Posts by Nikos

Quote from Sharry

I wasn't just talking about rock musicians, I meant in general.I find a lot more good young rock and pop musicians and folk musicians in my environment today than I did back then, although or maybe because it's harder to get a gig today than it was for us in the late 60s and early 70s.
I don't want to judge the quality of old rock heroes comparing today's musicians. Although they influenced me a lot and still inspire me today.
They were different and still there are some alive, thank God.

For me, my own taste is not a measure of quality. I don't believe that everything was better in the past, although I can't and don't want to follow much of what is happening nowadays.
I find the music business today to be more complex, varied and short-lived, but I think that this depends more on the zeitgeist and economic influences than on the quality of the musicians.

Hi Sharry..

Man,I really like to discuss with you...even if our "impressions" differ all the way..

I did not want to say that there is no "quality" today.Actually my point is that..well..seeing all the "youtubes" kids today still try to play "perpetual burn" more exact than Jason Becker..or playing quintuples faster than Eric Johnson..or sounding more like Scofield or Gambale than these guy themselves..

We still have the same old heroes and only a very,very few "new" guitar players tried to "shock" the world with a very peronal new approach.It is all nice but I remember the "heights" of electric the guitar peaked sometime in the 90s.No matter if it was rock,blues,hardrock or whatever..

If there would have been a "violin sound" available back in these days I remember a lot of Ingwie clones that would have at least tried..

Today this could happen with all the new technology but nobody cares.

Let me ask you one question dear @Sharry..imagine all the 60s/70s guitar players with todays technology..Hendrix,Page,Beck or whomever from this golden era with a digital tool like the KPA or the AF3 (hope this thing will keep its promise) ..what would this generation have done if they would not only had "one sound" with a fuzz and a wah but also the chance to play a violin,sitar or whatever sound..just imagine..and then you will understand what I mean.

Quote from Sharry

@Sharry

You mean you would like to say that the "average rock musician" today has more skill than the rock musicians of 1985-1995;;

If so..yes,,we have very different impressions for sure.No problem at all though..

@nightlight

I hope you are right man.Really I hope I am wrong.From what I know (have lived in central europe untill recently) here in europe the guitar has "left" for scandinavia and some regions in southern europe(dont know about eastern europe)..in central europe (I know about germany,france,benelux) the kids do hiphop..better said gangsta..
Most students I had in my time when I teached in germany were either guys in my age(all with super expensive gear) or young kids sent by their parents (upper middle class/mostly some kind of "ex-hippies" with dad still having his old electric guitar and "20-40 years old pictures" showing him with long hairs..).

One other "hint" is to look where the old still surviving hardrock heroes (Ozzy/coverdale etc) choose their guitar players from...

Anyway..again I go OT,sorry for that.Will stop now.

@ColdFrixion

The demand may be high..this is out of question..

There are still 1-2 generations left who "fullfill" all their GAS they could not when they were 17 or even 25..take a look around you and tell me how many young lads have the same fanatism for learning a instrument like guitar or drums like they spend their time for "doing" hiphop,Dj orwhatever other "sport" a young guy right now can do for "expressing himself" without to sit down and spending many hours of practicing guitar every day.

The "demand" tells me nothing.I would like to know how many of this "demand" is from the younger generations.Because what I see is a lots of "older guys" buying gear as there is no tomorrow..for many personal reasons.

Quote from Sharry

This is a realistic possibility for me too.It is a question of creativity and musicality that there can be a development in this direction.
The opinion here is that only Kemper achieves approximately the sound and feel of a tube amp.

I also believe that before we speak of "new possibilities for creating new amp sounds" we should maybe care more for the possibilities of creating more "musical horizons" how to use any "new amplified" sound.

The history of tube amp sounds is a history of guitar and bass instruments getting electrified,louder and overdriven distorted..this is "our norm" this is what our ears are used to since the 50s and the beginning of "amplified guitar sounds" we like to call "rock" or "popular music"..and I strongly believe the limits in these directions are even surpassed.This is a big issue but I know most guys will know what I mean.

I had the big hope that Fractals "new flagship" would bring new "norms" for amplified sounds of "other string instruments"..yes,solely string instruments.I dont care for playing a windinstruments on my guitar.I believe this is even covered by keys & most of all midi-stuff.I would like to use all the ways of playing string instruments(dynamics,vibrato,bendings,slidings on frettted and ofcourse non-fretted necks) for example using a sitar or a violin sound..but with all the aggressivness and "crazyness" which I get from a top class tube rig and fx.

Dweezil Zappa did some weird testing with a fractal violin sound.I mean this vid where he tested a "real violin" kind of thing and not a "cheap simulation".

I had the big hope that mr.hyperactive (yes,I mean the guy from fractal) would see that there is no "revolution" without changing "everything".Yes.The electric guitar is done folks..
Whatever we were able to squeeze out of this instrument has been done.

Dont get me wrong.I love the guitar and I always will do so but during the last years I started to get bored by any kind of "rocksound",by 4-4ths beats and pentatonics,major/minor kind of "norm"..

Seeing all the horsepower of the new fractal flagship I ask myself if we will hear some more "strange stuff" like they tried with Dweezil and his violin-stuff some years ago;

https://www.dweezilzappa.com/videos/2029666

Imagine for example two simultanous "amp sims" one with a distorted violin and the other with a "clean" sitar with fx..things like this will lead you (at least they do with me right now) to go "new ways",leaving well known paths and trying to find new ways of playing,sick and tricky beats,different and more strange scales,modes,phrasings and whatever.And not because you want to "impress other musicians" but because these new sounds need all this different approach.It is a natural thing.

There is no "new sound" and "new norm" without to have the musical frame to use them.In this aspect I will repeat my claim:The eletric guitar as "eletric guitar"is done.If we dont care to develop its possibilities it will become 100% a cliche..a cheap stereotype.If it is not already right now.

Lets see what the AF3 brings on this issue..

Seems like Fractal themselves stated somewhere in their forum that the AF3 will sound "a tiny little bit better" ie amp-modelling than the 2XL+..

https://forum.fractalaudio.com…n-the-axe-fx-2-xl.134811/

..so you will pay (here in europe) at least some 2500-2700 euros to get finally more horsepower for more FX and better/more I/O,connectivity & UI.One word on the latter (UI)..do I got this right;Does the AF3 (finally) have "better UI" (like the "revolutionary new LCD with seperate chip" and the five scroll buttons under the LCD) to achieve faster tweaking for live-/Jam-usage,so you dont need an extra laptop for "quick tweaking";;;

This is funny;Is it not;

I wonder what all the guys here screaming for an editor have to say about this "new feature" at fractals newest product;

Anyway..

The "fractal policies" are nor for me.I thought about to find me a used AX8 for rehearsals and jam-sessions ..I will forget about this now.To much fear that the AX8 will be obsolete in short time.

I understand people with GAS but this here is...GASoline and a (sadly not enough tone..) match for your hard earned money...thanks,but no thanks..

I think @CK cleared many things up..

First of all he told any potential new customer that money is not wasted on the current profiler.So all the guys who wanted to know if they "should wait" for a floorbaord or even the KPA2 got their answer.This is news.

Other than that Kemper made clear that they continue to work on the long term planned software updates.Since new reverbs were announced in the past it is only logical to expect new reverbs sooner or later..in any case they are working on them as we speak.

No word about the editor ofcourse.The controversy will continue.I dont know if this is what @CK wants but..it seems he has no problem with the fact that this controversy will keep the profiler on the daily agenda in many,many internet discussions...not only in this forum.

Quote from mdeeRocks

You are a guitar player not a tweaker then. With an exception of a few recording engineers who do tweaking as a job , lots of people who buy digital are gear tweakers/collectors so we get threads like this, main reason being boredom.
Congratulations on recording an album!

But there are tweakers and you cant send them all to Fractal or Line6..or ..maybe you can but for what reason;We may tell them "take it or leave it" when they post 1000x the same post about why they will sell their profiler for the only reason because it does not have an editor..

There is a stubborness on "both sides) I have seen here during the last months which reminded me personally of myself in the very first days here in this forum.For the simple reason I always had the feeling (during the last 20 years or so..) that I have to "defend real music" and "how to do it" from the evil digital zombies..

Indeed during the last two years I became more relaxed on some issues.I am saying this as a hardcore tube guy.For some reason..wont say more because indeed I fear I would sound like a "fanboy".

Dont take me as role model ( ) but when I can become more relaxed about some issues I am quite sure 99% of the nice people here can achieve this too..

Anyway..

@djemass

Man..congrats for your new album from me too.

Quote from ashtweth

My God has spoken
Ash

Oh dear..what have I done;

@Ash..God said "a beer" and not "a dozen"..you got that part;

Quote from Ingolf

Hahaha! CK is a funny guy.

Yeah..Christoph is a rocknroller..for me personally he played it more drunk than he really was..´show must go on....

"common guys..drink a beer,enjoy life and play your @uckin´guitars with a ton of tube rigs we give you..leave the rest to us.."

..for me the "message" of what @CK wanted to say is very clear.I guess he read all the comments about "industry standards" and @hit and what the other modellers have (editor) and he went like "wtf..are you guys playing rock guitar;Or keyboards;"..

@waraba

This is not arrogance.He is not kidding his customers.In opposite he wants to give them the best he can but he can only do that if he does it "his way" no matter what..and no..wont post the sinatra vid...`will spare you this one..

ps

On thing which bothers me (always had) is to compare the editors of the other modelers with the one the profiler would need.The current profiler is very "real life".You can tweak basic sound parameters in a few seconds.Everywhere.This is crucial.In real life.More so for guitar players who play a lot live but dont have any engineer or soundtech or whatever..Also,the other modelers need an editor because they start from zero while the KPA starts from a profile we either create ourselves or we choose to buy/RE..so it is like we start from (IMO) over 90%..for the rest 10% an editor will be nice(button wear,fx,cab management,presetmanagement etc ) but nevertheless it changes nothing with the fact that KPA users do not "start" where all the other users of the other modelers are "sentenced" to begin with on their tweaking odyssey..only to get told once a month that they just got an "upgrade" to start all the tweaking again.What a freakin´nightmare..

Dont forget this.

We had this so many times it gets boring.I dont know if it is just me but from what I understand the kempers just told us for this NAMM and after the whole fuzz about the editor during the last months a very clear "take it or leave it"..what else is left for discussion;

Back to work,have a nice evening gents..

New reverbs and maybe some new/better pedals of existing ones (ODs/Dist)..looks to me that they proceed as planned "from the beginning" when they first rolled out the profiler.

I am very curious how they will handle the request for the editor.Till yet it seems they refuse to "give in".As I said in the past..an editor for "everything" like the ones of the competitors would maybe seem as the same as admitting that the profiler cant do all on its own in every situation (live & recording)..

Personally an editor only for the growing fx-capabilities and cab management would be enough for me.I see no reason for editing stack and stomps with the help of an editor.Same for "basic" delay and reverb settings.The parameters in the stomp section are few,well choosen and "intuitive" like with a real pedal.For many reasons it is a good idea to keep it like this (live situations and also stressy studio jobs where they give you just an hour to nail it into the DAW..).

Obviously the kempers most of all want to keep their product as "amp-like" as it is possible.Seems like a question of honour..

Quote

so is the official word,,, " Nothing new at namm?" so I can get back to work..???

Yes.We can all go "back to work"..

The kempers have learned their lesson and we should do the same.

I mean..look here this thread..am I the only one who thinks it is quite civil without the usual suspects "spreading negativity" and the other usual suspects reacting to this;

Obviously the kempers have enough of the kindergarten of the previous months and we as customers should be happy that Kemper concentrates 100% of how to develop their product leaving us to use the profiler making 100% music.Me personally..I like it..

ps

The company actually do "communicate".It is maybe just most of us dont like to listen.

@Dlaut

IMO this would only make sense in the studio/recording situations..for live and specially using one FRFR this would not be a lots of fun..I agree on this point completely with Aussiejoe..

Hi @szykman

Actually I am trying the same.I use 3 different oct/pitch-effects (right now one harmonic,the chromatic and the octaver) to create more "flubby"/"chaotic" but not to "atonal" sounding effects..something you get from many ethnic-music sounding double string instruments where the different dynamics of the right hand attack create this very nice and "wild" and "woody" sounding thing you get from an Oud or Lute etc..I am still working on it but one thing is for sure:The whole idea of this is working much better with any sort of "acoustic profile" like the Acoustic A/E in the rig exchange (profiles made by Baldringer)..with electric/tube amp stuff this is all very atonal and most of the times it just sounds like a bass on crack(what I am looking for is an Oud on drugs.. ).

There is a lot of work to be done there and I appreciate any good idea how to create "double string sounds" which sound..well not "natural" (this should be to difficult without any "modelling") but at least somehow "musical" in a strange way.With other fx (compressor,OD-pedals etc) you can create very raw & "basic" sounding stuff like an "overdriven Oud" or at least something in this direction(even Lute or Sitar or whatever one can imagine).

As I said..this is not work for one person but any ideas and experience is very welcomed.Lets stay "in touch"..

Quote from nightlight

There are already devices where there is a cutoff for how much processing you can do. For example, the AX8 and I think the Helix have a ridiculous message that says something like "Out of processing power"..

Obviously the profiler works very different.It is not "building up" rigs "from the scratch" like the other modellers do.At least this is what I have understand so far..the KPA just "records" or better said "copies" a rig.This obviously means that for some reason it needs far less processing power..if I am wrong about this please correct me someone.

And yes..

Quote

and believe me, reverbs are some of the most taxing FX you can come up with.

..I believe you!

Actually I guess this is the reason why the kempers "saved the best for last" and first finished the delays which are far more "sexy" for the customers than the "boring" reverbs..the "rest capacity" of the processor will surely go at its biggest share into the new reverbs.And yes..IMO sure at some point in time the processor capacity after the reverb updates(and maybe some new/better pedals) will reach the limits and the time for new hardwarewill come..but when will this be;Sure not to soon..maybe even 2-3 years.

That being said I believe that they are working on the editor,a floorboard and as @skoczy said a FRFR..maybe even a new (tube;) power amp;

Just guessing around here..dont know &%$§..

Quote from NotScott

Floor Unit Format - Perhaps I am missing something here, but what advantage(s) would I gain as a gigging musician by going to a floor unit as opposed to my current toaster/controller pair? How do I easily adjust volume and tone controls on a floor unit on a darkened stage between songs? Assuming the floor unit is not powered, I would need an FRFR which I don't like and are often heavy, require their own power and would take up more space than my current rig. Granted, I could just send the outputs to the monitor mix, but then I would probably need to spend some time equalizing for those monitors and then hope they do my tone justice. I also assume I would need to bring a laptop with me if it requires any tweaking or troubleshooting. Now, this floor rig is larger, not as easy to adjust on the fly, requires more power, requires I tote around a laptop and has more powered devices in the chain of possible failures. If I wanted to use this in a studio, I would assume I would need another computer or at least open another window on an existing computer to control and tweak the thing. Seeing how many computers (particularly Windows machines) are woefully inept at handling multiple, simultaneous programs designed for processing audio, I would be constantly worried about running everything from a single CPU and being greeted by the blue window of death in the middle of a session.

.....

Simultaneous Rigs - I understand how this could be useful and desirable, but can't this already be achieved via a created profile that recorded multiple amps? Being able to blend your own profiles in Kemper would be super cool, but how much would that super cool function cost?

Display More

A floor unit or better said "profile player" controlled by some smartphone app would be great IMO..there are many situations where I would love to go to a jam or very small coffee house gig with just a guitar and a small remote like floor unit.

As the second issue...it would be very cool but as you said there are many ways to achieve the same result with other ways (reamping etc and ofcourse just playing a second track as in the good ol´days..) but nevertheless it would be nice to to morph between to completely different type of sounds..this for sure will come in the future with a new hardware..in any case we talk about something which will be exclusivly used in studio/recording situations where there is "no time" for doing a second track..hey..thinking about it I naver had such a situation..

For live gigs this feature is completely useless.Untill someone can tell me for what it could be usefull onstage.

To be honest I expected some update before the end of 2017..at least some kind of editor in any form (like only for fx or cab management)..

Hmm..and still no news for NAMM with just a few days to go.

I hope this is a good sign and indicates some "unexpected surprise"..I wont have any problem with no upgrade at all but I can imagine that many people will be somehow dissapointed.

It should get clearer for starters that there are "cleaning up the profile"-tools to make it behave more like the profiled real tube rig..and than the "classical tone shaping"-tools like EQ,comps and changing the cab etc..

I have said it before not so long ago..I have learned to make a rig really sound good (using different guitars which is very important for me) without even to use EQs or changing cabs..just using tools like" pure cab","definition" etc..I like this approach because otherwise (dont making any "clean up") I will EQ a rig to a certain guitar while it will sound awefull with any other axe..something which kills my "feel" I always had using a real tube amp.

I have made the experience that many,many(not saying most because this is not the case at all) rigs dont need more than this "clean up" from the start.

Maybe one more "update tutorial" with all the "collected experience" to date (linked to the "quick start"-manual) of a "cleaning up a profile and making it available for further tone shaping" kind of thing would be a good idea;

Quote from mikeb

Huh. Funny thing, When I bought my profiler it had no pure cab for like 2-3 years. I wonder if I should play with the value more. I kind of forgot it existed.

There are many tone shaping tools in the kpa which have great tutorials at some point in time.But this was not my issue and I guess also not the problem of the OP..

Anyway..