Posts by Grooguit

If money is important then wait a while before purchasing a ton of stuff. Learn how the basic eq works, play with the definition control and other ways to tweak. Spend some time playing with the loads of free stuff. You'll begin to develop a feel for what types of amps you particularly like and don't like. In my experience coming to KPA a decade a go, I really had very little experience putting many amps through their paces, especially at volumes necessary to achieve their ideal sound. Over time, what I thought my favorite amps or types of amps were changed drastically.

That said, these days I use mostly commercial profiles, the MBritt stuff is great. I personally use a lot of Tone Junkie. If you sign up for his emails, you usually get a couple trial profiles of each pack he releases and has a free pack with all the free stuff he's given away. If you really gel with one of the trial profiles, consider buying the whole pack for that amp. Then again, with liquid profiles coming up very soon, with the commercial guys getting their hands on it already, they'll probably be releasing new packs to take best advantage of the update.

In my long ago experience, I always liked the sound of overdrive and distortions pedals into a clean tube amp more than into a clean solid state amp, even if the cab was the same. Always seemed warmer, fuller, and less harsh to me. Also 50 watts tube was always louder than 50 SS or even 100 watts solid state. As far as the "latency" argument goes, I don't buy it. Plenty of guitarists with more traditional boards have several digital pedals with with AD-and DA conversion on the ins and outs.

But choosing a trad set up over the digital options in 2023? The biggest reason for some is familiarity. Even if the end result is IEM's with backstage amps, there was always something tactile and "right" about getting an amp cranking with real pedals and then mic'ing vs. beginning and ending with the mic'd sound; until you get used to it. A lot of guitarists play the sorts of gigs where you show up and the assumption is you'll plug your pedal board into the mic'd house amp set clean, that all the bands share. At least that was a familiar experience for me years back; it's changed some as more guitarists have opted for direct options in recent years.

The other reason is image. Most have only put just so many pedals through the paces. But having an analogue board ensures your "rig" at the very least looks unique; that you have thoughtfully and expertly chosen this unique combination of pedals. Using an all-in-one, robs you of this image no matter how good it is.

Quote from alligatorlizard

This is what I understand too - tho I do wonder how well that's going to work e.g. depending on if you know the original settings, or if the seller provided the original settings how accurate these are, or if you can find the correct tone stack for the amp. Quite possibly new profiles designed with "liquid profiling" in mind might be end up working the best. All speculation tho - time will tell!

I think it also depends on how accurately it replicates it if you don’t know that original settings. That is so you have no clue when you just assign them all value of 5.0. Will turning up one of the settings using the Tone stack, cj from 5.0 to 7.0 function more like the original knob? Suppose the original was actually at 3.0, but you didn’t know that? Will it sound like you turned up that value from 3.0 to 5 or so? Perhaps it’s not that linear so it sounds like you went from 3.0 to 4.8 or 5.2. Perhaps it’s still responds similar to an increase or decrease from wherever your starting point is? If that’s the case, you can just kind of throw any Tone stack on there, set the values to 5.0. And the tone controls will respond similar to small increases and decreases of the Tone stack in question, whether you chose the tone stack that matches the profiles amp or not. So for example, you’re starting with a Marshall plexi profile and seeing what it would sound like if you modified it a bit with controls from an AC 30. Whether that would produce something desirable or not at least it means that there’s more options in room for experimentation.

It occurred to me that part of the delay between 9.0 and liquid is that the release of liquid is kind of anticlimactic if there aren’t a significant number of actual liquid profiles to play with. Letting the commercial profile makers and others that make some stuff for a free pack available in rig exchange requires that they get the update and prep some content before the public beta comes out.

Quote from Alienator

Agree. Everything is mere hopeful speculation, of course. That's why I said autumn. That would be in 2-3 months. I would say that is rather soon for Kemper standards, isn't it? Let's see. It surely is around the corner, just a few more sleeps . Who knows... maybe even before summer brake...

I just watched a tone Junkie video. He has the liquid beta and demoed it. Apparently Michael Britt and some other beta testers have their hands on it. Means a general beta for all of us should be around the corner, baring any set backs discovered

The official Kemper amps page on Facebook announced yesterday that liquid profiling was coming soon.
That’s not something you announce now if you’re planning for sometime in the fall or December. At least that’s how they’ve operated in recent years when people have become a At least that’s how they’ve operated in recent years . But then again, maybe you do if you need to? People trying to make informed purchases often purchase something if an announced upgrade is in the works and are willing to buy now and wait. Sometimes you gotta shift strategy over time. It’s not 2019 anymore when they were the only profiling or capturing product out there. They’ve unfairly got a lot of bad press in the past couple years just because of the age of the product, so if they’re releasing something cutting edge, they need to get out in front, and show potential buyers they’re still getting something that’s cutting edge in many ways.

The profile makers should have normalized the profiles with the default crunch profile in performance mode before selling or sharing. Problem is that this gets you in ballpark but profiles will cut differently in the mix and different mixes in different styles and with different guitars, pickup positions, and whether eq is being applied especially post amp. So there will always be some personal custom leveling.
KpA is only product ever to automatically compensate volume when the amps gain is adjusted. That simplifies things

Using your ears playing alone gets you in the ballpark. If the balance is significantly off once heard in a mix, I’d probably see about minor eq adjustments after the amp section. That might make it sit better in the mix, vs just blasting the volume more which as keeps its balance matching when playing alone

Hmm. Have you checked global and the rig pure cab settings? See if something is going on with that rev delay what’s it called setting in the amp menu. Maybe the distort sens is different. Maybe there’s something glitchy going on in one of the parameters in like the amb or cabinet section that default to something different? Ones you never touch and wouldn’t think to check? But yeah if you’ve tried all those maybe you’ll make a discovery. That someone suggested about if you made an audio recording if you couldn’t figure it out…. Either way report it to support so it gets looked into.

Quote from MetalMauce

It never was a problem before (for 6 years!)

that may be, but you never used it as an audio interface until the beta was released a few weeks back. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but prior to 9.0 there was no audio conversion between the KpA and rig manager . The rig manager merely controlled the KpA. Even when clicking on a profile only saved in rig manager, it was just sending a file to the KpA to load in its memory. So the usb was just sending data and commands back and forth. No conversion of audio to digital was happening through usb.

The only thing to look out for is any global settings that might default to something else when updated. Might not hurt to take a glance. I wanna say the pure cab setting defaulted to something else one time I updated, but years ago. But otherwise you’ll be fine.

Quote from HCarlH

In general, you never want to use USB hubs for any kind of audio/midi connection. They will many time interfere with latency or other things. Always plug straight in.

I’m hoping KpA usb works on my Mac. I’ve never had issues using a hub on my M1 13”pro with my scarlet interface. These new macs only come with two thunderbolt/usb3 jacks, no other connections. So the common hubs made for this computer plug into both jacks on the one side and you just get one that has all the connections needed for recording. Mine has a two usb3 , hdmi, and two usb 2. If recording, I need the power adaptor and my audio hard drive, usb for interface, hdmi for amy good-sized monitor , if I’m doing some keyboard, then I need the 2nd usb 2 jack as well.
So the only way I could avoid using a hub would be to ditch the monitor, record to my internal drive, or limit my recording to how long the battery lasts.
im banking that the KpA it will work fine with the hub, but won’t be able to try out the beta for a couple weeks

Quote from semguigui

good to know. That being said, to stick to the Amp in the room feeling again (they did so many things to provide it), they could also offer the possibility to deactivate this compensation, so that the user will effectively experience the same than with the real thing...

I wonder if it's simple as turning off the compensation? To me though, it would be feature I'd never use. The best part of digital units is tweaking to get the sound you want and then being able to lower or raise the volume to the level you need without affecting tone. KPA simplified this step so that you could play with the gain knob to your hearts content and instantly hear how it sounds at an even volume. As volume affects how we perceive how good it sounds (louder tends to sound better) being able to sweep the gain knob and never have the moving target of volume changes affect your evaluation might just be my favorite feature of the KPA. It doesn't matter what I do with the gain knob in a Rig. If I make a change and save it, I know it matches the volume of other Rigs (assuming those Rigs matched before). *This also makes it possible to morph the gain with an expression pedal and setting it up is very simply.

That said, I can see how some users would like that for the sake of authenticity, but I can't think of any practical reason that this would be musically convenient. Besides, if you would like a volume jump when you up the gain, just up the Rig's volume control as much or little as you like, which you can do now. If we're going for sheer authenticity, why don't they make a KPA 2 that weighs 75 pounds and has expensive parts that need replacing every couple years?

Quote from Antipodes

I expect that the new gain control in Liquid Mode will remain level compensated, it will just follow more closely the gain settings on the volume knob on the actual amp.

I sure hope so. KpA is the only unit that offers auto volume compensation. One of its most convenient features. If user wants to add a little volume while upping the gain, profiles have a volume control. So win win. Add as much or little or even no volume change when increasing gain. A big reason why a high percentage of guitarists through the years got their gain largely from od and dist pedals.

The second advantage over either KpA gate is they can be locked and forgot, or the settings morphed or be turned up or down in each rig in say a performance. With a real pedal the ideal setting is a compromise. The ideal setting to adequately gate your lead sound may be too high for your rhythm sound, which still has some noise you’d like to address.

One other aspect is that with digital units compared to analogue, a certain volume isn’t necessary to get the characteristics of the amp, with tube amps it is often higher than ideal. If a lower overall volume of your monitoring system suits the room, than you can keep the volume where it’s ideal for the sake of monitoring, the tone won’t change. This means that only the PA has to be compensated for the room, not a super loud tube amp pointed in a certain direction.
But if adjustments are desired, that’s why there’s a global eq for each output. However with digital, like others have said, you’ve decreased the number of variables.

Quote from Alienator

...Can't wait to find that out. For me a supposedly new (=authentic?) behaviour of the gain knob is much more exciting than that of the eq knobs (which if course is also very exciting).

interesting thing HW from Tone Junkie said. That he often doesn’t like how original amp sounds with the gain on max, often too flubby or whatever. So after profiling on the max gain he likes the sound of, say at 8, he then increases the gain on the KPA to get more gain, so that it sounds like a more gained up version of the amp set to 8.

I think I understand how this will work. So were you to know the original tone settings of a profile, you could opt to switch to one of the modeled tone stacks and input what the original tone settings were. But what is you didn't know the original settings?

Hypothetically, you have a fender twin, profiled like this: B2, m5, T8, P5.

In this case, the treble was bumped up and bass was cut some, presence and mids left alone. But you forgot these were the settings, so you just tell the KPA that the profile'd settings were all flat at 5.

So when you bump up the treble on the kpa, what happens? If I understand correctly, the bump on the treble would sound like bumping the original amp from say 8 to 9 or 10, even though the knob on the kemper shows a bump from 5 to 6 or 7 or so. (assuming 5 is the 12:00 position) On the flip side, turning the kemper's treble to zero would only get the original amp to sound like the treble is set to 3 or so.

If that's confusing, what I'm asking is, if you don't know the original settings of the amp and just tell the KPA they are all at 5, the changes on the KPA tone stacks will of course will not match the original values on the amp when it was profiled. However will an increase or decease on the KPA tone stack sound similar to increasing or decreasing that control on the original amp? Of course, is the numbers don't match, you wouldn't have the full range of the original knob in one direction and could go beyond the range on the other direction. But otherwise you could do modest increase or decreases and have it respond a little closer to how the original amp would have responded to modest bumps and cuts from wherever the original tone was set at?

Quote from Antipodes

The history of patents in the US is kind of a horror show. It includes the Wright Brothers patenting powered flight which completely stalled the development of aviation in the US for years and years (you had to pay a licence fee to them if you built any aircraft) until some way into WW1 when the military woke up to the fact that other nations were way ahead on this essential technology and the govt decided all patents on flying machines were now void. Then there were the patents on all the basic things we take for granted - electric light, radio, TV etc which like the Wright bros thing were often just used for patent trolling: - ie we, the patent owners, don't actually make anything at all that anyone could buy, we just want to operate like parasites on anyone that does make anything and anyone who wants to buy that thing.

There's pros and cons. To say that someone, under existing laws has patent rights is not the same thing as saying morally or ethically that one has a right to such things. Ethically, it's a case by case decision. For example, you have half a dozen individual or companies trying to solve the same problem, yet one person figures it out first. Must the others give up their efforts? And how much variance in the similarity to the first solution is ethical? How much time should be allowed to pass before the patents expire? Funny story, but the song "happy birthday" just entered public domain after the better part of a century, just as restaurant staff singing corny songs for those with birthdays has fallen out of fashion.

On the one hand, patents stifle the creation and access to solutions, which is now controlled by the person that reached the subjective finish line first, like in the Wright Brother's example.

On the other hand not having patents disincentives investment in discovering new solutions if someone or a company with deeper pockets can swoop in and steal your idea after you spent years and thousands or millions developing it.

Quote from Antipodes

Here is the patent that was so violently infringed - presumably without buying it dinner first:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US11164551B2/

I'm confused. I don't see anything specific in this patent that could be said to be copied. In the general sense, all the digital amp/cab creating companies have, for decades have been trying to more accurately represent a real guitar amp and Cab. Heck in the late 2000's Line 6 was talking about how the POD HD stuff was "modeling" the different components so as to not only model the basic tone of the original, but the feel. What makes fighting about patents of this stuff is that all of the companies are trying to make digital copies of real amps in some facet, amps they didn't design! And the vast majority of amps in existence were attempts to copy what others had done before and perhaps improve on it some, or to make some minor tweak to their own in order to avoid another amp maker's patent. Wasn't tone matching on the part of that other company an attempt to copy KPA's profiling capability?