NAMM 2019

  • I guess my point is that the developer and CK are standing right there demoing a working piece of software (prototype usually refers to hardware so I'll take that as an ESL) - it's pretty easy to ask about a release date. They've been working on it over a year for sure since I asked CK last year about it at NAMM and he said they are working on it. And here is a working piece of software - pretty easy to ask: when do you expect it to be released by (or even a beta release). I'm not at NAMM this year but if anyone is still there please just ask the obvious question.

    Marco Fanton asked the developer when the Editor would be released and he suggested Summer.

  • Too early to tell. I'd guess they may not sound the best using any driver than the Kemper Celestion, as the imprints were designed for it. However it will be fun to experiment, and since the cab is passive with only a speaker cable connecting it to the Kemper, the imprints will most likely be available to all users whether they have a Kemper cab or not (unless Kemper limits it to only a powered Kemper in software). I REALLY hope they don't do that...

    It was said elsewhere that the cabs would be available in Monitor out, so you can use an amp or powered speaker.

  • when do you expect it to be released by (or even a beta release).

    The single most dreaded question in the entire software development world. There is nothing, and I mean nothing in the industry that's as difficult as accurately predicting a software release date.


    The problem with bugs is that you don't know when they're going to show up, how many friends they'll invite along or how many hours / days / weeks it will take to figure out the problem and solve it. We never write code that intentionally includes bugs, so they're always unexpected, by definition. And one bizarre, hard to reproduce issue can derail a delivery date all on its own. Trust me. I've had a ringside seat.


    Personally, I prefer Michelangelo's response when the Pope kept giving him a hard time about the completion date of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. :)


    Pope: "When are you going to be finished with this thing?"

    Michelangelo: "When it's done."

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

    Edited once, last by Chris Duncan ().

  • Wow. Big year for CK.


    Just one man's view .......


    1) The verb update is by far the biggest improvement since it actually raises the tonal bar across the board.

    2) The preset management is a huge blessing and was the weakest part of the work-flow of the KPA. It is great they will fix this.

    3) The new editor is very welcome; however, the current 3rd party solution is pretty darned good. I will be interested to see if the Kemper Editor manages to cover all the bases that the Toast ME editor does (which is quite a lot)

    4) I will hold judgement on the Kemper Cab and cab DSP idea until I can play one side by side with my DSR112 FRFR. Price point will also be a huge factor.


    The KPA is such a good piece of gear already that it is really hard to improve on it IMO. I have been simply loving all over the latest beta as the reverbs are sooooo good now.

  • Will be curious to see if the Kemper Cone, when using Kemper’s new cab, will be able to switch speaker imprints in real time when switching profiles. So for instance playing a direct profile of a Plexi into the greenback imprint, and then switching to a direct profile of a recto into the V30 imprint: THAT will be cool to me for sure..

  • I am glad you think you understand; I suspect you do not - my logic is sound even if my explanation was limited. I spent 15 years in printing and the last ten managing various web applications. Never blew up a web site or the electronic files for printed materials once because I understand how those things work, dealt with systems that behaved according to standard norms. Any way, rock on. Dealing with people like you is tiring and I have better things to do and I should have known better than to waste my time.

  • Hello OneEng1,


    While I haven't used Damien's ToastME editor...I think it will be safe to assume that the official Kemper editor will be amazing , innovative and comprehensive. Not sure if you had a chance to watch the Anderton video -- because the care and thought that went into how the Editor/GUI simplifies the Morphing assignments is hopefully a great example and preview of just how brilliant this Editor will be in terms of ease of use and facilitating work-flow.

  • So I can see from the Anderton's vid that the speaker select options are in the output settings, and that the cab module is bypassed. Personally I think that's great, as adjusting the speaker type won't affect your f.o.h. sound. I imagine merged profiles are going to be a lot more popular soon, hopefully all profiles will come with a merged version.

    The only question now is, if we like the speaker sound more than the cab portion of the profile, are we going to have to start mic'ing the cab?:)

    Right, and then profile it.


    Warning -- I think that will result in your KPA imploding into a singularity. :)

  • Unless I missed it - I'm confused - I don't understand why they didn't even bother to ask an estimate on the release of the Kemper Editor or any other details. Of course release dates are fluid for software, but one can ask - and it looks already pretty usable at the moment.

    As he said at 7:25 into the video,"The software is Done". If they release betas of the firmware I see no reason to release the beta of the Editor.

  • Was CK pissed again? (Pissed = drunk, not sure if that term is used internationally).

    If he was, it was probably having to deal with the typical NAMM BS; lousy food, rude people, THE CONSTANT VOLUME FROM ALL THE BOOTHS, etc.


    I know he'll be glad when it's all over.

    The key to everything is patience.
    You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.
    -- Arnold H. Glasow


    If it doesn't produce results, don't do it.

    -- Me

  • Will be curious to see if the Kemper Cone, when using Kemper’s new cab, will be able to switch speaker imprints in real time when switching profiles. So for instance playing a direct profile of a Plexi into the greenback imprint, and then switching to a direct profile of a recto into the V30 imprint: THAT will be cool to me for sure..

    The whole speaker imprint thing consists entirely of DSP inside the KPA - CK makes it clear in the video. This means it can be switched instantly like any other part of a profile - cab, amp, effect. Since there are no smarts in the cab itself (eg the Line6 Power Cab approach) there is no need for any digital communication protocol to switch the cab properties in the external cab. PowerCab can be used with any modeller , Kabinet features are exclusive to the KPA.

  • Agree very much with most of this - looking forward to the release of the cabs and the speakers themselves - selling them separately is an excellent idea I must say - which are going to get slotted into all kinds of thinks I imagine ;)


    Just a tech thing on the beaming - the dispersion characteristics are all simply physics - nothing DSP can alter. They are a property of the speaker itself - the physical shape of the cap and cone - and its surroundings - eg is it recessed or front mounted, what sort of grille is in front of it. The physics means high freqs are pretty directional and lows progressively become more broadly spread out and eventually omni-directional in the deepest range. 5-10Khz range beams strongly from real cabs. This new speaker is shaped like a guitar speaker and it beams like one is what CK said.

  • Hi MKB,


    Interestingly enough, I come to the opposite conclusion...but this is part of the fun about speculation. I originally posted this over on TGP , but it is apropos here as well:


    I wouldn't be surprised if the new Kemper Kabinet speaker is a derivative/variant of the new Celestion F12-X200. The reason being that Christoph mentioned that they will be selling the speaker separately to KPA owners to retrofit in their own cabs. A derivative of the F12-X200 makes a lot of sense, as not only is it FRFR (co-axial-based), but the cross-over circuit is integrated and built-in to the speaker itself. That makes things completely simple to retrofit into a cabinet designed around a standard 12" Celestion guitar speaker mounting arrangement -- no additional wiring, soldering and mounting of cross-over circuitry is required.

  • Just a tech thing on the beaming - the dispersion characteristics are all simply physics - nothing DSP can alter. They are a property of the speaker itself - the physical shape of the cap and cone - and its surroundings - eg is it recessed or front mounted, what sort of grille is in front of it. The physics means high freqs are pretty directional and lows progressively become more broadly spread out and eventually omni-directional in the deepest range. 5-10Khz range beams strongly from real cabs. This new speaker is shaped like a guitar speaker and it beams like one is what CK said.

    Spot-on, mate; my thoughts exactly.


    Just on the F12-X200 thing, I sincerely hope the Kemper driver is a whole-lot-more accurate than the spec sheet for the speaker revealed. I posted this earlier in the thread, but didn't receive much feedback other than the reasoning that it had a response curve that would benefit / compliment guitar-type sounds by cutting lows and accentuating pick articulation and whatnot. IMHO, this defeats the purpose of FRFR drivers and enclosures designed for modellers.


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Here's what I wrote:


    I'm so-disappointed to have to say it, but the spec's, in the form they're provided, are a joke!


    In the genreal-specification section, instead of a proper frequency-response description (eg. 20Hz-> 20kHz, +/- 1.5dB), we're given a "Frequency-range" one. This tells us practically-nothing. Even your crappiest home-stereo speaker's gonna produce 60Hz ->20kHz, the range quoted. Sure, it may be down x amount at 20kHz or60Hz, but there's still a measurable response, which again, is all this specification format tells us.


    Then there's the graph. This is passed off as a frequency-response chart, which it technically is, but instead of providing us with a reference to the input level, which is usually represented by a "zero" line in the centre, they've shown only a level "curve" that reveals a 30dB variation across the spectrum. 30dB! Are you kidding?


    No wonder they opted to avoid the standard +/- dB above-and-below-the-zero-line format. It would have meant that the response shown would have had to deviate 15dB in both directions (+ and -) at a minimum, but more-likely be lop-sided, possibly reaching into the 20s in one of them. That would've looked pathetic and raised alarm bells for any audio person who looked at it.


    Anyone who knows anything about FR charts knows that this would look ridiculous and not-even-good for a set of satellite computer speakers. In fact, it's the most-terrible response deviation I've ever seen for any piece of equipment claiming to be flat-response. Remember, it's the FR (full-range) FR (flat-response) market that they're going to be competing in with these things. A 30dB deviation is so far from a flat response I'm at a loss for an appropriate descriptive term.


    OK, so the spec's are suspicious to say the least, but what about the advertising blurb? Surely that would provide some insight; maybe I'm reading the spec section incorrectly? Put your seatbelt on and hang onto your hat:


    1) "... truly full range driver..." - It's not full-range, let alone truly-full-range, but it's appropriate for guitar-cab simulation.

    2) "... that delivers a frequency response from 60Hz all the way up to 20kHz..." - Wow! Really? See expose above.

    3) "... enables the F12-X200 to reproduce the full spectrum of audible frequencies..." - Really? So nobody can hear below 60Hz? Further to that, the spectrum means nothing if the levels (response) ain't there. See expose above.

    4) "... for the most accurate output possible..." - P-lease. 30dB of response variation can't be described in any universe as being "accurate", let alone as-accurate-as-possible.

    5) "... response is remarkably neutral.." - Uugghh... and I fly remarkably like Superman.

    6) "... with Celestion technology built in to ensure there are no unwanted colourations... " - Words fail me.


    If you tweak your Rigs to sound good through this, God help you if you sent that signal to FOH. Sure, the engineer will shape it as-necessary, but it's not going to sound anything like the KPA's post-cab-sim output. You'll be having your pants flapped in blissful ignorance of what's really going on out there off-stage.


    If that's a problem, imagine recording those Rigs. You would never want to make tweaks based on what you hear from this thing and then expect to hear anything like what you think you have post-recording unless you mic'd the FRFR cab, which would defeat the purpose of the KPA for recording anyway.


    Lastly, there's one aspect of the blurb I can't argue with, and feel, based on the spec's I've seen, that it ought rightly to be the main selling point of the cab, and that's the claimed authentic physical feedback one would expect from a guitar cabinet. I see no reason to doubt this claim. The cynic in me, unfortunately, sees a salesperson standing next to a rig saying, "Check out our latest FRFR cab for modellers; It's FR... without the second FR, but hey, it feels like a friggin' cab, mate.".


    So, based on the advertising blurb, I'd definitely hold onto my money and let it prove itself in-the-wild long before parting with my hard-earned if I were you, guys.


    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


    As I said, based on this, I sure hope the jointly-designed Kemper offering doesn't look anything like this on paper...