Controlling my Kemper from Cubase

  • Below here is what I found in the manual. Any idea what a daisy chain is? I saw in the comment section of a YouTube video from Kemper that said they were planning on adding a tutorial on how to control the Kemper from within our select DAWs, but the video isn't out yet. I'm just trying to make sense of what the manual says about it, but I'm still confused as to how to set it up. Any advice is appreciated. Should the midi cable be plugged in to midi-out on the KPA and then in to my soundcard midi-in followed by setting "UI to MIDI" in System Settings?


  • Daisy chain just allows you to connect multiple midi devices to each other in one long chain as opposed to having to have 10 midi in / out ports on your pc to connect to 10 midi devices.


    If you're looking to control your Kemper, connect the midi out of your audio interface to midi in on the Kemper and midi in of your audio interface to midi out on your Kemper. You shouldn't have to change any of the default settings.


    What I do at that point is create a midi track in Cubase, and point it to the your audio interface midi port. I use the default of channel one, i.e. I didn't change anything on the Kemper.


    By default, if you double click on a midi track you get the piano roll editor. Open up the List editor instead from the main menu (I think it's under Midi, not in front of Cubase at the moment). This gives you the geek's-eye-view and here is where you can create CC messages. The Cubase manual covers the list editor in terms of how to select the event type (continuous controller versus program change, etc.).


    I use this in performance mode and at the given point in the song fire a CC 47 + (performance number - 1) as data. This brings up the desired performance. Follow that with CC50 - 54 to activate slots 1 - 5.


    Additionally, you can control a bunch of other stuff via CCs. I highly recommend looking at the MIDI section of the manual on page 205 through 209 for listings of all the functionality available.


    The switching is very fast and I've found it to be a breeze to program in Cubase. This is what I do with all the songs I work on now, so once I press Record I don't have to do anything but play guitar.


    They've done a really nice job on this.

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

  • Thanks keem85 and Chris Duncan for bringing this up. :thumbup::)


    My question to all out there in Kemperland is how it´s done in Logic Pro X?


    Probably something similar, but I'm no techno wizard. Simply a plug and play guy.


    Anyone, ...two...three ???:)


    Cheers, :S


    Jim.

  • Below here is what I found in the manual. Any idea what a daisy chain is? I saw in the comment section of a YouTube video from Kemper that said they were planning on adding a tutorial on how to control the Kemper from within our select DAWs, but the video isn't out yet. I'm just trying to make sense of what the manual says about it, but I'm still confused as to how to set it up. Any advice is appreciated. Should the midi cable be plugged in to midi-out on the KPA and then in to my soundcard midi-in followed by setting "UI to MIDI" in System Settings?

    I bought the Kemper to get rid of all the gadjets , midi sync etc. So when i record a Kemper guitar track on my DAW (which is full of instruments VST and midi also Real instrument voices loops real drum all the plug ins in the world so... when it comes to the kemper I do 2 things : 1- PRESS RECORD 2- I PLAY thats all I start over til I get it right . I dont want any midi connection on my Kemper and you know what? It sounds really good

  • Ah thanks! I understand. So you link these CC's as atumation ON/OFF and link it to a desired performance effect or stomp? Can't wait to test it out.

    You may already know this but just for clarification, CC stands for Continuous Controller, which is a type of MIDI message, much like the common Program Change message used to change patches. Automation is a different technology and is used on audio rather than MIDI tracks.


    Something important I failed to mention is that any on / off type actions with the Kemper CCs, such as CC50-54 to turn on a slot after going to a performance, must have a 1 in the data - the same place you put the data for (performance number - 1) on the CC47 - or nothing happens. That's not really spelled out in the manual so I did some chasing of the tail to figure out why it wasn't working.


    The same applies for the CCs that turn the stomp stuff on and off - a data value of 1 to turn it on, 0 to turn it off. As a general practice, for any stomps I'm using in a song, on the very first measure I fire their CCs with 0 to make sure they're off until I want them on.


    I don't know what version of Cubase you're using, but it's worth taking a few minutes to read up on the MIDI List Editor. Once you do, you'll be more comfortable with adding MIDI events, and suddenly a whole new world of automagic control opens up for you.

    My question to all out there in Kemperland is how it´s done in Logic Pro X?

    Apologies, but I haven't used Logic since the 90s when they discontinued Windows support, so I don't remember much about their MIDI stuff. Here's a YouTube video on it that might be helpful.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOION17JgRU


    And keem85, here's one for Cubase. There's no voiceover (couldn't find any good ones) but perhaps it will give you a point of reference.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1g1ZgvPQSE

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

    Edited 2 times, last by Chris Duncan ().

  • Happy to help, man, although admittedly I'm pretty useless to you in the Mac / Logic arena other than general concepts.


    I thought Logic was an excellent product and was just starting to dig into it when it got sold to Apple. Because I'm among the Mac Ignorant, I had to abandon it and look for another DAW, but I've always thought highly of their work.

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