Namm 2016 - Day 1 - New Kemper stuff! with pics

    I am excited by the morphing feature.


    I'm very happy with my Kemper and, since I bought it, the things I've hoped would be added over time were an editor, more delays, more reverbs (including spring) and the ability to assign any parameter to an expression pedal to real-time adjust multiple parameters in real time. At the point where I bought it, none of these things existed and I was still blown away by the unit.


    As of today, we have the librarian which made life sooooo much easier - I still hope for an official editor but, to be honest, the librarian has taken the edge off my burning need for this. For me, it's a 'nice to have'.


    It's good to hear that more reverbs are coming. It'd be nice to have them now but I would rather have something mind-blowing later in the year than something not so good right now.


    The delays that are coming here sound fabulous and I cannot wait to play with them. I am wondering whether these will make it onto 4.0? They are not in the press release and the Andertons video that Dougc84 posted above has CK saying at 2.10 'this is the second feature we will release a little bit later'. I'm hoping they are on at 4.0 but again, I'd rather they be 'soon' and 'superb' rather than 'now' and 'not quite there'.


    So then we get to the morphing which some are pleased by and others don't see the need for. This is one of the things I've been hoping for but it is implemented in a way that it is much easier to program than I could have ever hoped for. I haven't played live since before getting the Kemper (well, apart from a couple of acoustic things) but last time I did so, I was using a pedal board that included a couple of Strymon pedals (Timeline and Mobius). They allow you to do 'morphing' and I used it a lot in the covers band I was in. It was a great way of building tension in a part / adding that final bit of icing on the cake. One example? We used to do 'Kids in America' (the old Kim Wilde number) which features a flanger. For most of the song, it was just either turned on or off but in the last bit where it goes crazy? I had the expression pedal programmed so as it altered the depth of the flanger, added some gain (you could tweak the output of the mobius so I used it to drive the amp harder) and I turned up the mix on the Timeline delay from pretty much zero to a little more than zero. It was subtle but it added something. Did the audience notice? I doubt it but we all know that 99% of the audience don't notice your tone at all as long as you're playing songs they like. The only people who notice are yourself and any other guitarists :) But it's still worth doing and is great fun.


    If morphing allows me to do this kind of thing (and more) but with much easier programming then I think I will use it quite a lot..... Even if you are keeping things completely simple in a recording setup it could be useful. When writing a song, it's a common writing / mixing technique to make the song build so, even if the chord structure etc is the same from start to finish, you 'give everything a little bit more' as the song progresses. This can be adding additional instrument parts, another harmony, adding an extra drum fill or hitting a little harder etc. Why can it not also be a very subtle gain shift plus a little more delay as the song progresses? It'll add that special little something which you won't notice until it isn't there and those can be the things that make a song come alive. A patch change can be too much. The same thing but a subtle amount more can be wonderful. We all adore the picking dynamics and reaction to guitar volume that a decent valve amp (tube amp) can give and which the Kemper already gives us. You know how much this can add to the emotion of a piece you play. This feature gives you complete control over a whole bunch of other things that can be subtle, crazy or anything in between. Who would not want this? :)


    Good times :) Rome was not built in a day..... If it was another manufacturer, they would not still be building Rome. They would have already sold us Rome 2 and possibly Rome 3. My investment continues to grow which is not something I can say for any other technology-based product in my house! The TV I bought in the same year as the Kemper has been superseded several times over and wouldn't fetch anything on eBay. The Kemper is more 'current' now than when I bought it.

    "Some on here have said that the new delays will be made public together with the morphing in 4.0 - CK, however, says in this video, that "they will be released a littlebit later".




    yes thats what i heard too in the video
    anybody from mothership who can tell us what we will get with the next beta ??

    Quote from Laurens

    Or if the pitch effects weren't utter garbage in my opinion.


    you must be doing something wrong.
    or use really old strings.


    and btw. complaining about new features and using words like 'utter garbage' doesn't realy entice any of the Kemper people monitoring this forum to open a dialogue.
    like I'm doing right now, haha...
    anyway, a little respect and politeness can go a long way.


    p.s.
    I just checked and they were 8 fw announcements last year. plus the free rig packs.


    Sorry man, but I really have to say this.


    Clearly you didn't know what you were buying. What you bought was KPA: Kemper Profiling AMP.
    So you bought A "guitar amp" that does profiling, that was complete from day one.


    It profiles very very fucking good. You didn't buy a "Do it all product". You should be very happy that you have the best Amp tones possible today and 20 years from now.

    Im happy with all i get from Kemper
    This must be said here.
    I can't understand people complaining when they get a present
    And i see evrey FW update or Beta as a Present
    And if there are wishes from users these are still wishes
    and a wish can't mean that Kemper has to release this in a very short time, or ever.
    When they mean that something new will fit in the KPA which makes sense
    than its Kempers decision to release this
    We all could be lucky that so many wishes were fulfilled by Kemper
    as i said
    a wish is a wish

    Quote from DonPetersen


    if a Virus fw is released, it makes a lot of keyboarders and synth enthusiasts very happy.
    if a Profiler fw is released, guitarists complain that the unit wasn't complete to begin with.


    :D


    Hey Don, don't overgeneralise here ... the vast majority shows some serious love for what they get from the KPA team.

    I would post the question: is there, in the guitar world, a complete, definite product?


    take a head, for example: tubes switching, repairs, and else.


    maybe the only product that I would think remains as it is at the beginning would be a transistor amp. the rest is to be managed from time to time as a statement!


    so to the ones who expected a complete product, I would say they have been a bit deluded and somewhat misguided by a false concept.


    instead: isn't 'modular' the right process to get always better and better?

    "...why being satisfied with an amp, as great as it can be, while you can have them all?" michael mellner


    "Rock in Ecclesia" - new album on iTunes or Google music


    Probably the first, although I've tried all of the settings I can think of. They aren't up to par with the Whammy or HOG I had at all. I wouldn't even consider using them live. The tracking feels like it has latency. Also, I'm all for opening a dialogue, but I feel like that dialogue could've been opened a while ago in the feature requests forum. There are countless threads that haven't ever seen a reply from a staff member and I can't say it's inviting to post suggestions over there.

    I am totally happy with how things are going.. kudos to the KPA team :)
    Elegant solutions indeed...


    1 Free updates, via SW to add new features is just good sense, why use hardware, shipping etc, when you can magically beam it?
    2 This is the best way to deal with a product that makes art. It is also eco friendly, green more ways than one I guess...
    3 KPA, the internet, it's all a series of tubes, you see ;)
    4 I have 2 KPA's that now retail @ ~45% more than I got them for and sold out atm... Not bad by investment standards, some instruments go up more, unprecedented in electronics, unless you are talking about some unobtanium Ken Fischer amps, but those are not digital. But wait,
    I can get those unobtanium amps, magically beamed via tubes, and when the originals break down, who will be there to fix them, and with what. This is a serious warning to those who want to be greedy and hoard rare amps etc. Mean ppl suck... I may be aware of cost, value etc. but i don't
    flip gear. some ppl love doing it to try things, that's cool too, some try to make a living lowballing--no comment... Even if i have no need or intention to sell my kpa, it still feels good (opposite of buyer's remorse?) that it is getting better, growing in value, v.s. hmm that's 50% of value gone in one year, like a typical PC...
    5 I am getting a strange realization this "platform" is slowly becoming a musical instrument in its own right, and I don't think it is accidental. Amps were first seen as a means, eventually different ones came about, and added musicality, tone, harmonics, it would respond to what you did, and you had ways of responding back. no longer just a louder acoustic guitar. Now we have accurate amp recreation, but it is no longer just an amp, it can do more. I will be pleasantly surprised when new, unheard of things continue to pop up from this little mean green machine :)
    Hard to explain what I am trying to say here, new words are needed to describe new things. New often pushes people out of their comfort zone until they get used to it. If https://www.long-mcquade.com/6…ric_Kazoo_with_Pickup.htm is a musical instrument, and you can plug right into a KPA with it, what has just happened? What does that make the kpa?
    6 Great forum, lot of really nice ppl, and always happy to help, share info, expert advice, great place to learn a lot of things.
    7 This is one of the most advanced, talented, and best run IP companies I have ever seen. This is not easy to do. CK & co make it look easy, maybe because he is "basically a lazy person" ;)


    I can see why some people may complain, but not only does it not belong in this thread, it's not exactly KPA related however.


    Kudos to Don for trying to help, and I agree 100% it's free to be polite. Cheer up Laurens, it cant be that bad, not sure who pissed on your cornflakes, but happier days are always on the way.... and if you really want to throw your kpa out, pls let me know when so I can come by and "recycle it" ;)
    Don's answer is the best tho, sounds good, is good. Always makes me laugh and think of "Is Don, is Good" TM


    Hmm, generalizations have their place, and can point to a mindset, sub culture etc. with varying degrees of accuracy. A lot of non musicians have a view that there is a higher percentage of finicky, gloomy douchers among guitarists than in the general population... then there is a perception called lead singer's disease.


    But if you want to see a really gloomy place? http://www.fractalaudio.com/ front page, looks like the guitarist is about to say no way that anal probe is gonna fit, and the alien is thinking, we have ways... like this http://forum.fractalaudio.com/…sale.109082/#post-1311296 ...Not trying to bash them but someone mentioned marketing? Here is an example...high pressure sales, selling the sizzle, not the steak, and where do they get all the $$ for all those very high dollar artist endorsements, which will do nothing for you, except perhaps make you feel better. I have nothing against anyone there, but there is a large resentment, and perception of this brand and its users as a "doucher crowd". So artists that can get really big endorsements also need to be careful, and would demand more $$ to make up for this. Well their agent/pr etc.


    There is something comforting about an artist being able to freely say I like this, seems more natural. Nothing wrong with endorsements imo, but honestly, I would much prefer a company spend that $$ on RnD instead, so there is more value in a product.


    Lastly to call the KPA an unfinished product --even at release--is not exactly correct. It stem from a basic ontological problem, and a misconception of art in general. Continually evolving, and being ahead of most current trends would be a more accurate outlook. This is a good thing TM :)

    I admit, when I first "heard" that there was a new update and it had a new FX called "Morph" and a different type of Tuner I was like "oh, how under-whelming" for NAMM in my head. How. wrong. I. was.


    v4.0 Updates from reading the release, seeing videos, this thread:
    1) Strobe tuner: (a la Peterson, so now you can set your intonation like a pro, also helps for recording mucho) This is a $200 feature folks. I've had the cheap $75 Peterson and it sucked. You gotta spend the $200 to get the good Peterson.
    2) Delays: The MUCH asked for double delay, plus many other types of delays. Kemper has completed the Delay category. Some will say "it's about time for the Dual delay" but there are a lot of them. Plus this "quad" thing, the Kemper's pitch's and shifting are world class.
    3) Morph: Is NOT just another "FX" at all. It's like they overhauled the entire Kemper to do this. Looks like it's on ALL your profiles, so every profile is really DOUBLED. So if you have 1000 loaded its like 2000 (i.e. you can take a distortion on the one setting and turn the gain down for a complete clean on the other setting, and delete the clean for that amp's profile.) I wonder if they will eventually allow the saving of a profile that will include Morph settings so we can just load them from the Rig Manager w/o having to re-morph it.


    Where Can One Use Morph?
    First off, it's NOT just for people who gig. I don't gig at all anymore. If you are able to swell from one class of settings to another, with virtually any FX you have available in slots, then you have in your song creation toolbox a powerful new dynamic control of sound creation. It can inspire you to write new songs!
    I can see even maddening settings being momentarily useful in an intro, verse, buildup to a bridge, turnarounds, endings, etc.


    I have toyed with this "morphing" on the H9 and thats just on one pedal, limited in use, but I can already imagine what the Kemper can do from playing with going back and forth between 2 of the same profile on different settings I created in the KPA and while it's not gradual like Morph tips the iceberg on all the in-betweens of the swelling dynamic we will have available in February.


    I guess you can tell I'm now properly psyched. I thought this was a blah release and realize it's quite a monumental one. To be fair, my first instrument was a Clarinet, then Piano, so I'm not 100% a proper guitarist, so this opinion doesn't count FOR guitarists! haha.


    Reverbs:
    IF Kemper, CK, did say they are fleshing out Reverbs like that snapshot of Delays on this thread, well, we are in for a bucketful year of upgrades right there.


    Spring Reverb:
    BTW, I was one who bitched about wanting Spring Reverb for the past 3 years. Now that I have it on the H9, I never use it. Go figure. Be CAREFUL what you ask for!


    Editor:
    I have a few guitarists friends who ask me about the Kemper and these are the most asked question: "Does it have an editor? No? What can the Librarian do then?" People want an Editor. I haven't kept up with 3rd party ones.


    Are there any good 3rd party editors this past year I can tell these folks about?

    It seems that there is a certain feeling of entitlement here. I bought a unit that profiled amps almost perfectly, I'm still using the sounds of an amp I just sold thanks to this near magical feature. The tubes won't break and I can leave it on standby, come back two hours later and it will sound exactly the same. For me the effects themselves are a bonus and when I bought it, I didn't even know there were Fw upgrades, let alone more and better effects. It's free stuff, I love free stuff. Chin up I think

    A brace of Suhrs, a Charvel, a toaster, an Apollo twin, a Mac, and a DXR10

    Like 4
    Quote from Laurens

    They aren't up to par with the Whammy or HOG I had at all. I wouldn't even consider using them live. The tracking feels like it has latency.


    all tracking has latency, that's just the way it is. and the HOG is a guitar synthesizer, you can't really compare it to pitch effects.

    Quote from Laurens

    Also, I'm all for opening a dialogue, but I feel like that dialogue could've been opened a while ago in the feature requests forum. There are countless threads that haven't ever seen a reply from a staff member and I can't say it's inviting to post suggestions over there.


    no reply doesn't mean it isn't seen and noted.
    we have a subforum dedicated for feature requests, if you choose to not use it that is your prerogative.
    but we do have a pretty good track record when it comes to implementing user requested features,
    we even changed the order of our release train once to accommodate user interests.
    and btw. our pitch effects have a excellent reputation - open a thread about your issues with them, or point me to a thread you already opened (I can't - regrettably - see each and every post) and let's see what's up there.


    ...aaand back to topic, please

    Quote from Morph

    It seems that there is a certain feeling of entitlement here. I bought a unit that profiled amps almost perfectly, I'm still using the sounds of an amp I just sold thanks to this near magical feature. The tubes won't break and I can leave it on standby, come back two hours later and it will sound exactly the same. For me the effects themselves are a bonus and when I bought it, I didn't even know there were Fw upgrades, let alone more and better effects. It's free stuff, I love free stuff. Chin up I think


    This. It's why I went Digital with Piano in 1989. No need to tune it. Sound never changed. Didn't have to spend money on microphones/preamps, etc to record it, just hook up the 1/4" jacks, done. Kemper is the same.. and more.


    The features in the Kemper for song creation, especially FX and features not found on any other product is making it entirely unique. No one else profiles, no one else can pitch correct harmonics, no one else will be morphing all progressive parameters. It does as suggested turn the Kemper from just an Amp into a song inspiring and sound shaping tool.

    For me it is very simple: The KPA was the most desirable digital amp device when I bought it in 2012 and it is even more now!!! With all those new ice cream I can sell my Timeline and that's it!!!


    Big thanks to CK and the Kemper team to support their product all the way!!! :thumbup: