Posts by nightlight

    I'd love to see controls that react more like the real amp, at least as an option. Yes it might seem "hokey" to an engineer, but the creative process of finding and adjusting a tone is a lot about mistakes and personality rather than predictions and perfection. We love the pedals and amps that we do because of their little idiosyncrasies that over time we learn to exploit.


    I don't think anyone would see that as hokey. Rather, it is something that a lot of people want from the Profiler, i.e. a device that completely replaces every amp that goes into it, complete with realistic knob tweaking.


    But I'd imagine the feature you're looking for would involve taking multiple "snapshots" of the amp at various gain, EQ, other settings to determine how the controls fit within an amp's overall "character". At this stage in the KPA's development, if that's what you are looking for, you'd probably be better off with the actual amplifier of your choice.


    But if you are "stuck" with a Kemper, a viable workaround would be to profile the amp thoroughly, creating a multitude of patches that reflect various control settings. That way you could mimic the amp at whatever setting you wanted to.


    There are clearly engineering complexities involved in the profiling process. I believe Mr CK must have come up with this technology years ago, but has spent time refining it to arrive at a workable format. Perhaps the solution you are looking for would involve, as I postulated, multiple snapshots of the amp at various settings to arrive at a blueprint of the control dynamics, which would then be combined to arrive at a working replica of the amplifier in question.


    Exciting stuff, really. I would never have imagined this level of technology being feasible a few years ago. Heck, if Mr CK showed it off 30 years ago and sought funding, I'm sure all the musical bigwigs would have shot it down saying "tubes are the way of the future".

    I power my KPA and the FCB1010 with an APC battery backup unit. I've not attempted to see how long it will hold them up, but I'm guessing at least 10 mins ...


    This sounds like good advice for anyone gigging with the Kemper. 10 minutes to reboot! That could have been bad had it been an ugly crowd!

    Wow! That's really interesting! I've never tried the Mustang, am not a fan of digital amps, having owned a solid state Marshall MG50DFX. But through the FX return? Interesting prospect!


    Here's a graph showcasing the frequency character of the 12" Celestion G12T-100 used in the Mustang.


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    Looks identical to the Seventy80 other than a bit of a dip in the 1000 Hz region. I'm guessing that would make it sound a little darker than the Tech 21. Even more so considering that the Tech 21 has got an open back.


    EDIT: Just noticed that the Mustang III has an open back too.


    Maybe someone could point out rigs, where rigs loose it's definition, when dialing more gain, but it shouldn't do so.


    PS: There is for sure many rigs that sound awful with more gain. That's because these amps were never designed to sound well with a certain gain.


    I think this would hold true for any rig. If you just max out everything or tweak without analysing the interaction between different controls, there's the danger that you'll end up with a sub-optimal sound.


    And that's what I was driving at in my original post, i.e. a lot of the criticism aimed at the Kemper Profiler seems directed at the fact that tweaking anything after a profile is created is a waste of time and does not sound like a "real" amplifier.


    I spent a lot of time going through the manuals (basic and reference) and was quite interested in some of the settings that are buried beneath the "home" screen. Seems to me like there's a lot more to do than tweak bass, mid and treble levels. Also a lot of effects and the ability to pair up different amps and cabs and EQ them. This seems to be in sync with my hopes that the machine will be able to function as a tone creator as well as a profiler.

    Besides the examples sought by Mr Kemper of things going downhill, I would like to hear some instance of stock profiles being modified to sound better than the original too, if anyone has some :)

    An open-back design can't be full frequency-flat response because the response would vary based on the type of room, how close it was to a wall, yadda yadda.


    But all said and done, the Tech 21 Power Engine 60 is a pretty nifty power cabinet. Not full FRFR, but its pretty damn good nevertheless. The Seventy80 speaker it uses is voiced for guitar, but more neutral than other speakers and the amplifier doesn't seem to add any character to the sound. Not flat like a reference monitor or a FRFR system like the Atomic amplifiers, but it is excellent for most modellers and I'm assuming it would work pretty well with the Kemper. With the EQ settings at the back, I've been able to tweak them to approximate the response of my Dynaudio reference monitors.


    Of course, that is inside "my room" and that could change if you're on stage or in another venue. But those EQ controls are pretty handy. And I'm betting the front-of-house you're playing isn't going to be FRFR.


    Was checking some source and someone correct me if this is BS, but apparently most of the guitar's frequencies are centred in the 82.4Hz- 1319Hz range. Here's a frequency response chart for the Seventy80:


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    It's obviously not going to be like an Atomic, but at a third/half of the price, it is pretty cost effective. Just not absolutely-true-to-the-concept FRFR. Which nothing is, really :D

    Planning to use this doohickey for midi control. Hoping it works without too much difficulty. 32 banks with five footswitches each. It's capable of PC and CC messages, so I'm hoping I can get the full benefit of the Kemper's performance mode. Might run a bit short on the number of patches/banks I can access, but I'm thinking 32x5 would be more than enough for a lil' ol' metalhead.


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    Keeping my fingers crossed that it'll sync up beautifully. Add an expression pedal and I should be good to go, right?


    I know it's a magical profiler and all, but ...


    I love magical things. I had a pair of pickups once handmade by the real Mr Bill Lawrence in the USA, originally Mr Willi Stich from Germany. He put some mojo into it and it sings. Just screams, "Play me! Play me!"


    One does not simply look a gift horse in the mouth. There is a point beyond which adding gain to an already distorted signal starts to muddy things up. But that added mud seems to add "girth" to the signal, makes it fatter, seems to make it chug in a thicker voice. Sure there's a lot more hiss and fizz and sputter, but you' ll mainly hear that if you put your ear up to the cone. Standing and playing a little further away, it barely annoys. You might not even notice it.


    That girth, or fatness, to the tone could be the bass frequencies that Mr CK is talking about. It's sort of added body to the sound, but not something tangible. It's like mud forming layers, it makes things fatter, but might not be in a symmetric fashion, the layers could be unevenly stacked, or the stones within might not be lining up evenly. Sort of like the grain in a wood -- might be too flat pieces, but the textures could be odd.


    They say bookmatched timber is the best for making guitars. Would be interesting to learn more about the Kemper's controls, especially whether it bookmatches the gain :)


    I apologise if this all sounds pseudo-scientific, it's because we are firmly in the realm of philosophy ;)

    They are different things. It's not simply "routing" the signal through the USB port; it will then have to act as a separate audio interface. By using spdif into an interface you are using one interface with one sample clock.


    I never used the AxeFx II as an interface, it just didn't make sense. Much easier to hook it up to a dedicated one. And it doesn't make sense not to have an audio interface if you're into music making ;)



    That makes sense. Different formats, so it wouldn't be as simple as just linking one output to another.

    ^^ Sorry, I didn't understand. I thought the purpose of having AD/DA converters in an external soundcard was to do the "digital to analog" and "analog to digital" conversions, thereby freeing up system resources. Isn't that how it works?


    It is interesting to note, however, that the Kemper does have a digital out in the form of SPDIF. Is it more complicated to route the same signal through the USB port?

    Curious to know whether the "for profit" model of profile sharing detracts from the concept of the rig exchange.


    I think it's awesome that people will invest the time and money to do things the right way. I don't download pirated music and think it's good to reward people for their hard work.


    But to play the devil's advocate, will people resist putting up their hard-crafted profiles on the site? Is it establishing a watermark for the quality of profiles that will be available on the RE, i.e. never better than the paid-for profiles?


    People used to love napster. I'd be happy if they love the RE as much ;)

    I think it would be easier to take the lunchbox onboard a plane as carry on luggage. Not so easy with the rack. I guess it's a toss up whether you want to hand carry your guitar or your Kemper.

    The ergonomics of the rotary switch are a bit less than perfect. And it can cause trouble in some hasty, excited stage situations. I am not the only ham handed Kemperer.


    But think of it: a mind controlled KPA would even solve the whole Performance Mode problem too!


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    You do mean force-controlled, don't you? The way I see it, the issue lies with the user. Use the force!

    I've always been intrigued by one of the arguments against the Kemper's "profiling" approach to sound modelling, that is, the gain and tone knobs don't react like they would had you been turning the corresponding knobs on an amplifier head.


    How much of a drawback is this really? Is it even a drawback? I watched a one-hour video by Andertons UK where they demo'ed the Kemper; was super-impressed at how the toaster nailed the sound of most of the amps they tested out after a little tweaking.


    I also took note of one instance where Rob Chappers, who was doing the demonstration, noted after tweaking of some knobs that the Kemper "rectified" an issue that existed with the original amp.


    So by tweaking a knob and taking the Kemper away from the sound of the original amp, are we neglecting its primary role as an amp profiler? Or are we building upon it? Does this expand its role into tone generation technology?


    Also, what happens to the "feel" of playing through the Kemper after tweaking the original amp sound? Does the responsiveness deteriorate? Or alternatively, does it improve? Can it "feel" better than a tube amp?


    Best wishes to CK and his team. I've read arguments of this nature would result in on the Fractal forums, I am now keen to know what the Kemper forum members think about it.