Posts by Preacher

Quote from cyprusg

I bought a COAX/SPDIF converter, and my Kemper sounds a million times better using SPDIF into my Apollo Twin instead of TRS/TS. Until proven otherwise, I don't think I'm experiencing a problem. It's just that SPDIF sounds better than analog/digital conversion.

Yeah, you are skipping one round of digital->analog->digital conversion. So what you're actually saying, is the Apollo analog/digital conversion and audio signal circuits are better than on the Kemper (and that more conversions reduces quality). Which seems to make sense to me considering price of the two units and what they can do. Kemper has like 4x as many inputs/outputs but hardly costs a whole lot more.

i've found some fishman preamp profiles on the rig exchange that worked pretty nicely. You can also deactivate the amp block and use acoustic IRs for the same effect. An EQ filter that removes the boomy low end, tightens the mid lows and adds more clarity. Upside with a profile vs an IR is a profile of an acoustic preamp pedal also gives you access to amp parameters like clarity, definition, high/low shift etc. I would find some fishman aura profiles and couple them with IRs made for your specific acoustic (or just an IR that makes your acoustic sound good to you). Together they can give your piezo a tone reminiscent of miced recording.

Acoustic IR

Quote from Ruefus

What if a bunch of other professional sources say it? I didn’t make this up and it isn’t an opinion.

What I wrote was a copy/paste from one of a bunch of sources. Look it up.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=mono+vs+stereo

You are both right and/or are talking past each other. In total you have:

Mono signal on mono connection (one signal)

Mono signal on stereo connection (2 identical signals)

Stereo signal on stereo connection (2 unique signals)

If you set Kemper main out to "Main mono", you have number 2 in the list - mono signal on a stereo connection. You're saying the signal is mono, but he's saying the connection is still stereo. Both technically right and not actually in disagreement.

I also offer marriage counseling.

How do you compare the sound of what you are hearing in headphones to what you're hearing in speakers? Im not sure I fully grasp what you're saying, but you're claiming the sound quality of the headphone output is better than the main outputs? And you are comparing this by listening to headphones connected to the headphone output and comparing the experience with listening to speakers connected to the main output? That'd not a 1 for 1 conversion. Have you tried connecting the main output and headphone output into your interface, record both,and compared the recordings? Sounds like you prefer the coloration of the headphone amp.

Quote from Alienator

Yes, it is. He is disappointed for something that is not possible. We are excited because Kemper never disappointed with any new feature.

I hate to be that guy, buuuut....

Whether or not it actually is possible is not clear. You wouldn't think a wagon could move forwards if you didn't know about the wheel. As far as disappointment vs. excitement, one's an emotion, the other's an emotion, and neither emotion is informed by information that is verifiable at the time the emotion occurs. It's concievable that, in the same way that your excitement is informed by previous experiences, then the other person's disappointment likewise. It's a matter of differing subjective realities. If I try to be objective, both are just "unfounded feelings" that occur due to subjective bias and inherited temperament.

Quote from Kim_Olesen

Automatic delay compensation in the kemper would require the kemper to break the time and space theorem.

I am not even kidding.

Yeah, I think a better idea is to use the setting for static latency (I forget the phrasing) , and then set up your DAW accordingly.

Quote from dango123

Seems that the powered toaster/rack was created to allow people to use Kemper as a guitar amp, into a guitar cab.

Quite the contrary. At the very beginning, it was created so people didn't have to drag amps and cabs with them to shows. Then the powered version catered to those people that play in venues that have cabs at the venue. It was a digital alternative to amps that could be sent directly to FOH, then fitted with the possibility of also integrating it into your existing amp/cab rig. But the very conception of the Kemper was as an alternative to amps and cabs, not as yet another one.

Edit: Also, what Wheresthedug said.

Quote from dango123

I recently went to a recording session and used some of my patches that everyone really dug thru the 1x12 cab in the room... but those sounds didn't work nearly as well when I went direct to the board via XLR. That's the problem I'd like to solve. Having the imprints on the monitor out further complicates this situation, since it takes me further away from what is actually going to the XLR outs.

Make an IR, or find an IR of the cab you are using and convert it to a Kemper cabinet, then use that with the profiles you are sending to FOH. And also like someone mentioned before, get an FRFR speaker. Set up the tone in the amp, then replicate the way it sounds on the FRFR speaker afterwards. Or vice versa. If this is a livelihood, or a main hobby of yours, the price of a usable FRFR speaker just for output matching should be tolerable.

I don't think your use case is so unique. Just the fact you don't know what you're sending off is

Edit: Couple of Alto's can double as a decent TV/music playback system

Edit #2: didnt realize you owned a Kabinet when I wrote this post originally.

Quote from Grooguit

... and prioritized active guitar players over feature junkies that enjoy pontificating over possibilities over playing. And the KPA has been, in my opinion, the best thing on the market at any point in time over its life.

I feel like this position assumes that everyone that owns a Kemper, uses it as a live performance tool, and has a stable of microphones and amps to pick from when it's time to do studio work. For me, that's not true. I only have the Kemper and it's my multi purpose unit. From my point of view, I have a great deal of respect for the way Fractal tries to ever more emulate the little irregularities and interactions that aren't linear or static.

There's another assumption I also feels has to be made to support your point of view, which is that you see everything before your eyes. But reality is, we don't see the electron clouds swirling around the core of the atom, but you can surely feel it if you stick a fork in an outlet. It seems to be my experience that there are elements of the timbre of a sound that result in physiological responses which you can feel much more than you can hear them. So imo, there is something to be said for the continuous strive for a more realistic representation of guitar amps.

You make other good points about what makes the Kemper successful though, I just wanted to point out why some of us might care more about this stuff than others. It's not just cause we're anal about pointless and meaningless things.

Quote from JEverly

What does everyone think needs to be in this unit? I can tell you from being in both the Kemper and Fractal ecosystems, the Kemper had far less issues than the Fractal and it just works. They are on version 3 of the firmware for the FM9 and there are still things that don't work like they are supposed to. They are still trying to get things from the Axe III ported and working for the FM9.

To be fair, this also happened to some extent when Kemper decided to release new hardware. There were a few firmware updates that only related to the Stage. The way I remember it, the Stage wasn't an immediate hit upon launch. They were quick to bring it up to par though, and by now it's doing better. Maybe my memory's off.

Someone wrote in a thread somewhere that you can actually contact CS with the serial number and they can tell you when it was made. But I mean, it could still technically stay unused on a shelf for years before being sold, so it doesn't tell you how long it's actually been in use for. But yeah, ask the seller to fill out their contact form.

Quote from Wheresthedug

Maybe I’m imaging it but I also think the rotary knobs on my Toaster are more responsive with a better taper for fine adjustment.

I feel like that makes sense. Maybe they're not actually more responsive. From my understanding, seems to me like whereas before, the UI was lagging behind slightly whenever you twisted the knob, the numbers on the screen are now refreshing faster or in finer increments. Better FPS and less lag, basically, making the value of the parameter as it appears on the screen be more in sync with your knob movements.

Here's something relevant from the Kemper FAQ:

Quote

There are nearly no relevant hardware differences between early PROFILER™ Head and Rack units compared to those built recently. Even the first units can be updated to the latest operating system version including all features.

There is just one exception: Units built before 2019 have to be master of the S/PDIF clock. Head and Rack models manufactured since 2019 can also be switched to act as S/PDIF clock slave - like all PROFILER Stage™ units.

If you're using an older Kemper, it is master by default, meaning your computer's audio interface _has_ to be set to slave, meaning the other Kemper can't be slave to a slave interface (slave-slave), nor master (because then you have 2x masters in the overall configuration).

You need two Kempers with the newer SPDIF interface. That way, the computer audio interface can be the master, and both Kempers can be slaves. I don't know that this works from personal experience, but in theory that should work. Pursue that angle in your further research.

But first and foremost, figure out whether the Kemper you have right now is the kind that lets you set it to slave. Either you can send your serial number to Kemper support and ask when it was made, or you can simply look in the global settings under the SPDIF tab and see if there's a setting that let's you choose between master/slave. If you don't, that means you'll have to sell your Kemper and buy two new ones to get what you want

Edit: I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask Kemper support whether they could retrofit the newer SPDIF interface to your Kemper for a hefty price

I don't know if perception has played a trick on me but it feels like updates were mostly quiet for a good amount of time, like a few months at least, and then after christmas there's been tons of updates happening.

It's been a while since there was a huge update that was exciting to old rack users. A lot of the new updates like the iPad editor are only really relevant to Stage users. Most of the recent updates were just bug fixes and stuff like that. Anybody have any thoughts about whether we'll see more updates containing new features that work across the whole landscape?

Quote from BayouTexan

The question remains though, Why some guitarist are against effects? I still run across guitarists today in this forum who frown upon using effects. I've also heard the recommendation to get a good sound before you apply effects. Since "good sound/tone" is subjective, I think you can start with a poor sound and build it to a good sound using effects. Maybe, that's not conventional but I seem to hear every dry profile as a poor sound, and I am finding some guitarist who I thought played dry to actually have a lot of post processing before it's gets to the record.

I guess I am trying to be convinced to be "effect-less" if that's even possible without sounding like a record from the 1950's.

To me, it just comes down to what you are trying to do with the music you are playing or creating. If what you are trying to do is be the next it guy, or find some kinda sound that propels you to stardom, maybe the no effects guys are onto something. The next Hendrix or whatever probably won't be a P&W player.

I personally don't have any ambitions as a musician, I just like to try to make stuff. You could think of it like children just drawing. I'm just having fun doing it and so my focus is less on the be-all-you-can-be guitar techniques and more about textures and soundscaping. From my angle, effects just make sense. And then there's maybe a discussion out there about what constitutes good music, what's real vs. fake, and all that stuff. I'm not denying people that can take a dry guitar and make it sound heavenly arent't beacons to be inspired by, I'm just saying that's like one avenue of musicianship, and that not everybody has to be that. Music doesn't only belong to the best of us, and "best" is subjective anyhow. The ones that have their heart set on "being that" probably will identify with the kind of guitar player they are, and then I guess it's just a typically human thing to like... bolster your ego, tell yourself you're on the right path, etc. So it creates these players that worship the art of guitar playing that just think anyone that's not on that pursuit are somehow misguided or whatever. That's my real take on it, anyway. And to me it's silly but to them it's not. And not to get too meta, but that's just me doing what they're doing in a different way. Who's to say who's right but I feel the way I feel and they feel they way they feel I guess

Quote from Ronniestrat

ummmmm? what? lol little angry at the world bud?

Nah. Partially a joke, partially the way I feel, partially bullshit probably. Did you feel offended by what I said or why are you commenting like this?

I mean, that's what you're doing right now. Bringing up stuff that's half a year old just to step on someone and have a higher opinion. Being all "ey there bud, what's going on?" like saying "some people like to elevate themselves above others" is an outlandish idea that you didn't just confirm lol. I could extract all kinds of different personality traits in you from that alone, but at the end of the day, I recognize forum posts are just forum posts. For me, for you, and for most people. And then forum posts can offend people, just like news articles, law bills and all kinds of other written information that isn't presented by a talking head. You never got pissed off reading something on the internet? Wow, just wow, how do I know you're lying ? We're like dogs chasing cars. All of us. "Ooh there's one". It happened to me when I wrote my post, and it happened to you now. I see something, and feel like I wanna say something about it on that day, then I do. Most of the times I don't but some times I do. Some times you do too. You did today. It says nothing more about us than we like to interact with other humans, for better or worse. There's nothing more to it lol.

With that said, if you get the kind of person I am talking about and wanna tell me you never met that kind of person, fine. Maybe you haven't. Or maybe you're forgetting about it cause making me look bad is way more fun and stimulates serotonin-production in a much more significant way than seeing someone else's point of view does. The former makes you feel like you won over someone, the latter makes you feel like you're working. How did it make you feel to tell me what you said? How did it feel to think you had me pegged? Why did you even do it? Do I have a point or don't I? Maybe I'm just lazy and a big loser in addition to being mad at the world. That's for you to decide and me not to care about But if you haven't ran into guitarists that think they have it all figured, or people with elitist opinions in general, you probably never ran into people that get off like that, and I understand your confusion. They are psychologial archetypes though but let's pretend it's just the madness talking, because people NEVER act that way in real life surely. It's all in my head. You trying to shit on me is an act of righteousness and it's just my bitterness that shrouds the truth from me that I am the mad one, and you're all swell. The previous paragraph before this one made exactly 0 points worth taking home.

How do you get "mad"? Have you seen mad people? And why does that matter? I still made points. Ukraine is probably mad at Russia now, should we disregard everything coming out of Ukraine now cause it's being said by someone that's mad? That's not a very elegant point but I think you get what I'm trying to say. I can keep going, but you either get my point or you're "one of those". But come and tell me you didn't enjoy giving that jab. Why else would you do it?

(Edited for the Nth time because english is my secondary)

Haven't been around in months due to having moved, started a university course, and a new job all at once. I wish I was here when the "why do you need updates?" debate was going on because I feel I have something to say about it, so I'm just gonna throw it in here. Don't worry, this won't instigate anything I'm sure.

I just wanted to add that I don't know where everyone is coming from as far as having lived and grown up around electronic devices, but I've had them since around when I was 13 or something, when I got my first cell phone. Which was in like 1999 or something. Since then, I've had all kinds of phones, MP3 players, wireless headsets and speakers, smart watches, training watches and all kinds of other devices, not to mention operating systems, games that I've played with DLCs and expansion packs and balance patches and etc. etc., now down to guitar modellers, wireless guitar units, effects units, pedals, etc. They have all been updated with new features so many times over I've probably experienced 500 big feature patches across all the devices and softwares I've used, spread out over two decades of my life (some of it being formative years). By now, my brain is basically wired around this. I'm guessing the same is true for anyone in the same boat as I.

Say what you want about technology ruinining our youth, but nonetheless, I am ruined now down to the neurology of my brain. Those circuits just fire up when another software update drops, as they have 500 times before. The numbers are just being thrown out to make a point but so to come to a conclusion, for some of us, it's just exciting to get new updates because of what I just said.

A smoker would get it. Just cause you smoke doesnt mean you don't have a life outside of smoking. But you continually take little smoking breaks throughout the day, every day, all the time. Likewise, I continually come here (and other places for other devices I own and use) and check for updates, or I simply daydream and lust for updates with some unspecified feature that's exciting (like all the previous exciting features I didn't predict). I just want that experience, right? But in between the "smoking breaks" of coming here to look for an update, I do the same thing everybody else do. Get my job done, play guitar, go out with friends lol, the whole nine yards. None of it is affected by my desire for new features. My interest for new features for devices I own, and the rest of my life as it were, co-exist and it's entirely unproblematic.

If you don't have this history with electronic devices and software updates, surely you wouldn't feel the same way. That's okay, too!

Hoping for some more compressor options!

Quote from JedMckenna

This discussion has already veered of course with the "penis length" argument above. Seriously, what a weird viewpoint.

It's a bit of a joke. I'm a big fan of Randy Marsh and Marc Rebillet. Substitute "penis length" with something else and I still think there's somewhat of a point in there somewhere. It's cool to feel like you're not into effects, and not use them. It's even cool to say it. But the devil is in the details, and a lot of the time those things are being said with some animosity towards people that use effects. Often, it's said in response to someone talking about or using effects. Now I don't really have a viewpoint about it, I'm just trying to understand it. And I can only understand it as some kind of attempt at putting themselves above others. Thus the penis length joke. If you're just saying because someone is asking, that's obviously different.

OP didn't ask "what's the deal with certain people not liking effects", he asked "what's the deal with certain people being against effects". I've encountered people that are "against" effects and it's not the same as people that just don't play through effects by happenstance. Some people actually turn it into some kind of macho thing where they're "realer" or more "hardcore" guitar players because they're going direct. And that's really weird. I guess I'm mostly talking about in guitar groups on FB. It doesn't seem to happen on here.

As for the rest of what you said, you're making a compelling point for sure. I would just point out that you can be interested in guitar, and you can be interested in sound effects, and those interests can overlap. I happen to be one of those people that love the guitar, but that also love effects in and of themselves. For me personally, it's not so much that I get confused about where to focus my energy (even though I definitely am no veteran), but that if we remove the guitar from the equation and you give me a few separate instrument layers from a recording, just messing around with effects on them is quite enjoyable to me. I love the process of mixing a track. Tweaking knobs, adding space or effects to layers, compression, all that stuff. So for me, having effects and playing guitar is like a duathlon where they belong together. Because I enjoy both activities. Then there's also the notion of "playing effects". Especially rhythmic effects can alter what you're actually doing on the instrument, your slicers and multitap delays, or pitched looping effects. It's like a third thing that grows out of the cracks of the two other things, and I find that kinda enjoyable too. So I'm just doing what I like and then some people will impose on me that I'm somehow wrong and should do things differently, and that's where I start worrying about the ruler coming out. Because they must think then that I'm wrong and they're right. Then I'm sure you get how I relate that to penis length.

Quote from Gary_W

Personally, I’m more in love with a great song than virtuoso technique and I’m a fan of interesting sounds. I love the sound of a decent guitar and great amp with nothing else but I also love simple / weird effects. Whatever sound is right for the song really…. That can be pure or sound nothing like a guitar.

100%. There is a whole world of creativity behind creating and utilizing effects that is just as complex, and requires just as much know-how and intuition as anything else people can get really goot at, and what bothers me most about dismissing effects is it effectively means dismissing that whole world. Effects algorithms is a dense topic. To reduce it all to some cheap make-up for newbies stuck in a rut is unrealistic and unreasonable. It's the one thing I hold against people like Joe Bonamassa. It's never "hey, effects are cool but they're not my cup of tea", there's always that overarching prejudice against the usage of effects at all, as if it somehow detracts from the creativity of music. It's so wrong. Dry instruments can get boring after a while. There are more interesting sound textures to be had for the yearning ear if one doesn't harbour some weird penis length-related prejudice against those textures..

Quote from BayouTexan

LOL. But I see some truth to your comment just not in that extreme way.

I just really hope there are some guitar into amp purists that fancy thinking highly of themselves that come in here and try to make an actual case for why they have a point (here's a pointer: they don't, there are no rules to making music and measuring penis length shouldn't be mixed with expressing your inner artist lest it it becomes all you are). I just wanted to set the tone for the further discourse. You could say I find opinions like that off-putting to say the least. Here's me giving back a little