JeffB Posted December 31, 2011 Posted December 31, 2011 The talk over at the Fractile Axe-Fx website is that it will be less expensive than an Axe-Fx but more limited in abilities compared to an AF. You can also share files over a HUGE data base of Axe-FX users. I download the patch I think sounds interesting and then tweak it to my taste. This save a lot of time then from starting from scratch. Also the Fractile forum has reported that the Kemper unit is 8 months behind when it was stated to be released and there could be a problem with the functioning of the Kemper unit. Others are saying Kemper is just taking their time and working the bugs out. Who knows??? If it works as Kemper say I dont think it has limited capabilities compared to the axfx. It has different capabilities to the axfx. They are not really competing items. Over here it is about 30% cheaper than the axfx.
blackjack Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 Well, yes, for sure, no two ways about it. No one complains about strat, tele, LP copies or fender and marshall clone amps or ts, ds1, Klon clones too much. Not to many people get upset about Line6 etc whose industry is based on trying to emulate amps. Fractal, according to some pretty much nail the amps they are modelling. Kemper are just putting the tools to do it in the hands of any one who wants to do it. Well if Kemper makes the profile available as a file, then it's not as long until someone hacks the format, and uses it with their own rendering engine, just running on their own laptop, etc. Then what's left to distinguish their product is the ease of use, and additional effects they provide (gain, sag, etc.). And that's the way it should be, if they can stand to lose the revenue.
JeffB Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 I dont know much about the technical side of it. Im lost when it comes to anything much more than a G chord and 250-300ms. Computers seem to do things I cant wrap my head around but I use them anyway. All I know is you can only profile one setting on an amp and then the Kemper gives you a little eq and gain control over that. Plus fx The Mesa MKV has some very nice settings on each channel at the small turn of a dial or flick of a switch. The Kemper couldnt be like that as a stand alone amp. You would have to profile each setting of the mkV that you liked. The Kemper just profiles what the dials are set to at the time. You could end up with a bank of settings just from the 2nd channel of the mkv.
DetroitBlues Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 One mans opinion..Tweakability, being able to take vintage tones on the road..Line 6 anyone? I believe in making the control knobs of the amp and the guitar to make the difference....
JeffB Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 Kemper users will most likely have "sampling parties". They'll meet up at someones house, bring a couple of boutique amps and all sample them, and one person might first go to Guitar Center and buy a Marshall stack and they'll sample it as well, and the next day he'll return it cause they all ripped it, and that was the plan all along. Similar to music file sharing, except the intellectual property is the amp profile. Reading your 1st sentence cracked me up in the small insane hrs this morning. I had an internal video clip running of guys going between the fondue and Kemper exchanging amp profiles and fondue recipes. For some reason they were wearing slacks and patterned knitted pull overs.
yavuz Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 I am not a big fan of Axe-FX. Did I use it? No. However, I have read the manual and I know how it works. Assuming that it sounds exactly the same as the real thing, without the user friendly interface, I will not use it. I want the standard amp controls in front of me. I change amp, guitar, pedal controls a lot on the stage in real time. I do not have a bunch of presets that I use. Even though I mostly use guitar -> pedals -> 2 X Evans JE200s ( or rent twin reverbs if I'm touring ). I change Bass-Treble-Reverb settings a lot. I guess I could store everything in presets but every concert hall is different. So that would not work. I also want real knobs that I can turn and it says what it does on it. Like Bass, Reverb etc... Even for studio use, I tweak a lot in real time.
H Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 For some reason they were wearing slacks and patterned knitted pull overs. Was it a Kemper party or a Val Doonican party?
JeffB Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 Was it a Kemper party or a Val Doonican party? yep, thats the image right there.
blackjack Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 I was originally going call the sampling get-together a Tupperware party, but fondue is an image too (not just any fondue recipe - they get a copy of some ultra-classic fondue).
JeffB Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 I was originally going call the sampling get-together a Tupperware party, but fondue is an image too (not just any fondue recipe - they get a copy of some ultra-classic fondue).
rjsanders Posted January 1, 2012 Posted January 1, 2012 So how much is one of these magic boxes? ... sweetwater's sellin' 'em for $1850 new...
bolero Posted January 2, 2012 Posted January 2, 2012 I wonder if you could use one to sample the cheese fondue....then you could play those cheezy licks anywhere, anytime! groan...
smurph1 Posted January 4, 2012 Posted January 4, 2012 I was checking out the Kemper web page and listening to the Robin Gallagher clip, Tele-pathy. After a couple of runs through it, I thought.... LORDY! I wish I could pick like that. Didn't even pay attention to what the amp sounded like, or if it simulated a tweed or blackface, Or maybe it was an original 52 tele with a 50 year old amp. WHO CARES. Sorry... we were talking about hardware..... never mind! +1...
yoslate Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 I wonder if you could use one to sample the cheese fondue....then you could play those cheezy licks anywhere, anytime! groan... Thanks, bolero! This post is at a level at which I can function. Wonder what TAG will have to say about it, and if he'll do so as some little ursine, anime-esque character...? Can't wait to see all the Joe Blow demos on Youtube, in a year or so, as they run their guitars through multiple overdrive pedals, into the Kemper, to illustrate just how much it does replicate the tone of the Dumble they've never heard.
JeffB Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 If different people make profiles of their dumbles and then share their files and if the kemper does what they say it does then you wont need a stack of stomps to get the sound of something you have never heard before...
Kuz Posted January 5, 2012 Posted January 5, 2012 Yea, I have no dog in this fight, but I do love the Youtube or Harmony Central comments from HOW MANY PEOPLE have actually played or previously owned a Dumble........
Wolfi Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 The talk over at the Fractile Axe-Fx website is that it will be less expensive than an Axe-Fx but more limited in abilities compared to an AF. You can also share files over a HUGE data base of Axe-FX users. I download the patch I think sounds interesting and then tweak it to my taste. This save a lot of time then from starting from scratch. Also the Fractile forum has reported that the Kemper unit is 8 months behind when it was stated to be released and there could be a problem with the functioning of the Kemper unit. Others are saying Kemper is just taking their time and working the bugs out. Who knows??? Hi Kuz, I know some people in Germany who got their Kemper units. We have a guitar player forum called guitarworld.de and I follow some weird discussions in this forum. We have three groups there, who are trying to crusade each other: Group 1 = Axe-FX users Group 2 = Kemper users Group 3 = old school amp user / vintage freaks. The Kemper units are obviously working well and the units do exactly what the Kemper guys promised. The concept of Kemper is pretty much different from the Axe FX concept. Of course Kemper is using a lot of presets to avoid that people have to start from scatch. The profiling itself seems to be very easyand if you have profiled your friends Dumble OD or a '66 Vox AC 30, it sounds exactly the way you profiled it. Plus you have the change to modify the sounds you've profiled. Some guys complained about the road readyness of the Kemper units, because it's from plastic. So you have to have a case. Anyway, you can have a small system with a case for the Kemper, a power amp + one or two cabs. For me it looks like the Kemper is on one hand a tool for studio work and on the other hand it's something for the working top 40 guitar player, who has the offer a wide range of different guitar sounds. For me the week point with the Axe-FX and the Kemper is, that you have to work a lot to find all the sounds you need. I know that both systems sound great, but to be honest, I don't like doing all the work to assign cab xyz to amp abc and add effects 1234 to it. Plus to check out all the levels and the level settings for all the different levels of loudness. For me it feels like doing applied mathematic's . In the past I worked with the digitech gsp 2101. I had a small steroe system with the gsp, a hughes & kettner power amp, plus two cabs. It sounded very good (I'm sure not as good as the Axe-FX and the Kemper) but at the end of the day I had to invest a lot of time to get all the good sounds. That's why I stay an old school guy. I know exactly what to do, to get the different sounds I need, which pedal I have to use. That's what makes me happy. But it's good to have all those tools available, because tasks and demands are different. Cheers
Wolfi Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Help please ! How comes I can't edit my last posting ?? Thanks!
Wolfi Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 Yea, I have no dog in this fight, but I do love the Youtube or Harmony Central comments from HOW MANY PEOPLE have actually played or previously owned a Dumble........ I know a guy who had two Dumble Amps. He still has one Dumble OD Head, but he sold a Dumble Combo Amp for a hell lot of money two years ago. He also has a Fuchs OD amp. One afternoon we compared both amps. I couldn't hear any difference. Even worse, some weeks later he got his second Malaysian Ceriatone Dumble clone and after some little modifications from his guitar tech (the modifications did not cost not more than 100 EUR), even the Ceriatone sounded as good as the Dumple, crazy . The prize for the Ceriatone was about 1.100 EUR incl. taxes plus the mods. I'mM very happy with me little RIVERA Clubster, my HOOK Amp and I desperately hope to get a very good Fender prosonic next week:)
GuitArtMan Posted January 30, 2012 Posted January 30, 2012 I got to spend about 20 minutes with the Kemper at the NAMM show last weekend. It was easy to call up the presets and the ones I listned too (not that many in 20 minutes) sounded very good. I like the idea that people can model their own amps. I assume that there will be a growing comunity of Kemper users who share their models online so that the number of available amps sims should go up quickly as the number of users grow. I won't comment on the interface as I only had 20 minutes, but I was able to quikly find the knobs I need to navigate through and retrieve the presets. Also there was no foot control - do they make one ofr it? It sure looks funky - like some old piece of medical equiment or something. It doesn't seem to have the effects that the AXE-FX has, but the abilty to model your own amps is very cool.
Wolfi Posted February 5, 2012 Posted February 5, 2012 I got to spend about 20 minutes with the Kemper at the NAMM show last weekend. It was easy to call up the presets and the ones I listned too (not that many in 20 minutes) sounded very good. I like the idea that people can model their own amps. I assume that there will be a growing comunity of Kemper users who share their models online so that the number of available amps sims should go up quickly as the number of users grow. I won't comment on the interface as I only had 20 minutes, but I was able to quikly find the knobs I need to navigate through and retrieve the presets. Also there was no foot control - do they make one ofr it? It sure looks funky - like some old piece of medical equiment or something. It doesn't seem to have the effects that the AXE-FX has, but the abilty to model your own amps is very cool. Here comes a little demo of the Kemper profiling process: Cheers Wolfi
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