Kemper midi automation thread

After getting a couple of questions on this in the Kemper Facebook group, I thought it would be useful to pool our knowledge and experience with midi automation in a single forum thread.

Having experimented with it for a while, I now have proper and full midi effects automation working for both guitars in my band. I'm no means an expert on midi, and I may not be the perfect person to explain all this -- I know at least one forum member ( @chamelious from The Sun Explodes) who's been doing this for longer than I have. However, by getting this thread going I hope others will chime in and I'll learn something myself. I'll try and cover the basics first, and add stuff as I think of more things to discuss.

Hardware requirements

With all of the above said, let's get started on a little overview. If you want to get into midi automation, you essentially need three things (and a couple of midi cables to connect them):

• your Kemper Profiling Amp (obviously);
• a device to send midi signals, being either
  a laptop plus audio interface with software and outputs for playing midi and, preferably, at least one audio channel, or
  a dedicated device like the Cymatic LP-16 (more on this later);
• a foot controller as a backup.

Having a foot controller is highly recommended to ensure that you can take over manual (well, pedal) control in case anything goes wrong with the midi signal. If you own the Kemper Remote, you're in luck, since it uses its own network connector, leaving the midi IN port free to use for automation. If you use any other type of foot controller, like the popular FCB1010, you will additionally need a midi merger to combine the signals from the foot controller and the external automation source into the Kemper's single midi IN port. I can personally recommend this one because it's cheap and midi powered, so it requires no batteries or external power supply. I used it before I got my Kemper Remote and never had any problems with it. The power output of the FCB1010's midi OUT, for instance, is enough to keep it running.

Getting started

The one big hump for getting started on automation is that in order to keep the midi signal synchronized with the live band, it is almost mandatory to play to a click track. This has its advantages and disadvantages, the latter being of course that there is less freedom for improvisation, jamming, spontaneously extending song sections etc.

Some genres are better suited to this. For a metal band, fast, tight and technical playing means there's often little room for improvisation anyway, and playing to a clicktrack will actually help improve tightness. Another advantage is that once you're playing to a click track, this opens up all kinds of possibilities, including timed sound and light effects, a pre-recorded backing track etc.

In many cases, it's enough for the drummer to hear the click track through headphones, so that the rest of the band is kept in sync by closely following the drums (this is how my band does it at the moment and it works well). If your music has a lot of passages without drums, it may be better to invest in a wireless in-ear monitoring solution so that every band member can hear the click track individually.

So -- you will have to put some work in to create tempo maps for all your songs. You can do this in any DAW/multitracking software of your choice; you can go all the way and take the opportunity to record a full demo version of each song (ensuring that you'll be very well prepared when you go into the studio, where the tempo track will prove very useful as well). If you want to have a pre-recorded backing track playing along live, this is where you create it as well. Just make sure that you program the exact time signatures and tempos for each track (and any changes to these during the song).

The click track

There are a couple of different ways to approach this. If your live solution is studio software running on a laptop, you could simply use the software's built-in metronome and play it through the headphones/in ear monitors. The metronome faithfully follows the tempo and time signature changes you programmed, usually accents the first beat of each bar, and requires no extra work. A disadvantage of this approach is that with a "blank" metronome, it's quite easy to get "lost" in a song: anytime you get slightly out of sync, you could end up playing along one bar too early or late, and never know it until you notice some programmed event happening at the wrong time.

A more interesting approach is to program your own click track using a simple midi-driven percussion instrument (like a woodblock) that can output a couple of different sounds/pitches. That way, you can accent the first beat of each bar ("tick tock tock tock"), but also build in your own cues to announce tempo or time signature changes, or simply the chorus (for example, by making the last bar before the change go "tick tick tick tick"). The sky is the limit here: you can use different percussion sounds for each section of the song, announce changes in different ways etc., all to help you (or your drummer) avoid getting lost.

Depending on the technical solution of your choice (studio software running on a laptop or dedicated device), you can then have this midi instrument playing directly or export it to an audio track beforehand. Either way: if you're also sending a pre-recorded backing track to the FOH, your audio interface and studio software should support independent output of at least two audio channels (because you don't want your audience to hear the click track).

Software tools

Any studio software of your choice should work, as long as it can play audio and midi (if you want to use it live, running on a laptop) or export these reliably (if you want to use another device live, like the Cymatic LP-16).

I personally use Ableton Live, which is great both for programming midi and for playing live. We record all our demo tracks in it, and until some time ago, we also used it on a laptop live for playing our pre-recorded backing tracks and sending midi. However, we recently switched to another hardware solution (see below), and this has revealed a disadvantage of Ableton Live: it's bad at exporting midi to a separate midi file -- time signatures and tempos are not exported. So I've started using the free software Anvil to restore these things in the exported midi file.

Programming the Kemper

I highly recommend using Performance Mode, simply because of the extra fast switching between the five slots within a performance (especially since FW 3.0). This ensures that you probably won't have to compensate for any switching latency when programming: you can just program all slot switches right where you want them to occur (typically at the first beat of a bar).

The main midi instructions you need to know are:

Program Change
Used to directly select any slot in any performance.

0--4: slots 1--5 in performance 1
5--9: slots 1--5 in performance 2
etc., up to PC 127; check the manual if you want to select higher numbered performances. Note: when a performance slot is active on your Kemper, its PC number is shown on the screen for reference.

You should use this method at least once at the very beginning of each song to make sure you're in the correct performance for that song.

Control Change

• CC#50--54: switch to one of the five slots, respectively, within the currently active performance.

I recommend using this method for the rest of the song after selecting the correct performance at the beginning. That way, should you ever change the order of performances on your Kemper, all you have to change in your programming is the PC number at the beginning of the song. Once you're in the correct performance, all the slot switches within this performance using these five CC#s will still work.

• CC#17--20 (A--D), 22 (X), 24 (Mod), 27 (Delay), 29 (Reverb): control the on/off state of the stomps/effects.

Setting one of these CC#s to a value of 0 switches the respective stomp/effect off; a non-zero value (henceforth '1', but can be any value op to 127) switches it on. Note that you only have to use these if you want to change the on/off state of a stomp/effect; i.e., if a stomp/effect is already on by default in a selected performance slot, you don't have to send a CC# value of 1 if you want it to be on.

• CC#7: volume, same as using the volume pedal. This is a continuous controller that can take any value from 0 to 127.

For other CC#s, see the Profiler Reference Manual (from page 97 onward).

If you want to program several midi devices (more than one Kemper, for instance, or other hardware like synths or stage lighting), just use a different midi channel for each device and connect them in series using the midi THRU ports. The Kemper's midi channel can be selected in the System menu.

Advanced -- some best practices

Slot switching with CC#50--54:

The Kemper will switch to a given slot the moment the corresponding CC# changes from 0 to 1. If this CC# message were coming from a foot controller, this would mean the relevant button is being pressed by your foot. Shortly after, you would most likely take your foot off again, setting the CC# in question back to 0, but this has no effect on the Kemper.

Now, when programming, you could take the same approach: the moment you want to switch to a certain slot, you change its CC# to 1; shortly after (e.g., the next bar) you change it back to 0. Every slot change would then be represented by a brief 0>1>0 pulse for the corresponding CC#. The disadvantage to this approach is that if you start a song in the middle of a section (during rehearsal), past the point where the CC# was briefly 1 to make the switch, it will be 0 again and your Kemper has no way to know which slot you wanted to use there.

So I do this differently. I keep the CC# for the slot want to use in a specific song section at 1 throughout the entire section -- as if you would keep your foot on the button of a foot controller the whole time. Only when I want to switch to a different performance slot, I set the current slot's CC# back to 0 and simultaneously set the CC# for the new slot to 1. The result is that if, during rehearsals, you were to start a song in the middle of a section, the CC# for the slot you want to use will still be 1 at that point, and its value will be re-sent, so the Kemper will be told to switch to the correct slot, regardless of where in the song you start.

Performance management:

Even though I mostly use the same basic settings, I've created separate named performances for every song. That way, the name of the next song always automatically appears on the screen of my Remote, so I don't even need a printed setlist anymore!

Volume swells and jumps:

Changes to a continuous parameter like volume will be automatically smoothed out by the Kemper, so if you want to program a gradual volume swell, you don't have to put in every single value between 0 and 127. On the other hand, if you want an abrupt volume change, it's best to specify this by placing the two extreme values (e.g., CC#7=127 and CC#7=0) in very quick succession.

Click track count-ins:

Be aware that if only your drummer hears the click track, you need to program at least two, and ideally three bars of click track count-in before the start of each song. The first two bars are for the drummer, to give her/him an idea of the tempo and time signature; during the third count-in bar, the drummer hits along as a count-in for the rest of the band. These count-ins also provide ample room for any initial instructions you want to send to your Kemper, like the Program Change for selecting the correct performance.

Using the FCB1010 with Uno4kemper chip

Until a recent update to both the Uno4kemper chip and the Kemper firmware, there was an issue that made it impossible to use any other midi channel than channel 1 with the FCB1010.¹ This posed a problem for bands using two Kempers and FCB1010's on stage, since you couldn't use different channels to individually control both Kempers (connected in series via midi THRU). If I remember correctly, The Sun Explodes solved this by using two separate audio interfaces.

1. The problem was that no matter which midi IN channel was selected on the Kemper, outgoing midi was always sent on channel 1, causing the FCB1010 to automatically communicate over channel 1 as well. This has supposedly been solved in recent updates, but I haven't been able to test it myself.

Some info on the Cymatic LP-16

This is a relatively new device; my band have recently started using it live for pre-recorded backing tracks and midi, and I thought it'd be interesting to share some info about it (not meant as an advertisment -- I'm not affiliated to Cymatic in any way ).

The LP-16 can simultaneously play 16 mono .wav audio files (through 16 separate outputs) and one midi file (through midi OUT), all from an external usb memory. There's a PC editor for putting together individual songs (basically placing all the .wav files and the midi file for every song in a separate folder) and for arranging these songs in playlists. A playlist contains a sequence of songs; you can specify for every transition between songs if you want it to start playing the next song immediately, wait a predetermined number of seconds, or pause until you press a button on the device.

Note that this device doesn't have a built-in metronome or midi sound bank, so you'll have to program your own midi click track and either export it to .wav or use a standalone sound bank to play it.

Advantages:

• Reliability -- with a dedicated, standalone hardware device, you don't run the risk of software failures and long reboots that come with using a laptop plus an audio interface.
• Simplicity -- we keep it in a simple flight case with all cables connected, so it's really just a matter of switching it on, connecting it to a PA and pressing play.
• It's a lot cheaper than a laptop and an audio interface, which also reduces the risk of theft.

Disadvantages:

• At the moment, it doesn't send out midi tempo information, which could be useful for synchronizing delays and other timed effects in the Kemper. I'm hoping this feature will be added a future firmware update.
• You can't rewind or fast-forward within songs, which can be a little cumbersome during rehearsals -- you can only play the whole song from the beginning. Edit (2019): this is no longer the case thanks to firmware updates.

Final words

If you want to give this a try, don't hesitate. It takes a little work initially but it's worth it for that very first time when you have that difficult solo coming up in the middle of a song, and instead of worrying about doing the old footswitch tap dance and potentially stepping on the wrong button and messing everything up, you can just concentrate on your playing; and instead of being tied to the spot where your foot controller is, you can have fun interacting with the audience. In short: glorious, magnificent freedom!

Thanks man. I tried to cover all the basics here; might add some more advanced ideas later!

Quote from GOlson

Regarding the LP-16... Could it be used to control the necessary switching for two Kempers (two guitarists)? The midi file having change commands on separate midi channels, and from the LP-16 into a Thru Box, for example?

Sure! We're using it now to control my Kemper and the other guitarist's Boss GT-100. We're just set to different channels, and midi messages for both these channels are in the same midi file. There's a cable going from the LP-16 into my Kemper, and another one from my Kemper's midi THRU into the GT-100's midi IN (although a THRU box would work too of course). That's it! Same thing should work for two Kempers.

Quote from chamelious

[Blocked Image: http://s7.postimg.org/ku15yzj97/RACK.jpg]

Thanks man, I was hoping you'd come in and explain a little about The Rack. Amazing system, must be great to have it all working.

So -- to recap -- you're using two separate midi OUTS because
a) you want to control two Kempers individually (with different patch changes for each), and
b) both Kempers are hooked up to FCB1010's with Uno4kemper chips, meaning that (at least until the latest firmware revision) they both have to operate on midi channel 1 or omni,
so that you can't separate the signals by using two different channels on the same out and midi THRU from one Kemper to the other.

Using a drum pad to start the songs is a great idea. The LP-16 we're using has a fairly simple layout with easy-to-push buttons, so for now our drummer has it within arm's reach and simply pushes the Play button when needed. The click track count-ins give him enough time before the song actually starts.

Our current setlist has only a couple of real stops where the LP-16 is programmed to wait for a button press; most songs automatically segue into each other with just enough time for the singer to announce the next one. One thing we're thinking about is to give the singer control over the longer pauses by means of a footswitch (the LP-16 takes a TS footswitch jack) so that he can decide when his stage banter is over and kick off the next song.