Sure would be nice to have an official editor already. I hope that it encompasses (and expands) the functionality of Rig Manager. I like the physical device the way it is (powered toaster). But I have so many use cases where editor accessibility would dramatically change the work flow for the better, and in creative ways. It's not just about housekeeping. And I'm still hoping there's a "master drive" in the works (incorporating boost and sophisticated compression, eq and fuzz)—in one stomp. I don't care if it eats-up other resources. I just want to be able to fine tune all those parameters that impact that aspect of a rig in one place. In a way, people make too big a deal about the differences between analog drives. Those differences are pretty subtle. CK & co should be able to create something in the digital realm that gets us in to all the iconic zones and beyond. Every couple months or so I reintroduce analog drives—TS, D-Style, Klones etc—and each time I realize that I really don't want to go back there. Having a deep, easy way to scratch that itch but within the device would put all that to rest, for the most part. Ugh, many of us have been very patient (since really, the KPA gets us to most of these tone spots since day one). Still, it's time.
Posts by creative360
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The Origin Effects pedals are great. I owned the first Cali 76 with the upgraded internals for about a year. It was just too big for the board and then I went no board. Great to see they combined it with the Sliderig in a small enclosure.
But the truth is, there are several great compressors even some of the famous cheap guitar pedals that have major character, that aren’t transparent at all. All the old stuff like Dyna Comp and Dan Armstrong and Boss, up through all their descendants, all the boutique era stuff, Analogman etc. Even the $25 Joyo clone has an amazing, particular thing. It’s like a Dan Armstrong, but more hifi.
The point is that pedal compressors can add so much musicality and zing and they’re not all the same. There must be parameters that could address these qualities. Kemper could easily (maybe not easily but confidently and successfully) design something that provides a way to get at inspiring compression applications, versus purely utilitarian.
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Congratulations to every guitarist who has been waiting, hoping and rationalizing about how for his workflow a self-contained floor unit is the best solution. I hope this unit meets your expectations, and more! And congrats to Kemper too. I doubt this thing will be cheap. I'm pretty certain it will be wildly popular.
And now I'm hoping that, Kabinet/Kone notwithstanding, this may free-up the Kemper team to further explore new sonic initiatives, versus hardware development. I'm also hoping that my good old powered KPA is still a viable vessel for whatever is coming down the road for the foreseeable future.
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Ingolf ... We know that you know that we know that you know ...
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The KPA is indistinguishable from its source a lot or really most of the time. That doesn't negate examples where users aren't satisfied with their results, but jeez, attempting to reverse-engineer those users' particular gear and processes is an imperfect challenge at best. Kudos for CK's open attitude about at least trying.
Of course that great attitude doesn't invalidate the value of a new, improved, simple to follow step by step instructional video for owners (and prospective owners) of all experience levels. So many aspects of this device are wildly simpler to exploit in practice than they are to research and learn, due to arcane, convoluted documentation. Sorry, but it's true. Hey it's great that the device is so much simpler to use than the manual is to understand, but that doesn't make it right. Still, I use the device for playing music 99% of the time I'm near it, but as with the eventual editor, there's always the potential for a deeper relationship with this thing, as new developments foster easier interaction with the device.
Meanwhile, to amp manufacturers who take issue with the Kemper . Their problem should be with the modeler designers, who purport to offer "functionally identical" simulations of generalized examples of guitar amplifiers, as opposed to the Kemper, which is actually designed to capture highly personal implementations of specific examples of these amps, usually combined in a signal path with products from several other manufacturers (boosts, drives, speakers, tubes, modifications, mics, etc.).
And sorry, in this day and age even if it's not digital, most musicians playing-out will opt for lighter, cheaper clean platform amps with a few modest pedals to achieve Marshall, Dumble, etc, versus the heavy, expensive boutique amps. I saw Mike Landau the other day using a $1000 amp with a modest pedal board absolutely killing it.
At least Kemper, as an archive or whatever, keeps alive the relevance of the real-deal amps, even if those amps aren't making it to the stage as often. Sure, I'd feel threatened by the Kemper if I were a builder, but as a Kemper user, of course I root for the survival and good maintenance of vintage amps and the development of new interpretations of the tube/analog classics. The Kemper will always be (potentially) more up-to-date and (potentially) more unique from one unit to the next than any modeler ever could be.
ymmv
Yikes, sorry for this novel.
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When the the KPA can do the Keeley compressor, the Wampler Ego and the Origin Effects Cali 76 ..
All great ones, a couple of which I still own, but since each is a "new" take on the classics, my guess is Kemper could do the same, another great interpretation,that's all their own, sort of like what they accomplished with the delays and reverbs .. they satisfy my tastes and preconceptions about those tools but aren't exactly like what I used before .. blah blah you know what I mean ...
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As I understand it the amp block compression parameter is designed to offset volume disparity across the range of your guitar’s volume knob. It’s novel and ingenious but it isn’t intended to imbue characteristics anything like what we associate with a pedal or studio compressor.
I’ve always advocated (wished) for a deep-parameters compressor/drive/boost internal KPA stomp. From Dan Armstrong, Dyna, Ego, etc, to Sliderig, LA2A, and beyond, but including the other effects (drive and boost) that almost always share the signal path and that benefit from (require) sympathetic tweaking—all in one stomp slot.
I’m not concerned with identical emulations, but with the potential to use compression and drive more creatively and efficiently (one slot), like on so many great records. The current stomp works very well, but it lacks the zing and personality we associate with the classics and the fine-tuning controls of their more recent descendants.
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For an experienced combo in a small venue, mic’ing nothing but vocals is sublime. The potential is for everything to gel. In my experience doing that with the Kemper, a real guitar cab makes a big difference versus the dxr and clr that I gigged many times. Yes, with a decent soundman, very slight PA reinforcement is great too, where you feel the stage but achieve greater clarity. But for bands that can’t or choose not to self-modulate their own volume, the PA isn’t necessarily going to solve their problems.
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There are so many reasons for that "six months' thing that may have nothing to do with the profiling process, per se. More likely his techs were able to get their boss to a/b examples of how they’d profiled his amps every couple of weeks, since he’s inevitably (hopefully) spending more time sitting on a back porch overlooking the English countryside with a $75,000 prewar Martin in his lap. I sincerely doubt that he was in the studio for six months grinding through parameters to get tones. I'm guessing he'd come to a rehearsal, play through tunes, and offer "notes" on his feelings about the tones, that would then be addressed in the next round. Look, he’s many peoples tone god, but there are other fantastic instrumentalists who have put together a similarly "vintage" tour’s worth of tones in a recording studio in a day or two with blissful results. But yes! I'm looking forward to well-recorded live videos featuring his clean(est) live playing with the Kemper.
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If he’s touring a band with a lot of musicians this makes sense—seems to be the standard move these days. And sure, as a primarily clean player, for me he’s the iconic clean hero “endorsee” to end all. That said, it’ll be interesting to hear clips/video where it breaks down to a trio or quartet and his guitar is front and center. And of course to see if he stays with the Kemper live for subsequent tours. Finally, how come Knopfler didn’t post here to rue the risk of buying “old” tech when an “updated” version is obviously “just around the corner” !?
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With a powered Kemper having a great 1x12 on stage while sending a profile—obviously meant to sound good—to front of house, this can be very effective. Even for people who are also also using in-ears. That age-old inference that guitarists using guitar speakers vs frfr somehow don’t care about what the audience hears, it has zero basis in reality. So far signs point to the Kemper speaker addressing the failings of frfr by adding versatility to a (relatively) traditional guitar driver. Hope it’s a success!
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More and more guitarists using Kempers are “rediscovering” traditional cabs. There is by no means a professional consensus that frfr is the answer, it’s quite the opposite.
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Early days I sold my powered rack on the TGP emporium when I got a powered toaster. I wiped it clean first, didn’t include anything. It was in near-mint condition and the buyer loved it. The manufacturer immediately transferred the remainder of the warranty. Those used ads irk me; it’s as if those sellers think that because they don’t plan to use the Kemper anymore that it’s okay to betray their commitment to the commercial profilers. And anyway everyone assumes that they’ll hang on to copies of all that paid stuff and if they ever buy another Kemper they’ll load’m right up. So it’s not cool and it’s also a bad look.
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Good bad right wrong political capitalistic ethical whatever ... Most of these commercial profile purchases are just simple agreements made with a single individual .. usually another musician.
By making the purchase we are accepting the terms set forth up front by a fellow musician. OP can justify it any way he likes, but if he’s not honoring those agreements then the only ethical conundrum here is why he made the purchase in the first place, and why he believes that that deceit is okay.
Regarding amp manufacturers, that’s the profiler’s not the end-user’s problem. Ultimately the advent of digital creative processes has forced the manufacturers of legacy analog equipment to rethink their positions in the music creation spectrum and there are business model implications that go along with these changes.
But it’s not all bad. I would argue that Kemper, as a tone archive device, accurate and with an ungoverned, open-ended palette, is a fantastic advertisement for the endless combinations of components that it emulates. And amps are still very popular, like the vintage-inspired studio stuff, even experiencing a bit of a rebirth of its own. Expensive though.
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“Clean” boosts became famous for what they do in front of already cooking amps. It’s not a “problem” it’s a recipe.
I owned Aluminum Falcons, Archers and several of the other heralded Klon clones along the way and the Soul Food is cheap and amazing. And in terms of Tube Screamers, it’s not as warm and accurate as my vintage and tweaked by Analog Man original, but the Joyo Vintage Overdrive is a fantastic $30 pedal.
And yes there are some great baked-in drive profiles, but the ability to tweak the character of the boost and it’s relationship to the front of an amazing amp profile would be very helpful.
All these variances between pedals are actually relatively minimal eq and gain structure differences. An all-encompassing single Kemper stomp (of course with helpful presets) would be the ideal.
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Using an always-on Klon(e) or Tube Screamer on zero drive and a bunch of gain (volume) in between single coil pickups and an amp are two of the universally great recipes for sweet tone, which is why so many of our heroes do it. The Kemper Green Scream is close but not perfect. For some reason it requires a clean boost stomp at -2db in front of it. No Klon. I don’t want to bring my pedals to shows so I make it work and sound great. But improving the boost/drive/comp depth and capabilities of this device would be a godsend. It’s true that there are great profiles with baked-in Klons and other pedals, but I prefer to set those parameters myself.
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Well you can use it that way and many people do. I did it with alternately a CLR and DXR10 for a couple of years. Plenty loud enough but somehow didn’t matter. Those frfr speakers are meant to be sitting on the floor in front of you like a traditional wedge or up on poles left and right level with your ears. Pretty much all other usages are not considered best manufacturer-approved practices, even though commonplace. Back then I received plenty of compliments on my tone from people in the audience, but the playing feel was always sort of compromised. My sense is that if there’s a good PA, going direct and chancing it with whatever monitor they provide for you is ultimate convenience and if stage feel is important, then using a traditional guitar cabinet as well may be the way to go.
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It's definitely a different feel. To be honest (and this definitely betrays my rookie status with FRFRs), I was thinking I could use the Kemper into the Friedman much like a Head to Cabinet. given the total wattage of both units. This is helpful advice, thank you.
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Find a Deluxe Reverb profile that you like (or a Carr from TAF for instance) and then run the powered Kemper in to your actual Deluxe Reverb speaker, for starters. And sure then experiment with other guitar speaker cabs. FRFR’s have plenty of volume but the feel is completely different. They’re great as monitors in conjunction with a traditional cab but on their own run the risk of feeling like you might get blown off the stage by someone using even a tiny amp like a Pro or Blues Junior. Of course that’s just my experience.
