New NAMM product? This sounds insane.

  • I think the AxeFX is a nice product but his behavior is a big no-go. The post contains some serious paranoia (not even kidding).
    Also interesting how the people responding do not question the statements at all, they automatically assume there really is "an all-out guerrilla marketing campaign" and damn the bad unnamed company for using such dirty tactics.
    The only one in this market who behaves like a douche and talks other products down is he himself how come he and his customers don't see that?


    Still, I guess the best thing is just ignore him and not make it a topic too often because that would mean going down to his level and also fuels his paranoia.

  • Let´s all calm down a little bit and don´t care for all that BS. Don´t forget the we KPA users are in very comfortable situation right now. Discussions aside, at the moment the KPA is probably the best sounding unit on the market. If Behringer would come out with a device that could do the same as the KPA + the FX of the AXE + a power amp for half the price, you would be pissed too and try to defend your own little toy... It´s a natural thing. Everybodies got to decide how to deal with critcism. CK and his crew have far more experience from all the Virus years and thus seem to handle this whole "gear war" a little cooler... :thumbup:

    Nope. CK might be pissed, but I'd try out the Behringer device to see if it offered me benefits over the Kemper and then make a decision on which to keep. Its gear, not religion and I'm always excited to try new gear which hits the market. Cliff's behavior is a bit strange to me, but his livelihood depends on the claim that his product the the best/most advanced available. So I totally understand why he might feel pressure from competition. No idea at all why consumers would care because competition in the business world is always a good thing. Axe owners got the Tone Match feature BECAUSE of the KPA profiling...

  • You are missinterpreting this. Cliff is not talking about an upcoming advertizing campaign.
    He is refering to our "dirty guerilla marketing campaign" last year.


    Indeed Cliff has accused our company to have started a massive viral marketing campaign that was explicitly targeted against Fractal Audio by adressing their customer base.
    That is an interesting thesis, right?

  • You are missinterpreting this. Cliff is not talking about an upcoming advertizing campaign.
    He is refering to our "dirty guerilla marketing campaign" last year.


    Indeed Cliff has accused our company to have started a massive viral marketing campaign that was explicitly targeted against Fractal Audio by adressing their customer base.
    That is an interesting thesis, right?


    That's incredible! How can such a massive viral marketing campaign has managed to stay so massively secret? :D Oh, but perhaps you can't tell? :S


    Meow461 (Of course, I must use here my secret name :) )

  • You are missinterpreting this. Cliff is not talking about an upcoming advertizing campaign.
    He is refering to our "dirty guerilla marketing campaign" last year.


    Indeed Cliff has accused our company to have started a massive viral marketing campaign that was explicitly targeted against Fractal Audio by adressing their customer base.
    That is an interesting thesis, right?

    Like I said, I can kinda understand his concern from the perspective of increased competition cutting into sales but I do not understand his behavior nor the majority of his conclusions/statements nor why any Axe owner (or Kemper owner, or Pod owner, etc) would care. I mean his "dirty guerilla marketing campaign" IMHO equals general hype and excitement about a new product on the market. Seems off base and paranoid to me, but honestly I don't know what happens behind closed doors at Kemper nor Fractal nor anywhere else. He perceives competition as a threat while I perceive it as beneficial. Both are correct depending which side of the sales counter you are on...

  • I must have missed this "dirty guerrilla marketing campaign" - did it look anything like this:


    [Blocked Image: http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q131/CrossHairSB/KamoFaceplate.jpg]


    Not so much dirty - perhaps a little bit muddy...

    Suhr Classic Pro, Fender deluxe Strat & Baja Tele, Gibson ES335, Ibanez S Prestige 2170FW, Eastman AR371CE, Variax JTV > KPA > Patch bay inc. Strymons (Mobius, Timeline, Blue Sky), H9 Max, TC Triple Delay, & POD HD500 > Adam A7Xs

  • You are missinterpreting this. Cliff is not talking about an upcoming advertizing campaign.
    He is refering to our "dirty guerilla marketing campaign" last year.


    Indeed Cliff has accused our company to have started a massive viral marketing campaign that was explicitly targeted against Fractal Audio by adressing their customer base.
    That is an interesting thesis, right?

    Yes, very interesting, a totally bizarre thesis, bordering on delusional and paranoid.


    Last year anyone who started a Kemper thread on The Gear Page was a secret CIA agent participating in a "massive viral marketing campaign", or "dirty guerilla marketing campaign" specially planned by Kemper. :huh:


    Bizarre!

  • I do not understand his behavior nor the majority of his conclusions/statements nor why any Axe owner (or Kemper owner, or Pod owner, etc) would care. I mean his "dirty guerilla marketing campaign" IMHO equals general hype and excitement about a new product on the market. Seems off base and paranoid to me, but honestly I don't know what happens behind closed doors at Kemper nor Fractal nor anywhere else. He perceives competition as a threat while I perceive it as beneficial. Both are correct depending which side of the sales counter you are on...

    You're correct.
    General hype and excitement about a new product on the market is totally normal, to normal people.


    However, when it became apparent that the new product was a genuine competitor to the Axe-FX, then the accusations of "a massive viral marketing campaign" against Fractal" were made.


    I can tell you, I'm a Kemper distributor, nothing happened behind closed doors at Kemper, no "viral guerilla" marketing campaign was ever planned.
    I got a beta unit, I made some demo clips, I e mailed them to Kemper, Kemper said, wow, thanks, very nice clips, we'll put them on our website and Soundcloud page.
    Is a Soundcloud page some kind of a pre-planned massive "guerilla marketing campaign"?


    Christophe did some Youtube demo videos, those Youtube videos found their way to TGP, the Fractal and other forums just like every Youtube video of a new product finds it's way to the forums...nothing unusual.
    A couple of KPA beta testing units were sold to the beta testers (Pioneers), some audio clips from those units found their way to TGP and Fractal forum.
    This disturbed the Fractal clan, how dare anyone compare the Kemper to the Axe-FX...they freaked out.


    So, they decided to make accusations of this imaginary Kemper "guerilla marketing campaign".


    That's it, their "thesis" was incorrect and paranoid.


  • Fractal forum thread link.
    http://forum.fractalaudio.com/…chock-full-o-fractal.html
    Cliff Chase, post 6, (2012 21 august) quote:
    "It's been a bit stressful lately. A certain company, that shall remain unnamed, has launched an all-out guerrilla marketing campaign against us. All kinds of dirty tactics. The guys asked me about fighting fire with fire but I said "No, we will do what we always do and simply make the best product. We will continue to improve the product and offer the customer the pinnacle of the ownership experience." I have engendered a bit of animosity in this industry for some weird reason but I will always strive to make the best product. I am confident (especially with Version 7) that we are squarely at the top of the heap and we have done extensive blind A/B tests that support that claim.
    So I thank all of you for your continued support and you can be assured that, despite our growth, we will strive to retain the small-company attitude."


    Kemper (including Access Virus) is a company with 17 employees and me. That is huge!
    With this incredible force we have desperatly attacked small Fractal Audio that was able to grow by 500% in four years. How many people might that be? 5 or 6 or 18?
    This is really crazy stuff.


    But let me tell you, with 18 people in total we are far too big to maintain a small-company attitude :)


    This an amusing time for me, I am enjoying all this madness.

  • Christophe, in all your years of working on the Access Virus did you ever encounter stuff like this before from other rival companies? :P


    This will all end up like this I'm telling you...


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zro4CfP9wY


    [Blocked Image: http://aka.media.entertainment…0/03/23/The-Anchorman.jpg]


    Please... feel free to speculate on which gang is which :D

    Suhr Classic Pro, Fender deluxe Strat & Baja Tele, Gibson ES335, Ibanez S Prestige 2170FW, Eastman AR371CE, Variax JTV > KPA > Patch bay inc. Strymons (Mobius, Timeline, Blue Sky), H9 Max, TC Triple Delay, & POD HD500 > Adam A7Xs

  • Someone shared a full copy of the recent TGP thread "Are the DSP wars over?" before it was closed and deleted.
    (Some pages can also still be seen when using the preview page arrow in the Google search result menu and click cache view in the up right corner).


    Here is the full thread copy, page 1-11.
    Are The DSP Wars Over? - TGP thread copy, 2012 October 29 (open in firefox)
    http://www.mediafire.com/?85zen4oowivu7qm
    Click and open the htm files, best viewed in firefox. No need to open the maps.
    Perhaps someone could post this link in the thread where this was discussed or move this post.
    There might be a limited download nr, so it's good if someone want to host the downloaded zip file without download limitations.


    It's understandable why some wanted to remove the thread.
    It's a crazy read!

  • Just in case anyone is wondering my username: FractusAnimus, it means broken allegiance. I once thought that Fractal was great, but I don't care how good a product is, if the owner disrespects his customers then that should be met with penalty, we pay his wages, we are his boss! ... you damn well can be sure Fractal will never be a possession of mine again! :cursing:

    Exactly the reason why I fell out of love with the whole Fractal story, and with the idea of buying\owning an Axe-Fx.
    Once I was attached because to a forum member who had written "now the Axe can't go any further" after the nth FW upgrade (I guess it was 5.0) I dared to respond that I was sure there would have certainly bene many other FW upgrades in the future, and the Axe would have sounded even better after that!
    I have no words.



    Like I said, I can kinda understand his concern from the perspective of increased competition cutting into sales but I do not understand his behavior nor the majority of his conclusions/statements nor why any Axe owner (or Kemper owner, or Pod owner, etc) would care.


    Simply because, Will, my friend, you're wrong: it's religion, it's not gear at all.

    Someone shared a full copy of the recent TGP thread "Are the DSP wars over?" before it was closed and deleted. Here is the full thread copy, page 1-11.
    http://www.mediafire.com/?85zen4oowivu7qm
    Perhaps someone could post this link in the thread where this was discussed or move this post. There might be a limited download nr, so it's good if someone want to host the downloaded zip file without download limitations.


    I've uploaded it in the same folder where I store the wiKPA... waiting for a water-fire (or angels-devils) chemical-mystical fight to begin :D
    The link is here.


    :)

  • Kemper (including Access Virus) is a company with 17 employees and me. That is huge!
    With this incredible force we have desperatly attacked small Fractal Audio that was able to grow by 500% in four years. How many people might that be? 5 or 6 or 18?
    This is really crazy stuff.


    But let me tell you, with 18 people in total we are far too big to maintain a small-company attitude :)


    This an amusing time for me, I am enjoying all this madness.


    Good for you Christoph! That's the way to do it :thumbup:

  • all-out guerrilla marketing campaign


    Yeah, so I feel a bit guilty as I might have been a part of that "marketing campaign" when I posted some of the first Axe2/KPA comparison clips on several forums. I didn't do that to bash any product, just because I thought gearheads (like me) would love to hear those clips.
    When I posted clips don't saying which is which and got responses like "A better than B blahblah" and revealed later which was which I got PMs from several people that I'm too stupid to make clips, that I faked the solution and that I have an agenda and were paid by Kemper (to CK: if you read this. I DO accept back payments ... :D ). Yeah.... sure... that's why I paid like 3000€ for the Axe+MFC because I thought it sucked. I still think the Axe2 is great and sounds very good. I just think the KPA sounds better.


    But what do you expect. It's the internetz ...

    MJT Strats / PRS Guitars / Many DIY Guitars -- Kemper Profiler Rack / Kemper Remote / InEar

  • Yes, send him this payments :D


    Daniels samples were very convincing at that time.

    (All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated or affiliated with soundside.de)


    Great Profiles --> soundside.de

  • Yeah, so I feel a bit guilty as I might have been a part of that "marketing campaign" when I posted some of the first Axe2/KPA comparison clips on several forums. I didn't do that to bash any product, just because I thought gearheads (like me) would love to hear those clips.
    When I posted clips don't saying which is which and got responses like "A better than B blahblah" and revealed later which was which I got PMs from several people that I'm too stupid to make clips, that I faked the solution and that I have an agenda and were paid by Kemper (to CK: if you read this. I DO accept back payments ... :D ). Yeah.... sure... that's why I paid like 3000€ for the Axe+MFC because I thought it sucked. I still think the Axe2 is great and sounds very good. I just think the KPA sounds better.


    But what do you expect. It's the internetz ...


    Daniel, this is true.
    You are probably the cause of their aggressivity.
    I would have never endorsed A/B comparisons against a competitor.


    We had a handfull of betatesters, and I have given them no order. It was my fault not even to tell them not to sell their unit in a beta stadium.
    This is how you got your unit, without us being aware. This was not the correct way and it will never happen again.


    As you can see it was not very wise to spread A/B comparisons all over the net. Is it right that you posted clips on their forum as well?