Posts by Chris Duncan

Quote from paults

RM works very well for me for building Performances.

1) “open in new window” the Performances/My Profiler window.

2) Drag and Drop Rigs into the five slots

3) Store the Performance on the KPA.

Done.

This works well for me also.

Quote from paults

Most Performance Slot edits can be done without entering the Rig Menu. If you enter the Rig Menu to make a change, exit the Rig Menu before Storing the Performance.

I think this is where I'm screwing up. While in a performance, to edit the rig volume I've been pressing the Rig button and doing it there. I'll try just turning the volume knob and hitting store.

Thanks, man!

(Are you actually Paul, or is your handle just a reference to an excessively heavy chunk of Gibson wood?)

Quote from Wheresthedug

Love to help Chris but I gave up trying to use Rig Manager for Performances ages ago.

I find it works okay for the scope of what it appears to be - dragging and dropping profiles into a performance, reordering performances and probably most importantly, the ability to use the computer keyboard to type in names and such, which is always clumsy on a hardware interface no matter who makes the gear.

Once I realized that RM is mostly for moving stuff around rather than editing (beyond the benefit of the computer keyboard) I adjusted my expectations of the tool and find it pretty easy to work with. Do I have an enhancement list I'd like to see? I've never met a piece of software that I didn't want to tweak. Maybe that's why I code for a living, because I'm a control freak.

I know this is a common thing, so I did a search before posting and found related stuff but not what I'm looking for. I think that's because the solution is so stupidly obvious and I'm somehow overlooking it.

I mostly use commercial profiles from one guy and overall they're pretty well balanced. I'm meeting up with some guys who play a little Tom Petty so I thought I'd give the legendary Morgan from RM a try (spoiler alert: I'm now a big fan as well, and see why people love it). I needed to bring the level up a bit relative to the other profiles. In browse mode this is all pretty straightforward. Change rig volume, press save, play guitar. However, I was setting up and working in performances, and this is where my brain apparently disconnected from my fingers.

I know that the performance maintains a copy of the profile. My expectation was to go into the performance, press the Rig button, adjust the volume, press store. The result was a prompt saying that it saved a copy of the profile (I drag and drop profiles into performances in RM from my local library). I fooled around a little more, did the RTFM thing, and I'm just not getting it. Ultimately I ended up going into browse mode, adjusting the volume of the profile there, then dragging it back into the performance. I know I'm doing this wrong.

Would someone mind showing me the workflow you guys use to take a handful of performances and balance the rig volumes with each other? Apologies for being so dense. Everything else on the Kemper is so easy to use, I'm not sure why I'm struggling with this.

Quote from dmatthews

Are you hunting wabbits again?

Duck season!

Quote from rchrdnaylor

I subscribed but there was no way to download anything after that?

He sends you an email after you subscribe. I ended up buying everything he has, and he also emailed with the free stuff after I did the subscription.

And the free stuff is every bit as good as the rest of it.

Wow. Very well thought out. I just bought mine a couple of months ago and pestered the guys here (who seem to possess infinite patience with newbies such as myself) with many of those exact questions.

In the spirit of giving back, I'll add a Q. Because of your thoroughness, about all that's left is:

14. What is the air speed velocity of an unladen sparrow?

Quote from rabatavus

- When I load my saved presets they sound nothing like they used to. The legacy reverb is totally different from the old reverbs. I tought the new legacy reverb will automatically load at parameters that would give an equivalent sound. It doesn't.

This was the question I asked yesterday. The folks who replied basically said, "the old reverbs have been moved to a single legacy algorithm, " and while that's true, it didn't address my concern.

My question was whether or not I'd have to go through all the profiles I own and tweak the reverb on each (a not inconsiderable task) because now they're all pointing to the legacy module and the sound might be different. Your experience indicates that this is in fact the case.

If the new version truly does change how all your pre-existing profiles sound, that's a destructive side effect and I would consider this a bug worth reporting for the beta.

"First, do no harm."

Quote from klmax5669

Where are the new presets located? When I browse the reverbs now there is only 1 (Spring Fan)

This raises a question I was curious about.

Do the old reverbs from the current release go away? And more importantly, does this release change the reverb on all your existing profiles, i.e. do you have to go through all profiles and tweak them so they work with the new reverbs?

MMA has been making noise about 2.0 for a long time now. Honestly, it's astounding that a bunch of competing manufacturers ever got together in the first place and agreed on a spec, then implemented it, let alone stuck with it for all these years.

If they ever do actually release a 2.0, I hope it gets the same widespread adoption as the original. For an 8 bit protocol developed in 1983, MIDI has had a very impressive run as technologies go.

Quote from Zappledan

If you update the KPA first, then you'd have to disconnect it from the computer and start up RM. Once RM is updated you can connect the KPA again.

Yeah, that's the kind of thing I was thinking of.

Quote from Deej09

Other than that you could do a back up and then uninstall RM, re-load the latest one off the site and see if it upgrades. Then reload the back up.

Don't forget to burn incense and sacrifice a couple of chickens. Very important for technical troubleshooting.

That's some pretty psychedelic camera stuff happening in the background. I wonder if the reverbs put out some sort of reality distortion field.

Quote from mapleleaf14

I have the OS updated no problem, and yes the reverbs are killer. I just can't update Rig Manager...and I've done everything that everyone has said to do, including HW in the Tone Junkie video. No go.

I haven't installed it (waiting for the production release) but a thought occurred to me that might be relevant. Is it possible that if you update the Kemper OS first via USB that it then somehow confuses Rig Manager and prevents it from updating?

The Tone Junkie scenario updated RM first, so I was reminded of the old adage, "First pillage, then burn. Order is important."

Pure speculation from the cheap seats but thought I'd ask.

Quote from Wheresthedug

The first thing that jumps out just looking at the representation of the waveforms is just how slammed the advertised version is. That has been mastered through a shit load of compression before uploading to soundcloud which is definitely going to affect the perceived sound on playback. It's may have had some fairly drastic eq applied too.

Yeah, that's the thing about "samples." They're sales tools to move the merchandise. Demos / samples (for all musical gear) are frequently tweaked to within an inch of their lives to make it sound good and sell the gear. Which is kinda dumb in my opinion because if you cheat on your demos, you pretty much guarantee dissatisfied customers. Don't know if that's the case with STL or not.

So, it could be as simple as a manufacturer who puts out heavily massaged samples, and the profiles just don't sound like that. AdamMassacre1981, is this just with the STL profiles, or do you have the same problem with profiles from other companies?

Quote from AdamMassacre1981

HUGE difference right?

I can certainly hear it. Unless there's a very significant difference between your pickups and what was used on the sample, I would guess that it's something in your recording chain.

Here's the debugging steps I'd take if it was my studio:

• I'm assuming that the Focusrite connects to your (Mac / PC) via USB, so you could check to make sure you have the latest version of their drivers.
• You might also try downloading a trial version of current DAW software. Cubase may have a demo, I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure Reaper does. If it's the age of Cubase 5, recording with an up to date DAW would show that.
• Do you have any friends with recording setups? It's easy enough to throw the Kemper in the car and test it on someone else's system, which is cheaper than just buying a new interface or software not really knowing if it's the problem or not.
• Swap out all cables
• Another test, which is a hack but might be enlightening, is to play the sample track through your stereo. Stick a mic in front of the speaker and record it. Then play back and compare. Naturally mic quality and placement are a factor so it'll never be perfect, but you're listening for a pretty specific characteristic in the high end. If your recording through the mic shows that problem as well, then it's definitely something in your recording chain.

And always remember the first rule of debugging: change one, and only one, thing at a time. Test, draw conclusions, change the next thing. If you change more than one thing at once you'll spend hours trying to find the magic bullet. Don't ask how I know (I program for a living).

For what it's worth, I have lots of M. Britt and also some Top Jimi high gain profiles. Each and every one sounds exactly like it's supposed to, whether coming out of the monitor speaker or recorded and played back. So, don't despair! You can get there, it'll just take some work to sort it all out. Some of the gear in your environment is less than optimal, so it's much more likely to be something along those lines than the Kemper itself.

Of course, it's possible you have a defective unit, but my gut tells me it's your signal chain, so I wouldn't hit up support until you've eliminated all the other factors first.

By the way, regarding DAWs being expensive... I run Cubase Pro (they all do pretty much the same thing). And while I currently have a Yamaha TF5 mixer that's also my audio interface, I have several of Steinberg's UR22 and UR44 audio interfaces from a previous iteration of the studio. They're very clean and the ASIO drivers are rock solid. The UR22mkii is a hundred bucks. And, it comes with a free version of Cubase AI. I believe it's track limited to either 24 or 32 tracks, but it'll have waaaaay more horsepower overall than your Cubase 5 version. I've used the AI stuff for some live projects and it does 90% of what the Pro version does.

https://www.amazon.com/Steinbe…/dp/B017MVUAHM/ref=sr_1_2

So, if it turns out the Focusrite and / or old Cubase is the culprit, a hundred bucks gets you back in the game. In fact, given Amazon's generous return policy, you could buy the UR22, keep it if it solves the problem, return it if it doesn't.

Anyway, lots of info, but I know how frustrating debugging can be. Hopefully some of this helps you get it sorted out. Once you do, you're going to absolutely love what the Kemper will do for you.

Quote from AdamMassacre1981

Hey Chris! Thanks for the info.Im currently at work at the moment but when i get home i will be more than happy to share all my set up pics included.

I think the first thing would be to try the exercise I suggested, it may help you get this sorted.

Quote from AdamMassacre1981

the out is DIRECT LEFT out directly into my Focusrite 2i4

Some clarification would help.

• What back panel output are you using for "the out" - the master output, monitor output or direct output?
• What front panel knob are you using to select your output source - Main Output, Monitor Output, Direct Output or SPDIF Output?
• Regarding the front knob selection, I have no "DIRECT LEFT" option on any of my knobs. What version of the OS are you running?

For Main Output, I have these options. If that's not what you're seeing, I'd recommend updating to the latest version.

• Git+Processing
• Git Studio
• Stack
• Mod Left
• Mod Mono
• Mod Stereo
• Master Left
• Master Mono
• Master Stereo
• DEL/REV Wet

Try this.

1. Plug the left Main Output into your Focusrite.
2. Set your Main Output to Master Mono.
3. Pick one of the six profiles from the list of samples provided at the bottom of the Brian Hood page (https://www.stltones.com/produ…od-producer-kemper-bundle).
4. Reload your profile from the manufacturer so that you have the exact settings they sold you, with no alterations, including whatever their Pure Cab settings are.
5. Record a test playing something very similar in style to what he's playing in the sample, using the guitar you think is the closest match.
6. Post your playing sample and specify which guitar and profile it was so we can compare to the sample they provided.

We'll then have an apples to apples comparison between how the profile is "supposed" to sound and what you're getting. It's simply not possible for another guitarist to help you with a sound that's "bad" because that's highly subjective and the definition varies wildly from player to player. Being able to compare what you thought you were buying to what you were getting is different because we have a specific sound to use as a baseline. This will help us isolate the problem.

If your problem is "I don't get the same sound as the manufacturer" and you're reasonably close on guitar and playing style, it's probably a setup issue of some kind.

If the problem is, "I don't like the sound I'm getting," and it's as close as your guitar and playing will come to what they provide, it may indicate that you need to look for different things in third party profiles since it's always going to be colored heavily to your personal playing style, guitar, pickups, etc. - which will almost never be identical to the person who made the audio samples.

Quote from ToneDeaf

To isolate where the fizz comes from, first try with just headphones directly into the Kemper.

If it is still fizzy, it is likely some setting on the Kemper. If it is not, it is the interface or DAW.

I don't see a reply to his question, and this is very important debugging information. What were your results when you compared headphones to what comes out of your speakers - was it the same problem in both, or did the headphones sound okay?

Quote from Nikos

I had the (very personal) hope (reading the thread title) I would get more "Scottish"/Celtic influences.I mean melody/harmony-wise..

Would it help if he wore a kilt?

I'm an ancient classic rock guy and thus don't listen to metal, primarily because most everything I've heard has been dark and minor, with dissonance just for the sake of dissonance (e.g. root chug x 13 -> flatted 2nd) and focused on generating a dark / evil vibe (bloody skulls with daggers through the eyes, etc.). I don't mean any disrespect to the metal guys here, who are often insanely proficient players, as there is no right or wrong in art. I just like to feel good so that sort of thing's not my frequency.

I only mention this because I found your music to be both contemplative and uplifting, not at all what I would expect from metal. Is that because it's "progressive metal" (there are too many sub-genres for me to keep up with) or is it just a Scottish thing?

Either way, nicely done, man.

Quote from Jerberge

Is it that future proof?

There's no such thing.

Quote from V8guitar

he didn't ask what the product roadmap was

In most software companies, the roadmap looks more like a rainbow, with the Leprechaun's pot of gold always just over the horizon.

Quote from MementoMori

Nobody purchased it "as is"

I did.

I buy all digital products with the assumption that five minutes after the check clears the bank the company will drop the product line or go out of business and there will never be another update. So, if I like what it does today, I buy it. If I don't, then I either buy something else or wait until the alleged updates become a physical (or at least digital) reality. Then I buy it "as is" at that particular moment.

With no disrespect intended toward any who see it differently, I personally feel that buying a software / digital product based on what kind of updates you expect to get in the future is about the most foolish purchase a person could make. The software business is more in need of adult supervision than any industry on the planet. If you bet the farm on what might happen in the future, you've either got a crystal ball or not enough battle scars with technology.

Marketing teams frequently tout all the great new features that are "just around the corner," so go ahead and buy today! In the software biz, the technical term for this is "vaporware." Anyone who buys into this, whether promoted by a company or just assumed by the customer, is setting themselves up for heartbreak and frustration. In the tech world, the future never arrives as quickly as you think, nor shows up the way you thought it would. I'd rather play the lottery. The odds are better.

And for the record, the Kemper does exactly what I expected it would do. If there's never another update, I'm a happy camper because what I paid for is what I got.

As it happens, today is the day I'm deploying the new version of our software system at work. Given that there's usually at least one adventure when pushing a new build to production, I'm willing to give these guys the benefit of the doubt on perhaps posting the wrong version. Those of us who work in the trade have a technical term for this sort of thing.

"Oops."