Danny B wrote:
Alan, why would you go for an Axe over a Kemper?
They are different things. Quite simply the architecture is better suited to me and the way I work - I'm a tweaker/geek with a studio engineer's approach to FX. Consider that I regard my current live rig (which takes up six channels on a mixer) as a
compromise - Guitar Rig is the only thing that lets me do some of the stuff I want. ...and then I still try do things that make a powerful audio optimised PC fall over. ?
Each has a different approach (convolution with a side order of modelling vs. modelling with a side order of convolution) and each approach has its own pros and cons. I've looked into both extensively (to the point where I have repeatedly read and digested both their manuals, read their white papers, etc.). Best way to describe it for me is to compare them to keyboards: the Kemper is like a sampler - able to take a near perfect snapshot of a sound and replicate it exactly, then apply some tweaking to manipulate that sound. The Axe-Fx is like a synthesizer where the sounds are built from the ground up, offering slightly less realism in tone and feel, but a far higher degree of tweakability.
To be Francis for a moment, a Kemper would replace my Eleven Rack and take my electric sounds to a new level of realism, but I'd still be forced to use my additional (four) effects units to do what I want to do. Sure (as has already been mentioned to me via PM) I could add in a second Kemper for the piezo chain, but that's overkill and I'd
still be short on FX (and floorboard). Plus that's 6U and I'd have to use one floorboard to control more than one unit (as I'm doing now).
The Axe Fx would replace my entire rig (bar guitar synth) with one 2U rack unit. Plus I'd have another two inputs so I could split off the modelling side from my GR-55 and process that in the Axe too, leaving all the fx processing power in the GR for the synth voices. And it's not that there is a tonal trade-off either - the current firmware is more than close enough for rock and roll - a couple of steps up from where I am now.
Not that the Kemper is any slouch either - If I was creating studio tones with a variety of amps, fx, mics and mic pres and I wanted to gig those exact tones, the Kemper would be a no-brainer. Similarly if I wanted to use an awesome pedalboard but have access to a range of high quality amps live, it would also be well worth looking at.
