Should I buy the FM9 when I own a Kemper

[RevDrucifer]

Having owned Helix, Stomp, Stomp XL, FM-3, Atomic, Headrush, and Kemper, I can say that I can get great tones out of all of them. You're not going to have any "OMG - this is the holy grail of tone!" moment from the Fractal. I think the real question is what features, effects, and user interface you gel with. If Kemper's interface seems intuitive for you to use and you are used to it, I'd stick with that. If you're someone that gets frustrated with settings and details and just wants to play, Fractal is not the way to go.

That’s dependent on the user. I’ve had multiple experiences with exactly that time and time again.

 

[Occam]

You stated this was mainly for recording purposes. Can't you dry track a guitar and reamp it twice?
I was suggesting an FM3 in the interim because they are readily available at a great price and you can get your feet wet with the Fractal editor, tones, FX, etc.
I'm surprised people would rather sit and wait for 6 months than lose maybe $100 on personal resale (split over 6 months) to actually hear and feel what a Fractal product will sound like?

Sure I could, I’d more likely track with one amp and revamp the other….I’m really against reamping in general. I really feel you’re playing the nuances of the amp nearly as much as the guitar.

 

[SteveO]

1 amp and 2 cab blocks

One cab block, but with two cabs in it. I know, semantics...

 

[ljholland]

One cab block, but with two cabs in it. I know, semantics...

yeah - semantics. But in the Helix world this would be two blocks. They achieve the same end.

 

[Jarick]

So my spot on the FM9 waitlist came up on Friday but they sold out before I could make the purchase. I already own a Kemper so I signed up just in case and I figure there isn’t a great harm in buying it if it didn’t work out but now that I have till February or March when the next batch is expected I figured I’d think about it a little more to distract me from the pain of real life.

I love that I can profile my Matamp’s on my Kemper. Modelers rarely if ever have them or they have a modern Orange they think is equivalent but isn’t at all. But I don’t like that when dialing in a sound I basically need to profile a bunch of various versions of my amps to get the amp clean vs various levels of gain or different boosted sounds, the Fractal seems much better at this. I use other profiles all the time and it’s a great way to try out amps before buying but I’m not sure I’ll be gigging much in the future, I’m mainly a recording only guy plus I have amps I’m happy with but I also can’t imagine using either digital option live, I’m a full stack, huge stage volume player.
Part of my concern is that the Kemper is getting old. I’d like to record two amps at once, using Neural plugins do this great. I also love experimenting with ambient and other odd noises and Kempers effects have gotten much better over the years but Fractal seems to be the leader here. So…what’s your take?

My two cents, having owned Kemper twice and Fractal (and other modelers) a bunch of times:

It certainly wouldn't hurt to try it. The workflow and user experience is completely different. Where Kemper is more plug and play on a profile, with Fractal you build everything from the ground up. But if you want to make little tweaks, that's where it shines. You will likely spend more time trying to find the right cab impulses for your tastes, but when you figure that out you will be able to dial in amps fairly quickly.

Personally I did not like hunting for profiles. I didn't have amps to profile myself though. I didn't like the interface at all, it felt very dated, I had freezes and lockups while connected to the computer, it generally felt sluggish to use. I wasn't a fan of the effects either, so it really came down to just liking the core tones or not. I think both Fractal and Helix do a better job with effects, and especially the Fractal should get pretty close in terms of amp tones but it's so dependent on the cab IR. It's way easier to use the Fractal with a computer though.

You specifically wanted dual amps, so the FM9 makes sense over the FM3. The Axe FX 3 may be another good option if you have a rack and don't mind buying the external controller. Can get into one quicker and it's more mature product.

One thing I would recommend is to make sure your monitoring situation is good. So having good monitors or headphones or a speaker cab is pretty key. But that's similar to the Kemper.

 

[ljholland]

You specifically wanted dual amps, so the FM9 makes sense over the FM3. The Axe FX 3 may be another good option if you have a rack and don't mind buying the external controller. Can get into one quicker and it's more mature product.

People are hyped about dual amps, but I think dual cabs are more important. You're effectively getting dual amps by using two cabs. (btw - FM3 can do dual cabs). Kemper can't do dual-cabs or amps which is a shortcoming if you're looking for it.

I'm still in the honeymoon phase with the FM3. I like it. If it were an either/or situation, had I not sold my Kemper, I don't think I'd sell it to buy an FM9. They both get great tones.

 

[Jarick]

People are hyped about dual amps, but I think dual cabs are more important. You're effectively getting dual amps by using two cabs. (btw - FM3 can do dual cabs). Kemper can't do dual-cabs or amps which is a shortcoming if you're looking for it.

I'm still in the honeymoon phase with the FM3. I like it. If it were an either/or situation, had I not sold my Kemper, I don't think I'd sell it to buy an FM9. They both get great tones.

I'm with you there...I've had Helix and Axe FX 3 which could do dual amps and pretty much never did that. To me there were too many issues with phase and gain to worry about. But I've heard others do amazing things with dual amps so I'm guessing I just don't know how to do it well.

Dual cabs can be very useful like you said. You can have a brighter cab on one side and a darker cab on the other side, or different midrange character, etc. You also don't need to hard pan them, you can try like 50% width which will still get you a wider sound. Especially once you start add in stereo delays and reverbs.