Upgrade and Configuration Guidelines/Help/Tips

    Hello fellow KPA enthusiasts!


    I purchased a KPA several months ago, but suffered some injuries which have prevented me from playing. I'm on the mend now and would like to begin using this amazing tool in earnest. Before my injuries prevented me from playing, I had explored all of the built-in profiles (of my 1.0.8.7292 KPA) and read the user manual, but not created any new presets or rigs of my own. I have created a backup (two actually, just in case) of my KPA, which I assume should always be the first step before any upgrade operation.


    What I'd like to do now is to formulate a proper strategy for upgrading the KPA to the latest material, including the latest firmware and rig packs. Unfortunately I'm a bit confused about the best strategy so I wonder if you all could provide some tips and pointers on a recommended upgrade path, and additional configuration tips which may be helpful as I explore this beast.


    Here are some of my current points of confusion:


    I'm currently running firmware 1.0.8.7292. I noticed another user asked about upgrading this old version and was instructed by the very-helpful guitarnet70 (is this user an official Kemper rep?) to upgrade in stages, first to 1.5.4 and then to 1.6.0. My confusion with this instruction is that the official firmware instructions don't seem to mention this need, and so it worries me that I run across such instructions during a random perusal of the forums. Nevertheless, based on the massive amountof posts guitarnet70 has submitted, I'm going to assume this is authoritative and take this advice.


    My next point of confusion is that I want to ensure that when I update the KPA it contains not just the latest firmware, but all of the new Kemper-released profiles/rigs/presets/effects/etc. I noticed in the download section there are the following additional Kemper-released profiles:


    Rig Pack 01
    Rig Pack 02
    (Can't seem to find a Rig Pack 03)
    Amp Factory Rig Pack
    Rig Pack 04


    So my question is, if I upgrade from 1.0.8.7279 to 1.5.4, and then from 1.5.4 to 1.6.0, will my KPA contain all of the above four?


    If yes, then the follow-up question is: What do I need to do to ensure that my KPA can access *all* of the profiles in the four packages above? I ask this because in the 1.6.0 Firmware Upgrade instructions it states that:


    Quote

    Factory Rigs


    - added: The Amp Factory Rig Pack included in firmware**
    ** New factory rigs can be imported via ‘Factory Rig’ import function in the System Menu or selectively by downloading ‘The Amp Factory Rig Pack’ from our web page.


    Does the above quote (from the firmware install instructions) only apply to the "Amp Factory Rig Pack" or does this apply to all four of the Kemper-provided Rig Packs?


    After upgrading, are there any settings I should alter in order to see these newly-added profiles/rigs/etc, such as to set "All Rigs" in the Rig Filter?


    Also, is there any single list that maintains the known issues in 1.6.0, or must one mine through the forums to discover these things?


    Thanks for bearing with me. I apologize for my ignorance. In fairness, I have read the entire manual, and I've also spent hours reading through these forums, so I feel that I've really tried to seek these details without bothering anyone.

    Well, this seems relatively easy.


    1. You can update in one step to 1.6. Sequential updates have been tried and sort of recommended by some users that experienced certain problems during the update process (that could be attributed to different causes though).


    2. After the update you go to >>SYSTEM >> FACTORY RIGS.
    This will install all the factory rigs including the rig packs 1-4.

    Thanks for the response!


    Is the factory rig import always necessary after every firmware update? In other words, in the future, say after a 1.7.0 update, will it be necessary to again import "via ‘Factory Rig’ import function in the System Menu'?" all of the factory rig packs?

    I'm going to share some of my notes (answers to some of my questions above) for any who may end up following this path.


    First read the latest version of the KPA User Manual (matching the firmware version you intend to use). As far as I can tell, the only way to locate the latest version is to download the latest firmware update package and extract the manual contained within this package. The firmware update package also contains a Presets list, with old and new names for presets. I don't know if I you need to delete all of you existing presets before upgrading, or if upgrading causes them to be renamed. I assume one can simply upgrade...?


    Next, you'll want to read through the Tips & Tricks for the KPA (wiKPA) document created and maintained by viabcroce (thanks!).


    Now if you're just starting out with the KPA you probably want to dive into the heap of existing free profiles. It appear that one of the best ways to do this is to apply the FREE RIGs and PRESETs collection of Maurizio70. A while ago I read a post by Maurizio70 which described in detail his naming convention. I'll try to dig that up as I think it will be useful to understand this after applying his preset collection.


    And to answer my earlier question, if you're upgrading to the currently-latest 1.6.0 firmware, you can read up on details regarding this release here. For those upgrading from very old firmware (such as 1.0.8.7292) it appears from this thread that quite a few users are recommending first upgrading to 1.5.4 before subsequently upgrading to 1.6.0.

    Edited 2 times, last by grnxnm ().