Posts by jpoelmans

I think I'm gonna step in to the discussion and +1 for the editor

For me, the reason would mainly be ergonomics: Imagine having a studio desk with a 88 key keyboard (some people play piano too ;)) in front of the desk, and the screen/laptop somewhere behind it. I have two 4 unit racks on the sides, which also serve as monitor stands. But in the end, those racks are too much to the side to be confortably editing the kempers' presets and they still inhibit laying transcriptions, scores or whatever paper on my desk. Also, I have the Kemper in a SKB rack for a bit of outside use, and putting that rack on top of the desk would totally be uncomfortable, as it would seriously compete with my screen, piano keyboard, laptop and monitors for desktop real-estate. I've been having a massive headache over this for some time now

An editor would allow me to put the kemper rack somewhere tucked away under the desk, quickly connected with USB and audio out, and have all the controls on my screen, together with whatever I'm currently working or practicing on... Hell, I finally understand why the Virus TI's VST integration is so handy (though this isn't even necessary).

Plan B would be to use some guitar amp-VST in my man cave (I own both Logic X and Komplete 11), but seriously, why did I buy a Kemper then? Oh yes, I could profile my Guitar Rig 5 settings and use them on the road

Quote from skoczy

Installing Apple's OS not on Apple's hardware is denied by their terms of license. I did not know this until I saw some YouTube presentation of some hackintosh build.

Off course chances that Apple will chase you for that are minimal

True, but, there are local organisations that earn their money by tracking down companies who have illegal software in use, en then propose them a settlement instead off tipping of the software makers to sue your @** In Belgium at least (https://bsa.nl/risicosoft). Private users usually are below the radar, but if you're runing ie a studio with a VAT number, you could be in trouble.

Also, I don't know what the forum rules say about discussing illegal things here

Quote from Frodebro

The part that you're overlooking is that a guitar cannot be completely in tune with itself-period. If you tweak it to be perfectly in tune for an open G chord, it's going to sound way out with an open D chord (try this yourself). Altering the fret spacing won't help, as the intervals shift with every key you play in. That's why there are "sweetened" tunings-they're a compromise so that everything sounds reasonably good.

I'm not overlooking this. You're referring to equal tempered tuning, but that's not a guitar specific problem. In fact, every instrument known to man with fixed pitches (guitar, piano, sax, xylophone, church organ...) has this problem. But, when using a modern chromatic tuner set to equal tempered tuning (ie kempers built-in tuner?), you don't have to worry about it and tune each string spot on where it should be in this tuning, which is 1,33484x the root frequency for a fourth, instead of 1,33333. You wouldn't be able to tune this interval by ear, because 1,33484x will beat (its a few cents off), and 1,33333x wont beat, since every 3 periods of the root strings vibration the waves will coïncide (=order = consonance). Other intervals will be even more off. A violist is able to compensate for this and make sure a note doesn't beat in the context (chord or key) it's currently played, because he doesn't have fixed frets or buttons, but all the other poor musicians with frets and buttons will never experience a real perfect fifth

But that's only the maths, the theory behind it. On top of the equal tempered vs pythagorean tuning problem each instrument has a couple of practical imperfections of its own, which I'm still trying to figure out on a guitar. I think it's something to do with string tension variating between an open string and a fretted note Which is why a guitar has to be intonated.

For piano the practical problem is that the strings by itself don't behave as they mathematically should, their harmonics are not completely in tune with their root frequencies and thus, when tuning to a certain frequency, not all harmonics will coïncide. To battle this a piano tuner will tune the string so that the sum of deveation of all the harmonics including the root frequency, with the theoretical target frequency (entropy) is minimized. this will result in de higher strings being pitched multiple cents sharp and the lower strings pitched flat. This problem also happens with other tunings then equal tempered, and this problem is why a standard chromatic tuner is worthless for a piano and you are looking at pretty advanced software on a computer when you don't want to tune by ear. BTW: I had satisfying experiences with Entropy Tuner, which can only do equal tempered due to it's calculation methods. But it's the only free piano tuner

And of course a guitar's frets are fixed to equal tempered tuning, while a piano can be tuned in pythagorean tuning or something else, if you want to get that funky about intonation and tuning

EDIT: fixed my calculations

Quote from Sharry

The guitar is an untuneable instrument - same as the piano.Thats the reason why there exist the "well tempered piano".
We should also talk about the well tempered guitar .
The tuning of a guitar is alway a compromise.

I heard people say that a number of times on a forum, but wasn't equal or well tempered tuning (in fact 2 different things) a way to make a instrument playable in every possible key instead of just one or a few keys, by having your 12 semitones in an octave divided by the twelfth root of two instead of the perfect fractions they should be?

Whereas the Piano's tuning is "stretched" because a string also acts as a rod and isnt a mathematically perfect string, therefore has its harmonics not in the mathematically perfect positions. To minimize the difference between all those strings root frequenties and their harmonic frequenties with one another, so to minimize the dissonance, the tuning is stretched.

But a piano tuned in a more perfect tuning will still be "stretched", and a guitar with its frets differently positioned for a more perfect tuning will still have its strings stretched when pushing it to the frets

Quote from Nightwish2

I am digging out this old thread for I bought an X32 rack to use it as an in-ear and recording solution for my band.
Well the features are great, but that doesn't make it easy to get started when you can literally do anything with it. But that's another story.

My problem ist this: For testing an getting used to the features of the X32 I hooked it up at my home studio as an interface. I worked on a few unfinished demo songs of the band when I recognized strange frequencies on my Kemper recordings. I recorded and played with this profile with the band a lot since I have the Kemper, but it never sounded like that. It's like a resonance on the lowest string that sound a bit like a flagolet or unmuted upper string. I turned a few eq-knobs and is seemed go away the more I turned up the bass knob on the front of the Kemper.

Well I think it's just the A/D - D/A process of the Midas preamps on the console that's so much better to finally show those frequencies. Did any one of you X32 user ever experience something similar?

This sounds like the onset of feedback. Before the bigass howl is produced, some harmonics get more reverbant/resonant/amplified as others, and that kinda sounds like a flageolet.

Probably you did some naughty things with your (aux?) routing. With the layered setup of a X32 (or digital console) its easy to mistake the reverb or monitor sends for main faders and other things. Also, you can have exotic routings in which a bus is routed to a channel (for example when you want the master channel in your ears), but if you then route that channel back to the mixbus it's fed from, you get feedback inside the console.

I know a 4x12 can be turned down But the main disadvantage is that your soundtech (the one who in the audience, listening for a proper balance between instruements) has no control over the volume, for example when you have to give room for something else to come trough. But sure, if you are a very disciplined guitarist in terms of volume, and give enough acoustic room for other bandmembers it can work. Most of the times I saw bands with only vocals, kick and snare through the PA however I just heard lots of decibels

But back to the original question:
1) surely a tube amp will color the sound in a way the solid state PA amp doesnt. Espacially when driven. Thats the whole point of tubes, But then the whole point of the kemper is to mimic tube amps. So why not profile your tube amp and put that sound trough a solid state PA amp?
2) why doesnt the built in kpa amp suffice? 600W seems more then enough power? That would still be the lightest and most compact setup?

My advice?

Leave to 4x12" at home, unless you never play for less then 200 people... Even if you play metal and want walls of sound.

The reasoning behind it? As a sound tech I can tell you that for being able to tweak the sound that the audience hears, this sound has to be louder than the sound from stage. And in some situations thats just not possible without blowing up your audiences ear drums, for example with crazy loud drummers or 4x12 inch stacks. The only option then left is to mute the drums, and have the drum, playing solely acoustic, determine the foh volume. But of course, my "tweaking options" become more limited,

So in an ideal situation, the whole band goes in-ear, everything amp-related goes through a kemper or similar, we try to eliminate every sound source from stage. Then you are left with only the FOH speakers through which you sound guy can tweak the sound to get a wall of sound.

I came into contact with guitar modellers through a new band i started to mix, and in collaboration with that guitar player we git the whole band on that wagon. The only on stage sound source allowed is the drum (just because of visuals, electronic drums look weirs), and i can tell you it works: their mix is very constant, and soundcheck is limited to 5 minutes.

Then we even havent talked about sound regulations. Do you know how it feels when the cop standing behind you tells you to mute the PA, even if the only thing I was still amplifying was the singers voice? I do, and its heartbreaking to see her standing there, singing to herself, while nobody hears her... Thats where heavy 4x12 stack will get you at some point or another...

So, my advice is to buy that PA amp, and use it for your bands PA. even if you play metal
PS: this experience is why, as a starting guitar player i went straight for the kemper, amd skipped the whole practice and tube amp stuff: worthless at home, worthless on stage,

XLR does reject more noise, since its balanced. But not all noise is created equal...

So i should definitly try it, especially given the cost of an xlr cable...

Also make sure you divide your power as nearby as possible to eliminate large ground loops. Is you cant, use the ground lift feature.

Great idea! fills in the front-of-stage void in the audience when you're ll in-ear, while it's still being controlled by your FOH guy, so your guitar amp is not "competing" with the FOH system Love it...

Quote from Andrew_Ongley

Quote from Ingolf: “Quote from Andrew_Ongley: “Full guitar rig for the band. My rig is Wireless>G System Input>MXR ZW Overdrive on G System switchable loop>G System Output>Kemper alternate In, other guitarists rig is Kemper only. Both are…

The current through the FETs (or transistors) will be a bit bigger then with 8 or 16 ohm. Therefore you have less power before the safety will trigger.

Compare it to PA amps, loaded with 2 ohm loads.

You can, use a split cable. Splitting a signal into 2 receiving ends is frequently done, the other way around is more difficult.

You could also connect te speakers to your KPA and thus route all computer audio through the KPA.Or you could use a small mixer to put the KPA and computer signal together into a speaker set.

So many options

As far as "sound man" is concerned, in my expierience going direct sound much clearer than that speaker-air-mic-onaveryloudstage thing. When I mix a kemper (or axe) I allways thend to put it louder than the other guy with a Diezel And I read similar expieriences from other people. In fact, I just want to avoid speakers or mics on a stage, much better FOH sound

But of course, when your soundman doesn't know kemper-like devices he will ask dumb questions. But hey, before I played guitar and did sound, I didn't even realize that the volume pot on a guitar influences your tone quite drasticly: it's just not our business