Kemper Player - 1st [ Paid for ? ] Update coming very soon ?

[Sascha Franck]

Part discarded Transformer codpiece, part googie motorcycle fuel tank?

Possibly the reason why Yamaha got interested in L6.

 

[MTB1973]

The Flowbee

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[yeky83]

This is an update, though. They’re just turning stuff on that the hardware could already do. And it’s not even kind of the same thing as model packs from L6 back in the day. The X3 could still do all of its hardware functions and run a full “load” on the DSP. The is more like you bought a 8GB graphics card for full price and then NVIDIA emailed you to say to an extra $700 they’ll let you use the other 8GB of processing that’s already there.

This ain't no GPU, this is a new product with a defined feature set, there was nothing it could "already do."

You thought you were paying for bowls at Chipotle? No sir, you are paying for scoops of meat. You want two scoops of meat, you either pay for two bowls or pay extra for double meat.

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That design style of the Guitar Port makes me feel nostalgic. Part discarded Transformer codpiece, part googie motorcycle fuel tank? Apple has made things so much more about function, which is overall for the best but everything looks so boring these days.

ZOOM DOESN'T LOOK BORING

 

[Mongillo19]

You thought you were paying for bowls at Chipotle? No sir, you are paying for scoops of meat. You want two scoops of meat, you either pay for two bowls or pay extra for double meat.

This has to be satire at this point

CAN WE GET A CHICKEN DRUMSTICK EMOJI IN HERE

 

[ian_dissonance]

This ain't no GPU, this is a new product with a defined feature set, there was nothing it could "already do."

You thought you were paying for bowls at Chipotle? No sir, you are paying for scoops of meat. You want two scoops of meat, you either pay for two bowls or pay extra for double meat.

ZOOM DOESN'T LOOK BORING
View attachment 29687

Yeah, but more like you could only see half the bowl so it looked full until you got the check out it and then they showed the bowl held twice as much and asked if you’d like to fill your bowl for double price. If this was the plan from the beginning they should have said that, but that would have hurt sales. So they waited till enough of them were out there to show you the rest of the bowl and tell you how much it would cost to fill it. When you ask for double meat at chipotle you know you’re paying for double meat.

 

[JiveTurkey]

They did tell you at the beginning though. That's where I'm confused.

 

[ian_dissonance]

They did tell you at the beginning though. That's where I'm confused.

When did Kemper say that you would be paying 35% of the original device cost to bring it to full functionality. Guess I missed that part otherwise I would have been shitting on them the entire time.

 

[JiveTurkey]

When did Kemper say that you would be paying 35% of the original device cost to bring it to full functionality. Guess I missed that part otherwise I would have been shitting on them the entire time.

They said you would pay to upgrade it. I know we're all playing semantics on that word vs. update and I get it. But it seemed like this was in the plan all along. Though the numbers weren't given at launch.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Sorry. I'm used to complaining about NDSP

 

[Foxmeister]

When did Kemper say that you would be paying 35% of the original device cost to bring it to full functionality. Guess I missed that part otherwise I would have been shitting on them the entire time.

They did say right at the outset that they could bring extra functionality to the Player via paid updates, but they never gave a cost.

Personally, since they did decide to do this, I think they should have had just one "upgrade" covering everything for $150.

 

[ian_dissonance]

Yeah, I missed that in the announcement. Was that like a “he said it off the cuff at a trade show” kind of announcement? But why would you tell people your “upgrade” was going to be stupid expensive compared to the device you’re buying. Like if it was $25/$50/$100 that might make sense.

 

[yeky83]

My problem with the Player is that this functionality already existed and is free in other products. They just chose to disable it and then later enable at a price. That to me is really shady. Same thing if NDSP comes out in a few months and says "hey you can now have all the effects in QC but it costs $300". Shady activity.

If NDSP comes out in a few months and says "hey the Nano can do QC but costs $300 more," I'm buying that thing. Dunno what's shady about that.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

If NDSP comes out in a few months and says "hey the Nano can do QC but costs $300 more," I'm buying that thing. Dunno what's shady about that.

Sure the clown squad can find something lol :-)

 

[Enchilada Jones]

….
My problem with the Player is that this functionality already existed and is free in other products. They just chose to disable it and then later enable at a price. That to me is really shady. Same thing if NDSP comes out in a few months and says "hey you can now have all the effects in QC but it costs $300". Shady activity.
…..

There is a huge problem with your description of the problem. That functionality is *not* ‘free’ in the other product!
Owners of the other product paid a premium price for what ever they received or are going to possibly get as a continued support. Kemper is the sole arbiter of what it can deliver as a part of that. They decide what they can afford to include at no additional cost and what they shouldn't include

They didn’t ’decide to disable’ so they could screw anyone over.
They decided to disable so they didn’t have to screw themselves over when they decided it was much more sensible to reuse existing components instead of needlessly redesign what they already had in inventory that was exactly what they needed to do the job.

Just because someone ‘could have’ done something you would like, but doesn’t do it, is not proof they failed you, or are evil, etc.

And if you consider the way Kemper has treated its customers for decades compared to the competition they should be the last company to suffer being accused of having evil, greedy intent based on such weak evidence.

 

[Jarick]

Mkay.

 

[GTR37]

I honestly don’t find it that big of a problem
-
Kemper said they were going to this
-
When they released the player everyone knew what they were getting

My one complaint if any is the tiering is dumb , don’t force someone who just wants a looper to have to go through lvl 2 just make it a bundle deal for $249 and call it a day
Then technically you are getting a stage functionality for a total of $1000 taxes in
That’s more than fair IMO

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I think some people are conflating having a problem with it/calling it a bad move, with it being dumb/not very enticing.

I have no real issue with DLC assuming it actually adds good value. The Kemper Player was already an unappealing proposition for me, spending another $300 on it only makes it worse. If Kemper released a plugin for $50 I’d struggle to think it’s good value for tech that old that is being bettered left right and centre, even by products that are free.

The fact they’re still trying to dine out on this tech+DSP doesn’t really fill me with encouragement for what they do in the future - both in terms of processing capability, or the ability to move and adapt quickly. Kemper are showing all the signs of an audio company that acts like things don’t move on.

 

[yeky83]

I think some people are conflating having a problem with it/calling it a bad move, with it being dumb/not very enticing.

I have no real issue with DLC assuming it actually adds good value. The Kemper Player was already an unappealing proposition for me, spending another $300 on it only makes it worse. If Kemper released a plugin for $50 I’d struggle to think it’s good value for tech that old that is being bettered left right and centre, even by products that are free.

The fact they’re still trying to dine out on this tech+DSP doesn’t really fill me with encouragement for what they do in the future - both in terms of processing capability, or the ability to move and adapt quickly. Kemper are showing all the signs of an audio company that acts like things don’t move on.

This line of criticism/unappeal makes total sense.

But calling it shady and whatnot based on... what, turns out nothing, I poo your post like it's 2pm after taco bell!

 

[creative360]

a lot of duct tape and chewing gum has been applied to keep things trundling along

No duct tape on mine. And it’s getting all kinds of critical daily use.

Regarding price, I think my favorite steak in Soho should be 42, not $60. But that’s not what it is. Kemper has never priced anything like most people want them to. Want a U67 but can’t/don’t want to afford it? Get an SM7B and record a hit.

People by all means don’t buy the Player, but don’t worry about Kemper. The Player is already a hit, and the new full price thing / upgrade path, that’s gonna be a hit too. Kemper is literally the rare anti-example of corporate ick. The problem is that historically, they’re also not too concerned – meaning don’t give two f*cks – about doing things how the Internet says they should.

Not all of these companies do it the same way, but I’m confident that all the backseat business drivers on the forums rarely identify the full reality of any of these brands’ challenges. Digi iggy is generous enough to shed light on his version of the path to a product release, and everyone clicks like, but then a couple months down the line tons of people are posting as if they never read what he wrote.

And regarding old tech, just look at the current tests that show how the iPhone 14 pro is a higher resolution sensor than the 15 pro, despite what the pixel count says.

When something else renders this “old tech“ obsolete — in terms of pure guitar tone — then everyone will go in another direction. So far that hasn’t happened.

It’s all good. I’m standing outside of a café in Greenwich Village, and I’ll never get this posting half hour back. And you’ll never get the time it takes to read my endless post back. Sorry about that.

ductwalk™

ymmv

 

[Sascha Franck]

They did tell you at the beginning though. That's where I'm confused.

They didn't tell it'd add 50% on top, though.