Kempers Effects Good Enough for You?

  • I just want vintage sounding effects. Call me old fashioned but my favorite guitar tones are from the mid 60's to mid 70's.


    Im hoping we finally get a great Spring reverb, and a Plate reverb as well (although I'm not holding out for that)


    I also would like to see really nice tape echo and analog delay.


    And it's probably asking too much but how about a great Vibe (the existing Vibe is ok but it's not quite there) and I think the fuzz could be more realistic. At the very least the output level could be lowered. That thing is a devil!


    But overall I like the effects. They sound nice, if a bit clinical and pristine.

  • No. Together with the missing Editor and better reliability. That's why other manufacturers are still on the market, otherwise the quality of profiles/guitar tones is the best IMO.
    I would pay an extra to have the Strymon algorhythms on board and some good overdrive stomps.

    +10000000


    Would happily pay more- the reverbs are lacking heavily for a unit that has done this much of an update to the delays in one hit! :thumbdown::cursing:

  • Realistically speaking it's almost an impossibility to put Strymon algorithms inside the Kemper unless both companies make a deal.


    On the other hand Kemper will likely update the reverbs and if the update is as drastic as that for the delays update, the new Kemper Reverbs could be as good and possibly even better. I personally would prefer to have little or no effects but instead have the ability to profile the tone stack, bass treble, etc and maybe to be able to run a profile of a drive pedal at the same time as that of an amp.

    Do you think kemper will ever allow the feature of profiling a single overdrive to use as a stomp in the future? CK??

  • the mods, delays and verbs are already plenty good enough for me.


    Where I am definitely struggling is with fuzzes (fuzzii?). I am very picky about my fuzz tones, from your basic crunchy smooth Fuzz Face to more wild Fuzz Factory gated craziness, and everything in between. Admittedly, I think I'm still a little too new with the Kemper to have some of the right amp profiles to match with the built in fuzz pedals, but I also think that they might just still have not perfected the digital model of a fuzz in the Kemper yet.

  • I'll chime in here as I'm pretty new to the KPA. Bear in mind that I bought the KPA for live use predominately and would seldom print FX when recording anyway.


    1. Are the FX in the Kemper any good - imho yes. They vary of course but nothing that can't deliver great results with tweaking and effort (I do think this is a critical point!)


    2. Are they as good as my old outboard - no. But then I used a couple of PCM 80's for delay based FX/reverb so I wouldn't expect them to be and built a pedal board up over the years with the best of what was available. A treadmill I could never get off however... I just think it's unrealistic to expect this imho. I do think that they will improve over time and am comfortable if they don't.


    3. Will I replace me old rig completely with the KPA - absolutely


    Do I feel that the sound I got out of my old rig FX was better? - yes at the moment but I have lots of tweaking to do and spent years with my legacy gear. I owe it to the KPA to do the same. Do I feel that anyone in the audience would notice/give a damn - NO! I actually believe that the sound I present to an audience going forward will certainly be better and way more consistent.


    I absolutely respect that my opinions will be different to others and this is just my opinion. Life (for most of us!) is a compromise and as such the benefits to me offered by moving to a one-stop KPA solution offset any disadvantages. I'll take convenience, consistency, integration and simplicity over what I had before and as I say I actually believe that for my requirements I will ultimately end up with a better sound as an end result anyway! The shared EQ on my Bogner Blue/Red channels caused me no end of frustration - I don't have to worry about this any more with the KPA.


    Will I sell any of my gear? No - but then I am emotionally attached to it and don't need to! I don't feel I will be wheeling it out any time soon however..


    If you're wedded to your outboard then the KPA integrates nicely anyway so you can have it all!


    Regards,


    Si

  • Well, I'm only a bass player...
    Before I got my kemper middle 2016 I was an AxeFX user since 2012 and after that in 2015 I got the Fx8 unit from them.
    People says that Fractal has stellar effects, the best on market.
    I don't think so. Why? Because they have a lot of parameters to tweak and you when tweaking a lot you get lost to find a good effect (in Fx8) and algo a good tone (on axefx).
    Besides that, Fractal has limited bass amps and never care about the bass players users. So it's mainly a guitar piece of gear only.


    But about what the threat is, Kemper effects.
    For me I think they are good but could be better in: chorus, phaser, tremolo (modulation effects) and on the drive section.
    Yes I can use a profile from a pedal that a like, it's what I do. I have some darkglass profiles and other drive/preamp pedals to use.
    But I can't use those profiles with a bass amp profile for example.


    Kemper should allow us to profile drive pedals and use it on the effects slots...
    And when I say could be better I say that the modulation effects and the drives could be more accurated, to sound more natural/organic.. And of course more options of effects on this areas...


    :love:

  • I love the effects in the Kemper, but it seems Kemper has a specific philosophy concerning the effects. They seem to lean towards giving a single effect that can be massively tweaked, rather than multiple less versatile effects meant to closely emulate existing effect pedals from other manufacturers. The Kemper method is fantastic if you have a very specific effect sound you are going for and are willing to tweak until you get it (the tools are there for such work). However, if you simply want to dial up an Electric Mistress flanger model, it may not be in there. Kemper is doing a much better job with presets emulating vintage effects as time progresses.


    The only thing I don't like in the Kemper effects is how many are available, 6 plus delay and reverb is not very many, especially when one might be used up by a wah. Also in order to turn on multiple effects at once, you have to save them to a specific preset (unless there is a method I'm not familiar with). Overall the only disappointment I have had with the Kemper as compared to my previous modeler, a Line 6 HD500, is the effect quantity and arrangement capabilities; the HD500 is great in that way.


    But I haven't needed a tone or effect yet I haven't been able to get with the Kemper.

  • I think, since the last update of the delay-effects, this chapter can be closed. It's unbelievable what you can do with those f...ing awsome delays in multiple Slots. I think this is state of the art in such devices like the Profiler.


    For the reverbs further updates have been pronounced, so I'm very confident that we will be surprised similarily.


    I'm no friend of Modulation effects except a Leslie. I played the real Thing for about 12 years, but at last was fatigue of it's bulkiness. Before I sold my rotor-cabinet, I tested nearly all stomp-boxes on the market (from Behringer to Strymon) and could not get convinced (though I kept the lex-rotary). I like more a subtle use of this effect and all stomp-boxes I tested couldn't reproduce this. They all are too intense..compared to my rotor-cabinet. At last I got my Profiler so that I still could compare both. And I can tell you, the Profiler is much more versatile than a real Leslie. I could dial in this subtle Floating Sound which interferes so nicely with the guitar-cabinet. I can tell you, I even resigned to Profile my Leslie by myself, because it wasn't necessary.


    A different Thing are the drive-stomps. Here - as a bluesrock-Player (no high gain sounds at all) - I would highly appreciate many more alternatives for the slight crunch sounds. For me only the pure Booster and in some cases the green-screamer are usable.
    A very useful improvement would be, if a "hardware-kipr-player" was develloped, where a selfmade D.I.-Profile of any overdrive-stompbox (like the zen-drive, klon-centaur, Stampede-overdrive, Okko-Diablo a.s.o.) could be loaded. This Player into the loop-Slot and we all would be even happier than now. (though it's nearly blasphemie) :saint:


    Just my two cents