Assuming the profiling is top notch - would you buy a Kemper MK2 now?

[paisleywookiee]

What’s funny is the Electrical Engineer that plays sweet, sweet golf course gigs won’t see this.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Possibly, yes. Kemper still has the best UX of any modeler/profiler out there and it's not even close (disclaimer: for me).
It lets me operate the unit (at least the toaster variant) more like an actual amp, instead of a computer/smartphone. No touch, simple buttons and large encoders.

People complain about the screen being a calculator from 1977 but that's the main appeal to me.
I work with IT every day. When I play guitar, I want as "analog:esque" as possible.

That’s interesting to me as there is so much on the kemper that requires tabbing pages and searching through lists and menus to find what you need. Typing in it is painfully slow and arduous to do neatly and the only quick way is to use rig manager.

 

[texhex]

I had a bunch of crap typed out and deleted it.

I voted no.

 

[[Nathan]]

NAM is free and even if Kemper 2.0 is incredible I just can’t see it being better.

Yeah honestly NAM and to some degree ToneX have just decimated the need or want for a kemper in a recording/mixing environment. The plugins make the solution better and its either Free with NAM or whatever ToneX costs these days which is probably $99-149, both of which are peanuts compared to a hardware unit.

Kemper obviously has benefits for the right user, but the "capturing at home" problem has been completely solved now... which obviously didnt exist 5+ years ago.

 

[Enchilada Jones]

The Kemper Stage is, in many ways, laid out in a way it doesn’t need a touch screen. The whole top of the Stage is a ‘real touch interface’ where the signal path has a logical flow and many buttons and knobs spread out along the flow.
That said, the small screen it does have is needed and is too small for my eyes to read without trouble.

If they made it a little bit bigger and brighter I’d say the interface is as good, if not superior, for live use.

But the answer for me is, even if they really have met the competition as far as profile vs capture vs clone etc, they still need that bit of an upgrade for visual feedback in the deeper menu nested details.
So I’ll keep the Player because it is mkII already and fills a niche nicely but I went with the Stadium and Line 6 is dependable, innovative and involved in a friendly way with the users.

I would buy a modern designed edition of Kemper if it comes out however, although I’m in good health I’m probably not going to be alive that many summers….

 

[BenIfin]

Maybe (?) ...... I bought a Player [cheap] 5/6 months ago to test for myself when it comes out. If its great to my ears I'll keep it .. if not I'll sell the Player ..... I dont care or give a flying f*ck either way.

Very early limited demo's are really impressive ... and to the extent there is some minuscule differences between Real / Profile ... the TJ-MBritt video clearly shows how brainlessly easy and instant it is to adjust the Intensity of the Cab Resonance Frequency to get the last %1 or so.

Also, I love the "ampy'ness" of the Liquid Profiles ... so Im thinking / hoping that V2 Liquid Profiles will be stellar in terms of manipulating G/B/M/T/P .... unlike the generic gain/eq stacks on Tonex / NAM / QC.

Clearly here at TGF I'm in the minority on this.

My needs are simple ... 2 or 3 Amps and 5/6 effects and I can do any gig anywhere - I dont do any metal at all though ... but Ola's demo sounded pretty f*cking great .... and its not clear if he used the Mesa Liquid Stack of the Generic-Classic Stack ?

I know we all hear things differently but I'm baffled how some people are already saying that in his demo that they sounded way different (?) Given what Ola said ... and he was in the roon .... he's either a lying paid shill or some people have a hard-baked-in view that the this new V2 was always going to be a bucket of warmed up shit ... I dont think Ola is a lying paid shill.

So yeah ..... I think its a possibly-too-early-to confim-yet huge step forward for Kemper Amp tones.

However it looks like I'm an outliner in this thread :)

 

[BenIfin]

From the KPA Forum - looks like its only days away from presumably a public Beta

 

[Enchilada Jones]

… Given what Ola said ... and he was in the roon .... he's either a lying paid shill or some people have a hard-baked-in view that the this new V2 was always going to be a bucket of warmed up shit ... I dont think Ola is a lying paid shill.

I don’t think Ola is a shill but that review was ‘Ola- lite’. He didn’t try to break anything and didn’t tell us what was not good about it.
So maybe he was focusing on the paid demo guy role and kept his inner Ola away from the mic?
Sorry, I don’t do euphemisms well

 

[LP59]

From the KPA Forum - looks like its only days away from presumably a public Beta

That's a pretty liberal interpretation considering it's been months since they announced "it's here" .

 

[namathan_zirwir]

They are way too late with this. No interest at all.

 

[Dom Mcsweeney]

I know we all hear things differently but I'm baffled how some people are already saying that in his demo that they sounded way different

Re: Ola's video - I just did a quick comparison check and it sounds to me like a bad profile vs. a great amp

meh

like, a wet fart vs. a tidy parp

 

[Southpaw-DD]

Nah - I already find that profile/capture searching is a major distraction and rabbit hole for my time. I think the "list of rigs/profiles" software just adds to that problem and it needs a UX overhaul.

 

[PorcinePicker]

Why deal with quirky, near EoL hardware and an unsympathetic company if I don’t have to? No.

 

[Jarick]

Kemper has become a less trustworthy company than NDSP which is really saying something. So no.

I’m messing around with Tonex but I don’t think I want a capture only device. You’re too reliant on other people doing the work. I’m curious where helix and fractal go.

 

[[Nathan]]

Watching Ola’s video….. I actually hate that I like the look of this

 

[dean701]

no, i liked my Kemper. Loved rigmanager but hated the lack of versatility for block routing. Second iteration should have included more robust block routing. if I could drag and drop blocks/route parallel paths, have multiamps I would have tried it. too many others on offer at this point.
QCM on the way.
kicking the tires on Stadium (but my 15% local store customer appreciation coupon expires this Month)

 

[Shask]

Kemper has become a less trustworthy company than NDSP which is really saying something. So no.

I’m messing around with Tonex but I don’t think I want a capture only device. You’re too reliant on other people doing the work. I’m curious where helix and fractal go.

One thing I like about ToneX is you can use the sounds in software in a plugin, or in hardware as a player.

I have been making tons of ToneX captures of my amps to have my tube amp tones in a digital format.

 

[BenIfin]

Re: Ola's video - I just did a quick comparison check and it sounds to me like a bad profile vs. a great amp

meh

like, a wet fart vs. a tidy parp

Dom.

Honestly ... are you being serious (?) ... I get hearing is an individual thing, but even the guy in the room said it was basically the same ... which is the best you can say about any "copy'ing" system .... be it Tonex or NAM or QC .... I dont think anyone here or anywhere else is kidding themselves that Tonex or NAM or QC or [possibly] new V2 KPA are perfect sounding and feeling "copies".

If you just don't like the Kemper or the company - perfectly fine - but to say "it sounds to me like a bad profile vs. a great amp" and "like a wet fart vs. a tidy parp" .... I can only interrpet that as either an attempt at humor (?) or a deliberate subjective "shit" on the product and the company for other reasons / purposes (?) ... which of course is your right also .. but at least be open about it (?)

 

[BenIfin]

Kemper has become a less trustworthy company than NDSP which is really saying something. So no.

I honestly do get the sentiment, but even with this whole MK2 roll-out debacle, they are still no-where near NDSP's [Corporates] league .. in my view

 

[riffy]

Personally, I don’t think it sounds better than Tonex. I haven’t played a quad cortex yet, but I have played the nano cortex. I don’t think the Kemper, from the videos I have seen, is better than that either. So, I have to say it’s a no from me.