Kemper hanging / MIDI data

  • I don't know if this will be useful to anyone, but as a point of reference I've been working all week doing this with no issues. I'm running Cubase 10.5 in Windows 10 with the Kemper in performance mode and the remote connected.


    I have a two bar count off, so in that period I fire one CC to select the performance, then two beats later send CC 50 - 54 to select the slot. On some songs I also turn a stomp on / off. Cubase is set for chase to play, so no matter which song I pick (it's all one long sequence) or where in the song I am, the Kemper syncs up to the correct profile / slot / stomp for that song at that point in time.


    Per Burkhard's observations, my scenario is very low throughput of MIDI messages, and that might be one reason why it's stable for me.


    Another thing to note is that Rig Manager is not running when I'm working in this mode. I've experienced weirdness with RM and the remote connected at the same time, something that seems to be a known issue of sorts. So, if you're having difficulties with MIDI, I wonder if Rig Manager is also connected at the same time. That might be another path to test as you debug the problems.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10

  • another thing to consider:

    we used to work with ableton session view and used clips and scenes for our liveset. now we changed to arrangement view.

    but if you start a scene or clip with midi data in it everything gets send to the kemper at the beginning with the current value. so if you want the clip to activate for example an overdrive after 30 seconds of the clip it will still send the current setting of that cc at the beginning of the clip. so there will be send lots of different cc‘s in the beginning if you change parameters during the clip. i hope you know what i mean?


    same in arrangement view if you don‘t start from the beginning but somewhere in the middle. i think it‘s called midi chasing.


    any ideas on that?

  • I don't use Live with Kemper, but the way I set up my projects in Logic is as follows: I place start of the song on bar 6 or later. This gives me 6 bars to put Kemper and friend's Axe FX in state I want them to be, load light show to DMX controller (I use midi sysex for that, too). Having this space in front gives me opportunity to space everything out without causing flood of midi messages. I use MIDI chase feature on rehearsals, but disable it for shows - it caused me troubles in the past with Toaster.

  • Well, I had to open my mouth...


    I just crashed the Kemper a few times in midi related activities. I have the remote connected and am in performance mode, with Cubase sending a small number of well spaced out midi messages. Rig Manager is not running. I'm running what I believe is the latest release version of the Kemper OS (8.0.6.24597). I never install betas.


    The song (Miss America / Styx) has a CC 47, 50 and 31 at the beginning of the song, one beat apart, to set the performance, slot and tuner off, respectively. 12 bars later there's a 51 to change the slot. 60 bars later 19 turns on a stomp and 16 bars after that 19 again to turn it off.


    This is typical of what I'm doing on many other songs. None of them, including this one, have given me any trouble.


    I believe the inciting incident in this case was working in the area of the guitar solo where 19 gets turned on and off. Cubase is set to chase, which I consider an important thing to do in my environment. However, I was using the fast forward / rewind buttons to go back before the solo to tweak some some keyboard levels in Cubase. I think the fast forward / rewind fires all midi messages in its path, resulting in overloading the Kemper. That's just a guess, but it seems reasonable.


    The first two crashes involved the remote going offline, i.e. the lights go out and it says it's trying to connect. When I walked into the control room to look at the Kemper, various lights and buttons were blinking like a Christmas tree (the song was stopped). I could turn the chicken head knob to browser and then back to performance and the remote would come online. The third time, however, the Kemper locked up hard and wouldn't respond to the chicken head knob. I turned it to off and waited as I didn't want to just hard cycle the power. After about 30 seconds it got the message and did a shutdown. When I turned it back on everything was fine again.


    Fast forward / rewind is something I do all the time and it hasn't caused a problem in the past. This song has a total of 6 CC events, so even rapid fire that doesn't seem like an unreasonable data stream. Would value your thoughts on this.

    Kemper remote -> Powered toaster -> Yamaha DXR-10