Posts by nightlight

Quote from Ingolf

But less gear = better.

Nope. Moar gear is better

Haha, I totally understand what you mean though

If a solution is not forthcoming within the magic toaster, go outside! You could use a boost pedal after the Kemper (assuming you're going mono).

A neat resource.

Quote from Ingolf

Well, it has been confirmed that delay as a stompbox is worked on.

That sounds sweet.

Quote from Quitty

As for the gain:
Not to debate the fine points of how a tube amp gain control actually works in each and every amp ever made, there's the versatility issue.
If i like the way my amp's gain control works, i would rather have it replicated in the KPA than have to switch to a different profile to get the two sounds i want out of the amp.

As for the rest:
Here i think there's no arguing that there is a lot of interaction between tone controls in guitar amps.
Fact is that people - myself included - are using multiple profiles of the same amp - meaning that there is need for a more amp-like behavior for the parameters.

In general, as Per said - we often experiment, as musicians, with things we don't understand.
This particular approach to sound 'design' that exists on an amp's front panel has been used for decades, and there is good reason for it - IMO because it is somehow more intuitive to us as players.
Myself, i'm still not entirely convinced there is no further interaction with the gain knob - but that's another discussion.

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I have a slightly different perspective on the amplifier controls. An amp can have several channels, but you're pretty much restricted to the settings you've dialled in unless you take your hands off your guitar.

On the Profiler, you could create multiple profiles, with multiple snapshots and recall them with a turn of the knob just as easily. And you're not restricted to one amp, but can pick and choose whatever you need with the stomp of a footswitch!

The other advantage is you can recall your settings instantly, instead of trying to recreate the same tone on your amp several days later

Quote from Will_Chen

There is a huge difference in "blending" versus "layering" amp tones. In the case of blending, multiple amps contribute to one overall amp sound. In the case of layering, we are talking about distinctly representing each individual amp. In the "blending" scenario, one amp will always dominate the one with others filling in some gaps. This has to do with the aural property of masking. The amp which is loudest in the most dominate frequencies will dominate the end tone. In the case of "layering", you need multiple parallel paths in order to accomplish this. However, I'd argue KPA allowing one to dial in a bit of direct signal largely negates the need to run a second clean profile with a dirtier one. All that said, I disagree entirely that it would allow anything really ultimately unique. This feature was actually provided in older Digitech units, they called it Warp. While it was useful in those devices in order to create options which were limited by the amp models within the device, we have no such limitations in the KPA. It's funny, the KPA can profile pretty much any amplification system and allow you to play it back with near perfect accuracy, additionally allowing mix and matching including IR import for literally infinite aural possibilitie. And yet we still want more...

I fully expect the KPA team to build out the unit with a bunch more features, and at one point I was also one requesting dual profiles. But I've come 180 on it. The only time I'd view dual profiles as being really desirable is recording and in that case I much prefer the slight inconsistencies which create a thicker tone when double tracking versus profile blending (or even reamping).

That's a cool take on double tracking in the studio, Will_Chen. It would be interesting to know if there are any pro guitarists out there that use dual tones while on stage. Does it offer greater possibilities? Or greater problems?

Also, why not the DXR 15?

Someone will have to cross-check this statistic, but based on my limited time on these forums, chances are when Mr CK stops by a thread, 9 out of 10 times something good happens

Quote from Ingolf

BTW I was just told by another user that in Version 2 of the Mustang III Fender may have altered the loop in a way that it doesn't seem to be after the Fender modeling and before the power amp any more. That means that the KPA signal would run through some modeling circuit which would render this solution completely useless.
I cannot verify this myself ATM but that would be a pity.

That sounds super-weird. But what I think they would have done is incorporate the FX loop within the digital signal chain of the amplifier, instead of after it. Some kind of series/parallel tweak.

Bechti: Wouldn't a hi-fi speaker set defeat the purpose of using a modeller? Then again, I often think all this FRFR talk is sometimes overdone. What sounds good, sounds good. End of story.

Really nice to see forum members putting something together to benefit the whole community. Kudos to you all.

Quote from Ingolf

Yeah, apart from personal preferences (I personally think the M III is an awesome amp and incredible value for money), when you plug into the return you bypass the whole modeling circuit and get to a great sounding solid state power amp.

Also I have found the Celestion G12T-100 better sounding than the seventy 80 (which I think is a little dull). The G12T doesn't sound dark.

The Seventy80 does sound very bare bones, no character of its own.

But when A/Bing it against my Dynaudio BM5As (I was always a nut about the idea of taking my studio tone on stage from way back when), it is almost apples to apples; which is why I highly recommend the Tech 21 for use with modellers. What you put into it is what you get out of it.

Of course, thinking about it, perhaps it is a bit dull! Guitar speakers like the Celestion I had in my old Marshall (still in the family, with my brother :P) give the sound more bite and have an edgy/sparkly quality, especially when used with distortion.

One workaround to the open back design of the Power Engine is the EQ controls, something you would miss when going in through the FX return of the Mustang. These can be used to tune the Tech 21 to be used in a variety of environments. I think the open back design gives a more mid character to the amp, whereas a closed cabinet has more pronounced bass frequencies. This makes it harder to go muddy, but could also confuse you thoroughly

I really wish I could A/B with a Mustang to figure out whether I should upgrade. Then again, I think my GAS should remain limited to the Kemper for the time being

I have a couple of Damage Control distortion pedals that I'm itching to try in front of the Kemper

I hope Mr CK is not entertaining any thoughts of coming out with a new Kemper for the next couple of years. From what I've heard of the Access Virus, his team are perfectionists and constantly provide updates and new features. It would be awesome if the Kemper is souped up further, because from what I've heard, it already is one up on the Axe FX II.

Quote from troynova

Why not use performance mode and setup a rig slot to switch to for a solo boost.

The simplest solution, I'd say. Or you can set up a volume pedal to give you a boost.

I'd like to ask everybody that had suggestions on blended or hybrid profiles to provide some reasoning for their demand.

Does the problem lie in the fact that there is no "turn one knob" solution to arrive at the sound in your head? Are the in-depth parameters not sufficient?

I'd be more than happy to spend hours tweaking one profile then another and another and eventually hope to arrive at the sound in my head. But I have seen in the case of other modellers, often people want a plug and play solution, just like an amp.

I've noticed in the WiKPA there are some amplifiers that cannot be profiled due to their odd circuitry. Are these the sounds that people are missing out on? Or is elusive "the sound in your head" difficult for you to zone in on?

If this story has a moral, it is that GAS is never truly defeated!

Couldn't this be achieved via a mixer? Or maybe one of those jamhub devices?

Going out on a limb here. Supposing we were able to combine profiles of different amps with different control settings and then combine them smoothly... Would that result in... The ultimate amplifier!

Quote from Per

I'd love to see controls that react more like the real amp, at least as an option. Yes it might seem "hokey" to an engineer, but the creative process of finding and adjusting a tone is a lot about mistakes and personality rather than predictions and perfection. We love the pedals and amps that we do because of their little idiosyncrasies that over time we learn to exploit.

I don't think anyone would see that as hokey. Rather, it is something that a lot of people want from the Profiler, i.e. a device that completely replaces every amp that goes into it, complete with realistic knob tweaking.

But I'd imagine the feature you're looking for would involve taking multiple "snapshots" of the amp at various gain, EQ, other settings to determine how the controls fit within an amp's overall "character". At this stage in the KPA's development, if that's what you are looking for, you'd probably be better off with the actual amplifier of your choice.

But if you are "stuck" with a Kemper, a viable workaround would be to profile the amp thoroughly, creating a multitude of patches that reflect various control settings. That way you could mimic the amp at whatever setting you wanted to.

There are clearly engineering complexities involved in the profiling process. I believe Mr CK must have come up with this technology years ago, but has spent time refining it to arrive at a workable format. Perhaps the solution you are looking for would involve, as I postulated, multiple snapshots of the amp at various settings to arrive at a blueprint of the control dynamics, which would then be combined to arrive at a working replica of the amplifier in question.

Exciting stuff, really. I would never have imagined this level of technology being feasible a few years ago. Heck, if Mr CK showed it off 30 years ago and sought funding, I'm sure all the musical bigwigs would have shot it down saying "tubes are the way of the future".

Quote from Zappledan

I power my KPA and the FCB1010 with an APC battery backup unit. I've not attempted to see how long it will hold them up, but I'm guessing at least 10 mins ...

This sounds like good advice for anyone gigging with the Kemper. 10 minutes to reboot! That could have been bad had it been an ugly crowd!