Posts by heldal

Quote from deigoruellez

This is so useful, thank you! Would you say it's abnormal to bring your own monitoring cab to a large venue? Wouldn't they have their own system (wedges, etc.)? Would it be because you prefer your own? Like I said earlier in my post, they had wedges for us but it just sounded terrible and I could barely hear anything.

Like those who use their own regular amp I prefer a rig I know how will sound. In addition there are other factors that may require a powerful rig. It is for example hard to execute techniques that require controlled feedback without a rig that actually move some air. Backline for monitoring is still normal in addition to the venue monitoring-system, except for a few situations that require minimal stage volume like for example some live TV/radio-events. I have occasionally used the venue-monitors for guitar, but in most cases both I and the sound-engineer prefer that I use my own and only get a general mix of instruments and vocals from the house-wedges. With the KPA I do not need to play as loud as a tube-amp for it to sound good anyway.

I'm considering a Kemper Power Kabinet as an option to my current monitoring solutions to cut weight for travel to rehearsals and smaller venues. When standing close to the Kabinet I see a need to use the stand to slant it upwards. Will the KPA head still sit securely on top, or will it fall off? Does anyone have experience with this combo yet?

That is the BlueAmps Conehead 212

Whatever rocks your boat I always go XLR-stereo to FOH, but tend to vary my monitoring based on the type of gig/venue. For the big venues and occasions where an old-fashioned backline is used I've got a Blueamps Spark (2x10"/2x250W top + 12"/500W sub) full stack. These days I would probably have chosen a Kemper Power Kabinet instead. Might still get one because the Spark is a heavy beast to travel with. For small venues I may use a single wedge instead (Dynacord AXM 12A). Occasionally for tiny events I operate the PA from the stage, and in this case the only reasonable solution is in-ears so that I can hear approximately the same as the audience.

Btw, the workaround I and others have suggested by powering on to tuner still produce a short burst of audio (<1sec) before the tuner mute kicks in if there for example is a cable with no guitar plugged into the KPA. It shouldn't be that hard to make power-up a silent process.

It has been suggested to implement a set of selectable global input settings that could compensate for varying instrument characteristics. The 4 soft-buttons above the display are unused in input settings and could potentially be used to provide direct access to 4 different sets of parameters, alternatively one button to enter a list of many alternatives ... then select with a knob. I think there is room for improvements in the input section, but so far it has not been prioritised.

Quote from BayouTexan

Ohhh. Shouldn't it start in whatever position the pedal is in? So, if pedal is heel (off) then the Kemper should know that and vice-versa. I've never noticed it being indifferent.

That would be nice, but the KPA has no way of knowing the position of a pedal attached to the remote before the network-connection between the KPA and the remote is established. Power to the remote is delayed until the KPA has completed its boot-cycle, so there is a significant delay until the remote has completed its diagnostics and boot-process and is ready for operation... And even then the KPA doesn't register the pedal-position until the pedal is moving.

Would it be possible to add an output option to make i possible to set power-up-volume (pedal) to 0. It is rather irritating to have the unit blasting away for the seconds it takes to get control with a locally or remote-connected volume pedal. It is of course possible to power on to tuner with the tuner set to mute, but that is easy to forget. And then there is the occasional power-loss. If implemented as an option in output settings that defaults to off it will not affect those who use the KPA with no pedals.

Quote from MehlAnoma

Bump same problem. I have found if i dont use remote it does not seem to happen. But still it is a pain sometimes I will use kemper pause to edit something on track in that time it craps out. Dont really want to have to ship it to Germany to get fixed. Would be nice if its a battery problem we could do it ourselves?

Do you mean that the KPA front-panel dies if you don't use the remote, or that the remote (display and/or LEDs) stop working?

This thread is about problems with the KPA front-panel. Btw, my KPA-head has behaved just fine over the last couple weeks.

Battery may become an issue soon as my unit was assembled in 2012. An expected lifetime of 6-7 years has been mentioned elsewhere on the forum. There is no warranty after 5 years so I may just as well check if I can locate and replace any batteries inside myself. Unfortunately the manual doesn't list the type(s) of battery required. I'm aware owners are not meant to replace batteries on their own, but I have the required tools to work on PCBs and have yet to be defeated by batteries on any old gear no matter how well the batteries have been secured/glued/soldered to PCBs. Gear that is meant to last should IMHO also be designed so that battery replacement is a simple task.

Over the past couple weeks the front panel on my KPA has stopped working 5 or 6 times. Not while playing, and I have yet to observe it happening. It doesn't matter what is connected to the unit so this is definitely a different problem than this thread originally was about. I have tried backup, reset, re-flash, restore with no result. Unless it takes a turn for the worse I will wait to see if the next firmware update changes anything. If not I will have to check the wiring inside. Does anyone know anything about the expected lifetime of these things? My KPA wasn't built yesterday. It is from when the dark front panel had just been introduced. Was it 2013?

After running for a few hours with only audio in and out connected I hooked up the remote and deliberately let it run over night. Now, more than 12 hours later it is still running normally. Strange as it only yesterday didn't run for more than max 2 hours before the front-panel would give in, and that was without RM connected. The KPA-side of the USB-cable was plugged in, but with nothing connected at the other end that should not matter.

Quote from BayouTexan

With the way power companies push out crazy voltages and spikes during the day, I make sure to turn mine off when not it use for longer than 30 minutes. I always cringe when the lights begin to flicker and my profiler is on.

My wife leaves her computer on all the time. The problem is, she is always asking me why its locked up the next morning and mine is working fine -- it's because I turn mine off when I sleep (except the ones making crypto).

Seriously, see if it locks up on you if you start turning it off for the night. If yes, then contact Kemper Support.

Did you even read the thread? I've already mentioned that my KPA never runs over night. However, it's built mostly from components also used in industrial gear built to run 24/7/365 so it should be expected to be able to run stable for long periods of time. Around here the voltage coming off the grid is very stable, and has been for decades. In the days before online connectivity and frequent updates I could have computer-gear running without UPS continuously for months, or even years only limited by the occasional planned or unplanned outage.

Quote from BayouTexan

If you look at quoted post above, I do believe it said "days".

Ahhh .. didn't notice that. Not from me though ... My KPA is never left on over night, but is regularly on all day for practise and recording. However, its components are mostly bits and pieces also found in industrial computer-gear designed to operate 24/7/365.

While composing a ticket for support I left the KPA at the point where it stopped dring boot and after a while, 10-15 min I guess, I turn and see that the unit is UP! None of the resetting I tried seems to have worked. At least system defaults are there as my master volume is only connected to monitor-out the way I want it. I then power-cycled the unit with the front-switch and it booted normally.

Strange. It remains to be seen if it can be trusted again.

Now running a backup, then experiement a bit more.

And there it got stuck. I remains to be seen if it is for good.

I had left the KPA on during dinner and when I returned the front panel was dead. I could connect and communicate with it from RM and from the remote. Powercycling did not bring it back up. It displays the progress while loading the OS, then stops with the screen displaying KEMPER PROFILER. Nothing more happens even after 10 or 15 minutes. I have tried do disconnect everything including the remote but that changes nothing. I have also tried the procedures for rig, MIDI and system-reset in case that could clear some corrupt info, but get nowhere.

Any tips before contacting support?

Quote from BayouTexan

Hmmm.. if I leave me car running for two days it will probably overheat and run out of gas. I think only refrigerators are designed to remain on that long.

The simple fix is to turn it off when not in use.

We are not talking days. A couple hours is enough. It has not yet happened while playing, but it has happened once while I had a 5min break from recording. Even days or weeks should not be a problem for this kind of equipment. Unlike your car the powergrid doesn't run out

In the last few days similar things keep happening if i leave the KPA on and unused for a few hours. Now the front-panel seems dead, except from LCD-backlight. No response from any buttons or switches including the chickenhead. Meanwhile the unit seems to work normally and can be controlled both from the remote and from rig-manager. The only way to bring the front-panel back to life is to pull the plug and reboot.

I should add that the front panel now stops working even when there is no computer connected. I can OTOH connect and start rig-manager to control the KPA remotely as if nothing has happened.

It takes some time for the problem to develop so I have not yet experienced it at gigs or rehearsal.

Now running OS 8.6.6.32765 and RM 3.2.65.17265.

Recently my KPA (unpowered head) has become unresponsive after sitting idle for a few hours. I don't know long the unit had been in this state before discovering this. Fortunately it has not happened at a gig or at band rehearsal yet, but it is slightly worrying.

The unit was in browser-mode both times it has happened.

The first time, a couple weeks ago, it looked as if the brightness of the display and LEDs had been turned down to just a slight glow. The UI responded from the front panel, but attempts to change things didn't have any effect. The remote OTOH looked normal, and I could use it to switch between profiles and toggle effects. The unit was processing audio, but it sounded as if CAB-processing had been globally disabled. Had to powercycle to bring the front-panel back to life and audio back to normal. Could powercycle with the knob, but turning off was the only reponse from knobs.

Today the front panel has died. What seems like normal LCD-backlight is all there is, and no dials or buttons work. Can not even power off with the power/mode-switch. Like last time, the remote looks fine and is able to switch profiles and toggle effects. Audio sounds normal, including CAB-processing this time, at least for the limited set of profiles I've tested. Had to pull the plug to power-cycle.

The software version is 8.2.2 28378

It is a few years old (2015). Are there any batteries on circuit-boards inside that need replacing and could cause such behaviour? I have never experienced anything similar before. My unit is frequently on from early morning to late evening, idle for hours between uses as I find quite normal for a home-studio environment.

I've noticed that there is a new release out and will probably load that ASAP as I've been hit by the volume-loss-bug for certain rigs in the previous version. The change-log doesn't mention anything relevant to the problem I describe here so I don't expect the upgrade to fix my issue.

Quote from mollydyer

Software Engineer here - I objdumped the macos binary and it does look like it's written in Cocao -

Yes, but the kernel isn't really in play here, is it? They might need to write new USB drivers, but that's only part of it. The rest is UI specific- so if you're talking about Android... well the Android UI (which is done in Java) - is very different from the OSX or Win32/64 ui. It's very difficult to go from desktop to mobile OS. It's a clean, ground up rewrite.

Linux, in general, is ALSO not a RTOS. Yes, there are kernel versions that are more realtime than the master branch, but it's in exactly the same boat as MacOS and Windows. Further, the optimizations required for both of those platforms are well known (on a mac it's even easier now). So Linux doesn't really have a leg up on Apple of Microsoft here at all. If it did, I'd be running ProTools on Linux.

Honestly, I don't think there's the support for the platform needed to warrant a port of RM to Linux. It would be cool, yeah, but given that most users of the Kemper are NOT CompSci majors, it doesn't make sense to target a 0.1% platform.

I'd rather see more improvements to RM for all users.

Looking at binaries you wold find traces of UI-libraries from the local OS everywhere. That doesn't rule out the use of higher level abstraction layers.

There are UI-abstraction-tools that even include the most common mobile platforms, although their efficiency may be questionable.

Real-time is not an issue for RM itself, but the reality is that a lot of people use it in a home/studio-environment as an element in a more complex media-creation platform.

The standard linux-kernel is not real-time-compliant, but with the RT-patches it is 100% compliant with acknowledged RT-standards. Even a standard kernel compiled with low-latency-options is a lot better than most of the competition. There are of course more than decent alternatives to linux, but those do not include Apple or Microsoft. Systems that makes it very hard for users to even prevent things like automated maintenance-procedures from interfering with their workflow are far from optimal as a media-platform.

I completely agree that usability must be first priority, which of course makes the most common operating systems first priority too. My point is only that systems could be improved. In the current environment where media is mostly paid by advertising nobody really represent the consumer anymore. If people knew more about alternatives they may choose differently, which in turn could push the major players to produce better solutions. Given the resources at their disposal, I find it almost ridiculous that Apple and MS have not yet come up with better solutions.

Quote from CarloLf

I suppose this will not happen. First, way too few people using Linux. And then: RigManager is not built with a GUI framework like QT which would have made it very easy to run RigManager under Windows and Linux and... This was a design decision and I think Kemper will not revert it.

I don't think the application has been completely rewritten for macos vs windows so there is probably some form of abstraction layer used. Do you know which, and also positively that it isn't available for linux?

Not too many linux desktop-users yet, but the number is slowly rising. The number of people using devices running a linux-kernel OTOH is huge. Everything from being embedded in gadgets of all sorts to full-blown terminal units with Android (smartphones, tablets, smart-tv etc) . Neither windows nor macos are proper realtime-operating systems which is a huge advantage for manipulating audio and video information so I would not be surprised to see more applications moving in that direction. With macos or windows you really have to work hard to strip the systems down to an absolute minimum to turn it into a reasonably stable and responsive multimedia workstation. Meanwhile there are versions of linux with full realtime capabilities. Linux have come a long way since its conception in the early 90s. In the early years commercial entities wouldn't touch it with a stick. Today there's wide speculation among tech journalists that even MS may drop their proprietary OS-kernel for linux at some point.