Posts by Gary_W

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.

It’s a snapshot of the entire recording chain at the settings given. So if you then tweak the bass / treble settings on the profiler on the fly, it might not react exactly as per the original. Whilst that might be considered bad news, the good news is that you can go far beyond the original amp.

if you look at a commercial profiler, many of them will do multiple profiles of a single amp.

Guitar volume should work as per the original amp *at those settings* so you can absolutely profile at a hot setting and get things clean by rolling back guitar volume.

Thanks again for all the help folks - my Kone and Loudster turned up earlier this week. Whilst I got it all set up pretty quickly, my first chance to give it some volume was last night. I’m really pleased with it and, for me, a worthwhile addition to my much loved Kemper. I’ve cranked the Loudster between 1/3 and half way and it’s got plenty of legs in it. If I’m lucky enough to gig again at some point, this will be more than enough..... I’ve played between a horn section and drummer before with a 7w Matamp with my 1x12 and had to use an attenuator so the keys player didn’t glare at me. From this experience of perceived loudness I know this thing will be able to give anyone at the front a reasonable haircut.

I don’t have a massive amount of experience with guitar speakers - the Kone is replacing a Celestion Greenback in the only decent 1x12 cabinet I’ve ever had. For this reason, I can’t say ‘this sounds exactly like a Jenson etc.’ as I really don’t know What I can say is that each imprint does a little something and it’s great fun to have my trousers flapping again. IMO it sounds great

My default imprint is a Greenback (makes sense for me as I always liked mine) but I’m experimenting per profile. I think it’s good for the ‘I wonder what......’ mindset and consequently great fun but, until I settle down, it’s going to be time consuming. I’m not a massive tweaker these days so I’ll find what works and leave it...... but that process might take me a while. As well as many favourites from various vendors / factory / exchange, I managed to get the ToneJunkie Everything pack at 90% off in a recent sale so like £40 U.K. for over 4000 profiles. A complete no brainer purchase. I’ll have fun going through these and experimenting with imprints. Should keep me going for a bit

Thank you for the interesting thread - I went to 24 bit 48k a while ago. Not really clear why except it’s one louder.

Seems like, unless I get better looking and start to star in my own videos, I can do just fine with 44.1k and 24 bit. I’m not seeing compelling arguments to go back to 16 but, if someone wants to blow my mind, it’s entirely open

So I've had a play in the output menu and seen how to change the global Kone / how to alter these in a rig within Rig Manager. I've just ordered a Kone and a Hotone Loudster so, for the first time in a while, my very well made Matamp cabinet won't just be a Toaster Table

Thanks again for the advice - I'm looking forward to fitting it and playing

thank you everyone - appreciate the clarification

Great - thanks for the clarification.

Alan - sorry for one follow up question.... If I understand you correctly, you can set a global speaker imprint which will come into play through the Kone on every single studio profile you use if you are browsing?

If you wish, you can overide this in any particular rig and say 'I know my default speaker is a Celestion but for this rig I want Jenson' and save it with the preset? Or you can alternatively tell it to forget being in Kone mode for that one rig and tell it instead to go full range / use the entire chain as per the original profile? I think that's what you're saying - sorry to labour the point but just wanting to make sure I've got this.

Thanks for the reply Bob and apologies for being a bit slow but.... I don’t understand what this means. Does this mean that each profile can now have a different Kone imprint applied? So if I change from a Marshall to a Fender, the Kone automatically changes too from Greenbacks to Jensons for instance?

If it does, is this something I have to program / save with the rig? Or can I pull up a ToneJunkie profile and it ‘just knows’ (I doubt this but don’t know!)

Please accept my apology in advance if the answer to this is already buried in these 84 pages - I’ve dipped around in this thread and don’t have the answer hence me asking. I’m considering getting a Kone and a Hotone Loudster. I have a nice 1x12 that (since I got my Kemper) has only served as a table so it would be a good home for a Kone

Early in the thread (about last January!) CK answered a question about Kone imprints being saved per rig and alluded that they would be in a future release. Does this now happen? If so, how does it work? if I load a Tone Junkie profile where he profiled something with Jensons (so this is given to the main outs), does the Kone automatically select the ‘right’ speaker? If so, how does it know as this sounds like magic :). If not, I guess you’d have to select the appropriate speaker imprint and save it with the rig?

Did you have four of the same one-knob fader, Vinny?

Quote from ReinoutV

Who really cares if "it's not a Klon anymore"? If it sounds good, it is good, and if it's not 100.0% like the real thing, the sound you yourself came up with is better than the original. And it saves you thousands of dollars along the way.

Not everyone will care and of course if it sounds good, it is good. But it matters to some folks clearly that the boxes work like the originals.

Everyone’s mindset is in different places with this so, if it’s possible to do both, that would hopefully suit everyone’s way of thinking.

I made a similar point back when the delays were released...... they are beyond the wildest dreams and you can do pretty much anything. But there’s a case for saying ‘this model is a Memory Man’ as some people care about such things as per my long ramble a few posts back. We all use the gear / think in different ways and, if the aim is to maximise the enjoyment (and therefore the selling potential) to every possible customer then it is worth doing both the ‘limited boxes’ and the ‘beyond reality because we can’ roots.

I can see the case for separate models and also I see the case for staying as we are. Either way it’s a fantastic addition.

The thing with the ‘separate models’ is, from a mindset point of view, it scratches an itch. Part of the reason we all buy profiles? We are curious to know exactly what a vintage Marshall sounds like because most of us will never be able to have the real thing. Having the confidence that we have a great profile captured scratches that itch for everyone who doesn’t have the original amp. Tone Junkie is great at making profiles for sure but he’s also great at making you want them. He knows all about that itch.

The case for doing the pedals separately is this..... ‘an expert’ is telling you that it sounds like the real deal. That satisfies the desire of the collector which most of us have to some extent.

The current method is sonically more versatile because it is a seamless blend between them all and, as pointed out, the differences are not so huge in many cases. So, in terms of being useful? It’s more useful than separate boxes but it’s asking ‘box at a time’ compartmentalised amp collectors to think differently. Most of us guitar players aren’t great at doing that! In terms of satisfying the ‘I’m using a Klon’ vibe, the blended Kemper Drive doesn’t do this because if you’ve tweaked one of the dials too far you’ve gone beyond Klon settings and might be using something else. Which doesn’t matter sonically but I think makes the ‘authentic collector’ part of the brain uncomfortable.

To please everyone’s little voice as well as remaining useful beyond reality (which the current method does) you could add individual boxes that have the range limitations of the originals but for sure keep the current blended drive too. Then those who care about duolicating the original things are absolutely catered for.

Otherwise, presets get you to the original at a certain setting but with every dial tweak you’ll have to go with your ears for enjoyment, not the inner voice that says ‘it isn’t real’.

I can see a case for both..... ears are the ultimate test but...... our enjoyment can also come from keeping the inner voice happy / secure.

Sorry for the ramble Very cool addition no matter what way it goes and looking forward to playing more. Hoping fuzz pedals can feature soon too

Quote from ckemper

The difference is simply, that on overdrive pedals only, a good portion of the clean signal (undistorted, uncompressed) is mixed to the distorted signal, preserving some uncompressed playing dynamics in parallel to the distortion.

Whatever it's doing, I like it. Thank you for the nice update

I haven’t spent long with these but my first impression is that these are excellent.

I don’t own any of the pedals nodded to but I have built clones from circuit diagrams of the Klon and King of Tone. For this reason I can’t comment on if the Kemper sounds like the real deal because I don’t have the real deal. No matter, I think these will give us a lot of fun.

Regarding the ‘presets’ for pedals as opposed to having distinct models. The way I’m reading this is that ‘you can make a Klon sound like a Boss OD or a TS at certain settings’ simply because much of circuitry shares heritage. But of course there are places a Klon cannot go that a TS can because the ranges on both are different.

So with the approach here, you have a seamless blend from them all. Maybe a sweet spot you find would only be possible on a Klon. Another sweet spot might be recreated on two of the physical pedals etc.

With the presets, Kemper are claiming sweet spots from the individual pedals. I like this approach actually - it fits in with the concept of profiling where you have a sweet spot of an amp that is profiled then, with adjusting the tone stack etc you are moving away from reality. If it sounds good, should we care? depends on your purity vs results thinking. Same with these pedals. If you call up the Klon preset and make micro adjustments you’re probably going to be getting something that approximates the original. If you crank one of the dials too far? You’ve bent reality. If Kemper wished to make these separate, I guess it would be possible.... each would simply limit the ranges of the controls as per the originals as opposed to them all being in the box together and allowing the benefits of blending.

Grateful for the update (as ever - very cool that my trusty, 6/7 year old gear keeps improving!). Hoping they can work further magic with fuzz pedals. I’ve made a few fuzz pedals over the years and, whilst there’s a lot of shared circuits in that world too, my home made germanium Sunface sounds a lot different to my home made D*A*M Meathead. If they are intending to rework fuzz as well it’ll be interesting to see if a similar blend approach is used. Sure it’ll be decent whatever happens.

It’d be great to have better fuzz / drives (matters to many on here it seems) but personally I tend to switch amp models / use an external stomp box. I prefer my home made fuzz but actually with the fuzz and shapers in the unit I can get things that I enjoy already.

I think the modulation effects could do with a rework in the same way as the delays and reverbs have been dramatically improved over the last few years.... delays / reverbs were a weak point vs the quality of Kemper amp models but these days delay and reverb fx are awesome IMO. It’d be great if the modulation section had the same treatment.

I had a Strymon Mobius for a while. The tremolo, chorus, phaser and flanger were a long way ahead of those offered in the Kemper. I still sold the mobius. Awesome unit but, for most uses, I couldn’t justify keeping it for the amount of modulation fx I use..... even though they were better than I could do inside Kemper. I miss the tremolo most so, if that could get an update, that’d be great. And I always hear great things about the freqout pedal - that would be a nice addition if possible.

It would also be great if FX chain storage / batch editing could be added to rig manager.

Whatever is added I’m sure it’ll be great - it’s brilliant that this unit still continues to positively evolve with no further financial buy-in from me. The company haven’t had any revenue from me since the remote came out so I’m impressed that they’re still giving me more for my ancient investment. I’ll hopefully give them some money and buy a cone one day but wouldn’t get the use out of it in my current situation so, as cool as it may be, I’m afraid I’m at the ‘eagerly hoping for cool free stuff for rig manager, remote and toaster’. And grateful for all of it

I like NI Komplete software but, interface wise, I had one from them a few years back. On my system at the time, I couldn’t get it useable.

I’ve had a couple of Focusrite interfaces over the years (including my current Clarett) and they’ve been great. I have had issues but here’s where the difference really stood out. Focusrite tech support were available over the phone, NI were tickets that took a while and told me to read the manual.

That experience is from a few years back so they may have improved and lots of positive stories out there with the interfaces. With any interface, if it works with your system, it works. That’s the most important thing followed by ‘who helps when it doesn’t work’. IMO of course.

I used to use loads of pedals but my reason was because I gigged with a single channel amp. Riding guitar volume like a pro is beyond my capability (so is the magic 4th chord, I only know 3). Pedals were the answer.

I still have most of them because most were home made. Really, I was using most of them to overcome the limitations of my amp in terms of variety. These days, I choose a different profile. I still dig out my home made germanium fuzz occasionally as, for me, it does a better job than the fuzz pedals in the Kemper. For all the others, I’m good to go in clean.

I’d absolutely welcome the OD offerings in the Kemper getting a facelift but, for me, that’s for the fun it gives rather than ‘I need this and I’m broken hearted’. I don’t think they’re terrible but I also don’t think they’ve kept up with the advances that the rest of the unit has benefited from. I’m a long term user and, back in the day, the delays and reverbs weren’t awesome in the Kemper. They are now excellent IMO. I sold a Strymon Mobius and I miss the tremolo options on there / the phaser and flanger. In my opinion they beat the current ones in the Kemper. However, I couldn’t justify keeping it for how often I use those effects. I do miss the trem though so I’d welcome a re-do of that if Mr. Kemper is looking for a suggestion