List of stomps and what they're *really* modeled on


    Hi Zappledan,


    can you point me to where exactly you found this information? I would like to add it to the wiKPA but I need good (official) reference. Have searched the current manual and addendum but can't find what you've wrote here.
    Or maybe some Kemper staff can confirm the above info so I can add it to our Wiki?


    Thanks
    Martin

    Oops, that wasn't what you were looking for. It's in a separate little doc titled Kemper Overdrive Distortion Stomps from 3/28/2012. Now I'm wondering if I saved that off from a post around that time ... ?(

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

    I like the drives in the KPA, but still think there is room for improvement. Maybe it would detract from the familiarity of them being modeled after certain specific pedals, but that could be compensated by creating stompbox presets.


    Parameters like Low cut (for adjusting how much low end is cut in the Green Screamer for instance), symmetrical/asymmetrical clipping (for turning the Green Screamer into a Boss OD1) and clipping voltage (for Keeley mod tones on the One DS) would add LOTS of versatility to those dirtboxes.


    I feel the fuzzes could benefit from a few additional parameters as well, especially for lowering the gain and controlling low end response. In fact I think most, if not all distortions in the KPA could use a wider range of gain, particularly in the lower range. Maybe a Low/Normal gain switch parameter? Just my opinion of course, although I do believe a lot of users would like to have more distortion pedal flavors in their KPAs.

    Quote from Deny

    I like the drives in the KPA, but still think there is room for improvement. Maybe it would detract from the familiarity of them being modeled after certain specific pedals, but that could be compensated by creating stompbox presets.


    Parameters like Low cut (for adjusting how much low end is cut in the Green Screamer for instance), symmetrical/asymmetrical clipping (for turning the Green Screamer into a Boss OD1) and clipping voltage (for Keeley mod tones on the One DS) would add LOTS of versatility to those dirtboxes.


    I feel the fuzzes could benefit from a few additional parameters as well, especially for lowering the gain and controlling low end response. In fact I think most, if not all distortions in the KPA could use a wider range of gain, particularly in the lower range. Maybe a Low/Normal gain switch parameter? Just my opinion of course, although I do believe a lot of users would like to have more distortion pedal flavors in their KPAs.



    Well, I have a specific opinion about that.


    Distortion pedals were initially made to produce distortions with amps that are hard to distort at moderate levels.
    Today, where amp distortion is fully available, distortion pedals are used to boost the sound for a solo, as well as for coloring the sound in a positive direction, before hitting the main distortion. That means, most of the time distortion pedals are used as an equalizer.
    There is only a handfull of distortion pedals, that offer a special type of distortion sound, such as the Tube Screamer.
    All the others are very close to a classic tube distortion.


    If you feel that the distortion pedals are not flexible enough, use our very versatile equalizer types instead. You might achieve much better results.


    We have included the distortion pedals because it's an unquestioned standard. I have no motivation to improve this decades old concept. If you question the sound of the distortion pedals in general or find them not flexible enough, I am with you!


    Don Peterson has created a number of equalizer settings to be used as a booster or coloraton pedal.
    Have you tried EQ's yet?


    I have tried the EQs and they work ok, I've only suggested the additional EQ options in the distortion pedals for convenience, however the symmetrical / asymmetrical configuration and clipping voltage of the diodes inside the feedback loop of the pedal's op amp cannot be altered with EQ as they change the way the pedal reacts to the input signal. The change in feel is quite perceivable, and the character of the transients is different, I've done these mods myself to my Boss DS1 and it sounds really good - no wonder Steve Vai and Joe Satriani have had modded versions themselves.


    BTW I agree that there are many, many pedals that sound exactly the same or very close, but it's a known fact that guitarists in general are quite obsessed with these little boxes, myself included, as long as they have different enough flavors to justify owning them and putting them in a pedalboard. Also I think it's great to have pedals that sound like extra tube gain stages, as several low gain stages in series have a different feel and tone than just one stage with their combined gain. My theory is that with several low gain stages, even order harmonics are generated in the first stage and each subsequent stage generates even order harmonics of the ones generated by the previous stage (besides the fundamental of course) which yields that thick, "spongy" tone that I (and probably others) love so much.


    Last but not least, a question: I've always been curious about how some great amps or distortion + amp combinations in their sweet spots sound like they have a subtle low pass filter turned on that opens or closes depending on the intensity of the note (playing dynamics) and/or frequency of the note being played, and the resulting tone is absolutely beautiful and incredibly touch responsive. I was wondering if you'd have some insight on how and why that happens, I'd love to learn more about how that works as to me that's basically the holy grail of guitar lead tones.

    ckemper : do you think it would be possible one day for you to release some kind of (maybe free) SDK for third party developer to propose new fx (as Steinberg did for the VST specs), of course without revealing any secret of the deep-inside-KPA technology of yours ?

    I used to be one of the loudest complainers that the KPA needed more distortion flavors, but after some experimentation with combining distortions, boosts, shapers and EQ, I think it has enough flexibility to mimic just about any pedal you can imagine. That said, it might be good to add some presets that are emulations of specific pedals to satisfy those who don't like to tweak.

    Quote from burningyen

    I used to be one of the loudest complainers that the KPA needed more distortion flavors, but after some experimentation with combining distortions, boosts, shapers and EQ, I think it has enough flexibility to mimic just about any pedal you can imagine. That said, it might be good to add some presets that are emulations of specific pedals to satisfy those who don't like to tweak.

    +1


    "Who don't like to tweak" or who don't know how to! I personnaly enjoy to use your Floyd rigs for example but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't achieve a comparable result by myself. I like to tweak to get new original tones in an intuitive way but when I want a specific one I would appreciate some FX presets combination to get to the point fastly!

    Quote from burningyen

    I used to be one of the loudest complainers that the KPA needed more distortion flavors, but after some experimentation with combining distortions, boosts, shapers and EQ, I think it has enough flexibility to mimic just about any pedal you can imagine. That said, it might be good to add some presets that are emulations of specific pedals to satisfy those who don't like to tweak.

    The one thing I miss most is the lose, coarse distortion I get from a pedal with a relatively high voltage in the negative feedback circuit of the opamp (depends on the type and quantity of diodes), as well as asymmetric clipping (think Lunar Module or Keeley DS1). Have you had any success in emulating that kind of distortion?


    If anyone from the Kemper team is interested in how to program this kind of distortion, it's basically a square-ish distortion that kicks in somewhat abruptly above a certain threshold, so soft notes will have very little distortion and as one digs harder on the strings it gets substantially more saturated with a fuzz-like flavor.