Foot Controller Poll: Which do you use with the Kemper and why?

    Hey guys,
    Looking for some insights into the different foot controllers used by Kemper users and why they chose them. There are just so many factors involved, such as price, size, ease of use, programmability and functionality, among others.


    While I'm sure there are a lot of users who will cite the Kemper Remote as their choice, I'm eager to discern whether they tested out any other foot controllers, or just went sight unseen (I know a lot of guys did this when the Remote became available for pre-order) because it's a great product from a great company. It's pretty expensive too, so how did you justify it?


    I'm also eager to know which guys found other options more attractive, such as their existing guitar processor to control the Kemper.


    All of this keeping in mind that there are some guys selling Remotes in the classifieds and other guys selling other controllers in favour of the Remote.


    Hoping to get some detailed responses (old Monkey Man style responses, haha) so that we have some sort of resource for users who are trying to narrow down on a foot controller.


    If I missed out on any popular foot controllers, yell at me in a post and I will remedy the situation thereafter.


    EDIT: Looks like the poll disappeared ?(

    I originally used my FCB1010 with the Uno4Kemper chip. This was done because:


    A) There was no Kemper remote
    B) I had already spent my allowance and my wife would have killed me if I spent another $500 on a foot controller ;)
    C) I already had an FCB1010 that I had used for a time for doing MIDI automation at my gigs.... but was no longer using.


    I now have a Kemper remote, so I will outline the pro's and con's of each:


    FCB1010 with Uno4Kemper:


    PROs

    • Pretty inexpensive. Even at full retail prices you can have a fully functional foot controller setup for your KPA under $170 including cables and chip
    • Includes a Wah and Volume pedal
    • Incredibly simple to use
    • Starts instantly
    • No setup to speak of. Just plug it in and go

    CONs


    • Fairly big stage footprint
    • While it does have a tuner capability, it has much less resolution than the KPA unit jelly bean screen
    • No LCD display to indicate the names of things on screen
    • Functions within a rig were limited to 6 of the 8 effects channels (you can pick either the first or last 6 as a configuration
    • Plastic buttons are kind of close together (this never became a problem for me)
    • Requires 3 connections. Power, and 2 MIDI cable connections. I rolled my own cable harness for this specific purpose and used some plastic conduit to keep it all together in a manageable roll of a single cable. Still, I had MIDI cable failures since the MIDI cables being used were off-the-shelf and not really made for a robust gig rig. This was what finally pushed me over the edge to the purchase of the KPA remote

    KPA Remote


    PROs


    • Small stage footprint
    • Great LCD display
    • Same great tuner capabilities in the KPA head unit right at your feet
    • Completely configurable button setup. A single button can toggle ON/OFF multiple efx slots at the same time. 4 buttons can be assigned to any combination of the 8 slots
    • It has a looper (I don't use this feature)
    • A single POE Ethercon connection to the foot controller is robust and easy to string across the stage. This provides bidirectional communications as well as power to the foot controller.

    CONs


    • No analog pedal. You have to buy a separate unit to control Wah or volume (or morph). You can connect the pedals directly to the KAP remote though. You don't have to string more cables all the way back to your KPA head
    • It is kind of expensive. At >$500.00 you can buy many small combo amps for this price.
    • Slow to boot. I power mine from a POE injector since I have a rack mount panel for all my connections. The pedal takes >30 seconds to boot all by itself

    For me, the LCD and single cable were the big winners. I was also looking for a robust connection that I don't every have to worry about again since the MIDI cables failed at a gig and left me (half) stranded. I was able to figure out that one cable was broken and got the send to the KPA working, but had no feedback at all as to what rig or level I was on the entire night.

    Great post, OneEng. I guess you don't have external gear to control, like Ingolf? You could definitely even do that with multiple devices with the Kemper, using the two channels it can send on in performance mode.


    How about browse mode, guys? I was reading that most Remote users do not recommend this because you have to pre-programme which profiles are linked to which PC numbers before hand.


    I stumbled on this cool way to audition profiles with this used Gordius Little Giant foot controller that I just received yesterday. You can sort your profiles in whichever way you like from the Kemper screen, i.e. by gain, by amp and cabinet, by author, etc. After that, in bank mode, every time you hit a 1-5 button, it will sort through the first five profiles based on where your cursor was in the browse screen. Then, if you hit the up button, it immediately jumps to the next five profiles on a screen.


    I stumbled across this by accident and was pretty amazed because it meant that I didn't have to open up Rig Manager to audition profiles easily, I could just scroll through the profiles as though the Kemper was in performance mode. And I was able to access way more than 125 profiles, logic told me it would be the same as the number of performances, i.e. 625 profiles in total. However, when I just ran a test now, I was able to go from my highest gain profile to my lowest gain one. I have about 900 profiles, so not too sure how that worked.


    But this is particularly handy when combined with the power of the search modes. Audition clean rigs, audition medium gain rigs, audition high gain rigs, whatever.


    This feature could easily be achieved by sending both a bank message as well as a programme change number, as it is done in performance mode.

    Quote from nightlight

    Hoping to get some detailed responses (old Monkey Man style responses, haha)

    You noticed I swapped my 64-bit CPU for an 8-bit one, AJ? A necessary downgrade, I'm afraid.


    Quote from nightlight

    And I was able to access way more than 125 profiles, logic told me it would be the same as the number of performances, i.e. 625 profiles in total. However, when I just ran a test now, I was able to go from my highest gain profile to my lowest gain one. I have about 900 profiles, so not too sure how that worked.

    Fascinating, AJ. I don't know how it would've done this either, but for Browse-mode die-hards such as myself, and I'm guessing you too seeing as you're effectively in a recording situation / setup most of the time, it's fantastic news. I'm tempted to ask if you could run the test again just to be certain!


    Thank you @OneEng1 for that thoughtful, detailed, "old-Monkey-style"(!) assessment, by the way.

    Quote from Monkey_Man

    You noticed I swapped my 64-bit CPU for an 8-bit one, AJ? A necessary downgrade, I'm afraid.

    Fascinating, AJ. I don't know how it would've done this either, but for Browse-mode die-hards such as myself, and I'm guessing you too seeing as you're effectively in a recording situation / setup most of the time, it's fantastic news. I'm tempted to ask if you could run the test again just to be certain!
    Thank you @OneEng1 for that thoughtful, detailed, "old-Monkey-style"(!) assessment, by the way.

    Just packed up for the night, Nicky, but I'll recheck tomorrow.

    I use the Voodoo Labs Ground Control as I needed to control other midi gear and floor stomps


    Pros:
    Built solid with good switches
    Can be used to control various midi gear
    Can control stomp boxes (with the GCX or PSX8)
    Can turn on and off Kemper effects/stomps , including all effects on or off, as well as choosing rigs
    Can use one expression pedal and use midi to make it control volume/wah/morph/modulation
    One cable for midi and also power (separate purchase)
    Easy to read display
    You can custom name display patches
    Has two pedal inputs, leaving you two more on the Kemper
    Instant switching



    Cons:
    Large footprint
    Limited results with looper
    Only uses four of the five slots in performance mode in each bank (more than enough though)
    Expensive

    Edited once, last by drog ().

    Like 1

    I use Mission pedals (3) that plug right into the back of my KPA Remote, and setup thru the system menus in the KPA. Its a no brainer for me. ^^

    If you use FRFR the benefit of a merged profile is that the cabinet is totally separated in the profile.


    For my edification only... ;) Kemper/Axe-FX III/ Quad Cortex user

    Like 1

    Roland FC200.


    Has 10 number pedals (no way i could live with only the 5 on the Kemper remote)
    Has bank up and down AND an assignable ctrl pedal plus an expression pedal.
    Very expandable. Takes 6 extra footswitches/expression pedals.
    Built like a tank. Mine is 20 years old and has never failed me once.

    And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

    Like 1
    Quote from Monkey_Man

    Does it allow you therefore to move through the Kemper's Rigs in Browse Mode in groups of 10 all the way up to, say Rig #1000 if you have that many, Kim?


    If so, that's pretty damned good IMHO.

    Good question. Can't remember how many banks it can send.

    And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

    Like 1

    @Monkey_Man I checked and you can access more than 1,000 rigs in browse mode, if the Kemper had that capacity. So from top to bottom of my 900-odd rigs.


    @Kim_Olesen, nice floorboard! The built in wah pedal is great! I think the FC200 can do in excess of 1,000 profiles. 99 banks into 100, so 9,900 patches can be programmed into it, by my reckoning.


    I can also hook up four expression pedals to the back of the controller, but I think I'm going to go with one pedal and assign that to whatever midi CC I need at the time. Need to cut down weight somewhere. Need to get a nice bag though, I'm not sure if I can mount it on a board, it's quite deep.

    Quote from nightlight

    @Monkey_Man I checked and you can access more than 1,000 rigs in browse mode, if the Kemper had that capacity. So from top to bottom of my 900-odd rigs.

    Thank you for rechecking this the next day, AJ!


    That was with the Gordius Little Giant 'though, and I was asking Kim about the Roland. I'm confused - are the bank sizes (for Browse Mode, obviously) determined by the controllers, i.e. specified thereon?

    Quote from Monkey_Man

    Thank you for rechecking this the next day, AJ!
    That was with the Gordius Little Giant 'though, and I was asking Kim about the Roland. I'm confused - are the bank sizes (for Browse Mode, obviously) determined by the controllers, i.e. specified thereon?


    I was talking about the Little Giant in that snippet you posted, but the FC200 is almost unlimited too.


    The number of banks *on the foot controller* definitely varies. Some may have less, some may have more.


    Actually, I'm a little bit unclear on the number of banks on the FC200, perhaps Kim can explain in detail. From what I understood, you can definitely access 1000s of patches, assuming you use different banks to access different PC numbers. But I'm not sure how many patches you can create on the FC200 actually, the manual was kind of unclear on it. Even if it is 999 (is it a two-digit display or three-digit, I'm not sure), I think you can access 990 profiles in browse mode using the stomps on the device.

    Interesting discussion I might be in the market for one soon. I have a Line 6 Shortboard MKII which I really like as far as build quality goes but there does not seem to be any path to using it as a controller for the Kemper.


    It does have an expression jack so I think I could at least use Wah and Volume, but I can't do any MIDI without routing it through a computer first :(

    You know I'm born to lose, and gambling's for fools
    But that's the way I like it baby
    I don't wanna live forever

    Quote from motochick

    Interesting discussion I might be in the market for one soon. I have a Line 6 Shortboard MKII which I really like as far as build quality goes but there does not seem to be any path to using it as a controller for the Kemper.


    It does have an expression jack so I think I could at least use Wah and Volume, but I can't do any MIDI without routing it through a computer first :(

    I think there is a guy who makes kits that allow you to hook up that board to the Kemper. He was recently asking on the forums if anyone was interested IIRC.

    Behringer first.
    Than i changed the eprom to uno4kpa
    Good pedal with cheap and not so good pedals
    Sold it and bought a remote, a mission ep1 gn with the internal extra switch to control wah and volume and a moog ep3 for morphing.
    Thats my footcontrol setup and i can switch everything i want.


    Aaaand it looks cool because it fits to the kpa colour ;)

    Quote from nightlight

    Care to elaborate? How do you put it to use? Are you able to control the looper? Do you control other external gear?

    I got a few years back to go with my POD HD, but I haven't played with it much on the Kemper, just been researching if it was possible (I didn't know there might be a solution!).


    It has an ethernet jack, usb port for hooking it to computer, and 1/4 expression jack which I'm assuming will allow me Wah and Volume if I plug into Kemper expression jack. (haven't tried yet).


    Line 6 has software to assign parameters to various switches so I've read about folks setting this up on their computer and then sending MIDI out of the computer to Kemper, however I'm still in the research stage (new Kemper owner and just learning all the ins and outs of this cool product)

    You know I'm born to lose, and gambling's for fools
    But that's the way I like it baby
    I don't wanna live forever