Kemper KPA Performing Live
While the Kemper is an incredible studio tool, it's also very well suited for performing live. It features a performance mode to accommodate such as well as numerous features that make things easier.
Contents
Setting Up a Foot Controller, Expression Pedal, or Footswitches
See Kemper KPA External Control.
Performance Mode
Performance Mode is designed to make organizing rigs for live playing easier. Rigs are arranged in performances, with each performance having 5 slots of rigs. The display LCD reflects the performance name and slot selected, along with the rig name. There's less clutter on the screen that would be helpful for finding and editing rigs but could be distracting when playing live. Performance Mode also reduces the latency between switching rigs.
Rig tempo settings can be overridden with the performance's tempo setting, as seen below.
Performance slots can be disabled, so that attempting to select them doesn't do anything (won't load an incorrect or blank rig by mistake).
On the other side, not as many features are available as in Browse mode. Also, there are less total rigs available - while Browse mode has a maximum of 1,000 rigs, Performance mode is limited to 625 (125 performances).
Organizing Performances
Performances can be saved to the KPA just like rigs and quickly ordered using the "Arrange" soft button. Additionally, Rig Manager supports performances, allowing quick ordering and backing up of Performances outside of the KPA itself.
Like rigs, amp profiles, and cab profiles, performances have their own set of tags. These can be viewed and edited via the "Edit" soft button. It also allows you to change performance-based settings, such as key, tonality, and the performance tempo. The subsequent "Slot Settings" page allows quick reordering and renaming of slots within a performance.
MIDI
Each performance/slot is assigned its own MIDI PC (program change) number. The performance and slot can also be changed via MIDI CC, which is helpful if your controller allows assigning CC's but not PC's. For more, see Kemper KPA External Control#MIDI Reference.
When switching performances, a slot may be auto-loaded depending on System Menu settings for "Perf. Load":
- Pending - switching performances will not switch the loaded rig until a slot is selected
- Slot 1 - automatically switch to the first slot of the new performance
- Keep Slot - automatically switch to the slot of the new performance that's the same as current slot of current performance
Additionally in the "Edit" > "Slot Settings" > "MIDI Settings" soft button pages, you can assign up to two MIDI PC messages to be sent to the two external devices assigned in the System menu when the performance is selected.
Quirks
The biggest mistake people make is not realizing that rigs in Performance Mode and Browse Mode are distinct copies. If you assign a rig from Browse mode to a performance slot, then edit that rig in Browse mode, those changes will not be present for that rig in the performance slot. You'll have to assign it to the slot again, or find the rig in Performance mode and edit it there.
There is an option to "include in Browse pool". This will save tweaks to Performance Mode rigs to corresponding rigs in Browse Mode.
Any changes made to any rig in a performance require the entire performance to be saved to save those changes. Changes to one slot within a performance will remain if you load a different slot within the same performance via the d-pad on the KPA itself; however, if you switch slots using a footcontroller/MIDI, the changes will be discarded. Similarly, changing to a different performance, even using the d-pad will discard any changes to the performance and its slots.
Tempo
The KPA's tempo can be set by:
- a manual setting saved per rig (Rig Menu)
- a manual setting saved per performance (Rig Menu when in Performance Mode)
- a manual global setting (Check Lock Tempo on Rig Menu)
- using the tap tempo button or beat scanner
- receiving it from an external device
The KPA can also optionally send its tempo to external devices (System Menu MIDI page).
Rigs can enable/disable tempo - this changes how certain effects behave. With tempo disabled, effects have settings based on seconds (s or ms) or hertz (Hz). With tempo enabled, the settings are based on note values. Rigs inside a performance while in Performance Mode will have their tempo overridden by Performance tempo if selected, as long as the given rig has tempo enabled. It will not override tempo disabled on individual rigs. Lock Tempo on the other hand will make the current tempo setting global, overriding any rig or performance level setting.
The KPA will automatically sync tempo to a MIDI clock sent to it through its MIDI in port. There is no option to ignore the MIDI clock - you must avoid sending it to the KPA if you don't want to use it. You can still send it through the KPA to other devices by setting the KPA MIDI channel in the system menu to a different value than the other devices, and have your MIDI clock source only send the clock on the other channels, not the one the KPA will process. You can optionally choose to send the MIDI clock to other devices via MIDI Out and MIDI Through (regardless if the KPA receives it from another device or is the source of it).
If you have parts that require delays perfectly in sync with the beat, it's probably best to have your band play against a click track and dial in the exact correct delay time settings. The source of this tempo could potentially be the profilier, but more likely you'd use a DAW, where time changes can easily be programmed in. You could also use the DAW to program rig changes in the KPA.
If the tempo is more flexible, you can simply set up your rigs/performances to match the desired tempo when you play live. If the actual live tempo doesn't match the programmed value, it may be close enough not to be noticeable. If it is too far off, you can quickly adapt using tap tempo or beat scanner.
See the external control page to map a footswitch to control tap tempo.
Beat scanner is activated by holding down the tap tempo button. While holding it down, the Kemper uses your pick attack to try to auto-detect the tempo.
Dual Output
Many people like to use a real guitar cabinet on stage behind them; but rather than mic'ing it to use for the house PA and their stage monitors, they want to use the KPA's cab/mic tone. This is possible by using the "Monitor Cab Off" option in the Output block. This will bypass the cab profile for the rig when using the monitor output. So send that to your real guitar cab to send it just the sound of the amp profile (plus effects), while the amp + cab profile is sent out the main outputs to the PA and monitors.
With OS 3.0, the KPA features merged profiles, which benefit most from this application. Merged profiles have better isolation of the amp and cab's impact on the tone, so the amp profile + real guitar cab sounds more like the amp profile + cab profile of that same cab.