Posts by Enchilada_Jones

Do you have a midi cable connected? S/PDIF?

Any effects in the signal chain?

Any other devices plugged into the same power outlet that powers the Kemper that could have a digital processor plugged in that might impart a signal via common ground with the Kemper. A computer, other effects unit etc? Something checking for Bluetooth connections?

It sounds like something is intermittently sending a pulse that isn’t strong enough to be heard unless the power amp is powered on. Might be feeding through a common ground.

If you have another power outlet nearby that is on a different breaker use a cord long enough to get the Kemper powered from that new source and see if it solves things.

I have installed latest Rig Manager on new MacBook. Plugged in Player and it syncs to Rig Manager.

Local Library is empty. What is the best way to get my current Library moved over? (I still have the old MacBook)

And is there a way to have the Local Library sync to a Master Library in the cloud or on remote back up drive so I can have a Windows and Mac version both synchronized and up to date and safe?

Using powered Toaster and a Player, whichever of them I’m using at the time will be connected to Rig Manager either on Mac or Windows depending on what I’m doing…recording to DAW in either environment or traveling with MacBook.

The ‘network’ port is for the Kemper Remote footswitch. Not sure if it also functions for connecting to a router, haven’t needed to find out.

You need a USB cable. The USB B, the larger square shaped port on the toaster, to the USB C port on the new MacBook. So a USB B to USB C connector, which is not common, however a USB B to USB A CABLE like the black one in the picture is very common and then use a short USB A to USB C conversion cable, like the white one in the picture, is used to convert the A to C

Quote from DM@1968

…

So tbh I’ve thought a lot recently about dumping the Kemper and switching to some with more modern connectivity, better graphical and easier to use (e.g. Fender or Quad Cortex). However, I then sit down and play through my Kemper and just wonder if the sounds could possibly be anything like as amazing

…

Before you spend a penny on something with ‘more modern connectivity’ consider your Kemper head already has modern connectivity but you aren’t able to use it because the years have moved on and so has Kempers operating system. However the modern version of that system is free to you! All you have to do is update the Kemper firmware and it will be just as capable if not more than the other manufacturers product.

Depending on how old your firmware is you may have to update in more than one step. Find out how to identify the current operating system…what version number you have installed now. Then find out what version of Rig Manager you need to install on your new MacBook to get the firmware installed. Then you can explore your Kemper head and Kab to its full potential.

Every device has a learning curve so moving to Fractal or Quad Cortex etc won’t happen without a similar set of problems while you learn how to use them. At least get to really know your Kemper before you decide what it can’t do. For example, when you say you don’t like the effects, fuzz etc. those things and many more have been updated quite a bit. You owe it to yourself to see just what it is you almost threw out before you actually do it.

I believe the power amp section has a built in protection/limit of some sort that can activate if the current gets too great.

Since you said it happened when playing in a band Im guessing you needed to turn it up louder than you otherwise would and that is why it suddenly was a problem.

What are the specs for your cab, watts and ohms? 4 ohm will be louder than 16 ohm at the same output power for example so maybe that is what needs to change.

A few things I’ve learned

Less gain is almost always an improvement.

For distortion sounds too much lower mids going into the ‘amp’ is a problem. If it sounds muddy/blanket-over-the-speaker etc. putting an eq before the amp profile lets you cut a few dB at around 400Hz with a narrow Q. It removes the mud. After the gain stages you can even boost those same frequencies back up by the same amount to make up what you cut and it won’t increase the mud.

On a slightly different tangent you can sweep an EQ with a narrow Q with a about 6 dB cut to find exactly what frequencies are causing trouble. Play while sweeping the frequency range and listen to where it starts helping or hurting the sound quality and then make your cuts or boosts permanent to fix things.

Kemper Kone is really good.

Quote from BobIngram

Well, thx everyone for the discussion.

However, I played my first gig with the KPP yesterday and to say it was dissapointing would be an understatement. I’d spent quite a bit of time coming up with patches I thought would work, I’m pretty simple in my needs. I need a good clean tone, think Princeton Reverb on 3, tones on 5, then a slightly gritty clean, think a clean boost on the Princeton, then an overdrive, think OCD on a Marshall on 3. I have a chorus on the clean, default off but I can turn it on from the MIDI controller, reverb and delay. The effects were decent, I’ll make some adjustments.

The clean tone, when compared to my Boss IR-200, seemed very good at home, but live it was very SS like, none of that tube goodness you’d get through the Princeton. The gritty clean was similar but the same issue, the OD jumped in volume, even though I only turned the guitar up from 8-10, and the overdrive was harsh.

My last rig was the IR-200 with a TS-9 and a Zen Drive in front. I only used 2 patches on the IR, clean and a bit of crunch, then kicked it up with either the Zen for mild drive, or the TS-9 for overdrive.

My issue with the IR-200 is the lack of editing software and effects. I want to KPP to give similar tones, without additional pedals and with the effects, and of course Rig Manager which I was running on a droid tablet at the gig.

FWIW I monitor with a Headrush FRFR 108, and the PA is an XR18 with QSC K12.2s (I hate gigs where I need to bring the PA)

Display More

Create your Rigs at the volume you will use them at. Also using the same sound reenforcement gear if at all possible. It will help you fit the sound design to your intended goal.

It comes in a separate email. Check junk/spam folder

Quote from luntho

nothing controversial about that...his profiles are usually made to sound good at "live levels" (LOUD) ...you can always dial up the presence/treble or change the cab for something brighter

Yep. It would be cool if you could save a favorite EQ in the headphone output path to correct for headphone use.

In the Player there is no performance mode. A lot of us think of the bank of five as a ‘performance’ though as far as how we organize the choices we make for each bank

And I believe you can copy paste a performance from rig manager and it sends 5 at a time to load a whole bank in one maneuver

Quote from Antipodes

I believe the KPA can distinguish a direct profile from a profile with a cab automatically. Just the filtering effect of the cab - which will drastically reduce the bandwidth of the sigal - would be enough. The KPA automatically creates a model of the amp AND the cab - it deduces the effect of the amp citcuit and the effect of the speaker+cab+mic as a post amp filter acting on the direct signal.

So do the created amp and cab components of the resulting profile then let you bypass them by toggling the ‘blocks’ amp and cab? And if so, selecting the cab and then choosing a different one from a preset will let you xperiment with other speaker cabs. I assume saving a different choice to the rig would then cause the original created cab to be lost?

Ok, the one with higher gain has “Cab” as part of it’s name and it seems to have a Matchless C30 2x12 cab added to it according to the data in the description panel to the right in Rig Manager. Turning off the cab is likely removing an extra cab? At least thats what it sounds like is happening. It doesn’t get harsh sounding like a direct input (speakerless profile) would when you take the cab away.

I’m not sure how it works if it’s a profile with speaker baked in, does the cab block default to be on, does turning it off do nothing if a separate cab wasn’t actually added to it. Would that remove the ‘cab’ portion of the captured profile?

And the clean one probably sounds like it was intended albeit with a good bit of reverb.

It’s going to confuse people who will then just move on so you’ll likely not get much feedback on the profiles unless you straighten up the meta data in that panel to the right in Rig Manager. Edit out the wrong info, fill in the nature of the speaker cab used in the profile and resave / re-upload with the actual details and cab on or off as it needs to be.

I get the sense they will be well received based on what I’m hearing after playing around with it some and it’s a unique amp so it’s worth the effort I think.

Thanks!

I see the two rigs but the clean has no cab active and the dirty one has a matchless c30 tone junkie cab?
At least that’s what the Rig Manager says.

Were they both profiled with the Marshall 2x12 with blackbacks?

Quote from nigelnisbet

OK got that sorted. Turning an effects loop on off via midi with nothing on it and the mix on 100% and suddenly I have perfect gating and can program any rhythm. Awesome.

So you are getting a ‘slice’ effect via an external midi signal opening and closing the Kemper effects loop volume setting at a programmed tempo and rythm? Not manipulating the slicer effect tempo?

If so what device are you using?

Im not sure what you have going on but I’ll take few guesses. Are the profiles you made DI (without a speaker cab) or Studio (with a mic’s speaker/ cab)?

The DI profiles need a real speaker before you can use them. Either a cab sim or a real speaker in the room that you send the Rig output to after it is has been amplified by a separate amplifier.

If you run a DI profile (a DI amp profile will be terrible without running through a speaker) straight to a Kab and then you EQ it to not sound brittle and harsh ….then send that out the Monitor into a Kab I’m betting it will sound bad, muffled and wooly etc.

In the Output section (or Stack section maybe ?) you can send the signal from that point in the chain to an output, so be sure you are sending the full Rig with any required speaker/ cab component so you get the proper results.

It could simply be the imprint is in need of some of the cab block processing as part of the proper recipe to cook up any imprint’s designed characteristic

You assign the pedal input in the system settings to morph then go into the Rig to set up the particulars for that Rig.

Each Rig can have different parameters controlled by the pedal

The imprints are sent only through the Monitor Outputs so, in the Output settings (page 9 of 10), turning on the Kemper Kone and checking the box “Monitor Cab Off’ will bypass the Cab block for the monitor outs even though the Cab block is still turned on elsewhere.
In each Rig you have the option to have the Imprint be the one you designate in a Rig’s Cabinet settings (page 3 of 3) or set it to use the Global Imprint settings that are set in the Output block (page 9 of 10). You might generally prefer one certain Imprint for most amps/ rigs so set it as the Global and you might prefer different Imprints for certain amps/rigs so in those set it to what you want in the Rig’s Cab settings

You can leave the Cab block button on the hardware on so what gets sent to the Main outputs is using the Cab that is originally part of the Rig and plays through FRFR speakers or FOH etc. and everything will be fine with the way the Kone delivers Imprints.

I think Lenny Kravitz bout a desk from there some years back. I can’t fault him, he has a great sound and can afford that kind of gear fix.