Posts by Kris Sandman

  • Kemper Power Kabinet (active) vs. Kemper Kabinet (passive) with separate power amplifier

    Hi,

    I want to get a Kemper Kabinet along with my Profiler Stage, but I'm wondering if I should rather get the active version, Kemper Power Kabinet, or the passive version, Kemper Kabinet, plus an external power amplifier.



    Regarding flexibility:

    It seems to me, that a setup including the passive version with an external (stereo) power amplifier is easier / cheaper to extend later...?

    For example I could buy a 2nd Kemper Kabinet (not so expensive) and just connect it to the same power amplifier to have stereo sound...

    Is that right?


    Regarding sound:

    Question: Is there a sound difference, you can really hear, between the "original" power amplifier inside the active Kemper Power Kabinet in comparison to an external one? (like the Palmer Macht 402 with the passive Kemper Kabinet?) Or does it sound nearly the same?


    Is there an external power amplifier you can recommend for the passive Kemper Kabinet?

    Or would you rather recommend buying the Kemper Power Kabinet?


    Thanks! :)

  • Rig Manager crashes while importing profiles (kipr files), insufficient exception handling

    I bought a lot of profiles, which I saved in a directory structure on my harddisk. Trying to import that directory structure (with the .kipr files etc.) I just encountered several crashes of the whole Rig Manager unfortunately! ( Using Rig Manager Version 3.0.131.16339 on Windows 10 PRO x64 German, Version 10.0.18363.959 ).


    Maybe there is a more robust import function I did not see (?), but I used the Windows Explorer drag'n'drop method, adding the directory structure to a Folder below my "Local Library" (All Rigs). For some directories that worked very well, but sometimes the whole application crashed!


    Being an IT professional myself I can give you some more specific descriptions (hopefully it helps):


    1) What I first realized, debugging the issue, is that non-ascii special characters in file or directory names are not handled well - instead these lead to crashes (at least its not hard to fix that manually). I would strongly recommend though to introduce some kind of exception handling here in the programming routine with two results: a) Just skip problematic files you cannot handle. b) I would definitely report the number of errors / skipped files, so the user knows that there are issues and can try to fix and repeat (ideally with some extra text information about the type of issue, too), but please try to not let the application crash! ;)


    2) In my case I could reproduce, unfortunately, that in a situation with a directory structure with different sub-directories and a lot of profiles the Rig Manager import did not work consistently for me: For instance, importing directories A....1, B...2, C...3, D...4 all together, assume the import crashes somewhere at C...3. Ok, then when I restart and check again to import just A...1 and B...1(which were already successful) that works great, app telling there is nothing new, so far so good! Then I try to import C...3 again, crash! Not nice. ...but strangely though after 1-2 new restarts of the Rig Manager chances are that it is now working in a new retry, I observed that a few times now. Suddenly it imports or suddenly it detects that it already has the files but at other times it crashes, when basically there should be nothing different.

    This is really an issue, because the application should behave consistently, not sometimes importing, sometimes not, without changing anything at the file or directory level - hard to tell what is going on.

    --> At the moment it seems there is no log file reporting last steps, errors or something like that, is there? (Did not find one). It would probably be a good idea to including a logging mechanic in the application writing exception messages into a file to make debugging easier, don't you agree?


    Thanks in advance!

  • Powering the Kemper Kabinet

    I have basically the same question, thinking about which poweramp - in combination with the Kemper - might be well suited to drive a passive FRFR/GFR speaker like the Kemper Kone?


    Two interesting options I found so far:

    - Harley Benton GPA-400

    - Palmer Macht 402


    Personally I am looking for a good cost / performance ratio especially, getting a <good> result, but not at any cost, if an even better sound would be overpriced (for a small benefit).


    -> Do you know of any tests of different poweramps comparing the sound results used with the Kemper?

    -> Personal recommendations?


    Thanks :)

  • Options to profile an overdrive pedal?

    Great input and a few important corrections so I get the profiler basics right, thanks a lot guys so far! :)


    The double KPA setup sounds really epic, I already thought about that, too, but I don't see it as affordable for me in the very near future.



    ...any ideas regarding the DI box question? E. g. if you choose a commercial profile would you prefer one created via DI box or with a mic recording setup or does it depend...? Any important difference in the result when a distortion pedal is included? Thanks!

  • Options to profile an overdrive pedal?

    Hello guys,

    I have seen reviews stating that the quality of overdrive pedal profiles can be really good, which is a very nice start... :)


    Now my question: Which options do we have to profile an overdrive pedal? Or, how would you do or recommend it?


    a) I think I understood the "basic way" for it, where I could setup a normal amp (e. g. a JCM800) and connect the Profiler via Direct Out/Send with the amp and I would connect my overdrive pedal to the Profiler Input and my guitar to the pedal, quite classic. Finally connecting the recording mic in Return port of Profiler. ( Like that image plus pedal next to the guitar: https://www.kemper-amps.com/im…iling-a-guitar-amp.jpg?v5 ).

    --> ...as a profile this gives me a snapshot of the current sound of that amp with my overdrive pedal, specific to the used settings, right?

    So far so good... :)


    b) Is there a setup to do basically the same thing just using one of the virtual amps (already profiled) inside the Kemper? So that I could use an amp profile (e. g. a JCM800 profile) to build upon, adding my pedal sound to the mix (for a new profile with that included), instead of needing access to the actual physical amp... Possible?

    --> ...creating a new profile consisting of an existing kemper profile plus my overdrive pedal sound... (?)


    c) Would the profiler DI box be helpful for me profiling an overdrive pedal? Recommended for that case or in general? If I got it right, it basically just eliminates the need to setup a recording mic, is that correct...? Or is it completely different or is there more to it?


    d) I guess it is not possible to "isolate" the sound manipulation of my overdrive pedal (with its current settings) with the Profiler as a kind of "pure effects profile", is it? (Which would make you more independent from a specific amp's basic sound).



    Thanks! :)