooked up the kemper with my Helix. Love this so much. The Helix makes adding effects so much easier

then the Kempers internal effects blocks.

 

The Laney isn't really in use here these two go right to my studio monitors

 

img_4051-001.jpg

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Since you have a Kemper I would highly suggest trying MBritt Profiles. They are insanely good, especially his hi gain stuff.

Been there, done that! I have everything he's put out up until about a month or two ago. I have complete, or nearly complete, collections from a few of the profile peddlers.

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(Don't have a Kemper, but I pay some attention, 'cause I wish I did.)

 

Am I right that he doesn't have an "everything" deal? Of you don't mind my asking, what did it cost to get all his stuff?

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I can't remember the cost for the whole thing, but I bought every bundle he had a good while ago, then got him to help me figure out what I needed to complete

the collection a couple of months ago.  He gave me a discount on the last sets I purchased to complete the set.  Mike's a standup guy.

 

I would say it was between $300 and $500 for all of them.

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Not bad, I expected much worse. I've seen people selling Kempers with "thousands of dollars in profiles", and I know MBritt is kind of the gold standard, so I figured, glad I was wrong.

 

And you sir are a lucky man :)

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Today I will give the 5150 Profiles a try and I'm curious how they perform compared to other profiles.

 

So far in my few days of experience I figured out that professional profiles are not guaranteed to sound good.

Its most of the time a matter of the setup even the guitar the profiles were refined with.

 

I bought a Mark V pack which sounded good in the preview but on my guitar and setup it doesn't sounded as good.

So there is a chance that professional profiles may disappoint too. I found free profiles on rig exchange that were way better.

 

The MBritt profiles seem to convince many people. I will see.

 

@zooey

You definitely don't have to spend to much money on profiles.

There is the community driven "Rig Manager" profile pool. With completely free profiles. There are over 10.000 of them.

So enough for everyone to find some really good ones there. My Kemper currently runs 50% pro and 50% free profiels.

 

So in the beginning you can get awesome sounds without even have to spend a single cent.

If you have the one specific amp you love you can try professional packs for that one amp. They cost like 10€ or so.

There are sites that offer bigger packs for like 100€ but i wouldn't buy such packs because the one amp you want may not

even me included.

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