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jeremyb wrote:This really was the anti-forum fest, Mark and I with our Prestige Ibanezes, Kris with a BC Rich, and all digital gear

Considering the number of kempers, axes and helices we have on here now, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate.

hamo wrote:

jeremyb wrote:This really was the anti-forum fest, Mark and I with our Prestige Ibanezes, Kris with a BC Rich, and all digital gear

Considering the number of kempers, axes and helices we have on here now, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate.

HA! True!

And I've owned every version of pod since 2.0 you 'Johnny come lately'

Looked like a fun afternoon!

hamo wrote:

jeremyb wrote:This really was the anti-forum fest, Mark and I with our Prestige Ibanezes, Kris with a BC Rich, and all digital gear

Considering the number of kempers, axes and helices we have on here now, I'm not sure that's entirely accurate.

Please refrain from mentioning that Line 6 Helix thing in the same sentence as quality Kemper product.

jeez,did you burn your toast or something?
helix is perfect for what i need.And i like FX.Kemper didnt tick those boxes back when i was looking.

I bought a Helix in the first batch that RS got in last year. Sound quality, especially for clean and low gain amp models, and quite a few of the effects, was very disappointing compared to the Kemper. And extremely poor compared to my Deluxe Reverb and Vox amps. (It did look good, I'll give you that)

this is exactly what i was driving at-i have no need at all for clean and low gain amp sims.Do i need to have three different DMM type delays in a row self oscilating? sure do.And also the fact that its all on the floor with no need for rack cases and separate switching units seals it for me.And the fact that the interface is super easy and fuctional-i can make all manner of adjustments easily on the fly.
This was one of the things we all agreed on at the fest too-when you are at home listening in isolation you are gonna pick the shit out of your tone-and youll get something you like perhaps..then bring that to the jam room and watch it dissapear into the aether.
I'm not sold on the sound 100% either at the moment but i still have a few more things to try before i write it off as a performance tool.Its been excellent when I've recorded though.

I get quite amused by the strength of feeling some people get about various bits of kit - especially since for the last 20 years even cheap and nasty kit is perfectly capable of sounding great in the right hands. I think most people will agree the player is more important to the end sound than brands and models.
Not withstanding, despite being very interested in gear and a bit of a tech head generally, I have never been so unmoved to try a piece of gear as has happened with the Kemper. Not only do I find myself put off by its cosmetics, but the whole idea of a machine that just copies is so uninteresting to me that I wouldn't cross the street to try one.

I have a fair bit of disdain for the Helix users who try to make then sound exactly like some recording or whatever as well. If what you want is the exact sound of a particular amp then go buy one! God forbid that any of us ever sound unique or original!

What makes the Helix so great is that, on top of a foundation of incredibly good sounding amps (don't care if they are accurate) it has amazing creative possibilities through great sounding FX (don't care if they are accurate) with the best user interface ever developed for this type of kit.

and those scribble strips!

and yes Ive been gigging with it, straight to the PA and its fantastic.

Horses for courses, of course. I will just say the Helix is sold as basically have pre-made copies of a limited number of amps built into it, so your argument bemuses me.

Having A-B-C'ed the Helix, Kemper and some of the amps they both claim to sound like, I found the Helix a distant 3rd in my aural preferences.

Conway wrote:Horses for courses, of course. I will just say the Helix is sold as basically have pre-made copies of a limited number of amps built into it, so your argument bemuses me.

Having A-B-C'ed the Helix, Kemper and some of the amps they both claim to sound like, I found the Helix a distant 3rd in my aural preferences.

I had a go at making some high gain patches for my HD500X and they sounded shit, downloaded some decent patches from some pros and they are night and day, mine sound like a metal zone into a peavey rage in comparison like anything digital, the helix needs time put into it to get the best out of, either by yourself, or by others who have tread that path for you... it's newness was probably working against it, Kris' one sounded great during our testing

jeremyb wrote:

Conway wrote:Horses for courses, of course. I will just say the Helix is sold as basically have pre-made copies of a limited number of amps built into it, so your argument bemuses me.

Having A-B-C'ed the Helix, Kemper and some of the amps they both claim to sound like, I found the Helix a distant 3rd in my aural preferences.

I had a go at making some high gain patches for my HD500X and they sounded shit, downloaded some decent patches from some pros and they are night and day, mine sound like a metal zone into a peavey rage in comparison like anything digital, the helix needs time put into it to get the best out of, either by yourself, or by others who have tread that path for you... it's newness was probably working against it, Kris' one sounded great during our testing

I agree to a limited extent. In the Helix you start with what Line 6 give you as the base point, so the tweaks are from then on and limited in what you can do. With Kemper you go back several steps to the sampling of the original amp stage, and there can be huge differences in the starting points for the same amp.

But yeah, the more time you put in, the better results you get.

I must admit I'm curious why you still have tube amps as well? Altho' I do like the tactileness of the real thing, and if you can, why not???

jeremyb wrote:I must admit I'm curious why you still have tube amps as well? Altho' I do like the tactileness of the real thing, and if you can, why not???

1. Because I can.
2. Despite being a bit of a Kemper fan boy, I like to keep a foot in both camps. And I'm prepared to keep an open mind - hence me trying the Helix (but it failed to win out over the Kemper).
3. Convenience of grab and go with a combo amp.
4. Can't think of a 4.

I enjoy playing the Kemper the most, simply because you can go from Fender clean tones to Vox to Marshall to whatever else at the press of a footswitch, which makes things sound more interesting.