What do you guys think of this from Cliff of Axe Fx?

Quote from lasvideo

Gotta say Quantum on the Axe FX sounds so good to me, I am getting rid of my Kemper. In addition, the foot controller and editor really add the professional control and reliability I want.

I've never been overly fond of the sea of tweaking options with the AxeFx gear, but I have a buddy who has one (AxeFx2) and have been able to play around inside the editor program a fair bit. I agree on your view of that - that editor is pretty damn slick!

Will be sorry to see you go Lasvideo, but it's great you were able to directly compare the units for some time before deciding which unit you prefer and what which controller would work best for you. Most people don't have that luxury!

Quote from lasvideo

Gotta say Quantum on the Axe FX sounds so good to me, I am getting rid of my Kemper. In addition, the foot controller and editor really add the professional control and reliability I want.

Beside, I prefer to Buy "Made in the USA" ; )

Actually I am thinking about to get me the Ax8 as controller,FX-unit and back up for the KPA.Could save me more than 1000 bucks.

But to be honest I have doubts about how far the fractals "sound concept" will work.Many of us have been through this.The 19"-stuff in the 80s,than Line6 in the 90s..nevertheless none of these "crazes" survived.There is no "Roland-crunch" or "Line6-lead" or a "Rocktron-sound" everybody is talking about,not even a famous "Line6-Clean"..but still everyone is looking for the old tube stuff.Just with a way to get them easier,quicker and not as bulky as with the Triple-Rec and two slant 4x12 Cabs..

Quote from Nikos

Actually I am thinking about to get me the Ax8 as controller,FX-unit and back up for the KPA.Could save me more than 1000 bucks.

But to be honest I have doubts about how far the fractals "sound concept" will work.Many of us have been through this.The 19"-stuff in the 80s,than Line6 in the 90s..nevertheless none of these "crazes" survived.There is no "Roland-crunch" or "Line6-lead" or a "Rocktron-sound" everybody is talking about,not even a famous "Line6-Clean"..but still everyone is looking for the old tube stuff.Just with a way to get them easier,quicker and not as bulky as with the Triple-Rec and two slant 4x12 Cabs..

Thinking of an AX8 or even an AXE FX as a backup here as well, just not sure how or if the AXE will suck the life out of my tone or not, heard it argued both ways.

As far as US made, let's be honest here, when was the last time you shopped at Walmart or any big box retailer and bought the junk from China they have all over their stores? I live in the US, own a Kemper and have driven BMW's all my life, when a US company matches what either of those machines can do I'll come back home to the good old USA. I don't shop at Walmart for what it's worth, I buy local and pay through the nose most times

I don't understand why it matters, there are enough users of both units to prove they both have a place, and form the centre of many great musicians sound. The bashing is just another MAC vs PC and people will always have their favourites and there will always be evangelists who want to convert the "unenlightened".
Personally i've owned both, and love them both, I have a MAC and a PC too. Due to personal circumstances i've had to sell one, and I chose to sell the Kemper, If I could I would love to have had both, but the editor, the audio interface, and the effects made me choose the Axe FX. If I win the lotto i'll definitely get another Kemper, but for now the Axe better meets my needs.
Peace.......

I see both units on stages all the time. I see the Kemper more often, most likely because it's not always in a rack and I know exactly what the lights look like. People that I have HIGH regard as far as their tone tastes are concerned use both. The need to compare with the expected result being to make someone feel bad for their decision is fucking stupid.

Plini uses an Axe FX. Feodor Dosumov uses a Kemper. They both sound absolutely amazing, and I would have never guessed either wasnt using a real amp/cab. I dont hate either product - if I had an Axe Id love it as my as I love my Kemper I suspect. I just hate Cliff's FUD

Quote from lasvideo

Gotta say Quantum on the Axe FX sounds so good to me, I am getting rid of my Kemper. In addition, the foot controller and editor really add the professional control and reliability I want.

Beside, I prefer to Buy "Made in the USA" ; )

Can totally understand that. I believe their footswitch though is made in China though. And while software and possibly some assembly is in the USA, I would wager a LOT of the internals aren't. We like what we like, but it's such a global economy nowadays that you're going to be hard pressed to find anything 'Made in USA' entirely.

Quote from lasvideo

Gotta say Quantum on the Axe FX sounds so good to me, I am getting rid of my Kemper. In addition, the foot controller and editor really add the professional control and reliability I want.

Beside, I prefer to Buy "Made in the USA" ; )

Made by USA - i have some experience with the non guitar hardware and support from the USA and is always was - MONEY FOR NOTHING

I think buying local doesnt make sense. Would you want to sell local only? Take it to the extreme and no goods and services leave your house. What is "local"? And why is it a good thing?

Quote from meambobbo

I think buying local doesnt make sense. Would you want to sell local only? Take it to the extreme and no goods and services leave your house. What is "local"? And why is it a good thing?

Local means you get the freshest fruits and vegetables from close by.. Less chance of spoilage .

Quote from meambobbo

I think buying local doesnt make sense. Would you want to sell local only? Take it to the extreme and no goods and services leave your house. What is "local"? And why is it a good thing?

Buying local also means that your money is staying local, which means local businesses can survive.

Quote from DADA

Exactly. The more he slings dirt the more you know you have bought the superiour product.

Im covered either way... I own both

And yes that editor for the Axe FX is damn slick. I wish the Kemper had one like that. OTOH I like the way Rig Manager allows us to insert the next rig with hardly no lag. Instant swapping and thousands of choices. Best we can hope for is continued competition and pray Yamaha or Roland doesn't buy both of them out and make a mattel versions of each complete with sing along coloring books.

Quote from Frodebro

Buying local also means that your money is staying local, which means local businesses can survive.

They could sell their wares to non-local customers, but those non local customers need money to buy them... which they get by selling to non local customers...

You could say that you and your neighbor would thrive if you both refused to trade with anyone but each other. Obviously this is not economic. Larger markets promote competition and greater specialization of labor and allow excellent quality to succeed and provide goods to more consumers. If we all bought local, there would be no Kemper. What a sad world

Anyway, this is getting off topic.

I gotta say as much as I love my Kemper, I am pretty disappointed in the Remote's abilities and layout. And do miss a programmer.
I know Elantric has also gone to a Fractal Axfex II for live, for the very same reasons as smfelton. Even though he's not selling his Kemper.
If I didn't love my tone so much ,I would entertain switching for the same reasons

It makes no difference to the few who own both but for those who have to choose only one, it's important. So this thread started by pointing to where cliff proposes that kemper Cabs aren't 3 dimensional and he also claims he knows how it works.
When the owner of the company gets involved in the marketing, it's not usually a good thing specially when they downplay the competition with things they're not sure about.It makes them look petty and desperate.

I'm not an engineer and don't claim to know how either unit works, but for cliff to say that file size of the Kemper is too small to include better impulse responses and that Kemper uses IRs is so freaking idiotic that it can be one of two things: (and a few other possibilites that would branch out from same two themes)

1-He wants to downplay competition at any cost by making shit up
2-He has no respect for his own customers thinking they're not smart enough (i.e dumb) to know that file size in many situations can have no bearing on anything specifically patch files where the file can be merely/only instructions and contains nothing else.

Even though I'm sure Cliff is a smart guy, but what he said is just as stupid as someone saying that since a midi file is few KBs and is way too small to compare with an mp3 file that's hundred times larger, that makes the midi file inferior, without mentioning that the midi file if played in quality synths can generate sounds that are of extremely better quality than mp3, not that the two file types should be compared.

My guess is cliff knows 100% that he doesn't know how the Kemper works and even if he did, he says this stupid stuff so that others can spread his gospel of lies that Kemper file are too small to include hi res IRs. If you think I'm being harsh, then you probably haven't watched any political campaigns, but I'm like you, didn't expect that a musical instrument manufacturers would resort to petty marketing tactics based on Misinformation same as dirty politicians (almost all of them as we all unfortunately already know).

I've read this small file size many places already which is really frustrating that there are many ignorant or dare I say stupid folks that take everything at face value and they need talking heads to feed them what to say in their everyday life conversations without making a single effort to think for themselves. Sorry for the rant, but it's very obvious that the KPA doesn't use IRs or at least not the same way AXE or Helix do and the proof is the most recent separation of IRs with the most recent KPA firmware with merged profiles. Just because you can extract an IR from the Kemper cab is not an indication that Kemper uses IRs. KPA had the CAB thing just for additional flexibility and to initially appeal to those who use IRs.

Regarding the base amps theory, same thing, saying that there are 7 base amps are in the kemper is to imply that AXE has over a hundred!, but not saying how many base amps really are in the AXE FX should make it very clear. Besides almost all tube amps can almost be considered one Base amp, with different tube types and different values for very similar circuitry. Getting back to the base amps in the AXE FX II, I'd bet dollars to donuts that they all can be minimized to one base amp and the rest is variation. The various knobs or base parts code is most likely identical with little variations and that's why the AXE II and most modelers have a similar character tone regardless of what amp you use, that I haven't identified yet in the Kemper.

Just for fun:

If the object is size here's a small fact about the kemper that Fractal never mentions. Inside the Kemper "The algorithm for the tube simulation runs on more than 700 kHz sampling rate (!)."

http://www.guitar-muse.com/kemper-profiling-amp-2949-2949

As far as I know the internal rate of processing for AXE FX II is 48KHZ

So you think this explains why the Kemper amp models are much more detailed than the AXE FX?
Or maybe we should compare weight? JK

The only thing the file size says is that if the kemper cabs are IRs and stored as wav 24-bit wav at 44.1 kHz, then they are < 280 sample points. That still leaves a ton of other possibilities. Thats why i keep saying that Cliff should demonstrate the veracity of his claim. Show me the data as a wav, then the same data in the Kemper cab file.

Quote from lasvideo

Gotta say Quantum on the Axe FX sounds so good to me, I am getting rid of my Kemper. In addition, the foot controller and editor really add the professional control and reliability I want.

Beside, I prefer to Buy "Made in the USA" ; )

Good riddance...

As a soon to be owner of a KPA I do find these sorts of claims by Fractal to be frustrating... I know people SWEAR by Axe FX, and yes some of the sample I've heard have been great, no doubt - and many people here say they own and like both; fair enough, but to try and manipulate the situation with what seems to be dishonest behaviour is... sad.

I have read so many times about the cult of AFX and the personality of Cliff and it REALLY puts me off.

On top of that the most REAL sounding "fake amps" I've ever heard are the Kemper ones. And I own a studio, spent years mastering for a living and have owned a bazillion amps. My current two amps are both custom made and are frankly amazing... and yet, I like what I hear enough to sell one and buy a KPA and see what happens... I hope it works out, but if it doesn't I won't be trying an AFX, simply because of Cliff and his shenanigans.

"The equalizer is another obvious tool to go beyond (the physical range of the profiled amplifier). We are building up a library for passive tone stacks so every amp can be equipped with the corresponding equalizer, even after the profile has been captured. The tone can be shaped then as on the original. But you can even choose another passive tone stack for your profile, or even a studio equalizer, that goes far beyond the boundaries again"

Was this idea abandoned or is still in the works?

Other than that, CK is an artist, others are engineers. One can hear the difference clearly.