What if everybody used Kemper ...

  • Hi, just had a terrible Sunday Morning thought:


    What if everybody plays a Kemper and like me and a lot of other people on the forum sell all their tube amps?


    No more profiling possible!


    Of course this will not happen in the near future. But what if the modelers get as good as tube amps. Will we have to profile modelers in 5 years?


    :D

  • In the long term I think that tube amps and guitar cabs will continue to be researched and developed, possibly more than ever. Once a prototype has been perfected, a full range of very high quality profiles will be made. A set of such profiles will then be marketed without the need to put the amp into production at all!

  • I had the same thought though. But the realization that even the kemper can´t produce every tone an actual amp can and we´re still decades away from having every possible sound with every possible mic, every possible cab etc. etc. as a profiles kinda killed that line of thought :D

  • I think there could be further microphone development/standardisation, dedicated to profiling, alongside these "super amps", but as the amps won't be generally available to the public, the cost of a profile pack could escalate.

  • I agree with PCB. Amps won't be produced any longer only if there will be millions of digital users, which would include millions of Kemper users. At that stage it would make sense to design an amp prototype in order to just profile it. Much more people would buy a profile Vs. buying the same amp, so the market would be very receptive.


    In this scenario, if a manufacturer sold 10,000 copies of a profile at 1 €, this would probably cover the prototyping cost (if the production cycle is optimized). Margins would be good.

  • In the long term I think that tube amps and guitar cabs will continue to be researched and developed, possibly more than ever. Once a prototype has been perfected, a full range of very high quality profiles will be made. A set of such profiles will then be marketed without the need to put the amp into production at all!


    Excellent thought.


    I would elaborate on this a little.


    When creating a production tube amp, you have to take into account manufactureability, durability, output volume, and cost. If you are creating a tube amp with the explicit purpose of making a digital profile of it, then you can create a superior sounding amp.

  • I think it will be a little while, if at all, before we see any manufacturer with the guts to pull something like this off.

    "But dignity is difficult to maintain
    stamina requires constant upkeep
    repetition is boring
    and you pay for grace."