Posts by drew_fx

Another thing I'd like - audio interface built in. A proper 8x8 audio interface, without the utterly crap thesycon off the shelf driver. Team up with RME - that'd be sick!

Quote from Ruefus

Because the Kemper uses and entirely different technology that isn’t DSP intensive.

More DSP will not aid the sound of Profiles.

You simply don't know that.

Take oversampling for instance.

All parts of a digital system have a sample rate. Increase it, and you increase the fidelity. It's very helpful for filters, waveshaping and distortion, and oscillators.

Increase the oversampling of a part of a circuit (or at least parts that need it) and you change the final sound. You can see and hear this in software plugins a lot.

Quote from OneEng1

... and Apple mice didn't need more than one button right?

Reverb is one of the most DSP demanding tasks. Lets assume for a minute that it did work. My guess is that it would seriously sound like ass! So you want more processing in the KPA so you can do something that sounds really bad?

It made sense to enhance the KPA so a delay could be put in more than one slot, but IMO, the reverb is just silly anywhere but the end. YMMV.

Of course, there is a point here though. More processing SHOULD allow the engineering team at Kemper to create a better sounding device. They should have a better noise floor, lower latency, etc, etc, etc. I guess my question would be ..... would anyone be able to hear the difference? Since most can't hear the difference between the KPA and the original tube amp, I am guessing no.

In other words, trying to sell the KPA2 on the basis of "better, more accurate sound" is kinda silly. How much "better" do you imagine it can make a Fender Blackface sound? How much "better" can the reverb engine be made to sound? etc, etc. I believe that it isn't enough to shake a stick at.

I hear you guys, I just don't agree. I believe a KPA2 is going to have to be more flexible and have better features because in a blind listening test, I seriously doubt anyone is going to reliably pick out one from the other..... this is triply true for live gigging.

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I work for a company who puts touchscreens on everything. And they're extremely successful. I don't know why you'd bring up Apple mice, it's a complete non-sequitor and is a pointless comment.

As to your points....

1. Reverb is not inherently DSP demanding - units today have vastly more DSP at hand than the Lexicon rack units of yesteryear, and those Lexicons defined the very nature of what we all look for when it comes to reverb, broadly speaking. Those units managed to do magical things with very little processing power. Meaning, if you also do those things with very little processing power.... you can spend your left over processing power doing other things, or giving the user more variety of the things you do have.

2. Many post-rock, post-metal, and p&w guitarists use both delay and reverb into the front of their amplifiers; quite often a Fender Deluxe Reverb. Not everyone has the same rig or the same needs. Pretending otherwise is folly.

3. Point of fact, quite a few of the most loved tube combos have their reverb circuits before the preamp. It's only a particular convention (rooted in the 80's production aesthetic in my opinion) that means we tend to put reverb after gain stages; but you can put reverb anywhere. Just like you can put compressors and noise-gates anywhere.

4. Many people can hear the difference between the original amp and the profile; even Christophe can. He's said as much to me when we went down the rabbit hole together. It doesn't mean the Kemper is bad. It just means there is always room for improvement. Someone said earlier that Christophe has said there is no room for improvement, but I've never seen him say that once. I would love to see a quote.

5. More DSP wouldn't result in a lower noise floor. Noise floor is a product of circuitry and AD/DA conversion.

6. More DSP *probably* wouldn't lower latency; latency is primarily a product of circuitry as well. But there have been some superb advances in chips that could actually impact upon latency. It would totally depend on the implementation though.

7. More DSP could potentially give us:

• True seamless spillover for all FX slots across rig changes
• The ability to run more than one profile at once for superb dual rigs
• A faster and more efficient profiling algorithm that wouldn't require a refinement stage
• Higher internal oversampling for sections of the amplifier circuit, potentially resulting in more accurate profiling and a less fatiguing high-end
• More power to process more FX loops, meaning the next Kemper could potentially have a full complement of FX loops like the Helix does. Even two FX loops like the Boss GT-1000 wouldn't go amiss.
• It could also help with empowering the Kemper to be able to process midi signals much quicker; meaning instead of limiting us to just two midi commands per rig, we might be able to have a proper control matrix where we can control all of our external devices straight from the Kemper.

Point of fact - none of us actually know how much juice is left in the ol' girl. A lot of this stuff might be technically possible already, with a very small hit to the DSP pool. But that doesn't necessarily mean Kemper would do it. Perhaps they don't see the need for a lot of stuff that the users want, and the only way to get them to see the need is to talk about it.

The great thing about these sorts of threads is seeing people's imaginations at work. As a product owner in the music tech space, I love seeing it. It not only gives me ideas, but it helps validate previous ideas. I like seeing people fantasize about the possibilities.

Quote from Ruefus

No it wouldn’t. You basically need two complete Profilers to support two amps.

As for keeping Up with the Joneses. Kempers history pretty much says they couldn’t care less from that perspective.

10+ years with the exact same hardware? They simply don’t care what the others are doing. If it isn’t innovative….they aren’t interested.

And at this point in time, Kemper are not innovating. iPad apps and terrible sounding double-tracking algorithms? HAHAHAHA!

Quote from skoczy

Like you had Kemper in 2011, next you had powered Kemper, Kemper Rack and few years later you had Kemper Stage, but this is almost the same device. This company is not kind of, which gives you the best gear now, but two years later suddenly you can buy the newest, the best, groundbreaking and best forever. Until next version in two years.

Not a fair comparison. If you knew the Virus synths you would know that features and improvements and oscillators and filters and all sorts have been added over the years.

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.

Quote from lightbox

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.

Quote from BayouTexan

Paid reviews... very trustworthy.

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.

Quote from skoczy

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.

Still want this....

I would want:

More DSP for a longer signal chain.

Faster rig switching time.

Complete spillover/trails support for all FX slots - the Kemper is the ONLY unit on the market where you lose trails when putting delay and reverb before the amplifier.

More sensible controller logic - the fixed pedal selectors just makes no sense to me. Make everything freely assignable like the Helix.

More accurate profiling - it just struggles with some amps, and the differences are very clear in a/b scenarios when this happens.

Add a 4-way knob that can act as a scroller and a up/down/left/right selector. Works brilliantly on the Helix and avoids the need for more physical controls.

A floor unit and a rack/desktop unit.

A bigger display, higher resolution, full colour, nicer graphics.

A proper signal chain display where you can navigate through the unit and control all of your blocks - avoid having dedicated soft button selectors for FX blocks

Get rid of the antique sci-fi aesthetic!!

Run more than 1 profile at once.

Make the differences between studio profiles, DI profiles, and merged profiles, way more obvious.

Give me snapshots within a rig as well.

Morphing between rigs!

UI/UX stuff:

I hate all of the long press/hold to achieve a different result stuff - it isn't intuitive and slows everything down inherently. Just give me different modes or a button to cycle between different views.

Easier rig naming - yes I know you can connect a QWERTY keyboard.

If I have an effect loaded into a block.... can you just let me browse the presets FOR THAT EFFECT!! Don't even allow the possibility that my stupid fingers could accidentally switch the effect to a different one. The two column browser approach where everything is combined really sucks when you only have one knob to use.

No longer for sale. Gonna keep it a while longer!

No longer for sale. Gonna keep it a while longer!

What kind of cab are you plugging into on stage and what Ohmage is it rated at??

I notice when using my Seymour Duncan Powerstage 200, that if I use a 16ohm cab, the volume is a lot quieter on stage than when I use a 4ohm cab.

Quote from nightlight

Some of your older posts were of a totally different tenor though. I get it, new gear, but it always pays to be objective about these things even if you spend money on it. Otherwise you'll be fuelling the hype machine that goes along with some of these products.

Not trying to point a finger, just glad you came clean after you had spent more time with the new toy!

Hope your back isn't hurting too much fella!

Well in the end, the QC didn't stick.

Very good device. Very good tones. But it doesn't trounce everything out there. It's just another option we all have, that's it. But for me, in the end, I didn't really find it sounded that much closer to the real amps, although I do like how easy and simple it was to capture an amp. I'd love to see the Kemper get rid of the refinement stage altogether (I've never been able to make a profile without using it).

QC has a long way to go when it comes to usability and functionality though. Simple things like using it in 4-cable-method with a valve amp, and controlling the channels via midi.... they've just not got that side of things licked.

Nor has Kemper to be fair, but Kemper never claimed to be a monster unit that could do everything. It captures amps. It gives you some effects to use with those captures. End.

In a way, the QC gave me more of an appreciation for my Kemper. Because time and time again I'd shoot them out against one another, and it was a coin-toss as to whether I preferred one or the other. I'm capable of hearing differences in a blind test between both units and the real amp. But when I come to any of the three options (Kemper, QC, real amp) and just play guitar.... I couldn't tell you that any of them was actually better to play than any of the others. They're all good. *shrug*

Did anyone else get a QC and end up not bonding with it?

I have the Kemper, Quad Cortex, and Helix. I also have 5 100-watt beastly valve amps, and pretty much every desktop amp-sim on the market.

When I first got the Quad Cortex, I was blown away by the capture functionality. Many posts on here where I've said it sounded better than the Kemper - statements that even cost me my spot on the beta team - but after owning them side-by-side for a while, I'm less sure of my earlier comments.

The Quad Cortex is good, but it's accuracy is just as far from the source amp as the Kemper can sometimes be. To pull a figure out of my butt, it's a 5% difference on both units that you have to learn to accept. Actually owning another "profiling" platform has helped me to accept the differences between the real amp and the Kemper and QC. I'm a bit less anal about it now.

I had some discussions with ckemper via email about this, and he heard what I identified and we both agreed that it was slight. I've not had time to follow up with his last request to profile the QC, sorry about that Christophe!

I did a brief info-graphic to show how I compare these units, and how I feel about them individually. It might help someone.

[Blocked Image: https://i.imgur.com/CbxhBGp.png]

Anyway, the Kemper sounds brilliant. The Quad Cortex sounds brilliant. Each of them have workflow foibles. All of these units do I suppose. I'm done splitting hairs about accuracy of profiling/capturing for now. I'm more interested in workflow things.

Areas of concern for me:

- Being able to smoothly transition from a clean+delay+reverb tone to a high-gain tone, but here is the key thing - with my delay and reverb effects before the preamp - because that's how I roll. It's very common in the genres I like to put all of the effects up front.

- So given the above point, having spillover for the ABCD slots. It's pretty critical for me. Basically for the Kemper, I have to run a dedicated delay and reverb pedal in front of the unit, to be able to get the behaviour that I want. Which means the stellar effects in the box are no good to me.

- Being able to see the names of rigs/scenes/presets on a stage when I'm not wearing my glasses - I have astigmatism (stretchy eyeballs!) which means my vision is blurry when I'm not wearing glasses. I can't read the Helix scribble strips on stage, and I can't read the Kemper Remote screen very well either. But I can just about read the Quad Cortex's 'scene labels' panel. I think it's to do with the colours and resolution.

- Pitch whammy behaviour - I've not tried this yet, but I assume I could move the pitch whammy pedal up and down using the Kemper morph controls. What I tend to do is set the pitch effect to be 30% mix, so that I can whammy in an atonal siren in the background of ebow parts.

Things I'd want for a Kemper 2.0:

- Scenes mode.

- Full spillover capabilities.

- Routing flexibility (parallel chains for example)

- More morph controllers that you can assign to expression pedals

- More FX slots

- Run more than one profile at a time

- Better legibility on the floor controller

- Less deliberately retro UI + UX

- 4-cable-method support, so you can use it just as an effects unit. Would need true unity gain possibilites and all that jazz.

Sorry... I went on a bit of a tangent there. But yes, there is heavy competition now. No company can afford to rest on their Laurel & Hardy's.

Quote from creative360

Kemper has had great customer service since day one, if you used the proper channels. I don’t know how “personal“ it was, but any question that I ever had was answered quickly.

I actually appreciated all those years when CK himself was scarce to nonexistent on the forums, here and on TGP. There’s something cloying about the owner of a business getting in his customers’ faces, rather than allowing them the freedom to express themselves, whether it’s to share positive experiences or frustrations.

But the fact is, so many bits of misinformation about this device have been shared on such a regular basis, over so many years, and I guess it finally reached a bit of critical mass with the rabid fan base of an announced device that purported to do CK’s magic better than the original. Of course that’s at best debatable, but I can understand him becoming a bigger part of the conversation at this point.

I don't know about all that really. Christophe has been in and out of forums since the unit released, helping people, correcting misinformation, guiding people. I don't think the QC has caused any more or less misinformation or opinionation.... er... that's not a word, but you know what I mean.

I think I said it before, but in the last 10 years there has been some very impressive advances in machine learning, deep learning, and music-information-retrieval technology.

If accuracy is the goal, you would certainly look at modern techniques and tools such as the variational auto-encoder. Here's a good video that gives a nice explanation:

Here's another one:

I've been experimenting with neural networks in recent months using Tensorflow and the Python programming language.

Once you know a little bit about this stuff and when you look at technology used in software like Izotope's Neutron and Ozone.... you can start to see problems all over the place that you could address with some neural networks and a few data sets.

Quote from Awesome_Elvis

Back on topic slightly off topic update:

I got the cortex with full intention of giving the guitar oriented piece of gear "the business" but on the side and not so secret, my mind was thinking i could have 32 effects blocks (no cabs, amp models or minimal captures plus or minus SOME reverbs) to use for my synths, and now I feel kinda dumb (much like a guitarist and drummer combined lmao) for thinking I could run that much modulation and effects ( maybe I can in the future) and not run into dsp limits.

Still neat even that being the case.

They've got a firmware updating coming that improves DSP usage. So you will be able to use more in the future for sure.

Quote from Alfahdj

Good luck having these kind of support from any other company on the industry

I simply love how the kemper team is so close and personal in their attention to detail and care to the community. Let us know how the collaboration ends up

I mean... I offer the same level of support to all of our customers

Big part of my job is making sure our customers are happy. And I encourage them to give me all feedback about our products, good and bad, so we can make decisions based on all of that input. I've got stacks of user research that helps me to decide where we go with our product line up. Exciting times!

Quote from Atlantic

Hey, I have to say that I have even closer and personal attention from the Diezel people. It is true that Diezel is an smaller company with less people and smaller numbers, but hey it´s not only Kemper doing things right.

I mean... I had a small problem with my amp and Peter Diezel called me, to my phone, to solve the problem ASAP.

Diezel are amazing. I've had emails with Peter myself. He sent me a replacement midi eprom chip for my VH4 completely free of charge. He's an absolute diamond.