Kemper Profiler MK 2

[PorcinePicker]

Kempers are obviously out there and have their fans, I just think the mk2 is hugely lacklustre. Liquid profiling in theory was more of a needle mover and I don’t even really see people talk about it. I guess you’re either just a kemper person or you’re not, they’re not really going out of their way to win new people over imo.

For me, as a Kemper owner (it mostly sits there switched off and looking solidly 50s German retro), I'd argue that most of the technologies that they've bolted on in recent years just didn't move my dial. I genuinely appreciate the small tweaks, bug fixes, and new effects, but for me, Kabinets, Kones, and Liquid Profiles were dead ends. I'd be really interested in a survey of how many users actually embraced those things.

Honestly, I think the biggest problem with their Mk 2 minor hardware update is mostly in the marketing language. If they'd just released the thing and mentioned that the small hardware changes allowed them to add a few fixed effects, people wouldn't be so riled. Then, when ready, they could have just said hey, we have a more accurate profiling process that you can run from Rig Manager if you want to. If it turned out to be good, the results would speak for themselves. But no, they had to fire up the brass band.

 

[[Nathan]]

Yet isn’t that literally what AxeFx2 to 2Mk2 was?

It’s simple I have interest in the new Kemper but a revamp was way overdue. And it’s less of a revamp than I’d thought I’d be.

But I really don’t see the issue there. Maybe that’s my German-ness showing

I’m at a point with gear where if it’s the thing that’s gonna make you happy, go for it. I imagine some kid with a valetone gp5 into a Harley Benton poweramp into a 1x12 / 2x12 is every bit as happy as any of us with a full rig.

The fractal mk2 wasn’t really ever to showcase new functionality, it was just a bit of a boost of cpu as far as I recall. The kemper one is to sell people on the notion the new mk2 profiles are going to be amazing (yet to be seen).

It’s just a slow news week. When line6 or someone else has cool stuff to talk about I’m sure the circles around the kemper 1 mk2 will come to an end (probably)

 

[[Nathan]]

Honestly, I think the biggest problem with their Mk 2 minor hardware update is mostly in the marketing language. If they'd just release the thing and mentioned that the small hardware changes allowed them to add a few fixed effects, people wouldn't be so riled. Then, when ready, they could have just said hey, we have a more accurate profiling process that you can run from Rig Manager if you want to. If it turned out to be good, the results would speak for themselves. But no, they had to fire up the brass band.

100% agreed with all this.
If I wanted to get a kemper then the newer one is a touch nicer, that’s cool. But that’s kind of all it is (so far until the new firmware drops and even then I’m dubious).

If they just released it and said hey here’s a lineup refresh with some more horsepower and we’ve got some cool features coming soon. It would have created some intrigue. Oh well it’s their company and brand at the end of the day.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Yet isn’t that literally what AxeFx2 to 2Mk2 was?

AxeFX2 to 2Mk2 didn't take 14 years.

It’s simple I have interest in the new Kemper but a revamp was way overdue. And it’s less of a revamp than I’d thought I’d be.

That's the problem. I was interested in getting the new toaster, when in my mind surely it would utilize better profiling on-device, a better UI/better screen, better effects, fix the aliasing issue, run two captures at once, etc. After all, it's been 14 years. Lots of time for R&D.

But here we are. That's why I'm so critical of it. It's a milquetoast upgrade for the time they've had, IMO. And as much as I love the Helix shit, if they come out with a "Double Helix 2" and it just adds something minor, after 10 years, I'll be just as critical.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Your Kemper is not your wife.

But it might be someone else's...

 

[paisleywookiee]

TGF Receptiveness List 2025

Positive

• Fractal
• Line 6
  • Minus HX One and HX One adjacent products
• Mesa
  • RIP Fluff
• Marshall
• Friedman
  • Minus La Szum
• Synergy
• ENGL
• Strymon

Rage

• Neural DSP
• IK Multimedia
• GearTuber’s not named Leon Todd or John Cordy
• Meris pedals with the bubble menus
• Chase Bliss
• Fender digital products
• Universal Audio pedals
• Boss reactive loads that don’t work with Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers

Meh

• Kemper II: Improved Accuracy Boogaloo
• Any additional products by Boss that are not 30 year old stomp boxes
• Everything else not explicitly covered above

TGF Receptiveness List 2025

Positive

• Fractal
• Line 6
  • Minus HX One and HX One adjacent products
• Mesa
  • RIP Fluff
• Marshall
• Friedman
  • Minus La Szum
  • And me, except I do like a few of their amps. Can't stand Friedman himself though.
• Synergy
• ENGL
• Strymon

Rage

• Neural DSP
  • I think it sounds good; I just think the company are filled with cunts.
• IK Multimedia
  • I like Tonex; it's getting better. Still use Amplitube from time to time, as it has some great-sounding models.
• GearTuber’s not named Leon Todd or John Cordy
  • Phil McKnight is fine, as are the 60 Cycle Hum guys, Dr. Andre Fludd is cool.
• Meris pedals with the bubble menus
  • Switch the display, problem solved
• Chase Bliss
  • I'd switch this to meh. Impressive engineering, coupled with mediocre at best sounds.
• Fender digital products
• Universal Audio pedals
• Boss reactive loads that don’t work with Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifiers

Meh

• Kemper II: Improved Accuracy Boogaloo
• Any additional products by Boss that are not 30 year old stomp boxes
  • Nah, the VG and GM-800 are killer, 200 and 500 series are great, Katanas are awesome entry level amps
• Everything else not explicitly covered above

Had to comment, since I'm argumentative this morning.

 

[Lysander]

Honestly, I think the biggest problem with their Mk 2 minor hardware update is mostly in the marketing language. If they'd just released the thing and mentioned that the small hardware changes allowed them to add a few fixed effects, people wouldn't be so riled.

Yeah. Maybe they should have handled this the same way Fractal did with the Turbo updates, where the company messaging was clearly "we were forced to upgrade our DSP chips, so you get a bit more horsepower in the process."

 

[DrewJD82]

FT important part FY.

Seriously, the options available in FAS (and partially HX) land are great - but I completely fail to see how one would even compare this to the Kemper's morphing feature.

Because it’s the tools you would use in a Fractal unit to do the same exact thing.

 

[DrewJD82]

Yeah but what a HUGE hassle this is, compared to Kemper's super-easy morphing.

Oh ain’t that the truth, it took me like 30 seconds to tie multiple effects to the Pitch Follower and get it functioning how I wanted it.

 

[DrewJD82]

Apparently people like to bash Kemper round these parts for pretty much everything. Which is quite strange.
I mean, I don't own a Kemper (and that likely won't change any day soon), so there's absolutely no reason for me to defend them (or my hypothetical choice of using their product), but even from just having one at home 2 times and playing through some occasionally at other's places, it's pretty obvious that some things are just great.

The reverbs and delays don't sound great? WTF? Outside of FAS land, they're the best you can possibly find on any one-size-fits-all unit.

They have that parameter lock feature, something noone else has in their portfolio - and it's downright fantastic for folks who want to keep parameters the same throughout multiple patches, especially when you play live.

The UI, as much as people like to bash yesteryear's oh-so-ancient monochrome screen, is very. very serviceable, and again, for live players who give a damn about knowing what patch they're on (I know, some geniuses don't need that...), visibility is most excellent.

Same goes for the morphing feature. It's actually *fun* to use it - and I was up and running in minutes when I had a Kemper borrowed for the second time (didn't test the first time around). With all others it's a tedious manual process requiring you to dive into menus over and over again.

And even the profiling, as much as some people may have issues with it (and yes, there *are* issues in terms of accuracy), offers most excellent accessibility, so even the most daft person around could get it going in a matter of minutes.

In a nutshell, the Kemper is a very mature product with some very experienced folks behind it who actually seem to know pretty well what's important for many people, especially the live playing crowd. I defenitely applaud them for that.

What does any of this have to do with the MKII and its launch? No one is bashing any of that stuff, at most it got into a morphing discussion when someone used it to prop up the unit in the context of this MKII launch, so like every single thread on every single forum, the topic diverged while we expressed our opinions on it and how things are done on other modelers that are far more advanced.

Pre Tiers/MKII the only griping I heard about Kemper was the cocked wah sound. Now they’re getting railed against for making what non-Kemper fans see as a really stupid move.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Because it’s the tools you would use in a Fractal unit to do the same exact thing.

Sure.
Really, I'm not trying to belittle anything, I also have absolutely zero horses in any kind of Kemper defending race - but seriously, the way you can achieve morphing with a Kemper is actually almost "fun", requires no menu diving, does allow for very quick adjustments of the morphed values' extremes and what not. From a "let's just try this out quickly" POV it's really entirely different from anything the other contenders have on offer.

I should possibly add that I'm quite familiar with MIDI, some synth stuff, CC assignments, modulation matrixes and what have you. And I have been toying around with the idea of turning a sound into something completely different simply by using an expression pedal quite some years ago already, when I had a sufficient amount of programmable units in my arsenal. And all throughout that journey, I have never seen anything as comfortable, easy and quick to use as the morphing options on a Kemper.
I'd even go as far as to say that this has at least some elements that I wish every company would steal from them - and ideally expand the idea so it'd work for a whole set of parameters (basically all parameters involved), so you could just say "this is A, this is B, please my dear little unit, morph between both of them when I'm using my EXP pedal" (of course all switches and step-wise parameters excluded in case you're after seamless morphing).

And regarding all that, it really doesn't matter much that other units (namely the FAS stuff in this case) allow for more finetuning. That kinda stuff could be added later on anyway (in an ideal world at least), but the initial process better be as fast as possible. And Kemper wins in that discipline, hands down even.

 

[Sascha Franck]

No one is bashing any of that stuff,

Wrong, people are bashing these things all throughout this thread. Otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned it.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

I’m at a point with gear where if it’s the thing that’s gonna make you happy, go for it. I imagine some kid with a valetone gp5 into a Harley Benton poweramp into a 1x12 / 2x12 is every bit as happy as any of us with a full rig.

The fractal mk2 wasn’t really ever to showcase new functionality, it was just a bit of a boost of cpu as far as I recall. The kemper one is to sell people on the notion the new mk2 profiles are going to be amazing (yet to be seen).

It’s just a slow news week. When line6 or someone else has cool stuff to talk about I’m sure the circles around the kemper 1 mk2 will come to an end (probably)

Well if anyone buys marketing hype that’s on them.

 

[Orvillain]

Man, people who have feelings for a piece of gear are funny. Your Kemper is not your wife. Nobody is bashing your best friend. lol. Goofy cornballs.

Bashed the wife last night. Didn't think about peripherals or accoutrements once.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Bashed the wife last night. Didn't think about peripherals or accoutrements once.

Did any of you two morph? And if so, was it seamlessly?

 

[Orvillain]

Did any of you two morph? And if so, was it seamlessly?

 

[laxu]

Did any of you two morph? And if so, was it seamlessly?

 

[Orvillain]

Go on then. One more meme.

 

[JCW308]

Oh ain’t that the truth, it took me like 30 seconds to tie multiple effects to the Pitch Follower and get it functioning how I wanted it.

30 seconds longer than on the Kemper though :-)

Don't get me wrong, I love Fractal stuff. But Kemper has the morphing thing down to "effortless"

 

[laxu]

So what do y'all use morphing for? On Kemper or something else.