Posts by Gary_W

Quote from Nikos

btw..

There is a more trebly fuzz preset (smart fuzz?)..adding a treble booster in front of it and it is almost perfect.With my tele.

Thank you - I need to play with this concept.

There is an Analogman pedal called the Sun Lion which is a modified version of a Dallas Rangemaster (a germanium based treble booster) which then is followed in the same pedal by a fuzz face. You can use them independently or of course together. I did a home made version and like it a lot albeit mine is pretty noisy!

I spent more time with this upgrade earlier. Can confirm what I already knew - I’m really pleased with it. It’s a great update IMO.

Hi,

I’ve had my toaster for 7 years now. Since that time it has improved vastly due to user requests and also cool things that the company have come up with that users may not have thought of.

IMO the core sound quality has always been there; I think profiles are (generally) getting slicker / better but there’s never been a lack of great core noises out of this box.

What was lacking in the early days was fx that were of similar quality. They were ‘better than a lot of people made out’ but for sure were the weakest part of the system.

Since then, we’ve had:

Delays that are awesome. Lots of user requests for these.
Reverbs that are awesome. Lots of user requests for these.

An editor. Go look at the length of threads wanting that.

A remote. And a stage version. Both huge user requests

Distortions / stomps - again, lots of requests. I was really pleased with the distortion but am over the moon with the fuzz. I love fuzz and I think they’ve done a great job.

We’ve also had the Kone which addresses the complaint of some users that ‘it doesn’t sound like the amp in the room’. I bought one - it’s the first money I’ve given them since buying the remote.... I really like it.

Lots more ‘little’ things too but a crazy amount of added value.

I think they’ve been really good at listening to user requests. They take a long time to implement things but, when they do, it is killer and it is free (unless it’s hardware of course). I continue to be impressed at the value I get out of this box. For me, I’m hoping the revamp the modulation section next.

Can you explain a little more about your request and what they’re ignoring? If they are ignoring it, maybe it’s because it’s either not a common request (they’re not a huge company so makes sense to deal with popular requests) or maybe the request isn’t possible?

Quote from semguigui

I never used any fuzz before, but, as everyone, I really like the kemper fuzz. Just an idea to make it even more inspiring : why not editing a complement to the "legend tribute pack" or create a new one ? What songs would have to be in the list?

http://fuzzquest.blogspot.com/…z-songs-of-all-times.html gives a starting point for exploring fuzz tones

As there seem to be lots of folks here who haven’t been exposed to much fuzz, a few thoughts for you follow. I’m not an expert (at this or anything else musically) but I’ve made a few fuzz pedals based on schematics widely available on the web and it’s an interesting subject. I’ll share my limited experience and I’m sure others more knowledgable than me on the forum can help me learn on the subject too

Like all things guitar, there are huge opinions on which style of fuzz circuit is best (classic fuzz face, muff, tone bender etc). There will then be huge disagreements over exactly which transistors should go in it. If you’ve experienced amp snobbery or tube rolling snobbery you’re in for another treat here as people will pay very big bucks for a vintage germanium transistor. Starting to do so with old BC108 silicones which I remember blowing up regularly at college. There were maybe £0.08 back then. Not so much now. Wish I’d stashed a bunch

One of the the highly regarded fuzz makers is Analogman (the guys who make the King of Tone distortion). It’s worth looking here to see the huge amount of options available in terms of ‘what transistor do you want? https://www.buyanalogman.com/A…un_Face_p/am-sun-face.htm as it will give you some idea about the properties associated with germanium and silicone (which in a nutshell is germanium is gentler, silicone harsher but that is an unfair simplification). Generally speaking, Silicone reacts more quickly to a given input and therefore can be ‘more accurate’. Germanium takes its time so potentially softens things. A bit like ‘transistor amp vs valve (tube) amp. Again a simplification but you get the idea

Keep in mind with the above website that the Sun Face fuzz is basically a classic ‘fuzz face’ circuit. About as simple as these things get. The differences you’ll find (beyond how you set it / your guitar / your amp and how it’s dialled in) will come from the transistors fitted from this list. And as you’ll see, even the germanium transistors all have very different descriptions given! When I’ve made fuzz in the past, it’s like the lottery when you buy old germanium transistors because they are all, to some extent, imperfect. Get two identical models and they’ll probably be entirely different in terms of how they work. And they’ll be different again on a hot day. That was (and is) the charm. But the style of fuzz you can make is very much determined by what you can get hold of. Silicone was more accurate / more reliable / more consistent / cheaper to make / more temperature stable etc which is why it typically replaced germanium in the fuzz circuits as time when on.

I think that’s why it makes such sense to have a control on the Kemper fuzz that goes from germanium to silicone.... Extrmely soft germanium at one end and extremely harsh silicone at the other. All the space in the middle for the huge variations. Very cool.

One thing I’ve seen requested here is ‘fuzz factory’ style presets. This fuzz was made famous by Muse on ‘plug in baby’ - you can get wild oscillation and weirdness. I’ve made one of these too and, whilst I like it for a couple of things, it’s a nightmare to use if you’re not familiar. I think if Kemper did implement this, it would need to be a different fx module.

The fuzz factory has 5 controls as opposed to the 2 on a fuzz face. One of these is to reduce the battery voltage (which makes the circuit unstable). Some fuzz addicts seek out slightly dead batteries in their regular fuzz pedals to do the same thing. I did mention there was mojo involved :). The other fuzz factory controls are altering the voltage fed to a couple of different points of the circuit if I recall correctly. The good news, if you get it dialled in right, is you can make it do weird and wonderful things. The bad news is that you can get yourself into trouble - all the controls interact and, if you’re wanting a ‘useful’ tone (subjective I know) compared with ‘this thing is making noise and I can’t stop it’ then you have to stick within certain parameters. Traditional fuzz pedals only allow you to modify settings that don’t breach the design of the circuit so therefore they always work as opposed to oscillating. That’s why I think fuzz factory style fuzz would need a separate fx type within the Kemper - if it allowed you to ‘break the circuit’ in this way, it would be more difficult to do the normal dirty stuff. Whilst I like the concept of adding a fuzz factory, I personally like the new fuzz as it is - I can play to all extremes without oscillation. Well, I think so - I need to play more But if CK wanted to add another fuzz type (like doing the OCD separate to the Kemper Drive) with a dying battery control etc then that would be cool too.

Thats enough from me - hope this was interesting to someone out there

I am very grateful for this update - I love fuzz and I've been hoping for this. It doesn't disappoint

I have a 7 year old toaster so the bad news is I don't get the impedance joy thing with the stage but even without it this is killer. Really versatile, intuitive and fun. I'm sure some folks with red dot mojo germanium transistors will recon it's not quite there. I have 3 fuzz pedals and all are home made - I'm a happy bunny. I think the only way most folks would tell that this isn't a 'real one' is that this thing doesn't buzz unless you want it to.... The silence is all the more impressive when you hit a chord and it's outrageously dirty And to get such a great bunch of fun on a 7 year old product is really, really cool.

I saw one other comment asking if it's possible to display preset name within Rig Manager above the virtual stomp boxes - I think that's a really good idea and would welcome that in a future update if possible. Especially makes sense when this effect and the Kemper Drive pretend to be so many things. Saying what it's currently pretending to be would be useful.

Looking at the updates over the years, this box is just becoming better and better. Modulation next? If the tremolo could get a similar rework to those we've seen with distortion, delay and reverb over the last few years that would be more icing on an already great cake.

Thank you

Glad it helped - the credit is for sure cmbrowns.... I had no idea till I read the post from them.

I couldn't see my Kemper Drive presets either - turns out I had them in the wrong folder....

The solution in my case was given to me by cmbrowns towards the end of this thread New 3.1.57 beta rig manager - Page 13 - Rig Manager - Librarian software - Kemper Profiler Forum (kemper-amps.com)

It fixed it for me and hope it helps you too - I would have thanked cmbrowns on the other thread but it was closed a few hours ago.

Hi everyone,

I’ve updated and mine is working well - very grateful to be able to see effects presets. A great addition

Sorry if this has been answered already in this long thread but I’m not seeing presets for the new Kemper Drive / OCD. I am seeing presets for pretty much everything else. I know when the Kemper Drive update was released there were a few presets given which I have in a folder in Rig Manager but I’m not seeing these in the context menu when I select the Kemper Drive. Can anyone help me understand why / how to address this?

Many thanks

IMO.... everyone has different ears so there is no sweet spot.

Also, it depends what a particular track requires. If you think of ‘She Sells Sanctuary’..... the amount of fx on the guitar sound is pretty extreme but it just works. It would sound wrong on another track.

It’s like asking ‘is there an ideal amount of garlic in a recipe’ when the recipes in question cover everything from chicken curry to lemon tart. You have to experiment and figure out where it fits

I’ve had the Kemper for years now. I’ve always been happy with the sound through monitor speakers. I now have a Kone and I’m enjoying using studio profiles whereby I am swapping out the cabinet for a Kone imprint. I like the results.

What I would like, going forward, would be batch editing within Rig Manager so as I can swap out the Kone on a whole bunch at once. If I buy a rig pack, I like to play with the Kone and see what it sounds like with the speaker that the profiler actually used as a Kone imprint. It’d be nice to be able to swap these all for the original speaker when a profile maker sells me 25 profiles of the same amp :). I know you’re potentially missing a better sound there (to you as an individual) with other Kone imprints but my OCD wants ideally to start with authentic. There are other good reasons why batch editing in rig manager would be very welcome and this is just one example

Agree regarding contacting Zilla. Like most speakers, the holes in the Kone are big enough to accommodate a reasonable range of screws and are unthreaded. The cabinet itself will have the threaded part for the screws to go into. They should either be able to provide them or, at the very least, tell you what size is needed.

I got my Kone 3 weeks back. No screws - I used the originals when I removed the existing speaker from the cabinet.

Another Gary with foot issues? We’re a dying breed :). Thanks for the reply.

I’m hopeful it’s threaded but, if you or anyone else know this for sure, it’d be good to know

Hi everyone,

I was lucky enough to pick up a Kone a few weeks ago which I’ve fitted into a decent Matamp 1x12. I’m really pleased with it but the amp handle is chunky enough that, when the Toaster sits on top, it rattles (brass sides on the handles resonate when certain notes are played at inappropriate volumes - which is half the point of the Kone )

I’ve popped some padding under the Toaster feet but.... has anyone unscrewed / replaces the feet on the Toaster with bigger ones? Happy to do this but I’d like to know if there will be a little nut inside that will fall off. Whilst I’ve had it for years and wouldn’t be breaching warranty by opening the case, I’d still rather not. I’m hoping the case is threaded and I can unscrew with no worries?

MBritt plays country music for a living with Lonestar and makes lots of Kemper profiles (both commercial and also he has a pack for Kemper).

Checking out his page is worthwhile.... he has tons of sound examples on there so you can see what you think. Also, he's thought of as a really nice guy - he might be able to give an opinion on what works for him live if you get in touch.

WELCOME TO M BRITT PROFILES - mbrittprofiles

Thanks for the replies.

ST - I appreciate the detailed instructions. Thank you I’ll try this later - might help things a little as a work around but hope that the company will consider fx chain storage / batch editing as this would for sure help quite a lot of people I think.

Paul - for auditioning, your suggestion helpful for sure. I just think it’d be great to be able to apply any particular setting within Rig Manager easily. It’s a useful thing when you pull up a profile pack that has one cablinet / speaker so as you can just save them as per the original without any further fiddling. It would also be useful for (say) swapping out the old legacy reverb with the newer reverb on a bunch of profiles at a time. Again, you can just lock it but being able to make permanent changes to multiple profiles would be helpful.

Hi,

I’ve mentioned this one before - it would be useful to be able to (for example) apply your favourite fx chain to multiple profiles at once in rig manager then batch save.

This would be nicer still now with Kemper Kone.... I just got the Kone and like it very much :). I was also lucky enough to get the Tone Junkie everything pack for a bargain price due to Black Friday. It would be awesome to be able to apply the imprint as a batch...,, For instance, some of the tweed amps were profiles with a Jenson P10. If I want to audition these using Kone and the speaker that TJ used, I must select each profile, change the Kone imprint and save. First world problem for sure but some of these amps have 40 profiles which are all profiled with the same speaker. A lot of mouse clicks could be saved here if a user wanted to use the Kone as per the original profile. Yes, I know it’s always best to see what you like but I’d ideally like to start from the original is a simple manner.

Thanks Sambrox,

So..... should the Kemper Drive now be capable of giving a volume boost to a clean amp? In my scenario given, the volume control on Kemper Drive still seems to only increase distortion, not give a volume boost, when used with an otherwise clean amp.

Quote from ckemper

When your amp is already distorting, then you hear a change in distortion, not in volume boost.

Thanks for the explanation - I still need a little help to understand this if possible please

If I understand you correctly, once an amp is already distorting then hitting it with a hotter signal simply results in more distortion / compression and not a volume boost.

I've just installed the beta and have chosen a profile that, in Rig Manager shows as zero gain bars (it's a Tone Junkie AC10). I then put the Kemper drive in front of the amp stack.

With volume in Kemper drive at zero, I check out the meters in my DAW for a particular chord progression. If I turn up the volume in Kemper drive, I can absolutely hear a difference in distortion (and I like it) but it is not influencing the volume - the meters peak at the same point so it seems like it is not getting a volume boost. If I turn Kemper Drive below zero it for sure affects volume - with it at -5 the volume level is much quieter.

I'm very pleased with the Drive - just trying to fully understand it and I believed the latest change caused an actual volume boost in certain situations. In my case, it doesn't so I'm keen to understand if I'm using it correctly?

Hi Vincent,

I use headphones with the Focusrite all the time - the headphone preamps in there are decent and are capable of driving my (fairly difficult) Senheisser HD650’s. In terms of its ability to drive headphones, it’s certainly no worse than the socket on the front of the Kemper

One question before you explore a new interface though - there is a ‘headphone space’ parameter that can be applied to the Kemper Headphone socket which can make It sound very different from listening to the same profile through an interface. Personally I don’t use the socket on the front of the Kemper (I’m usually playing via the DAW on the computer) but, if I did, I’d probably notice a big difference too.