Posts by dougc84

Quote from johnatanasoff

Sweet! I hope there's profiles of some pedals i love that i can download or buy.

Just want to clarify something here. There is only one spot for a profiled device on the Kemper. That means you cannot profile a distortion pedal and combine it with a separate profile of an amp.

In other words, if you're using a profile of, say, that Suhr SE+, and want to add, for example, a Fulltone OCD to the signal, you have to use an analog OCD pedal, either in front of the Kemper, or in a "distortion loop," which is just an FX loop that is used for distortion and overdrive pedals. You can profile an amp with a distortion or overdrive in front of it (though fuzzes don't take very well), but you can't add it after the fact, and, since you said you didn't have any of these amps available to you, you're either stuck with the several overdrive/distortion models on the Kemper, using an actual pedal, or finding a profile (many of which exist) that is boosted or driven by a pedal.

So, as us MIDI guys may know, the CC workaround for getting the looper to work was, at best, finicky. As of 5.0, it doesn't really even work.

Ron over at RJM Music (the guy that makes the Mastermind GT, PT, and LT) has confirmed with one of the Kemper developers that the workarounds no longer work and have been removed (forum link). I've seen some people have some success with this feature on 5.0, but it is dying away. I was personally never able to get the found CC changes to consistently work in the first place, even on 3.x and 4.x.

I understand Kemper is not interested in really using MIDI CC's for much of their base functionality to control every parameter. That's all fine and good. But, with the extensiveness that is their MIDI specification, I see no reason at all why this couldn't be added as a set of SysEx and NPRN commands (and SysEx would be preferred as it is more common and universally supported than NPRN on MIDI devices). Sure, this means people using something like a stock FCB1010 that doesn't send complex MIDI messages would be at a loss, but it seems silly that I have to buy (at $500 shipped) the official remote (that wouldn't work with how I use the Kemper, as with others) just to enable the feature. I already have a full 43" pedalboard - I'm not going to add the remote because its not going to help. The Kemper website says it's an exclusive feature for remote users, which is ridiculous, considering that the remote wasn't announced until after many of us purchased the Kemper itself and found our own solutions for MIDI control.

So, in summation: add SysEx commands and NPRN commands to the MIDI spec to enable the looper on advanced MIDI devices.

Plain and simple: Nothing, and I repeat, NOTHING is perfect. Software is built by humans, who are prone to error. You will never have a bug free app on your computer or phone. You will never have a bug free OS on your computer. And, considering the Kemper is essentially a specialized computer designed by humans, you will never have a bug free Kemper. Whether or not bugs are more or less present, or more or less present to you as an individual, alters your perception of quality.

The Kemper developers seek to build as bullet-proof of an operating system as they possibly can. However, they cannot see the future or test every single scenario a user may use their software or hardware. Some things just don't work as expected on seemingly identical hardware.

Heck, even with website development - a developed site may look great on Chrome, but have weird alignment issues on Safari. Or a different version of Chrome that has no changes to rendering may break a page. And that's easy stuff compared to the OS-level development of the Kemper's OS.

Don't like it and want to stay digital? Go to Helix. Go to AxeFX. But they all have bugs and problems. They get updates too. Because it's software built by imperfect humans.

Don't like that? Go get a tube amp. Then complain when the tubes die out prematurely because of a poorly built rectifier or short. Because it's hardware built by imperfect humans.

How about using analog pedals? They get shorts too, because we step on them. And mechanical parts have a lifespan as well. Because it's hardware built by imperfect humans.

Call it a bug or a defect or a short, analog equipment has their own "bugs" as well. If you're having a problem with the Kemper, how about reporting it instead of complaining about it? An unknown bug is one the Kemper team cannot fix. They can't read your mind, or your Kemper's configuration.

Ah, I was looking at @OP's star to the top left. I didn't even notice the blue stars underneath.

The source code specs this out as some sort of "user rank." What that actually means? Who knows.

Thanks for your responses here.

Quote from virango

What's the problem with multi-platform? Qt is a very mature framework, it exists since 1991. From the technicall point of view it is much better than MFC, the Windows Framework (which imho is just shit). There is a lot of software, which use Qt.

Qt is, and I agree, mature, but, at least on OS X, it looks like a Java app. There's not much that can be done about this, but configuration and the application chrome don't look like native OS X apps. It feels cheaply made. No fault of yours, but, instead, a fault of the framework itself. And it's a fault of multi-platform development - you just can't make a shareable library with all the base code that works with Objective-C/Swift as well as C# (or whatever the Visual Studio kids are on about these days) except in something like Qt or one of the many other multi-platform frameworks. The UI will never follow the human interface guidelines recommended by both Microsoft AND Apple. It just won't.

Quote from virango

But there are no issues opened by a dougc84 on github. No feedback, no fix; simple, heh?

I don't submit issues or PRs for issues that are already known, nor do I for alpha software unless I'm in a focus group. For example, I was in the focus group for Polymail during app development and provided a lot of feedback because it was specifically asked, not just a community project. Much of that feedback made it into their OS X and iOS apps.

Quote from virango

The more developers are involved, the faster adoptions to a new OS can be made. Simple again.

Agreed. But how fast is fast adoptions when you aren't attached to a computer 24/7? You don't want someone you don't know (or trust) willy-nilly accepting pull requests and merging (or making changes :shudder: directly to master), and deploying a new version without review. Sure, for some things that might be just fine; for others, it could seriously screw up the code and create unstable versions. But regardless, the Kemper team could anticipate changes if they had their own editor software, and it would be released with the OS, instead of in a day or two. For some people, that makes a difference.

Honestly, I don't have a lot of direct interaction with Toaster yet, but it seems like it works for what it does, though I have encountered bugs. I'm just wanting an official editor, or an official, non-MIDI API. It's not easy to connect via MIDI either when you have other MIDI devices in your chain. Again, no fault of yours, but Kempers.

Quote from skoczy

What do you mean by Editor?

What the entire topic is about - a dedicated editor for the Kemper that can create, read, update, and delete settings on the Kemper. That's not just a rig manager. Being able to adjust multiple parameters quickly on a piece of software would be much easier than, say, going into a stomp, going to the right page, adjusting the parameter, going into another stomp, oh wait wrong one!, go to another one, page over, adjust what you need.

Quote from skoczy

1) There is open source software Toaster,

I'm familiar with Toaster, but the problem I have with Toaster is that
1. it was built cross-platform. This is great for getting it out to windows and OS X users, but in both cases, the chrome surrounding the actual editing content looks and functions poorly and unlike a true, native app, particularly in regard to key bindings.
2. It's alpha. That's pre-beta. It's buggy as hell.
3. You have to depend on the developers to update it. That means when a new Kemper OS comes out, any changes to the OS that conflicts with Toaster means the experience could either not be optimal, or just flat out do something wrong. A Kemper-designed solution would have complete parity with the current OS version.

As far as your point #2, you have valid points. But the reason everything would be a mess would not be due to a matter of how many rigs you have available to you, but how unorganized the Kemper filesystem is. I guarantee you I have presets I've never used, but because I encounter those menus so rarely, and it's so clunky to clean up, that it's just not done. In addition, filtering mechanisms could be put in place to "show only rigs and presets on the Kemper" or "show only rigs from folder ___". There are ways around the madness, and it would result in a much, much better strategy for setting up the device as a whole.

You can set up a chain from scratch on the Kemper. You just null everything out and you have an empty rig. My guess is some people would love this feature, and others would rather build off an amp profile they already have.

And as far as "constant transmission," you're wrong. If everything was like that, web pages would be hundreds of times slower. Search engines don't hit every single website on the internet when doing a search to find a search phrase - they use a cache. Download the data from the device to the computer (caching), and you send over delta (or partial) changes when a change is made. You don't need to download those presets every time you access the list - you only need to get the preset files once, and occasionally check for unexpected timestamp changes (which is what Google does, for instance - it hits websites once a day or once a week and looks if there are any changes to the content). It's also the same process that DOOM (the original, DOS version) could host 8-player multiplayer games over a 2400 baud modem.

Quote from skoczy

Regarding Maybe the solution is to outsource it to a team to build a great editor
Maybe exposing full API of patented and such technologically advanced product to external company could be uncovering a bit of a mistery.

Again, an API would be fantastic. I would certainly build something. But that gives the same problems as Toaster has - you're relying on external developers which may lose parity with the current release, or lose interest and not update it. A development project is only great if it has momentum, letting it sit around almost instantly causes it to lose interest and die. When I'm working with projects and I need a new library, I hit up GitHub. If the developer of a library on GitHub hasn't responded to issues or pull requests in several months, or hasn't committed any code, I consider it abandonware. It may be perfectly fine - or it may not work in 3 months.

You've got some great points here creative360.

Quote from creative360

Regarding buggy, this thing has always been buggy. Recent releases buggier than I can remember. Two+ years ago I bonded with the Kemper immediately, and have stuck with it through all that stuff—crackles, pops, odd behavior, all during shows. Whatever, I love the thing. But hopefully the fact that the playing field has become populated with several viable choices may inspire the K team.

Totally agreed. I'm still on 3.1 because of the bugs I've heard with 3.2 and 3.3 (and 4.0 beta). Nothing was introduced in any of those versions that make me feel the need to upgrade, and the great thing is, you don't have to. Using the Kemper for gigs means I need to have a steady, stable platform. And there will always be bugs in software designed by humans. But the bug reports seem to be more numerous and damning as of the last few versions. I'm actually tempted to move to the Helix because of this - not that it's perfect, but they have a larger team working on things, and firmware updates (for bug fixes or for new features) are a little more frequent. My pedalboard already has a Mastermind GT (which is a huge controller, space-wise), so replacing it with a Helix means I can basically remove my rack altogether and the Mastermind. But then I'd lose the great rigs and tone from the Kemper. Meh.

Quote from creative360

My priorities are glitch-free operation, then an editor.

Again, totally agreed. But an editor really should be in the pipeline. They obviously have semi-competent software developers, as they have built OS X and Windows versions of Rig Manager, though it's certainly far from perfect. Maybe the solution is to outsource it to a team to build a great editor that works by USB or MIDI, then pass it off to Kemper to maintain as their device improves. Rig Manager just really needs a bottom (or top) panel to display and configure settings when clicking on a rig. They could also look at what Line 6 has done in the past for editor software, such as for the HD or X3 - it's all been very nicely laid out, though a bit clunky. Fractal's software is way too complex to even consider for many ideas, since the Kemper doesn't have routing and all that stuff.

Quote from creative360

Also, I believe that a rig in browser and in performance mode should be the same rig, so that when tweaks are made in either mode they are saved to that rig. For different versions a save-as option should appear. An editor here would be great too, for creating and then naming five instances of basically the same rig but with subtle variants, to create a Performance. The Kemper should definitely not be able to have more than one rig with the exact same file name. That's just silly. And frustrating.

I think it's a good thing that they're separate (because why save a rig to the browse pool that's identical to another rig, save for one minor tweak?), but yeah... it is confusing. The "save to pool" thing exists in performance mode, but it's confusing - what does it save as? The display is different in performance mode vs. browse mode, and understanding where it actually goes adds more confusion. Plus, by doing that, you can end up with multiple rigs with the exact same name. That really just shouldn't happen. I guess it's just one of those quirks about the OS.

That said, Rig Manager makes dropping those rigs you create in browse mode into performance mode (and giving them names that read well) easy. This should have been put in Rig Manager a long time ago - the first time I played out with the Kemper, I easily spent 6+ hours writing in names of songs, creating patches... it was a horrible, horrible mess. Then moving stuff around means that the MIDI changes have to be re-entered. The Rig Manager update that added performances has been huge, but it's still not quite there.

Quote from creative360

Mix parameter on every effect, and more effects, sure, I want. But again, for anyone who isn't satisfied there is an effects loop.

I think mix params on every effect is something they're going for in 4.0, mainly because it's necessary for morphing any effect from a completely off state to a completely on state.

But regarding the FX loop, I believe it should be an insert point between any two blocks. Want it between Stomp A and Stomp B, or after the cab, but before the Mod? That should totally be an option. It should be able to be turned on and off via a hard-coded MIDI CC #, or on rig change. However, they kind of dug themselves into a hole here - dumping resources into the remote without any additional configurable buttons makes it so this really wouldn't work if you were a remote user, and that's obviously their core audience.

Reloading does not work when https is not in the URL.

I don't think this would work. Let me explain why:

- Different strings produce different sounds. Steel-core vs. Nickel-core strings sound different. I use NYXLs, which boast a "high-carbon steel core and plain steel alloy." That sounds different than nickel.
- Different string gauges produce different sounds. A set of 9's can sound dramatically different than a set of 11's on the same guitar.
- Pickup height differences of just a couple mm make a huge difference of the impact of the sound. A covered version of the same pickup may sound different as it might need to be placed slightly further away. And this may be affected by a guitar that hasn't been set up in a while and the strings are a little higher (or lower) than optimal.
- Guitars with a floating bridge (Strats and superstrat style guitars) are going to just sound different than those with fixed bridges. And even the same Floyd Rose-style bridge may sound different if the block has been replaced.
- Floyd Rose-style bridges also have the strings (generally) locked at the nut. That cuts more of the harmonics that occur between the nut and the tuning machines. No - a pickup is not directly picking this up, but it may resonate ever-so-slightly on a pick attack.
- Bridges and tuning machines also make a (slight) difference. Heavier-weighted tuning machines and bridges conduct the string vibration to the body and neck differently.
- The nut can also affect the sound on open strings. While most guitars use the plain, white plastic nut, brass nuts are also popular. And then there are zero fretted guitars too.
- Neck through vs. Set neck vs. Bolt-on produce different amounts of sustain and resonation.
- While it's often debated, the different woods the guitar is made out of affect the final tone, as the woods create resonation, sustain, and tonal character. If they didn't, wood choice would solely be a vanity thing with transparent and translucent finishes, and we'd all be playing basswood guitars.
- And speaking of finishes, the thickness of the clear coat actually can dampen or liven the sound of a guitar. Too much clear coat allows the resonance of the strings to not push through.
- The shape of the guitar. Everything besides body shape being identical, a hollow-body/f-hole guitar will sound different than a Strat, and a Strat will sound differently than a Flying V. Same thing applies, but to a lesser degree, with the headstock shape.
- The hardware on a guitar. A direct-mounted pickup sounds different than a floating pickup (via a pickup ring or pickguard).
- The wiring inside the guitar. Two Strats may be wired completely differently. My Strat, for instance, has basically a double-pot for the tone. 5 is actually where 10 is on most strats, and 10 adds some high end crispness. Some people remove the tone knobs altogether, killing off tonal bottlenecks. And EMGs have their own wiring (and, then, 9v, 12v, or 18v?!?).
- The connection from the guitar to the amp (Kemper) makes a difference as well. A 25' cable is going to sound differently than a 5' cable, as longer cable lengths cut off high end. Plus, being an analog cable, the quality of the cable makes a difference - how much it does really depends on your setup and your ears, but I will say that the first time I used a higher quality cable, it was like removing a pillow from being placed in front of a speaker.

All that to say - there are many variables that account for why a guitar (and therefore, its pickups) might sound different. In my experience, the body and neck woods matter the most. But, regardless my opinion on the matter, every guitar has tonal nuances, and pickups are one of those nuances. Making a completely unobjective video would require one person, with one guitar, that is constantly swapping pickups out.

Pickup selection can be one of the most difficult things to do in a guitar, because, if you watch and listen to demos, you're going to get different ideas from each of them. But, I've learned that swapping out pickups is one of those things that you just have to "go for." Find something that sounds like what you're going for, and is used by players with similar setups to yours.

Also, most companies offer an exchange program - Seymour Duncan, for instance, gives you 21 days to return and exchange a pickup you're not happy with. Tried out that Pearly Gates/59 combo and didn't like it? Call them up - as long as you bought them from an authorized retailer, you can ship your pickups back and they'll help you decide on a new set based on your likes and dislikes. I only mention Seymour Duncan because I've worked with them before and they've been awesome. Sure, you might get a marginally better sound spending more on some Bareknuckles, Instrumentals, or Laces, but, SD's customer support has been great to me, and they're available almost everywhere.

DiMarzio also offers a 30-day return policy. I'm not that familiar with the details, but I'd be willing to bet it's similar to Seymour Duncans. I'm sure other companies have similar return policies.

I should add that if the Kemper supported MIDI via USB, a USB-connected application could be easily written. Heck, Toaster could work via USB with only tweaks to the connection process. Any ideas on if this is a thing?

If not, I'd love to see MIDI via USB on the Kemper, or at least a public API for using USB for bidirectional communication with the Kemper.

Quote from Monkey_Man

Do we know this, Doug?

Yes and no. ckemper has stated that he wasn't interested in making any sort of editor for the Kemper anytime soon. That's not to say that his stance won't change, but... that seems pretty set in stone for the current time.

Quote from Grooguit

This community editor someone mentioned. Followed the link, not sure which link to download and install for a mac. I'm assuming it's the Toaster_1.0.100_ALPHA.pkg link. Although, the previous versions had a "DMG" download, which is usually what you use for a Mac. Anyone know?

Yes. .pkg is what installers are on OS X. Usually they're wrapped up in a nice .dmg disk image, but not always. And for a standalone dude or dudette writing code like this, it's kind of a pain to make and create .dmg disk images for every single version.

In case anyone still cares (I know I'm a little late to the party here) - I think the star is given to designate the OP (original poster). That seems to be pretty common across all threads I've visited.

The Problem

As a forum user, when visiting the site, occasionally a "your session has expired, please log in again" message appears. This is a protocol error, resulting in a mismatch of secure cookies and using the HTTP protocol.

System

OS X 10.11.4
Chrome 51.0.2704.36 beta (64-bit)

Problem

In all cases, doing things to interact with the website beyond normal browsing and reading results in the following modal error dialog box: Your session expired, please login again.

Some of those cases where the problem occurs (at least that I have encountered):

1. Clicking the Notifications toolbar menu
2. Trying to post a new thread
3. Trying to post a new comment

Troubleshooting Steps

Deleted all cookies, session information, history, etc.

Replication

1. Visit http://www.kemper-amps.com
2. You will notice a redirection from http://www.kemper-amps.com to https://www.kemper-amps.com (changes http to https)
3. Log in to your account. Use remember me simply to recall the session.
4. Go to the forum and verify you can view notifications
5. Close the browser
6. Reopen the browser and navigate to http://www.kemper-amps.com/forum
7. You will notice no redirection from http://www.kemper-amps.com/forum to https://www.kemper-amps.com/forum
8. Click the notifications title bar menu. You should receive a modal error dialog stating "your session has expired, please log in again"
9. Close the browser
10. Reopen the browser and navigate to https://www.kemper-amps.com/forum
11. Click the notifications title bar menu. You should see the dropdown appear as expected.

As an additional note, once you even visit the forum from an http link, you can no longer post anything. This is the second time I've written this up for that very reason.

Solution

I know the Kemper website has recently undergone some UI updates. Visiting the public homepage (http://www.kemper-amps.com) now redirects to the SSL-enabled version of the site (https://www.kemper-amps.com). However, with the forum, this is not the case. If you visit http://www.kemper-amps.com/forum (or any routes expanding on this path), you will not be redirected to https version of the same page. The cookies stored for logging in to the site are not valid on the HTTP version of the site. Out of the 20 cookies generated, only 2 are marked for HTTP access (one instance of kemper_forum_cookieHash with the max-age set as Session, and the REMEMBERME cookie).

To resolve this, adjust the .htaccess file to redirect all pages, not just the root-level pages, to redirect to the HTTPS protocol.
As an additional suggestion, adjust the cookies generated by the forum software to not provide insecure cookies. This should simply mean making the two above-listed cookies secure.

As an alternative option: In most cases, there's no real benefit for the Kemper's front-facing site or the forums to be using SSL, though the store functionality absolutely needs it. The other option would be to simply make only the store paths use SSL, which would also alleviate this issue.

Quote from flyingheelhook

Just because 'everybody' has adopted a more patient approach to dealing with the wait for their personal preferred features to come out doesn't necessarily imply that 'everybody' is not interested in having one.

I don't know if I agree with this statement. People have been talking about things that are much simpler to implement on the Kemper (or, in this case, in conjunction with the Kemper) for a long time. Heck, it's been out since 2011, and, at that state of the device, it really didn't need an editor. But things have changed, and there's a lot more complexity to the Kemper than on day one. Many people that have been waiting for an editor have long since lost their patience and either just dealt with it or jumped ship to Helix or AxeFX. Or, in the case of the Toaster app, just built their own, because Kemper's certainly not doing it anytime soon.

With Line 6 or Fractal, not everyone uses their respective editors. Many are perfectly happy to interact only with the unit itself, and that's perfectly fine. But it's there for them if they want to use it.

But, with the Kemper, It's not necessarily patience any longer. Some people have been waiting for years for things that are just assumed to be part of the Kemper ecosystem, as with other competing products. Where Fractal is with their Quantum firmware, and the state of the Helix... Kemper needs to up their game. Yep, you can get better and more amp sounds out of the Kemper, and that's always been the driving force, but Line 6 and Fractal are edging ever closer. The problem is that many people see the Kemper is an all-in-one that doesn't really have the "all" part completely thought out. Yes, they market it as a "profiling amplifier," but it doesn't matter - the moment you add on built-in effects, many expect it to replace their entire rig. For many, it does, and it's excellent as is. Morphing, for instance, is something that the Helix can do very easily. Delays in any slot? My Line 6 XT Live could do that... 12 years ago. And the lack of an editor is something that, in 2011, was okay, but the more connected the world becomes, the more people just expect there to be things like a computer-based editor. It's no longer patience, it's expectation.

Quote from Ingolf

No, the batteries don't drain. I always leave the jack plugged and the unit switched off between rehearsals.
I use Sanyo Eneloop rechargables and I always put a freshly recharged set in before a gig, not when rehearsing.

I'll highly recommend and second using Eneloops. You don't need the really expensive ones - a wireless transmitter is not a high-drain device. If you have a Costco membership (or know someone who does), it's about $20 for a charger + either 6 or 8 batteries. They can also be found on Amazon. They're excellent, and I've been using them with no problems or lost charges for years. Just don't leave the batteries on the charger after they're charged if you can avoid it (for better battery life).

The G50 (what I have, and I'm mentioning it because the G30 might differ a bit) states it has an 8 hour battery life. I find that it's more around the 4-6 hour range, but I use the "high power" mode on my G50. I'm not sure if that's an option on the G30, but it'll save battery at the expense of distance, and, while I'm sure it's a fine setting... it kind of worries me for performance.

That said, during practices, I use whatever was in the pack until it dies (or gets close to it). My receiver's mounted on my pedalboard, so I can always see how much juice I have left. I also keep a small ziploc bag in my guitar case with freshly charged batteries (and a couple standard alkalines and a 9V, just in case). If they're in the bag, they're ready to use. When I'm done with some batteries, I just put them in my case (not in the bag) - if they're just lying around free in my case, they need a charge. That way, I'm not trying to figure out what the heck I have charged and what I haven't. It's a nice little process thing

Quote from Sharry

For that I am not sure what you mean exactly.

He means view customizations of the table. How rigs are ordered (by clicking column headings), what columns are being displayed (right click the heading and you get all the columns you can show), and in what order (drag/drop the column headings to where they are desired).

I find it rather annoying as well that I have to do that every time I create a new folder, because I like seeing things in a certain way.

I had the same problem. I found a 10 foot cable that happened to work, but I tried probably 5 others without success.

Quote from viabcroce

RM 1.5.41

I've customized the columns in RM's main window, but apparently the new folders I create (nor the other windows) do not inherit my customizations. Since I know what I want to see and what I don't need (specially because I use a larger-than-standard on Win7 in order to read more easily and not all the columns fit the screen), it would be great if the customisation was inherited by the other windows or, at least, by new windows you create\open when a certain window has the focus.

What do you guys think?

Expanding on this, there should be a "View Options" screen. Instead of right clicking and adding/removing columns, it'd be nice to hit (at least on the mac) command + j (which is the same command for view options in Finder) or a menu option to display all columns and sort method. A button to "apply to all" and "set as default" would be a good start, but having something like view presets could be very helpful (and, might I add from my limited desktop app programming experience, a fairly easy addition). Here's what the view options menu in Finder looks like on OS X as a starting point:

[Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/A2PzInW.png]

I can't vouch for if it fits or not since I have the rack, but there are antennas on the receiver, Morty.

I'd guess it probably does fit, since people have put in things like an EHX 44 Magnum (pedal-sized power amp). The G50 receiver is larger than that pedal, so I can't say for sure though.

Quote from mrluked

It may have already been discussed (apologies in advance if so)

I was wondering if the RJM PBC will control the KPA via midi

Yes it will.

Edit: Sorry, it didn't show any additional posts, I replied, then I saw Ingolf's. Ugh.