Also, while some see them as "enabling people to get cool stuff" it's not hard to view them as exploiting people to get themselves into debt and then chasing them for extortionate interest and penalties. I personally view them as the latter.
I agree. I hate how my internet browser reroutes me to retail websites against my will and forces me to purchase things on credit that I cannot afford.
The only pedal I currently use is a Digitech FreqOut at the input. My effects needs are pretty basic. I get by with the Kemper flanger, phaser, chorus, rotary speaker and delay due to the simplicity of the all in one package. They are all adequate but none of them sound as good as real pedals to me. I really miss my Dunlop Rotovibe. The Kemper wah (once I got it dialed in to taste) sounds really close (and much quieter) to my vintage Thomas Organ Cry Baby pedals.
There's no such thing as "vintage" when it comes to electronics.
There are legions of musicians using vintage Fender guitar amplifiers that would strongly disagree with that statement.
Fender Dual Pro CLN, OD1 and OD2 profiles by author N8. The clean profile is exquisite. Best clean profile I have heard for the Kemper free or commercial. Those are the only three profiles I keep on my Kemper from the Rig Exchange. Check them out.
Interesting. I did not know that. Back in the early 90s I had a Les Paul with EMG pickups and gigged with the ubiquitous Nady 201 wireless unit without any issues.
I guess that the mistake was to install the new Rig Manager with the profiler turned on - but that is only a guess
I had the same problem when I upgraded to Rig Manager 3.2.43 and I did not have my Kemper connected to my computer when I did the upgrade (I only connect it when I need to use Rig Manager). I uninstalled Rig Manager and then reinstalled Rig Manager and that corrected the issue. I also got the "Something unexpected happened" message when I upgraded the OS from the USB stick but that seems to have been an isolated glitch. My Kemper is operating normally after the OS upgrade. It kinda freaks you out a little bit when you first see it. I sent the diagnostics file to support but they found nothing amiss.
I use it both in the Stomps and Effects sections. Sometimes it ends up where it ends up only because that's my last open position. I have found that the Rotary Speaker doesn't change as much in the before versus after the Amp block positions as something like the Chorus. Chorus before and Chorus after have a much greater sonic change to my ears and I position them based on what I am looking for. Try it in both locations and see what you think. Putting it in the Stomps section would be similar to having a really good Leslie pedal in front of your amp and many of them sound really good.
It will be tough to get my toaster to look like a DXR10.
FRFR is not for everyone.
Likewise for the Kone (or speakers, in general). I have always had a love/hate relationship with speakers. I have a few that I love but most I do not. Most of the list of imprints that are currently available for the Kone includes speakers I never cared for in real life. It's a neat idea on paper but I'm sticking with my DXR10 pair.
Surely you guys are old-enough to remember the effects of filming fluorescent lighting?
Of course, the ol' incandescent lamps (tungsten filament in argon gas) were impervious to filming at any frame rate.
The two things I remember from shop class in high school. Measure twice - cut once and never use fluorescent lighting around a lathe.
I have a Digitech FreqOut in front of my powered toaster. That's it. I have a Mission EP-1 connected to the Kemper for wah. I absolutely love the built in wah sounds. I was a long time devotee of the vintage pre-Dunlop Thomas Organ Cry Baby wah. I have several vintage examples. Once I got the Kemper and dialed in my wah sound those wah pedals went into storage. Same for my vintage BOSS CE-2 and my MXR Phase 90 and flanger. The only Kemper time based effect that I am not wowed by is the rotary speaker. I don't use that effect very often but when I do I really miss my Dunlop Rotovibe. I'm pretty basic when it comes to effects. I haven't scratched the surface of what the Kemper will do regarding effects but likely never will.
I love the MBritt Crank N Go pack. The SLO 100 profiles are my daily players. It also includes an extensive set of Friedman BE 100 profiles that I dig but not as much as the SLO profiles. If you are patient and check the profile sellers websites frequently they tend to offer discounts on a pretty regular basis. I've bought a bunch of MBritt and Tone Junkie profiles at half off or even $5 a pop. My four favorite packs are all MBritt packs: Crank N Go, 69 Marshall, Jim Kelley and Dumble.
After playing through the factory Rigs, I wish I'd limited myself to the free Rig Packs and Rig Exchange.
Would've saved a whole lotta money and probably found many Rigs good enough to see me through. Once you take a bite out of the commercial-Profile cherry, it's hard to stop there...
I am the exact polar opposite. Had I been limited to only the factory rigs and the Rig Exchange my Kemper would have been on Craigslist within a month (I traded for a used powered toaster, foot controller and bag). I'd had my eye on the Kemper for a while and after browsing some of the commercial profile sellers I made a mental note that the first pack I would buy would be Michael Britt's Jim Kelley pack. Indeed, the evening I got my Kemper I purchased and installed the Kelley pack. I thought I'd died and went to heaven. I knew that evening the Kemper was here to stay.
I get what you are saying about the commercial profile rabbit hole. it happens. I've bought a bunch of them and many (most) were loaded, demoed and deleted never having sounded nearly as good as the demo videos on their website(s). In the end, the only profiles I play are packs I purchased from Michael Britt. There is just something about the way he profiles an amp that is pleasing to my ear. I finally convinced myself I'll never find profiles I like as well as the MB packs and I was able to get that commercial profile monkey off my back.
I wouldn't have done anything differently except maybe pulling the trigger sooner. I regret that didn't take the leap of faith earlier.
The Soldano SLO 100 profiles from Michael Britt's "Crank N Go" pack are my daily drivers. The Friedman BE 100 profiles (also in the same pack) are astoundingly good but the Soldano profiles are my favorites. I've bought Soldano SLO 100 profile packs from at least a half dozen other sellers and they all got auditioned and deleted. They didn't even come close for me. I actually own an old Hot Rod 50 half stack and still prefer the Kemper profiles. For that matter I have quite a few of his profile packs and they are all excellent. The Jim Kelley pack is the best ten bucks you will ever spend on a profile pack.
I like higher gain amps and profiles. I think this phenomenon varies from amp to amp. Some amps don't really change tone all that much when you add gain. They just get gainier. This is particularly true of master volume amps that are deriving their gain mostly from the preamp. I have found that profiles of non master volume amps do not always behave this way. Taking profile #3 and increasing the gain to the level of profile #8 doesn't necessarily sound just like profile #8. Which is a good thing, since it gives you a few more sounds to work with. This behavior may be different with lower and mid gain amps. I do agree that some authors get carried away. I bought a profile pack for the Soldano SLO 100 that had something like 125 profiles in it. A wide variety of channels, gain levels, different cabs, different mics and mic combinations. It was tiring. In the end I ended up deleting the whole set. I found one author I really like. I stopped buying profiles from other sellers unless they are running some uber big discount. Then I'll try a few.
I actually like it when people add effects to their profiles. More often than not I end up deleting the effect but occasionally I'll find a gem - either a new setting on an effect I already use or an effect I have not yet tried. I rename them and store them for future use.
I've done it. I like it. I run a pair of Yamaha DXR10 monitors (mono) out of my Monitor output and sometimes connect a Soldano 4x12 to my power amp out on my powered head. It gives the low end a nice full sound that I don't get with the powered monitors by themselves. They still sound great by themselves but I was just trying other setups one day. I just leave the cab sim on. Honestly, I can't really tell a whole lot of difference between cab sim on and cab sim off when I run the power amp into a guitar cab. It does make a huge difference to the powered monitors, of course.
Maybe a little off topic , but not much .....
What do you guys think about bands playing covers
without paying royalties to the composer / owner
of the songs ?
It's been over twenty years since I played cover tunes in a bar band but at that time it was actually the venue's responsibility to maintain a current permit for playing cover tunes that covered their establishment and all the bands that played there.. It was not the individual bands' responsibility. It may be a practice that was followed in larger cities like New York and Los Angeles and Nashville that have a large number of union musicians. In my experience these permits were never purchased in the small road house style bars where I played in the Southeast US. It would have been an arduous task to enforce compliance.
I agree with the others that I do not believe Kemper ever envisioned there being a secondary market for commercial profiles. That negated a need for any DRM type of protection to be included in the platform. I don't feel that it is incumbent upon Kemper to develop a feature to police this. I really doubt that widespread commercial Kemper profile sharing even occurs.
I can understand a club owner who really doesn't understand amplifiers well instituting an arbitrary wattage limit but I would expect more out of the folks at NAMM being that it is the premier musical instrument trade show in the world. A local outdoor concert venue here in Atlanta is located in a residential area and has both a curfew and a sound pressure limit. That seems much more logical. Not much difference between a 40 watt amp and a 50 watt amp but 100 decibels is always 100 decibels.
I am very honest here just wanna verify if this happens to you too?
In a nutshell... yes. I have purchased profiles from about a dozen different sellers. Most of the popular sellers and a few smaller "mom and pop" types. On a number of occasions I have been left with the same feeling you have - wondering if I am playing the same profile they purported to be using in the demo video. Many never seem to sound as good. A few sound pretty good but don't seem to trip my trigger. There is one seller that I really like (you asked not to name anyone). At least half of the packs I have purchased were bought, demoed and deleted. I just knew after a short test drive that they were not going to work for me. You are not alone. I have pretty much quit buying profiles since it's so hit or miss.
I rename rigs in Rig Manager all the time. I also dislike the annoying naming conventions of many profile makers and sellers. If you change the name of the rig (and any other fields) in Rig Manager it changes them in the actual profile and does not create a copy. Just click on the rig and then in the right hand pane change whatever fields you wish other than the name of the creator which cannot be changed. Be sure to hit the enter key after each field that you change or Rig Manager will not store it. It can be tedious if you have a big profile pack but you only have to do it once. Be sure to make a complete backup when you are done.
