Posts by OneEng1

Quote from Ruefus

To think these units don’t all have room in the marketplace and one will ‘kill’ the other or whatever is ridiculous.

You or I may not see the point of a certain unit - but others clearly do. So what?

Digital solutions we’re supposedly going to kill analog amps. The electric guitar was supposed to be ‘dead’ decades ago.

Neither has been remotely true by any measure.

If there’s room for the *ridiculous* number of analog dirt pedals that exist today (and there seems to be)…..one more modeler/profiler/capture device can exist with its own set of features.

I agree.

It is silly to say that NC is "The Best" since it isn't "The Best" at everything. In fact, it isn't "The Best" at anything; however, it does some amazing things at its price point and form factor.

The full size Kemper (or Kemper Rack with FC in my case), isn't the best at everything, but it is the best for me for live gigs.

I suppose this is one of my biggest beefs about nearly ALL reviews of these units. There is NEVER a context that is put to the review. I would love to see a review that STARTED with the premise "Best digital amp solution for serious touring musicians". Another great review might be "Best digital amp solution for jamming at home" or "Best digital amp solution for a throw-and-go open mic night" or "Best digital amp for recording unique sounds".

If these reviews existed, I expect that no one device would be "The Best" at all of those situations.

Too many people love their devices for what THEY DO and then project and proclaim that said device is the best for everything. This isn't true IMO.

Quote from KrisMil

Most of those effects aren't available on the base model Player. I took a gamble buying the Player as soon as it was released. The premium effects will never be available on the base Player given their sales strategy now. The NC is a significantly different proposition going forward. I've ordered one and will pit them against each other.

Even without the premium efx, Kemper Player has TONS more efx than NC. If you own a Player then you know this to be true.

I look forward to your analysis.

Quote from KrisMil

Counting the noise gate, the NC has 2 more effects than the base Player. The ability to capture and the likely inevitability of future tweaks to the model makes the NC much more of an offering than the base model Player.

I don't own the player, but I believe you are incorrect.

If the player has 2 pre and 2 post efx, you must also include the gate (free), output eq (free), amp eq (free) and even transpose (rig) free, so a total of 8 stages of processing.

Also, it isnt quite that clean of a win either. Kemper has a massive lead in efx it can use and as I said earlier, the number of ways to easily tweak a capture(profile) on the Kemper Player far exceeds NC.

I think its fair to say that NC has a value to certain users as it does capture very well. I think it is much more than a stretch to say NC has more processing than the Kemper Player though.

After reading about the 2.0 update, and listening to some video reviews, it seems like a pretty big update to me.

By making the gate part of the chain without using a fx slot, that freed up. It has 2 pre and 3 post efx. You can't put anything anywhere, but there seems to be a moderate amount of flexibility.

The efx were a bit of a joke in this thing on release, but the new engine seems like they really upped their game. I wouldn't put the efx engines on par with Kemper (except for the modulation which seems particularly nice, and the transpose which seems like it has less latency than Kemper .... but I haven't played it myself yet, so it isn't that easy to judge.

At $550, it checks a good number of boxes. Does it rival the Kemper Player? It does if you want to capture. For the rest? It is a less expensive box with a more accurate capture than Kemper ..... but where I still see it lacking is in the ability to modify a capture.

Here, Kemper reigns supreme. If you are like me, and either buy or download from rig manager your tones, then being able to tweak those tones to your gear and your ear becomes the most important feature of the device. It seems like Neural does a very nice job of getting an accurate capture and getting it quickly. They just seem to stop there though. If the capture doesn't work for you, it just isn't very tweakable at all.

The verbs, delays and drives on the Kemper are also better from what I can tell.

For some reason I was thinking that the NC was $400 at launch?

Just did a quick look around the web. Seems like everyone except Kemper have raised prices.

NC now $550.

HX Stomp now $699.

Kemper Player still $699.

Must be the tariffs

Anyway, seems like NC is a much more viable option for a throw and go rig now. Still not on par with a Kemper Player, or even the HX Stomp, but at least it is out of the "pure toy" catagory in my book :).

Quote from sleshnyc

I’d like a version that plays whatever tone I’m thinking.

How's about an auto correct function! Play what I MEANT to play :).

Quote from Ricco

My goal is simulating an additional rhythm guitar played by a bass.

The signal chain ist doing a 100% +12 "Chromatic Pitch" at first followed by a "Dual Chromatic" pitch delay to simulate a played powerchord from a single note. Right now the +7 is delayed 4 ms and the +12 is delayed 8 ms, so its a little bit more the feel of a strumming. It makes a difference compared to no delay, but longer times (especially 40 ms) are just too long. The amp section comes after that.

That's an experiment right now since my band has only one guitar, bass and drums, so sometimes there is some emptiness when doing guitar solos. So while I am doing a guitar solo, the bass will do bass and a rhythm guitar at the same time.

So its more like a desired latency than a real "delay effect".

Another interesting use case. This one seems a bit difficult to imagine how it might sound though.

Have you guys considered using a looper to create a rhythm track to play while you do the lead?

Quote from Vinny Burns

Both chorus and flange are modulated delayed signals.
I tend to use 1-4 millisecond for Flange and 10-14 milliseconds for Chorus.

The chorus and flange blocks on the profilers are very ‘Kempercentric’ compared to something like a 2290 or TC 1210.
Whereas, the Kemper delay blocks, especially the multi delay blocks, have much more control.

But. As I mentioned elsewhere, I couldn’t get a couple of the delay blocks to get anywhere near 1-14ms when I last tried. The delay was far greater than that and not even usable for what I wanted.

This was on the actual Kemper and not Rig Manager.

As I also stated, it may have been fixed since then but I moved on from experimenting with the Kemper blocks for my studio stuff,

Now, I just use my Fulltone TERC Tri Stereo chorus between the Kemper and DAW. In the Daw, I use my 2290 plugin as well as my Eventide H3000 plugins. These supply all the Delays, Chorusing and Pitch Shifting that I need in the studio.

Live, I have to use simpler versions from within the Kemper.


Edit. Direct reply to your first sentence. No, I am not looking to thicken things up. I am looking to create my own chorus and flange sounds from within the delay blocks like I have grown up doing

I grew up with my first digital delay. Ibanez DM1100. Learned how to make flange and chorus sounds with just that unit.
Years later, once we started touring, I had a TC2290. Again, I programmed all my own chorus, flange and delay sounds in that.
Once I had my RSB18 Bradshaw system, there was a TC1210 in there, then a G-Force. H3000 DSE in my studio.
So much stuff in that rack over the years.

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Wow. Very cool. Honestly, I had never thought of using a delay (or set of delays) to create my own modulation effects. I haven't used many of the units you mentioned, but the TC2290 and H3000 are both top-of-the-line stuff. I can only assume that the other efx units you mentioned are of similar level.

I have a feeling that Kemper would rather create a new mod engine that (as you mentioned) is generally more powerful and fits in a slot like the rest of their premium efx do. The delay engine, reverb engine, and drive/fuzz engine as well as the new tremolo are all examples of Kemper re-inventing an effects engine within the device that ends up giving state of the art results and control compared to the original versions first released in the Kemper. The modulation efx are the last of these as far as I know, so perhaps in a future release, a mod engine with the capabilities you are looking for will exist.

It seems more like an Axe III Fx thing to take a simple split and delay chain with some summation logic to create a custom effect IMO (I could be wrong though). It is more Kemper-esque to create an engine that has lots of configurability to create different types of mod effects.... and the latter has already been promised by Kemper as being on their list of improvements that they are working on.

Quote from Vinny Burns

I would want to use this for chorus or flange. Especially in the multi delay blocks.

I see.

So you are looking to create a thickened version of the original by using a delay?

I have never heard of this being done with a delay before. Interesting.

I believe that chorus is accomplished with a signal that is derived and detuned from the original, then summed with the original. The amount of detune is moved up and down in a sine wave at some frequency. When frequency is 0, it can be called a detune, dual detune, or quad detune.

A flanger on the other hand does NOT detune the signal. It delays it and then sums it back. The amount of delay is what is changed with a sine wave function.

I believe that Kemper offers all 3 effects if this is what you are attempting to create. I would have to look at what settings are available on each when I get home.

Are you wanting to do this because you are not happy with the chorus, flange, detune and doubling functions in the Kemper?

Quote from tsachou

This is a clear example of what i've been saying that i notice here on these Kemper treads : If it is not important to me it shouldn't be for no ones else , who cares ? Anyway , I meanly asked for these to create a specific type effect , but i get it This is Kemper those users who are important can have things look into . Thankfully there other platforms .

... and again I ask, if it is important to you, then why? I can't think of any reason to have a sub 40mSec delay.

Also, for the record, I clearly stated that "for me". Perhaps you want to read some "Kemper bias" into this thread and into my post; however, upon any reasonable observation, clearly this is not what is going on.

I asked a perfectly honest question ..... which you couldn't, or wouldn't, provide an answer for. Instead you are off on a rant about "Kemper threads".

I am also aware of the "other platforms" you refer to. On THAT platform, when I stated that some OTHER digital amps changed tone when firmware was updated, you and the rest of your possie jumped all over my comments as being irrelevant .... which for me and most live players, it clearly is not irrelevant, but rather a very big deal. Unlike you, I provided plenty of use cases where having a firmware update would be unacceptable.

So again I ask, under what use case would a guitar player, for ANY reason need a sub 40mSec delay? I am not saying "If it is not important to me it shouldn't be for no ones else, who cares?" (as you so eloquently stated). I am saying "why is it important to anyone"? If there is a use case, please let me know.

I asked in another thread and am curious. What are you using a sub 40mSec delay for?

Quote from musicmad

Any developer worth their salt should be able to fix this in less than an hour. Get to it Kemper

Agree, but on the other hand, is this really where we would like Kemper to put an hour of engineering time into?

For me, this complaint went squarely into the "who cares" bucket. Seriously, who uses a sub 40mSec delay? If you do use it, I would be curious "what for?".

As for the editor, I could come up with quite a few more complaints that are way more important in my usage than this one. Of course, one always has to consider how much work is needed to do the improvements vs. the value of the improvement.

Ok, interesting definition of "not working". So, if the definition of "not working" means that every single capability on the unit is able to be completely duplicated in the editor exactly as the unit has implemented it AND that no anomalies exist on the editor in ANY feature it can edit ..... I would argue that there are NO editors on the market that are working. Not a single one. Furthermore, there never will be.

Quote from lbieber

Your simply buying into a stereotype by lumping all German products into the tank category. Simply not true.

As one engineer to another, we know that the look of the board reveals little to nothing about it's quality. There are many details that could make a good looking board bad. Not saying this is the case here, but drawing conclusions by looking is silly.

It would be preferable to avoid misleading or unverified statements.

Fair enough. I should have specified my comments.

The mechanical layout of the board seems to be robust. There are things about it that I don't care for (like the unit being vented on the bottom which can allow water to come in, but this seems like it is normal for these kinds of devices), but in general, there aren't any glaring mechanical issues with the board layout.

Additionally, the board isn't littered with lots of through hole parts that are more prone to being an issue due to manual pick and place and likely (at these volumes) manual solder (or at a minimum, selective solder).

Without the schematic, I can't evaluate (with any accuracy) how well the board is electrically protected.

As with all things, the best tool for the job is determined by the job you are doing, not how the tool is made ;).

The Tone X is demonstrably a more accurate capture than Kemper through NULL testing. Alas, if that was all I needed, it would have saved me a ton of money.

The efx are pure crap though. The usability live? Laughable.

I have always thought that Kemper's marketing is a bit off-base. Of course, when it was first introduced, it was revolutionary and the ONLY capture device for guitar amps, so it made sense to talk up that point to the moon and back.

Today, there are several devices that capture, and some do it better than Kemper (easier, faster, more accurate). What I think is missing is .... who cares?

At least MOST of us do not own or even have access to hundreds of classic tube amps of our own to profile. MOST of us have to rely on rigs others provide (either free or for sale), and then TWEAK them to our setup and liking.

THIS last part is where Kemper really shines way above ALL other devices IMO.

1. Between Rig Exchange and commercial rigs, Kemper easily has a much bigger library of captured sounds to start with
2. After adding someone else's rig to your Kemper, Kemper is EASILY the easiest one to tweak to something that sounds good with your guitar and speaker and your ear.

Finally, if you play live (as I do), then the next step is how easy is it for you to get the tones you want (see above) for the songs you do and arrange them into a performance ready setup.

Here again, Kemper is outstanding.

Finally, your live sound ISN'T just the amp. It includes your efx chain and processing. How well does the unit do with its built in efx? Kemper again is outstanding. I would actually argue that Axe III Fx has marginally better efx.

So overall, for me, there is so much more to my guitar rig than the accuracy of the capture that is is nearly meaningless in the overall question of "what is the best digital amp".

Interesting idea!

Quote from quemper

I wonder about the KPP's durability? They will likely be a different story than the higher end Kemper products.

There was a video that showed some issues with the USB connector and easy to damage solder pads on one chips. He stated the Player was built with great margins, lots of profit.

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I have seen this one before. My engineering opinion:

• I have seen the USB physical connection failures before on other products. For something like a floor pedal that would have a USB connection to it while being used, I would have opted for a panel mount USB and a ribbon cable to the main board. No matter what you do with the USB board part, someone stepping on that cable is a real possibility and no board is going to handle that reliably. Using a panel mount should make it possible to ensure the cable breaks instead of the connector, or worse, the board. Still, the way the KPP is designed isn't at all unusual.
• The 2nd failure is what is called a "cold solder joint". These are tricky to detect because they may not fail in the manufacturing plant. The only cure is to ensure you use good footprints for the part, and that you have good QC on your solder mask and easy bake oven when you melt the solder on the board. If it is a recurring issue, it is likely one of these items that is the culprit. If the footprint is wrong, it requires a new bare board be created. The solder mask is incorrect, it can be fixed with a small tooling change (new solder mask) without turning the board. If it is just that the easy bake oven isn't adjusted right, then a simple machine adjustment resolves it. FWIW, these issues are often corrected after the early runs of a board.

Just my take, but the board looks pretty decent to me aside from the fragile nature of the USB connectors that not everyone uses.

The ESP32 wireless module is pretty standard for embedded devices (I use it for one of my products).

As a very senior EE and designer, I would expect your used KPA to last longer than you will live. Note the following though:

• I agree with others here that the RJ45 is a weak point. I put my Rack into a rack and have a patch panel with an Ethercon connector and I modified the stock cable with an aftermarket part to make it an Ethercon. I use the FC and plug in and unplug frequently.
• The buttons and knobs on the panel seem to be pretty robust, but over decades may need fixing as all mechanical devices can. Kemper doesn't appear to have any particular issues that are worse than any other electronic device. Even IF you had an issue and Kemper had gone out of business, the ability to control the device with the PC through USB or through MIDI would keep full functionality working. Having said all that, I think that the chance of your unit having a button or knob go bad is very low.

Quote from rcknrllmn

As a pretty satisfied Stage and Head owner. It does seem to me that almost every update lately is focused on fixing the Player. Any attention to updates for the Head, Stage, or Rack appear to be few.

I am not saying there is necessarily anything wrong with that, but it is not peaking my interest and I find myself relapsing in the condition of G.A.S. when I really have no need to. It would be nice just to see a firmware update or something with a new effect or functionality unrelated solely to the Player. Hopefully there is something in the works. I shouldn't complain, we are spoiled.

I hear ya.

I think Kemper likely sells Player's 2:1 over everything else just due to the price point difference. It makes sense for them to get it worked out well from a business perspective.

So .... where are those new modulation efx anyway ;).

Quote from V8guitar

There seem to be 2 types of players....ones that like the straight ahead, single amp crank and go and others that like tweaking/experimenting with parallel paths and multiamp set ups ( massive generalising of course).

Kemper's bias seems to be more of the former, which is also me, hence I love it. The more options, the more complex. Kemper for me has the right balance of real life ability and options whilst keeping it straight forward to get a great sound.

I'm right there with you.

When the band adds a new song, I assess if any of my "go to" rigs are a ready fit (They are about 80% of the time). If they are unique, then I go to the forums and search and the rig manager and search for people that have needed the same tone.... and start there.

I use the editor to tweak what someone else has already gotten close with.

Examples: Shut up and dance, U2 stuff has specific delay setups and need a specific rig for those songs. Money for Nothin ... again, a pretty unique sound not used anywhere else I have heard.

In other words, I spend very little time messing with the setup of my Kemper .... and that is how I like it :).

I have been considering using a set management app that sends out MIDI commands to coordinate my rigs and the drummer's vDrum patches to set list songs.... but even that seems like more work than I want to do for "band utilities". Besides, the other guitar player and bass player have classic rigs that require more time than I do between songs already.

Quote from GCNC8068

The only thing about the rack that I think does need improvement is the remote connector - it’s surprisingly wimpy. I think I read it’s mounted to the circuit card (I may be wrong) and if so even a DIY retrofit isn’t something most folks could do.

I got an I/O panel for the back of my rack case so the Rack connector doesn’t bother me as all the actual connections from the Kemper are permanent and just go a short distance to the rear rack panel - that’s where the outside connections occur. I only adjust rigs and such with Rig Manager at home, never live, so hardwiring vs WiFi is of no importance to me.

Me too! Love my patch panel and Ethercon connector. I would prefer to fit it in a shallow rack though and you can't fit the current rack into a shallow case and have room for a patch panel.

Would also love built in Wi-Fi!