Rate the Transpose feature

I've noticed the same thing and, since I'd mainly transpose clean sounds, I find the effect scarcely usable.

The point is that the Transpose (by concept) needs to at least read half period of the lowest frequency in order to understand its pitch, which is in the worst case 82.4 Hz for a traditionally-tuned 6-string guitar.
The attack time for a clean sound is of course much faster than that for a distorted one, so artefacts are unavoidably generated when the system has to present the original envelope transposed by any amount. What I believe happens is a relative-phase distortion among the harmonics of the sound.

If this is the case, I guess it doesn't depend on the intrinsic tracking latency. Maybe the Kemper's is more sensitive to extraneous noises (fingers, frets...), or maybe there's room for improving the algorithm itself.

@OhG, that was my same experience. The Digitech performed noticeably better on my clean guitar. If I recall, it wasn't so much the latency, but the DT seemed to lock in better, with less glitches and warbles. In a live situation, the KPA is still good enough for the simple strumming in my particular application, but I imagine the overall mix would sound cleaner and tighter without the chaos.

I haven't tried it on clean sounds yet. Will have to do that later today

Hey Nightlight,

Well, it tracks quite well but the more the tuning varies from the original, and the less accurate is the tracking. What is good however is to tune each string independently. I like the Kemper tracking TBH.

Quote from OhG

Yeah, I just couldn't use the Kemper's transpose feature for live gigs on a clean tone. For distorted stuff, it would have been doable. But the clean tone just felt almost like it had a quick fade-in when I was playing quick funky chords. So I ended up buying a Digitech Drop pedal on eBay yesterday for $129. I felt like that was a good deal.

The Kemper is decent in this area. Certainly useful for messing around at home and learning songs without having to re-tune the guitar, or to get you buy for a song or two. But for me, I play about 11 songs per night dropped down 1/2 step. And for at least 4 of those songs, I'm doing clean stuff and the Kemper would just be too noticeable for me. So the Digitech was worth buying.

Thread revival...

So the Digitech Drop is better than the Kemper Transpose function across the board, or, has the Kemper Transpose closed the gap since this post? I just tried messing with the Transpose effect and it's "OK". I'm on the latest FW build.

I tried several times. Its close but the lag and the change in tone turned me off. I bring an extra guitar now in another tuning.

I think there was an update (not talking about moving it to the rig section) that reduced the latency since the above comments.

The issue still occurs. The latency improved a little bit but its still an issue. I have the latest full release and the problem still occurs. You can feel the lag.

Quote from viabcroce

I've noticed the same thing and, since I'd mainly transpose clean sounds, I find the effect scarcely usable.

The point is that the Transpose (by concept) needs to at least read half period of the lowest frequency in order to understand its pitch, which is in the worst case 82.4 Hz for a traditionally-tuned 6-string guitar.

A general transpose function doesn't need to know about pitch. A harmonizer does however.

I would bring a second guitar or play in the certain key if it is about live situations. For practising I sometimes use the transpose function and really like it! I own pitch pedals as well but use them only if I want to have this kind of latency or certain kind of sound they offer.

Quote from musicmad

A general transpose function doesn't need to know about pitch. A harmonizer does however.

It does if it attempts to formant shift the tone, too, negating the Mickey Mouse or Darth Vader effects.

Quote from sambrox

It does if it attempts to formant shift the tone, too, negating the Mickey Mouse or Darth Vader effects.

True. But not what we are rating here when looking at the polyphonic transpose functionality (chords etc.) where formant shifting generally shouldn't be used.

It completely changed the pitch of my guitar, wooeep dooooooooooow! The singer who is a conspiracy theorist was so freaked out thinking the aliens had finally found him that he lost his place and tried to curl up and hide inside the kick drum which caused the entire drum-kit to collapse on stage showing that our drummer only ever dresses the upper portion of his body, a rolling cymbal hit the back of the bass players leg causing him to become unbalanced at the same time as half the audience projectile vomited or spat their beer in disbelief making the stage a horrible slippy mess, the bass player spasmodically tried to keep his balance but ultimately slid or is that tripped up sustaining a mild concussion but not before throwing his p-bass into the lighting rig which shorted out and fried the club electronics as well as setting off the sprinkler system, in the ensuing panic of sparks, bodies, vomit and questionable beer 30 people were trampled and ended up in hospital and a small bag of peanuts was stolen from the bar area. I stood magnificent on the stage during it all pick held aloft, dreamy look on face. Overall this was a win with fewer casualties than our usual concerts. Highly effective, would use again. 4/5 stars.

Quote from Per

It completely changed the pitch of my guitar, wooeep dooooooooooow! The singer who is a conspiracy theorist was so freaked out thinking the aliens had finally found him that he lost his place and tried to curl up and hide inside the kick drum which caused the entire drum-kit to collapse on stage showing that our drummer only ever dresses the upper portion of his body, a rolling cymbal hit the back of the bass players leg causing him to become unbalanced at the same time as half the audience projectile vomited or spat their beer in disbelief making the stage a horrible slippy mess, the bass player spasmodically tried to keep his balance but ultimately slid or is that tripped up sustaining a mild concussion but not before throwing his p-bass into the lighting rig which shorted out and fried the club electronics as well as setting off the sprinkler system, in the ensuing panic of sparks, bodies, vomit and questionable beer 30 people were trampled and ended up in hospital and a small bag of peanuts was stolen from the bar area. I stood magnificent on the stage during it all pick held aloft, dreamy look on face. Overall this was a win with fewer casualties than our usual concerts. Highly effective, would use again. 4/5 stars.

To bad you're out in CA, I'd love to see a show.

I owned a Morpheus Droptune pedal. It was ace at some stuff but it felt horrible on No One Knows by Queens of the Stone Age. That was at gig volume, tuned four semitones down to C and has a really choppy, staccato riff. I just felt totally disconnected, it was off putting and didn't like it.

I then moved to a Line 6 Variax which felt exactly the same. Sure, it worked quite well for alternate tunings with different shifts for each string but down to C? Nope. Again, it depended what I was playing though.

I ended up with a guitar for that one song, nothing else got me close. I've since tried a Digitech Drop and went straight for that riff and it was just the same. The KPA feels no different to me, some stuff it works wonderfully others not.

Quote from Locrain

To bad you're out in CA, I'd love to see a show.

We model ourselves after Disaster Area. Looking for a new singer, drummer, bassist and soundman...