# My first gig without a tube amp



## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

I purchased a Kemper Profiling Amp from Steve's Music about 2 months ago. I've been a tube amp guy since I started playing in 1964 but I took the plunge yesterday and played a gig with just the KPA. My setup was the Kemper direct into the Presonus mixer to the PA and monitors. We use Yamaha MSR800 powered monitors and I had one directly in front of me with the house mix in it. I use the Behringer FCB1010 midi board to control the KPA and have installed the Uno4Kemper prom chip in it. The Uno basically makes the FCB1010 plug and play with the KPA.

The Kemper has a feature called Performance Mode which allows you about 150 performance slots, each with 5 assignable patch slots, all switchable from the midi pedal. I have set up each Performance Slot with a different song from our set list. Depending on the song, I can have 5 foot-switchable patches in each performance, one for verse, chorus, lead solo, etc. as well as 5 effects switches for each patch. I then arranged the performances in the same order as our set list. The versatility this allows is almost infinite.

So how did the gig go? 

Let me say that it was very unnerving to look behind me and not see an amp. But we had several dry runs with the KPA at rehearsals and the gig went off without a hitch. I got a ton of compliments on the guitar sound from friends (musicians) in the crowd as well as from the other members of the band. After a couple of songs I was very comfortable just hearing my guitar from the monitor and I have to say that stage volume was much more manageable. A couple of trips out into the crowd (I'm wireless) confirmed that the sound was really good and the guitar was definitely sitting well in the mix.

I have to say that I will probably not be going back to hauling around a tube amp again any time in the near future. The digital age has definitely arrived for me.


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## urko99 (Mar 30, 2009)

Congrats Don. The technical plateau has been reached!


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## Steadfastly (Nov 14, 2008)

Another hard sell has seen the light. Congrats on the positive performance. I'm sure your ears appreciated it too.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Steadfastly said:


> Another hard sell has seen the light. Congrats on the positive performance. I'm sure your ears appreciated it too.


Glad to hear it went well. 

For me, I never know who my soundman is and it requires a good PA. Since the bands I'm in won't be playing the snazziest venues its just safer to stick with the halfstack.


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## Jim DaddyO (Mar 20, 2009)

That is great. It is always good to hear of an experiment that was successful. Congrats!


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

Thanks everyone!

BD


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## djmarcelca (Aug 2, 2012)

I love going amp less.
but it takes more preparation to make sure you get a good sound. It helps to have your own p.a.

Premier guitar has a real good article about amp modelling and live gigs.


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

djmarcelca said:


> I love going amp less.
> but it takes more preparation to make sure you get a good sound. It helps to have your own p.a.
> 
> Premier guitar has a real good article about amp modelling and live gigs.


I agree. I spent many hours, both at rehearsals and alone, fine tuning my patches, adjusting settings on the Kemper and the Presonus board and just getting used to how the Kemper functions. It was really a lot of fun as well. I had an Eleven rack a couple years ago and could just never get it to work for me. But the KPA was really easy to learn and set up and I am extremely happy with how it sounds and with its versatility.


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## Intrepid (Oct 9, 2008)

I will be honest. I look at your post and the photo and I am overwhelmed. I wouldn't know where to begin. Good for you in being open minded. Even better that it all worked. Congratulations.


Big_Daddy said:


> I purchased a Kemper Profiling Amp from Steve's Music about 2 months ago. I've been a tube amp guy since I started playing in 1964 but I took the plunge yesterday and played a gig with just the KPA. My setup was the Kemper direct into the Presonus mixer to the PA and monitors. We use Yamaha MSR800 powered monitors and I had one directly in front of me with the house mix in it. I use the Behringer FCB1010 midi board to control the KPA and have installed the Uno4Kemper prom chip in it. The Uno basically makes the FCB1010 plug and play with the KPA.
> 
> The Kemper has a feature called Performance Mode which allows you about 150 performance slots, each with 5 assignable patch slots, all switchable from the midi pedal. I have set up each Performance Slot with a different song from our set list. Depending on the song, I can have 5 foot-switchable patches in each performance, one for verse, chorus, lead solo, etc. as well as 5 effects switches for each patch. I then arranged the performances in the same order as our set list. The versatility this allows is almost infinite.
> 
> ...


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## deadear (Nov 24, 2011)

Does not Edge use something similar. He has a foot switch for every song he plays live so it has to be patches also I would think.


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

Intrepid said:


> I will be honest. I look at your post and the photo and I am overwhelmed. I wouldn't know where to begin. Good for you in being open minded. Even better that it all worked. Congratulations.


Thanks, Intrepid. It really isn't as complicated as it looks. The top row of knobs/buttons is for your effects, cabinets and modulation control (much like the knobs on your pedals). The bottom row is just like the knobs on your amp.... treble, bass, middle, presence, gain and volume. It is all very logically laid out (those Germans, you know) and I was able to use it right out of the box with barely skimming the manual. There is also a great forum on the Kemper web-site with a ton of helpful people, just like on GC.

The hardest thing for me was letting go of the way I have done things for so many years. I guess an old dog really can learn a few new tricks :smile-new:.

Don

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deadear said:


> Does not Edge use something similar. He has a foot switch for every song he plays live so it has to be patches also I would think.


You may be right. I have to say that setting up the midi pedal board was the most difficult technical aspect of the whole thing. I had never used midi before and it was a tough concept to grasp at first. Now that I have a handle on it, I think it's a very powerful method of controlling everything and I'm sorry that I never gave it a go sooner.

BD


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## Guest (Oct 16, 2013)

deadear said:


> Does not Edge use something similar. He has a foot switch for every song he plays live so it has to be patches also I would think.


The Edge's latest rig from CAE's FaceBook page: 



> Custom Audio Electronics
> This is The Edge's "Fractal Rack". Just one of many systems I have designed and built for him. — in Los Angeles, CA.


Big_Daddy, congrats on going digital. I still bring along a powered wedge for personal monitoring. I just can't trust that I'll get enough of me in the monitor mix to hear myself well. But otherwise, I've been doing it exactly the way you did it there for going on 5 years now.


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## Big_Daddy (Apr 2, 2009)

iaresee said:


> The Edge's latest rig from CAE's FaceBook page:
> 
> 
> 
> Big_Daddy, congrats on going digital. I still bring along a powered wedge for personal monitoring. *I just can't trust that I'll get enough of me in the monitor mix to hear myself well.* But otherwise, I've been doing it exactly the way you did it there for going on 5 years now.


This is never a problem for me coz I run the sound mix from stage.  What have you been using for the last 5 years?

BD


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## Guest (Oct 16, 2013)

Big_Daddy said:


> This is never a problem for me coz I run the sound mix from stage.  What have you been using for the last 5 years? BD


I'm a Fractal user. 

Back in Canada we ran our own mix, with IEMs, and a board big enough to support enough monitor sub-mixes for us to make it work well.

But I'm playing more small club gigs here in California and it's house sound systems which are usually one mains mix and one monitor mix. Vocals, obviously, have to take precedence in the monitor mix. I'll cart along my EV Live X powered wedge and run an output off my Axe-Fx II to that. I'll still give FOH a direct feed, but I'll use the wedge to put more of just me in my corner if I need it.


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