Hm, don't like the sound from FW 1.6 (Edit Fixed now)

Quote from MadH

Here is my test. Used the amp factory JCM 800 drive rig disabling noise gate and effects.

1.5.4 -> https://dl.dropbox.com/u/74444515/test%20kpa%201.5.4.wav
1.6.0 -> https://dl.dropbox.com/u/74444515/test%20kpa%201.6.0.wav

I recorded the guitar dry and then reamped using spdif.

I also loaded these files into my DAW and EQed the one from FW1.6. Same impression like Armin's sounds here: +1 dB at 6kHz is enough to make the two sounds identical. In practice this means just touching the Presence control a tiny bit and problem solved.

As CK once stated he will never have a firmware change the sound of a Rig - I think he even says "even not in ten years from now" - I'm pretty sure this is just a bug that needs to be corrected for the final release.

You don't want your profiles sounding different when you are doing overdubs. So I'm pretty confident that Kemper will iron that out.

Quote from fretboardminer

I also loaded these files into my DAW and EQed the one from FW1.6. Same impression like Armin's sounds here: +1 dB at 6kHz is enough to make the two sounds identical. In practice this means just touching the Presence control a tiny bit and problem solved.

Still don't sound the same to me. The top end sounds different.

Quote from Garrincha

As CK once stated he will never have a firmware change the sound of a Rig - I think he even says "even not in ten years from now" - I'm pretty sure this is just a bug that needs to be corrected for the final release.

You don't want your profiles sounding different when you are doing overdubs. So I'm pretty confident that Kemper will iron that out.

That's also my point. I hated that from the Axe Fx I and II. Since this is a public beta it is good that we noticed so it can be fixed for the final release.

Quote from Armin

Maybe a switch in the Amp block would be fine:
Aliasing reduction on/off

I would use it only for highly distorted sounds then.

If the aliasing fix is what's caused this change to the sound, than yes, a switch would be the ideal solution.

Quote from imall41

If the aliasing fix is what's caused this change to the sound, than yes, a switch would be the ideal solution.

If I were CK, I'd say you asked for it, live with it, and move on. You guys are pretending like a minor EQ change has shifted the complete ability of the unit to sound good. Like it went from filet minion to McDonald's. This is not my experience, and not what I'm hearing in those clips (though the first clip is rather pronounced versus the others). To be quite honest, I think a great many profiles out there are on too bright anyway (Armin's stuff largely being the exception). On almost every profile I use, the vast majority of the time I have to turn down the presence and crank up the speaker character to smooth out the high end to where I like it. I've even used the studio EQ to cut highs before I started narrowing down profiles to those I really like. Perhaps my monitoring scenario leans to the bright side and others lean darker. All I know is I got to play much more this weekend than I have in a long time and I played the hell out of 1.6 and loved every freaking minute of it.

Will, I played the hell out of mine also. I didn't have a gig so I loaded up 1.6 and jammed.

I'm down to 38 rigs now and will maybe add more if I find some I like.

So far so good..... very good!

Yeah, but I guess our main problem with this is that we wanted a fix for the aliasing by the means of a higher sampling rate. If the current fix is some kind of eq trick then it obviously messes up the original tone, which is not a good thing.

After testing both versions with my Telecaster and some good profiles, there is a difference and is not only highs Eq. The previous version sounds richer to my ears and it's more real.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3645952/Test%201dot6.wav

Yup, exactly my observations. When I first tried the new firmware I felt like the input filtering was altered somehow. I remember CK wrote about planning making changes to the input filtering somewhere on a public forum... I wonder if this has something to do with this issue.

Will, I don't mean to be rude, but you're constantly saying you have no financial stake in the KPA on another forum, but you're here in the users forum and the thing is the Kemper is all about precision, all about sounding exactly like a real amp, not closeish or sorta, but exactly like. That's why we bought the unit to get closer to the perfect digital emulation of a real amp. So the community is going to be nitpicking by nature, we are always going to be striving to get the best out of this box, and any steps in the wrong direction are going to be noticed and chewed over until a solution is found. Having spent this kind of money for this purpose we absolutely can and should rock the boat. We'd be doing ourselves, Christoph and his team a disservice otherwise.

Quote from MadH

Still don't sound the same to me. The top end sounds different.

Here is the soundfile for others to listen:
MadH's sounds first the 1.5.4 unedited and the second 1.6.0 with +1dB at 6kHz

I gave my ears a day away from the Kemper thinking it was just me. I also hear a slight difference in the high end of my high gain patches.

Quote from Per

Will, I don't mean to be rude, but you're constantly saying you have no financial stake in the KPA on another forum, but you're here in the users forum and the thing is the Kemper is all about precision, all about sounding exactly like a real amp, not closeish or sorta, but exactly like. That's why we bought the unit to get closer to the perfect digital emulation of a real amp. So the community is going to be nitpicking by nature, we are always going to be striving to get the best out of this box, and any steps in the wrong direction are going to be noticed and chewed over until a solution is found. Having spent this kind of money for this purpose we absolutely can and should rock the boat. We'd be doing ourselves, Christoph and his team a disservice otherwise.

I can say with absolute certainty that the profiling process does not create a perfect copy of an amp at firmware 1.52 and previously (not tested 1.6 yet). Its certainly very, very close, but with that said how many of the users are profiling their own gear versus downloading other's profiles? A great many including myself rave over The Amp Factory stuff, but look at those profiles, they are highly tweaked. I believe they are going though a Neve preamp as well. That's not what I'd call an exact copy of the amp. The Black Goop sessions got some major praise and what's been profiled is completely secret. The Morgan AC20 which got some big praise as well had some pretty big tweaks out of the box as well. I realize its the nature of the product, but in a great many cases the player of a profile has zero idea what the original amp sounded like. Shoot in a great many cases, we may not have ever even seen the amp at hand expect in perhaps a YouTube video. Unless you created the profile, I would suggest viewing these all as a starting point not an untouchable picture of perfection. Perhaps the tonal shift will result in an even more accurate profiling process, has anyone tested it yet?

CK and crew deemed this worthy of release as it clearly made its way though the private beta. They wouldn't have put it out with something they considered a big flaw. In other words, they thought it either sounded good or the change in sound was minor enough that it was acceptable. Are we saying Kemper is as low as say Line 6 whose beta testing is a joke resulting is releases with major bugs or are things getting blown slightly out of proportion? Why is there such a big difference in opinion regarding the result of 1.6? PLain and simple...you can't please all the people all the time. A hole developers can fall into all too easily...

Its becoming painfully obvious that my personality doesn't quite fit in with this forum. I'm very sorry for disrupting your party fellas. No hard feelings. I'll keep my posting to a minimum.

Word has it that CK has been abducted by aliens and they threaten to keep him for themselves in exchange granting us all immortality.

Forever stuck on FW 1.5.2 or a Free CK T-shirt and certain death - what will it be ?

It's just a minor bump in the road. Keep on posting Will.

Will, for what it's worth, I find your posts very helpful, even I don't always agree.

Quote from Per

Having spent this kind of money for this purpose we absolutely can and should rock the boat.

Here's a little statistic.
6% of Kemper buyers participate on this forum.
The other 94% are rocking their guitars whilst a small percentage of the 6% are rocking the boat.

Just sayin...

Quote from Tyrone_Biggums

Will, for what it's worth, I find your posts very helpful, even I don't always agree.

+1

I too can definitely hear a difference and I'm disappointed CK hasn't weighed in on this post yet.

I MUCH prefer pre 1.6

I was a STAUNCH tube/valve guy and I also owned an AXE and the ONLY reason I purchased a KPA was because it felt real and alive just like my many high end boutique amps. This is THE reason I sold off my AXE as it fell short by a LONG way and I will never purchase again.

If 1.6 is where the KPA is going future state I'm returning to real amps as again I liked the KPA for its realism.

Armin's suggestion to possibly have a switch to return it to aliasing would keep me happy. I couldn't hear OR feel the aliasing before
and even if I could my real amps at high gain had plenty of noise and spit anyway.

If the so called aliasing was attended to by CK because of those fools over FAS he shouldn't have because it's taken the shine off his masterpiece.

In the meantime I am sadly rolling back to 1.54 and forfeiting the added features.