Posts by Myramyd

You can also try a very short, single-repeat delay (between 10-100ms). Or add the Micropitch effect post-amp with less extreme settings. Or a combination of both. They need to be after the amp to create the slight doubling effect.

Those are tricks you will see a lot of high-gain metal types using in their live rigs from the 1980's through today. For example, John Petrucci of Dream Theater adds a 7-10ms delay and Eddie Van Halen has around a 25-50ms delay. They will often use that in stereo and one side will be longer than the other so, although it works okay in mono it's better with a stereo setup.

J

I use Performance Autoload and like others have mentioned, I use Slot 1 as the "main" and/or starting tone of the song so it's been very very helpful for me to have this feature since I'm usually ending the previous song on another slot.

I usually use Slot 1 as the main, Slot 5 for solos/leads and the ones in between for special parts of the songs.

I also strongly prefer for it to automatically go to the next Performance when clicking the Up button (one click instead of two) since I'm used to that.

Now if it were just easier to arrange performances in order of our set lists without clicking the Perf. Up/Down buttons 3000 times...

J

My vote is for:

Up Down I II III IIII
1 2 3 4 5 Tap

It makes more logical sense--I've had every controller imaginable and I like this layout much better.

I also like having the effects switches right-aligned instead of left. Mainly because I'm right-footed and find it harder to reach my foot all the way up and to the right to hit the effect switches on my FCB1010. The bottom row doesn't matter as much since you don't have to raise your foot in the air as much to get to them. Although some people are griping about it, it actually would be MORE user/foot friendly to me!

The Up/Down or Down/Up order is less important but since I use Performance Mode extensively (one per song so I have 64 performances), I only use the Up button during a gig. Having it all the way to the left makes it easier to hit for me. My brain is pretty flexible compared to some of the "caveman" guitarists I've known though!!!

No matter what I'm a million percent excited for this controller!
J

Hey, sorry for the delay--got a little busy at work!

Here are my settings. YMMV of course.

Micro Pitch (post amp)
Detune - 5.2
Crossover - 20.6kHz (off--adjust to taste if flabby low end needs to be reduced)
Mix - 50%
Ducking - 0.0
Volume - +1.2 (to compensate for the effect having reduced the overall volume--should be close to unity between effect on/off)

It also enhances the effect to also use a strong slap delay afterwards. I have that on all of my presets with Micro Pitch since they used that a lot back in the '80's as well.

For that I use Free Delay
Mix - 50%
Time - 94ms
Ratio - 4:4
Feedback - 11%
Adjust the rest to taste.

Hope that helps give you a starting point. I found it a pain to carry around extra pedals and using the FX loop will slightly degrade your tone unless you use high quality cables and buffers--even then it's not always 100% the same. I also didn't like carrying $900 worth of Eventide pedals (TimeFactor and PitchFactor) to gigs as awesome as they are. Just too much hassle when now all I need is a KPA and FCB1010 and I'm set. The KPA effects are high quality but not as much mojo as the Eventide but they are not all that far off if you tweak them right. I would actually say the KPA Pitch effects are better than the Eventide at harmonies and detuning and the ability to play polyphonic notes and chords, which the Eventide does not do well at. About the only thing the Eventide does better is having delayed pitch so you can do Steve Vai-type stuff. But that's not always practical other than having fun by yourself.

I will say that the Eventide delays are a lot better and there is more you can do with them. I miss my TimeFactor quite a bit. The KPA delays are just "there" and sound good but have no mojo or life to them. They are really just like an excellent digital delay with the ability to apply a filter to make them sound slightly more analog-like. The KPA delays remind me of the old TC Electronic units.

J

I will get it hooked up and let you know--it's in my live rack rig. I always run the Micropitch post amp since that is how they did it back in the day. It doesn't sound good before amp unless it's a clean tone.

Also, I run my KPA in stereo and while it's not critical it does make the Micropitch sound much cooler. I have used the same settings in mono previously.

I'll get back with you all later tonight on my settings if I can.

J

The KPA has an effect called Micro Pitch which is the same thing. I have an Eventide Pitchfactor which also has the Micropitch and from what I recall the settings I used on the KPA were a little different than what you might expect to achieve the same thing. The Detune and Mix controls are somewhat critical to get the same sound.

I would have to pull up my KPA settings but I seem to recall the mix needs to be below 50% to sound right where on the Eventide it needed to be more towards 100% and the detune needs to be pretty shallow depending on the effect you are going for.

But I use it in a cover band for several '80's hard rock tunes and it gets very close or identical to the Pitchfactor, the Eventide was just easier to dial in. If you want my exact KPA settings I can pull those up for you. I matched the "default" Micropitch preset on my Pitchfactor which is probably the same as the H9 since they use the same processor.

J

I use them as well--I don't think I will ever go back. Not only can you hear yourself and everyone else clearly at nearly all times, it also potentially saves you from hearing damage (provided you don't crank them). I no longer have ringing in my ears after gigs. Also for longer gigs, you can actually get physically fatigued by loud volumes so it allows you to perform longer. Just less wear and tear all around on your ears and body.

I run my KPA in stereo so I expand on what BobbyKa said. I use a small Yamaha mixer mounted in my rack where I can mix my guitar level (stereo) and FOH level (mono--which doesn't have any guitar) on the fly. We are also lucky in that we run a Presonus StudioLive mixer and I have full control over all band members in my monitor mix via an iPad mounted to my mic stand. It's the ultimate in onstage monitoring. I feel very spoiled!

But even in unfamiliar situations with lousy sound guys I have them give me a mix of everything but guitar and I can always hear myself perfectly.

I just got tired of hearing nothing but REALLY LOUD lead vocals (tooth-rattling levels) all night everywhere we played and since I moved to this IEM and mixer setup I never have an issue except when our drummer refuses to mic himself at smaller venues (which I always argue against) so those nights I can't hear him at all.

J

Just a quick update--I've been gigging a bunch the last few months and this issue has just gotten worse. It's nearly impossible to arrange performances now since it will just show nothing but duplicates when I try to move them up and down. So, on the Arrange Perfs. screen it will show:

Song1
Song2
Song2
Song2
Song2

Even though it's actually:

Song1
Song2
Song3
Song4
Song5

It makes it very difficult to arrange them in order, especially when you have 10 minutes until showtime, which is usually the case for me.

Should I just submit a backup to support or what? I'm open to any thoughts/ideas. Getting frustrated but we don't have a another gig for a few weeks so I can work on whatever fixes are available now. Maybe updating to 2.5 Beta is worth a try?

J

Hello,

I installed 2.4.2 release version last week (never used the beta version) and while at a gig I sorted my performances' order and kept getting the same bug. Here is a description:

- Clicked on Arrange Perf.
- Started on Performance #1, clicking the down arrow to go to another performance results in some of the other performances randomly changing spots and names.

Here is how it looked (I name all of the performances by song).

Before trying to sort:

Song1
Song2
Song3
Song4
Song5

After clicking the down arrow around 2-3 clicks down (no other changes):

Song1
Song2
Song2
Song4
Song5

Song3 jumps down to where Song10 is located. Song2 is NOT actually duplicated when you Exit out but, Song3 has jumped way down the list order randomly. Other times Song2 would do it, etc. The only way to fix it was to click Exit, then Arrange Perf. again, then click the down arrow down around 10-20 clicks and sort everything upwards, so move Song10 up to the Song3 slot. If you try to move Song3 to Song10 it will do the above again.

I managed to get it all sorted eventually but it took around 3 times longer (we play about 40 songs per night). Really wish we had a computer tool to arrange performances. I'm sure I will wear out the Move Up and Move Down buttons very soon doing this every weekend! I probably click those buttons around 200-300 times a week.

Hopefully I explained that well. My rig is at the venue until July 5th so I don't have access to the backup files at the moment.

Just thought I would see if anyone else experienced this. It's never happened before. Been a user since Nov 2012.

Thanks,
J

The FCB1010 is not 100% reliable. The footswitches don't always respond as needed. I would like to have the KFC as soon as possible. The FCB is a workable solution but, it's not up to the professional level of the rest of the gear I use on stage. At this point I wouldn't want to shell out for something more expensive and better built knowing the KFC is out there. If it's another year out I'm not sure what I will do. Time is money and I think the lack of dedicated, integrated, reliable foot control is a major downside to the KPA platform. Hopefully it can be ready to ship for Q3 or Q4 of this year. I think it would bring on a lot more people that have been on the fence about moving over to the KPA so, it's important from an overall sales standpoint for the company.

J

I have the head version and usually wish I had the rack version just so it would take up a little less space and weight. I have mine attached to a rack shelf and the shelf adds quite a bit of weight in addition to the whole thing taking up 5U of rack space. The rack version wasn't available when I got mine.

But, I can say that the KPA is worth any inconvenience.

I am VERY picky when it comes to guitar tones and I can't see myself using anything else. I actually think it sounds better than a real amp. Why? Because a real amp is very hard to get consistent and unless you are blessed to be on a large stage where you can actually turn the amp up to the volume needed for good tone, any real amp in a live situation will have to be reduced to a point where it doesn't sound ideal anyway. I don't think any sound man ever let me turn my Marshall up past 2.5, where it sounded best around 6 (which is head-exploding loud).

No other amp "simulator" is even close in my opinion--and I've tried them all.

J

My Boss, Digitech, Roland, Lexicon, and Line 6 (even my old Zoom) multi-FX processors all do a decent job at Spring Reverb. Those don't exactly have huge amounts of DSP at their disposal so, I don't see why not. Springs are not typically as long or as dense as a Hall reverb which the KPA already has. From what I understand it's more the length of time the verb has than the complexity that eats DSP. I could be wrong.

J

+1000!

The Matchbox reverb just doesn't make it there. I know they could create an excellent version of one. If I wasn't using the FX loop to input other sound sources I would have an external reverb just for spring!

J

Coming from various modelers and real amps, the KPA does an AMAZING job at keeping the same relative volume across all profiles. Key word there is relative, if you know the physics of clean sounds vs. distorted.

Having said that, you will notice most of the TAF profiles have an added dB boost that you need to turn off before using and some of the random profiles found on the Rig Exchange have not been properly set up. But, overall, if you use the Factory Rigs and TAF rigs with the post-amp EQ boost turned off, you can adjust the rest to match those. I use the said post-amp EQ slot to adjust by a few dB where needed. I use around 50-60 profiles in a night and maybe 3 of those required volume adjustments.

As Ingolf said, if you read the manual and other tips this should not be an issue at all with the KPA IMHO. The FOH guys love me for that reason.

J

I'm wondering if it will have the ability to sort the Performance slots? That would save me around an hour or two a week!

I don't see anything mentioned regarding that but, clicking the panel around 1000 times to rearrange my set lists is eventually going to break the buttons.

I love being able to have my songs in order for the night and just go up one slot to get to the next song. We play around 50-60 songs a night and the set lists are never the same so, it would be a huge time saver to have the manager change that order with a mouse drag.

Keeping fingers crossed but, I don't see anything in the description or screen shot suggesting it will have that function.

J

Quote from Blackbird

Why do you even post here? Everything you type seems like a whiny child. Grow up.

You and Myramyd have an extremely distorted perception of how programming works and the effort required. If it was so easy to grab some Red Bull and make a rig manager why didn't you do so? It would have been extremely lucrative. But of course, you haven't the slightest clue about developing applications, you just like to criticize as if you did.

To all of the longtime members here who have supported the KPA from the beginning, sorry for the rant. But this thread should be exciting and fun instead of all the bashing from the children. Thanks KPA team for releasing this. I have plenty of ways to run this on my mac. Can't wait to see what you guys release next!

First off, one of the things I have enjoyed about this forum is that people don't typically resort to being jerks and name-calling like on other forums. I don't feel that anything I said deserves that kind of negativity.

Second, I was exaggerating/being sarcastic. I am actually a front-end programmer and software project manager in my day job. So, yes, I DO actually know what it takes. I agree with previous posters that with a small team it should realistically take around 1-3 months to create from scratch. But, I have seen programmers get 90% there in a weekend. Given this is proprietary hardware and software interfacing I will accept that it takes some time to work out all the bugs. However, any project I have been involved in is mandatory cross-platform from day one and we do not release until both are ready. Usually they are within a few weeks of each other. If that is the case here then there is no warrant for complaint. But, if it is months out, then I think we have a point in raising the question.

There is a very large demographic of musicians and producers who use the Mac platform exclusively. In my night job, I am one of those people. Playing in bands where we have 50-60 songs to cover each weekend with new set lists, do you have any idea how much time it has taken me in the last year and a half to program in performances using the front panel? How about in a studio situation where you know you want a certain sound but spend around an hour trying to find it, given you have to flip through 900 profiles one at a time with a knob? Knowing that my Line 6 POD 2.0 twelve years ago had software for this purpose has made it a tough pill to swallow. If I was some dude hanging around jamming in my basement then I would have no right to raise the issue but, as a semi-professional (one quarter of my income came from music last year), this has been a huge time drag for me. If I didn't love the hardware so much I would have bailed a long time ago on it.

Yes, the Kemper is fantastic and I would not use anything else. If it continues to exist I can't see myself going back to real amps or any other modeler in the foreseeable future. But, I do think they need to take into account that a lot of us are power users that need this tool to make our workflow more efficient. I'm not sure I can stomach spending $ on Windows OS just to run this but, if I know for sure that it is months out then I may have to find a workaround, which is not ideal for many of us.

Don't assume you know my situation or casually impart that I have no idea what I'm talking about. Let's keep this discussion civil and hope for an optimistic timeline on the Mac version.

J

http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=1379372

There are so many cross-platform programming languages and frameworks available in this day and age that it's highly unusual. If they are a month apart that is fine but, in the computer music world, usually things are Mac-based first then the Windows version comes later (take most professional level audio interfaces for example).

A hyperactive programmer with a good dose of Red Bull can knock out a simple editor/librarian in one or two nights so, I think maybe they need to throw some resources in that direction!

J

I think there is a large percentage of us musicians and producers that use a Mac so, it is disappointing to hear that it is Windows only to start out with. "Later this year" doesn't sound very promising of a timeline considering the year and a half I have needed it.

I hate to be that guy but, it sounds like another 6-12 months for an editor for a lot of us working musicians.

J

Hello,

This is related to the editor but, I badly need a way to reorder the performances in Perform Mode faster. We play around 50-60 songs and reorder our sets each gig (I have a preset for each song as we are a cover band with lots of material). So, this means I have to click on the "Move Up" button and the up down buttons to get to each song around 300-1500 times just to reorder a set list in Perform Mode! We commonly play the same place on a weekend so, I have to show up early to reprogram the KPA for the night and it takes me about 35 minutes to reorder 50 songs. We gig a lot so, I have lost about 3 full days of my life just hitting these buttons!

I really hope something like this is coming soon. We are changing things up and will have around 100-200 songs within the next 6 months so, this will soon become impossible.

Thanks,
J