Posts by greenblob

Back in high school all my mates surfed (really well too.. jerks ) and I kinda spent more time trying to not drown than carving graceful washes in the setting sun while out there.

Option two was to kick back on the beach, and chill with the the pretty ladies in the long warm Australian evenings.. Yeah, i thought that sounded like a pretty good gig . Some time that summer I acquired a beat up old acoustic, strung it lefty and became a beach guitarist .. a really terrible cliche one.. but a guitarist none the less. haha.. and just never put it back down.

First riff ever learnt.. intro to "One" by Metallica. Not the whole thing mind, just those 3 notes.. and I was hooked..

Welcome back @Geraldo7

I'm not sure what the Guitar Summit event is, but it sounds cool. Can you explain a little?

Nice to see one of the early guys back on the scene. You and I did alot of tips on the Midiraider and Allaccess programming troubles pre KPA Remote days. Good to have you back mate!

Only last year I made the decision to leave my hard earned and enjoyable "real" career (electrical engineer in Mining) to finally focus on music full time. Took 20 years for it to become a viable full time job. I'm 39 btw. With my engineering career I juggled long hours, international travel, crazy swing shifts, constant calls out if hrs, etc but always still did music... .somehow. I guess my biggest tips would be:

- Pay a few bucks for a decent phone recording app. No necessarily a complex multitrack thing, just an app that records well from the mic, can be started in a second or two, has auto gain control, and has a email/share function. Much of the day while doing electrical nerd stuff/in meetings/driving/travelling,. etc etc.. like most of us - I was still thinking music. Any ideas that pops into your head, Speak/hum/tap/sing/explain them. Do whatever to you need to capture them and the vibe on the phone. Crazy how many snippits you can collect over just a week or two of doing this... i found that before making a habit of this I'd bastardize/overthink the idea when I finally got in front of a PC.

- For home recording writing... I always got the most done by getting up an hour early on a day off and hitting the DAW with the aim of getting a solid goal in mind. Never really felt like it at that hour tbh, but it was the most productive DAW time ever. Import the specific phone ideas/snippets for reference and aim to lay down just to get enough tracks I'm that cement the idea. Stay the hell away from plugins in this hour unless critical. Massive time suck and you are not mixing the song yet. The ease of the Kemper was a game changer for me doing this. After 3 or 4 weeks (8 or 10 scratch songs) it'll be obvious which ideas you should persue.

Could type more.. but most other stuff has been covered.

Cool thread.

I just set the Input global gate so there is no noise coming from the guitar when strings are muted (git volume on 10 and normally on the bridge pickup). Effect slot gate added as needed on a rig by rig basis depending on what drives/fuzz's are in the slots ahead.

Works like a charm. Really, I only ever feel the need to adjust the input gate when changing between extreme different guitars (like switching from an overwround HB equipped guitar, to a low output single coil player).

Glad there is a big dedicated knob for it. Good thinking from Kemper imo. As it's so accessible it only takes 2 seconds to trim out any locally induced pickup noise, and you're good to go without having to touch any deeper profile settings to deal with the environment.

had a few days now with the Freqout and to answer my own questions above..

- does it power back up in its last state? Sadly no. It boots up in the "effect bypassed" state.

- can it be set "always on" and sound natural when changing profies from clean to gain? -Nope, but tbh I kinda expected this to be the case. The work around is to simply to have it in the kpa loop and only have the loop on for the profiles where it suits (mostly gainier leads in my case).

So not perfect for me, but still a seriously cool effect and it now lives in the Kemper loop in the rack. Had a 3+ year run of running just Kemper and Remote for my live rig (no other pedals at all), but I think the Freqout succeeds in generating pretty convincing response and raw coolness to the silent stage IEM gigs and headphone practice sessions.

Really hoping something like this makes an appearance as an onboard KPA effect one day!

For sure. I totally agree the digitech implementation is totally a synthetic effect, (at a guess its basically a tailored Pog/Whammy), but my thought was maybe Kemper could implement a similar, but much better performing style of this with all the extra information the KPA has at any given moment (Input signal, specific profile gain, boost/distortion in the effects blocks, cabinet response in use, compression, sag settings, etc etc etc).

I feel they have alot ov the information to make a genuinely convincing cab and guitar interaction sim and imo, it would elevate the already amazing KPA to an even higher level.

Everything on the Kemper is a sim of some kind, so I just think something like the Freqout onboard could make it even better!

Bought one of these and should get it tomorrow. A couple of question for you guys using with a KPA.

• I'm hoping I can stuff the Freqout in the Kemper rack and never have to touch it. If you have the Freqouts footswitch set in latching mode (automode on the pedal), and it is engaged when you remove power, does it powerback up engaged? (would I have to remember to reach in the rack and turn it back on every time I apply power to the rack?)
• Can it be set to act naturally? Almost all the demos are way over the top. Im hopin it can be set to be always on in "automode" and only respond to higher gain sounds (like a how feedback in front of a gained up amp/cab lead channel is much more err "generatable" than with a clean channel of same volume. Can it do this untouched while I change profiles from clean to dirty?

Excited to see if this can add a bit of missing lively dynamic to our live guitar sound as we all use in ears with no stage cabs or wedge monitoring - so any lively harmonic amp to guitar interaction is impossible and can make it all sound a bit stale when you're really rockin'!

thanks!

An onboard effect like the Freqout would really be a huge leap forward in making the KPA a true all encompassing amp/cab replacement (I just bought one and will receive in the next few days).

Now I think about it, maybe it shouldnt be thought of as an "effect" for the Kemper, but as more of a core amp/cab/guitar interaction that Kemper has been missing. The phenomenal amp profiling feature of the KPA was game changing, but imo the addition of a feedback feature similar to what the Freqout does would truly make it the perfect no cab solution for both direct recording and live work.

Using inears without stage monitoring - I definitely miss the cab/guitar interaction and this could be the solution. Excited to have a play with it!

Quote from ashtweth

That video took me back to 12 years ago when i use to take a small amp and a car battery into the Brisbane street Mall and play 100% slayer covers...

haha. Yeah, a Brissy daytime mall could be a tough crowd for Thrash tunes. Haha. Not sure I'd have the balls to even try that!

I know a fair few commercial studio engineers and most of them have equipped their racks with Kempers over the Axe the last few years.

Havnt quizzed them all why they chose the KPA specifically, but I know one them did it as he simply wanted steallar amp tones as quickly as possible (for the times the available in house real amps wernt what was needed). Also, if some pushy bugger was hung up on an amp brand name and insisted that's the only amp tone that would work (haha.. love those guys ), he could almost instantly download a well balanced commercial capture of that amp, avoid an artist hissy fit and move on.

He also loved how honestly the KPA responded to all the crazy ass and varied pedal boards people bring in. I hadn't considered that side of it tbh, but it's a solid point.

Imo, the super deep (excessively deep?) tweakability of everything onboard the Axe is a slippery slope for recording. Some see it as a huge benefit, and others (like me) see it as a bit of a productivity killer. Especially when imo the goal is simply to get great suitable guitar/amp tone into a project. I love watching the face of testosterone filled guitarists as their obsessivly tweaked, all encompassing satan summoning huge guitar tone is neutered as the engineer cuts a chunk of the low end to fit in the mix and actually sound good

Plenty of Kempers in studios banging out cool stuff. I dig the Axe too, but the KPA does absolutly everything I need both when recording at home and playing live - quickly and easily.

@sambrox Damn mate. Those Megadeth tones are nailed! Your fast picking technique is waaaay better than mine. My wrist just locks up when I'm out of my comfort zone, so the whole arm has to get involved to make anything happen

Kind of forgot how much fun thrash stuff was to play though. A cool little experement.

I had 2 Kempers for several months. My first was a "Toaster" KPA that I initially just bought for home recording, but then like it so much I wanted to use one with the band, so after biting the financial bullet, picked up a rack KPA as well thinking it would be a more robust setup for constant live gigs. For me it was the right call.

After a few months it was obvious the rack KPA (in a shallow SKB Roto case) was a better fit for me all round. Even in the rack, it is light, easy to throw in vehicles etc, and really no hassle to move around at all. Overall was just more convenient for me in every way. I sold the toaster and now just take the rack one home when I need it. Keeping both seemed totally pointless.

I never did try running both at one in Stereo though. Shamefully.... that setup never even occurred to me Would have been fun to screw with!

Saw Slayer the other night on their final tour and it got me thinking... Those dudes are pretty damn old and the riffs are still super sharp. I wonder how much specific stamina you need be able to play that stuff? Kerry King aint no spring chicken, but he still totally "slays" it... ( quality pun). I play a lot, but it's very far from a metal/thrash style nowdays. So.. What would happen Would my arm literally fall off? To try it I had a crack at quickly learning rhythm parts for War Ensemble. Bonkers cool tune.

Grabbed a suitably thrashy KPA profile (love this little green box!), found a guitarless YT backing track, and it was off to the races.

Spoiler.... I didn't make it. Forearm was kinda jelly when it all fell apart. Respect to the old thrashers!

Been getting back into Cog recently - and loving it.

Quote from 69 Z28

Is there an amateur radio operator nearby that could be running hundreds of watts of RF power? I am one and in the past occasionally when I transmitted some of the computer-based digital modes, my television would receive them and make strange sounds. I have never had this happen before with my Kemper or any of my tube amps.

Good luck and I hope you quickly find the source your problem.

A close by high power RF transmitter could do something similar to a poorly shielded cable, but the solid constant tone he describes sounds really odd for anyone to be transmitting? Even a compounded set of signals would vary somewhat? From my elec engineering days I met a few hardcore active "radio enthusiasts" and from that pool, more were "a little out there" than not with their experiments, so anything is possible I guess

Interested if the OP has tried different cables and lengths. This should be the first quick and easy troubleshooting step to avoid going down the wrong rabbit hole.

Would love to know the cause when he identifies it.

damn... Interesting problem. If it does it with guitar unplugged and just a cable plugged into the amp, that's really bizarre.

The sound you describe is way too high to be mains freq related, and too stable to be typical radio interference. Even neon signs or directly next to a gained up amp with an open input (cable plugged into amp but no guitar plugged in on other end) won't typically create noise anywhere near 4khz. Does the sound change in pitch or volume at all if you just have the cable plugged into the amp (no guitar) and you swing the free end around a bit? How about a short pedal patch cable? Same noise? How about nothing plugged into the amp? Can you make it do it then?

If possible a quick and dirty yt video showing the sound and how its triggered (with both the kpa and other amp) would be super helpful? A pain to do I know, but knowing what the noise actually sounds like will give everyone here a much better chance to help find the cause.

I love electrical puzzles - but this is a strange one for sure!

IMO it comes down to 5 things as both units sound and feel amazing.

- Which user interface do you prefer?

- How are you going to control it? Which pedal board do you think you'd prefer?

- Will you ever need to use a real cab with it? If so, the KPA onboard poweramp option is super handy (has gotten me out of a bind a few times!)

- How much do you want to spend? What's the availability? There is a substantial price difference, especially when imo both achieve the same thing. If gigging, the replacement cost/wait time if things get damaged/stolen is worth considering also.

- do you use a PC often and willing to tinker? The Fractal PC editor is pretty damn sweet but imo, it needs to be. There are so many options you can screw with - it's almost a requirement to efficiently tweak the AXE (I know some will disagree though ). I'd bet a genuine Kemper PC editor will happen at some point too, so maybe not such a big choice factor long term, but worth noting.

I've had house guys say they prefer a real amp to mic up as it reduces the risk of the player switching to a totally different amp/patch that they aren't expecting and have to dive for the channel eq's. I can see their point (although obviously you could force a similar situation with traditional amp being pushed by switched pedals). Apart from that, imo sound guys have been overwhelmingly positive for digital gear.

As far as other musicians, during standard stage setup chats its seeme about a 50/50 split of "want one" and "I flat out refuse to ever consider going digital - I need my amp".

No doubt in the coming years that percentage will swing slightly more to digitals side.

oh. and another +1 for the Focusrite Scarlett. Get the one with the amount of channels you will actually use, and go for it.

Quote from 808illest

Reaper for $60 bones is awesome, but the evaluation copy will work for 60 days until you are ready to pull the trigger and purchase it.

I believe you can still use the legit full featured "free trial version" of Reaper after the 60 days (for ever). You used to just close the single popup that opens when program launches, and you're off to the races. Was more of a laid back prompt than a demand Would love to know if this is still the case?

As far as software goes, IMO Reaper is the bomb for recording. Have multiple other DAWs but Reaper is the one I recommend. Its crazy small to download (less than 20mb currently), super super stable, easily skinable to both look and act much like any other DAW (why have one when you can basically have them all?), well suppoted (several updates a year with new features people have requested - much like our Kemper coding friends!) and imo, easier to instantly use (in default config) than most "studio" Daw's. As easy to get pro results on Reaper as any other DAW as all of them are basically just a user interface to manipulate audio files. Oh, it can do video too with a simple download.

I paid for Protools a few years back (spendy!) to prep tracks with the inbuilt plugins as almost all studios were using that exclusively at the time, and it was fine to record and interact with, but nowdays I don't even load it. The old squillion dollar PT iLok just sits in a drawer currently.

Really, imo Reapers only weakness is the lack of super fancy onboard plugins, and this can be an issue for many, but all the basics are included and a great way to learn what settings actually do with out just mashing through pretty skinned presets (oh, plugins and vsts are like Kpa profiles btw. Collecting them can become stupidly addictive. Fun to tinker with, but can quickly kill your productivity )

All that said.. if you have Garage Band, give that a spin for sure. Have friend who do demos on that and its seems very 7ser friendly. Recording is super accesable nowdays and a cool adventure to get into.

Hit record, and play. You can't lose.