Posts by OneEng1

Quote from whippinpost91850

Dynochrome, where abouts do you live?

I play mostly just north of Detroit. I’ve been playing band gigs, for over 50 yrs and have never played one of those, play for the door type gigs. Always makin money playin.

Only played 12 ,this year, but still the band made at least $500 a night

Hi Wippinpost,

I am in NC now, but spent the last 25 years in the Detroit area (Western suburbs). Several places in Farmington, Westland, and Livonia did the whole "play for the door" thing. We only did this once or twice since it didn't pay. We generally did bar gigs for around $500. Corporate gigs, weddings, and festivals were much better and safer for your gear. We did an anual biker club gig outside once. That got a little scary by 2:00am ;).

I have experienced all the above crap with my foot controllers over the years. I even accidentally ran over my old 2120 pedal board with my old TA ;). It kept on going.

Foot controllers in a gigging live situation in bars is definitely a tough ride for the device!

Quote from caveman1

I might put mine in a mixer rack case and use a midi controller

That would certainly work; however, I wonder how complete of a MIDI implementation it will have. Someone made a UnoForKemper ROM for the inexpensive behringer foot controller that very nicely mimicked the functions on the KPA so individuals didn't have to become MIDI experts. I wonder if someone will do the same for this new pedal? I used that FCB for a couple of years before Kemper released their own foot controller.

Quote from BayouTexan

The bad thing about using just headphones is you don't get a good stereo field separation. But whenever the wife says Turn it Lower! I put the headphones on. So get a real good pair.

I seem to have the opposite problem when going from my PA to my headphones. The headphones have much better stereo separation and therefore sound different than the PA (although the PA sounds different for a lot of reasons).

Honestly, I would have said that head phones are best for an apartment. I do agree that studio monitors are better sounding, but I think you will find that you will play them at levels that the neighbors will not like.

The KPA sounds very good through headphones. The only drawback is that you can't get the string action you will get with real speakers actually moving air in the room .... but moving air will also get the police called on you ;).

Quote from muggel

Not knowing how big the difference is between a touch sensitive screen and a standard LCD panel is when it comes to durability, I just want to add that I´ve actually never heard about broken screens with a Helix, Headrush, AXE/FM3 etc. Is there a reason to assume that´ll be different here?

Huge difference.

The screens you see on foot controllers are ALWAYS covered by a window. The window material is generally something like polycarbonate .... which is really tough and scratch resistant (nearly all eyeglasses today use this material btw).

A touch screen by contrast must actually have its glass "touchable" in order for the capacitive screen to work. Imagine having your phone screen on your foot controller.

The claims of "most durable foot switch ever" are absurd. The standard momentary switches used on most foot controllers are all metal (the physical button part). From here: https://guitarpedalparts.com/p…NygXy9iFjDbRoCns8QAvD_BwE

Cheep too ;).

As I said, I am really looking forward to having some people play these out in the wild. I really hope they are all that. The industry needs good competition.

Quote from paddyc

Hmmm - priced more than a Kemper Stage - it needs to be good!

Agreed. If it is just pretty with a cool GUI .... that likely wont cut it. It has to compete with the current market leaders favorably.

Anyone played one yet?

Quote from caveman1

When you have a kemper DI profile that sounds 95% close to a real amp all the processing power don't mean too much lol

coding ftw! Saying that I'm def looking to pick up a QC

While I am always wary of new technology in guitar amps (I avoided digital amps for decades), it is simply a "show me" attitude shining forth. 😁.

If the new pedal has the sonic chops, durability, workflow and is price competitive, I am sure it will be successful.

I am just pointing out that the number of cores and clock frequency are not good indicators of a good digital amp

Quote from DanielRigler

Sure. You can see it uses two ADSP-SC589 components.

https://ibb.co/n7XkNcb

Each one is a dual-core 500 Mhz DSP. Sounds less convincing this way I guess But don't worry, it does not mean it will be bad or obsolete. KPA has less processing power. Efficient coding can go a very long way.

As I said, what guitar player goes out looking for a processor based on how many cores and what frequency it runs at? Seriously!

For me, it is all about the work flow (live), durability and the sound quality.

While I know others have different use cases where cool GUI's and editors are high on the list, my needs for live really are that simple.

Quote from CelticGibson

Maybe the poor implementation comes with the territory of depending on object orientated platforms to code something so sophisticated as a firmware for a modeller. CK does things differently in that he developed the actual programming environment from scratch for the 56k Motorola inside the Kemper and thus has this thing as close to the metal as you can possibly get. It really is all about implementation and it helps immensely if you can code in Assembly too.

I agree. It is all about the implementation.

I would argue that anyone that OOP is a bad tool for use in embedded systems. C++ OOP consumes many times as much ROM space and RAM space as straight C does. While it can execute just as fast, it usually doesn't simply because of the moving of a butt ton of memory object information around.

It is amazing what the KPA accomplishes with its minimal processing and RAM.

Quote from DamianGreda

It has dual core DSP

Lol. And here comes Damian to shoot me down 😜

I don't know what processor the "quad cortex" uses, but it does suggest it has 4 cores 😁.

Still, even a single core can task switch. I did it on a 68332. Any OS offers this . I am sticking with the "poor implementation" explanation for now.

FWIW, what we are doing here is known as "user stories" in Product Management. You FIRST determine the way customers want a product to operate, THEN you design for it.

As an example, guitar players don't have a requirement for a powerful multicore processor, they want it to start quickly, switch quickly, and have lots of available etc.

I am not saying that this product doesn't have those features, only that the company appears to be heading into that line of reasoning.

Quote from CelticGibson

Wow, the tone of that Line 6 changelog. It's like they got the angry intern to write it.

"Despite what some might have you believe, the only digital multieffects units with true preset spillover were the DigiTech GSP1101, 2112, and 2120, and they accomplished this by dedicating a second identical DSP to spillover and only spillover. (Basically, to hear two dynamically allocated presets with absolutely zero gap—not some global reverb or delay smeared to cover the gap—you need enough DSP to run both of them simultaneously.) So... if you're willing to sacrifice half your DSP—that is, COMPLETELY DISABLE PATH 2—you too can have true preset spillover. "

I love this bit...

"

But but but... I don't wanna lose Path 2 for spillover!

Then keep using snapshots."

Is aggression another effect added to this release?? 🙄

Display More

First, I had a 2120 for years. Sure, it had spill-over, and maybe it did use its 2nd processor for this purpose; however, in no way would I put my 2120 and KPA (or Axe Fx III) in the same sentence.

Second, in this modern day and age we engineers have these things called Threads or tasks (depending on the operating system being used). You can accomplish the same thing without 2 processors.

Third, The KPA does this and does NOT have multiple processors and does not have any audible switch time.

My conclusion is that it is an implementation issue, not a hardware issue. If they have architected their firmware in a way that doesn't allow this, then it isn't the hardware's fault.

My expert scoring on this ..... 10.0 on the BS - O - Meter.

As for the buttons, I too have engineered testing rigs to test mechanical buttons. The issue is always that the machine isn't a foot and doesn't press the button the same way, or as hard.

The best testing is a year in the field really. Short of that ..... re-use of off-the-shelf components that already have field hardened track records in the field (which is what KPA did).

I guess I am not the only one to have a beer (or pitcher) spilled on a FC ;). I had my old Digitech RP1 driven over. One pedal got sticky, but the unit played for several years before I gave it to a friend.

In all honesty, I love the screen on this thing, but the buttons look to be too close together.

Hmmm. Someone poor 2 beers on it, drop it a few times, and activate the switches a few thousand times then see if the foot switches are still working

Quote from BobbyKa

Two of my friends have broken rj45 sockets in their kemper racks. They still work, but they don't hold the cable tight(yes, cable and nose is ok, its the socket). This can happen when someone accidentialy pulls hard on the cable while plugged in.

It is possible to change them. But you have to disassamble the whole unit to get to this point, and have to solder the small connectors.

If you don't live in the US getting the spare part costs about 35€ or more, cause you only find shops in the US that sell them.

I am glad I put my patch panel in then ;). While I live in the US and am a seasoned electrical engineer, cracking open my KPA and soldering on the weekend is not my idea of a great time either.

You should be able to find the parts in Europe easily enough. Perhaps if you check Digikey you could find a distributor in the EU that has them.

I have 5 patents and have gone through the legal process that many times.

First, you can patent anything. You just can't defend it so the patent isn't worth the paper its printed on if you don't perform due diligence.

Second, to get the patent, you have to expose how you did it. Anyone that can figure out from that how you did it can tweak the process enough to bypass the patent.

Third, you can't get blood out of a turnip. If the company doesn't have enough money to shake a stick at, why file suit?

I personally LIKE having my name on patents. Having patents makes your company value higher; however, unless you are prepared to take legal action, and have patents that you and your company understand well enough to defend in a court of law, it is better just to have trade secrets IMO.

CK could send them an "invitation to participate in the Kemper licensing program" from his lawyer. This is how most suits I have been involved in (2) started out.

Quote from Dynochrome

Thank you but you must have missed the part where I wrote:

I would want a mod like BA did with no plug sticking out. To me, that is an accident waiting to happen that for sure would shut you down.

Somehow I missed the concept that your KPA head (unlike my rack) doesn't have a space between the KPA and a patch panel to route the cable and must be routed inside in order to keep the unprotected RJ45 from being out in the open.

Yea, that would require removing the existing RJ45 from the KPA and replacing it with a RJ45 that is a straight mount (vs 90 deg). They likely then just run the cable to the jack as I had suggested .... although it is possible that they actually solder wire by wire .... but that seems silly squared to me.

Anyway, I was just suggesting a way to make the mod yourself on a shoe-string budget of around $20.00 in parts (plus a little machining of an aluminum plate).

FWIW, I would think that this mod would invalidate your KPA warranty if you still have one.

Quote from Dynochrome

I have total access to a shop with lasers to cut sheet metal that has tolerances .002" or better. That's the easy part. I would want a mod like BA did with no plug sticking out. To me, that is an accident waiting to happen that for sure would shut you down. I just need the plans to tap into the Ethernet connection internally. That's the part I don't want to mess with. I am proficient & have all the tools to solder fine equipment but there's no way I would solder to circuit boards on my Kemper. Now, if I could have that mod done for around $100.00 professionally, I'd jump on it. I wonder what people like MB do as he tours with a toaster in a case. It's getting plugged in and out at every show and likely at home. Perhaps I just need to be careful and I'm being paranoid.

I see.

If you can get the metal work done, then that is by far the most difficult part IMO. You don't need to do any soldering either (I have not). All you need is a panel mount Ethercon connector that accepts a standard RJ45 cable on the back side and a short ethernet jumper to go from the back of your panel mount to your KPA.

Now ..... Kemper says that this may cause power loss issues with your remote cable and recommends an Ethernet power injector for this purpose. They even had specific part recommendations for one.

I originally had the power injector they recommended in my rack, but it eventually failed and I just took it out and have been gigging with it without any issues since around 2015.

You also need to get an Ethercon adapter for the other end of your KPA remote cable. I bought one that only required me to put something over the existing RJ45 connector and then break off the retaining tab. They also have adapters that require you to cut off the old RJ45 and re-crimp on a new one which generally requires an RJ45 crimping kit (which you can get at most hardware stores if you want to go this direction).

I think I bought this one: https://www.markertek.com/prod…NBLqm6gBSHcBoCRxIQAvD_BwE

And something like this: https://www.datapro.net/produc…n-rj45-cat5e-coupler.html

When the KPA was new (I picked mine up very shortly after performance mode was released), there was a lag of around 250mSec between rigs and everyone immediately jumped on this as being impossibly long. 2 Seconds is an eternity.

FYI, the last time I measured the KPA switch time in performance mode, I believe it was around 40mSec which I feel is pretty darned close to "instant"

Quote from jjborsa

British audio does a mod....

https://britishaudio.com/colle…ducts/kemper-profiler-mod

I think I spent about $60.00 in parts including a panel mount plate with pre-drilled holes for my rack version. I chose the rack specifically so it would be in a rack that provided touring level durability.

The patch panel helped with durability, but was primarily for ease of set-up and tear down.

If you can get someone to make an aluminum plate, it is an easy mod.

Quote from lightbox

How on earth is it possible that after this long of a thread you suggest this? I really wonder.

Would you suggest that when someone wants to kick in an additional boost, he should sacrifice the Morph function to switch the amp gain up/down? Or would you rather have the artist stop playing, turn around or kneel down to move the amp gain knob on the Profiler? C'mon, seriously.

In all honesty, I was also wondering as ckemper stated why you are placing such emphasis on the volume boost. Isn't putting more boost the same as simply adding more input signal going into the amp stage? And can't a pureboost do that?

So ..... as far as my little engineering mind can figure it, OD pedals do one or more of the following:

1. Boost the input to the pre-amp stage of the amp (unless they are placed in the circuit after the preamp of course)
2. Create distortion and harmonic content
3. Modify the eq characteristics of the signal
4. Compress the signal

While I am sure that some of the classic pedals do many (or all) of these things at once to varying degrees, really the only key characteristic needed would be #2 since we can do all the other things with separate plug-ins.

If the KD does many of these things (or all of them), with a few controls, and all we are talking about here is a little volume increase going into the amp section, it seems pretty trivial to fix with the available functionality isn't it?