KPA hardware upgrades

    This is a bit of a silly question, mostly because the only one that can answer that is Christoph Kemper himself, and he clearly wouldn't, but I was wondering: the Kemper has been out now for...how long? Some 3/4 years? It is far from obsolete, but the intention is to keep on upgrading the firmware with new features, bug fixes and so on and so forth. This is all magnificent, of course, but it's going to take more and more computing power. So the question(s) would be: how much of the computing power is already in use? Should we expect the need for more soon? (read as: do you see imminent new features that would require more resources? For instance, a looper - as easy as it probably is to implement - requires RAM, and that might not be available at the moment) And, should the time come, will we have a whole new product, or maybe the units will be upgradable with a new processor board, such as this: http://i412.photobucket.com/al…c/KPA_CPU_zpsd88e17be.png ?
    I know this is speculation and noone can answer this questions (except - again - CK), but what's your take on these?

    I can't see any kind of hardware upgrade in the existing Profiler happening.
    This would generate a hell of trouble for support, not even talking about the requirement to send your Profiler to an authorized service provider and to get completely new certifications for safety regulations.


    I do think we will see a new product at some point, but not any time soon. Maybe it will have different form factor (smaller?), maybe it will have a dual signal chain, maybe it will provide more effects and internal routing options, maybe some changes regarding I/O. None of us knows. We don't even know about the general plans ... invent a new box interesting to current users (market segment) or something to explore a much broader market segment?


    I do have some future product wishes and I already mentioned them before. But I don't worry at all that my current Profiler will be outdated in any way. It's a great tool and it will be great for MANY years to come, as long as it won't break. :)

    I'd be only interested in new version if there would be a substantial upgrade to core amp modelling/profiling engine (make it more realer). Since C.K. himself said that core sound engine in Kemper is finished and won't change, new unit would have to bring another revolution like current one. I am just not sure how much better it can get - I don't really see a room for improvement in this area - it sounds as recorded amp and profiles are identical to profiled amp. Really could care less about having 20 different types of delay or infinite routing options or a built in looper.

    Quote from SanctumSolaris

    I believe a major hardware improvement would be to upgrade the Kemper with a USB/Firewire audio interface.

    Well, the Kemper already has two USB connections, and it has already (quite a lot, actually) been asked to make it send audio (and MIDI) through USB, which would be awesome.

    Tbh the most likely initial HW update would be more memory, not for more rigs, but for a looper.


    After that dual DSP or more powerful DSP to allow dual amps and maybe a few more fx in the pathways.


    I'd love to see further improvements to the whole profiling thing, extending it to do more (reverberations, sympathetic resonator, room profiling not just for verb, but for frequency compensation when playing live in different venues, maybe even guitar/stringed instrument profiling to do properly what Roland and line 6 do with v-system and variax ) but I highly doubt that will happen. Christoph seems completely happy with the results (although there are a couple of amps that stil won't profile), so that will probably be up to some competitor to come up with.


    Either way, I doubt well see such updates until all functionality in the core OS for the front panel has been completed. Before then we might see some more form factors of the existing tech. Maybe even some Kemper "light" or floorboard variations.

    Just throwing some wood into the fire, the DSP board in the KPA is small, dettachable and obviously replaceable/upgradable. From the looks of it, seems basically as easy to replace as upgrading the RAM in your average laptop :p

    Well to me the KPA feels pretty complete. Only substantial thing I'd love to see is a dual amp function (using two different profiles at once) and maybe a spring verb. Other then that to me personally there's no reason to add more stuff to it. But this is a common mentality that people just want more for the sake of simply having more.


    In no way I'm an expert but I guess the more stuff you add the more bugs or complications can appear.

    The Kemper is nearly perfect IMHO. I am a design engineer myself, and the only hardware upgrades I can see are:


    • Dedicated foot controller with a single cable carrying send, receive, and power to the foot pedal
    • Faster load time. I suspect that this can't be accomplished with just a firmware upgrade, but rather would require a change to the way information is moved physically within the unit.
    • Faster DSP. I have heard, and a few others have reported, some aliasing in the higher frequency range notes on the guitar. It isn't on all rigs, but some of them could use a bit faster DSP and sampling to help with these issues.


    The fact is that all of these are minor quibbles. The Kemper is the nicest piece of gear I have ever owned. I can see myself using it for the next 10 years or more.

    I believe the designer of the Kemper was quoted somewhere as saying no changes/firmware updates (or something to that effect)would be available because the unit is basically complete. Someone please chime in if that's not correct though. As many have said they feel they could use the Kemper in its current form for many years to come. Which says a lot because as guitars players we are hard to satisfy when it comes to tone,which makes the kemper great with so many tones to choose from.

    Quote from OneEng1

    Faster DSP. I have heard, and a few others have reported, some aliasing in the higher frequency range notes on the guitar. It isn't on all rigs, but some of them could use a bit faster DSP and sampling to help with these issues.



    Wasn't this resolved in the latest beta firmware update, i.e 2.5? I heard it was, but never heard back from the original complainant.

    Quote from nightlight

    Wasn't this resolved in the latest beta firmware update, i.e 2.5? I heard it was, but never heard back from the original complainant.

    Well, the original complainant was me :P and I did write in the original thread about it, but I don't recall anybody replying afterwards.
    Anyway, I do find that the problem is "almost" solved: that is, I still can hear a liiiiittle bit of it, but insisting on it would be really splitting hairs, expecially considering that a minority of the users will play such extreme high gain profiles and with cab sims off (having them on attenuates greatly the phenomenon). All in all I am supersatisfied with the prompt intervention to my ticket :)