Posts by V8guitar

  • Kones - 6 months later trip report

    Quote from ckemper

    No more options are needed to make good music and to connect to speakers or FOH. Everything is set up for instant use.

    Can you point out options that are crucial, but hard to understand?

    I need to further qualify what I said...these are very minor suggestions and only a reflection of what I struggled with from the start...less so now because I know the unit. Very little is hard ( although I still struggle a bit with Kone logic set up but I've done it now), its potentially more the combination of controls that might be useful and for first time set up.


    To add most guitarist come from a very simple world of plug in guitar, turn up volume and play - I also know you know your demographic, just flagging that I fall directly into this category.


    I'm an IT guy but when it comes to guitar amps, I really want plug and play. And to support your comments, it already is about 90% plug and play already, if not greater.


    A perfect UI design would eliminate the need of an instruction manual - you can never be perfect but that would be my approach. What can be made so simple that I'd never need to reference the manual. Of course this isn't totally practical as you need explain the purpose of parameters e,g, "pure cab does this to the sound" but a set up wizard would say "based upon yours answers ( to the pre determined questions) we suggest setting pure cab to this BUT if you want to change it, its located here"....type thingy.... As you will have seen, so many posts where the answer is "read the manual"...the reality is many people hate reading manuals and its a turn off for simple settings.


    The areas of confusion for me when I started were:

    Differences between mains and monitor outputs

    Setting up stereo vs mono

    Kone set up/FRFR

    Linked volumes

    Locking sections when building performances/best ways to build performances


    As you know these very well it will look very basic but when you first start its not always obvious.


    I stress again, limited value here and once done I never change so more of a set up wizzard for beginners than us experienced users, so only raised in case of interest...

  • Kemper doesn't work for Gn'R guitarists

    Quote from Nikos

    I know.Sorry if I sounded like you would not.


    I just saw George Lynch doing "ain't talking about love" evh tribute on a les paul.He sounded like slash doing randy rhoads..


    Somehow Les Pauls are not for shredders.At least not in their classical form with PAFs and without EMGs 81/85s..and indeed Slash with a mockingbird is a much more accurate player.

    All good bud :)


    Yeah Yngwie sounded odd on that Les Paul too.

  • Kones - 6 months later trip report

    Quote from ckemper

    How could the interface be improved for this purpose?

    As mentioned, I think this refers to the fact that the KPA has many parameters and these are additional.


    You are damned if you do and damned if you don;t, you can never please evryone :) Reduce the options and people will say its not flexible enough. Increased options and people say its too complex.


    I truly believe the KPA attracts 2 types of users...those who love to deep dive into setting to find the utopian sound and those who want instant gratification but are perhaps slightly less "picky"...


    I suspect you are already very aware of this ( auto refine debate, presets etc.) and I think the KPA strikes a great balance.


    There are perhaps some minor improvements e.g. being able to put in what you want to do in a wizard/workflow type approach ( this would be an option not the only way) as opposed to really understanding what each setting does e.g. set up my KPA for SPIDF recording ( set outputs, mono or stereo, typical signal strength etc, or live setting using kabinet and FOH ( output -12db on, imprints on, unlink relevent volumes etc. Is it weorth the development for what are often one time setups? Not fully convinced myself but the forum has quite a few " can;t understand how to set this up"....


    Just a thought :)

  • Kemper doesn't work for Gn'R guitarists

    I never said I didn't like the dude :)

  • Kemper doesn't work for Gn'R guitarists

    I promise I'll shut up about this now but...


    What annoyed me was GnR were anti hair metal, stripped back, more of a punk attitude as mentioned...then they turned into a 7 piece band, with piano's on stage, keyboards, backing singers etc. I know that wasn;t Slash but he was part of it. You could argue they were developing but to me they sold out and I lost interest.


    Has he influenced loads of people? Yeah. I just think he is overrated and is as much about the rest of the band. He's a really good guitarist in what was a great band. Attitude is important but most really good guitarists are "committed" in their own way...


    I d also agree you don;t have to be a virtuoso and I particularity didn't mention guitarists that I would consider virtuoso's as comparable. Compared to Paul Gilbert, Tosin Abasi, Vai, Malmsteen etc. even Hendrix and SRV or EVH are not in the same league, hence I was trying to compare apples with (at least) fruit..


    Back to topic....In the world of endorsements, access to high level gear ( including vintage) and possibly no reason for change, I can sort of understand Mr Fortus.

  • Kones - 6 months later trip report

    I think this comes down to control vs taking learning from others.


    I would definitely want to disable it BUT I'm also useless at setting things up so I'd like to also be able to benefit from others "best practice" applied automatically.


    The only caveat I'd add is, how many times has someone said try this profile with these settings, its amazing, only to find to your ears it sounds awful :)

  • Kemper doesn't work for Gn'R guitarists

    Just to qualify my views on my Slash bash...


    He is a good guitarist and great songwriter ( my point is he is definitely a great songwriter). He plays with passion and belief...I absolutely love the video Live at the Ritz, he is on fire.


    Why in my eyes isn't he great? Because although he has his own style, its very limited and not that different to other rock players - he's not exactly versatile and sometimes clumsy ( solo to you could be mine grates on me a bit, fast outro of Paradise city is a bit cheezy). He plays little that I find inspiring or changing the way we think about guitar - blues based heavy rock, which i grew up on and so I really like it and fun to play but "great"?


    It doesn't help that he also plays on a couple of my most hated songs - November Rain and their cover of Knockin on Heavens door, although he is not totally at fault for those!


    So I'm in no way saying he isn't a good (I'll even stretch to "really good"), but not in the same league as Randy, EVH, Hendrix and even Nuno (my fav guitarist) and many others less well known ( John Sykes, Jake E Lee, Gary Moore, Angus..even Mr Fortus! etc.).

    I apply the same logic to Richie Sambora or The edge who frequently come up as great guitarists - great songwriters no doubt but that is one ( albeit important) aspect of guitar .


    But this is personal so its what moves you. He doesn't move me but I quite like playing his songs....


    BTW I suspect he doesn't rate me much either :)


    Anyway, each to his own and I'll shut up now before I offend anyone else

  • Kemper doesn't work for Gn'R guitarists

    Without getting into what makes a guitarist great....is he a great song/riff writer ? Yep. Is he a great guitarist, as someone who makes a living out of it, he's not. In my eyes, good but not great.

  • Kones - 6 months later trip report

    Quote from LoudNFeckless

    I get the AI is a trendy word. I’m more thinking correlation engines. If anonymous data was reported back to Kemper, maybe it could set the lower level deeper settings based on hours weighted use of the same profile by other users.


    I appreciate defending the UI for its depth but there’s a reason even successful complex systems have simple UIs - it is better design when it’s possible

    Yeah, getting the "footfall" or "click through" type info I think would be useful, although perhaps just getting some feedback might help. The challenge is actually the variation of users as there are many people are studio users vs a "dumb" user like me who just cranks and goes :).


    This is becoming more applicable as more complex solutions like Kemper Drive and Fuzz add more parameters to change.


    I do actually agree there is room for improvement, so i wasn't trying to overly defend it but genuinely get your views on what you'd suggest.


    Most people equate UI with pretty screens...the KPA is LCD so is "old" but I have a BMW and the interface is a very pretty colour large touch screen...and I can't find anything or has some very irritating idiosyncrasies.


    It did take me, however, 3 months to notice that the front panel was laid out in a "pre amp" and "post amp"layout ha!

  • Powered Kemper Kab or Monitors

    I love my kabinet but I think it would be overkill in your closed environment.


    Silly question, but if you are only playing at home in a studio like environment, why not stick with headphones? No issues with volume for the Neighbours...


    I have HS7's and never use them as I use my headphones :)

  • Kones - 6 months later trip report

    Quote from LoudNFeckless

    I think the bigger issue is there are so many selectable settings, which I appreciate we are appealing to audio engineers, it takes quite a bit of work to both understand everything and then to dial in settings for profile/tone. My main job is tech investing...I actually think the Kemper team could use some great UI experts to simplify the interface, improve the software, and lose settings that are largely inconsequential or add AI or automatic settings to tweak those based on the settings available to be changed. My point is you've engineered a product that has so many settings, it's easy to hurt yourself with them, and difficult to dial in well. You have world class, innovating engineering, why not have world class / apple like UI engineers on the front end?


    Maybe you are already there with new products en route given you are hampered by old hardware / OS builds. Either way, I am a HUGE Kemper fan.

    Im also in IT....


    The UI isn;t great but you are highlighting the age old problem. Most people want more flex but how do you incorporate that without making it overly complex?


    I think the KPA does this quite well by:

    1) Using presets

    2) Most settings are part of the profile. I virtually never change pure cab, definition etc. You don't have to....Its one advantage of profiling over modelling, you are not starting from scratch.

    3) Most of the lower level changes are in pages outside the main parameters


    AI is fab buzz word, what do you expect the AI functionality to do in this case? Learn what sounds you like? Given most guitarist like a wide range of sounds, how do you see that working?


    I agree that some set wizard/quick start type things might be useful - "this is how I use my Kemper, set up the outputs etc." but beyond that not sure what else.


    Come up with some ideas and post in new features...

  • Kemper doesn't work for Gn'R guitarists

    Quote from Robman

    A guy I know ( great player ) bought a KPA after I recommended it to him back around 2015.He kept it about 2 weeks and then sold it.


    Thing is, the continual upgrades are great and probably make it more 'ampish' all the time but guys try it and if it isnt exactly what they're looking for ( before they move knobs even ) then straight away move it on....their loss I guess


    Such is the human condition.

    I think there are 2 other factors at play, which definitely applied to me:


    1) Takes me ages to get used to new sounds. so when I got my KPA I gravitated towards ENGL because that was what I was used to...so if you don;t find that immediate sound, negative reaction..

    2) I had to stop looking at the KPA and listen, as my brain was telling me "valve good, digital bad". Just like eating a good meal, you start with your eyes and in the case of the KPA although it looks fine, it doesn't look like a Plexi so of course cannot sound like a Plexi...

  • Power amp suggestions

    Quote from ckemper

    Yes, it is astounishing.

    I made some tests yesterday night with a new beta software. We will add the PowerAmp Boost even for the use with the Power Cabinet, to achive maximum wattage.

    I was stunned how few watts make so much noise, again.

    I felt the need to make true voltage measurements again at the power amp output to check again if the Wattage Meter is calibrated correctly, or if I have made a mistake.

    But it is spot on!

    Totally..I don't undertsand anyone even suggesting not enough volumefrom the KPA...