Matchless Versus Kemper Versus HX Stomp - How do they compare? FREE PRESET, IR, and PROFILE!
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- čas přidán 4. 05. 2020
- How does the Kemper and HX Stomp stack up to to the real thing, a Matchless HC-30? Guitarist rigs are changing and tube amps are becoming less common but how do the alternatives stack up?
Free: www.michaelwwestbrook.com/pre...
NEW KEMPER PROFILE PACK: www.michaelwwestbrook.com/kem...
Matchless C-30 Info: matchlessamplifiers.com/amps/3...
Kemper Info: www.kemper-amps.com/products/...
Line 6 HX Stomp Info: line6.com/hx-stomp/
GEAR!
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Thanks for watching! What do you guys think of the preset/IR and profile?
This video just confirmed that an HC30 is on my bucket list of gear.
Lifetime amp
Dude! Thanks so much for the free patch and IR!
Hey Michael,
thank you so much for your high quality content and also the stuff to give out for free.
I don't really understand why your channel is not going through the roof with subs but I'm sure you'll get there sooner than you think.
Keep it up man, you rock!
Thanks for watching! Appreciate the kind words. I just started in January, I know it takes time to grow. I knew nothing about it all when I started so I’ve been happy with the progress
Another great video! There’s a noticeable increase in the quality of your cinematography from one video to the next. It’s been a joy following your channel. Wish you success for the future and thanks for the HX Stomp preset.
Thanks! I didn’t know a thing about video when I started in January. Always trying to learn and improve!
So I was new the Helix world until about a month ago. I scoured CZcams trying to get all the information I could get my hands on. I have an entire folder full of presets from all the usual suspects that I purchased. In one of his videos Alex Price mentioned this setting as one of his favorites so I came over and checked it out. I have to say of all the money I have spent on presets this one is the one that is my base sound. It is incredible. I go away from it often just to see and come back and am still blown away. Thanks so much for this one. I haven't heard or made anything close to this good.
Thanks from mexico ! I'm a new user of HX stomp and this IR and sounds will be very useful to play in my church ;)
God bless your channel and life bro
Thanks for watching! All the best!
Wow, you really put a lot of work into this. Awesome video.
Thanks!
Digging the B-roll shots. Awesome comparison as always 👍
Thanks!
I just got a HX stomp and I’ve learned so much from your page. I really appreciate the videos. Thanks for the free presets 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽
Thanks for watching! Glad you’re enjoying them!
The eq thing is what kept from getting a Kemper. I love that Line 6 chose to model all of the circuit quirks inherent in some vintage circuits, rather than creating picture perfect, idealized and polished versions of the amps they are modeling.
Yeah, there’s a lot more flexibility with the Line 6 stuff in that regard for sure!
Dude that’s a killer IR. Really improved my patch on the HX Stomp. Thanks man!
Killer! Glad to hear it!
NICELY DONE VIDEO. THANX I FINALY GONNA PULL THE TRIGGER ON HX STOMP. IVE WATCHED THEM ALL .
Your videos are so great!
Thanks!
Thanks a lot for the free preset, i don't use the matchless amp but the ir 2x12 gb is Absolute fantastic, really well done good good job
Your amp sound is the winner for me! Well done!
Thanks!
Hey Michael. Yesterday I got a Ceriatone Clone of the Matchless DC30. To me it sounds more like a Vox AC30. The Matchless has a unique thickness compared to normal Vox AC30. Have you found the same or am I talking rubish?
dude michael this is killer video
Thanks!!
I will give it to the HX Stomp on this one! Nice!! Thank you 🙏🏻
Great job bro!
Thanks!
I find the Kemper has a kinda weird mid "hump" that I really don't like. It's not only a hump, it's got some weird things going on "behind" the tone in the mids. Hard to discribe.. I don't know if I'd hear that if I didn't own a Kemper for over a year. It was a thing that I really was annoyed by in all profiles I tried (MB, Tone Junkie, Selah, my own, and more). I prefered the HX Stomp to the Kemper in this video, but it lacked a little low end/low mid from the real amp. Great comparison!
Yeah, I can totally hear that. I think it feels warmer to some because of that. When making profiles I found the profiles to be a touch warmer and a touch more polite. Almost like the rough edges were smoothed out. Not always a bad thing
Beautiful
Thank you 🙏🏻
Thanks for watching!
I think all 3 sounded fundamentally about the same. Great job, and thanks for the presets!
Thanks! Enjoy!
Thank you this was super helpful! One thing that I would love to hear more people talk about is using the kemper with its effects vs trying to incorporate pedals with it. I have really found its built in effects super useful and pretty comparable to what is available in things like strymon etc. the Hx stomp is winning when you use it in conjunction with you pedals imo. Again I really appreciate your honesty in this comparison. Super thoughtful.
I’ve been messing with the Kemper a lot lately. The effects are great. I haven’t used everything but what I have used sounds really good. That being said I find it a lot harder to navigate the Kemper for some reason. The interface doesn’t make as much sense to me
Michael W. Westbrook that’s very accurate. The little bit of time I’ve spent with the stomp i was able to do allot more. The kemper takes allot more time and isn’t as user friendly. Thanks for your reply! Love the channel dude.
They all sound great. So similar
Absolutely! Thanks for watching
I have a DC30 and there is no comparison. Sold the HX and Kemper. Just didn’t have the feel I was used to. Between my DC30 and Deluxe reverb, I’m in heaven.
Yeah, they are slightly different. I do love my Matchless and Deluxe reverb though!
To anyone who isn’t picking the kemper. Tune your ears. It’s bright, has punch and for what it’s worth tracks the best at least for this demo.
From a production standpoint it’s very, very hard to fake a genuine top end as opposed to bass for guitar.
Save yourself the money upfront, pick the kemper
As a HC30 owner myself, I was very intrigued by the profile comparisons. To my ears even listening through my iPad, the amp was the clear favorite; the Kemper came pretty close but it, or the Line6 just doesn’t have that presence & depth the actual amp has. I do appreciate the comparison, because even though neither of these 2 amp profilers could precisely replace or should I say replicate the actual amp (in my humble opinion), I definitely could see where I might use them to layer on top of an already recorded mic-ed amp track. Thank you for the video, it’s got me thinking. . .
Yeah, nothing beats the Matchless but technology has come a long way. The alternatives are getting closer
This Hx stomp preset is 🔥🔥🔥
Thanks! Glad you are enjoying it. Be sure to check out my out presets and IR’s!
I'm surprised that the HX Stomp has closer harmonics to the real amp, whereas the Kemper sounds more pleasant. Great comparison and your free preset help my patches a lot!
Yeah, I do find the Kemper profiles to be more “pleasant” as you put it. Any profiles I made sounded a bit more polite than the actual amp. That’s not always a bad thing just depends on what you are going for! Glad to hear the free preset was helpful, thanks for watching!
@@MichaelWWestbrook is it because kemper is known for its compression?
Wow. Sounds great. Extremely close. What Strat was that? Pickups?
All sounded good. Kemper seemed to add some lower frequencies. It does this for most profiles YOU take. It's why so many buy profiles. Kemper did talk about adding in classic tonestacks of classic amps, that you could use with a profile to make it act more like the real amp. No idea if that happened. But yes, the snapshot approach of the Kemper, is what it is. You did record with different levels sometimes. When the levels were the same, all 3 sounded so close, it didn't matter much. I've had a Kemper, HAVE an HX Stomp and an Axe FX III. That should tell you something. The Axe is my studio rig. But the Stomp is what I take to the little two person gigs I do (just for fun mostly). It's not the Axe, but wow is it just about, almost there.
I have both units. The distortion characteristics of the Kemper seem more true. The HX Stomp seems a little flatter. Almost like your pickups have less gain or you need to run the gain of your interface hotter. YMMV. I love both units.
The comparison at 5:45 - you can hear more string noise (the good type) on the HC-30 that you don't hear on the Kemper at all, the Stomp is better than the Kemper here but still not as much string noise as the amp and the Stomp doesn't have as much low/low mid in this clip. Interesting stuff!
THANK YOU ....
No problem!
Hi,
thank you for the great review.
I've had a Helix LT for some time, but so far I've never gotten the results I wanted. There is just an infinite amount to adjust.
Ordered the Kemper last week. Wanted to test this out. The integrated rigs alone, as they say, are in top quality. Class.
I downloaded your files and I have to say that the Helix sound with the IR is absolutely great. I will compare this with the enclosed Kemper files.
Let's see how the comparison is?
Still only one question, why do you hate to switch off the IR in the Helix Preset on a stomp?
Thank you very much, greetings from Germany
All 3 sounds great!!!! Like the harmonics of the kemper compared to the HX. Less in your face. I own both! Can’t go wrong with either :p
HX was ever so slightly closer to the C-30 in my ear. Which one sounded best is an impossible question based on this. The difference is almost completely inaudible to me and frankly, with good IRs and maybe Line6s FRFR modelling cab/power amp, the HX or Helix could sound no less inspiring than a real amp.
Hi so i know you are a fan of the hx stomp for usage. How would you explain you experience with amp / pick feeling and response of the kemper to hx stomp. I feel the hx stomp has less latency compared to kemper? Kemper feels more like an amp but the responce lags a bit?
The hx stomp panning needs to be set the same is all hxstomp 🔥
Great video! Which cabinet did you use while using the real Matchless?
For this one I used a 68’ Fender Bassman 2x12 cab. It’s a big closed back cab. It currently has a Greenback (heard here) and a Classic Lead 80 in it
I don't have any of these products but I do use IR's in my GT-1000 Core. To my ears, the HX-Stomp is pretty amazing. The Kemper seemed to pull out some high-end on the first demo. Averaging all 3, the Line-6 sounded the best. Pretty impressive.
To me the amp sounded best, then the Stomp, then the Kemper. Something about the midrange in the Kemper is off compared to the real amp. That 'full, warm' thing you mentioned is, to me, what's actually off about it. That said, if I heard each of these on their own without a side by side comparison, I'd think they were all great & usable.
Yeah, I feel like the mids feel “soft” on the Kemper.
They all sounded great and extremely close. Do you have much experience with the iridium? Thats been my direct solution of choice.
Haven’t been able to check it out yet. Hopefully soon, I’ve heard good things!
Hello, I just tried the free preset, with its IR ..... just to tell you, which is the best IRs, that I have tried ... and I have many of ownhammer .... I think I will stop by your store very soon.
Thanks for your demos, I think they are the most direct and real on the net.
Thanks for the kind words! So glad you love the IR!
To my ears, listening through my m-audio BX5 monitors, all three (amp, Kemper and HX Stomp) had slight eq differences. Maybe they could be dialed out, maybe not. The Kemper was also a bit more "in your face" than the real amp or the Stomp. But the 2 contenders were in the general ballpark of the Matchless, for sure. I agree that the Stomp is by far the best value (I own one too). The POD Go is another amazing value (got one of these too). The Kemper is a very different animal, and the profiling process and approach just seems too far away from making music. Sounds like work. And I am a tech guy, so I promise, I am not afraid of it, just not inspired to do it. And if I were going to spend a lot more money, I would probably go for an LT or Helix Floor. But I also love the form factor of the Stomp. There are a few competing products now in a similar form, but the Line6 stuff has a lot going for it, and I am not switching anytime soon.
I’ve owned both and I will say they both sound good. I went with Kemper though because I could never get past the Line 6 feel. To me everything felt generic no matter how good the preset. If it doesn’t feel good under my fingers it doesn’t encourage me to play. That’s just my opinion.
I would agree with this. The Kemper sounds and feels better right from the start
all three sound good, and seemed to go from Dark, brighter, to brightest. I wish I preferred the sound of the HX stomp considering it's way cheaper than the HX stomp, but I think the Kemper won over the HX stomp on every example.
Please do a preset of a bias fx 2
Have you ever tried playing harmonics during the kemper recording? Would that make it sound even more brilliant?
😂 Can’t say that I have...
@@MichaelWWestbrook i mean as you can hear a lot of harmonics and frequencies in your recording.
I just realized I miss read this! I thought you were asking if I had ever tried playing harmonica…😂 Playing harmonics during the refining process is a good idea though! Harmonica.... not so much! 😂
I thought they all sounded really good. To my ear the Matchless sounded the best . That said, the HX Stomp is for me, the most attainable ,of the three. (pricewise). However, it was also the thinnest sounding of the three (to my ear) . Nice job Mike.
I think the HX could be dialed in fuller/thicker! It’s a great sounding model on the Stomp for sure
I really liked the ir. It became one of my top 3 for voxy type amps. Are the other irs you have as good if not better or you gave us for free your best? 😜 I'm kidding.
Awesome! 😂 I made the free one when I was making the video where as the others were made a while back. They all should be in the same ball park, just different speakers and mic/position combos!
The tone controls on the Kemper are to be used ever so slightly if you want to maintain the pure characteristics of the profiled amp in that particular state, but you can still crank away and have a great rig. BUT, if you spend a little more time with it you will find under the hood, several amp controls that effect tonal balances (other then Bass, Mid, treble and pres) that can be used to great effect to customize while maintaining the heart of the amp. Whether that be gain structure or adjusting for different guitars. It does give you more options without the process paralysis the way some other modelers can be. Then, just drop it in your performance mode for that situation and its always there while keeping the original, in its original form.... Kinda awesome actually
Yeah, I started digging in more when I was making profiles and exploring it. Some of the controls are great and give you sounds you couldn’t otherwise get with just the amp. Being able to smooth the edges is one thing that was super helpful for certain amps!
My experience with kempers has been sound GREAT at one sound, but when you start hitting them with pedals they just done respond/play like a real amp does.
Does the free download work for the Helix?
It should but I haven’t tested it so can’t say for sure. Either way the IR will work!
The hx stomp is more compressed sound i think. I also got kemper, real Amps and hx stomp here. Kemper still more organic
Are your IR’s available for download ? They sound so good !!!
Thanks! Yes! Check out the link in the description
I’m having a hard time deciding between the Stomp or the Kemper. I normally run a stereo amp rig, with a decent sized pedalboard. I like the idea of using the Stomp as amp sims only. Your great video is helping me out!
What pickups are in that strat? It sounds fantastic (playing too)!
I want to do a rig run down soon but I’m planning on talking about this very thing!
When I use the Stomp for direct that’s basically what I do... I use a delay from the HX(with amp and IR’s) plus delays and verbs from H9/big sky. Being able to run stereo is the win for me. The Kemper does sound slightly better but is much more difficult to work into my normal set up to have stereo effects.
Michael W. Westbrook yea that’s exactly what I want to do. Timeline/big sky running stereo into two amps. I’m mainly a church player nowadays and the thought only needing my guitars and pedalboard is super tempting. I just don’t want to get the stomp and be disappointed. Ya know? That being said, it would be hard to tell a difference in the full mix.
Wow, weird that I like the Kemper better than the amp it modeled!
I have to admit, the Kemper does have a nice way of rolling off the rough edges of things. I noticed that when profiling a lot of amps. It’s not for everyone but it seems to smooth things out a touch!
Sounds to me like the stomp resembles the matchless more? Kemper sounds great but has a different midrange... I thought the EQ would be matched up better than that! Love the sound of the matchless!
Would love for you to do another vid adding OD’s to these! Any time I’ve tried digital, the OD’s sound fuzzy on the top end (I haven’t spent a ton of time with them though).
Love that idea because that’s generally how I use them but have never compared them side by side.
also the hx stomp wins over the Kemper in the area of stereo rigs. with Kemper you, you would need kempers to duo a stereo rig, and with hx stomp you can make stereo patches with a different amp and cab on each side! anyone should get a helix first just for the distortions alone, let alone all the effects
Yeah, absolutely! I don’t always run stereo but I do when I can or it makes sense. I love having that option with the HX Stomp. It integrates perfectly with my other effects to have a great stereo rig
The Kemper sounded better than the HX to me. Almost identical to the amp. I have 3 great amps. A Matchless DC30, A Bad Cat Hot Cat 30 Head and an Orange AD30 Head which I use with Marshall 4 x 12's on stage. If I got a Kemper Powered Rack and a Mission 2 x 12 Cab would my onstage sound be weaker than the amps? I'm not worried at all about the front of house as the engineer will be getting the perfect profiles direct and in stereo. I'm hearing reports about the Kemper sounding like it's in another room when playing onstage despite the fact that the powered versions are 600 watts! Great videos Michael. Very informative.
Thanks! I agree, the Kemper does sound slightly better. I’ve not played the Kemper amplified on stage, it’s always been through in-ear monitors but it always sounds great!
Just listened to the first example and the HX stomp really lost a lot of the tone of the amp, I am surprised that you like it so much. But to each there own, one man's trash is another man's treasure. I did go back and forth a lot between the real deal and the Kemper and it was close, really close. So much so, that it would be worth saving that extra thousand or more dollars on the real deal and going Kemper at least to my ears. Listened to all the examples and yep, the HX is trying to sound like a Matchless and lost all the mojo. It sounds like for a 1/3 of the price you are getting a 1/3 of the tone. Could you do the same thing this time using a Helix for the third option?
I thought both the Kemper and HX Stomp sound very close without sounding equal to the real thing. Kemper sounds warmer, you could say it even sounded better than the real deal lol. But it seems more subjective than anything, you can like that sound but it is objectively different from the real amp. I bet if this had been a blind test, we would all probably have thought the Kemper was the real amp because of that warmness it had going on.
kemper sounds exactly like the real amp hx close but not as multibdimensional
the kemper is super compressed
truthfully: Amp, HX Stomp, Kemper in that order.
1.Amp
2.HX
3.Kemper
Ha the stomp sounded better than the amp itself
Kemper sounds best.
The kemper IS better than the helix, but it's twice the price but it's not twice as good, only slightly, and I have a helix