Kemper Profiling Amp Successor

  • Only requesters know, if they wish or they complain.

    Then you should tell exactly this to those who regularly accuse requesters of complaining. Because it is them who complain about me complaining. I never complained. I have wishes and dreams. So easy.

    Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it! - Michael Angelo Batio

  • Not sure if this has been shared but it shows a bit of room for improvement/evolution

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    Since Rabea Massad is official endorser of Quad Cortex https://neuraldsp.com/artists/rabea-massaad this video does not make sense here.

  • Then you should tell exactly this to those who regularly accuse requesters of complaining. Because it is them who complain about me complaining. I never complained. I have wishes and dreams. So easy.

    So work towards your dreams, they will not come to you any other way, than when you contribute to get them :)


    By the way, I find your footer description much revealing your approach "Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it!" - this is a case when people wish they had doble profiles and X Y Z and they still play powerchords 90% of the time :)


    I choose not to have and not to need and it works wonders in life :)

  • So work towards your dreams, they will not come to you any other way, than when you contribute to get them :)


    By the way, I find your footer description much revealing your approach "Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it!" - this is a case when people wish they had doble profiles and X Y Z and they still play powerchords 90% of the time :)


    I choose not to have and not to need and it works wonders in life :)

    (?)Man, this is from Michael Angelo Batio and refers to guitar skills and technique, not for gear and stuff you don't really need.


    But it's revealing how YOU think. 8o

    Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it! - Michael Angelo Batio

    Edited once, last by Alienator ().

  • Since Rabea Massad is official endorser of Quad Cortex https://neuraldsp.com/artists/rabea-massaad this video does not make sense here.

    I think his feedback is relevant to improvements on a new version of Kemper. And if you watch the section at 1:33, you'll see that he addresses that concern.

    It still sounds really good. imo, the effects sound better on Kemper. He mentions they're similar, the Kemper is "woolier" in the low mids and the QC has a certain sponginess in dynamics.

    Edited 2 times, last by jtn191 ().

  • Paid reviews... very trustworthy. :rolleyes:

    ok, here's another. fwiw, I'm happy with mine! hope a successor allows multiple profiles in a chain like profiling pedals...

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  • Wasn't the story with their Virus TI2 synthesizers, that was introduced in 2009 and is sold even today, with no perspective for next version? These synthesizers get very good reviews and have been used by The Prodigy, TOOL, Periphery, Nine Inch Nails, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Jean-Michel Jarre, Celine Dion, Dr. Dre, Linkin Park, No Doubt, Radiohead, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson - to name a few.


    I'm sure Depeche Mode guys were not complaining - "Oh, I need this and this and also this, because it limits my workflow. When will next version with features A B C come out?"


    I don't know the future, but I wouldn't be surprised, if current Kemper Profiler would be its only incarnation.

    No man. The Virus goes back to at least 1998, and there have been many versions of it.

  • Paid reviews... very trustworthy. :rolleyes:

    Not everyone who is paid is untrustworthy, and money doesn't necessarily introduce bias.


    The Kemper has problems with certain tones, and there are certain differences that stick out. I had a whole conversation with Christophe where he agreed with me that there were tonal differences between my amp and my Kemper, and that I was doing everything correctly.


    I'm 99% sure that the Kemper team are fully aware that they could eek out a little more accuracy. Whether they will or not is another matter.


    And don't get it twisted - the QC isn't 100% accurate either. There are always mild differences compared to the input signal; however... and this is a subjective opinion.... but the QC differences are not as annoying or frustrating to me as the Kemper ones - because the Kemper has a tendency to go fuzzy and flubby in the low end, and as a high-gain player who plays a lot of palm mutes, this doesn't really sit well with me.



    But I sold my QC for other reasons - someone tried to call me out on it even, implying I was a kneejerk hypocrite; but that was BS and still is BS. I simply love gear, but I have high standards.


    The Kemper kills the QC in various areas; effects quality being one of them. But the QC capturing is slightly more pleasing to me.


    And I've not taken cash to say that. I'm very familiar with Kemper, QC, Helix, and Axe FX III. They're all good. We're just arguing about the edges of the clouds at this point.

  • Not sure why Kemper 2 unless CK can drastically improve the profiling algo or come up with something revolutionary I can't even think of now?

    Ok, a bit bigger screen (no need for colour) would be cool.

  • that's and interesting assessment. I totally agree they are all good and all have their own pros and cons.


    I have never played a QC first hand (and actually have no desire to do so as the Kemper does what I need) but I have watched a few blind test comparisons. In most cases I preferred the Kemper. Tone Wars did a good long video with multiple players. I found the QC sounded really good at first but got very tiring quite quickly. By the end I had decided which one I preferred and it turned out to be the Kemper.


    Although I haven't played the QC, I have downloaded the Neural DSP plugins. I profiled then with the Kemper and found the Kemper did a great job of capturing them. I really didn't like the NDSP plugins at all though. Found them too bright and grating.


    However, if I was a hight gain metal player I might have preferred the QC. The point being (as you highlighted) personal taste and preferred genre really do matter.


    There is no one device to rule them all and likely never will be.

  • I really feel like the existing KPA does a remarkable job of capturing good tone. Furthermore, the honing tools it has to refine things to your taste and make them better are fantastic and very easy to use. Can a KPA2 make it better? Maybe, but we are talking about pretty subtle differences that I feel are negligible compared to the overall sound after refinement and tweaking.


    I think a KPA2 will be more about work-flow. The existing KPA has advanced so much from its original firmware that some of the options are pretty complex to deal with. As a result, not many do.


    I'm still sticking with the color touch screen though. I hear all of you saying that we don't need it, but from someone that over-sees UX development, I think the ability to simplify things would be pretty fantastic.


    I do agree that moving all the way to a Fractal UI is silly and defeats the fundamental selling point of the KPA (IMO) ..... ease of use. Still, a graphical UX on a color screen could do alot even if you limit yourself to linear parts of INPUT->PRE-EFX->TONE STACK->POST-EFX->OUTPUT. Imagine a single page on Input without menu diving or paging to get to it (as an example). How about just having something like the graphical part of the rig manager on the KPA?


    Don't get me wrong, I think there is still a need for some physical controls (exe, EQ knobs, input and output volume, etc.). I think the use of rotary encoders to move up and down through scrollable lists is good (but lists should never have to be that long if you do it right).


    A good mix of a color touch screen and physical controls would be pretty cool IMO. We are going to automatically get more processing. 10 years faster and better DSP will allow some pretty amazing things compared to current hardware. It will automatically boot faster (much faster processor and faster memory access), and it will switch rigs more quickly.


    I am still betting we wont see it for another 2 to 5 years.

  • I very much doubt Kemper will update the KPA "2" to 'improve' non-core functionality. Non-core being unrelated to profiles or profiling.

    Unless there is a 'next step' in profile sound quality, which CK has repeatedly and consistently said there isn't, I don't see why they'd change the box it comes in. People can say 'it doesn't do this' or 'the competition has that'. Besides the Profiling process, their approach to new drives and fuzz is completely at odds with everyone else. Instead of "Here's a Klon stomp and a KOT stomp and a Muff stomp.....All with traditional controls" Just like everyone else does.

    We begged for new drive choices - all the time thinking we'd get the usual selection in the usual format. We got what we asked for - but in a truly unique and exciting way.

    If there is a KPA "2" - it'll be off-the-wall in some way no one saw coming.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

  • Completely off the rails and more bells and whistles that do more than ring and screech.


    I'm willing to bet we, the ones that want a next version, will get just about everything we've asked plus some new cool stuff. Most of which, people who don't care or want a version 2, won't use and that's fine because...


    KPA 2.0 Deluxe Supreme edition ISN'T FOR THEM, IT'S FOR US!!! Yall are just fine with the current hardware and will have no need to upgrade unless you just want to. This will be for us who want and need a few more things and for the people who don't have any digital unit yet.


    I feel like that's something that's easily overlooked. Some of yall look at YOUR needs being met as a way to say that this is all anybody needs. That's crazy to me because you have no idea what people who don't have anything want or need that are looking into the digital arena right now. Anybody is capable of downloading manuals and being able to determine if a unit is right for them. I'm SURE, there's people out there who have thought about a Kemper decide to take a chance elsewhere because it lacks XYZ.


    Everyone who says, this is perfect and we don't want a new one is wasting their cyber breath here. This is the place where we can subjectively and objectively converse about a predecessor.


    Yall should go start your own thread called,


    "Top 20 reasons why we don't need or want a kpa2 and why it will never happen or possibly be any better than it already is." But yall do whatever you want, this is the interent after all.


    Now I'm gonna go back to Team Color Touchscreen. Yes we want it. Don't care if you don't or wouldn't buy it, then don't. Food for thought. There is a guitar shortage. 16 MILLION people have decided to start playing guitar. In a few years they will start buying more gear, joining bands, playing shows and recording at home and they are gonna want something badass and tech'd out. Their ages are between 16 to 35.

  • Now I'm gonna go back to Team Color Touchscreen. Yes we want it.

    I did not see it as that important but, yes, the more I think about it the more it makes sense, even a (robust) touch screen. Although is not about the fancy colors themselves, of course. The menu layouts and workflows are much more important. Rhett Shull made a review video about the Axe 3, recently. He pointed out how an UI and a screen on a unit itself can make him want or don't want to use a unit on stage. He prefers to leave his Axe at home and take the Helix out, just because you really don't need an editor for the Helix, whereas the Axe is much more difficult to tweak on the fly (user abilities may differ). But I agree with him. Both the Helix and the Axe have a "color screen" but for me the one is so difficult to edit without an editor, whereas the Helix screen is an intuition breeze.


    (Yes, it is tiring to mention again at this point that there is no need to mention the 1000th time that people who only use very simple chains don't "need" (blabla) a color screen or even a successor. You are right, they should consider to create an own thread ?)

    Better have it and not need it, than need it and not have it! - Michael Angelo Batio

  • I disagree with this statement.

    The Kemper Drive is so underwhelming that it's of absolutely no use for me.

    Agreed. And I find it pretty ironic that a device which has the central purpose of copying amps, wouldn't also copy pedals in a simple and user friendly and intuitive way.

  • RE: Touch screen.


    I'm more or less pro. As long as it is actually good. There are a lot of devices out there with crap touch screens, and if you rely on it too much and it turns out to be a bit poo, then you've severely hampered your device.


    I think this is possibly the reason to not do it and ultimately you don't *need* a touchscreen for decent UI or UX. You just need to consider the actual workflow you want your users to follow. It's all about breadcrumb trailing the stuff that people will struggle with (setting up midi, performances, morphing, etc...) and making the primary functionality super easy to find, and super easy to use.


    Easier said than done. But it takes a product manager or a product owner with a vision - if stuff is designed by committee, it'll most probably turn out to be a hodge podge and a bit unimpressive.