Posts by Grooguit

The Kemper (controlled by a rocktron midi mate) into a QSC K10 powered speaker. I love the K10, I can point it towards the audience and it has plenty of volume and headroom, or lay it down as a wedge pointing back at me. It's light at 32 pounds and has plenty of bass. Though someone doing the 7 string thing might want to step up to the K12. Best part is that the frequency response doesn't seem to change even when monitoring at a low level. Since it has two inputs, the second also having a mic or line level input, I have some flexibility, if I ever want to do a coffee house type of solo gig. It can be pole mounted as well.

I desperately want pitch effects, but to me the first order of business needs to be the dedicated controller and performance mode. If there's anything incomplete on the Kemper it is the performance mode, which was supposed to be a key feature. I don't think the profilling needs to be improved. Then again, I have yet to profile. I got this thing because I want the best possible option for going direct live and in the studio. There's no way I have the money to own, the various amps and equipment used to get these amazing profiles, and don't have the vast full-time studio experience of getting killer guitar sounds that many of the users of this product have. Thus I'm more than content with the ability to get the most amazing sound out my guitar possible at a low volume when playing at my church. No other option exists that gives my the ridiculous amazing tone I'm getting, not to mention the vast variety of amazing tones I'd be able to get at a reasonable volume, or any volume for that matter. I could spend a hefty amount of money on one amp, but then I'd just have one amp. In the past I've owned mostly budget tube amps, such as Carvin, a fender deville, and my most expensive a beat-up JCM 900. I've never owned more than one tube amp at a time.
As far as pitch effects go, it's doesn't have to be all or nothing. For my needs, I just want to be able to add an octave above the fundamental pitch, and other times have a simple dumb pitch shift. I know very little about processing, but if latency is an issue, couldn't they make it so that latency would only be affected if the user chooses to use the pitch effect or include it as part of a rig? That is assuming pitch effects would increase latency. Perhaps we don't need 6 part harmonies based on the most obscure eastern micro-tonal scales, but basic typical pitch effects seems like a reasonable request. I mean, there's a reason that POD, Boss, Digitech, and most budget all-in-one units have pitch effects, because guitarists use them. Though I agree that it is of a lower priority to performance mode, dedicated controller, and librarian. However, the next effect they add should be some sort of pitch effect.

I say keep the effects coming. As CK promised that the tone of amp profiles won't be changed or sacrificed, the more effect possibilities the better. Better yet, have downloadable effects that don't need to be downloaded with updates, so users that don't want more built in effects don't have to be "burdened" with effects they don't want. As far as effects that don't stand the test of time, that is the whole point of new effects being released. If, say, five years from now there is some new trend with reverb, the folks at Kemper can release an effect that does that fad. As far as this being a product that lasts decades, consider the folks that own it are individuals that are willing to spend more than the typical guitarist. More than likely, within five years, there will be a new version of the KPA that perhaps does some of the things that have been discussed on this forum that likely can't be done on the current version. There's also a possibility that they'll release a version that simply does nothing but amp profiling, perhaps it could fit in a 1U rack, in the next couple years? More than likely, within 5 years, most of us will be lusting after/planning to own a new version of this product. Perhaps it will be a full-featured audio interface that includes a mic preamp and phantom power, or has the ability to mix and blend several profiles, thanks to a future more capable processor? That does not even include the possibility of competition from other companies, doing something similar to what the Kemper does. That fact, is even if you desire a version without all the effects, your current Kemper still includes all the buttons and such for the effects that you don't want.

Obviously there are reasonable limits on the scope of effects that a single all-in-one can do versus the endless possibilites that can be achieved with dozens of effects pedals and racks of gear. However, at present, the KPA is only lacking a few bells and whistles in the effects area that constitute all of the effects that 99% of guitarists use, and that are present in all lower quality all in one products, and the high end ass-fx. At present, all it really lacks are some pitch effects, and a few synth like things. Since it's capable of handling the live effect needs of most guitarists, why not include them? I own the toaster version (don't we all) and have no desire to get an enormous rack case (think I'd need 4-5U for just the Kemper), then needing a a power conditioner, and rack effects processor. Or having to run 3 or 4 extra cables from my floorboard so that I can integrate external effects. Honestly, for live purposes, the quality of effects is less important. I mean, in most live mixes, is your audience really going to notice a world of difference between a TC electronic analog delay and a Line 6 analog delay, especially when the whole band is playing? For studio use, just bypass them, what's the issue?

No I am happy with the Kemper, and I bought it knowing full well that it lacked a few features that I wanted it to have. Just blowing off steam. As they say, the squeaky wheel gets oiled. I probably would have waited a little longer, but was able to get it on sale for 15% off new, so I wanted to take advantage while I could. I'm sure that they'll get around to pitch effects and the controller soon enough, as it's likely costing them some sales not having these. Moreover, I'd rather wait for quality then get crap now. What wouldn't be good would be if they rush these into production before they've ironed them out.

But I have to say, even having only worked so far with the built in rigs, I'm blown away by the richness of the tone. It's not just tonally similar to real amps, they are just so dimensional, vibrant, expressive, and seem to just jump out in the mix. Usually, when I've used multi-effects units in the past, I find a few amp models that I like and with considerable effort, I can get them to sound pretty good. With KPC it's a totally different league. The other night, having already made five basic patches for live use with my tele, I began going through all the presets with my les paul. I locked the effects all off and just went through all the rigs. I wrote down the names of every rig that I might use for one of my five sounds, from clean to lead. Even being picky, I had around 20 clean, 20 OD's and 20 distortions rigs that I would consider being one of my everyday sounds. From there I began narrowing those down and got my clean list down to 6. Then I had to go to bed. Once I've narrowed it down to one of each, I'll begin fine-tuning those patches. So as far as I'm concerned, despite my whining for a few features, you'd have to pry this thing from my cold, dead fingers.

The Kemper is definitely made for those that want the best possible amp sounds. It's strength wasn't intended to be the be-all end-all of effects. With that said, it's not like pitch effects are something reserved for Axe-fx. To me, this should have been a priority over all that bit reducer stuff. Line 6 Pod and all of the $300-$500 floor modelers have had pitch effects for years. My Vox tonelab SE (the oldest big blue two pedal version) that I bought about 8 years ago had pitch effects. It's not like basic pitch effects are some sort of new high end feature only found on the most expensive and uncompromising effect processors, like the Axe fx. Sure, the quality of an Axe fx, Tc electronic, or Eventide pitch effect is much higher quality than the cheap stuff, but even the cheap stuff has useable, albeit lower quality, versions built in, and have so for years.

The whole reason that Kemper includes all the effects that it does and came with an advertised performance function (that still hasn't been developed over a year later) is because it is intended to be an all-in-one solution, live or in the studio. Any modern studio owner or even home recording enthusiast that buys the Kemper to solve their guitar recording needs, already has gobs of effects in their DAW's, and most of them probably bypass the Kemper's effects and use their DAW effects while mixing. They could have just released a preamp version of KPA that did nothing but profile amps, allowing guitarists to use this product with rack gear or stomps. However, they built and marketed it as an all in one solution, (and included the most of the effects a guitarist needs which studio owners already possess) so it's only fitting that a $2000 all in one solution come with basic effects found in almost every all in one solution over $300 for the past decade.

Thus Kemper probably does take these requests seriously. I, for one, almost didn't buy the Kemper because of its lack of pitch effects and a dedicated controller. I actually began looking at the Axe fx. I also questioned the reliability of a company that sold a product with a feature, supposedly soon to be released, (performance mode) and still hasn't released it an entire year later. I imagine that their are tons of guitarists like me, just dying to get this awesome product, but unwilling to take the leap because of a lack of basic functions.

Kemper better get its act together, as competition probably isn't far off. I'm sure in a few years there will be several companies offering products that do what the Kemper does, but have their junk together and have a friggen control pedal and basic pitch effects released at the same time. I mean, an entire year and what do they release at Namm? A mono solid state power amp? -That costs an additional $700? Really? No performance mode? No friggen foot controller? No pitch effects?

Thankful we don't have a VAT here, although most states have their own sales tax, mine being 6%. However, sales tax doesn't apply for online or over the phone transactions. Of course, if you have a VAT, wouldn't you have to also pay that if you buy from a store in your county as well? Thus, the only consideration is that pesky 5% import tax and shipping and your government's bureaucracy. I just had an issue selling my G system to a dude on Ebay in Spain. He wanted me to put insurance that would cover $200. I though that he was just confused about exchange rates; why would someone want something they paid $850 for only covered for $200? I went ahead and put the full $650 maximum allowed which only added about $8 to the shipping. He was annoyed because he would now have to spend about $100 to get the package out of customs and wait an extra week. Apparently, their customs flag items with high values. Perhaps the $100 is a bribe in their ridiculous bureaucracy, as it seems idiotic that someone would have to give their government $100 just to release a package that they already paid to have shipped?

Not sure if you can use musiciansfriend in Europe, but they're currently running a 15% off deal on most of their stuff. I ordered my kemper about two weeks ago and had got sweet water to match the price, so I got it for $1683. With the discount I ended up getting the kemper, the gig bag for it, a rocktron midi mate, and two midi cables for $1997

I got a qsc k10 and love it. It's flat at low and higher volumes, light weight at 32 pounds. Sweet water recommended this over the k12, which would have cost more. The 10 inch has a wider dispersion than the 12, so that's a good thing in my opinion. You can lay it flat like a monitor, stand up straight and point towards audience with as much volume a you'll ever need with plenty of clean headroom (its 1000 watts) or even pole mount it. The sweetater folks said I'd only benefit from the k12 if I was doing a lot of bass heavy seven string metal stuff, otherwise I'd be wasting money on something that weighs more.

I have both manuals downloaded on my computer and iPhone.

I did read the manual, and it didn't point out the different function of the rig arrow buttons when having turned browse knob and not turning the browse knob first. It thought it did the same thing either way, but apparently I was wrong, which is why I asked

When I hit up and down it just moves the cursor down to the next rig alphabetically in the browser, which is slower to that turning the browser knob.

When renaming and saving presets it would be cool when looking at "Mehl converter 2 mic 3" for example, you could just hit a button that deletes all the characters so you can start from scratch. Then it would be much faster to rename. For me, I'm currently just using the built in rigs and tweaking them to my tastes. However I rename my versions. For the patches I tweaked for my tele, I start with "tele" in the name, so all those patches are alphabetically in row when searching through all rigs.

Anyone else find it a nuisance when looking through all rigs how many times you have to hit the left or right button to get from the low alphabetical presets to the higher or vi e versa.? Why non, once browsing, be able to press a button and the be able to scroll through the letters of the alphabet to go to those presets. Kind of like you do with your contacts on a cell phone. So if your looking for a patch "tele lite overdrive" you choose the letter "T" and you'll get there much faster than twisting the browse knob around 400 times or pressing rig right 38 times

I vote for the larger one. If it's a tie or close, it should go to the larger one cuz the folks that prefer the larger one have more to loose than those that prefer the smaller one. (Yes, I'm a bit biased)

Here's my reasoning though:

The people that prefer the smaller version simply don't need or use tap tempo at all or much and if asked, will simply prefer the smaller one. I would too if I had no use for it. Why would anyone want something to be any larger than suits their needs? When asked of, course, they'll give an opinion for smaller. However, they likely won't be pissed or inconvenienced if the larger one is chosen. At the proposed dimensions of even the larger design (wasn't it 16.5 x 7.5 inches? ), this thing will be smaller than what most people are currently using to control their KPC's. In other words, it's not like they are going to be like "This controller is so massive but I have no other choice." In fact if Chris had simply released the larger one without coming to us first, I doubt that there would be many folks grumbling about it being too big.

However, the people that want the larger one are folks that have a true need for an ergonomic tap tempo. I'm always amazed with the number of controllers with the tap tempo moved to a second row. Other than bank buttons, it's the only button that you're ever going to hit more than once in a row, often in the middle of a song if the drummer speeds up. It's quite difficult to do when playing and singing into a mic, now add standing on one foot and reaching over the first row to tap multiple times. On the front row, you can keep your heel on the ground and tap. At least bank buttons aren't usually needed in the middle of a song, assuming you organize your presets well. Those that want the larger are folks that have a genuine NEED for ergonomic tap tempo. It will be a major inconvenience if the smaller one is chosen. In fact, I might not buy it, but stick with my Rocktron midi mate.

The one thing apparently missing from the proposed foot controller is a boost button. It would be cool if you could have a global boost that you can set (say 4-6 db) for solos. Then, regardless of what preset you are in you could hit a switch to boost the volume.
At the moment, we only have a few options. we could place some sort of dirt pedal before the stack section, but this would drive the gain more, rather than give a volume boost. You could place some sort of boost or EQ in the X slot, but that creates some issues. For one, a user that uses a post EQ to optimize their amp sound will put it in the X slot. However, if you wanted to be able to leave that EQ on all the time, you couldn't also use this slot for a boost, as if you turn it off, the EQ that you want on all the time goes off with it.

If a dedicated boost button is not feasible, assuming that the controller is already in development, then there's a simple software change in the upcoming performance mode that could be done:
Simply have the ability to have a global boost level, and be able to assign one of the 4 CC buttons on the back row on the controller to it. Granted, this would mean that you'd only have three foot-switchable CC's switches on the back row left for turning other things on or off, but it would be better than nothing. Having one less CC switch, wouldn't mean that you couldn't have as many effects, you just couldn't turn as many on or off on the controller. Users that don't want or need this feature could simply not use it and they'd never know the difference. Also, within this, you should be able to choose whether its defaulted to on or off, turned off when changing presets, or left on that preset. So if I kick in a boost on a rig and change rigs, the boosted rig could already be boosted when I return to that rig, or I could have the boost off when I return to that rig.

Will,

do you use it in front or in the loop? Do you control with midi or just operate it independently? I used to own a POD hd, before i owned the TC, which has the same exact effects, and I though they sounded pretty good. I thought there some creative things that could be done with all the synth types of stuff, granted I've never owned any dedicated synth pedals so I have nothing to compare them to. I think I'm going to put this on my wish list. I can't think of another pedal out there that would solve all my needs like this will. There's the eventide that does all the crazy high end pitch stuff, but I really only need a couple basic pitch function, I mix in an octave higher for a few songs and that's pretty much it. I imagine that the kemper will eventually have basic pitch effects and will definitely have a tuner in their dedicated controller, so I'm not gonna buy real high quality for something that I will only use for a short time.

Since my kpa, and midi mate are on their way, I have two issues while I await KPA's dedicated foot controller: I need pitch effects and I need a tuner that I can see at my feet. I'm considering Line 6's M5. It has a built in tuner, pitch effects, and every other effect for that matter. It stores 24 presets and is has hookups for midi. Since tuners and pitch effects, and synth effects are usually the first thing you want coming from your guitar, this could be placed between your guitar and kpa, or in the effects loop. By placing it before the KPA you'll eliminate the extra cables needed for the effects loop. you can also run one short two-foot midi cord from your midi foot controller to the M5. Since most of us users will have to plug in an ac adaptor for our midi foot controllers anyhow, we may as well plug this in as well. However, since it's midi controllable, you could also sit it on top of your kpa and use the effects loop. If you only have one effect that you'll use the M5 for, and don't mind manually turning it on and off, you could do so without bothering with midi.

It also has an auto-swell effect, something I liked having when I used to own a Pod HD, one thing my G system didn't have. (I requested a auto-swell feature the other night) At $199 new, that's a lot packed into one small two-button pedal. While the line 6 effects aren't the top of the line, there not bad either, especially for live purposes. It has true bypass and DSP bypass, though I wish it had just a buffered bypass as well (without AD/DA conversion) in case I want to place it between my guitar and kpa, as true bypass would mean 40 feet of cable between guitar and the KPA. (you want to have one buffer if going through that much cable with the high impedance of a guitar signal, otherwise true bypass is preferable)

I really want something to put between my guitar and kpa anyhow, so the cord coming from my guitar doesn't yank my kpa of its stand if I move around.

For the powered version, it would probably make sense to have the ability to have only the preamp section on at times, so a separate power switch for that. No sense in having a 700 watt power amp running in situation where only running direct. The power amp should have stereo abilities. Granted it's mostly for just monitoring, but if running into a 4x12 cab that has stereo capability, it might make the delays more dimensional sounding. Perhaps separate volume knobs for the outputs?

Love the recording interface idea.

How about a built in Keurig coffee maker and cup holder?

As a side-note, church musicians are starting to become quite a large market for music gear, as more and more churches have transitioned away from organs and hymns to modern music with full bands. I imagine that as the Kemper catches on, you'll see it becoming quite popular among worship guitarists. Mainly because the mix for worship services is generally kept at a lower volume than a typical concert, and going direct is highly valuable in that kind of environment, especially in smaller churches. Actually, worship guitarists are one of the biggest pushes in the low wattage tube amp market, second only the apartment dwelling home recordist market.

It would be nice if there was an auto swell effect. I'm planning on using my Kemper (that I just ordered today) in church, as it is the ideal direct solution for guitarists. I'm often asked to do volume swell stuff, and it would be cool if I could get that violin like attack with out doing the volume pedal dance required, (as it's typically called for on those prayerful moments with just the acoustic guitar or piano playing. Yes, I can do that sort of thing if I pluck one beat ahead and then crank the volume knob back and forth for each note, but I'm too lazy and I screw the timing up. Wouldn't this sort of effect be quite simple to include. And yes, I also want pitch effects. For my uses, I like adding an octave above and blending it in with the original tone, gets that organ-like sound. That's the main thing I'm going to miss from my G-system.

I'm quite thrilled and hope this satisfies my G.A.S. for a while. Sweetwater was willing to match a deal that musicians friend was running. They were giving 15% off purchases over $400. I told my sweetwater rep and they were willing to match. No sales tax of course, over the phone. I'm getting the QSC K10 in a couple weeks and my live rig will be complete. I play 3 out of four weekends a month at my church, usually a Saturday and two Sunday services, plus Wednesday rehearsal, so it will be real nice to have my 32 pound K10 in one hand and a guitar case and kemper bag in the other, plus a backpack with my cables, electric cords, and other gig stuff. One trip from the car to inside. No more heavy cab, amp, and pedal board to lug around. Love it. Since my church has an aviom set-up, I can use my nice headphones and do my own headphone mix if I want, so I'll only need to lug the K10 when my band plays. The sound guy likes it when I go direct so win-win.