Posts by Preacher

Hoping for some more compressor options!

Quote from JedMckenna

This discussion has already veered of course with the "penis length" argument above. Seriously, what a weird viewpoint.

It's a bit of a joke. I'm a big fan of Randy Marsh and Marc Rebillet. Substitute "penis length" with something else and I still think there's somewhat of a point in there somewhere. It's cool to feel like you're not into effects, and not use them. It's even cool to say it. But the devil is in the details, and a lot of the time those things are being said with some animosity towards people that use effects. Often, it's said in response to someone talking about or using effects. Now I don't really have a viewpoint about it, I'm just trying to understand it. And I can only understand it as some kind of attempt at putting themselves above others. Thus the penis length joke. If you're just saying because someone is asking, that's obviously different.

OP didn't ask "what's the deal with certain people not liking effects", he asked "what's the deal with certain people being against effects". I've encountered people that are "against" effects and it's not the same as people that just don't play through effects by happenstance. Some people actually turn it into some kind of macho thing where they're "realer" or more "hardcore" guitar players because they're going direct. And that's really weird. I guess I'm mostly talking about in guitar groups on FB. It doesn't seem to happen on here.

As for the rest of what you said, you're making a compelling point for sure. I would just point out that you can be interested in guitar, and you can be interested in sound effects, and those interests can overlap. I happen to be one of those people that love the guitar, but that also love effects in and of themselves. For me personally, it's not so much that I get confused about where to focus my energy (even though I definitely am no veteran), but that if we remove the guitar from the equation and you give me a few separate instrument layers from a recording, just messing around with effects on them is quite enjoyable to me. I love the process of mixing a track. Tweaking knobs, adding space or effects to layers, compression, all that stuff. So for me, having effects and playing guitar is like a duathlon where they belong together. Because I enjoy both activities. Then there's also the notion of "playing effects". Especially rhythmic effects can alter what you're actually doing on the instrument, your slicers and multitap delays, or pitched looping effects. It's like a third thing that grows out of the cracks of the two other things, and I find that kinda enjoyable too. So I'm just doing what I like and then some people will impose on me that I'm somehow wrong and should do things differently, and that's where I start worrying about the ruler coming out. Because they must think then that I'm wrong and they're right. Then I'm sure you get how I relate that to penis length.

Quote from Gary_W

Personally, I’m more in love with a great song than virtuoso technique and I’m a fan of interesting sounds. I love the sound of a decent guitar and great amp with nothing else but I also love simple / weird effects. Whatever sound is right for the song really…. That can be pure or sound nothing like a guitar.

100%. There is a whole world of creativity behind creating and utilizing effects that is just as complex, and requires just as much know-how and intuition as anything else people can get really goot at, and what bothers me most about dismissing effects is it effectively means dismissing that whole world. Effects algorithms is a dense topic. To reduce it all to some cheap make-up for newbies stuck in a rut is unrealistic and unreasonable. It's the one thing I hold against people like Joe Bonamassa. It's never "hey, effects are cool but they're not my cup of tea", there's always that overarching prejudice against the usage of effects at all, as if it somehow detracts from the creativity of music. It's so wrong. Dry instruments can get boring after a while. There are more interesting sound textures to be had for the yearning ear if one doesn't harbour some weird penis length-related prejudice against those textures..

Quote from BayouTexan

LOL. But I see some truth to your comment just not in that extreme way.

I just really hope there are some guitar into amp purists that fancy thinking highly of themselves that come in here and try to make an actual case for why they have a point (here's a pointer: they don't, there are no rules to making music and measuring penis length shouldn't be mixed with expressing your inner artist lest it it becomes all you are). I just wanted to set the tone for the further discourse. You could say I find opinions like that off-putting to say the least. Here's me giving back a little

I think it's a macho thing. Some guys like to pride themselves on being unique, and it becomes a kind of symbiotic development where their need to be special feeds their choices to do things in increasingly special ways to fuel the feeling of being special which in turn fuels the choices again.

Simply put, some guys like to walk outside in the cold with a T-shirt so people will ask them "aren't you cold?" so they can lie and say "no" because they believe it plants an idea in the other person's head that they are somehow above-averagely coated against the elements. As if they have some kind of gene that makes them fitter. The important part to understand is that these people actually get a sensation of well-being from their belief that they are superior to others. They don't second-guess the idea so in a sense it's like a religious belief. They truly believe they are above others and it gives them a feeling of well-being. Saying it out directly to people just serves as a confirmation of their own belief, which strengthens the belief and creates further well-being. It's a self-reinforcing kind of thing. Like when you look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself "you're not so bad", only, they're taking it way further and saying "you're the best there is".

Likewise, some guitarists need to shit on other people to feel purpose in their own life. So they decide that everyone that doesn't feel the same way they do are inferior and must use effects to hide the mistakes in their playing, unable to fathom that they are coming off as simpletons when they start with that BS.

They are old people yelling at clouds or young people that came up under old people yelling at clouds and looking up to them.

Quote from Ccunningham99

I was curious on what the reason or reasons would be…

Now I'm curious why you're asking. ?

Quote from stefherbuel

where did you read that in this conversation ? i'm always impressed to read when someone say thing that wern't written..even if it isn't hardware (are you SURE the hardware upgrade didn't change anything in perception ? are the conponant in the stage and toaster EXACTLY the same during all these years ? we don't know.) so.even if it's not hardware , maybe it's profiling upgrade ? who knows ? so a guy who tried a kemper profiler 9 years ago and has a totally different feeling 9 years of development after must be strong , it's in his head ? this is really curious.

Kemper have responded that there is no difference. G String represents Kemper.

If you think they are lying, buy two Kempers, a magnifying glass and a multimeter and get to work. Post your findings. In the meantime, the official answer has been given. It is "no".

Also, piece of advice, don't trust your perception. If you look into psychological studies you will find this is not curious at all. It is very common for perception to be highly inaccurate and subjective. Study after study confirms this. People insist on looking for and finding what is not there.

Would be cool if it was possible to insert a block that let you use the S/PDIF in/outs as a digital stereo loop.

Let me just chime in and also state that I would very much like a compressor update.

Having like 10 compressor types modelled after studio classics would be the dream come true. JFET, tube, optical, LA-2A, whatever.

A couple of types, like a "multiband compressor" & "studio compressor" (clean sounding, "transparent", stereo, for post-stack usage), "pedal compressor" (mono, maybe slightly simplified controls, for pre-stack usage) and "easy compressor" (current one or something akin to it - for the guitarist who doesn't want to tweak knobs, or whatever) would still be in dream come true territory.

Just including a copy of the current compressor but changing the parameters to correspond with the "industry standard" and also letting us manually set the parameters that are now baked into one another, would also be a substantial upgrade, and good enough to not hear me bring it up ever again.

A Kemper Compressor, like the Kemper Drive, that does all the above, or none of it. Dare I dream?

For now I don't use a compressor, considering getting an external one.

+1

Not just a multiband compressor, I would even love a whole compressor patch with a few more compressor types emulating the sound of "classics".

A dedicated synth unit is overkill, but an Axe FX Ultra for just the synth block is as it should be? I get that it's probably mostly about not having to spend more money, just pointing it out

For what it's worth, I am running my Kemper in the FX loop of a Helix. The thought was that the Helix has a really great work flow, and I liked the modularity of it, so the idea was to use the Kemper as a dedicated "amp block" with built in stereo effects. It's working really great, however, I will be downsizing to just one modeller, and then hook that up to a desktop mixer and some dedicated rack FX. The problem I see with running a modeller in the loop of another is the stacking of latency, conversions and noise. Each modeller has an internal latency of around 1-5ms, depending on how much stuff you have in your preset. On the Kemper I think the max is 3.7ms? Or whatever value the "fixed latency" setting is set to. So, it's not like I'm noticing it or feeling it, it's not 30ms, it's not like I can sense any delay. It doesn't really bother me. But the signal my guitar outputs is now being converted to digital going into the Helix, then converted to analog going out of the Helix, then to digital going into the Kemper, then back to analog going out of the Kemper, and finally digital when going back into the Helix. I have Line 6 Powercabs so those are hooked up with AES, so no conversion there, but the Powercabs are digital and have their own internal latency too. If I also connected to them with analog, that would be yet another round of conversions.

So anyway, for all intents and purposes, it works flawlessly. I'm not noticing anything play feel wise. Some times I use a L6 G10 Relay going into the Helix, and monitor on wireless Siberia 840 headphones. So I'm 100% wireless, going through two modellers, and I still can't really say I'm noticing anything that's messing me up. It feels fine to me. But on the conceptual level, the idea of all those conversions didn't use to bother me, and now they do. One thing is the added latency, another thing is the fact that A/D conversion adds hiss to a signal, so the more times you do it, the more times the near-inaudible hiss gets layered on top of itself. At a certain point it becomes actual audible noise. All of this makes me worry about the "signal integrity", so my new line of thinking is I want to output a mostly "pure" guitar signal into a mostly transparent mixer. That way, the "dry" part of my tone will be my guitar -> kemper input -> kemper output -> analog mixer. One A/D conversion and one D/A conversion + the internal Kemper latency Vs . three A/D, two D/A + internal Kemper latency + internal Helix latency.

You either will start worrying about stuff like that down the road or you won't, so maybe that can inform your choice a little

Quote from BayouTexan

Yes, or just run kemper Left and axe Right. There are NO rules.

With two Kempers, you can do that thanks to the "Fixed latency" setting. With two analogue amps you could do the same. But with two modellers, their internal latency will vary, and you could have phase issues. I have done this with the Helix and Kemper and it sounded fine, but the problems introduced by phase misalignment are above my expertise to address, so I generally try to avoid having them in the first place.

Or if you do that and they're still not there, you can download all the factory effects presets on the rig exchange. I remember once having to manually update the presets, I forget which update caused us to have to do that, think maybe it was the reverbs? I don't know. So that means deleting all the effects presets on your Kemper through the Rig Manager, and then downloading all the factory effects presets, and then copying those to your Kemper. My Rig Manager kept hanging if I tried to move more than 20 at a time so I had to do it in many smaller operations.

I already replied over on FB but I'll try to phrase it a little easier.

When you say "I could press the Delay stomp button the Kemper and the corresponding foot-switch would light up on the Helix", that won't work, but it will work the other way around.** Think of MIDI as a downwards stream. You can take advantage of the fact that the Helix has a toggle feature on its footswitches, and set it up so when the footswitch lights up on the floorboard, the stomp button on the Kemper also lights up. You can't do it the other way.

And like I mentioned in the FB response, this is all within a single Helix patch and Kemper preset. Once you change presets on either, you will lose the synchronisation of the engage/disengage lights.

The closest you can get to what you want is if you only use the Helix to change Kemper presets/performances and activate stomps. The minute you press a button on the Kemper to change presets or engage/disengage stomps, it will not reflect on the Helix. So if the Helix shows Stomp A as disengaged, and you press the Stomp A button on the Kemper, the effect will be active, but the Helix footswitch will not reflect it. If you then press the Helix footswitch, you will deactivate the effect, but the footswitch will light up.

** I am assuming you want to use the Helix floorboard as your main controller. You could always hypothetically set up the Kemper to send the MIDI commands to the Helix but then you would need the remote anyway (and I don't think you can use the remote as a general MIDI floorboard?) . Keywords here are: MIDI is downstream.

Greatly appreciate the interaction Burkhard.

This idea started with me finding some free presets on a commercial profile maker's site, some of which sounded decent to me, and which also reminded me of a thread here where a member has gathered a bunch of various Wah settings that try to mimick various flavors of actual, "classic" wah pedals. I immediately felt like it would be cool to be able to browse presets that other people have made. Kind of like eating at a friend's house, the food never tastes the same, even if it's the same dish etc. But I didn't consider the logistical side of it, obviously. I still think some version of my idea could have a place *somewhere*. Maybe a sub-sub-subforum for posting/exchanging presets would be a more feasible idea? Anyway, just a thought!

We need this in our Rig Managers. Being able to upload and share presets would be a cool thing.

Here's a question. I don't know what I expect to hear but any thoughts might help me out. So you pick an amp and a cab. But first you get a sound in your head from the analogue Marshall. So do you pick the amp first? How do you know you like the amp sound when the cab is gonna color it?

It's a predicament I find myself in. How do I know I like an amp when I'm used to hearing it through a cab? Turning off the cab will make it sound nothing like it should, and so if I'm scrolling through amps and trying to find one I like, how do I know I actually like the amp? Or do you just start with any random amp profile, then find a cab you like, and then try different amps through that? I'm curious how you guys settle on things like this. Maybe I'm overthinking it.. What someone said above, about thousands of options and easy to get lost, definitely applies to me here. It feels like, if I just pick a random amp, find a cab that makes it sound good (so presumably a cab which has a character I like), I might like another amp even better through that cab. But then that amp might sound better through a different cab again. Lmao, it's a brain twister imo!

Asking for a friend. He signed up, was told to look for a confirmation mail but never recieved one. Has checked both his inbox and spam folder. Resetting password yields the same result of no e-mail in inbox, nothing in spam folder. Re-registering gives "already exists an account with that e-mail". What can he do? Is there a way to get in touch with Kemper support directly? Sorry if this is the wrong subforum, but the "Contact Kemper" section didn't seem like the right channel for two-way communication.

Quote from Burkhard

It is actually possible to create a PROFILE of a stomp box on its own, but you cannot put it into one of the effect modules. Those are reserved for the affect algorithms. You can only place it in the Stack Section. And there it cannot be combined with another amplifier PROFILE. So, that's why creating a PROFILER of a combination of stomp box and amplifier is the way to go in most cases. Creating a PROFILE of just a stomp box makes only sense if this can be used standalone.

So that's why some people have two or three Kemper units... ?

Quote from alerich

One thing that surprises me is all of the people who do YouTube videos on Kemper, Fractal, Helix, et cetera and they still seem to have a room full of amps. I've sold five amps since I got my Kemper in April. I kept my Soldano more for sentimental purposes and a few that I built but the rest are gone. I haven't played through a real tube amp for more than five minutes since I got my Kemper. I can't see ever going back. I have a powered head but don't really care for the sound of the powered Kemper into guitar speakers. I have two Yamaha DXR10's on the floor as wedges. Sounds huge. I love this rig.

Most people posting videos like that are trying to have a more or less succesful youtube-channel about guitar-related stuff. Having amps, guitars and tons of gear in the background is a way to create a sense of authenticity for the viewer. It just makes it feel like a guitar show, the same way they have cars in the studio on Top Gear. Or when there's fresh herbs on the table (that they never use) in a cooking show. It sells the experience.

Quote from Chris Duncan

Wait, you're connecting the Kemper to a computer???

G, I think I just found your problem.

I just felt a strange desire to try and feed my Kemper some ol' modem beeps. Run them through a dirty amp. Then send them through the Ionosphere and the quad tap delay. Would probably turn into something usable!