The Distortion Loop effect will preserve the signal level at that point in the chain on the loop send; however, it has a noise gate on it that cant be disabled or adjusted, and i believe it is mono only.
I feel like there should only be mono and stereo loop effects, with a preserve signal strength switch or a manual send level, and an adjustible theshold and/or switch to disable the noise gate.
I think there's also a noise gate on the mono loop stomp, too. I've encountered situations where the end of reverb tails have been cut off abruptly. Might've just been a bug though, as it happened randomly (and I haven't had anything in the loop for a good few firmwares now).
Anything new & significant will have to wait for NAMM, no?
Anything new & significant will have to wait for NAMM, no?
They've not been limiting new features to just two releases a year - when the next update will come along is anyone's guess.
Anything new & significant will have to wait for NAMM, no?
In my experience Kemper lets the cat out of the bag when it's ready, they don't seem to follow the Anaheim/Frankfurt cycle.
Have to agree, They don't seem to save stuff for the appropriate Trade show. Which is a pleasant change
Even if the built in kemper sounds were as good as strymon (they're not, I have the bigsky and timeline and have had eventide stuff in the past), you still lose the live flexibility when you go with the kemper FX. I play 3-4 gigs every week each with different sets every week, and with rehearsals mixed in on different days, so I could never program everything into the kemper without losing my mind. With the traditional pedal board I have all my delays and reverbs preset so I can pull them up on the fly as needed for each song. Often songs will have 2-3 different delay and reverb settings throughout. Maybe a light dotted eighth, then a big tape setting for a swell, then a slapback for a solo or something. I need to be able to call each of those up on the fly at any time. I also run my amps at edge of breakup level so I can still run delays and reverbs into the front of the amp without having to use an FX loop.
With all that said, I do use the kemper's built in clean boost, phaser, flanger, octave stuff, and have a very light reverb on at all times, since I pretty much use the same settings on those all the time and I'm 100% for taking weight off my board and pedals out of my signal chain. I just use a homemade version of this to turn them on and off.
I just use a homemade version of this to turn them on and off.
LOVE Brightonion stuff! Used their loops and switchers on my traditional pedal board before Kemper.
strabes: are you aware of presets in the Profiler? Could them help your workflow? Apart from performances of course.
Is it possible to call up different reverb or delay presets with dedicated buttons at any time on a midi controller? I tried searching the manual for this but I couldn't find anything, is there a page documenting this? I'm completely unfamiliar with Midi on the kemper
I don't use MIDI, but the MIDI Parameters documentation in available on the Main site, you'll find all the assignments currently available on the machine 
I see things like these tho, which might be what you're looking for:
[Note: CC \ Value \ Action]
68 x Sets Delay Mix to x
69 x Sets Delay Feedback to x
70 x Sets Reverb Mix to x
71 x Sets Reverb Time to x
72 x Sets Amplifier Gain to x
As for recalling... why not recall a full rig via MIDI?
That seems so complicated and not flexible, what if for a particular room I need to turn down the mix a bit on a particular preset? I would be stuck, but with a pedal on the floor it's so easy. Also I don't want to recall a whole rig via midi because then I'd have to program exactly what I want for every song, which for multiple sets a week seems so painful. Don't mean to be a downer, I just don't get the idea of programming everything in unless you're playing the exact same set every night
That seems so complicated and not flexible, what if for a particular room I need to turn down the mix a bit on a particular preset? I would be stuck, but with a pedal on the floor it's so easy. Also I don't want to recall a whole rig via midi because then I'd have to program exactly what I want for every song, which for multiple sets a week seems so painful. Don't mean to be a downer, I just don't get the idea of programming everything in unless you're playing the exact same set every night
The KPA has physical knobs on the front panel specifically for "on the fly" quick adjustments of chorus, delay, and reverb (though the rack unit does not have the chorus controls on it).
I would be stuck, but with a pedal on the floor it's so easy.
Well, once you press that specific slot's button you are in front of the controls... and at eye's height. Basically, tweaking anything on the fly is just one button pressure longer than using a floor pedal, and one body bend shorter 
All of them. They sound excellent. I have a Strymon El-Capistan which is nice, but not needed.
Strabes, make presets of the entire Effects section with the effects you want dialed in like you want them. Now lock the Effects section. You can access delay and reverb mix straight from the front of the KPA, and it will persist even if you change rigs. And if you want to change effects presets, you have to do it with your hands, but it takes 2 secs
Strabes, make presets of the entire Effects section with the effects you want dialed in like you want them. Now lock the Effects section. You can access delay and reverb mix straight from the front of the KPA, and it will persist even if you change rigs. And if you want to change effects presets, you have to do it with your hands, but it takes 2 secs
.................meambobbo , thanks for this..roger
Strabes, make presets of the entire Effects section with the effects you want dialed in like you want them. Now lock the Effects section. You can access delay and reverb mix straight from the front of the KPA, and it will persist even if you change rigs. And if you want to change effects presets, you have to do it with your hands, but it takes 2 secs
Thanks for the help but I don't think this will fix my problem. For example, let's say on one song I want a small reverb on one part with a light slap delay, then later on maybe a big heavy reverb with a big tape delay for some ambient thing. But I might also want one of those settings on a different song combined with a different reverb or different delay. So basically I need to be able to access all delay, reverb, drive, and modulation settings at all times without having to program "for this song I need these settings, for this song I need some different settings". With the timeline (or my old timefactor) for example I just have a light and heavy dotted eighth, heavy tape, slapback, etc, programmed in there so I can call them up at any time in any song, and the tempo I tapped in for that song persists across presets (it's called "global tempo"). Same thing with the BigSky: I have a small plate, medium plate, large hall, spring, etc presets that I can call up at any time during any song depending on the part of the song I'm in. Hopefully all that makes sense.
To comment on the MIDI stuff - you really have two options if you want a rig to operate with two separate reverbs or delays:
The complex method: Using a MIDI controller that can send SysEx, you can send messages to the Kemper to set and assign every single parameter. This includes reverb type and delay type. Unfortunately, SysEx is rather complex and you can't (easily) sweep values using an expression pedal, and not everyone has a controller that can send SysEx. I was able to create a setting using my controller for a gig this last weekend where I wanted a tremolo to go from about 60% mix to 25% (where the effect was still on and present but less of a primary feature), and I did so by assigning a button on my controller to send the proper SysEx commands. It took about 30 minutes to figure out the spec for it and to understand the Kemper's guidelines for doing it, but it worked.
The easier, but convoluted, method: This works best in performance mode, though you can do this in browse mode by duplicating rigs. Set up one performance with one reverb/delay/whatever, and then copy it to a new slot (or duplicate the rig after saving). Modify the desired effect to meet the secondary need, and save. You will have two copies of the same rig which you can call up by their slot (or the assigned PC # in browse mode). The problem with this is if you need to make a change to the rig as a whole (less gain, EQ tweak, etc.) - you then need to make that same change twice. Additionally, if you prefer to use the Kemper in a manner where you don't use presets and you flip on stomps like you would if it were a pedalboard, your on/off settings for your stomps will not be retained when switching over.
There's no real great solution, but, as far as I know, Fractal's the only ones that have done this, and done this well, by their usage of multiple signal paths and scenes. Kemper, Eleven, and Line 6 (save for the Helix and X3) operate under a single chain method, and you're pretty much locked in on a preset-by-preset basis.
All that said, back to the original topic, I use a slew of outboard effects with my Kemper. I have a volume pedal at the start of my chain (that also operates as an A/B between my wireless and wired connections), a Morley Bad Horsie wah, and three overdrive pedals (6 Degrees Sally Drive v1, Foxpedals The City, and an Addrock Ol' Yeller). I also have a stereo loop in the X or Mod slot (depending on the performance slot) that runs a Strymon Timeline and a Strymon BigSky. I've found that, for myself personally, the modulation, compressor, and EQ effects on the Kemper are fine for my needs, but the overdrive and time-based effects are lacking. I've been able to get some usable overdrive sounds, but not to the degree that I'd like, so I stick with my own pedals. As far as the delay, the Kemper does a fantastic digital delay and a fantastic shallow reverb. Some of the U2-style delay presets are actually really great, and Meamboboo (sp?) has some really nice reverb patches available. However, a lot of what I play out live requires me to build up a lot of space and ambience, and the Strymon pedals let me do that in a very easy manner, and without having to create several dozen different presets for each delay/reverb combo sound. The Kemper is severely lacking in these respects.
Someone mentioned earlier that the Strymon pedals have their own Sparc chip - this is correct, at least with concern to the BigSky. I don't believe the actual chip used in the Timeline has been published. Either way, they're processing delays and reverbs at a level that I simply don't believe the Strymon's DSP will be able to achieve. Some of the Strymon stuff (Timeline's Ice, BigSky's Shimmer) does harmonies with the sound, meaning, from a programming perspective, that you'd be using a delay or reverb, which it's trails would be fed back into a pitch shifter. This requires a lot of processing power. You can do 30 second decays on the BigSky, and that requires an immense amount of processing power. Something like the Strymon Timeline's dBucket sounds would be relatively easily achievable with the Kemper, though locking it to the next to last slot is incredibly limiting for my needs, and if I can't get a huge 18 second hall sound, I won't be switching over.
So, all in all, I stick with MIDI-controlling my overdrives (via a switcher) and my Strymon pedals from my board apart from the Kemper. I have the best of everything for my needs - a fantastic amp setup with some great compression, EQ, and modulation (when I do need it, which is rare), the beauty of analog overdrives chained together, and the ambience-building abilities of the Strymon pedals. The biggest downside is my pedalboard is pretty massive, and I have to run a snake to the Kemper from my board. But I get the sound I need.
Kemper promised a while back (with the release of the Remote) that we'd be able to control many more parameters (like decay time for the reverb or feedback for the delay) via an expression pedal or pedals connected to the Remote. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will be implemented in the near future via a firmware update. I think that might solve the OP's predicament. Otherwise, the Performance Mode idea is the one I'd investigate in the meantime.
