Kemper Profiler MK 2

[[Nathan]]

I think everyone besides Sasha knew this feature was pretty trivial between most devices, lol

It is.

Who would have guessed with your 50 posts about how unique and good it is, we got there in the end though!

 

[Sascha Franck]

about how unique and good it is

It is.

 

[Sascha Franck]

When you use these liquid profiling type technologies you’re just manually inputting “the capture has treble at 9 and it was this type of amp”. Based on that info it can approximate some better eq stacks for the user.

That's not all there is about it, there's also different tonestacks to choose from to accomodate the target amp better, which seems to make a pretty noteworthy difference (still not matching their marketing blurb, though).

 

[DLC86]

Sorry @DLC86 it's nothing personal, i'm putting you on the list for a while to remove this tumor from my beloved forum.

What's this tumor you're talking about?

 

[Orvillain]

What's this tumor you're talking about?

 

[DLC86]

"Nothing personal"

 

[Deleted member 1726]

 

[Antipodes]

View attachment 46268

So that was the "Cone of Silence" I spose. Who knew?

 

[Orvillain]

View attachment 46268

Put me in THAT nursing home!

 

[JCW308]

Liquid profiles and Morphing is a combo hard to beat.

 

[DrewJD82]

Now do the same on the unit. Or just edit some of the extremes on the unit.
And fwiw, this can be done with pretty much any modeler.

Not once in all this back and forth did anyone say “only from the front panel of an AxeFX”, just blanket statements about how hard this would be with a Fractal unit.

As for ”this can be done with pretty much every modeler”, this is the statement that started this entire discussion on morphing-

Morphing is unique as far as I know and implemented very well (best in class).

So I’m guessing now it’s just the ability to do this from the front panel that makes it unique? In that case, I agree as I don’t know of another modeler that allows you to do this from the front panel the way the Kemper does, but I also go back to my previous statements in that I find it rather limited in it’s capability and would much rather have all the options available to me than limiting them for the sake of doing it from a front panel.

More so, I was specifically responding to this statement-

where Fractal you have to dive into deep edit pages to assign per preset switching and overrides and all that.

Did I set it up to morph between two states? Yep, in two instances.

Did I “have” to deep dive anything or use per preset functions? Nope.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

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.

I use kone, kab, LP fwiw

 

[Sascha Franck]

Not once in all this back and forth did anyone say “only from the front panel of an AxeFX”, just blanket statements about how hard this would be with a Fractal unit.

No, it's about general ease of use. And the Kemper still wins here, hands down. It wasn't even about whether things were possible on other units. They are. Since decades. But only Kemper managed to make it an essential part of the UI-experience.
Let alone that not only setting things up is as easy as it gets, it's as easy to alter things shouldn't you be happy.

While I have no idea how things are in FAS land (would depend on whether these movements are 1:1 parameter movements or could as well be offsets, which I just don't know), with the Helix (and pretty much all other modelers), it's like this: Once you've assigned a parameter to a controller (doesn't matter whether it's MIDI, internal, a static switch or a continously moving pedal), you're losing the option to adjust the target parameter directly.
As an example: When I control, say, a delay's mix parameter with an expression pedal and then set it to 10% min and 50% max, any adjustments straight on the target delay mix parameter would be overwritten as soon as you move the pedal (as it's a direct 1:1 control). So, to adjust anything, you'd have to get into your modulation/control/whatever menu and alter the min/max value there.
Now, this could as well be done differently, as is common practice with many synths and their modulation matrixes, which only control "offsets" of any parameter, but as said, this is nothing that exists on any modeler I ever had my hands on (it might exist in the FAS universe, but I had other things to do when I had an Axe FX borrowed, so someone else would have to set things straight here).

Anyhow, with the Kemper, this is pretty much a non-issue. In case you want to edit any of the "extremes", all it takes is to select status A or B (it's not called that, but you'll get the idea) and alter the target values straight on the target parameters.
Anyone claiming that any other currently available method on any other modeler is as comfortable to deal with should really check it out on a Kemper. Check it out in the manual beforehand (easiest read ever), after that you'll be able to do it on any unit you may get your hands on instantly. The only thing possibly requiring some menu operation is when you want to assign an EXP pedal to do the morphing, but that's a one-time affair per patch only.

 

[Jarick]

Huh? You don’t have to deep dive anything, just right click whatever you want to attach a controller/pedal to and you’re done. I’ve never once seen the Per-Preset functions, have never assigned switching overrides and all that, so that’s definitely not a requirement unless your particular needs require it.

I’ll post a video tonight of how long it takes to set up a basic amp morphing preset. I’ve never done it before, but I’m fairly confident it can be done without any of that. Hell, I’ll be really crazy and throw a delay on one of the amps but not the other, without even using a different scene.

I was talking about the footswitch assignment for effects on/off by preset compared to the Helix. That’s really clumsy on the fractal and Helix has those touch footswitches that takes a second each.

 

[Sascha Franck]

That’s really clumsy on the fractal and Helix has those touch footswitches that takes a second each.

I gotta say that this is possibly the greatest thing ever in HX land - whenever you need that kinda stuff to be fast. I usually see switch assignments as a part of some "homework", but with the Helix things can as well be done pretty much instantly and "per situation".
Once I had some user defaults (and partially favourites) for my most often used blocks ready to roll, constructing a well working patch for pretty much any situation I could be thinking of was just breeze. Add to this that you can toggle between the target blocks you might want to switch on/off once you have multiple ones assigned to one switch by repeatedly touching the switch - that's just as excellent as it gets and even a touchscreen device would possibly fall behind regarding the sheer excellence of the touch capacitive switches.
As people may now, I'm a sucker for all things UI efficiency - and I could hardly think of a better way to deal with these things on-unit.
Has even been burnt into my DNA so much that at first I found myself idiotically touching the switches of the GT-1000, wondering why nothing would happen, go figure.

 

[LP59]

If I weren't explaining what I was doing throughout this it could have been done in less than half the amount of time-



The only time you'd have to get into any Scene Ignore or Scene Manager editing is if you're looking to add different Channels into the mix and have to utilize the same effects blocks. Considering the amount of blocks available on an AxeFX, that's unlikely to happen unless you're into some Dweezil Zappa shit.

Now do the same wearing oven mitts.

 

[Jarick]

I gotta say that this is possibly the greatest thing ever in HX land - whenever you need that kinda stuff to be fast. I usually see switch assignments as a part of some "homework", but with the Helix things can as well be done pretty much instantly and "per situation".
Once I had some user defaults (and partially favourites) for my most often used blocks ready to roll, constructing a well working patch for pretty much any situation I could be thinking of was just breeze. Add to this that you can toggle between the target blocks you might want to switch on/off once you have multiple ones assigned to one switch by repeatedly touching the switch - that's just as excellent as it gets and even a touchscreen device would possibly fall behind regarding the sheer excellence of the touch capacitive switches.
As people may now, I'm a sucker for all things UI efficiency - and I could hardly think of a better way to deal with these things on-unit.
Has even been burnt into my DNA so much that at first I found myself idiotically touching the switches of the GT-1000, wondering why nothing would happen, go figure.

Totally.

That's one of those areas that I think would make Fractal a complete killer device...if they can figure out ways to offer a very streamlined usage experience. But that goes kind of opposite of the design approach.

@DrewJD82 showed - if you know the unit, you can do super powerful stuff while using the editor and it's not that hard. But there's still friction there that pulls you away from the traditional experience of a handful of pedals and an amp, and the only way you interact is with knobs.

My dream is to have basically a virtual pedalboard and amp with a bunch of knobs that control whatever you select. Give me a touch screen that shows me my virtual rig like a Fender TMP, and then some control knobs off to the side with LED's to show position like Fractal AX8/Kemper but put scribble strips on them so I can see the parameters I'm adjusting, and then capacitive switches with scribble strips at the bottom like a Helix. Make the amp and effect parameters really useful like a pedal designer would and hide all the advanced options and parameters.

 

[Sascha Franck]

My dream is to have basically a virtual pedalboard and amp with a bunch of knobs that control whatever you select. Give me a touch screen that shows me my virtual rig like a Fender TMP, and then some control knobs off to the side with LED's to show position like Fractal AX8/Kemper but put scribble strips on them so I can see the parameters I'm adjusting, and then capacitive switches with scribble strips at the bottom like a Helix. Make the amp and effect parameters really useful like a pedal designer would and hide all the advanced options and parameters.

I'd likely buy such a device in a hearbeat.
It's actually quite astonishing: To this day, with modelers by now nailing the most minutiae aspects of sound, you'd still have an extremely rough time to build something that would actually resemble a typical pedalboard, let alone a larger scale hybrid setup with amps, loopswitchers and the likes. I'd even go as far as to say it's impossible, at least when using just a single piece of kit out of any of the available all-in-one modelers.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Their forum is down for maintenance and says to check back in a few days?

 

[Jarick]

I'd likely buy such a device in a hearbeat.
It's actually quite astonishing: To this day, with modelers by now nailing the most minutiae aspects of sound, you'd still have an extremely rough time to build something that would actually resemble a typical pedalboard or a larger scale hybrid setup with amps, loopswitchers and the likes. I'd even go as far as to say it's impossible, at least when using just a single piece of kit out of any of the available all-in-one modelers.

Yes! I think rather than chasing the last 5% of sonic perfection maybe making it as fun and easy to use as possible would be a better path.

Fender actually wouldn't be far off if you consider the switch knobs. It's a little more streamlined but I think not as ideal. Those LED's for position would be sweet.

Another shout out to Helix where the device itself is basically as easy or easier to run than the computer editor, and it's a decade old. But it could be even better with those knobs.

The lock feature on the Kemper is also really cool, as you can basically lock down your effects and then move around rigs (profiles). Bummer it's not on the Player. Hopefully they add it at some point.