Roland GK input

  • Another wild idea. An input for the Roland GK 13 pin cable. I still have a Roland GR55 GS. Its modeling is outdated and incomparable to Kemper's. But the hex pickup gives you options like alternative tunings and different FX on different strings. I have a Roland GI10 with a midi/USB cable and just got a Roland GI20 which goes from 13 pins to USB midi directly. Maybe Kemper could configure the USB input to receive midi over USB. Think of the possibilities.

  • My latest, and best, combo is a Boss SY1000 with one of the modeled guitars feeding the Kemper, via the sub out. Also, I can add 3 other instruments, usually guitars, with their own separate great sounding AIRD amps. It's a great combination, especially if you desire multiple amp and guitar sounds. Incredibly flexible routing.

  • The regular output of the magnetic pickups goes to the input of the Kemper. The 13 pins input or the MIDI input or the MIDI over USB input tells the Kemper ON WHICH STRING the note is played. So you can get alternative tunings, open D, DADGAD, lower E and A string one octave lower etc. Or use different FX on different strings. Endless possibilities. For this the MIDI device, GS or Roland GI-10/20 should be put in mono mode so each string has its own MIDI channel.

  • The regular output of the magnetic pickups goes to the input of the Kemper. The 13 pins input or the MIDI input or the MIDI over USB input tells the Kemper ON WHICH STRING the note is played. So you can get alternative tunings, open D, DADGAD, lower E and A string one octave lower etc. Or use different FX on different strings. Endless possibilities. For this the MIDI device, GS or Roland GI-10/20 should be put in mono mode so each string has its own MIDI channel.

    It has been 30+ years since I used midi guitars with hex pickups so maybe things have come a long way since then but I'm not sure thats how it would work. That would presumably be massively more complex and processor intensive than a simple midi situation where the alternate tunings are simply triggering a sound. In your example the Kemper would effectively need to process the profile independently for each string. I.e. you would effectively have 6 profiles running in parallel. The KPA can’t hand dual profiles so I can’t see how that is a viable solution.


    If I understand correctly (which I may NOT of course) systems like the Roland V-Guitar etc don’t do this. They use the signal from the hex pickup to feed the amp model rather than as a trigger for a regular guitar pickup input. Is that not so?

  • If I understand correctly (which I may NOT of course) systems like the Roland V-Guitar etc don’t do this. They use the signal from the hex pickup to feed the amp model rather than as a trigger for a regular guitar pickup input. Is that not so?

    I agree, this is correct. Kemper would have to add a lot more functionality to make this work. That would be a whole other beast.

  • I use Roland GR55 with my Stage ,on every gig

    Kemper would have to have 13 pin processing to do anything, it would have to have 6 separate effects engines to do individual processing

    Roland 13 pin IS NOT MIDI, and sends NO MIDI information