Kemper KPA vs. Axe-FX II (Yes, another one...please read!)

    Quote from TheLightspeeder

    @mbrown3 actually your observation is not correct. My statement has been backed up by many posters here as well as in the manual. Please re-read the exact workings of the profile making. Again, I am just giving you my observation and experience from working with the KPA a lot in the studio as well as clinics I conduct for Kempet here in the US at Guitar Center. I know you are just compiling information but tbh at this point the dog is chasing its tail to stay with your metaphor;)


    Fair enough. As I said, I don't have first-hand experience. But the majority of posts in this thread, as well as Kemper's own product info (read the pages on their site) reflect the other understanding of how the snapshots work rather than the one you've described. Personally, I don't care either way. I care if it works and if it sounds good. I'm simply saying that if your description is accurate, then they really need to re-think the way they describe it in the info (and, apparently, the way most of their users have come to understand it).

    Quote from lasvideo

    Whats up with your posts???


    Thanks for fixing that up. It was hard to read the other way. : )


    OP I think you have a lot of food for thought that will go out the window when you get to play thru one of these amazing devices. ENJOY!


    Yeah, I get that. I'm not gathering opinions so much to help me decide which one to buy, as much as to decide which one to keep. That is, I'm more interested in what will work better for me in the long run than which will sound great out of the box...I suspect both will be awesome. But (as with a lot of gear), I want to get at the things that may start bothering me over time.

    Well, I think the manual states it well but is a bit less clear about it. Think about it, if it was a snapshot per dialed in sound you'd have to profile a million possible sounds and settings. :) the KPA has a memory limit on how many profiles it can hold within its memory but of course you can keep millions on your computer and upload them via rig manager

    Quote from TheLightspeeder

    Well, I think the manual states it well but is a bit less clear about it. Think about it, if it was a snapshot per dialed in sound you'd have to profile a million possible sounds and settings. :) the KPA has a memory limit on how many profiles it can hold within its memory but of course you can keep millions on your computer and upload them via rig manager


    Well...yeah, that's kind of how I thought it worked. I figured I'd have to capture a profile for every overdriven and clean sound I want. I mean, the truth is, most people get a channel set to where they want it and rarely make many (non minor) changes to it. So this isn't really that big of a deal. The only times I drastically change settings is when I change between guitars or add effects pedals, etc. Usually I just fine-tune based on the space I'm in. But if it doesn't work that way, I'm glad to hear it.

    mbrown3 have you seen the videos in the links yet that others previously posted? They will help you understand profiling.
    Profiling video tutorials
    http://www.wikpa.org/Profiling_Tutorials#Videos


    List of about 300 producers and bands using kempers,
    music, videos and information.
    http://www.wikpa.org/Various_stuff


    What you should be focused on is authenticity, and the kemper can copy your real amp rig and have no problems tweaking a sound to your liking. Most players have a few sweet spot amp settings they like and that's it, those profiles are all you need. No problems if you want to tweak from there either or switch cabs.
    No other product can do profiling and it's one of the reasons why so many bands and studios are using it.
    Also no changes to your saved amp sound to worry about with frequent new kemper firmware that brings us new features.
    The big producers and bands in the list have no problems making perfect copys of their amp collections with profiles and also tweaking sounds with the kemper controls after the profile is taken. It sounds great so no worries there.


    Also, to determine that a post was unbiased and just not regular gear opinion like the others is impossible.
    Bias (=agenda) and normal gear preference are two very different things, which is often mistaken for the same thing.
    The most natural thing is to have unbiased gear preference, I prefer this product over that one because...
    Just because someone mentions equal pro and con doesn't make it more true or more unbiased, it's just a normal gear oppinion and it's 100% subjective. One can love a product, another can strongly dislike it, one slightly prefers one over the other. Nothing is considered correct or wrong with normal gear oppinion and its all fair.
    :)

    Edited 5 times, last by orko ().

    Like 1


    Actually, being balanced (i.e., citing the pros and cons in a fair manner) is the definition of unbiased.

    Another note is that always be a little skeptical when reading about new features, cool sounding names, processing power etc. Fractal is especially good at advertising simple changes like EQ and compression changes as a major breakthrough in modeling technology. Do not forget that after all what we think of as a holy grail of guitar tone is actually only a more or less distorted audio signal. It is not rocket science. Of course processing power is important if you cannot make effective code. ;)


    Oh and do anyone remember how Cliff at Fractal always bashed and degraded the KPA every time a similar topic was brought up? Yesterday he wrote that the KPA was indeed better in terms of feel !!! but the new AXE firmware finally changed that...
    For me, he (again) completely lost all his credibility.

    Btw, "snapshot" is a word invented on The Gear Page....I've never seen Kemper use the word "snapshot".
    I think "FRFR" was also invented by The Gear Page...I've never seen one PA company use the word "FRFR" on their website.


    The opposition were lost for words, they didn't know how to react when the Kemper was first revealed...so they invented the word "snapshot" as if to insinuate that the Kemper can ONLY take a snapshot of an amp setting.


    Once you own a Kemper you know perfectly well it does a WHOLE LOT MORE than take a snapshot of an amp.
    You can take any Profile and completely transform it into a completely different sounding amp.

    A surprising quote from the fractal guys on the sibling thread at FAS, especially the second sentence.


    Quote

    The feel with V18 software is better than the Kemper IMO (I have two of them). A year or so ago the Kemper felt slightly better. But the Axe-Fx caught up and surpassed it. But I'm biased so my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt.

    Quote from lef38

    A surprising quote from the fractal guys on the sibling thread at FAS, especially the second sentence.


    Amazing isn't it, in 2011/12/13/ they told us how much better the AXE was than the Kemper, now we're told by the man himself that up to 2014 the Kemper was better than the AXE. :)

    Wow.


    OP, there's nothing that CC does or says that is not aimed at prevailing. Seen how people on the fence have been treated in the last 3 years on his board, it's just smart from him to offer a better impression of his fanatics to the world.


    He's been continuously lying about the Kemper's characteristics and "defects", has been continuously bashing the Profiler, save copying its characteristics (several features on the Axe have been copied from the Profiler), sometimes w\o even changing their name. A perfect example of the person I don't want to be.


    Peace and Axes :)

    Quote from mbrown3


    Yeah, I get that. I'm not gathering opinions so much to help me decide which one to buy, as much as to decide which one to keep. That is, I'm more interested in what will work better for me in the long run than which will sound great out of the box...I suspect both will be awesome. But (as with a lot of gear), I want to get at the things that may start bothering me over time.


    Try this then. Have 2 of your friends who are guitarists come over and play them, noodling with different presets and profiles, changing units up.


    Leave the room, get a beer, listen, come back, sit without looking and just listen. You can often get a better perspective by listening to others, since playing yourself forces part of your brain to work the muscles and have less attention for the sound.


    If there is no clear difference, then I would think about how you use them and which is easiest to setup, get the sounds you need, and play/record. In the end, it is TIME that is the great factor after sound and play-response to the guitar.


    Both units have good interfaces IMO, the differences being more if you like knobs or computer editing with a mouse.


    Either ONE will speak to these needs, or else they won't, and it's a toss-up, in which case, either keep both, or see which gathers the most dust over 2 months time. The used market value will only go up on both units, you can't lose by waiting!

    Ractal Audio is for years the lying and bashing douchbag company in the modeling world.
    Stealing and copying other mans work and idea's.
    Thats how he does business.


    Talk with your wallet that is what i do :)

    Quote from DADA

    Ractal Audio is for years the lying and bashing douchbag company in the modeling world.
    Stealing and copying other mans work and idea's.
    Thats how he does business.


    Talk with your wallet that is what i do :)


    Not helpful, and this sort of talk doesn't help the public image of this community. Tone it down.

    Quote from TheLightspeeder

    Lasvideo, I am sorry but you are wrong. You are misunderstanding the meaning of a snapshot in this context. Yes, the KPA takes a snapshot and then translates all values to its controls and sets it up just like the amp you had profiled. From there you can change your settings on the KPA just like you'd do in your original amp, behaving exactly the same way... The difference to the Axe-FX is that these values are established by your own doing and not by the company.


    This is not true. How should the Kemper know, what the amp does, when you change the settings? You can surely tweak the profiled Amp and get good results, but the control knobs don't behave the same way.
    I'll give you an example: If you replace one of the pots (for example treble) with a new one with a different value, then it will behave differently to the original one but it is possible to set it to the same value.
    If you create profiles with both set to the same value, the profiles will be the same, even if the original knobs behave different.


    If it was true, that alle the knobs would behave the same way, it would make no difference, with which settings a profile would be created.
    Try profiling an amp with all EQ knobs set to zero and Gain nearly zero and then profile the same amp with all values turned to 10. I'm pretty sure, these profiles can't be tweaked to sound similar afterwards..