Posts by Antipodes

Quote from Robrecht

I think it would go both ways, like a full audio interface.

In any case, you would have the option of direct monitoring your guitar before it goes into the computer. But I assume you are asking about audio coming out of the computer, like the other tracks playing in your DAW.

In the video, we saw four channels going from the Kemper into the computer. That would be an improvement in itself, as S/PDIF only provides two input channels so you can't combine a stereo signal with an additional DI signal. With four channels of USB audio, you wouldn't have to choose anymore.

But Christoph Kemper also said in the video he uses the Kemper for recreational listening now, taking advantage of its excellent analog outputs. That would suggest the USB connection is able to receive and convert digital audio from a computer. So, both ways!

All speculation of course, going from the video! 😀

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I would expect the same - this two way traffic on the USB interface is necessary for ReAmping via USB of course.

Quote from StefanErtle

Being an upside for all the Toaster and Rack Owners. Might be more fiddly for the stage owners to get access to this new feature.

Is USB recording unilateral or am I able to use the high end headphone out of the KPA whilst recording? Problem is I do not own monitors so my focusrite would still be needed anyway and therefore I still could carry on using spidf…

The KPA routes audio out from multiple outputs simultaneously - from the main XLRs, from the TS outputs, from SPDIF, from the headphone out and from the send(s) and you can set what volume each of these outputs gets and which mix in the Output section. I would expect that the USB output will just be additional digital outputs like SPDIF and you will be able to set what signals are sent and what levels.

Big players like RCA and Edison claimed that inventors had stolen "their" work. So the actual inventors had a hell of a time fighting the deep pockets on major industry players and plenty of them died broke, miserable and unrewarded for their work. If you know how the IT industry has worked, big players like MS stole all kinds of stuff from other developers (eg Disk Compression and activatable licences for trial versions of applications).

These developers approached large established companies and said, here we have this invention - guys at the head of the companies approached often said stuff like - ha ha, we don't believe that is even possible - and eventually released the feature as part of a new version with no payment or acknowledgement. The inventors had to spend years in the courts to get paid if ever. In the film industry, screenwriters approach big studios with scripts, the studio passes, then some time later releases a film with all the ideas from the script (eg T2). Most instances like this it is who has the biggest budget for fight the court cases and the subsequent appeals.

The history of patents in the US is kind of a horror show. It includes the Wright Brothers patenting powered flight which completely stalled the development of aviation in the US for years and years (you had to pay a licence fee to them if you built any aircraft) until some way into WW1 when the military woke up to the fact that other nations were way ahead on this essential technology and the govt decided all patents on flying machines were now void. Then there were the patents on all the basic things we take for granted - electric light, radio, TV etc which like the Wright bros thing were often just used for patent trolling: - ie we, the patent owners, don't actually make anything at all that anyone could buy, we just want to operate like parasites on anyone that does make anything and anyone who wants to buy that thing.

It was good to see Ed Sheeran on TV tonight, after his victory in the copyright lawsuit against him, rubbishing the idea that basic song elements could be used in copyright infringement suits - like claiming copyright on the the alphabet or the colour blue - and I might add, especially by people other than the composer allegedly being plagiarised ( check out the Men At Work copyright suit if you want to see an example of how that plays out).

Quote from JEverly

Yea, that thread is something special.

You ain't kidding. Buahaha. Drew from FX is going to town about how much the KPA sucks in his own inimitable style. Others are on the old "I'd rather push my Fat Bob than ride a Rice Burner" trip. The term fair weather communist was invoked. A joy to behold.

Here is the patent that was so violently infringed - presumably without buying it dinner first:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US11164551B2/

Quote from Kemper Support #1

the output sources for USB are the same as for the other outputs.

I saw 4 output channels (2 stereo pairs) - is that the limit of the available channels? Does the Kemper also support using the MIDI input and output as MIDI input and output for the computer on the end of the USB connection - eg could you connect a MIDI device like a keyboard? That would make the KPA both an audio and MIDI interface.

This will give the alternative capture platforms something to chew on. The ability to tweak a capture/profile is undeniably useful in the hands of a guitarist. The tonestack modelling thing has often been discussed as desirable/the next step but seemed like a big ask technically - almost far fetched. Kemper have done it apparently - and patented it too! Quite possibly other approaches that are more AI based will get around that patent but the whole game is moving on to a new level if this is the new standard.

This whole suite of announcements - profiling from Rig Manager, USB audio, Android support for the Editor - very impressive indeed and the whole show works on the current hardware.

Yes indeedy- mad science is the shizzle. Being able to combine any amp and any cab in the KPA offers all kinds of possibilities that aren't practical otherwise.

Tube manufacturers supplied sample circuits which told amplifier manufacturers how to employ them - same way IC developers do today. Applications for audio preamp and power tubes were largely related to PA systems - amplifying the voices of announcers and vocalists and miced musical performances. Direct amplification of electric instruments started out by borrowing the speaker drivers and amplifier circuits from these PA systems and housing them in portable enclosures.

Quote from deadpan

That said, Kemper is not obsolete or even close. The Kemper has it's own thing that neural networks can't do, that's internal amp edits.

This is quite an important point. While the arrival of neural network techniques is going to enable lots of interesting stuff in the music sphere, I think the fact that Kemper uses a "tuned model" approach means that you can get in there and make all kinds of useful adjustments to the behaviour a profile to suit your application.

Quote from V8guitar

I keep looking for release 9...

Yeah - gotta wonder what is cooking in the Kemper Kitchen.

Startup time is also affected by how many profiles/performances/presets you have loaded.

I gathered some time back that the amp section works with 16x oversampling to get the desired sound quality. This might explain why, despite all the FX it can run simultaneously, duplicating amps is too much for the current system. In terms of the interface you could possibly just use another soft key to alternate between the controls for AMP A and AMP B.

I would imagine some of the other processing (eg drives, filters) would also benefit from oversampling but quite possibly much of the signal path operates without needing this much more demanding processing load.

The fact that it is possible to load 8 reverbs into all the stomp and post amp FX slots without the Kemper stumbling due to excessive DSP load indicates that the signal processing and multitasking is very efficient indeed.

I agree with the suggested soft button approach to this issue. Give the complainers a fix and leave the rest of us to go on with our established workflow.

I always go into a DAW via spdif and the long standing setting gave me a perfect signal for DAW processing and matching backing tracks from others.

NAMM at Anaheim is in late April next year, not January, so no imminent trade shows. It is debatable how important trade shows are with the online ecosystem publicising things very effectively without any need for print media. If the new announcement is a new hardware variation the whole thing could start with a few teaser social media pieces and then a proper announcement. I would expect something substatial is going to be announced in the next 6 months but maybe not over the northern summer.

Quote from Dynochrome

You must mean every RM update right?

Nope - the OS update is a compressed archive and you can actually view its contents in some compression tools. It is possible to see the contents and extract them but this level of messing around is not required.

Edit: as KB says below it is the OS update as I said above and not the RM update.

Quote from Dynochrome

What's the FW update? When I update my profiler, no rigs get downloaded. And I wouldn't want them to. I just want to know where the latest are located.

I think the set of files from the latest factory library are embedded in the OS update and from memory there is a procedure for copying them to your profiler - I haven't done this in years but I think you can put the OS on a thumb drive and use import presets.

All the new packs curated from the professional profilers are there at the bottom of Rig Manager. When Rig Manager gets updated, any new packs are included under "Rig Packs" in folders at the bottom of the folder tree just below "Rig Exchange".

Quote from G String

For those who face an issue related to the Mac installer, please re-download 3.3.44 from the Kemper website and update manually:

https://www.kemper-amps.com/downloads/12/Rig-Manager

The description on the Windows version currently says "Windows 8 or higher". If you install it (and it will install on Win it launches (instead of Rig Manager 3,3.44) an error window which says that RM requires Win 10 build (whatever) and "you should update your Windows install" - so beware if you are not on Win 10 yet.

You might want to edit that and save the bandwidth

@Dyno - not trying to push Win 10 onto anybody. Just mentioned a tip for those upgrading as I will soon have to myself and using this thread for info.

Also, Tony G. mentioned issues with drivers after a Win 10 upgrade. It is possible that a component driver is newer or delivers higher performance but is less compatible with running audio apps on a particular board/bios/set of peripherals. Therefore, see what the manufacturer recommends wrt to drivers for that model and maybe you can get a set of drivers that works fine with Win 10 on your older machine.