Nice Rack Canada recently shipped this Kemper Amps centric rack system to Vancouver guitarist Rob Hamilton.
Rob is not only the guitarist in his band but also the owner of an events band service, Side One.
SideOne is a new concept in cover bands with carefully curated bands in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Seattle for events and weddings that is in its 7th year and well into its 1000th+ gig.
Instead of sludging through another rendition of Celebration or Brown Eyed Girl, SideOne delves into music that is not only great for the party but inevitably surprises audiences with the kind of stuff that they play getting into golden era to current hip hop, today’s synth heavy pop, Brooklyn hipster worthy Indie rock, and classics that are not beaten to death.
Typically, Side One will play 80 songs in a night medley-ing from one song to the next and eliminating the pedal dance was a crucial element to the hundreds of sounds that need to be accessed throughout the event. Rob is not just playing “his” sound, but rather 80 different guitarists’ sounds.
To help manage the vast variety of presets needed for a SideOne gig, Nice Rack Canada convinced Rob to migrate from a Roland FC-300 to a RJM Music Mastermind GT-16 which was a huge leap forward.
The ability to organize patches into songs and setlists via the laptop is a game changer and with the MastermindGT editor coupled with the Kemper Rig Manager now, Rob can program the rig in a greenroom, a coffee shop, or on a flight.
The NPRN & Sysex capabilities of the MasterMind GT make it a natural companion to the Kemper Profiler, allowing the use to fully take control of the Kemper's thousands of parameters in real time ("Instant Access") control.
SideOne also provides full production, and their techs are in love with the speed & ease of set up thanks to the Nice Rack Canada patch bay.
The system is wired for a Magnetic & Piezo input scheme, with the both signal paths being switched by the RJM Music Effects Gizmo.
Piezo signal passes through a Fishman Aura 16, Xotic EP Booster & Electro-Harmonix Holy Grail Reverb & Radial Engineering JDI.
Magnetic Signal is routed through the Kemper in a 4CM wiring scheme with a BOSS RT-20 & RE20, as well as a Eventide TimeFactor & Space in effects loop of the Kemper.
All individual loops are switched by the Effects Gizmo and Spillover mixed with Nice Rack Canada Spillover Mixers.
Effects are powered by the client supplied CIOKS AC-10 and Voodoo Lab Pedal Power Digital.
Nice Rack Canada also installed an RJM Music Switch Gizmo to add MIDI control over the RE-20's "Twist" & Tap Tempo Functions.
The RT-20 is speed controlled via MIDI expression pedal with a Doepfer MCV-4 interfacing MIDI data to control voltage.
Whatever criteria your rig places upon your gear, Nice Rack Canada can engineer solutions that will push the boundaries of possibility and deliver stellar tone gig after gig.
