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Kemper Profiler MK 2
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Mongillo19
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No but it's still not a new gen Kemper, regardless of how long it's been since launch.
Kemper calls this update "Mark 2". Fractal Audio would call it "Friday".
Dom Mcsweeney
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If I did, I wouldn't be 'speculating', instead it would be journaling / documenting.
Because I don't, and others probably similarly, I was wondering if we could join in. Sounded fun.
Where are you all at?
AFKAEjay(retired)
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I was aware that Fractal users have to buy new hardware more frequently to be compatible with updates, but i wasn’t aware that is a weekly requirement. Impressive!
paisleywookiee
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I understand, and that’s disappointing and dumb and stupid and moronic and dumb.
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There is extremely little chance that the DSP chip(s) in the Kemper MK2 are the same as the MK1.
The Freescale DSP 56k series used in the Kemper MK1 is discontinued, as in... no longer in production. So I'm guessing they've moved to an ARM based chip; which would seem reasonable considering the Kemper Player is using ARM. They could potentially move to FPGA chips too, but those are more expensive to develop for.
In either case, all or at least a large part of the code written for Kemper would have to be ported to another language. Freescale DSP chips are written in native assembly; which to be fair is a highly specific skill, which not all programmers are capable of. It is also isn't really how things are done in the modern world; at least I've never seen it in use; the hardware platforms I have experience of are all Linux ARM based setups.
So my guess is, Kemper have gone fully over to ARM. They've ported their Freescale code over to c++, possibly using JUCE to speed up the job, and taking advantage of more precision in the underlying architecture, and this will also probably be why they can run a much more detailed tone matching algorithm - which is what I personally believe they are talking about when they say 100,000 jiggawatts or whatever the comment was in their marketing.
Strymon have gone ARM. Pretty sure Meris are ARM as well. Probably plenty of others. It makes total sense to me.
BTW, when I started teaching myself DSP, I started off on a Daisy Seed:
electro-smith.com
That was about half a year ago or so. I got my first real taste of C++ on that platform. It very cool. Maybe I'll post some silly clips of a digital delay I put together at some point. It is also an ARM Cortex based platform, quite powerful really given how small it is. It has kind of replaced the Spin FV-1 chip that a lot of the hobbyists and smaller companies were using.
PS: Not that relevant really, but the Freescale DSP used fixed-point precision mathematics. That's kind of amusing, given the mathematics comments and point scoring from the other day.
The Freescale DSP 56k series used in the Kemper MK1 is discontinued, as in... no longer in production. So I'm guessing they've moved to an ARM based chip; which would seem reasonable considering the Kemper Player is using ARM. They could potentially move to FPGA chips too, but those are more expensive to develop for.
In either case, all or at least a large part of the code written for Kemper would have to be ported to another language. Freescale DSP chips are written in native assembly; which to be fair is a highly specific skill, which not all programmers are capable of. It is also isn't really how things are done in the modern world; at least I've never seen it in use; the hardware platforms I have experience of are all Linux ARM based setups.
So my guess is, Kemper have gone fully over to ARM. They've ported their Freescale code over to c++, possibly using JUCE to speed up the job, and taking advantage of more precision in the underlying architecture, and this will also probably be why they can run a much more detailed tone matching algorithm - which is what I personally believe they are talking about when they say 100,000 jiggawatts or whatever the comment was in their marketing.
Strymon have gone ARM. Pretty sure Meris are ARM as well. Probably plenty of others. It makes total sense to me.
BTW, when I started teaching myself DSP, I started off on a Daisy Seed:
Daisy Seed
Daisy is an embedded platform for music. It features everything you need for creating high fidelity audio hardware devices. Just plug in a USB cable and start making sound! Programming the Daisy is a breeze with support for a number of languages including C++, Arduino, and Max/MSP Gen~. To get...
electro-smith.com
That was about half a year ago or so. I got my first real taste of C++ on that platform. It very cool. Maybe I'll post some silly clips of a digital delay I put together at some point. It is also an ARM Cortex based platform, quite powerful really given how small it is. It has kind of replaced the Spin FV-1 chip that a lot of the hobbyists and smaller companies were using.
PS: Not that relevant really, but the Freescale DSP used fixed-point precision mathematics. That's kind of amusing, given the mathematics comments and point scoring from the other day.
Dom Mcsweeney
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Imagine how much they could improve with a new chip, but instead they just have a chip on their shoulder.
paisleywookiee
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Is that the library that Julian Storer developed, when he worked on Tracktion?
Meris and Strymon are definitely ARM on the newer pedals.
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Yeah, it is very popular. I've been learning it. I used to work with Jules at ROLI. Great guy! JUCE is now owned by PACE, iirc.
Jules' new thing is Cmajor:
paisleywookiee
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Is he gone from Tracktion too? Man, I fucking loved that DAW. Waveform is cool too, but I miss the simplicity of what Tracktion was.
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I'm not sure to be honest!
There hasn't been any official confirmation from Kemper, but apparently people have posted teardown videos of the Player, which is Mk2, that show the DSP chip in the Kemper is the same as it's always been. I've seen speculation that's because the assembly code would be too expensive to port. There is no quad core version of the DSP chip.
paisleywookiee
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So they’re using a discontinued processor? That’s weird.
It's old and I wouldn't use it in a new design, but it's not discontinued, meaning you can still buy it. They probably have a pretty good stockpile too.
Dom Mcsweeney
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You're looking on the wrong side of the processor board
. That's the microcontroller, not the DSP chip.
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Gotcha. Makes total sense. I was wrong.You're looking on the wrong side of the processor board
Mongillo19
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Are you being legit or am I missing a jokeYou're looking on the wrong side of the processor board
