Posts by Ingolf

  • My Kemper vs. Axe- Fx II experience

    I have owned the Ultra for years and the Axe II since Jan. 2012.
    When my KPA arrived last week, I had the expectation that it might be in a similar league with the Axe II, only using a different, interesting new approach.


    In my "real amp life" I'm mainly an AC 30 player. Also with modelers. I like to have options, of course, but tend to use one model 90% of the time.
    Also with the Axe, i've used nearly exclusively the AC 30 TB model.


    In the KPA I found a beautiful AC 30 profile recorded in a Nashville studio, captured with a nice blend of 2 microphones (forgot which ones cause I'm not at my machine now).
    This profile has a nice grit to it and I can give the tone a character from super clean to fairly crunchy simply by changing my picking attack and with a little use of the volume pot.
    I instantly fell in love with this profile, and I mean, REALLY fell in love.
    Could play for hours and never stop.


    What happened then I had not imagined. Turned on the Axe and loaded my best effort AC 30 patch (after years of tweaking experience), which I had always been quite content with.
    Couldn't stand it now after playing the KPA. The highs sounded so unnatural to me and the mids had a honky character I couldn't dial out. No chance.


    I was shocked. Stopped playing and started over after a few hours. This time I started with the Axe. Sounded good. Changed to the KPA. Sounded excellent, much better! Switched back to the Axe. Could not stand it AGAIN!
    I really had not expected this.
    Next I set up a blind listening test for my wife. She's very lovely but the first to admit to be not being very musical. :)
    I randomly plugged in to the Axe or the KPA and played, being amplified by an Atomic FRFR.
    Result: She picked the KPA from the Axe EVERY time, every time qualifying the KPA as clearly better sounding.
    She is right. I really feel that profiling means a paradigm shift. Modeling as known to us maybe is past and history.


    After the difference in sound quality was so evident with the Axe being so inferior i couldn't even imagine to use it again for amp tones. The effects? Sure they are somewhat limited in quantity in the KPA but the quality is very good and I found that I can get very musical results in very short time, actually it's quite more practical than using effects in the Axe.


    My summary: I really didn't expect this to be such a clear outcome. I'm quite excited over the KPA (and I'm not getting excited so easily). I could have imagined to keep both the Axe and the KPA initially, but my Axe is already sold by now.
    Behause the KPA is in a superior league. Amazing!

  • Yo CK! Give us stomp profiling maaaaaaan!!! :D

    I will model both my Sansamp character pedals, Liverpool and British, before they go to Ebay.
    Just for fun though, as I think that the AC 30 and Marshall profiles that are already available for the KPA are lightyears ahead of what the Sansamps can deliver.

  • Have you ever wondered?

    Quote from Adinfinitum

    Actually, the last thing I want the KPA to sounds like is a recorded guitar tone. I want it to sound like an amp in the room. It does. Again, if you are comparing a modeler or profiler with all the equipment in a professional guitar studio, including mixing boards, EQ, compressors, fx, mics and great ears and technique, double or triple tracking a part and expect to get that exact sound out of a $200 or $3000 box, you'll always be disappointed.


    In fact, i remember EVH complaining about how great his amps sound in the room but he had difficulty getting that sound to tape.


    Same with me, as I prefer to integrate my guitars into my mixes "manually". But without any doubt there are users that will prefer (and benefit from) more treated profiles.
    Hence my analogy with Superior and SSD drums.

  • Thon Case for Kemper

    I ordered one of these yesterday. Will be delivered tomorrow.
    I don't think it's pricey. Just solid protection for my KPA, which is important considering the pots aren' tprotected by the chassis.

  • Have you ever wondered?

    In the foreseeable future I think many studios will be offering services with "premium profiles" or the like, meaning some kind of post- production gear gets involved in the profiled signal chain.
    Similar to drums (Toontrack Superior = raw untreated drum sounds, Steven Slate Drums = highly and professionally treated drums, ready for use in a mix). There will be a wide variety of options to choose from, and apart from that, an ever growing user base offering private profiles continuously.
    End of oracle. It´s all good.
    :P

  • Can't register my KPA and don't get full access to the boards.

    Quote from G String

    if you buy a b-stock unit which was previously registered with us we need to manually verify and eventually remove the "original" registration. you need to contact support in order to get this done.
    gs


    No, I didn't buy a B- Stock. It was labelled as new (at Thomann), otherwise I should have got it at an discounted price, which I didn't.
    I also informed the shop about this.


    I also was contacted by support who let me now register my unit.



    So my problem is solved now, thanks all!

  • Can't register my KPA and don't get full access to the boards.

    Hi everybody!
    This is Ingolf from Hamburg.
    I'm a longtime and experienced user of digital gear since the Pod days (and I still moderate the German Line6 usergroup, some ppl here might know me, Hi Schneidas! :) ).


    After checking the KPA prototype last year in Frankfurt I had mixed feelings at first about this new 'set and forget' approach and was a bit sceptical when the delivering period of the KPA's was postponed several times at the end of last year (otherwise it would have been a nice christmas gift for me).


    But finally, tadaa, my KPA arrived yesterday and I must say, on first impressions, it has matured a lot since last year. Amp sounds overall are very good with the factory presets and I find the FX very musical and intuitive to dial in (for the record: I also own a Pod HD 500 and an Axe FX II).
    So I'm happy to be on board


    I have one problem, though.
    I can´t register my amp and so am unable to upgrade my account.
    When I enter my serial I get the message that my amp is already registered (???).
    So I can download firmware upgrades and other profiles, but I can't get full access to the forum boards.
    Flashed Kemper support a mail yesterday but so far I didn't get any reply.


    Anyway, enough for now.
    Any ideas to get me sorted?


    Bye

  • Delay mix via expression pedal

    Not only delay mix should be included to be accessible to realtime control, but actually any parameter that can be edited should also be controllable via MIDI.
    So the MIDI cc- list should be a lot more comprehensive.
    Effects are good in the KPA, but I need way more control. 8)