Kemper Profiler MK 2

[crispsandwich]

I have a KPA, Axe III and have tried a Helix Stadium, and the Kemper just sounds 'right' with a good profile. It feels fantastic under the fingers and the effects are just as good as anything else IMO. Oddly, it sounds 'bigger' when recorded than the other two. It seems to punch through a little more. The differences between v1 and v2 must surely be minimal.

 

[BenIfin]

Coming to your local Kemper profiler summer 2026(?)

Hey 2dor

My above response was meant in jest / good humor / agreement .... no sarcasm or dissing intended :)

All the best.
Ben

 

[nightlight]

I'm keen to learn more about the capture abilities of the Helix Stadium at this point, to be honest. I find the signal chain of the Kemper to be quite limiting, and I really wish they had pushed the envelope in 2025, rather than just putting out something that is only an incremental upgrade. By that I mean, literally everything is the same, they just added more FX slots on release and you can't do things like dual amps and parallel processing that most other processors (which also have their own profiling tech) can do.

When I had a Quad Cortex, I was really impressed, and I am thinking of buying one of those Nano Cortexes just to capture my amp setups and go jam with friends. The only thing that I don't like about the Line 6 is the price (US$2199 is a lot of money for a processor), so I'll bide my time and wait till all the bugs are ironed out and more Agoura models are put out before taking the plunge.

 

[OneEng]

I fail to understand how people are getting such bad sounds out of a Kemper. I started this digital journey when the first Headrush came out and I thought it did a pretty good job but it did have its weak points. I then bought a Helix. I thought it was good as well but not better or worse than the Headrush (although the HR is much easier and faster in dialing in the sounds). When we started recording our first album, we were in a studio with the Kemper toaster and when I recorded with that and heard it back, it was significantly better than either of the other units I've tried. The engineer said he was using MBritt profiles and I was amazed. I went out and bought a Kemper Stage and used it for many years.

Of course like a typical equipment nerd, I had to see "what else is out there". I went through many different modelers and capture devices. I tried the Boss, the Atomic, Tonex, Nux Trident, Quad Cortex, and probably some others. I got a Fractal FM3 and added the FC6 controller to it about a month later. Out of all of these, I still have the Trident because it's a great grab and go solution that is built like a tank and it sounds really friggin' good. Out of all of them, for sound and feel, still nothing even touches the Kemper. I thought the QC was actually pretty good but it was not reliable AT ALL!!

Now I have the Kemper Player, I use the MBritt profiles and I added a simple two button switch to go through the rigs and it's the absolute best. Every single show we play the FOH people always compliment my tone and ask what amp I'm using. I now use just the FM3 for a backup rig though I've never had to break it out. I can use pretty much anything I want on stage. The Kemper just works every single time.

I know people are complaining about how old the technology is. It may be old but it's beautiful. Just like a 67 Deluxe Reverb or a 1982 Marshall JCM800, there's no need to change anything really. But with the Level 3 Player, there's not much I can't do and the sound is absolutely top notch.

All these other solutions are giggable and most are very recordable. But they are not a Kemper and they don't sound and feel as good as a Kemper. That's MY story and I'm sticking to it. We'll see what happens in the next 10 years but nothing that is out there so far is going to dethrone the champ. Best of luck to you all.

From a sound quality stand point, I agree with you. I think the bigger issue Kemper has is functionality and GUI/Usability gaps that are widening compared to the newer competitors.

Of course, I already know what I need to do to get a specific tone out of my Kemper, so anything else would be more work.... for me .... initially.

 

[crispsandwich]

I have a sneaking suspicion that there are some v2 profiles on the Rig Exchange. I asked this on the Kemper forum and the thread was closed. I am hoping that v1 KPAs will play v2 profiles after all.

 

[Jarick]

I have a sneaking suspicion that there are some v2 profiles on the Rig Exchange. I asked this on the Kemper forum and the thread was closed. I am hoping that v1 KPAs will play v2 profiles after all.

My word the Kemper forum mods are sensitive!

What makes you think there were V2 profiles on RE?

 

[crispsandwich]

My word the Kemper forum mods are sensitive!

What makes you think there were V2 profiles on RE?

I'm not sure what it is, but there are a couple of profiles from MBritt and TJ that hit me straight away as sounding perfect without any tweaking needed. It was something in the low end, they lacked that low-mid thing that the Kemper has on every other profile (which I actually like a lot of the time). It's subtle, and likely in my head, but I desperately want to believe that my mk1 KPA will play v2 profiles.

 

[LP59]

I'm not sure what it is, but there are a couple of profiles from MBritt and TJ that hit me straight away as sounding perfect without any tweaking needed. It was something in the low end, they lacked that low-mid thing that the Kemper has on every other profile (which I actually like a lot of the time). It's subtle, and likely in my head, but I desperately want to believe that my mk1 KPA will play v2 profiles.

Hallucinations are not uncommon with amp sims .

The mods on the Kemper forum are insane. The majority of posts to the forum are deleted.

 

[crispsandwich]

Hallucinations are not uncommon with amp sims .

The mods on the Kemper forum are insane. The majority of posts to the forum are deleted.

Likely a hallucination, agreed. But I really want it to not be!

 

[Jarick]

I'm not sure what it is, but there are a couple of profiles from MBritt and TJ that hit me straight away as sounding perfect without any tweaking needed. It was something in the low end, they lacked that low-mid thing that the Kemper has on every other profile (which I actually like a lot of the time). It's subtle, and likely in my head, but I desperately want to believe that my mk1 KPA will play v2 profiles.

I think it may be possible that they are still Mk1 profiles but are using a new capture method. I think they found a way to eliminate the "refine" issue. So they could be capturing all the data for the profiles but they are still in "low resolution" for the old profiler.

 

[PorcinePicker]

The mods on the Kemper forum are insane. The majority of posts to the forum are deleted.

Just took a gander over there, and people are talking more about what they're allowed to talk about than about Kemper products. Mission accomplished....?

 

[ian_dissonance]

Just took a gander over there, and people are talking more about what they're allowed to talk about than about Kemper products. Mission accomplished....?

That’s one way to avoid answering questions about your side-grade in hardware and the lack of the feature advertised to sell it.

 

[OneEng]

I have a sneaking suspicion that there are some v2 profiles on the Rig Exchange. I asked this on the Kemper forum and the thread was closed. I am hoping that v1 KPAs will play v2 profiles after all.

Kemper have said that V1 will play V2 at lower resolutions (whatever that means). Most believe that this means lower quality, but it will be very interesting to see if that is true or not.

I believe that the reason I was banned (permanently) was my fixation on the fact that the DSP did NOT change from V1 to V2 and there is therefore no reason V1 couldn't do anything sound processing wise that V2 was doing (since the processing chip is IDENTICAL).

Just took a gander over there, and people are talking more about what they're allowed to talk about than about Kemper products. Mission accomplished....?

It's pure stupidity. Pissing off the people that are the internet flag bearers for your product is just dumb.

Of course, they may feel they have no other choice. They made a very bad business call, got caught, and are trying to control the narrative instead of fixing the problems.

It will not go well. I believe they can compete on price, but they will find that they will be facing a decreasing market share as other competitors up their game in the areas that Kemper is currently strong in while increasing the gap in areas Kemper hasn't touched at all.

Stupid.

Having said all that, Kemper Rack with a foot controller is still a very competent gig rig. I would argue that it is still one of the best gig rigs you can buy. This is especially true on the used market where such a rig can be had below 1K.

Of course it is hard to capture any new market share, and Kemper makes no money off of used sales.

They should have skipped MK2 and offered new profiling about 4 years ago. Today, they should be introducing Kemper 2 with a completely refined experience, not just a paint job.

Stupid. Still, quite a deal for those in the used market. The MK1 is a huge value for the gigging musician IMO.

 

[crispsandwich]

Kemper have said that V1 will play V2 at lower resolutions (whatever that means). Most believe that this means lower quality, but it will be very interesting to see if that is true or not.

I believe that the reason I was banned (permanently) was my fixation on the fact that the DSP did NOT change from V1 to V2 and there is therefore no reason V1 couldn't do anything sound processing wise that V2 was doing (since the processing chip is IDENTICAL).

It's pure stupidity. Pissing off the people that are the internet flag bearers for your product is just dumb.

Of course, they may feel they have no other choice. They made a very bad business call, got caught, and are trying to control the narrative instead of fixing the problems.

It will not go well. I believe they can compete on price, but they will find that they will be facing a decreasing market share as other competitors up their game in the areas that Kemper is currently strong in while increasing the gap in areas Kemper hasn't touched at all.

Stupid.

Having said all that, Kemper Rack with a foot controller is still a very competent gig rig. I would argue that it is still one of the best gig rigs you can buy. This is especially true on the used market where such a rig can be had below 1K.

Of course it is hard to capture any new market share, and Kemper makes no money off of used sales.

They should have skipped MK2 and offered new profiling about 4 years ago. Today, they should be introducing Kemper 2 with a completely refined experience, not just a paint job.

Stupid. Still, quite a deal for those in the used market. The MK1 is a huge value for the gigging musician IMO.

Very interesting. So my ears might not be completely shit, then.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Right, but does anyone (as in users of capture tech) actually miss it? My experience of the deeper kemper parameters was essentially “how can I quickly undo this?”. If I wanted those kind of tones, I wouldn’t be using a tool to capture guitar amps as my starting point.

In the beginning I pretty much changed definition in everything, now I won’t touch em.

 

[OneEng]

Very interesting. So my ears might not be completely shit, then.

I suspect your ears are just fine .

Kemper IMO has made a gamble. They created an MK2 that is just a paint job (it uses the same DSP that is common across all Kempers, and a drop-in compatible upgraded applications processor {the one that runs the GUI} to make boot times better ... the same one that is in the Player btw). Their idea was simple. Create something that is identical (and uses the same code base) as MK1, and create an artificial reason that current MK1 users would upgrade (new profiling).

I believe that the main board in MK1 is literally identical to MK2. All A/D, D/A, features, processing, etc are all identical. This is why the MK2 Rack did not inherit built in WiFi from the MK1 Stage. Think about it. They already have this feature in the Stage AND Player (all models that came after the toaster and rack versions) for MK1. How does it make ANY sense that an MK2 Rack and MK2 Toaster WOULDN'T have this feature? It only makes sense if they didn't turn the main board for those products AT ALL and are still making the same main board for both.

On the Kemper forum there was one guy that swears up and down that he can hear the difference between his MK1 and MK2. If this is true, my guess is that it is because of part tolerances being different between the two units. Just like no 2 tube amps would sound "identical" even if they were the same model .... especially if one was new and the other had years of gigging on it.

I think that the company got lazy and arrogant (really arrogant IMO). First with the whole paid upgrade crap, and then they really jumped the shark with the fake MK2 release.

In the beginning I pretty much changed definition in everything, now I won’t touch em.

I changed this MORE in the beginning. I still tend to touch definition and clarity a little; however, much more subtle now. When I listen to my guitar in-the-mix (we multi-track all our gigs and practices), lots of times sounds that I have raised the definition and clarity up too much on sound abrasive.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

I suspect your ears are just fine .

Kemper IMO has made a gamble. They created an MK2 that is just a paint job (it uses the same DSP that is common across all Kempers, and a drop-in compatible upgraded applications processor {the one that runs the GUI} to make boot times better ... the same one that is in the Player btw). Their idea was simple. Create something that is identical (and uses the same code base) as MK1, and create an artificial reason that current MK1 users would upgrade (new profiling).

I believe that the main board in MK1 is literally identical to MK2. All A/D, D/A, features, processing, etc are all identical. This is why the MK2 Rack did not inherit built in WiFi from the MK1 Stage. Think about it. They already have this feature in the Stage AND Player (all models that came after the toaster and rack versions) for MK1. How does it make ANY sense that an MK2 Rack and MK2 Toaster WOULDN'T have this feature? It only makes sense if they didn't turn the main board for those products AT ALL and are still making the same main board for both.

On the Kemper forum there was one guy that swears up and down that he can hear the difference between his MK1 and MK2. If this is true, my guess is that it is because of part tolerances being different between the two units. Just like no 2 tube amps would sound "identical" even if they were the same model .... especially if one was new and the other had years of gigging on it.

I think that the company got lazy and arrogant (really arrogant IMO). First with the whole paid upgrade crap, and then they really jumped the shark with the fake MK2 release.

I changed this MORE in the beginning. I still tend to touch definition and clarity a little; however, much more subtle now. When I listen to my guitar in-the-mix (we multi-track all our gigs and practices), lots of times sounds that I have raised the definition and clarity up too much on sound abrasive.

That’s been my experience when tracking as well.

 

[Jarick]

It's all pure speculation but honestly @OneEng I think you may be right.

This whole Mk2 release smacks of a money grab. I do think they needed a Mk2 hardware unit probably because some of the old components may not be available. That leads to faster boot times and snappier performance. I'm fine with new colors on the Mk2 and holding the line on prices makes sense.

What makes zero sense is announcing new profiling tech that was nowhere near developed and ready for release. We're about 9 months past announcement and 6 months past the target date for the update. Clearly everything was rushed - if it even existed in the first place. So it sure looks like they publicly made this announcement in order to sell some Mk2 units.

And if they made a decision to hide v2 profiling behind a hardware pay wall that has nothing to do with actual DSP needs, the entire company can just go away completely. And before you call that a conspiracy, they did literally that exact same thing with Player upgrades.

 

[Enchilada Jones]

I suspect your ears are just fine .

Kemper IMO has made a gamble. They created an MK2 that is just a paint job (it uses the same DSP that is common across all Kempers, and a drop-in compatible upgraded applications processor {the one that runs the GUI} to make boot times better ... the same one that is in the Player btw). Their idea was simple. Create something that is identical (and uses the same code base) as MK1, and create an artificial reason that current MK1 users would upgrade (new profiling).

I believe that the main board in MK1 is literally identical to MK2. All A/D, D/A, features, processing, etc are all identical. This is why the MK2 Rack did not inherit built in WiFi from the MK1 Stage. Think about it. They already have this feature in the Stage AND Player (all models that came after the toaster and rack versions) for MK1. How does it make ANY sense that an MK2 Rack and MK2 Toaster WOULDN'T have this feature? It only makes sense if they didn't turn the main board for those products AT ALL and are still making the same main board for both.

On the Kemper forum there was one guy that swears up and down that he can hear the difference between his MK1 and MK2. If this is true, my guess is that it is because of part tolerances being different between the two units. Just like no 2 tube amps would sound "identical" even if they were the same model .... especially if one was new and the other had years of gigging on it.

I think that the company got lazy and arrogant (really arrogant IMO). First with the whole paid upgrade crap, and then they really jumped the shark with the fake MK2 release.

I changed this MORE in the beginning. I still tend to touch definition and clarity a little; however, much more subtle now. When I listen to my guitar in-the-mix (we multi-track all our gigs and practices), lots of times sounds that I have raised the definition and clarity up too much on sound abrasive.

I think, if Im understanding you correctly, you think MKii is nothing but a fraud. They wanted to increase sales so they are going to trick people into buying the same product with superficial changes only and telling us that it is greatly improved?

Do you really think they believe, in the current paradigm of internet tech geek fanboys, they could pull that off in any kind of profitable way?!? The scam would be revealed in a big loud mess and sales would fizzle out to bankruptcy. If it is a publicly traded company people responsible would be sued by the shareholders. There could even be jail time for them. It would be an instant disaster.

Conversely they would make much more profit by simply continuing to ride their own coat tails as long as they could offering no new changes/upgrades!

I think you must be having a bad day!

 

[paisleywookiee]

I think, if Im understanding you correctly, you think MKii is nothing but a fraud. They wanted to increase sales so they are going to trick people into buying the same product with superficial changes only and telling us that it is greatly improved?

Do you really think they believe, in the current paradigm of internet tech geek fanboys, they could pull that off in any kind of profitable way?!? The scam would be revealed in a big loud mess and sales would fizzle out to bankruptcy. If it is a publicly traded company people would be sued by the shareholders. It would be an instant disaster.

Conversely they would make much more profit buy simply continuing to ride their own coat tails offering no new changes/upgrades!

I think you must be having a bad day!

I mean, that's what it is though. Same DSP, different proc for running UI, fresh coat of paint. Without a v2 capture out yet, that's all it'll be. There's plenty of backlash, from fans and critics alike for the MkII release. Just look around.

Had they "Neural-ized" the UI, released v2 capturing at launch, I think they would have had a hit on their hands.