Kemper KPA – Review
Some weeks ago I could get a KPA pioneer unit. I want to write down my experience in this review. I’ve got the device for 4-5 weeks now – probably still in honeymoon phase but I got the Axe2 in the same time so I could compare.
I don’t want to spend much time telling you the technical specs – you can find those on Kempers web site The most impartant thing for me is the pure amp sound. I played the Axe-FX since 2007 (I think) and loved it. I always checked out the latest modellers in the pre-fractal time but I never was satisfied with the results I got. But I also hasn’t been a tube-guy. It’s just to big and heavy and only still present because guitar players are weird. They won’t buy anything with transistors in it – so transistor amps won’t be developed any further to sound better… What I disliked with real amps is that they often sound like crap when playing live. Some soundguy came and put the pic anywhere in front of your cab. After some profiling session I now know why it always sounded like crap – but that’s just another story
When I first heard of the Kemper in early 2011 I didn’t really like its concept. I thought it might just be too unflexible with their “save this ONE particular tone” stuff. After playing the Kemper I know that this is just a better thing (for me!).
The profiling
The profiling mode is he most important thing in the KPA. It’s like putting a whole signal chain with (optional) Drive pedal, Amp, Cab and Mic into the Kemper’s FX loop. Now you hit profiling and the Kemper is doing some weird alien sounds and then you just duplicated the tone of the whole chain.
http://soundcloud.com/mdaniel/profiling-an-axe-fx-ii
This procedure takes some seconds (but it’s really VERY loud as tubeamps will sound better at high volume – I wouldn’t profile an 100W tubeamp at home… my neighbors would kill me… if they wouldn’t think an alien invasion just started :D) – after that to tone is matched … maybe 70-80%. After that you have to do the refining. Just play some chords for some seconds and the Kemper will compare its own signal with the original signal. I don’t know what exactly is going on but afterwards you can get a VERY good match, I couldn’t tell the difference at all with the profiles I did.
I did profiles of the Axe2, S-Gear, Bogner Extacy, Laney VC15, ENGL Blackmore, Diezel VH-4 – profiling is quite easy, you just have to learn how and where to place the mic in front of the cab
A very cool thing is that you can separate amp and cab afterwards. I was very sceptical if that works (as it’s mathematically quite impossible I think) – but it really works very good. Check the video below – unfortunately it is in german, but you should get an idea what’s happening by looking what I am doing in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRPV6wEB018
The technique behind profiling seems to be a “general tube amp simulation” with 60 (or so) parameters that are determined in the profiling process. Initially I thought this won’t be very accurate. But it works very very good.
It also also possible to profile a software modeller – latency while profiling is not an issue. I also did a profile of a preamp (Kulik GP-1) with a IR as cab sim… the result was very good I think. I didn’t do much refining as I liked the profile better then the original preamp
http://soundcloud.com/mdaniel/kemper-kpa-profiling-a-kulik
If there will be a 100% match after enough refining (like if you invert the phase of one signal and overlay the Kemper signal with the amp signal and it will result in silence)? I don’t know. I trust my ears. And they tell me that the profile sounds and feels like the amp.
The sound
I can’t say much about the sound. It’s just crap in -> crap out and awesome in -> awesome out. I you profile a marshall MS-2 then the profile will sound like crap… just because the amp sounds like crap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQDqdtafMWk
If you take a profile of a great amp with a good cab then you will get a very good profile. Sounds and feels like the amp.
I think the Kemper will really shine when it spreads in the world and the profile sharing will start!
Cool thing is the “manual refining” after the profiling. If you got an amp which is not very dynamic…. No problem for the kemper. Just improve dynamics afterwards The only thing I don’t like that much is adding MUCH treble and presence afterwards (e.g. if you place the mic wrong and get a very bassy profile) … but that’s the case with most amps/modellers.
At first I was very doubtful if tweaking works good after profiling. I won’t take many profiles (as I don’t have amps) and have to rely on amps I borrow (without having much time to dial in the sweet spots) and/or shared profiles. But what if someone takes a profile with EQ settings I don’t like? The EQ is VERY effective. I could get a good tone out of nearly every profile. Of course there are some that suck. But that’s just personal taste. I don’t like Vox amps so I don’t like the profiles of Vox amps too.
The difference to other modellers (Line6, Fractal,…) is the fact, that the “all potis to noon” sound is determined by the one who does the profile… and not the developer of the unit.
I like most of the profiles that come with the KPA (FW 6911). My favourite Sound is the “both worlds” which seems to be a Steavens Poundcake (never even heard of that amp before I got the KPA). It’s just so dynamic, I can get every sound I need out of that one single profile. And this one single profile also got the best sound I ever got (IMHO bla bla).
The following clip is the both worlds rig. I didn’t touch the KPA at all in this clip, all the dynamics are a result of volume poti, picking dynamics and different pickups of my guitar. I think it’s amazing.
http://soundcloud.com/mdaniel/kemper-kpa-profiling-a-kulik
FX
I’m not an effects guy. I need a good delay, a boost and maybe a chorus. I’d be happy with those 3 effects.
The effect on the KPA are on a very high level. You are restricted with the 8 FX slots of course (like on the Pod HD e.g. – the Axe2 offers much more in terms of FX flexibility). But that’s no problem for me. I think I never ever used more than 3-4 effects The volume pedal is always there – you won’t have to “waste” one slot for it.
The effects I’m using sound very good. There is a really good sounding vintage chorus in it. The delay is good too… you can get a very warm analog sounding delay using the bandwith parameter. I only use some % of reverb – can’t tell if it is good or not, I think I won’t hear any difference when using that small amounts of reverb. Some may miss a spring reverb, but that will be added in further firmwares.
What I really like very much are the drive pedals. Best drive pedals in any modeller I played and really easy to dial in (like the whole unit).
To sum it up
After playing the unit for 4 weeks and comparing it to the Axe2 I’m very happy with the KPA. I like the KPA better than the Axe2, I think the sound quality is on another level (IMHO!!). What I like best is that nearly no tweaking is needed at all (but the Axe got better since Firmware 11 on the 1 and Firmware 3 on the 2). I sold my Axe2 and am not looking back – I couldn’t be happier with my KPA. Some things are missing till now (like MIDI Tap Tempo) but I know that the guys at Kemper are working hard to add this in future firmware realeases.
The support is very good too. Christoph (Kemper) called me recently and asked me which effects I would add (I mentioned spring reverb and pitch shifter) and if I have any suggestions to improve the unit. I’m looking forward to all the new features that will be added in the future
Clips
I guess most of you are interested in clips – instead of embedding every single clip … here is a link to my soundcloud where I uploaded many clips