Posts by OneEng1

Quote from Dean_R

A tool worth close to $2000 should provide more than just "sheer luck" .
I just bought a tool for around $200 that fits in my pocket that is a DI (can be used directly with my tube amps) that can load third party impulse responses, Fully parametric EQ with High and Low Pass filters, Room Simulator, Power Amp simulator,. The beauty of it is it can be used with real world tube amps, preamps in case you don't want to use AMP simulators for live and studio work and home recording also.

Meanwhile my Kemper is still unable to profile the gain knob of the tube amps, there's no tone stacks and no room simulation for the cabs, so for recording and live, I'm now having better "Luck" with real tube amps and impulse loader. I actually made some IRs of some of the Kemper Proifles I like and they actually sound better with my new setup, go figure.

The difference, of course, being that Kemper is a professional grade tool with sound quality equivalent to a tube amp (or every tube amp).

Quote from nightlight

I think the level of discussion on this thread will definitely illustrate to Kemper Amps the financial logic of building a "Kemper 2".

How many old users do you think will make the switch? Probably a sizeable number.

That means big money for the company. They've already got the profiling technology. Just soup up the processor and run dual profiles, extended FX chains et al.

I'm betting they'll do it sometime. When is a big question. Probably when they realise they have milked the existing platform for all its worth and they need a new "best in class" device.

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They already have a "best in class" device at a significantly lower price target than their nearest competitor.

I am with the guys that are talking about a floor version. Get the price point down even further and take some of the AX8 and Helix market share away from them.

Please note, any floor version of the KPA would absolutely require a full featured PC editor. You can get away with minimal and clunky device controls to keep the price down, but you really need an editor for such a product.

I wouldn't hold my breath on a "new and improved" KPA. Just imagine if such a beast was made and it was indistinguishable from the original in tone? This is NOT that big a stretch either since the current KPA is indistinguishable from a real amp in the lions share of cases. How much "better" can the sound really be made?

Take it from a guy who does product planning and business development for a living. A new product is all about gaining market share and making money. To the customer, it is all about price/performance ration and price/features.

Kemper is doing quite well in the high end, live sound market. At $2K you can get yourself into a really nice rig. I think that a $1K device would really sell at a much higher volume though.

My bet is on a floor model as the "next kemper".

Quote from music

I work a little bit different than Raoul.(although my prefered profiles are the TAF JCM800, too !!!)

When we (the cover band I‘m in) want to do a song, I listen to the song and try to find out the used amp.
And I try to find out via Internet, f.e. in live videos.
Most of the times I don‘t hear it because my ears are to bad.
But sometimes it works.
Then I play the profile of the used amp and try to bring the sound close to the original (without effects).
If this fits (gain, EQ) I think about possible effects.
Hope this can help.

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Same here.

Listen to the recording, look up guitar used, look up amp used, look up efx used. Start with same base sound from an amp profile, tweak gain, then eq, then add efx.

Quote from skoczy

Axe fx3 wins! Look at that sparkle at the left of 21433. Kemper never published these bars. They don't use MS Excel?

[Blocked Image: https://www.fractalaudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/3-Benchmarks-w-footnote-gray2.jpg]

[chuckles] Ya know, I have never once, in my 30 years of playing live, every had a single person come up to me on break and complement me on how fast the FPGA was in my processor.

Lets try to keep it real here.

Quote from monotone

It is embarrassing almost boarding on humiliating that Kemper haven't released an desktop based control software. The price of a kemper is not chump change.

This is the year 2018 and the competition has left them way way behind in terms of features for value for money Variable spdif rates have just become an option...you can buy behringer audio interface from 2012 with 96khz sampling that is not a big deal.
The hardware is beyond a joke average and Kemper don't even release relevant performance specs to prove otherwise.

I appreciate that some people are blindly Kemper fanatic and for some reason are emotionally defensive when you do bring up the facts and so will dissagree till they're dying breath frothing at the mouth screaming the kemper is 'perfect'...

I thing the main issue I see again and again on the forum is that the inventor has priced his creation at a pro level with the level of performance and features of a consumer product.

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Lets not get silly here. If all you ever did with it was replace your Fender twin, JCM800 and your barrage of foot pedals, it would be a value.

Remember, for many of us, it is the tone that matters. This is not being "blindly fanatic". This is just common math.

I could pay more for an Axe II Fx or Axe III and get way more features, but I still wouldn't sound any better. Additionally, the Kemper is easier to use from the front panel for the vast majority of tweaks a real live musician would make at a gig.

Yes, we would all appreciate a full featured PC editor, but just because Kemper doesn't have it, doesn't make Kemper hardware "beyond a joke average". It gets the job done.

Perhaps you would be better off with an Axe III. Different strokes for different folks.

Hopefully you wont mind if I continue to enjoy my KPA?

Quote from creative360

We all read the arguments against committing to higher res files, but a lot of great, smart Grammy-winning producers and engineers most definitely record at 96. Point is, placebo or not, now when you carry your Kemper in to a studio, that will no longer be a discussion. You’ll set it to what they’re using and make music.

I am not certain that everyone understood my answer (at least).

My contention is that internal to the kemper, processing at 48 kHz or 96 kHz will make no difference to the sound quality all by itself.

The note from timo above is spot on. With the same buffer size, doubling the sample rate will cut latency in half for internal processing.

When recording, the higher sample rate is needed because the algorithms that work on the data tend to lop off stuff when things get expanded in processing. 96 kHz recordings are more immune to this problem than 48 kHz recordings are. This is the reason that pretty much all people who record use 96 kHz sample rates.

Note, that internally, Kemper has to be careful not to lose information in their own calculations as well; however, embedded coders are particularly careful about these things (PC coders .... not so much). Additionally, the Kemper latency paths will all be matched to keep phase coherency going ..... ie, you don't want to take a signal, process it (there by delaying it), then mixing it back into the original signal without also delaying the original signal. If you do this, you will mush up the sound (like adding a chorus to something).

The KPA sounds pretty clean, so I am sure I have no need to give any advice to CK about this problem

Finally, it is possible to get higher quality sound from 96 kHz internal to an embedded device since you can do 2 times the processing and still keep the latency the same. As stated, this would require 2 times the processing power though. Engineering is funny that way. You never get something for nothing.

Quote from djemass

My personal experience is I don't care about sampling rate.

The problem is that my Sound engineer is !!

And I had to record my whole album at home at 48khz with XLR cables. I am happy because now I can record for him in spdif and it is way way easier with my configuration.
I have no XLR cables everywhere at home and my wife is happier.

KPA team, you made my wife happier, so you made my life easier !!

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Quote from ckemper

Thanks everyone that you like our feature update!

Now that we talk digital audio rates again, it‘s time for resolving some digital myths.

If you have any device or software that sounds better at 48 than at 44.1, then it is very bad made.
Especially if a reverb would improve its sound at 48 kHz, it would be a hell of bad code. Can you name one?

From a standpoint of what we hear when we play, even 44.1 kHz is more (much more) than adequate to provide perfect analog reproduction of frequencies up to 22 kHz..... which is much higher than any of us can hear anyway. I want to stress the word "perfect". You can mathematically create the original analog waveform PERFECTLY at this sample rate. Higher rates do not impact what we hear.

Now the rub.....

Some of you are correct in that all recording engineers will vastly prefer 96 kHz.... but not for what you were thinking.

Different algorithms which operate on raw recorded information will degrade the signal if the algorithms over flow or under flow the data. The 96 kHz data is more forgiving to lossey algorithms and provides more dynamic range for the algorithm to work with in your DAW.

I absolutely do not believe anyone can hear the difference between a 44.1 kHz signal and a 96 kHz signal.

Quote from DigitalTube

I was hoping for a Kemper floor unit this NAMM, obvioulsy it didn't happen , still hoping they'll come out with something like that soon, wasn't looking for a Kemper rack but ended up with one recently ( owned a KPA before when they first came out) I'm happy with it, had looked at all the other available floor units, but wasn't too impressed, as my needs are really good amp tones and very basic effects, having saíd that a Kemper II loaded with maybe synth and whatever crazy affects, would be welcome and I'd buy it, as long as it's a floor unit..

There is one advantage of a rack unit with a separate floor pedal though. The rack unit pedal has only 1 connection going to it so the cable clutter around your stage area is greatly reduced.

An all-in-one floor unit would certainly be less expensive, and a smaller carry; however, it would come at the expense of more floor clutter in your immediate stage area IMO.

My thought on the floor unit was that it would put the KPA into a completely different market segment. All the tone at half the price sort of thing. It would certainly sell in higher quantities than the current $2500 solution.

I would still like to see better verbs and a better gain stomp in the current KPA. A performance organizer feature in rig manager would also be very welcomed. None of these things need a new unit by any stretch of the imagination.

Quote from Cederick

This will be denied by die-hard devotees, even with audio evidence, and I cannot understand why. Isn't it because we basically love the product but want it to improve and get even further ahead of all the other units on the market? There's still room for improvement.

Possibly so; however, for live applications, the bottom end isn't what gets heard in the mix since it is frequently (almost always) covered up by the bass and kick.

When we listen to our rig by itself, the bottom end is frequently what makes it sound good to us ... I agree.

Still, your point is valid. I do believe that sometimes a bit of the warmth may be missing from the KPA profiled replica of the original .... but only a little IME.

Quote from karlic

When I bought the Kemper, the profiling accuracy was the big thing. But having been working with it for almost 3 years now, I just treat it like an amp and don't really think about trying to match other tones anymore.

The biggest factor for a K2 purchase would now be backwards compatibility. I couldn't face recreating all my work from scratch again.

I completely agree with this. I started off trying to replicate my VHT sound, then found many other sounds that I actually liked better.

I would find backwards compatibility a very compelling feature for any new KPA device. I would settle for a conversion utility since it is possible that the format might be different (bit depth, header organization, new features, etc).

If you could take an existing rig, and get pretty close on the new unit, that would be good enough for me to tweak my way to where I am at now without much work.

I think that the company should be working toward a lower priced product (say $1,000 - $1,500) in a floor pedal form factor, not a K2.

This would fulfill a market segment that the current Kemper live setup @ $2500 can't compete (including remote).

For those of you who are longing for a full featured editor, a floor board product would require it implicitly in order to make the price point, and make the form factor (can't have so many knobs on a footswitch .... they will break/get soaked with beer, etc).

Such a product would use the exact architecture that KPA is using with all internal parts as well. Only the control screen and controls would change, and the editor functionality would be essential (since it would be virtually impossible to setup without).

That is where the smart money is IMO. Way more "bang for the buck" to develop this product.

I have A/B’d my FRFR rig with many of my friends tube amp rigs. My DSR 112 has no problem keeping up, and even my tub amp brothers agree my tone exceeds theirs.

Live is where the KPA is strongest IMO.

Quote from karlic

I understand their point, but if you have a loud drummer, going DI is a real bonus. My FOH engineer played me some recordings of our miced cabs and the cymbals were as loud as guitar in one of the mics. So separation is key to getting a good mix out front at times. Obviously bigger stages are fine, but we are not always guaranteed that!

this!!!!! Mic bleed will always muddy a mix

Quote from Jarrydee

Thank you everyone! I just spent 2 days trying to get a decent sound (clean) on this new tune we are working on. I tried 3 different guitars. I finally landed on something I was JUST OK with. I KNOW it can not be the KPA. I never though having shit pickups would matter this much. I am hoping that it is the pups anyway.

Watcha playing it through?

Quote from JimmyK

f That's why I wonder why people dont use it with miked cabs, but everyone seems to prefer to send to FOH from master output, which means they are sending something different from what they feel from their monitor. If Kemper is not meant to be used that way (I see many people here saying this) , the ideal thing would be people to know it.

Amen brother Jimmy

If you can get good tone from going direct in, it is a much simpler and more foolproof way to consistently get a good mix IME.

The basic idea of the KPA (capturing the response of the entire system .... amp, speaker, and mic) really lends itself to sounding good through a FRFR speaker which replays the sound with as little color as possible.

Guitar cabs REALLY color tone. Try playing a good MP3 through one some time

For a live rig, I can't think of a better rig than the KPA. You are so right. Small, light, with a foot controller that is also presents a very small stage footprint. Stage space is very important to those of us that play different bars. Some places, space is right down scarce. My back also loves me for owning a KPA. While I think that VHT (Now Fryette) makes one of the best sounding cabs you can buy, the darned things are as heavy as a horse!

Quote from stfuzz

Honestly,

why would anybody want to do that?

Have a nice sunday:)

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My guess is that it is habit.

I had a VHT 4x12 slant top, and a 2x12 Fat bottom cab. Neither of these sounded good with standard profiles to my ear; however, if profiled against my VHT Ultralead, and then played through FRFR's, it did a great job.

Having a monitor on stage so you can get the feedback of the air on the strings is critical for many lead players (maybe not so much for rhythm though). I personally use IEM's for my monitoring, so any monitor I have on stage is strictly for getting guitar action, not for my hearing pleasure.

I have done MANY head to head comparisons of my rig, to others tube amp rigs. There has been no rig that performed as well as my KPA and a DSR112 did, and when stepping up to my full PA (dsr112's over PRX618XLF) it was even more pronounced.

For live use (the topic of this thread), nothing even comes close IMO. I place my rack beside the mixer, plug in the 2 XLR outputs to the mixer, plug in power, run my one cable to my foot controller in front of my mic stand, and BOOM. I am done. Same great tone on every song, every night at exactly the right volume.

Without a monitor (I generally only play rhythm), I can carry 2 guitars, and my entire KPA rig in a single trip.

To me, that is worth quite a bit over my old tube amp setup, and as nice as my VHT was, the clean channel was nothing to write home about ..... and the KPA does a Fender Blackface that will bring tears to your eyes.

I am pretty sure there is no KPA 2 on the horizon.

If you are a PC tweaker, and that is more important to you than tone, then perhaps the KPA isn't the right tool for the job for you.

I appreciate what the KPA is..... a replacement for a tube amp rig (more than one). It doesn't try to be a competitor to the AxeIIFx on the same terms as the AxeIIFx does. Why should it? What the KPA does, it does better than anything else on the market.

Hopefully we will continue to receive free updates to improve the stomps and verbs. Honestly, aside from that, I can't imagine changing my rig EVER again. I play live with my rig and the KPA gets the job done as well as any tube amp I have ever owned.

I do suspect that at some point in time a floor version of the KPA will be made which is code compatible with the full size unit. I see no technical reason to make a KPA 2.

Quote from NorthShaun

As we've a few gig free weeks, we've decided to set the full PA up, and see if we can get the Kemper to sound better than mic'ed. Any tips/tricks for doing this before we commence. Previously, due to lack of time, and general laziness, we've just thrown a mic in front of the cab, but I've never been happy with FOH sound. Thanks in advance!

Ok, here is the rub .....

Unless you actually practice through your PA (most of us don't), there are some things you have to keep in mind.

Your practice tone will not be the same as your live tone by default. This is true reguardless of if you practice through headphones, or practice through a speaker at home.

What we would all like, is to be able to hear the same thing when you practice as the audience does when you play live.

There are a couple of ways to do this. For the purpose of this reply, I will assume you use headphones for practice (it doesn't really matter).

Start with your practice setup and get your tone the way you like.

Take your rig to the PA, and play the rigs through the PA. Use the channel eq on the mixer to get the same tone (or as close as possible) you get with the heaphones (bring them with you so you can A/B the tone yourself).

I have a digital mixer which is capable of recording the entire band on a multi-track recorder and replaying that through the system at my convenience. This is nice because I can always get my guitar tone tweaked in the exact environment and mix I will have live (or even had live if I recorded the tracks at an actual gig).

When I make ANY changes at home to a rig that APPEARS to sound better than the original rig, I always save the new rig as a new rig to try out. I never overwrite a proven rig that has been equalized to sound good in the mix live. I then A/B my new tone to my old tone through the PA with a recording done with the rest of the band's recording.

You would be very surprised how many rigs you think you "improved" at home that sound worse than the original when put into the full mix and played at volume!

If you do this, you will have live tone that simply melts your heart

Quote from Jarrydee

Nice area! i used to work down in that area. I lived in Howell. i am an electrician and used to wire up all the new houses way back when Pulte builders were building all those huge houses in those cul de sacs, before the housing crash. Worked a lot in your area.

I bought one of those Pulte houses you built when the builder went bankrupt Took some time for the market to come around after the crash, but things are humming along now. The electrical work on my home was done quite well (I am an electrical engineer ). Maybe you did it!

Quote from Jarrydee

Hi, I am in Bay City! how about you?

South Lyon .... about 40 min west of Detroit.

I was right by your neck of the woods this week as I drove back from skiing up north

Good luck with your Kemper. I have been lovin on mine for many years now.

Quote from Jarrydee

Hi everyone, Just got my new kemper yesterday. Did not have a lot of time to play with it, so hoping today I can really dig in. I got the OS updated, RE installed, all that good stuff. I will be using an apollo to track with. Any tips are welcome. Am hoping I never have to mic another amp again. Thank you ahead of time to all of you, your discussions and information you have put into this forum is what made me buy the kemper. Ill leave off with a link to one of our songs, I am hoping the kemper can replace what we used to track them! Once again, ANY tips for using this thing is appreciated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjxAA3BbMhE

Welcome.

I am from Michigan as well. Where are you?