What Happened to Sonic?

  • Saying the same thing over and over again, hardly ever saying anything good either about the Kemper or any profiles, etc, never participating in any thread but to repeat the congested-sound mantra, insisting on his professional experience and amps but never profiling them apparently. All that makes him a bit tiring. And yet, he did provide some good ideas and he was always polite. Perhaps M M is right and he was seen as too negative a voice in the public forum.

    Never too old for rock'n'roll

  • Which was my point. I never had anything against the guy but the comments became really just recycling the same thing over and over again. I just tuned most of the threads out at that point because I'd already read it a hundred times. But I know the guy kept writing because he felt like he was bashing his head against the wall, that and the chorus of mesmerized deniers only extended the conversation and kept running everything in circles. Still, it was obnoxious, though I wouldn't say any more obnoxious than the clichéd responses the "Kemper faithful" would provide.


    I agree with MM, it doesn't make the company look good and after a time I figured they'd tire of it. Honestly, I'm surprised how long it went on, not that I agree with his being ultimately banned.


    Dimi and SinMix at least showed concrete testing and are actively working with the KPA trying to mitigate profiling deficiencies. To the Kemper team, Sonic just looked like a curmudgeon who didn't appear to have any real desire to solve his own woes, as evidenced by his repeated objection to the idea of profiling his own amps, which seems pretty elementary to me. The hours he wasted here asking others to prove to him that the KPA could do something he wanted...

  • Ok, I don't normally do that but what the hell - that guy was 2nd class troll, sadly, I don't think it was intentional, he really thought that way and couldn't stop. If you filter out his high school grade "eloquence" and fake "politeness" most of his posts were insults delivered from a high horse seat of being a "serious recording scenario" pro (in an apartment where he couldn't even fire an amp), either to amateur, but knowledgeable long time Kemper users, Kemper team or professionals using Kemper daily. The best thing he contributed to this forum was the exact measurement of the box Kemper is shipped in, he diluted legit attempts to improve weaker spots of the profiler (which affect small minority of the users, but nonetheless are there) by adding his rants every time anything was posted regarding this topic . He never missed out an opportunity to jump on a newcomer thread to add his drivel. I seriously wonder why he was around for so long time.


    The worst thing for me was that I couldn't ignore it for some reason and his spam kept coming up.

  • Remember the Next-gen episode in which the Federation assessor visited in order to assess Riker's worthiness as First Officer? It was in response to complaints the department had received that he was too-gung-ho and not fit to hold the position.


    The final word on the affair, following Riker's having proved himself, was issued to the investigator by Picard:


    "Do not confuse style with intent."


    Ingolf is Picard (impeccable, beyond reproach), I'm Riker (personable, think I'm funnier than I really am), and Sonic was Picard after a heavy session in which he hit the Earl Grey too-hard.


    EDIT:
    OK, maybe sometimes I'm almost as funny as I think I am. :D

  • I would humbly suggest that a better fit for Sonic might be that most quintessentially annoying of characters from ST:TNG --




    [Blocked Image: https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11113/111130545/3580819-2940300519-besto.jpg]



































    ...who has only been eclipsed by one other minor character in the annals of history for science-fiction television series for pure annoyance factor


    I present to you --


    [Blocked Image: http://news.entertainmentearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/buck-rogers-twiki-wallpapers_17099_1024x768.jpg]

  • dig-a-dig-a-dig-a-dig... LOL


    Well, as annoying as I found Wes, he did save the entire crew several times due to his unwavering attention to detail, and even managed to do so drunk on one occasion!


    Sonic definitely has the attention-to-detail thing in common with Mr. Crusher 'though, John. Good call, mate.


    EDIT:
    Upon re-reading your post, @Tritium, I see the analogous behavioural trait you were referring to was not one of attention to detail, but rather the knack for triggering allergic reactions in those who're "lucky-enough" to cross paths with the characters.

  • Good call, Paco.


    I kept harking back to this, 'cause it's instructive in this whole affair IMHO. This is one reason I came to the conclusion I did on the previous page - it couldn't have been for bullying, bad language or downright disrespect, and must've therefore had something to do with his persistent claims, in the public forums, of the unit's not being ready for "prime time".


    No company wants to see this dirty laundry, legitimate or otherwise, being aired in such a way for all to see.

  • Just a thought:


    If one places one's self in his shoes, what would one have done?


    He was "annoyingly-persistent" 'cause he wasn't getting any answers. No indication as to if or when the "issue" might've been fixed. In that situation, one tends to throw things out there in the hope that insights might be gleaned from other users. The posting in the public area would've been unwitting and a natural consequence of trying to put the word out, again, in search of answers.


    IIRC, he did contact support, and he did confirm his suspicions by profiling his POD and I think some crappy little amp he had at home very-early on. There was no question in his mind as to what he was hearing. He was focussed on something subtle-but-very-specific that happened to be important to him. This anomaly was confirmed by other users.


    Given this situation, I fully understand why he "overloaded" the forum with his constant reminders and questions to folks in his quest for answers. I noticed he appeared to be quite buoyed by the fact that some files Dimi (I think) submitted were forwarded to the development team. He indicated several times that he was keen and hopeful regarding the potential outcome of this.


    Unfortunately nothing was or has yet been said regarding this. Progress? Doable or not? Wait and see? IMHO, sometimes a communication that there's no news yet is better than total silence. I can imagine how frustrated he was after having spent 2k and attempted for 6 months to get this sorted out. To his credit, he did manage to throw in a few useful feature requests during that time as he got to know the unit, but the overarching situation remained unresolved.


    So, what would you or I have done? I'd have persisted or given up; I see no other option. He chose the former 'cause, in his eyes, the product had great potential and was "almost there", even for his specific needs. Plus, I s'pose he didn't want to render his money worthlessly-spent.


    That's my thought for today on the matter. Regardless of our personal feelings about him, it's IMHO only fair to try to put one's self in another's shoes, or put the shoe on the other foot, so to speak, in order to help us understand the goings on in this world, and this case is IMHO no exception in being able to benefit from a little understanding. A logical, articulate, discerning voice such as his could and should be a valuable asset to our community, especially in helping to shape the Kemper in its development and feature set.


    At this point, I see no winners, therefore, and sincerely would like to see him be given a chance to rejoin the fold with some sort of instruction that he ought not "pollute" the public area with negative comments about the product, and subsequently benefit from whatever Kemper has in store for us. If we don't afford him this opportunity, not only will he lose by ditching the Kemper (just a guess), but I hate to think what he might say to others in the industry about his experience. From his perspective it'd be a sorry tale of screaming and not being heard, then ultimately being banned for making too much noise. Not a good look.


    Dammit, I don't want to come across as some sort of self-appointed arbiter of what's right and wrong here; I do feel compelled however to play Devil's advocate. This is embarrassing so I'll leave it there. Thank you for reading, and sorry if it wasn't "fun"!

  • You're kidding!


    Well I'll be a monkey's uncle! Now that you mention it, I do remember that being the case, something that was relevant when I first joined, but the sort of thing one can quickly forget after having lived here for a while, alwainwright.


    Thank you so much for letting me know, man. So the smatterings of dirty laundry I referred to would all have been visible to potential customers had vendors referred them to the site.


    Oh man, if anything that makes my theory even-more likely to have validity. Thank you once again mate; I'm amazed nobody's pointed this out to me until you did, given that I forwarded my "hypothesis" on the previous page. Man, sometimes I wish I could throw the entire internet in a ditch. It all gets too complicated for my lil' ol' brain sometimes.


    Thank you again, bud.

  • Saying the same thing over and over again, hardly ever saying anything good either about the Kemper or any profiles, etc, never participating in any thread but to repeat the congested-sound mantra, insisting on his professional experience and amps but never profiling them apparently. All that makes him a bit tiring. And yet, he did provide some good ideas and he was always polite. Perhaps M M is right and he was seen as too negative a voice in the public forum.

    Don't forget the Drunk Mosquito™, Sonic. :D
    That one's gonna bring a smile to my face for all eternity, I reckon.

    I think he was making fun of this forum and getting a kick out of it. Being polite was clearly to disguise a passive aggressiveness that was very obvious to me. We all at some point had dealt with customers/Clients who think "Customer is always right, let me see what I can get away with"


    He had specific requests in many of his posts that Kemper should fix the congested sound and also fix the issue where POD 2.0 is superior to Kemper in Marshall lead type tones. How do you fix that?


    Even you Nicky clearly picked up on that and told him "Don't forget the Drunk Mosquito™, Sonic"


    Now let's put ourselves in the shoes of technical support where they had to deal with box measurements, ship dates, what firmware was associated with inventory dates, and all the literally crazy stuff when many of us kept referring him to register his Kemper so he can reach support and he kept refusing, Then he finally registered and started whole new phase of passive aggressiveness the way I see it.


    What happened to Sonic? My answer is: Companies can put up with "the customer is always right approach" while getting dumped on for so long but not that long.


    This is the longest I've seen an unreachable customer, with an obvious hidden agenda disguised with politeness, lasting this long. Kemper's tech support must have been relieved as they were the clear victims who had to deal with all of that none sense.

    Edited 2 times, last by Dean_R ().

  • I respect anyone's right to dislike a product and the KPA is no different.


    In one of Sonic's last posts, he entered an on going discussion with a newbie asking for setup advice, immediately referring to the weaknesses he hears. Yes, he used polite words but that's just not helpful to anyone.


    If you've just spent a big amount of money on something and are having trouble getting the best out of it, there's no need to be told about how the product is wilfully mis-marketed and not suitable for serious use. I believe that he should have kept his thoughts on the matter to one or two threads, with the aim to get CK to acknowledge his concerns. I just found his persistence a constant source of negativity and I understand the ban.

  • Very good observation, I did notice that too and do remember thinking the same thing. Who would want their least satisfied customer interjecting negativity when a new customer is seeking basic setup questions.

  • If I am going to say something critical of KPA I almost always have done and published a test about the matter. It's harder to be dismissed as a troll when you do that. Heck, "congestion" became a joke quickly -- then CK agreed with the term, attributing the cause to multiple distorting stages, which is fine.


    I think Sonic could have posted more audio clips along with text. Probably kemper themselves would view the issue differently had he done so. And some statements about KPA could have been less extreme. It's not like we see each other here in person, btw, which makes perceptions of "the other" tied to text; for this reason it's good to give a "fuller picture" when approaching a topic that can be
    controversial.


    This is not to say responses to criticisms of kpa are not at times exaggerated. I have often been told I "always talk shit about kemper". But then if you look at my youtube channel most videos you'd consider "pro kemper" let alone posts elsewhere. Even comparison videos have little criticism in there. So I do think there's at times a defensive mentality that perceives certain things to be worse than they actually are.


    I would like to see Sonic back because he can definitely contribute on different fronts on this forum; there could be clarification as to how he should more so conduct himself here if he was back.

  • If anyone finds themselves in the unfortunate situation of getting banned from the forum, there are other social media places for discussion of the Kemper including a couple of facebook pages, The Gear Page, etc.

  • If anyone finds themselves in the unfortunate situation of getting banned from the forum, there are other social media places for discussion of the Kemper including a couple of facebook pages, The Gear Page, etc.

    Facebook page is often tragic though. If this is a wine bar of KPA discussion, KPA facebook page is often like a football stadium.

  • In one of Sonic's last posts, he entered an on going discussion with a newbie asking for setup advice, immediately referring to the weaknesses he hears. Yes, he used polite words but that's just not helpful to anyone.


    If you've just spent a big amount of money on something and are having trouble getting the best out of it, there's no need to be told about how the product is wilfully mis-marketed and not suitable for serious use. I believe that he should have kept his thoughts on the matter to one or two threads, with the aim to get CK to acknowledge his concerns. I just found his persistence a constant source of negativity and I understand the ban.

    100% agree wit' 'chu, chu; that was my main point.


    Very good observation, I did notice that too and do remember thinking the same thing. Who would want their least satisfied customer interjecting negativity when a new customer is seeking basic setup questions.

    Roger that, Deano.


    I would like to see Sonic back because he can definitely contribute on different fronts on this forum; there could be clarification as to how he should more so conduct himself here if he was back.

    Glad you agree, Brother Dimi. ;)