Posts by Calaban

    I bought Tonex Max.


    It is buggy right now, and the UI is pretty bad imo.


    But the “Tone Models” sound and feel great.


    I was surprised by the first video fredrikn posted above. The Kemper was way off. I have seen many other videos where the Kemper was much closer to the amp. I wonder if he did something wrong while profiling.


    I think Tonex is at least as accurate. Hopefully they’ll fix the bugs and rework the UI soon.


    The usefulness of having these captures as a plug in in the DAW cannot be overstated. I would love to see a Kemper VST.

    I wish the Kemper would offer us the choice of using the generic Kemper EQ controls, or modeled versions of the “accurate” EQ controls.


    The gain knob is used very infrequently, and when I do use it I use it very sparingly. Turning it up is ok in small doses but too much starts to sound weird to me. Turning it down works however far you go.

    I thought he was a paid endorser for them, so I had high expectations of his sound. Plus this was not many years ago, so he had been a Fractal guy for years by this point. Every instrument and voice was perfect except for the guitar, which sounded weak and strange. His playing was fantastic though. I guess I'll buy that he wanted it to sound like that. Some people add ketchup to ice cream.

    It may also have been the FOH guy screwing it up. I wonder if Dweezil was going direct and using a FRFR, or using a real cab and micing that, or going direct but monitoring with a real cab…

    I'm still having flashbacks from seeing Dweezil Zappa play a great show, with an amazing band and a tone that sounded like a first generation Line6 product. I was really disappointed, especially after reading several gear rundowns and other stuff where he's going on about Fractal. The rest of the instruments and the voices sounded amazing. I can't see a slightly faster processor fixing that.

    Fractal units are perfectly capable of producing tones as good as anything out there.


    It seems you just didn’t enjoy the way he had it dialed in. It’s not a hardware issue.

    The music may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I thought I’d post here since the KPA is all over the record.



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    I’ve always loved ‘Rule The World’


    Even when it came out and I was into metal, I could tell it was just a great track. Great melodies, hooks, lyrics, performance etc.


    They did a great job on it here, and the Kemper sounded great.


    No bassist though? Was I missing something?

    Looks like both guitarists are using them.


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    Some of the things Apple does badly (in case Kemper engrs are reading this):


    1) When you press your finger onto the screen, they read this too fast. So as your finger smushes into the screen they read this as a swipe which results in the UI doing nothing or going into swipe mode and a phone getting tossed into a wall.


    2) They have code that looks at the angle your finger is pressing. So in portrait mode your finger has to be in portrait mode also or no touch happens. This would make me smash my Kemper if I am balancing a guitar, wearing headphones, and reach over to make a change and it doesn't register because I am at a 15 degree angle.

    I have never #1 in any disqualifying or even irritating amount.


    I have never experienced #2 at all. Not once. And I’ve been using iPhones since the very first model.

    …one thing that did strike me as potentially very good design was the way that the footswitches all serve a dual function as physical knobs for data entry.

    They worked great. In fact I used them for dialing in values more than the touchscreen. You can certainly use the screen to turn virtual knobs and it worked fine, but I preferred the foot switch/knobs.


    But the touchscreen was amazing for quickly getting to different section like the outputs etc, and seeing everything on one page. Truly brilliant in fact.


    The mixed approach of touchscreen and physical knobs is the sweet spot, IMO.

    A touch screen is the last thing I think of when I think about the long list of most important things that really should be developed, improved and fixed in a generation II. It would be handy and nice to have, though.

    Being a former QC owner, I can say that in my opinion a touchscreen would be a very welcome addition to the Kemper world.


    The touchscreen on my QC was very responsive. I didn’t have any of the problems that people here are worrying about.


    And it could be optional, of course. If Kemper implements a touchscreen, I hope they would make all the functions available via buttons and knobs as well, for those who do not like to use touchscreens.

    I would like an FM9.


    I love my Kemper. I have a powered rack, but I never use the power amp (I thought I would use the KPA live, but digital still doesn’t do it for me) so I may trade it in for a Stage.


    Since I only use my digital solutions (KPA, Amplitube) for recording purposes and playing at home, I would like an FM9 to supplement. I sometimes find that profiles are not great for a song, and tweaking them too much starts to sound weird to me. In those instances the ‘modeling’ paradigm would make sense.


    Amplitube is great for this and I’m pretty happy with it, but I am Fractal curious.

    That the KPA is still very relevant after 10 years is a remarkable achievement.


    That said, the unit could use a refresh or a v.2


    The modulation effects need updating.


    The UI needs updating. I will get some pushback here, but the UI on the QC really is the best thing going right now.


    I know CK has stated that the profiling process can’t be improved, but I have my doubts that he really believes that.