Axe FX 3 vs. Kemper

[Music With Marky]

Did one more Gear Battle and wanted to share with ya'll. I tried to take a look at these more from the standpoint of how they work plugged in at a home studio. I don't often see people talking about the interface to the PC with these things and I find that to be really important. Is anyone else in here using either of these?

 

[video:youtube]

[Larryz]

Very interesting and cool overview and demo on both units...not long ago there was a thread by J. Dan asking about amp sims. I hope he watches this video even though he was looking for something on the floor and not so much in the studio. Being able to go in and change the amps, speaker cabs, the mics, pedals and pedal line ups, exchange and swap out the power and pre-amp tubes, find the pre-sets others have voted on, store your own concoctions, take it out on the road, etc., etc., etc., could keep one occupied for a very long time. A tweaker's paradise...I better stay away from LOL!

[Music With Marky]

Very interesting and cool overview and demo on both units...not long ago there was a thread by J. Dan asking about amp sims. I hope he watches this video even though he was looking for something on the floor and not so much in the studio. Being able to go in and change the amps, speaker cabs, the mics, pedals and pedal line ups, exchange and swap out the power and pre-amp tubes, find the pre-sets others have voted on, store your own concoctions, take it out on the road, etc., etc., etc., could keep one occupied for a very long time. A tweaker's paradise...I better stay away from LOL!

 

Certainly it's not something you want to get into unless you like spending hours and hours in your room being a gear nerd. =]

[Caevan O’Shite]

I'll hafta check out your video later. In the meantime, may I ask- and I apologize if this IS addressed in your video- how well do either of these "take pedals"? In my limited experience with various digital-modeling and multi-effects units, I've found that I really get more 'natural', authentic sounding results when running some of my favorite pedals before or even after said digital-modelers/mfx. Throw my Sustainiac Model C (discussed in another thread with you here) for feedback and it REALLY heightens the perceived realism and authenticity of the sound, and even the feel and experience!

[Music With Marky]

I'll hafta check out your video later. In the meantime, may I ask- and I apologize if this IS addressed in your video- how well do either of these "take pedals"? In my limited experience with various digital-modeling and multi-effects units, I've found that I really get more 'natural', authentic sounding results when running some of my favorite pedals before or even after said digital-modelers/mfx. Throw my Sustainiac Model C (discussed in another thread with you here) for feedback and it REALLY heightens the perceived realism and authenticity of the sound, and even the feel and experience!

 

I haven't tried throwing outboard gear in front of either. I use the Axe FX extensively live and the effects in it are so good and so varied that I never feel the need to mess with it. The other benefit live is that our entire band goes direct (2 guitars and bass) and, when we have our own sound guy, we get an amazing stage sound. The tendency in local venues is to crank the amps to high and everything become noise. With it all going front of house, our mixing guy has us sounding closer to recording quality. When it sucks is when we aren't allowed to use our own guy and a house guy or a guy for a touring band after us has to run the sound and they just don't give it much attention.

[Winston Psmith]

@Music With Marky - I long ago saw the benefit in going direct to FOH, and have used Multi-FX with Amp & Speaker Modeling for some time now. It also makes for much more compact traveling rig.

 

However, being something of a contrarian, I eventually found the Multi-FX sound too . . . well, consistent, if you can imagine that being a problem. There's no dynamic interaction between, or among, different devices, everything occurs within the DSP chip, so there are no surprises. Pedals can be idiosyncratic, even anarchic, and sometimes that element of unpredictability is just what you need . . . so long as you're not blowing speakers.

[desertbluesman]

I quit using modelers a long time ago. Pod XT, and Digitech GNX2 were the last ones I used for recording and live use. I also had a Tonelab Tabletop for recording clean sounds only, or with a tube distortion stomp in front. I do not miss any of them at all. I use only a slight touch of reverb on both clean and overdrive sounds. That is the only effect I use on top of my clean or overdrive guitar sounds. So I have absolutely no need for modelers or multi effect units. I use only tube amps for home practicing. I have no desire to perform out any more (unless the money would lure me out and it would have to be significant enough to get me outta the house late at night). I play only classic sounding rock, the blues based rock, and the blues. A nice tube amp with a reverb unit and my distortion stomps in front are all that is required.

[Music With Marky]

@Music With Marky - I long ago saw the benefit in going direct to FOH, and have used Multi-FX with Amp & Speaker Modeling for some time now. It also makes for much more compact traveling rig.

 

However, being something of a contrarian, I eventually found the Multi-FX sound too . . . well, consistent, if you can imagine that being a problem. There's no dynamic interaction between, or among, different devices, everything occurs within the DSP chip, so there are no surprises. Pedals can be idiosyncratic, even anarchic, and sometimes that element of unpredictability is just what you need . . . so long as you're not blowing speakers.

 

Fair enough. However, my drummer is enough anarchy for one gig for me. =]

 

[Music With Marky]

I quit using modelers a long time ago. Pod XT, and Digitech GNX2 were the last ones I used for recording and live use. I also had a Tonelab Tabletop for recording clean sounds only, or with a tube distortion stomp in front. I do not miss any of them at all. I use only a slight touch of reverb on both clean and overdrive sounds. That is the only effect I use on top of my clean or overdrive guitar sounds. So I have absolutely no need for modelers or multi effect units. I use only tube amps for home practicing. I have no desire to perform out any more (unless the money would lure me out and it would have to be significant enough to get me outta the house late at night). I play only classic sounding rock, the blues based rock, and the blues. A nice tube amp with a reverb unit and my distortion stomps in front are all that is required.

 

Makes sense. In your application a modeler would just be pretty useless. I am someone who does such a wide variety of chores on the instrument that I have to jump from jazz to metal to pop and so forth. Not carting around excessive equipment to do it makes life much easier. Also, I just really love to noodle with sounds and love the endless options. Sometimes they inspire songs just when trying them out. I get that - for some - the amp in the room is irreplaceable and no model will quite cut it - but I'm also someone who is okay with a sound being used for expression on it's own merits. I'm not worried about how authentic my Mesa patch is. I just listen to it as a sound on it's own and if it inspires a riff, then the job is done.

[desertbluesman]

Makes sense. In your application a modeler would just be pretty useless. I am someone who does such a wide variety of chores on the instrument that I have to jump from jazz to metal to pop and so forth.

The modelers are not useless, not useless at all. I used them to great effect back in the day (Probably 10 years ago) I just decided that it was enough for my experimentation. When I first started recording I used them to great effect on many things back in my analog studio days I had a big bunch of guitar effects, rack mounts full of fully pro gear. Including guitar to MIDI, which went into 4 synths at once. Here is a sample of that Guitar To Midi Thing I did back in the late 80's https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=2022996 My stage name on Soundclick is Harvey Cedars.

 

[Music With Marky]

Makes sense. In your application a modeler would just be pretty useless. I am someone who does such a wide variety of chores on the instrument that I have to jump from jazz to metal to pop and so forth.

The modelers are not useless, not useless at all. I used them to great effect back in the day (Probably 10 years ago) I just decided that it was enough for my experimentation. When I first started recording I used them to great effect on many things back in my analog studio days I had a big bunch of guitar effects, rack mounts full of fully pro gear. Including guitar to MIDI, which went into 4 synths at once. Here is a sample of that Guitar To Midi Thing I did back in the late 80's https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=2022996 My stage name on Soundclick is Harvey Cedars.

 

That was all guitar synth? Pretty cool, man! I dig the synth loop/groove thing happen as the backdrop. The tracking on the lead parts that kick in about a minute is really tight too. I like what you did there.

[desertbluesman]

 

That was all guitar synth? Pretty cool, man! I dig the synth loop/groove thing happen as the backdrop. The tracking on the lead parts that kick in about a minute is really tight too. I like what you did there.

 

The leads were guitar to MIDI, I used a Roland GM 70 to trigger 4 synths 2 Roland D 550's (their first digital synth in a rack mount) A Roland MKS 20 (I think) piano module, and Yamaha TX 802 for the bass parts. I also used a Roland Drum module for the drums and I beat the drums into the sequencer with a Roland Octopad. I did the basses with a MIDI Keyboard and some kind of bass synth I forget what them name of it was, maybe an Oberhiem Matrix 6R. It was just the leads on Android that I Played in live, I sequenced the whole mess with the MOTU Performer 3 a MIDI only sequencer. I shot everything into the sequencer, the guitar parts live played into the sequencer, the rest step timed in, then I shot the whole mess into a C-Cassette all at once, I never had a multi tack audio file, this was a bit before digital recording was accessible to those without a multi-track digital recorder (Probably a hundred grand back in those days). I still have the mIdi file on floppy somewhere (maybe), however I used a Macintosh II (the first color mac) to record that and I now use Windows computers so I have no way to read that disk anymore.