Re: Kemper Profilier Amp or, careful with that Axe FX, Eugene

[William Walker <billwalker@baymoon.com>]

i'm an axe fx user. have been for several years. first the ultra and
now the II. of course it only sounds as good as the monitors/speakers
you're playing it through. i now use two 10" RCF's and it sounds
amazing to me. having so much flexibility all in one 2u box has been a
godsend. i can create all my ambient textures in it and still use the
same box for my covers band. i also love tweaking, but only go as far
as i need to. there are still many parameters in the amp block which
are a mystery to me. i just leave them set at default.

 First of all don't take what i say as a personal attack Sim because it isn't, but the last sentence of this first statement is exactly why I'm not sold on this thing, why does sounding good have to equate with a bunch of parameters that have very subtle effect, and a huge assortment of options?  I'm saying that if you only use 1/4 of what's available in a device it doesn't strike me as a particularly good value, But then I know this is tempered by the fact that as a life long musician who's part time day job is a whopping 16 hours a week and has to scramble to make the mortgage every month. I used to be of the strata that had to have the latest innovation on the market, and I still certainly have that desire. I had an epiphany a few years ago when things were looking even more  bleak than they do now , I believe whilst lusting after an Eclipse. I realized I'm no longer able to be the guy who can afford the latest and great when it came out.  But the real Eureka  moment for me was  also when I realized that I can pair back to a minimal amount of choices, and believe me my minimal seems excessive to some, and it actually has a positive effect on my music making, because I'm the kind of guy who might obsessively waste an afternoon better spent playing or recording,  tweaking stuff on a a swiss-army-processor. This is a personal short coming of mine. given a  box of crayons  i might actually draw a nice picture, given the ultimate crayon box with every color they make, I might  spend the day trying out every crayon and wondering where the time went. 

for me, it works. it reduced my 12u rack down to 2u and a laptop and
four 1x12 cabs down to two 10" speakers. for someone with early onset
arthritis, that's very very good.

check and double check I had to  give up my monster 90's rig due to a hernia, I also have early onset of arthritis, well maybe not early I'm 55, and I've had repetitive stress issues with my playing thumb for a while now. Too many torture chords i like to reach for and a preference for  big necks  and three note per string scale patterns, I suppose. How I achieved a pairing down is moving to small tube combo amps with a pedal board, or a di rig with a 4 space rack and the mackie equivalent of your RCF's.  I totally get the need to stop lugging heavy stuff around and why this works for you. 

yes, it's complicated, but that also translates into choice. once
you've learned your way around, you figure out what you need to tweak
and what you can leave alone. using the computer editor makes creating
and editing patches a breeze.

I have had no problem  feeling my way around the Axe FX II,  Its not that complicated, but it is deep in minutiae and thats when I start to question the why of the design.  I haven't looked at the online manual, and I borrowed it without one, Its graphic  routing display reminds be of the TC fireworx, there are a couple of things that confuse me like how you can use both amps at the same time, to create a  parallel 2 amp set up, like I'm fond of doing with real amps. but I've really mostly  been tweaking presets and exploring the myriad of amp choices as a point of evaluation for some beta test work I'll be doing in the coming year, on  you guessed it, amp modeling software...

no, it's not for everybody and statements like these do make me laugh
sometimes... "I just don't want to pay for 50 different amps and
speaker cabinets if I'm only going to uses 10"....and...."That kind of
parameter overkill drives me to distraction, and believe me I've spent
some hours tweaking. this is where products like this fall short for
me."

I'm glad this gave you a chuckle, I honestly believe someone is capable of doing what I'm talking about, a hardware component with loadable software, different levels and price points of available DSP power and modeling amp choices. perhaps not one at a time but in suites that make sense. AXE FX has set the bar high for this kind of tool but at the end of the day I'm digging the sound and feel of my component system of analog, DSP, modeled effects and tube gear better than I like the sound and feel of the AXE FX . it all boils down to personal taste

there was a time when digital modelling was a bit of a joke in the
guitar community. it just sounded so bad compared to the real thing.
that time has passed. now you just choose the product that's right for
you. there is no right or wrong...it just comes down to personal
preference.

Hey this thing  sounds way better than modeling stuff 7-10 years ago. You won't get an argument from me. It is a remarkable tool, I still don't believe its completely there yet in sound or feel.  I see they have dropped the price,  but at $2200, its still out of my reach. If they made something a 1/4 of the price that was mounted on the floor, with switches and you could pick your amps and effects and download them off the web, I would be more inclined to buy a product like that. 

Bill