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00:00 idea 1
3:07 the Kemper really changed the game
3:40 the Reverbs of the Kemper
6:10 Kemper really know what they’re doing effects wise?
6:40 the Access Virus DNA
6:50 where the Kemper has REAL weaknesses
11:10 if Kemper want to make a bit of quick money…idea 2
https://www.patreon.com/johnnathancordy you can get my backing tracks and lesson tabs here.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnnathancordy – if you like what I do and
only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!
Get my PADs bundle here: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=TVZN39QQAAKTG (this folder will grow, and I’d encourage you to ask for different keys/songs and stuff that might suit this type of preset?)
I’ve decided to make it possible to grab both my Helix/HX Stomp bundles (the expression bundle with freeze presets has always been separate) together – https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=CCTNL7P2XSQDC – I will then email you a link to both bundles!
Try my general patches for Helix or HX Stomp in this bundle using this link – I will then send out the patches! https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=45L8AZ4RYL3HW
You can get my EXPRESSION patches in this bundle using this link – I will then send out the patches! https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3PUJ7M8YPS4WU
Try my patches for Pod GO using this link – I will then send out the patches! https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2E7DSCRZW45JN
https://www.patreon.com/johnnathancordy get my backing tracks here
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/johnnathancordy – if you like what I do and
only if you wanted, you could buy me a coffee!
source
Nah, if they want to survive they need to make a product that's actually worth buying in today's market. Kemper lost me after how they handled the player updates thing. Especially when they posted the tonejunkie video of him essentially insulting and ranting about Kemper customers. Kemper hardware is outdated, the software isn't even out of beta and still has a lot of problems with the player upgrades, and they're too stubborn to admit it. I'm never buying a Kemper product again.
Kemper: Pay us to unlock the unit we sold you a year ago!
Youtubers: This makes sense when you think about it, Kemper is also one of the best!
Masses: Fuck paywalls and Fuck Kemper
Youtubers: I don't know what you're all complaining about, this is the future!
Masses: Stop buying Kempers…
Youtubers: Is this the end of the future for Kemper?
I always say the Kemper is slow to boot up becasue it's emulating tube amps warming up. Lol
Couple of thoughts:
1) Don't have too many profiles in the unit – this slows down boot time and response time. You don't need your entire library on the unit. I use the local rig manager library for this and it helps a lot. Right now I have 161 profiles and 125 performances loaded out of the thousands I have on the PC.
2) Don't have the rig manager connect to the cloud unless you want to. It takes forever to update and you generally don't need the access.
3) I found that using the rig manager and the unit causes problems when you go back and forth between them. The looper pop is an example. Boot the unit without rig manager and this should clear up. They could definitely improve the performance of using both unit and RM at the same time.
4) The delays are great. Every delay has ducking, mod, freeze, tape age, grit, swell, reverse and other features generally only found in certain delay types of other modelers. For example it was quite easy to replicate a Halo delay using dual delay, mod and cross feedback. Something I could not do on Strymon except for the DIG
5) Instead of modeling particular effects Kemper tends to model a general purpose effect that can be changed to emulate most common effects. I like this approach more than what Helix does by modeling certain effects. You don't need a Tape delay model if the general model can sound the same.
6) performance mode is fantastic. I generally use 5 different gains in the amps and almost never use a overdrive. This is much more natural sounding to my ear keeping the same tonal qualities while increasing the gain. My current favorite is a Michael Britt performance for the Morgan PT with my own choice of effects. slot 1 is completely clean all the way to slot 5 which is full on gain.
7) I also have an Iridium, HX Stomp and Fractal AX8 so I am use to using all four environments. That being said I find that I use the Kemper most. Sound and feel are just great.
8) I disagree about the rig manager. I find the controls easy to use and in fact like it better than Helix and fractal for editing. Yes, the fractal can do much more crazy stuff like adding LFO to a parameter but general I only use fairly straight forward effects.
9) Yes, the boot time and display kind of suck.
10) I also like the fact that, for the toaster, many live edit controls are on the front panel and not buried in menus.
11) CPU is not an issue. You can have 8 delay or reverbs if you want. Not sure why other mfg's can't support more than one or two at a time.
12) form factor is not as small as AX8, HX stomp or FMx but you do get real time access to controls. Probably why I keep the HX stomp.
Anyway, just my experience with the three environments and if I could only have one it would be the Kemper.
Kemper?…… uh , never heard of them.
Not keeping up with the market AND holding your costumers in contempt.
Sounds like a recipe for success.
They might as well institute some DEI policies and go full on LGBTQ.
It worked for bud light and Harley Davidson. Hahaha
TMP and Headrush are my main units to for tonal creation. I don't need anything else.
Making computers isn't sustainable unless you're Apple (because it's new hardware every year). Hardware is only profitable if it sells software (at least in today's economy). Kemper is just selling computers. They need predictable recurring revenue or they won't survive. Everyone saying they hated the paid upgrade don't understand what it means to create a sustainable business model.
If you want something nice and want to continue to receive support for it, pay the money. That's how the world economy works; no one's entitled to anything free.
Lots of valid comments in the video. I still use my Kemper Stage for guitar. I think the FX are great, I got one after not liking a Helix and wanted modulation FX of Eventide quality. Maybe interestingly, I use it as an FX.unit only in my bass rig in the S/R loop of the amp. It’s just so convenient. So maybe, an FX only unit would sell.
Nope that was a very bad move, they will suffer for that decision.
Will greedy companies like Kemper, Neural, Fractal, UA ever be punished by savy comsumers? Hope so. A big praise to Hotone, Il Multimedia and even Line 6
They need to fully update their profiling algorithms, make an actual modern piece of hardware with a touch screen and a good UI! Update the UI on the Rig Manager to match, and then come out swinging.
They could compete and grow their user base again at a fair price compared to the current market.
What they should have done is give the effects and features update to the player for free, and you hit the nail on the head in saying make a plugin version that people who own the player could buy to make profiles on their computer and use as a standalone Kemper version for 19@ or maybe even 299.00
Would have made users happy and all kinds of people would buy that even if they didn't have a Kemper or if the had the player and wanted to make profiles.
New hardware and UI along with the Plugin and free updates for the player would have brought them relevant again!
Paid upgrade fiasco? Come on, that is way to harsh…
They could have used a VST version years ago. ToneX completely ate their lunch on that, ironically coming from the opposite direction. Might still be a good idea though.
Kemper FX seem to sound good from your demo. I'm cautious as far as their brand recognition, which has never been for FX, but you have a point about existing users.
IMO, as far as the paid upgrade fiasco, the best thing they could do is to fix that. Change the price structure and make the extra blocks cheap or free and you can keep the extra models as being paid. Make it all a la carte would be a good move as well.
What fiasco? Other than Kemper staff needing to stay away from cameras (and the jesus clowns), there was none. Approx. 99% of negativity came from people not owning a Kemper. I did the paid upgrades because I wanted them to replace my Kemper Stage with something smaller – net profit after selling it and buying both upgrades around 700 Euros. The conception that the Kemper is outdated is simply wrong. I have a Kemper Rack in my home studio, a Kemper Player on my board, a Tonex pedal, a HX Stomp XL, and an Axe-Fx III (which I have not used in almost a year). If I want the best possible tone and effects with the least amount of effort – Kemper wins all the time. The Tonex is wonderful, but editing is a nightmare, volume leveling rigs is a nightmare, and the effects are more than decent for the price, but compared to the studio quality stuff in the Kemper, they are not even on the same planet. Yes, the captures in the Tonex and NAM are a bit better – but absolutely no one will hear that difference in a mix, with some good models you can't even tell a capture apart from a model in the HX, Ampero, or Axe-FX. On the plus side, volume leveling is a no-brainer in the Kemper, since volume and gain are completely independent, dynamics (pick sensitivity, cleanup etc.) can be fine tuned (something absolutely no other product has), every output has its own eq and room settings, the spring reverb is better than anything else on the market (including Axe, Meris, and Strymon), and the ability to backup and restore rigs, performances, user settings, and even the remote configuration to/from a simple USB stick, without the need for a computer, phone, or cloud service is a life-saver.
Would I like a vst or stand-alone app? Well, yes, but only because admittedly re-amping with the Kemper is cumbersome (need to swap cables) unless you are fine with the 44.1 kHz USB feature. And, for the people who want that, an upgraded unit that can do dual cabs and dual amps would certainly be useful.
If I owned a Kemper, I would be listing it right now…
Get out while you can, lol!
I'd buy a VST version of Fractal!
Do you get less views on kemper profiler videos than videos on other stuff?
I'm boycotting the kemper player, but I'll probably never be able to get away from my kemper profiler, even if i wanted to. Just nothing sounds as good. And nothing is so easy to use (without a pc editor).
For me it is just the opposite – all that outrage about the paid upgrades made me dust off the Kemper Toaster that I had since 2014 – and low and behold, I had forgotten how amazing it is, especially also how much better it has gotten with the decade of free updates. To me, it is head and shoulders above the QC, ToneX and other devices – these null tests really mean nothing to me as the first thing I will do after capturing is to tweak the profile. The Kemper ecosystem is so much more advanced than the competition. The next day, I bought a player and updated it immediately in order to take it on the road while my true and tested toaster will stay in the studio. Super happy with the sounds I am getting and also how easy and quick it is to make it sound good.
oh, and of course – +1 on the Kemper plugin!
I think this is the beginning of the end for Kemper in the world of guitar gear. I'm sorry about that, but it's their own fault. I can't believe that their marketing people made such a big mistake. They thought people were stupid, but they were wrong. They wanted to make money again on something their IT guys had done years ago, instead of trying to invent something new and then sell it. I hope that other companies will not make such mistakes.
For consumers' sake, I hope they don't. The industry is quite stale as is, adding tiered-based payment models on something as basic as an update will do nothing but alienate the average user from the market.
Starting to think I just rather save my money of spend it on lessons at this point. Paid updates from a unit that is on the way out is not a good idea. Sadly most of the new gear will be like that after a few years…just like iPhones.
I’m spoiled with the HX ecosystem. I won’t by a Fractal, a Kemper or any other model until they also have a plugin. If NDSP ever puts out their Tone King Imperial plugin on the Quad Cortex, I’ll order that unit the same day!
I might be in the minority, but I’m not seeing how profiling is particularly relevant today and in the years to come. Modeling is better than it was in 2011. In this digital world I’d rather have a whole device instead of a snapshot.
I want to own my gear! No subscription services ever.
No one is complaining on the Kemper forums. Seems most people throwing a fit about this dont own Kemper. There are not many used Profile players on reverb so it doesn't seem like people are getting rid of them.
Kemper is still the only unit that you can load your presets/sounds what ever, to the USB stick, take your guitar and cable and stick your USB stick to the Kemper that rental firm has brought to the venue and start playing.
Sounds like the Kemper guys have some gambling debts.
I have a Kemper Stage and would definitely buy a plugin. I would love to have the player too…
If Kemper made something with an updated ui new effects and the old ones and stereo amps they could redeem themselves and finally have their fan base happy
Way back in the day when the Line 6 Pod HD came out with a paid update, they were adding amp models that did not exist in any other Line 6 product. They had made something new and were charging you for what it took to develop that new thing+presumably profit on top.
That kind of paid update I don’t think would have caused such a fuss in 2024.
But the kemper player update is just charging you to unlock features already in the kemper ecosystem and that the kemper player is already capable of.
Reminds me of that Tesla thing where you have to make an in-app purchase to make your car go the full speed.
I have never seen the point of sampling. I just buy a Fender tube amp or a Mesa Boogie Tube amp. However, I do see the point of a Fender Tone Master such as the Deluxe Reverb or the new '59 Bassman. The Tone Master amps look real, operate like a real amp and sound like a real amp. Good for gigging. I don't want to do computer work. I want to play. I like the IR outs on the Tone Master amps. I also like the Effects Loop on the Tone Master Bassman which is designed best for delay units. I use a compressor and boost in the front end of the amp. I also have a TMP with thousands of IR's. I could sample the amps I have but why would I? The experience of playing a great real amp is wonderful. I don't want an imitation. If I was living on Mars maybe I would have no choice. But here on planet Earth in 2024, I have a choice.
If they come up with something under $350 US that is usable. I just lent my MG30 to Billy Fields' old tech yesterday and they are also looking at the new Line 6 box etc. Studios make less money these days too so everyone is having to reevaluate their outgoings.
Kemper can't do a VST. Their code is written in Assembly for a dsp. To create a plugin, they would have to rewrite everything from scratch.
For the same reason, i don't think we will ever see a Kemper 2.
They can do an upgraded version with a dual signal path, but they will have to keep the same dsp, which has no successor.
I sold my kemper a couple years ago, but when you're the only hardware company selling updates, it's not going to look good. Specially when it's a 13yr old platform and there are plenty of reasonably priced used ones on the market. Just looked at level II for the Player upgrade, it's almost $300CAD and I wouldn't want more than 1/3 of what's there. And I can buy the Tone-X for about the same price as the 2+3 bundle.
Sucky part of this, NDSP basically just copies other companies' ideas, so I bet we get paid upgrades to their stuff next year.