Today everyone who wants to play a kemper need a hardware kemper. It would be a massive cut in hardware interest, since it would now be pirated and free software. The vast majority of kemper users don't play live or profile amps, so they don't need the hardware.
Kemper seems to be very successful with what they are doing and therefore I don't see any reason at all for them as a business to give away the code to pirates. It's a unique and exclusive high-end product with a patent and they definately don't need to release a much cheaper software version to stay successful. The fact that many users would want a software kemper is another thing. The Kemper company don't need it as I see it.
Cracks for the most popular software are mostly up to date (even the same day as release sometimes) and in many times they run smoother and are more cpu and RAM efficient because the heavy protection is removed. Improved protection means nothing these days, it is no match for them to crack or emulate ilok and other systems. AFAIK a pc can run Mac software and vice versa in a virtual box or emulators so the platform doesn´t matter.
As soon as a company release a software product they know they can no longer protect it from piracy. All popular software gets cracked. I think the majority of all software amps are cracked by now, ilok offers no protection. Helix, Scuffham S-Gear, Amplitube, Overloud TH3, Peavey Revalver, BIAS Amp, Pod farm, TSE, Kazrog, Kuassa, Studio Devil, Softube and other amp sims are cracked.
Helix was cracked more than a year ago and Line6 just released a new firmware update, that new version is already cracked within a day. Software companies calculate a certain loss to piracy in their budget and still manage to make a profit, but not all. It usually involves that they keep coming up with many updates and features to keep customers interested.
I think the Kemper has proven to be a very successful, unique and different product compared to traditional component modelers that it makes 100% sense for them to only offer hardware. The software code inside the kemper is everything and it's logical they should protect it. Since the majority of kemper users don't profile amps, a software kemper "profile player" would kill the hardware. Soon all profiles would be pirated as well and easily shared because the interest would be much bigger. Only a few can afford a kemper, but everyone can get a free cracked software.
A fun video with Tim Pierce and Uwe Bossert profiling Tim's amps and AB comparing. Very nice collection of amps. The discussion that follows in the comment section is the usual one about real vs kemper and ethics of profiling.
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If vs clips are made with the purpose of making people guess I prefer the ABX blindtest. That's the only way to bypass our confirmation bias and therefore is the method used in science every day. That way you will never have the easy 50% chance that either 1 or 2 is real or kemper. With ABX any sample could be anything which makes it much harder to guess. It can be 8 real, 3 kemper, 2 real, 12 kemper, sometimes the same clip plays several times in a row with slightly different starting position etc.
Even better is to create a song track with invisible frequent random seamless transitions between kemper and real amp. Then it becomes much more difficult because we must then say the exact length of each time interval we think we hear kemper or amp. A few of these tests have been posted and nobody was correct.
This in a way is similar to the lossless vs mp3 discussions. With the mp3 lame setting v2, many studies show this is where the majority of listeners fail to hear the difference, therefore v2 is the default setting. At v1 even fewer can tell and at v0 nobody can pick 100% correct consistently on a mixed set of songs. I often to these ABX tests with friends, some are "audiophiles". Many skeptics who just know they will be correct are surprised they can't tell the difference. Some get angry and frustrated and are so focused on that there must be differences they can hear because the mp3 is about 80% compressed and the files are not identical.
Me and my friends have been completely fooled by the kemper many times, and only a few times we notice a small difference. To me that small difference does not make people with trained ears think it's kemper and not real if they heard it in a random situation when they are not told it was kemper (removing their confirmation bias). That is a difference compared to a low bitrate mp3 where the cymbals sounds terrible and often becomes unlistenable and its easy for people with trained ears to say, wow thats the bad "mp3 sound". Some high treble material like cymbals is the easy way to hear the "mp3 signature sound" at lower mp3 bitrates. At higher bitrates it is not heard.
Welcome to the forum, I hope you get it sorted out. Don't forget to register your kemper so you can post in the forum section "profiler related issues and trouble shooting help".
There will definitely be people affiliated with other equipment and/or software companies that "work" their opposition forums. While I agree that it's important to have a balanced view of what the Kemper does, the hidden agendas can take the joy out of a forum if you let them.
+1 all very good points, all these four groups of users are seen on forums. Big kudos to the kemper team for actually allowing users with a super clear agenda that over and over repeat their same passive aggressive negaitve mantra in thread after thread. Imagine how short the login-time would be for a user who joins the fractal forum and from the very beginning insinuates the company is unprofessional, and numerous times says how the product only is ok for demos but not for professional use (despite the fact that thousands of world pros use it live and on records), and repeatedly calling other users trolls or clan members and insinuates that a conspiracy makes sure that no critique is allowed against the product. Such repeated passive aggressive posting behaviour is a form of trolling by spamming, bringing nothing constructive to threads and often derailing them. Can anyone link to the kemper forum rules so I can read them, thanks. On TheGearPage there are rules against repeated spamming. I wouldn't mind that here.
Back on topic. future2future, I noticed your crosspost on the gearpage forum. Just make sure you follow all steps and it shouldn't be any problem making good profiles. There are plenty of tutorials online and don't forget to download the full user manual pdf on the kemper home page + additional free rig packs. https://www.kemper-amps.com/downloads
Kemper Amps Profiling Demonstration Live on Air with John Huldt
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That's strange in the video. I can bend more than I need on my strats and they stay in tune with both locking and non-locking tuners. I very rarely have to tune the strings, mostly a slap on the trem arm fix the problem and they return to pitch.
Thanks for sharing Cederick. IMO the big benefit of locking tuners is how much quicker it is to change strings, but tuning stability is about the same as vintage non-locking tuners. Putting on the strings properly on non-locking vintage tuners using the self locking string wrap method is important, and also ofcourse having smooth filed string slots in the nut, properly stretched strings, and a smooth surface on the string saddles to avoid any extra friction.
Properly setup strings with Vintage non-locking tuners can stay in tune after hard abuse. See at 0.33 and 6.33 in this video.
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It's easy to see that "Profiling" has become a big buzzword after the kemper profiler was released and that its unique profiling proved to be a very successful innovation. Other companies want a pice of that cake and suddenly started to use the word "profiling" in their marketing of some products even though they don't offer any profiling at all. The buzzword marketing method is frequently used in all sorts of product markets because if enough number of consumers believe it, then the company makes a profit. One can argue that it's dishonest and misleading the consumers.
Here are some examples where "profiling" suddenly is used in marketing with products that don't offer profiling.
Axe fx 2: "We will soon have our own profiling" (it turned out just to be traditional eq matching, many users got confused and mislead) Bias amp: frequent use of the word "profiling" in marketing (it's traditional eq matching) Peavey Revalver 4: frequent use of the word "profiling" in marketing (seems like traditional eq matching) Sim1 xt-1: "profile" is used in marketing. Line 6 Helix: It offers no profiling or eq matching but the word profiling is used over 20 times in one of their early marketing videos. At the Line 6 hq; -So can we agree on using the popular word profiling ten times? - Wait! More than twenty times is much better. Done! I'm sure I've seen a few more products out there using similar marketing.
Hi to all, The frets on my guitar are starting to look sorry for themselves and l can see a refret on the horizon. So l thought I'd take the chance to ask all you good folks your opinions on stainless steel, or any other options out there. All and any input is greatly appreciated.
I haven't met anyone that doesn't love stainless steel frets on electric guitars. I refret all my electric guitars myself to ss frets (jumbo size) and it is totally worth the extra effort and cost. No longer a need for refretting after a few years, I see no wear at all after several years of daily playing with ss. Stainless steel is a big subject in itself meaning different things with hundreds of different properties and all ss frets are not alike or equally hard.
To me they do make a very slight "zing" when playing the electric guitars unplugged, but it's not noticeable at all when plugged in or recording. SS are hard to very hard so in order to save the life of my cutters I use a hacksaw to cut the ss as close as possible before installing, then take the last bit with files. Playing with unmarked and clean frets is a joy so I highly recommend refretting to ss.
Cederick it seems like something is causing you to be oversensitive to the lower freq. It can be many things. If you haven't tried it already I highly recommend to use a good common earwax cleaner (revaxör). Never ever put tops in the ear to clean, but use the safe liquid, rinse and repeat several times. I do it even when I don't experience any hearing loss and my hearing often improves afterward, with less low rumbling and more high end. Some get more earwax than others and I've noticed that using hearing noise plugs can push earwax further in sometimes resulting in low bass rumble.
Sorry, I can't record right now. I added this in my prev post: Try to pinpoint the exact annoying freq by using a tone generator and sweep through freq in your DAW.
I have listened to the clips and I hear the "boomy thunder" freq you mean but it doesn't bother me. To my knowledge we all hear things differently. Our hearing is not constant, we get used to sounds or start listening to specific freq without thinking about it. Hearing can change over time and it's never a linear curve which gives each person individual small dips or peaks. It's common that people can get over sensitive to certain freq, even if they don't have any documented hearing loss, and there can be many things that causes it, even a common cold, stress or medicine can influence our hearing in different ways. Try to pinpoint the annoying freq by using a tone generator and sweep through freq in your DAW.
+1 I'm a big Reaper fan (prev I've used PT, Cubase and Logic) and Kenny Gioia's free tutorial videos for Reaper are fantastic, highly recommended. Great for both beginners and very experienced users. Link http://www.cockos.com/reaper/videos.php
It can also be very useful to move the amp eq so it is before the amp. This is great for amps like fender. I think the kemper amp eq is by default set after the amp, so it can make a big difference setting it pre or post.
I'm sure that even if or when there will be a new kemper sometime several years from now with some new features it will still be back compatible and can play the exact same sounds from the profiles we users have created today. They designed their Access Virus series with longevity in mind. The first generation of the virus sythesizer is from 1997. Even the old models still get firmware updates and can be serviced. I don't know another product in this category that is so future proof. That is a big difference compared to Line6, Axe fx, Boss gear etc that drop the support for older products when a new model is released. Fractal releases new Axe fx products every 2-3 years dropping support for older gear. I also really like that the Kemper sound doesn't change after firmware updates like the Axe fx 2 that I have to spend time re-tweaking, not having a consistent tone each fw.
Here is info from a thread about the kempers long planned lifespan. "Why the Kemper is really future proof for at least the next 15 years"
Quote from C.Kemper.
"We have no plans or ideas to improve the core sound engine of the profiler in terms of getting closer to something. If we ever applied changes to that in the future, we will still make existing profiles and rigs sound the same. My plan is to let your profiles and rigs sound the same in 15 years, as you have created it today. No matter what hardware, software or firmware you run it on. Of course there will be improvements and paradigm shifts. But no technical innovation can algorithmically improve the sounds that you have created by 20% or whatsoever. If there is an innovation, you will have to add it to your sound by hand and in purpose."
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Above is a good quote from C.Kemper from the first page for those who didn't read the whole thread. I like that they have a good longevity plan, just like their Virus synth models.
