Metronome Possible?

  • I won‘t answer to your post in detail since it contains hypotheses about what I am or do which - by the way - are of no concern for the matter.


    I also won‘t rectify the sense of a metronome. This should be clear to everyone.


    I connect a metronome using the AUX of the KPA. It would be way less hassle to avoid third party hardware in the process for the sake of simplicity.

    Here‘s a small story this discussion reminds me of. I was on a workshop at which Thomas Blug unveiled his „Amp 1“ some years ago. I asked him if it was possible to connect a stereo signal / AUX. Most of the guys in the audience had that „dafuq“-reaction, some even giggled around. Thomas Blug took this thing very seriously and answered that he had exactly that in mind and implemented this feature, especially when I explained that I would need this functionality to prepare for sessions / rehearsals where you get recordings / arrangements upfront or simply to listen to the guitars / soli in a recording to play after.


    I only play guitar using the Kemper these days so I would like it to contain everything that I need as a guitar player on a regular basis - including a metronome.


    If you do not need one that‘s perfectly fine. I do not judge that and would kindly ask you not to judge others as well.

  • a drum machine only makes you play in time but doesn’t necessarily improve your internal timing because it fills all the holes. It dictates the timing feel. On the other hand with a metronome, you need to feel the holes internally which can massively improve your sense of time.


    Try placing a metronome on only beats 1 and 3 of the bar (everything else is just space) now play in time. It is much harder than playing to a drum machine but also lets you move the time (feel) between the beats while still working on making sure you don’t lose sight of where the underlying tempo is.


    Now try the same thing but make the metronome clicks beats 2 and 4 of the bar!


    Now just place the click on beat 1 only. Or beat 2 only etc. (the fewer clicks and the longer the gap between them, the more our internal timing clock has to work)


    How about 4 clicks but on the + of each beat rather than on the beat? That is a serious rhythm workout which will definitely improve timing.


    A drum machine on the other hand is great fun to play along with but doesn’t force us to develop internal timing.

  • Thanks Alan, I see your point. On the other hand it's no problem to edit a rhythm on a drum machine. To improve my timing, I simply programmed a four to the floor rhythm in EZ Drummer 2 (no fills, no nothing, just quarter notes on Bass Drum, Snare and Hi-Hat). And so can I with all of your above mentioned suggestions.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

  • Good suggestions. Beats on 2 and 4 only has been a stable for jazz training for ever.

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  • There's a great deal of selfishness in this thread. If you don't want a metronome, simply don't use it if it appears in a future firmware! There's many features of the Kemper I'll never get around to using. NEVER! But, I'm not mad at the bloke who will get some use out of those features.

    That is fair comment, but I was concerned that Kemper already spent a year on an editor that does nothing to improve the sound. I am looking forward to them getting back to putting resources into updates that actually count on guitar tone.


    The Kemper was always primarily an amplifier for me and I just meant that we nearly all have a phone next to us that could be used for practicing with metronome.

    Karl


    Kemper Rack OS 9.0.5 - Mac OS X 12.6.7

  • There is a tendency....and i worked towards that goal....to have a compact setup of jam, practice and performance. It goes totally against that idea, to just hook up another device for a metronome.


    Something that goes "click" bores the DSP to death and the tap-controls do already have the ability do recognise tempo.

    I would see the metronome as a part of the looper, tap or set your tempo, volume dial....done. Sounds simple to me.

  • There is a tendency....and i worked towards that goal....to have a compact setup of jam, practice and performance. It goes totally against that idea, to just hook up another device for a metronome.


    Something that goes "click" bores the DSP to death and the tap-controls do already have the ability do recognise tempo.

    I would see the metronome as a part of the looper, tap or set your tempo, volume dial....done. Sounds simple to me.

    Yep, I second that. Could be switched on/off using the "Looper" button on the Remote and the tempo could either be tapped or dialed in using the Rotary switches.


    P.S. If that's too boring to implement there's still the wish to make the KPA a class compliant USB audio interface. ;)

  • I can think of a use case when performing live.

    I’d like a metronome with programmable BPM (configured within a performance) and duration (a set number of beats before it stops) sent to the headphone output and triggered by a button on the remote. Perhaps the TAP button.

    When playing live I could use it to start a song at the correct tempo without having to rely on a count in from my drummer.

    The count will be there (in my ear) and the audience won’t hear the clicks.

  • I believe this is a reasonable request. Although I am not a SW developer I imagine it would not require an enormous resource drain. I would use it and as Wheresthedug described, I enjoy the command center philosophy.

    I *am* a SW developer, and I am pretty sure this would take someone no more than a day to implement... KPA already has metronome functionality built out to support timing based effects... just attach a sample to it! Make it a new "effect".

  • +1 for metronome. A ubiquitous musician tool for hundreds of years and not complicated to implement. Don’t understand a lot of the arguments against it in this thread, most are not even logically consistent.

  • + 1 for built-in metronome. And for all of guys that are saying about hooking up 3rd party device. This is like with all other things in the world. If there is no possibility to pay by apple pay on a store with one click it is not worth it, I close it after 1 second. If the registration process on a site takes more than 2 clicks - it is terrible UX site, closing after 1 second, why to even bother? If I need to turn on the kemper, setup 3rd party or something more, than practice - I won't practice, I have all the time plugged guitar into the kemper, because if not I would not practice - who bothers to plug the cable all the times before practice and do other setup stuff. It is like pumping car wheels before every ride - crazy thing. So, grabbing guitar, switching kemper button to browser/perform, then 3rd click to turn on metronome would be my dream scenario to practice, especially that i have sometimes 30 minutes to practice (including setup) and need to have full focus on that.

  • Well, it's been over 10yrs since the basic musician's tool was requested. To 'me', that certainly makes it clear it will never happen which is a real shame and I do hope I'm wrong.


    As previously mentioned, everyone benefits having an onboard metronome because it all starts with the player's ability regardless of what they plug in to & I was hoping CK would prioritize such a fundamental need/tool for all musicians regardless of age/ability.


    Again, this has been requested over 10yrs ago so nobody is trying to hog Kemper resources by jumping to the front of the line for this request follow up.