FW 4.0 beta experiences thread.


    For me too, one of the best things about the Kemper is that I can buy profiles from professional guys with good ears / experience / equipment that accurately steal the soul of an amp I would have no access to and allow me to play it for very little financial outlay. As we all know, this is brilliant.


    For me, the thing that excited me about morphing was not controlling amp parameters but instead controlling effect mixes etc. One of the feature requests I have asked for since having the unit is 'ability to control any parameter from the expression pedal' and 'ability to control multiple parameters from an expression pedal'. Morphing does exactly this and is very elegant to set up so I'm happy.


    Being honest, I wasn't excited about changing amp parameters for the same reason you've mentioned, Frank - my thinking was 'I have a perfect core amp sound, why do I want to take away from this?'. Since using it, I've changed my mind actually. Taking some of my favourite profiles and adding / subtracting a small amount of gain is working for me. For sure it works better with some profiles than with others but I think it goes with the ethos of Kemper..... If you want 99.9% true to the original amp, that's why you profile at different spots and you can still do that. Morphing adds the further capability of making that amp do things it wouldn't be able to do for real. If you keep that change subtle? I don't think many people would be able to tell it's a tweaked gain and not the 'real thing'. If you make it a crazy big change? Well, then it'll be doing something far beyond what the original amp could do. That something may sound good, bad or ugly :)


    It would be great fun to morph between two amps in real time but, if we're doing that, that would also be a fantasy if you think about it...... How would you do this on a stage with the real thing? So I guess if the morphing from one rig to another rig would be an artificial concept then it's kind of OK to do artificial things with a single rig. I'd love it if they could do the fantasy for us but, in the meantime, I am having fun.


    My comments are those of a guy who plays for fun - I'm a million miles away from being a pro guitarist. I'm just a keen amateur but I'm a fussy one in terms of sound. The core sounds makes me smile as much as ever and the ability to play with the effects and actually bend reality in terms of the amps is giving me a great deal of fun :)


    Wait a tic...now that seems too easy and quite possibly, for me, embarrassingly obvious (as in why didn't I think of that immediately). :D


    Yet, I still have to pause...and re-ask this question:


    What happens when you switch rigs/presets, and then return to this (original) rig/preset in question. Wouldn't the KPA load the gain setting based on what you defined as the beginning "Morph" position, i.e. either 2 or 8, on the gain?? In other words, would or wouldn't it re-load at 5.0?? Now I am confused again. LOL.


    Again, I would be testing this out myself, but I am procrastinating (or scared) in loading the 4.x Beta.

    Quote from Pre-Amp

    Hi Everyone!
    I moved to 4.0 last night. Not noticed all the performance issues but scrolling was a bit wierd as I recall. I did notice that on Rigs where I need to use my expression pedal for Wah, the Wah didn't sound as smooth as usual, more of a staged incremental shifting of tone.
    Has anyone else experienced this?


    How do you control your wah?
    I had a similar issue with pedal pitch. I wasn't sure if it's real or just my imagination that it didn't go as smooth as it used to but after reading your post, I think it went smoother before.
    Anyone else?


    Edit: I recorded a short comparison. First part is on 4.0.1, second on 3.3.0.

    External Content soundcloud.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    Quote from Tritium

    What happens when you switch rigs/presets, and then return to this (original) rig/preset in question. Wouldn't the KPA load the gain setting based on what you defined as the beginning "Morph" position, i.e. either 2 or 8, on the gain?? In other words, would or wouldn't it re-load at 5.0?? Now I am confused again. LOL.


    It would load with the first morph state, in this case 2. ;)

    Hm, are you sure you have been to page two on the compressor? There's a Mix control there, and when set to zero I really hear no impact on the signal.[/quote]


    UHHHH yah Im stupid. I have never seen the mix before on the compressor and specifically tried to find it for this adventure. I dont know if I didnt fully press the page button but I was sure there was no 2nd page ! ANYWAY thanks...

    Quote from Eltzejupp

    fantasy.... as Ingolf has written :D


    I also loved "you can't have every think" a lot!
    (AKA: The ethernal sunshine of a spotless mind)



    Quote from Gary_W

    'I have a perfect core amp sound, why do I want to take away from this?'


    Not sure I follow you here Gary: you can have a perfectly set amp and yet it will sound different if you use a different guitar than the one used for tweaking it. Also, what when you clean the tone through your guitar pot? What when you strum harder or softer? Those are all events that, while changing the input signal, will change the amp's response.
    I guess what I am saying is that a sweet spot is always in relation with a whole rig (player, fingers, pick, strings, PUs, cable, amp, cab) and should not be limited to an amp's settings.
    Does this make sense?

    Quote from DamianGreda

    I see a solution to "AMP to AMP " or "RIG to RIG" morphing - two KPA's and expression pedal controlled 2 chanell mixer.

    Can I borrow your credit card to try this ?? :P


    Overall morphing is a nice option, not a Be All To End All thing. I'm glad its fairly easy to do , as I don't want to spend hours tweaking everything ala' Ax Fx ( don't get me wrong,I'm impressed by the amount of detail Cliff puts into his stuff, but I want to play mostly, not twiddle dials ).


    Thanks Christophe . . this kind of stuff makes me glad I bought my Kemper.


    My biggest "problem" is figuring out if I want to buy a Friedman asm 12 or two to play my Toaster thru.


    It's all First World problems, folks. At least on here. ^^

    Quote from Eltzejupp

    In my fantasy i see it comming.......a clean fender amp combined with a good rocking jcm800, volume on the git a little closed and the shimmer of the fender arives (uahh it'only fantasy....so be shure i have it).So finaly i know it's very difficult to criticize some thing about the kpa here in this forum, i have seen it many times (shitstorm for critics) but i dont care for it so much. For me a forum is also a platform where i can say i am dissapointed because it is not what i have expected and what was pronounced as "Quantensprung" in february just with the Namm start.


    Well, in physic a "quantensprung" is the minimal possible size of changing a state. So I did not expected to much. ;)
    My 2 cents in that time was that I would prefer to have better delays and reverbs and some improvements of reliability and functionality of RM instead of morphing. (I also a bit was criticized for that)
    I stated that I do not intend to use this new feature in close future. Maybe one reason was, that the given examples sounds almost ghastly for me.


    Still the morphing feature would not be the mind breaker for me to choose a Kemper but I found out that even I (who is not interested on psychedelic soundeffects) can imagine some advantages now.
    I will start with changing of parameter in the stomps/effects and boosters.
    I always have justified concern to miss one of the stomp assign buttons while playing. My skills as a tap dancer are rather limited. ;)
    Now I can use the main rig button to change the sound immediately for a solo or add some effects for a certain song part. (the morphing time can be shortened up to zero)


    Opportunity makes thieves, maybe I will try to integrate other applications in my performances, but I am sure, that we will face very soon some interesting examples from professional tweakers to improve our possibilities.

    Quote from Ingolf


    It would load with the first morph state, in this case 2. ;)


    Hi Ingolf,


    Yeah, I kind of thought that would be the answer...but I don't think it was the solution that @Eltzejupp was hoping for. And while I absolutely appreciate @Gary_W response, and helpful suggestion...the more I thought about it, the more I realized this would only work if you "programmed" this quasi "mid-point" scenario on the fly, and remained within the same performance/rig during the duration of the song/set. The instant you switch to another pefromance/rig slot, it cancels out the "sweet-spot" setting. In other words, as soon as you try to jump back (retrun) to this performance/rig/slot, the KPA is going to "re-set" the starting value of the morphed effect to the minimum (or maximum) value...not the "sweet-spot" / middle value.


    I mean, I can understand the logic behind this. There is no way for the KPA to automatically and continuously "sense" the actual position state of a brand "x" expression pedal. It can only work between a calibrated minimum and maximum reference point, at any given time, and interpolate intermediary position values between these extremums.


    Again, not a surprise, here. However, I can definitely understand and appreciate @Eltzejupp desire that somehow a true mid-point / "sweet spot" might somehow be recognized and saved.


    Cheers,
    John

    Ok so it seems there are a few new reverb algorithms included in 4.0 or I missed them previously. Had to import factory rigs and delete a few hundred again for them to show up though. I seen a user mention a new reverb in a comment and it didn't show. Not clear whether these are included in separate rig pack. After spending some time playing with the delay and reverb changes I find it much easier to dial in some great sounding ambient sounds, swell, synth, tremolo picking, etc. And, it only takes a few slots ! Already a big improvement, and sure to get better. Let's see what MAB can create with this stuff!

    Tbh I can't understand the disappointment of some users about the new morphing feature. The disapointment is not Kemper's fault, but comes from wrong expectations. Amp morphing was never announced.


    For me morphing has at least one clear advantage: Switching from rhythm to solo in a live situation. Predefine the time until the KPA starts to morph to your solo sound, push the button on the remote, take your time to walk to the middle of the stage and receive your 15 seconds of fame.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    Like 4

    S


    Sorry for playing some wrong notes here, but I "thing" you understand me
    (-;

    Quote from Kempermaniac

    Tbh I can't understand the disappointment of some users about the new morphing feature. The disapointment is not Kemper's fault, but comes from wrong expectations. Amp morphing was never announced.


    For me morphing has at least one clear advantage: Switching from rhythm to solo in a live situation. Predefine the time until the KPA starts to morph to your solo sound, push the button on the remote, take your time to walk to the middle of the stage and receive your 15 seconds of fame.


    No disappointment here. The new "Seamless Tone Travelling" (Morphing) is the bees knees!
    I am just waiting for some of the bugs to get worked out, before I jump in head first. :thumbup:


    P.S. -- And I am still waiting for Kemper to publish an official walk-through/tutorial of the Morphing features. Still so many grey areas, at least for me. I hope they include a description of the underlying logic by which KPA controls the Morphing, especially with an expression pedal, and in particular how the Morphed parameters react when switching from morphing rig/preset "A", to another rig/preset "B", and then immediately back to the morphing preset "A". Does the KPA remember the last pedal position of morph rig/preset "A", even after the switch to "B", and does it return to that last value when rig/preset "A" is re-selected?


    Ingolf has indicated that it does not, in fact, recall the last position state when re-selecting "A". Part of me says, okay, that kind of makes sense. If the pedal has been accidentally moved, you wouldn't want to come back into the "A" preset with a surprise in store. But than another part of me says, "why not?". This all goes back to the question initially raised by @Eltzejupp regarding a middle "sweet-spot". The more I think about it, the more it is bugging me...because (at least this very moment), I have no clear idea as to the logical order of operations and what takes precedence.


    Kemper GmbH...please release a detailed Morphing tutorial and/or instruction leaflet, tout de suite! I am not talking about a tutorial showing Morphing features and capabilities...I really mean a technical instruction addendum.
    @Burkhard -- IMHO, this is a matter of some urgency.


    P.S.S -- This post may test the validity of the old aphorism: "The squeaky wheel gets the grease". :P


    I have name dropped @Burkhard twice just now. If I do it once more, will that summon him? I seem to remember that from a movie, possibly directed by Tim Burton.


    P.S.S.S -- @Burkhard


    ;)


    Cheers,
    John

    Edited 3 times, last by Tritium ().

    Hi.
    Just working a bit with the 4.0.1 Beta. I like the new strobe tuner option. To me, the Rotary Speaker seems somehow "better" in this new version, though nothing is stated in the addendum that anything was changed. Glitches in Performance Mode -- maybe that has been mentioned. When you turn the type knob to move to the Performance Preset -- either up or down -- a screen appears with the boxes, but the presets are not there. One needs to push Load before the rigs stored in that Performance slot appear. But perhaps this is intended for some reason? Now this is odd -- the behavior I just mentioned occurs when I turn the Type button on the Kemper itself, but does not occur when I switch banks with the Remote.


    Again, maybe this is something new???


    Very excited to receive this upgrade! This Kemper has just been fabulous for me! I love it! And, with each upgrade, there is more to love -- and, yes, learn!


    Cheers.


    Doug

    Quote from joerch

    Has anyone mentioned, that the Remote (5 LEDs at the bottom) and the soft buttons on the KPA itself reflect the tuning status when the strobe tuner is engaged? Nice feature!


    The soft buttons on the KPA itself, yes. To quote Game of Thrones -- "This is known".
    But I didn't know that this was also mirrored by the LEDs on the Remote. :thumbup:


    I don't think that such a tutorial is urgent as morphing is actually pretty easy. I get that it may be hard to understand how it works if you haven't tried.
    However, I'd suggest to wait until you have installed the new firmware and actually got your hands on that thing.
    A tutorial of instruction can be helpful for sure, but like I said :In my opinion, this isn't a matter of urgency.

    Quote from MtotheEikel


    I don't think that such a tutorial is urgent as morphing is actually pretty easy. I get that it may be hard to understand how it works if you haven't tried.
    However, I'd suggest to wait until you have installed the new firmware and actually got your hands on that thing.
    A tutorial of instruction can be helpful for sure, but like I said :In my opinion, this isn't a matter of urgency.


    MtotheEikel,


    Are you trying to take the grease out of my squeaky wheel? Shame on you. Shame.


    Just kidding. ;)


    I am sure you are correct that many of my questions will be answered when I actually install the new firmware and begin using the morphing feature. Be that as it may, I still am of the opinion that a short instruction/reference manual specific to Morphing is very much needed.

    Morphing is very easy and works intuitively, but an instructional video concerning new delay could be nice :) The algorithm is so versatile that it could save some time when trying to get a specific sound. And it could give whole new ideas.