I won't swear it's the KPA, but I can agree on anecdotal evidence. I've been using 1.14mm jazz III picks forever and I nabbed a few 3mm dawman jazz IIIs recently and I can definitely hear a difference. The old ones are definitely darker, "chunkier", if you will. I have literally scoffed at custom pick companies claiming their picks sound different in the past because I honestly never noticed a whisp of difference. Not anymore.
Posts by VoodooJef
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I've seen him plug straight into a Marshall with absolutely no effects at all and sound like the gates of heaven opened up just for him. LOL. I just can't seem to mimic that particular edge and bite in his tone. Then again I don't play a strat through a marshall, either. On goes the quest
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Yeah, yeah, I know. It´s the whole combo of parts connected, from amp to the player. I´m quite aware LOL. Just looking around for a tone that´s close to his on the Guitar Shop recordings. I don´t play a strat, and I use a pick so I know it´s going to be close at best but anyone able to point me towards that sound?
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Curious we don't have a "general discussion" subforum......
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Obviously not a gear related thread, but I'm not the newest guy on the block, either. LOL. Just seeing if any of you are heading to NAMM next month. I'll be out there floating between the Hipshot and DR booths friday and saturday. It'd be cool to put a face with a name if anyone from here will also be there
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Thanks for the link. That's what I always do in 7, and then temporarily turn it on when I feel like doing updates and dealing with any resulting chaos. We tried that trick at work (I'm a software dev) when 10 first came out and it didn't succeed, but I can't remember why. That was a while back, and I've slept since then. Maybe they've relaxed things a bit (hopefully!).
Have a Surface Pro running 10 as part of my testing rig for work, think I'll try that and see if anything bizarre comes of it. I mean, you know, not that anything bizarre could happen with a Microsoft product...
Doesn't work at all on the tablet I use for tuning my car (the tune software is only available for Windows or I'd be using my Mac). I've had the update notification interrupt tuning sessions on the dyno. Not something one wants to have happen pushing 36psi of turbocharger boost pressure. I want to like windows still but I just can't.
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Oh don't get me started on MS and W10. Back when W10 was brand new I was a Windows kind of guy and felt it would be neat to give it a go. A forced update came in corrupted and bricked my hard drive, relieving me of a year's worth of album work. Cost me $1600 to have it recovered and that was after having a friend who actually IS a rocket scientist give it his best effort. May be an isolated incident but it made me a Mac user for life.
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I've fallen in love with the Dawman picks I got, but I'm admittedly considering jumping ship. There's a company right here in Texas called Iron Age that makes handmade picks (I use their killswitch in my Brian Moore. Their stuff is fantastic). They have a pick that's shaped exactly like my dawman but theirs is polished all sides, which I don't like. If they can make them for me with rough finished edges I'll be all over supporting a local business (not to mention getting them a bit faster!).
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Hahaha note I didn't say I didn't like the harmonizer. In fact I'm using it over the Eventide to keep my rig as simple as possible (therefore easier to replicate should a part of it need replacing). The Eventide harmonizer just has a smoothness to it that I like.
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I'd assume it's because cables tend to attenuate the highs, the longer your cable runs are, the more it happens. S/pdif has all of the high end intact, that can seem harsh in comparison.
And that may well be the case, but it fully represents my take on tone all together. As far as I`m concerned the tone I have now is perfect. It`s exactly what I was looking for, therefore it would be foolish to try and make it ¨better¨. The analog outs give me perfection, fighting with the digital out to get them to match seems futile. I mean all of that entirely as a compliment to the device
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I used the FCB - it was a good cheaper alternative but the remote is better mainly becuase:
I found the FCB can get confused especially if you hit 2 buttons at once accidentally
The display is way better on the remote
Fewer ccables, including power
I would really love it if the FCB didn't need the damn power cable. I absolutely second that observation.
I don't mind using two midi cables, I just run two different colors to keep track.
Haven't had it act up on me yet, but its day may come
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I will also chime in for the FCB1010 and the Uno chip. Cost me about $100 total and it does everything the kemper remote will, sans the display. It's not a boutique unit by any stretch but it works flawlessly and the Uno4Kemper chip comes preprogrammed do work seamlessly with the KPA. I've personalized it with a couple of very basic setup changes.
I'm part of the "I don't use many rigs" club as well. Four. Yep, four. I'm extremely picky, not in the gear but the sound. I know exactly what I want to hear and once I've got it there's no need to keep digging. I paid a few bucks for a commercial rig pack and regretted it. The sounds were anemic and bland compared to the ones I had invested my time into dialing in myself. I was looking for magic in a bottle when I already had it, ya know? But I digress. That discussion gets its own thread.
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I don't like it so far, but like so many things online social media has taught us ....we will surely complain when this format changes as well. It seems a little generic, but I suspect the more I poke around the more I will like it.
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I don't want this to be just another "hell yeah, the KPA is awesome! Blew my socks off!!" thread. I want to be a little bit specific if I may:
The amp sounds are f&^%ing stunning. I have it down to an ecstacy, two Legacy III profiles, and a triple rec. All of them sound EXACTLY like the tones I loved from those amps.
The delays and reverbs are also magnificent. It's hard not to just sit and tinker.
The harmonizer is so-so. Eventide takes an easy win here, but it's not "bad". It's just a little grainy for me.
The wah function. Holy jesus I may never plug my crybaby in again. I'm using the Bad Horsie settings and it's ridiculous awesome.
Direct recording sounds incredible, and with a decent PA and sound guy it sounds exactly the same direct to the PA live. (this was the #1 reason I got it)
Yes, there is a learning curve with it. Not so much learning HOW to do things, but rather WHAT it can do, then learning how. It's fairly intuitive when you know what it is you're trying to get it to do.
For me, in my own personal home studio, the SPDIF interface was not as pleasant as the analog output.
ToastME is like a third date experience. It lets you really sit down and get to know the KPA and not just twiddle knobs but you still have a lot of fun twiddling knobs.
It probably does a LOT more than I'm asking it to, but it's doing EXACTLY what I bought it to do.
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I've got a radial engineering a/b/y box for sale, you know, just in the event someone were to be interested
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I also just added SPACE to the X effects channel just to exaggerate the sound.
Again sound from Kemper completely blows away the sound sent via the Scarlett.
Bought new gold plated RCA cables just in case and to eliminate that cause. Should come tomorrow.
???
If you're using RCA instead of bona fide SPDIF there will be problems, however minor they may seem.
And FWIW, I've got a nice setup as far as home studios go and I absolutely do not like the way the SPDIF sounds. In theory it should sound identical and without chronicling the process I did put SPDIF head to head with the analog master out and on my setup it's a blatant difference. There is a warmth in the analog and the SPDIF is tinny. It's not the Kemper, just my combination of bits not responding well to the digital input.
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Hook up your guitar to your printer then. I am sure you will get better tone.
Oh I laughed. Right out loud.
I had the legendary Digitech 2101LE back in the day. Three of them, actually. The display....well, I'll just go on record saying it was not better than my KPA.
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I shop the difference is that the Kemper isn’t useless without an editor. It’s actually a pretty slick and intuitive hardware interface with full access to all functionality. Would an editor be useful for some things? Of course. Can I still achieve everything I want to without an editor? So far, yes.
I’m not trying to be a Luddite and say we don’t need an editor just that it would be a nice to have rather than need to have for me and the KPA certainly isn’t useless without one
For sure, I missed the mark but that is the point I was getting at. We are lucky in that the KPA is pretty easy to get around with sans editor whereas the H&K is most definitely not. TBH I rarely use ToastME even though it's connected at all times.
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It seems a common thing. I'll again reference the H&K Grandmeister amps. Badass device and stunningly versatile for a single tube amp but all of that flexibility is useless without some sort of way to interface with it and H&K never made an editor. The one that's out was born very similarly to ToastME. Same platform and some dude just took it on himself to create it.
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Just followed both of you
