KEMPER PROFILER STAGE

For the past seven years, Kemper have implemented their beloved amp-matching and effects technology as a rack/head controlled remotely by a separate digital foot controller. As of July 2019, they’re selling their latest iteration: the Stage. There’s nothing here that’s going to blow the minds of people already familiar with what a Kemper is capable of.

However, the integration of the company’s full functionality into such a compact unit warrants a fresh look. These are selling in Australia for a little under $3,000; this is knocks about $1,000 off the previous cost of buying the amp head/rack and foot controller separately – incredible, right? The only thing you’d want to be wary of is whether you’d need a power amp. The Stage doesn’t have one, due to its small chassis being taken up with the digital processing hardware. Unfortunately, it also doesn’t have an expression pedal, so you’ll need one to connect up to use the relevant functions

The reputation of Kemper’s amp and stompbox emulations is second-to-none, with the company’s products now a staple for touring acts, session musicians and studio operators who need a combination of portability and high performance. You’ll be paying top dollar compared to other products here, but you can rely on the quality.

Without getting too technical, the price difference between the Kemper and its similar units below is due to the former’s proprietary ‘profiling’ technology, and opposed to more inexpensive forms of digital signal processing deployed in competing models. The extent to which you see a Kemper as worth the purchase depends on how much you think you (or maybe more importantly, your audience) can hear the difference that ‘profiling’ allegedly imparts.