Posts by AxeMan2U

  • axe fanboys comments about michael wagener using kemper

    Endorsements can be helpful if they come from someone who's work you respect, particularly if it is an unsolicited endorsement. That is not to say that that particular piece of gear is going to work as well for YOU, as was so well explained in an earlier reply, but it is a good indication that the product is a good one, and therefore worth trying.

  • Recommend a foot controller(s)

    The Little Giant is cool, but suffers from some of the same shortcomings (my opinion) that the Uno4Kemper FCB1010 does, and costs a lot more. I really feel that in order to make the most of the KPA's ability to have different effects in each slot on each profile, a remote controller needs to be able to display what is in each effect slot. This is the only way to avoid having to choose between settling for a "standard" effects setup (as far as type per slot) across all profiles or memorizing all the effects slots for all profiles.


    Right now, I use the Uno4Kemper (Xavier's excellent high bang for the buck product) because it was and is the least expensive way for me to see how well a live rig with just a KPA and my Matrix Q12a would work for me, and have settled on the "standard effects setup" approach. I have sacrificed being able to control reverb and tap tempo so I can control slots 1-3, X, & Delay. I keep the same type of effect in the same slot position on all profiles I use so I know where things are without having to refer to the KPA display. It is a sacrifice I do not want to make, though. This is one reason why I am going to move to a controller with text displays.


    Using the Uno4Kemper has allowed me to prove to myself that my KPA/Matrix Q12a rig not only works as a live rig, it does so really well. I only need more flexibility from the controller, so I will be moving on from the Uno4Kemper soon.


    Mastermind GT is another controller that is very flexible & powerful, and it also has nice text displays, a little nicer than those in the Liquid Foot product. Both can also control other MIDI devices easily, which something dedicated to the KPA can't do as yet. But Liquid Foot 's Editor software has the ability to automatically configure itself to your KPA, and is super easy to work with. It is also somewhat less expensive than the Mastermind GT, so a Liquid Foot controller is what I am planning on going with, even if either of the proposed Kemper Controller designs do see the light of day. This is a personal preference, and I am sure there are many people for whom the Uno4Kemper is all they need.

  • Recommend a foot controller(s)

    The Uno4Kemper chip with the FCB1010 is the best value out there for the KPA, but it does have it's shortcomings.


    The KPA has 4 stomp slots before the amp and 4 more after the amp, but the FCB1010 can only control 5 of them. Not only that, but each slot can hold completely different types of effects for each profile, so you have to KNOW what each effect is located at each slot on each profile. If your effects needs are simple, this is no big deal. But if you work with a lot of different effects configurations, this can be daunting.


    This is where controllers like the Liquid Foot+ series really shine. While the smaller LF+12+ has the same number of buttons as the FCB1010, it also has the ability to display what effect is on each button, so you don't have to settle for a standard effects configuration or memorize where they all are. Plus each button can control multiple effects. The larger LF+Pro+ has 24 buttons and so can handle all of the KPA stomp & effects slots.


    I can understand why they would decide to only support the KPA with these ++ controllers, since they are the only ones that make it easy to keep track of the stomp slots with text displays. I know it sucks if you have one of the older units, but I understand their position. When things like that have happened to me, I've just bitten the bullet and sold my old unit and bought the new one if I could afford it.


    The LF++ stuff IS pricey, but it does provide a great deal more control over the KPA, and so I do plan on buying one. I'll keep my FCB1010 with Uno4Kemper as a backup.

  • those owning the unit a year or longer

    The thing about the Kemper that sets it far apart from modeling amps is the fact that the Kemper does NOT model amps. What it does is actually capture all the aspects of a real amp that make it sound and play the way it does into a profile, and it applies all that to whatever guitar/sound you run through the Kemper, faithfully reproducing the real amp's behavior to the point of near indistinguishability. And it does this with virtually ANY tube amp. You simply can't get tired of the KPA, because the KPA can be ANY amp you can get your hands on or a profile of. It's no different than tiring of a Marshall and moving to a Boogie, except you don't have to sell the Marshall and buy a Boogie. You just turn the Browse knob or download a new profile!

  • How do Behringer make the FCB for $150.00?

    Quote from Will_Chen

    To be honest, labor really isn't even a factor. The body is cast, the board is likely wave soldered, and all connectors are on jacks and harnesses. I bet the final assembly on these only takes a few minutes.


    The body is NOT cast. It is fabricated from sheet metal, steel to be exact. It all the openings for jacks, etc. were done on the part before the part itself was done, all while the sheet was flat, either with a CNC Punch Press or a CNC Laser Cutter. Then the flat parts are bent into the final shape on a Folding Press. Finally the nice finish is applied to it.


    Casting a part as thin and large as this is extremely difficult to do (tough to get the molten steel to flow through the small cavities of the mold while remaining molten) if it is at all possible, and if so, it would be extremely expensive.


    All the plastic parts are injection molded. The molds are expensive to make and they do wear out in the molding process, so that is a cost they will encounter after a certain number of parts are made.


    But you are right about the final assembly being pretty quick.


    And it IS amazing they can make these and retail them for $150. That means THEIR cost is likely somewhere south of $75!

  • Using a amp's return in the effects loop as a input coming from my kemper questions.

    The Monitor Out is the only output that can have the virtual Cabinet turned off, so that is the one you need to use to feed your power amp, which is what going into your tube amp's effect return does. But be aware that a lot of profiles sound vastly different with different cabinets, virtual or otherwise. Using the KPA as a preamp locks you into the real cabinet(s) you have plugged in, so there will undoubtedly be profiles that you like in the KPA that you won't like running through your amp. That may or may not be an issue for you, but it's something to be aware of.

  • Raw Tube Kemper tone vs demands for everything else (read AXE FX demands )

    I think what Rescator is asking for are better FACTORY PROFILES, not improvements in what the KPA does. He refers to the Morgan AC 20 profile as being stellar, and I believe he would like to see the factory profiles achieve a similar level of quality. (By the way, now I'm sorry I missed out on this Morgan AC 20 profile that is no longer on the exchange!)


    I can appreciate Rescator's desire for more profiles to his liking, but I must point out that opinions regarding amp profile (and actual amps, for that matter) are quite subjective. I am certain that there are many KPA users who prefer other profiles to this Morgan AC 20, and that's fine.


    One thing I will say about many of the factory profiles is that I do believe the effects that are used on them are a bit of a hinderance in judging a given amp profile's usefulness to a given user. When shopping for a tube amplifier, I don't know of anyone who auditions the amp with a bunch of effects on it. What we are looking for in an amp first and foremost is a certain tone and feel. We can add whatever effects we like afterward.


    The Kemper folks naturally want to show off the effects that they put into the KPA, which is probably partly why they have so may profiles with effects on them. But I would argue that by the time someone actually buys a KPA, they've already heard what they can sound like via various YouTube videos featuring the KPA, both with and without effects, so the quality of the effects is already well known to a user. There is no real need for the factory rigs to have effects active by default. I think it would be wise for Kemper to change all Factory Profiles in future updates to have ALL effects inactive by default. It's just a better way to judge each profile. I know that we can easily turn off the effects ourselves, but if the best way to judge a profile's tone is without effects, then THAT should be the default presentation, and we can easily turn on any effects present in the profile should we want to explore the profile further.

  • Which tube amp(s) do you still keep and use - and why?

    Once I got the Kemper, my plan was to sell off all of the amps and cabinets that I had but was not in love with. There was one exception that I'll discuss later.


    I plan to keep my favorite tube amps because they are quite different from Kemper profiles when it comes to tweaking them. While the Kemper is great at capturing an amp at a given setting, it doesn't provide the same experience when tweaking gain & EQ. It's not bad, just different. So I like to keep my favorite tube amps around for those times I am recording and looking to dial in a sound for a certain song. Once I've found it, I profile it into the Kemper for safe (and portable) keeping.


    I then love to use the Kemper profiles of my amps for live performances. It's much lighter, delivers consistent great sound, and it affords me access to the exact sound I used on my recordings, no matter how varied.


    So the Kemper serves two main purposes for me. Capturing the sounds that are in my recordings, and allow me to use them live quite easily. The bonus purpose is allowing me to try out countless amplifiers without great expense! If I find a profile that completely blows me away, I can then hunt down one of the real amps for myself.


    Back to the tube amps I've kept so far. One is my Egnater M4 Modular Preamp. The thing sounds great, and being modular, grants me access to a lot of different pre-amps at a relatively low cost (it can use Randall modules too). I've also kep the Mesa/Boogie 50/50 power amp that I have paired with the Egnater M4. Lastly, I have a Johnson JM-250 Head. Yeah, I know it's a digital modeling amp that happens to have a tube circuit in the pre-amp stage, but it still counts as a tube amp to me. All the factory presets sound like crap to me. I don't care for most of the higher gain models, but some of the lower gain and clean stuff is quite nice. But my favorite models are not those of other brands of amps, but those that Johnson crafted themselves. The "Johnson" models in this amp sound really good, and like nothing else. As I mentioned before, I let go of the JM-150, but only because I had the JM-250.

  • kemper combo?

    Quote from Lokasenna

    The problem with this idea, as people have said elsewhere, is that a non-profiling Kemper would still be basically the same thing. The profiling process is using the same hardware and computery stuff as playing through it afterward, so there isn't really much that you could remove.


    I think the only way you could really downsize would be to start removing buttons, some of the extra ins and outs, maybe the USB/Ethernet jacks, etc, which would definitely work for a floorboard unit, but I doubt the manufacturing cost would be much lower.


    The removal of the profiling feature along with the various Ins & Outs options would render a Kemper Combo just another modeling amp, albeit the best of the lot. However, unless they believe they can sell more of these than they can the full Profilers, the cost would actually be HIGHER for such a combo. A great many of the folks who bought Profilers did so BECAUSE they can profile their own amps. That certainly is the case for professionals, who love the idea of taking THEIR amp sounds (every damned one of them) with them on the road without risking their prized amps to the rigors of the road, without having to deal with breakdowns, etc. Some may well be interested in getting a combo in addition to a Profiler, for a super simple setup, but I still think the full Profilers will outsell Combos, so the Combos will be more costly to manufacture.


    My non-powered Profiler and Matrix Q12a together make for a simple setup with killer sound. I guess I could always bolt the Profiler to the top of the Q12a, turning them into a combo! ;)