warwickhunt

K10 not K10.2 so 'luckily' no firmware required.

If it is current/present use then I've just moved from RCF 310s to QSC K10s (mk I). They are used singly as my personal monitor in a loud band and/or as a single/pair in a much quieter 'acoustic' duo (vocals and guitar through them). The RCFs were great little cabs that punched above their weight and were drafted in a few times to supplement a larger PA with RCF 15s. The move to QSC was as a result of the potential that they would be my only reference for bass + band mix. Despite the wattage difference being 350w (RCF) up to 1000w (QSC), there was very little real world difference in perceived volume but the QSCs were all round a more 'musical' tone, especially if you put the 2 side by side and played prog music through them.

Run away!

The 2 oldest blokes with the most experience in the room, discussing the routing and procedure to get the Kemper to profile an old 15" speaker... it makes me smile.

...and me looking like a mad professor swapping between Thunderfunk/Mesa Boogie and Thunderfunk/Mesa Boogie 'profile'!

I also bought the (cheap as chips) Lekato 5.8GHz as I was tired of my much more expensive 2.4GHz Line 6 unit dropping out! No difference in sound quality (IMHO), 1/6th of the price and no drop out; win/win/win.

RCF310a - Don't worry about it being 10", mount it on a speaker stand at head height to the side of stage where you stand (if you move around stage a lot you need to rely on PA foldback) and you'll hear yourself no problem. It isn't strictly FRFR but tbh I tried the 12" Headrush AND Alto speakers and the RCF was more effective and didn't require as much EQ putting back into it. Budget wise I just sold a pair of the 310s for £380, to buy a pair of used QSC K10s for £800... they are not twice the speaker of the RCF but they can be used as a better fit for various applications that I need. Oh and just for giggles; I've chased the silent stage/IEM/monitor/preamp/IR/Profiler for over a year... to come full circle back to using my Thunderfunk 550 amp and a Genz Benz 212 cab for 'MY' on-stage monitoring. If I need to use my rig for small rooms I can do so without troubling our PA and as the venues step up in size, my DI (which is always, regardless of room size, fed to the PA so that anyone using IEM can get my signal) gives the option of taking the heavy lifting.

I've taken a step back from the whole digital/profile/IR/cab sims et al and had a good think. Personally I think I got swept along by other people's desires and opinions in my bands (silent stages / IEW etc) and lost sight of the fact that I get a great sound from my gear (amp and cabs) and the new 'direction' was just trying to replicate what I already had but in an alternative form. If an amp and cab sounds great to me and works, I can still send a DI feed to the desk which can do what it needs, why would a pedal/preamp/Kemper etc be any better? My bass sound on stage can't detract from the FOH bass sound and if the band member using IEMs wants to hear the bass he can just blend it from the desk. In short; a digital/pedal/preamp format gains me nothing over what I've used traditionally. Don't get me wrong, some of the profiles I've heard are excellent and a profiler gives you the chance to switch from Mesa to Ampeg to Hi-watt via every amp in between BUT I personally use pretty much ONE sound for every gig and I like my Thunderfunk, so why would I need the ability to have all of the others in a 'live' setting? Studio guys might love this flexibility but surely the studio has this facility? Either way, I'm reverting to amp>cabs+old school pedals.

I could be wrong but someone trying to shift wedges of dodgy money is probably going to flag up well in advance of a meet up i.e. they'll not be ar5ed about haggling or may not even care about the instrument. To top it all off there are probably more counterfeit F*nder basses than their are counterfeit notes! Just saying.

Thunderfunk.

Last night's gig was 'work'! I turned up, I entertained, I got paid, I went home. We were booked to play mixed covers (2x45) at a working man's club in an ex mining village, to an audience of regulars + the local football team's presentation award. Well, the football attendees didn't turn up, the heating in the club was broken and as a result the few punters who turned up didn't stick around, mainly due to the fact that it was a massive flat topped concert room that could easily hold 500, hence it was 'cold'. In fact I had to play the 2nd set with my coat on (it was a nice coat btw). To top it off some young woman thought it was OK to ascend the stairs to the stage to take over on the vocals! We immediately stopped playing, which is just as well because it meant I was on hand to grab her arm when she drunkenly brayed her head off one of the club's speaker cabs mounted on the wall. As the woman was lead away by friends, the band started up again (back in on the same bar we stopped on without even a count in )... only to have to stop 16 bars later as the drunken lady's friends shouted abuse at us for not letting her sing! Hey Ho, they were escorted from the building by club staff. However, 2 songs later we stopped yet again mid song, as 3 club employees remonstrated with a drunken bloke who was staggering around an empty dance floor with a full pint in his hand ('NO glasses on the dance floor' signs displayed all the way around the room). We got through the rest of the night, stripped down (photo of my rig so it didn't take long... thankfully), got paid, with apologies from the staff and promises to get us back as we were great and 'SO professional'. It sounds like a whinge but it isn't really! I've been doing this for 40+ years so I know that I will get nights like this (and possibly worse) but who knows, the next gig might be a screamer and balance is restored!

For me the Kemper was a complicated solution to a 'silent stage' set up. I tried various modelling pedals to FOH + IEM but nothing sounded right to me. Moved to various pre pedals to FOH + monitor but not convinced. Kemper was the ideal solution to capturing my amp and cab sound to send to FOH + my monitor but it is overkill. I spent a long time doing proper A/B comparisons and eventually plumped for an analogue preamp pedal + effects with 1 send to FOH and a split out to my side-fill monitor.

...or this!

There's a guy called Wilf who hand winds, makes pups inc covers/cases etc. GHOST pick ups. https://www.facebook.com/ghostguitarpickups

What will the net gain be? I've viewed some gigs as 'paid rehearsals'... but if you aren't getting paid it isn't even that! Personally (certainly lately) I value my time and the other things in life I'm putting off for these gig times. If you and your band mates have absolutely nothing else on, then maybe crafting your live performances could be a good thing!

I've had a year (+) of trying out different combinations but yes, I have peace and tranquillity!

I spent 4 hrs today with another bassist who has also recently started down the road of Kemper Profiling and between us we profiled, tested and compared a variety of permutations. I came to the conclusion that yes I probably don't care much for these sims/IRs/profiles et al. and it pretty much renders my original question as pointless! LOL

I bought it used, it was easy enough to sell for the same price. I actually disabled the cab sims as I disliked all of them, I felt the pedal sounded better with them disabled. The issue with any of these pedals with in-built captures or files downloaded from sites is that the tone/sound of the amp simulations just isn't a sound I like.

I bought one recently but tbh it didn't suit and I found the cab sims... Meh! I'm sure it is ideal for some especially if it does the core tone you want but I couldn't get out of it what I wanted.

Pretty much my thoughts, views and tribulations right there! The guitarist in my bands (same one in both) has been an advocate for years and owns most of the big names (Fractal, ToneX, Helix etc etc). He swears by them and as he owns our PA and does the live sound for us, he has been the driving force for me trying to go silent stage and 'digital'. I've tried the bass IRs, Cab Sims etc in his pedals and racks + other gear I have begged, borrowed and bought inc me buying a Kemper Profiler (used); this last was the ultimate commitment to getting to terms with getting something which I am happy with. *Crux* 'I am happy with' - I know many of the combinations of equipment I have tried have supplied a decent enough sound/tone to FOH but I've never been happy with what 'I' am hearing! Playing live (what I do rather than recording), has to be a pleasurable experience, it's why I do it. Yes I want the audience to be happy but I am making music for me as well. I don't want sh*t amps and cabs that give me a woolly mush, I don't like the IEM experience (hasn't worked for me but I will be trying again), IRs never quite feel/sound right and I feel I'm almost dealing with a 2nd rate amp sounds. We are talking small differences here but if I've got a good sound that I'm happy with why would I accept something not quite as good? I think sometimes manipulating these digital sounds is so complex that you end chasing your tail and making things worse! Hence I was hoping if there was a way to capture my amp and settings in an idiot proof way, I could go that route but its not to be. A few of the analogue preamp pedals I've used have been good but not quite right so maybe I need to persevere and find the right preamp... or take my bass amp along to gigs (sans cabs) and take line-outs to the PA and my monitor. LOL