Posts by Gary_W

Quote from Ingolf

Great! We should say KNORKE more often here!

If you're going to say KNORKE more can you let me know what it means? Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious but, as I'm English, I barely speak my own language let alone anyone any other

I can't answer regarding the Carbon Copy because I don't have one but I can comment a little bit on FX loops.

The 'pedals sound dark' in an FX loop is usually the cause of an amp manufacturer not buffering the FX loop properly. Basically, when you're building an amp, you can either

a) Not have an FX loop
b) Have an FX loop and do it properly so that it will take pedals 'right'
c) Have an FX loop done 'on the cheap' and not buffer it properly so that pedals will either work perfectly or not, depending on the pedal.

Now, the Carbon Copy has a 1 meg input impedance which is great news for a pedal which is going in front of an amp. It's also good news if it's going in an FX loop that is 'done properly'. If it goes into an FX loop done 'on the cheap' then the amp will struggle because the signal will be killed.

In the Kemper, the FX loop is 'done properly' in terms of the impedance so the in my opinion you shouldn't have a problem. But clearly you do.... I cannot explain that. All I will say is that on the Kemper or the Axe or any other digital device, you have an extra stage of D/A and A/D conversion going on. If you keep with all the FX in the Kemper then you've got A/D conversion at the very start then D/A at the very end. If you use the FX loop, it's having to do the same thing again so as it can use the FX loop. Maybe there is some weird artefact that the carbon copy causes that is 'part of its sound' that then gets more pronounced in conversion? I am fishing completely here.... I've used my Strymon Timeline in the loop and it's been fine. And that's despite the fact that with that in there I'm going through 3 sets of A/D and D/A conversions because it is also a digital device

On the health front, get well soon Michael - that's no fun and I hope all is well as soon as possible.

On the profiles front, I bought another couple of packs a week ago and all 3 I've had from you are fantastic. Again, I didn't 'need' these but I'm very glad that I went for it - the best possible flavours out of a huge variety of excellent amps. Thank you

I loved Muse's stuff up till the last album which (personally) I wasn't keen on. I am sure Matt Bellamy is kept awake at night by his fall from my favour

This was more like it but I have to say that after the first bar, I thought it was going to be a Fuzz Factory version of Depeche Mode's rather excellent 'Personal Jesus'. Or was that just my imagination?

I don't think there is an overall rule that fits all situations.

A profile with nothing else on it (no EQ, no FX, no nothing) will occupy a certain range of frequencies. A profile with an EQ on it will occupy a slightly different range of frequencies depending how you set it. Either can sound better in a mix depending what you're doing

Whether you use EQ in the Kemper or not, be prepared to also have to EQ in the mix because what the overall mix will sound like will be entirely dependant on the other instruments and where you put them.

My personal approach would be to use whatever sounds good out of the Kemper, however it is achieved, and then tweak in the DAW once the other instruments are in play. So if a profile has an EQ on it but I love the sound, I'll use it. I'm careful of any profiles where an EQ stomp is adding a load of bottom end because, whilst that might make it sound fat / awesome on its own, it'll almost certainly result in a bunch of mud at mixdown. But that's also a reason to be careful of non-eq'd profiles that are bass heavy - once you've got the actual bass guitar in play, is it too much energy at that part of the spectrum? It possibly is..... But gentle toneshaping EQ's in the Kemper? Why not.... You'll still have to EQ at the DAW end to make it sit in the mix but at least you'll have been happy with your sound going in which means you perform in a happy way.

What I nearly always do, though, is turn off the reverb in the Kemper when recording. That's not me saying I don't like it - I do. It's me saying that there will be other reverbs in play inside the DAW for the vocals / whatever and it works better in my opinion if they all sound like they're in the same 'space'. And you can't turn reverb down if you recorded it wet so if it's not working for you, it's not working for you and you have to re-track. My only real exception to this would be recording an amp sound with spring reverb but we can't currently do that If recording and the profile has a room verb on it, I'll turn that off and tweak to taste in the DAW as part of the mix because it'll almost certainly sit better. Obviously if you're using reverb as the essential part of the sound as opposed to making it sit, this again might not work for you but I still think with reverb it's easier to leave it off as you've got more flexibility. I take Don's point above about 'too much choice can be bad' but, since I started losing the reverb whist tracking, my life has become easier, not harder. But I still lack experience so that could just be me

In my defence, I did say I might be missing something - looks like I was right about that bit

I get where you're coming from now. For me, who doesn't play anywhere near as often, doing the method I mentioned works well. The last band I played with did a set of 25 numbers and, whilst we changed things up from a pool of maybe 50, once a setlist was decided upon it was fairly rigid on the night so doing a 'bank' or 'performance' or 'scene' or whatever we're calling it per song makes sense for me. The only thing that is a pain for someone like me is getting the set together in order and that's why I was mentioning an editor that could do this. What I would like is to be able to define a song which has 5 rigs. Then to be able to just save the songs, rig manager style, and re-order them at a click.

For you guys who play nightly - I now 'get it' in terms of your feature request. I got what you wanted but didn't get why and now I do

I don't have my remote yet so I may be missing a deeper point. And I agree that our differences are all good :). but for me.....

I'd set one performance per song. That gives you 5 'scenes' per song which avoid tap dancing and you can then turn individual fx on and off on each. I can't think of anything I'd be capable of playing that would need more but then again I'm struggling to learn the mystical 4th chord

The things to make this approach easier would be an editor to name / sort performances.

Agree also with with previous points about stomp delays and stomp reverbs. And as CK is reading this thread I'll mention 'spring reverb please'

Only just noticed your reply here - have they arrived yet and if so, how are they?

Very, very cool

My guitars all sound very different but I consider that a bonus.

I didn't start playing until I was 26 and at that point I bought a hybrid amp - one of the first generation Marshall Valvestates. Whilst the later Valvestates were better, the first ones were really not voiced very nicely (IMO!) but I didn't know what I was doing..... I then went digital and went through Boss, Line 6, Vox, computer stuff. Throughout that entire period, the tonal differences between guitars were minimal and, apart from 'feel', scale length etc, I didn't really see the point of different guitars. It wasn't until I picked up a 7w valve amp on eBay that I suddenly heard the voices of my guitars for the first time. Queue a second valve amp and then the Kemper which fortunately does exactly what the real amps did in this regard except it gives me back the amp variety that the old digital units gave with no real downside.

I'm glad it does this. The only downside when I'm playing at home is there is now a point to getting up and grabbing a different guitar when you stumble across a profile and think 'I bet this would sound awesome with a Strat....'

Despite not 'needing' any more profiles, I grabbed pack 2 an hour and a half ago. Only had a quick go through the 60 on offer but I can now see why these have been so highly praised - they're great IMO. Quiet, varied and just sound great throughout

I can see all sides to this one really.

I can understand the opinion that it seems a bit dishonest to state that you must buy the remote to get the looper. Then it gets found, albeit not fully implemented, for free and able to be used with hardware that folks already have so the company was not telling the whole truth about it being only usable via the official hardware. In the future, the company can either embrace the fact that this has been found and develop it or they can decide to disable the feature in a future software update if they so wish..... Either course of action has consequences and if they remove it some folks will probably go and find pitchforks and torches But I have an alternative view.

There are many examples out there in the world when a hardware device (such as a computer) comes pre-loaded with a particular program to make it do 'ABC'. If you want to gain access to ABC, you give the software writer some money and they unlock the feature. The feature was there all along, it's just that you didn't have access until you paid. There are VST plugins that do this.... you have the full program installed already but it will play white noise every 30 seconds unless you pay the manufacturer to unblock it. Do we feel entitled to the whole program because it's already there?

The alternative to giving the company and money is to hack the program.

Now before anyone gets upset at the comparison between piracy and finding MIDI control messages........ I know there is a big, big technical difference between hacking a program and discovering the MIDI commands that make the looper work. As to an ethical difference? That's where I'm less clear. It's obvious that the company intent here was to make this a feature that you paid for via buying a piece of hardware. Does the fact that they didn't lock the door and left the silver on display make it right to walk in and believe the silver is yours?

Another example, Kemper related. Pretty much everyone here would condemn the sharing of commercial profiles. It's easy to do it because there is no protection and some people disagree with the concept of 'paid for' profiles at all - after all, it's your Kemper and you can do what you like with it...... But my take on this is that commercial makers give the profiles value the moment they decide to charge for them..... If a person creates something and decides to give it a monetary value, everyone can then decide to either pay what is asked or talk to the person about it. Or they can just take it.

So, whilst the looper functionality is in the Profiler and accessible via MIDI (albeit not fully), it's also clear that the company intent was to charge for it. I admire the historical community spirit of the Kemper in terms of finding little bits that make it better for everyone and I certainly admire the technical ability of the guys who know MIDI here but I have to wonder if this has crossed the line of what is right and what is wrong? I think it has..... Does anyone here think that the inventor of the whole system is going to be pleased that this has been found? Ultimately he has a company to run and, whilst it's true that not many people will buy the remote 'just for the looper', it's clear that the looper is a desirable feature. We've all been asking for one for quite some time in feature request threads and this thread is all about people putting in time and effort to get the looper going via MIDI. So it has value because people want it and it will be a feature that people consider in their free choice to buy a remote or not. Knocking that 'exclusive feature' may well lose them money. You could argue that it's money they are not entitled to on the grounds that they've not nailed it down but, entitled or not, they've made a product with an 'exclusive looper' and their intent was clear.

I know the company has a long history of free upgrades. In an ideal world for us out here this would have been free. In the world we live in, the development of the hardware has gone this way and the maker has made a commercial decision to tie full functionality to another piece of hardware. You could argue that Kemper has done this to make more money or you could argue that they've done it because implementing the feature via MIDI was clunky. Either could be true but ultimately it is the choice of the company to go this way and as such the looper has been given a value which the company expect to be paid for.

Before anyone asks, yes I've ordered the remote. For the record, my opinions expressed above are nothing to do with 'someone getting the looper for free when I've gone and paid for it' - I really do not care what anyone else has or does not have vs what I have here. My interest is purely in the company making plenty of profit out of the whole Kemper brand so as they continue to give INTENDED free upgrades that we have all come to know, love and expect. In this regard, I'm not keen on CK spending time on a 'project' to get the looper working over MIDI when he could instead be working on intentional free upgrades in the system to add other functions in the feature request thread.

Peace etc. Not getting at anyone here - just sharing thoughts

Quote from Robrecht

Almost finished installing.

By the way, I suppose they should fix this:
[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/PyZcUmQ.png]

No - that's for when you want a fairly clean profile but with just a bit of hair on it

Quote from Johnny333

So would you guys say Neumann KH 120a over the Genelec 8040a? (For the Kemper and for mixing)

I haven't directly compared so I personally can't answer that with any accuracy - all I can say is that I've never seen a bad word against the Neumann's and I've been entirely happy with them

I can't comment on the others but another vote for the Neumann's here - read the UK based Sound on Sound review if you want a pro magazine's take on it. Because of the favourable Pound vs Euro, you can get a pair for just over £900 brand new from Thomman.

Hi Tonerider,

I've had two sets of Irongear pickups and one of those was indeed a Blues Engine.

They are decent pickups (IMO similar quality to the non-custom shop SD's) but whether they'll make you happy or not is really a lottery. In one guitar, they did what I wanted. In the other (a Burny LP copy) they were good but frankly no better than the ones I took out and that was the one where I stuck the Blues Engine in there.

If you're willing to pay more, I'd highly recommend Bulldog Pickups http://www.ekmpowershop6.com/e…ickups/humbuckers-8-c.asp

The bad news is that it'll cost you £90 as opposed to costing you around £35-£40 for the Irongear. What you get for your money is a chat with a very decent guy who really knows his stuff and cares about getting it right. You tell him what pickup you have and tell him all about the guitar. You tell him what you like / don't like about the current one and what you're wanting to achieve and he'll then wind you something appropriate. If it's not right, you send it back and he tweaks. I've had two sets from him and a friend has had a couple. Never had to send any back so I can't comment on how well that works but basically it's a custom service.

Not saying the Irongears are bad - they are great for the money. It's just that, with any 'off the shelf' pickup, you're in a bit of a lottery as the wood surrounding it plus your ears all make a difference to how happy you'll be. I think having the experienced human being on the other end of things takes the guesswork out of it

Gary

I registered for the Early Bird. I got the 'shipping note for early birds' email as you guys did but at that point I hadn't ordered. It says I've got until 6th March to order and still get the early bird shipment.

So I just ordered and got the confirmation but it does not say I'm an early bird.... Same email address 100% so not sure what's going on there? No panic of course but figured I'd have the early bird wording in my order confirmation.

Very well done - that is great

If you're going for a new PC, I can recommend http://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/cust…tal-audio-workstation-pcs if you're in the UK (and it sounds like you are with the talk of pound notes )

Another thing to throw into the mix - are you happy with your studio monitors? And how about sound treatment? Boring, yes. Able to make everything sound better? Also yes

As to the guitar, that's hard as you'll get 100 different opinions I got a PRS Stripped '58 a year ago and love it to death. It's a lot more versatile than you'd think a Les Paul clone would be.

I haven't owned an Axe so am not going to be able to compare but wanted to chime in on a couple of points anyway - hope that's OK as I'm outside your specified 'sample group' for opinion

USB interfaces on guitar products for recording. I had several Pods. I think the USB interface on those will always be a big step down from either an analogue input OR SPDIF on a decent recording interface which is a separate entity. I think, on a high level guitar unit such as either the Kemper or the Axe, you are going to have a market comprised of people who are willing and able to pay good money for good products. They are likely to already have a recording interface. TBH, if you've got a $200 interface or better with SPDIF on it then you'll do better in terms of drivers, latency and overall quality using that than you ever would using a built in thing from a guitar fx manufacturer for whom USB latency is one of a hundred things they're worried about. When I had the USB on the Pod, I used it once and came to the 'what's the point' conclusion pretty quickly.

One thing that is (IMO) very exciting about the Kemper is when people out there with a good set of ears and a studio profile amps that I'm interested in. With previous products I've used, the community will share a patch which is essentially a modelled amp already in the unit that is tweaked to sound a certain way. With the Kemper, you can indeed tweak existing amps in the unit in terms of sag, definition etc and this will improve further with the 3.0 software where, if I've understood it correctly, you get the ability to truly separate the cabinet from the amp so far more accurate tweaking is possible if that's your thing. But the difference is the 'starting point'. The starting point in other units is a mathematical model based on a person listening to a real amp (or remembering a real amp ). In the Kemper, the starting point is that the unit itself actually listened to the real amp. Yes, the user is still important in terms of mic positioning but ultimately the lack of a person in the middle interpreting means that the Kemper's starting point is far, far closer to reality than other technology. Once it has captured reality as closely as technology allows, you can then shape reality as you see fit by tweaking simple parameters such as gain, treble etc or the definition etc as mentioned before.

A further point in favour of this viewpoint is gained if you look at the way to truly profile an amp. If you just set the amp to a crunch and then profile it then you can, using the 'modelling' side of the Kemper, crank or reduce the gain to clean up or dirt up the amp. However, all the guys out there profiling on a regular basis do several profiles of an amp at separate sweet spots. The reason for this? Modelling will only get you 'so far' with the actual behaviour of the amp. Other units just have the modelling. The Kemper has '99.9% reality' at the point of the profile which you can then deviate from to your taste with modelling. If modelling 'sounded better' then no-one would bother doing multiple profiles of the same amp. Yet, if you look at the new custom shop stuff from Amp factory or the stuff that Armin does (Soundside) they do a lot of profiles of the same amp so you really do get as close to the real deal as possible.

My only niggles with the Kemper since purchase have been :

1. The lack of an editor / librarian - this was addressed. I'd still like an actual editor but TBH the librarian filled the gap because with the Kemper, selecting a profile is more important than tweaking for me as it does the job!
2. Lack of a dedicated footswitch - and now it's coming
3. Lack of spring reverb / ability to put any FX anywhere in the chain. For this, I still live in hope. As a company, Kemper seems to do things 'properly' so I'm guessing the only reason for the lack of a spring reverb is that it's a lot harder than it seems. I've had this theory confirmed in the plugins world by a guy who designs VST plugins. He's done a wonderful room / plate / hall reverb which was apparently pretty simple but he recons that making a spring algorithm that actually sounds like a spring is pretty murderous. So I recon Kemper will do it when they are happy with it rather than releasing something that is close but no cigar

Other than that, I couldn't be happier with the device I have. Perhaps I would have been happy with the Axe - I don't know. Now I have this, I have no particular motivation to find out because (besides the spring) this does a brilliant, brilliant job.