Yesterday I wrote in the thread for the
to-be footcontroller about how a stock pot pedal could be
incorporated as a useful volume pedal.
Having that said, I realized that
incorporating more and more stuff into the KPA may make little sense.
Let me explain.
Valve amps have been around for six
decades and are still much wanted. As time went by, they have been
augmented with the effects of the time, such as spring reverb,
tremolo, later chorus, parametric eq and even later cheap digital
effects.
Almost all of those effects have
disappeared again, making their presence on an amp a curiosity,
although some of those sounds have gained iconic status.
Even parametric EQ´s have in my
experience proven to be little accepted by users, because they make
radical tone shifts which would necessitate some performance
switching action that should rather be referred to a programmable
multi-fx device.
If you used the KPA just as it were a
vintage amp, then that´s it. Turn the “amp” on, twiddle the
knobs for slight EQ-ing, volume and gain and there is not much going
to change with this sound.
Modern tube amps usually have two ore
more channels that can be performance switched. Usually those are
voiced for different sounds (or there would be no need for them), and
the KPA can cater for that. That may be a viable reason for a
performance control (footswitch).
Fact is, effects are quickly obsoleted,
tube sound has proven resistant against the abrasion of time.
There are mainly two usage scenarios
for amplifiers:
a) live performance. The amp is not
only to used to generate tone, but also for reinforcement. The
traditional way of arranging effects including reverberation is
guitar-effect-amp-speaker or at best using a dedicated effects loop
in the amp. This fits the concept of the KPA well because in its
origins, the KPA is a chameleon amplifier and it is said to do this
well.
b) recording. Loudness is not necessary
to achieve tone with the KPA. Effects may come after the “amp”.
Typically, effects used to create a spatial illusion (such as reverb)
come after the amp (-simulation). Note however, that many producers
these days prefer to record an entirely clean signal which is
re-amped by software later, so the KPA´s amp mimic-ing
capability might not even be called for in this chain, letting alone
alleged FX, except for the musician to feel natural.
Effects should IMHO stay outside of
this concept for several reasons:
- FX frequently change with fashion.
- Digital FX quality tends to be
superseded by new developments quickly due to progress in technology
or refined methods. - The KPA cannot profile time-based
effects such as reverb, delay, chorus, flanging, etc., so those have
to be modeled in a conventional way. Those have to remain approaches
by design. I´d rather plug in an external analog effect or
even my favorite multi-FX device than be at the mercy of the KPA´s
built in FX, unless those could be loaded into the KPA like profiles
can. (Note: I am not suggesting bad quality, just different personal
preference). - Modelled overdrive pedal are
particularly prone to be compromises, but since their original
purpose was to mimic a valve amp and since the KPA is the most
perfect overdrive machine, there should be little demand for them
except for a special effect in the neighborhood of the KPA. Striving
for quality for those models in the vicinity of the very thing they
are trying to copy is a cat biting its own tail. - The KPA does the amplifier and
speaker bit exceptionally well and should stick to that. - The KPA cannot be made to cater
for all cases, and you may still need an external FX device, in
which case we could abandon the KPA´s FX from a start. Reduced
wiring and external gear are thus not an argument. - Recording preferences may dictate
using a real (tube) amp for tone, or even better the KPA to achieve
the same tone at ear-friendly volume, but not the FX that are built
inside. The market is abounding with software plugins that may be
far superior to any real-time processed effect, or just more
suitable fore some reason. Particularly effects used to create
spatial illusion (reverb etc) are to be used with great care in a
recording, and “wet” recorded signals are almost guaranteed
going to create a problem later on.
The conclusion is, IMHO the KPA should
do what it can do well, namely emulating a (tube) amp´s
response and functionality, which has proven to be a relatively
timeless feature, with little more performance switching than
changing a profile, and refer FX gadgets to external devices or any
subsequent studio processing, unless those models were made in a way
that users could change them and create their own. There is a huge
wealth of untapped ingenious energy amongst users, as the software
world has proven.
This is my opinion, based on decades of
interest and work on musical gear, and not everybody must concur to
that.
-helmut
). 
