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

Why am I suddenly GAS'ing for a Kemper Stage?

Nurse. He's out of bed again.

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Christoph Kemper subscribes to a somewhat unique, old school pro approach to creating gear.

If his stuff is attractive to professional musicians first—and every single product he’s ever produced is—then these products end-up on hit records and world tours, and then other professionals or serious amateurs who want to emulate the rigs that they see the high profile musicians who they admire using, then the products find an audience.

then the Player becomes a quietly massive hit.


Maybe not like a $100 pedal that ends up in a million drawers of people who don’t really play their guitars anyway.

Lets be real. The reason Kemper has been successful is he had the best lawyers:

Isn't it interesting that once the patent expired there was a deluge of high quality profilers?

There is probably some revisionist history here. The reason pros used Kemper is because it was the only game in town for 15 years. There are many equally important music innovations that were not patented. He just happened to have his lawyers lined up and ready. What he does is a variation of technology that had been employed in pro audio for years (room correction).

And regarding the "tools for pros" ethos.. that is marketing BS or a retweet of marketing BS.


When I was younger and had high paying tech jobs, I bought Samplitude and spent thousands in upgrades because it "was used by pros in mastering studios" had "object oriented editing" and "had a mathematically correct mixing engine that made it sound better". (Kool aid, all of it.)

Where is Samplitude now? (Answer: Irrelevant) What happened? All the DAWs upgraded to 64 bit mixing engine around 2010 and the argument it sounded better could no longer be made. Then it came down to workflow and features, and the other DAWs had more innovation, more penetration in consumer markets, more development budget to build those innovative features.

Regarding Kemper.. they will be able to survive on past glory (at least for a while), but better sounding and more innovative solutions are available. And because most of them are software solutions -- and lets be honest these are studio tools and dont need a hardware implementation -- no one needs to buy a Kemper Toaster or Player, unless they are gigging.

The landscape has changed like that! (snaps fingers)
 
Thank you sir! I am sure the urge will pass. Unless I somehow come across one that someone is fire sale-ing for like 8bills :sofa

Used Head/Rack prices are at about that now. I actually prefer the Rack + Controller over the Stage.

I think I’m gonna run some Tonex caps of the IR-J too. Broke the Tonex software out last night after the 1.8.X update and my Badlander caps still sound fantastic. Haven’t used Tonex in literally months. Still HATE the software UI, but damn it sure sounds good.
 
Used Head/Rack prices are at about that now. I actually prefer the Rack + Controller over the Stage.

I think I’m gonna run some Tonex caps of the IR-J too. Broke the Tonex software out last night after the 1.8.X update and my Badlander caps still sound fantastic. Haven’t used Tonex in literally months. Still HATE the software UI, but damn it sure sounds good.
Yeah I am easing my way out of the conversation pretty swiftly as we speak. Boredom is it's own drug apparently :rofl
 
Well... A full kemper without profiling, without display and without a good amount of I/o options.

Regarding the "not even close" thing for 3-switchers... Ehem... I don't know, I think the hx stomp is more flexible, has a display, and it's way cheaper... If it's "not even close" or not, well, maybe it's a more objective matter than one could think. Personally, I absolutely think it's close. Hell... Let's be a little brave... I also think an Ampero II stomp is close (and even before knowing how its coming capture feature works).

But hey, opinions...
Fair enough. Just my opinion, but I have always found the KPA had better low and mid gain tube tones than the Helix. The KPA verb and delay's are also better to my ear. But as you say .... Opinions.
He won't fuck you bro
Interesting line of discussion there bro.... but lets hope not. I left the Navy many decades ago.
Lets be real. The reason Kemper has been successful is he had the best lawyers:

Isn't it interesting that once the patent expired there was a deluge of high quality profilers?

There is probably some revisionist history here. The reason pros used Kemper is because it was the only game in town for 15 years. There are many equally important music innovations that were not patented. He just happened to have his lawyers lined up and ready. What he does is a variation of technology that had been employed in pro audio for years (room correction).

And regarding the "tools for pros" ethos.. that is marketing BS or a retweet of marketing BS.


When I was younger and had high paying tech jobs, I bought Samplitude and spent thousands in upgrades because it "was used by pros in mastering studios" had "object oriented editing" and "had a mathematically correct mixing engine that made it sound better". (Kool aid, all of it.)

Where is Samplitude now? (Answer: Irrelevant) What happened? All the DAWs upgraded to 64 bit mixing engine around 2010 and the argument it sounded better could no longer be made. Then it came down to workflow and features, and the other DAWs had more innovation, more penetration in consumer markets, more development budget to build those innovative features.

Regarding Kemper.. they will be able to survive on past glory (at least for a while), but better sounding and more innovative solutions are available. And because most of them are software solutions -- and lets be honest these are studio tools and dont need a hardware implementation -- no one needs to buy a Kemper Toaster or Player, unless they are gigging.

The landscape has changed like that! (snaps fingers)
... and I would tend to agree with that completely. I bought my KPA rack and FC specifically because I gig. I don't sit at home and record, or just putz in my basement .... I gig, and practice with a band.

Kemper has staying power because it is the best gigging tool out there (My opinion). It is built like a tank, and is rock solid stable. It is designed in a way that new updates never impact the tone of your hard worked on gigging rigs (patches). Kemper definitely caters to the premium live gig crowd.

Your point is very good though. If all you do is fiddle around at home making cool patches, it is only a matter of time before an all-software solution will eclipse even the greatest hardware solution out there in today's market for this purpose. As much power as an Axe III Fx has, it won't compete with the ever more powerful desktop processors with 20+ cores (and WAY more than that if you can use the graphics, AI, or Compute specific processors in modern computers).

As for Kemper having good lawyers .... good for them. They came up with the idea first. They deserve to reap the benefits for it. I do agree that others have done "capture/profile" better than Kemper did it. This is demonstrably true through signal analysis. The Kemper still provides the best gig rig out there though. The captures are way more than close enough .... especially if you are like me and simply purchase or download what others have done anyway.
 
Did you try any other pedals? Just curious.

FWIW, the player is a very good sounding little pedal. Obviously just as good as its big brother with the upgrade Level II or III.
I’ve tried all but Fractal now.

Frankly it’s a toss up and I could probably operate with plugins only.
 
Lets be real. The reason Kemper has been successful is he had the best lawyers:

Isn't it interesting that once the patent expired there was a deluge of high quality profilers?

There is probably some revisionist history here. The reason pros used Kemper is because it was the only game in town for 15 years. There are many equally important music innovations that were not patented. He just happened to have his lawyers lined up and ready. What he does is a variation of technology that had been employed in pro audio for years (room correction).

And regarding the "tools for pros" ethos.. that is marketing BS or a retweet of marketing BS.


When I was younger and had high paying tech jobs, I bought Samplitude and spent thousands in upgrades because it "was used by pros in mastering studios" had "object oriented editing" and "had a mathematically correct mixing engine that made it sound better". (Kool aid, all of it.)

Where is Samplitude now? (Answer: Irrelevant) What happened? All the DAWs upgraded to 64 bit mixing engine around 2010 and the argument it sounded better could no longer be made. Then it came down to workflow and features, and the other DAWs had more innovation, more penetration in consumer markets, more development budget to build those innovative features.

Regarding Kemper.. they will be able to survive on past glory (at least for a while), but better sounding and more innovative solutions are available. And because most of them are software solutions -- and lets be honest these are studio tools and dont need a hardware implementation -- no one needs to buy a Kemper Toaster or Player, unless they are gigging.

The landscape has changed like that! (snaps fingers)
Hahahah omg I know I write long and dull and awkwardly sincere and so serious sounding posts about my decade+ (and ongoing) of making a bunch of bucks on the back of my Kemper and profile vendor purchases ..but I’m not so serious! I’m just happy that Kemper hasn’t betrayed my faith, like pretty much every other tech company whose products I exploit for work has at some point or another.

Regarding your very serious sounding rebuttal … I couldn’t agree less with most of it, but that doesn’t mean you won’t one day blow my mind with your incredible alternative-gear tones. I hope you do. And I hope you have fun doing it.

deluge of high quality profilers

I guess. I know they’re out there but then where are all those better-sounding guitarists? And, shrug, has there been some tsunami like migration from pro Kemper stages to Tonex and QC? I haven’t seen it. Kemper folks still using Kemper. Fractal folks still using Fractal and Helix folks still doing their thing. As if any of this matters. People getting tones don’t usually blow whichever way the wind blows. (Except for a handful of very entertaining forumites whose never ending gear journeys are, for whatever reason, compelling to read about. )

Meanwhile Kemper continues to be a great company to work with. And their at first whiff expensive seeming price for a tiny box, and bumpy rollout, doesn’t take away from the fact that in 2024 they released the best thing ever for pro tones in a gig bag. (Even if I think for most any other purpose the powered head or Stage may be the more fun choice.

fun fun fun

ymmv
 
know they’re out there but then where are all those better-sounding guitarists? And, shrug, has there been some tsunami like migration from pro Kemper stages to Tonex and QC? I haven’t seen it. Kemper folks still using Kemper. Fractal folks still using Fractal and Helix folks still doing their thing.
I bought a ToneX because the price/quality was too high to pass up. Never interested in a Kemper rig. Also more interested in integrating profiles into my current setup than replacing it with a stage or toaster.

I'm sure there are a bunch of people like me getting into profiles because of ToneX. They have grown the market.
 
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