Profiler MK 2 Discussion (unorganized long thread with loads of off topic remarks)

    Quote from DamianGreda

    I may be wrong but touch screens are often color LCD screens and they are dark on stage. I think KPA philosophy is to get stage guys the most practical tools like bright readable display.

    The touchscreens on the TMP, the Quad and the Ampero are honestly pretty lame. If you are looking for the easiest on the fly iOS it’s on either the helix (with its capacitive switches) or the kemper toaster (or less so the rack) with off the floor real time buttons and switches. You do have to spend a bit of time learning the ui, but once you do, the touchscreens become nothing more than a pretty looking add-on. A small example. On any of the above touchscreens editing anything on it takes 2 moves on an often unresponsive screen before getting to the controls. On a helix, touch a foot switch and you’re there On a Kemper, program the unit and the knobs are right in front of you. If you need a touchscreen, a mobile device is much better anyway.

    I owned an axefx, an axefx ultra, an axefx2 and an axefx 8 at various times. I even tried the axefx3. They all had a boot up time longer than the kemper mk2. The boot up time on the kemper is relevant compared to that of all the other modellers. I had a quad cortex reboot needed on stage recently. It was one of the reasons I went back to the kemper. It takes approx 1minute 40 seconds, an eternity in front of a paying audience. The fender Tonemaster pro takes about 50 seconds, again an eternity.

    Quote from DamianGreda

    I may be wrong but touch screens are often color LCD screens and they are dark on stage. I think KPA philosophy is to get stage guys the most practical tools like bright readable display.

    I don’t care about a touch screen - I’d just like a higher resolution, larger screen that is much more easily read and can present information customizable by the user. I cannot easily read the screen on my remote and much of the information is so small or abbreviated as to be useless on stage.

    The Kemper is still No1 for practical live use I think, even after all these years, and the MK2 adds more options with no price increase, so what's not to like. The layout of the remote & stage (with 14 switches!) and the logic of 5 rigs to each performance, each with their own effects and morph, remains functionally ahead of any other unit I have seen. Absolutely no need for a fancy touch screen. I have been tempted by the great reviews of the FM9, but when you look at the tap dancing required to get the same functionality as the remote it does not make sense, and I know if I did get the FM9 I would only be tweaking presets to get back to the same great set of tones that I already get from the Kemper Mk1.

    Improvements to the MK2 I would like to see to enhance its live use even further:
    1) Make better use of all 8 pairs of lights on the 4 effects switches, so we can allocate 8 effects to the 4 switches (2 per switch) and be able to switch any of those 8 effects on/off individually. The Mk2 allows more effects per rig, which is great, but its not a lot of use in a live situation if you don't have additional options to turn the additional effects on/off individually.
    2) Building on the 1st point, allow an effect to be allocated twice to a single effects switch with the automatic addition of a local rig & switch specific morph when you do that. We can then, for example, allocate a Kemper drive twice to a single switch and have the option live of having it off, having it on with low gain and having it on with high gain.
    3) Improve the performance of the transpose effect, if possible.

    Quote from sheguitarplayer

    I owned an axefx, an axefx ultra, an axefx2 and an axefx 8 at various times. I even tried the axefx3. They all had a boot up time longer than the kemper mk2. The boot up time on the kemper is relevant compared to that of all the other modellers. I had a quad cortex reboot needed on stage recently. It was one of the reasons I went back to the kemper. It takes approx 1minute 40 seconds, an eternity in front of a paying audience. The fender Tonemaster pro takes about 50 seconds, again an eternity.

    if that is a major concern, my tonex pedal boots in like 5 seconds.
    all the UAFX on my board take longer.
    I think the boot time on a kemper can be significantly reduced by ceaning up the number of rigs. just favour all the ones you really use and there is a handy function to delete the non favourite ones.

    Quote from djdyer

    The Kemper is still No1 for practical live use I think, even after all these years, and the MK2 adds more options with no price increase, so what's not to like. The layout of the remote & stage (with 14 switches!) and the logic of 5 rigs to each performance, each with their own effects and morph, remains functionally ahead of any other unit I have seen.

    Improvements to the MK2 I would like to see to enhance its live use even further:
    1) Make better use of all 8 pairs of lights on the 4 effects switches, so we can allocate 8 effects to the 4 switches (2 per switch) and be able to switch any of those 8 effects on/off individually. The Mk2 allows more effects per rig, which is great, but its not a lot of use in a live situation if you don't have additional options to turn the additional effects on/off individually.
    2) Building on the 1st point, allow an effect to be allocated twice to a single effects switch with the automatic addition of a local rig & switch specific morph when you do that. We can then, for example, allocate a Kemper drive twice to a single switch and have the option live of having it off, having it on with low gain and having it on with high gain.
    3) Improve the performance of the transpose effect, if possible.

    The best part of a performance is that you can do all that without switching modes, like on the helix, QC, or TMP. These other units give you good versatility within presets, but when you do need to switch presets, force you to hit a mode switch, switch presets, then hit the mode switch again to get back to stomps/scenes; a total pain between songs if you use multiple presets live. With Kemper, even if you need a performance for each song, a simple bank up or down gets you there. Even one rig within a performance, gives you a robust amount of versatility with morph and four toggles. But a performance beats the competitions single presets, which is the true relevant comparison, since changing presets mid song song is impractical and even impossible for the units with a big audio gap. Besides, you can get to another performance on a Kemper easier than changing presets on the QC or helix and without a gap (if you’re not already in preset mode)

    The TMP is the exception here since you can switch presets without gaps, but again you’d have to switch back and forth between modes to get as much versatility as a single Kemper performance. And all three competitor’s grid layout leave you with no ability to lock things.
    A workaround for your point 2 would be to get an external switch and set it to globally a control a couple modules. Set the display type on your stage to show the active status of the 8 modules and you won’t miss the leds on the external switch.
    The biggest improvement the Kemper could make for rig and performance versatility would be to add an second locking option, locking just the effect and its parameters in a module, but not its active status. Then you could tweak effects you want to be in every live rig once, while having them only active by default in some rigs (the same way people utilize real pedals in audio loops)

    For thos talking about aliasing

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    Quote from jaeger 28

    I think the boot time on a kemper can be significantly reduced by ceaning up the number of rigs. just favour all the ones you really use and there is a handy function to delete the non favourite ones.

    Not really. I had read someone speculate on that early on when I got my Rack and remote. I took off all profiles from the Rack and just loaded what I used or wanted available — maybe 20 or so rigs. Still takes forever to boot. Mercifully I’ve haven’t had to reboot during a gig more than 3-4 times.

    Quote from djdyer

    The Kemper is still No1 for practical live use I think, even after all these years, and the MK2 adds more options with no price increase, so what's not to like. The layout of the remote & stage (with 14 switches!) and the logic of 5 rigs to each performance, each with their own effects and morph, remains functionally ahead of any other unit I have seen. Absolutely no need for a fancy touch screen. I have been tempted by the great reviews of the FM9, but when you look at the tap dancing required to get the same functionality as the remote it does not make sense, and I know if I did get the FM9 I would only be tweaking presets to get back to the same great set of tones that I already get from the Kemper Mk1.

    Amen!

    Great FC form factor, fantastic efx, VERY easy to find and tweak a rig to achieve a particular sound in a song, robust, stable from one firmware to the next without changing tone!

    The touch screen (for me) is just useless (but I would have included it for marketing reasons). This talk of modifying tone on the fly in a gig through the GUI is crazy talk for me. My Kemper rack isn't even close to me in a gig (sits back on top of the digital mixer rack on the right side of the drummer). Everything I need to do is done through the FC.

    Quote from Grooguit

    The biggest improvement the Kemper could make for rig and performance versatility would be to add an second locking option, locking just the effect and its parameters in a module, but not its active status. Then you could tweak effects you want to be in every live rig once, while having them only active by default in some rigs (the same way people utilize real pedals in audio loops)


    Would love this feature ... on the KPP as well. Fine if there's no hardware control over this.

    Quote from OneEng1

    Just out of curiosity, when would you ever want to use the Player for live use if you have a Stage (that is specifically designed for that)?

    I use the Player when I play bass as I do not need anything more demanding.
    I have also used the player for guitar when I only need a simple amp setup without use for much in effects. Especially great for quick jam with a friend or acoustic work. Also works great when a friend wants to jam with headphones/in ears without needing to amplify.

    But mostly I use it at home when i want to play in another room outside of the music room. It’s a smaller footprint. Same for gigs for a grab and go, it’s a lot smaller and lighter.

    Plus it makes for a great backup to take to gigs if ever I need to replace the Stage.

    The studio still has the Rack as well.

    Edit: Just to muddy the waters a bit more, I also own an Fractal FM3 that will work into the rotation. Ha ha

    Edited once, last by drog (June 8, 2025 at 3:59 PM).

    Quote from OneEng1

    Just out of curiosity, when would you ever want to use the Player for live use if you have a Stage (that is specifically designed for that)?

    I am actually always using the player live. Is really compact and the layout of the Footswitch is so comfortable. Nevertheless I always think that the best size for me would be something in between the two.

    Quote from quemper

    I'd be up for a slightly larger version of the KPP (more knobs, switches, FX loop, and a display), . While we're wishing, we could use both a larger version and a smaller plug style micro version. Not going to happen, but ....

    Agree. I was hoping KPP was going to be a little smaller than the FC with 4 or 5 buttons across in 2 rows.

    Hi all ... I'm sure this has been answered somewhere but can't find it. My question is regarding backward compatibility:

    1) Will existing MK1 profiles still work on MK2?

    2) Will they sound identical or be different (better?) on MK2?

    Thanks, -g