From the Quad Cortex back to the Kemper

Fiftyshadesofjay · March 2023

Long time Kemper user and recent QC user here, just thought I’d share my thoughts after using the QC for a year. I’ve been gigging regularly with the QC but recently traded it for a Kemper Rack and Remote.

First off, wow, I remember the Kemper sounding great but it really is a fantastic sounding thing. I use the M Britt profiles mainly and for me they sound better than anything in the QC. I’d sort of convinced myself the QC sounded bigger and better but that’s not actually the case, it’s possibly the opposite.

Secondly I’m a big effects user and Kemper also does this better. Reverbs and Delays are up there with the best in Kemper and this was my biggest issue with the QC. Delays especially were really bad, they were always too smeared in amongst the amp tone, as if they were ducking automatically.

Form factor and live use. This is very subjective but I didn’t like having the QC on the floor. We predominately play weddings and corporate functions and there’s no end of drunk idiots trying to grab microphones, spilling drinks and falling over our gear. It just makes more sense to have something racked out of harms way. I dread to think what a nightmare I was when attended these sort of things as a punter!

There’s also a few quality of life bonuses with the Kemper such as instant switching, instant tuner, the ability to load up the next song while still playing the older one, the ability to properly re-order songs and let’s not forget the editor (which to be fair is still a bit buggy on the Kemper).

I also think it’s still true the QC isn’t ready, the whole recent debacle over the promised plug-in support certainly pushed me over the edge, that was pretty unacceptable.

But ultimately to those thinking Kemper is past it and old tech, in many ways it’s a far more capable unit than the shiniest new thing and there’s something to be said for how well though out it is.

Danny1969 · March 2023

The thing with the QC on the floor looks like an accident waiting to happen to me too. I had a pint knocked over my floor effects once and it was quite a job to get it back to normal ish ... the screen never recovered and the encoders failed prematurely despite all the cleaning. That was up on a stage but someone put a beer up there while dancing and got me.

Another time I was on a raised seating area of a pub and the punters were dancing lower down which seemed reasonably safe gear wise but some girl was dancing with her drink held by her head, tripped and dumped it over the singers pedalboard. They were all analog pedals so again survived.

There's some great sounds in the Kemper, I prefer it to the Helix and enjoy mucking around with it, a friend has all the modellers in his man cave but I still haven't found a situation to gig in that needs a modeller other than the tribute act I'm in and that's only down to space in the splitter van .. not for sound or size of stage issues.

crunchman · March 2023

I've had a Kemper for around 10 years, and bought a QC a few months ago. Overall I think the QC is a better unit, but that's more because of the routing flexibility. When playing live, I can plug an electric into 1 input, and and acoustic into the other input, and I have flexibility to send them to different outputs.

You can disable the amp block on the Kemper if you want to use the effects with an acoustic, but for the acoustic, the QC is better. It's also simpler for uploading IRs (if you want to use an IR for the acoustic sound).

The QC is also more portable than the toaster and floorboard.

I can get great electric guitar sounds from either though.

Fiftyshadesofjay · March 2023

crunchman said:

I've had a Kemper for around 10 years, and bought a QC a few months ago. Overall I think the QC is a better unit, but that's more because of the routing flexibility. When playing live, I can plug an electric into 1 input, and and acoustic into the other input, and I have flexibility to send them to different outputs.

You can disable the amp block on the Kemper if you want to use the effects with an acoustic, but for the acoustic, the QC is better. It's also simpler for uploading IRs (if you want to use an IR for the acoustic sound).

The QC is also more portable than the toaster and floorboard.

I can get great electric guitar sounds from either though.

I can see why that would be useful, routing definitely isn’t the Kemper’s strength. It’s one thing for improvement if they ever do a Kemper 2.

duotone · March 2023

Fiftyshadesofjay said:

Long time Kemper user and recent QC user here, just thought I’d share my thoughts after using the QC for a year. I’ve been gigging regularly with the QC but recently traded it for a Kemper Rack and Remote.

First off, wow, I remember the Kemper sounding great but it really is a fantastic sounding thing. I use the M Britt profiles mainly and for me they sound better than anything in the QC. I’d sort of convinced myself the QC sounded bigger and better but that’s not actually the case, it’s possibly the opposite.

Secondly I’m a big effects user and Kemper also does this better. Reverbs and Delays are up there with the best in Kemper and this was my biggest issue with the QC. Delays especially were really bad, they were always too smeared in amongst the amp tone, as if they were ducking automatically.

Form factor and live use. This is very subjective but I didn’t like having the QC on the floor. We predominately play weddings and corporate functions and there’s no end of drunk idiots trying to grab microphones, spilling drinks and falling over our gear. It just makes more sense to have something racked out of harms way. I dread to think what a nightmare I was when attended these sort of things as a punter!

There’s also a few quality of life bonuses with the Kemper such as instant switching, instant tuner, the ability to load up the next song while still playing the older one, the ability to properly re-order songs and let’s not forget the editor (which to be fair is still a bit buggy on the Kemper).

I also think it’s still true the QC isn’t ready, the whole recent debacle over the promised plug-in support certainly pushed me over the edge, that was pretty unacceptable.

But ultimately to those thinking Kemper is past it and old tech, in many ways it’s a far more capable unit than the shiniest new thing and there’s something to be said for how well though out it is.

What happened? I must have missed this.

susbemol · March 2023

I think the Kemper's routing options are actually quite good for the main purposes the unit was designed for.

They definitely don't cover as much ground as some of the main modellers but I suspect they primarily wanted to offer a solution for electric guitar and they are not bad in that respect.

Being able to record both the wet and DI tracks and easily reamp all done via SPDIF makes the Kemper a really a brilliant tool in the studio.

Fiftyshadesofjay · March 2023

duotone said:

Fiftyshadesofjay said:

Long time Kemper user and recent QC user here, just thought I’d share my thoughts after using the QC for a year. I’ve been gigging regularly with the QC but recently traded it for a Kemper Rack and Remote.

First off, wow, I remember the Kemper sounding great but it really is a fantastic sounding thing. I use the M Britt profiles mainly and for me they sound better than anything in the QC. I’d sort of convinced myself the QC sounded bigger and better but that’s not actually the case, it’s possibly the opposite.

Secondly I’m a big effects user and Kemper also does this better. Reverbs and Delays are up there with the best in Kemper and this was my biggest issue with the QC. Delays especially were really bad, they were always too smeared in amongst the amp tone, as if they were ducking automatically.

Form factor and live use. This is very subjective but I didn’t like having the QC on the floor. We predominately play weddings and corporate functions and there’s no end of drunk idiots trying to grab microphones, spilling drinks and falling over our gear. It just makes more sense to have something racked out of harms way. I dread to think what a nightmare I was when attended these sort of things as a punter!

There’s also a few quality of life bonuses with the Kemper such as instant switching, instant tuner, the ability to load up the next song while still playing the older one, the ability to properly re-order songs and let’s not forget the editor (which to be fair is still a bit buggy on the Kemper).

I also think it’s still true the QC isn’t ready, the whole recent debacle over the promised plug-in support certainly pushed me over the edge, that was pretty unacceptable.

But ultimately to those thinking Kemper is past it and old tech, in many ways it’s a far more capable unit than the shiniest new thing and there’s something to be said for how well though out it is.

What happened? I must have missed this.

Essentially they’ve been promising NDSP plug-in compatibility for the QC (amongst other things) since it was announced, it was one of the main selling points. They’ve just recently announced their priority will be focused on getting the plug-ins to run on Apple silicon and given a vague promise of an update “later in the year” (I.e. it’ll never happen).

All while releasing a new plug-in.

BGG · March 2023

I own both but not gigged the QC yet as the band has been out of action.

I don’t use a lot of fox, but find both units suit my needs. Both sound equally as good as each other too.

For me the QC is way easier to tweak and edit , no idea why folk keep moaning about no desktop editor.

For me I love the ease of use and it inspires me to play more. I’ll probably move the Kemper on if this works out ok for live use.

Jez6345789 · March 2023

Funny I have been a Kemper user since pretty much day one and love it. But the QC got a lot of traction/hype seemed every thread I read around the web was dumping this old underpowered piece poop called Kemper for superior new shiny thing. I nearly sold the Kemper thinking time for the new shiny thing.

in the end I was talked out of by a friend and I think I dodged a bullet love the Kemper and the Britt profiles and a few others they are some of the best amp sounds I have ever had .

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From the Quad Cortex back to the Kemper

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