Forum Section Suggestions and Rig Exchange/List/Download Suggestions

    I'm very new to Kemper ownership and lurked the forums a bit before making the purchase. When something is new to me is when I generally have ideas about it, so these are my thoughts on a few improvements:


    Forums

    • Having a private forum for registered owners only is a great idea, it keeps down spam and sheer post volume to a more manageable level. I've seen people complain about it, but I think it is an important aspect of the forum.
    • A few topics in the public and private forum are capable of attracting posts which could easily fit in either forum. Specifically, the Public Forum section: Profiler - Questions and Answers & the Private Section: Profiler Related Discussions. Both of these sections could by definition be appropriate for the same post or question.
    • I think the public forum should change the section: Profiler - Questions and Answers to Profiler - Pre-Purchase Questions and Answers. Thereby separating the types of questions had by an owner who has played with and manipulated the profiler from a person trying to make a decision on the purchase by asking questions that might not be asked by a person with the preamp in their possession. It would be more efficient if there were only one place to post a certain type of message.
    • I think the section titled Introduce yourself should be moved to the Private forum because it implies that one should be an owner in its description. This isn't so important though.

    Rig Exchange/List/Download Suggestions


    One of the most confusing things to me when I first turned on my lightly used Kemper Prifiler was how to do a full factory reset and restore only the rigs that came from the factory from Kemper. This perplexed me for a little bit and after searching and asking here I found all the answers. I ended up just deleting all the rigs and then restoring them from the firmware. That was confusing though as there were only 337 rigs when the lists I found had over 500 factory rigs on them. 2 days ago I found the answer to that question here: http://www.kemper-amps.com/pag…mplifier___Downloads.html


    In the entry titled Factory Content 3.1 (August 2015) it states why 337 rigs are loaded.


    In total though, all this rig info is scattered. Currently, these are the sources of info on rigs:
    Rig Manager
    http://www.kemper-amps.com/sharerigs
    http://www.kemper-amps.com/pag…mplifier___Downloads.html
    http://www.kemper-amps.com/pag…__Mic_Reference_List.html
    http://www.wikpa.org/Factory_Rigs


    It would be helpful if all this info was in one or two places maximum. Also, using the rig manager I see Kemper Amps as an author for a few rigs - but I have no way of telling which rigs were made by Kemper (unless I missed something). So if I want to check out only factory rigs, the best way to currently do it is download them all from the download page and run through them after putting them into a folder in the Rig Manager.


    Hope some of this helps with small improvements and/or sparks some ideas.

    I think there's some good stuff there, Anthony, and I tend to agree with most of it.


    You might find it easier to simply copy the factory Rigs from the "My Profiler" folder (or whatever it's called) in RM to a separate folder. I have one called "Firmware 3.1 Presets" or something like that. Seeing as you've already restored the Rigs from the firmware, which is what I did too, this should be uber-convenient. If not, as you said, you can download the set from the Kemper site and pop it into such a folder.


    This way, no matter what you do with the onboard presets, the set will always be just a click and drag away from being restored, which I'm guessing would be a whole lot quicker than either the "restore from firmware" or restore-from-USB options.


    I think your ideas for sub-forum placement have some merit.

    Thanks Nicky. Overall everything is good here, maybe just some small refinements could help. One of the things I dig most so far about the Profiler is the minimalist/intuitive approach to the hardware. I think the same efficient approach is good for information management.


    As for copying the rigs from My Profiler in the Rig Manager - does it actually move hard copies of the .kipr files? I looked and it appears that only an index file is created (repository.db files). I'm actually thinking to just wipe all the rigs out again other than a few favorites I've already marked; and then only add rigs I like from this point forward. Too many choices is sometimes no good!


    The more I read in the Wiki too, the more I like it. I realized with the wiki - in order to find all the info - it is best to start and navigate from the site map, not the left sidebar menu!

    For all intents and purposes, yes, Anthony, they're hard copies, but as Paul said, they reside in the RM's file system and get buried in the support files in App Support and Documents folders, I suspect.


    FWIMBW, although this doesn't apply to copying from the "My Profiler" folder I don't think (Haven't tested this), one must command-drag Rigs from folder to folder within one's local library in order to make copies. Simply dragging them will actually move and not copy them.


    If you haven't tried it already, dragging Rigs or entire folders of them to locations on your computer is, for me at least, the swiftest method of duplication / backup; I don't use export functions per se except when backing up the entire RM Local Library from the file menu.

    Hi Anthony, welcome to the Kemper world :)
    Let me just note that the Wiki is quite unmaintained, so you might find some outdated info there, especially on the Factory Rigs and the Firmware history.
    Also, many new features haven't been covered yet (e.g. the Remote). The website is up and running but it's up to its users to contribute and update information. Many use it, very few contribute ;)

    Thanks for all the tips fellas. I'm a PC guy, so after a full search of the computer for .kipr files - I found that the only hard copies were the ones I physically placed.


    Once I drag them from their home folder into a rig manager folder, rig manager creates an index file which refers to them. When I add a file from the Rig Exchange to Rig Manager, that works a little different. In that case .kipr files are downloaded and kept in a temp folder in AppData.


    I get it now though and soon I'll have some nicely organized folders of sick amps. Just found that old/rare amps sticky in the free profiles forum. Man is this stuff cool and fun!

    Quote from AnthonyNYC

    Thanks for all the tips fellas. I'm a PC guy, so after a full search of the computer for .kipr files - I found that the only hard copies were the ones I physically placed.


    On Mac here. The only "hard copies" (.kipr files) I have are the ones I downloaded from the forum, the ones I bought and the copies resulting from my drag-and-drop RM backup.


    This is only relevant in the context about to be provided:


    Quote from AnthonyNYC


    Once I drag them from their home folder into a rig manager folder, rig manager creates an index file which refers to them. When I add a file from the Rig Exchange to Rig Manager, that works a little different. In that case .kipr files are downloaded and kept in a temp folder in AppData.


    As far as I can tell, no reference is made to the original files for me; I can do anything I want with them.


    My equivalent of your AppData folder is probably the Application Support one, where I assume this data, as well as copies of whatever I drag into RM from the Finder (OS GUI), is stored. It's not in a recognisable format (to me at least); I figure it's Kemper Secret Stuff™ and leave it well alone other than to drag the Kemper folder from App Support as part of my backup regime. Same applies to the Kemper folder in Documents. I've no idea what's in there, but I back it up nevertheless.


    The Kemper Team™ will tell you (I think) that there's no need to do all this OCD-style backup, and that the Backup menu function in RM covers everything, which I've no doubt it does (I use that too!), but I like to keep copies of all RM folders as .kipr files as well as copies of the Kemper folders "just in case" anyway. This is a reflection of my anally-retentive nature as well as my incredible love for my KPA and profiles and fear of losing them.


    Quote from AnthonyNYC

    I get it now though and soon I'll have some nicely organized folders of sick amps. Just found that old/rare amps sticky in the free profiles forum. Man is this stuff cool and fun!


    Isn't it? It's ridiculous IMHO.


    Perhaps I appreciate it more than some due to having endured modelling for 25 years as my exclusive (if you could call it that!) source of tone before jumping the plank.


    Awesome. Just bloody awesome. Love it more every day.

    Due to the awesomeness of all the rigs available, I've developed a new late night habit in the past week:


    Wait till wife passes out watching Tv, run away to spare bedroom, put on big headphones and mess with the Kemper until 2am.


    I think this thing is going to improve my playing by forcing me to put in more time...that's a nice side effect!

    Indeed Anthony!


    It's totally rekindled my interest in guitar, which had waned due to the decades trying to get my hands on one (non-FL) that stayed in tune, waiting for custom axes that fell through and also for L6 repairs which take forever Down Under. I was all but fully over the whole guitar thing... until the Kemper entered the fray.


    For this, and so many other reasons (learning about amp models for example), this thing is the best thing since sliced bread as far as I'm concerned, and is easily the best gear purchase I've ever made. As you'd know, usually the initial excitement and interest wanes before too long with new gear, and one tends, at that point, to start experiencing relapses of GAS. Not in this case. Just as it is in a perfect relationship, my love for my unit (the Kemper, all you dirty-minded Kemperites!) grows stronger every day.

    Quote from AnthonyNYC

    I think the public forum should change the section: Profiler - Questions and Answers to Profiler - Pre-Purchase Questions and Answers.


    Some good ideas here.


    I think it would be better if the public forum remained that way, and add a subsection for pre purchase. This would do 2 things, put what is probably the majority of posts in the pub forum
    into it's own topic, reducing cluttter. More importantly it would keep this site more open to all who want to share something here, not having any risk of giving the impression that people were not welcome to post unless it was only about buying. This is totally worthwhile, since you never know when some random person would post some very interesting/handy/useful info.


    Also I think a kind of backstage sub thread for kpa owners could be really useful here too for a few things, such as people starting posts with not sure where to post, this would be it. It could also handle more off topic tendency threads as well, which would help with organization, and general layout, and threads could be moved there as well if needed. I don't mean completely unrelated things, or some flamewar forum for controversial things either, but it is the internet, and that would be a better place to put any kind of friction, so those who dont want to see it can easily avoid.


    But i think the main benefit of a backstage kind of thread would be more for topics like ethics of kemper 101, or 2+2=5 (someone actually wrote a successful math thesis on this) when is 4.0 coming out. The idea would be a more lighthearted kind of laid back place, but serious if need be. it would be hard to really predict more, since a sub forum lke that would have a kinda of character that would eveolve from the kind of posts that show up over time. Speculative topics would fit well here for example. Funny stuff also, tho that seems to pop up a lot here :)

    I'd say if they keep the general questions section in the public forum, that's fine -- just remove it from the private forum then. Currently there are 2 fitting places to post the same type of questions, which I think unnecessarily thins out information and forces users to search through both sections.