Axe FX II and Kemper Profiler (Yes, another one...please read!)

If I never read the word "Kemper" on this forum again, i would definitely not miss it.

As I wouldn't miss any forum users that get banned for disrespecting Fractal.
 
mbrown3 said:
Well, thanks to ethomas, I will be able to try them side by side and A/B them.
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Since this thread is getting a bit sludgy, I'd recommend that you request it be locked. Then after you've done your comparison, you could request that it be re-opened, so that you could post your thoughts about both units. Just a thought.
 
I did a comparison about a month ago. A buddy brought his KPA over and I borrowed it for a week. Side by side they are very close...Try this...use your ears....blindfold yourself and see if you can tell a difference through an FRFR cab. For our purposes we used a CLR and the difference was not night and day. That was on 17.X I would like to borrow it again and compare FW18. I got even closer when we tone matched some profiles.
 
FractalAudio said:
The difference is I'm not hiding behind some fake persona pretending to be a legitimate user. I'm not sending fake users into forums and necrobumping threads to keep discussion of our products on the first page. I'm not buying FB likes and then bragging about the number of people who like our page. I'm right here in the open. You don't like me, fine. But I don't lie and I don't play the fucking games. Our number one rule is "do the right thing".
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Not to mention Cliff can throw down with peanut butter and ramen like nobody else. That's all I need to know to trust him completely.
 
JayCM800XL said:
If I never read the word "Kemper" on this forum again, i would definitely not miss it.

As I wouldn't miss any forum users that get banned for disrespecting Fractal.
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I just don't understand why folks get their panties in such a wad about this stuff. I had a Kemper. It sounded very good. I still liked the Axe better so the Kemper went back. I am not condemning the Kemper or it's enthusiasts - I just made a consumer choice. While I had it, I traveled the Kemper forum and there were a lot of helpful folks and great profiles available for free. Mr. Kemper was active on the forum and was helpful. Heck, even Cliff has stated that the Kemper is a good box. Kemper seems similarly dedicated to expanding their product line and enhancing the firmware pretty regularly just like Cliff - that's a remarkable level of value add coming after the sale. There really isn't much more to it than that for me.
 
hippietim said:
I just don't understand why folks get their panties in such a wad about this stuff. I had a Kemper. It sounded very good. I still liked the Axe better so the Kemper went back. I am not condemning the Kemper or it's enthusiasts - I just made a consumer choice. While I had it, I traveled the Kemper forum and there were a lot of helpful folks and great profiles available for free. Mr. Kemper was active on the forum and was helpful. Heck, even Cliff has stated that the Kemper is a good box. Kemper seems similarly dedicated to expanding their product line and enhancing the firmware pretty regularly just like Cliff - that's a remarkable level of value add coming after the sale. There really isn't much more to it than that for me.
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My panties are fine, thank you! I just don't give a fork about the motherflower Kemper and it's owners coming to FRACTAL FRIGGIN FORUM and rudely questioning our most gracious hosts about their business tactics and ethics.

If I wanted to waste my time reading NON FRACTAL related topics I wouldn't be here.

And saying: "They're both great units, blah, blah, blah..." doesn't make anyone sound equanimous or wise, au contraire... ambivalent and easily swayed seems more likely.

But carry on, I'm JUST an Axe Fx owner in the Fractal Audio community forum...
 
Chris@AxeFxTutorials said:
understood and agreed generally. i don't think i've ever seen cliff or anyone at FAS use such "french" language towards this topic. but i can definitely empathize; it's his forum and he can express himself freely; i love the honesty, which is of course different than libel/slander. when i'm doing something right, playing by all the rules, really trying to uplift a community or people in general, and then someone else is doing a similar task but cutting corners, cheating, or any other non-righteous means of gaining customers, attention or whatever it is.
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I'm French and although I use the F word on a regular basis, I always assumed it was an English word, go figure.... :mrgreen Just a joke to lighten-up the mood a bit, if that is at all possible...
 
JayCM800XL said:
My panties are fine, thank you! I just don't give a fork about the motherflower Kemper and it's owners coming to FRACTAL FRIGGIN FORUM and rudely questioning our most gracious hosts about their business tactics and ethics.

If I wanted to waste my time reading NON FRACTAL related topics I wouldn't be here.

And saying: "They're both great units, blah, blah, blah..." doesn't make anyone sound equanimous or wise, au contraire... ambivalent and easily swayed seems more likely.

But carry on, I'm JUST an Axe Fx owner in the Fractal Audio community forum...
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You can just not read the threads.
 
<rant>

Why some of you make a religion out of products? We are guitar players who live in the best possible century regarding guitar amplification technology - hey, a KPA or an AxeFx were both top notch units which can make things so much easier for us to play with. And what are we doing? We "talk" about it more than we play the damn thing and make music content with it.
If somebody need to ban people just because they mention KPA in their post which would be equal in their understanding of being disrespectful to Fractal, I would say "make a break" - sorry, this is overcooking the situation

It's the same stupid stuff going on when people stoned me of naming an amp "fart" some weeks ago, those folks called me an asshole, now they are very very quiet after seeing my clips, my sounds, my patches I did for Fw17.03 and Fw18.00b. If I would be what they claimed to know, why I'm still make some valuable contributions for the community? The same thing going on which makes me pretty sad......


it's a piece of hardware, I call it an art form, sometimes I disagree with someting, sometimes I being unhappy, most time I'm glad about the great work FAS did, which inspires me to do what I love! :D

just my 0.002 cents

</rant>
 
All you guys expressing concern about people getting religious or overly heated in discussion are missing something very important here: someone has to win.
 
PacoCasanovas said:
It's the same stupid stuff going on when people stoned me of naming an amp "fart" some weeks ago, those folks called me an asshole, now they are very very quiet after seeing my clips, my sounds, my patches I did for Fw17.03 and Fw18.00b. If I would be what they claimed to know, why I'm still make some valuable contributions for the community? The same thing going on which makes me pretty sad......
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If you're referring to me, I must say that was probably one of the harshest things I've ever said to anyone on a forum, maybe even in life. At the time, I felt you were acting like and exhibiting characteristics of an a-hole, calling someone else's hard work a derogatory name. Remember I did back you up regarding that whole XL/non-XL rant when you were with a client.

But again at the the time, you acted a certain way and I reacted a certain way.

Honestly I have not seen any of the clips, sounds, and patches you are referring to. So if you are alluding to me being quiet about that, I wouldn't know how to be any louder.

People can change. Perhaps what was said in that "fart" thread inspired you to change. To offer things instead of just stating the negative. Whatever the reason, it's always great when people give. Regardless of what happened in the past, if someone is now uplifting a community rather than just being negative, that can be appreciated in the moment.
 
holy crap!

I blinked and this thread got 10 pages deeper.

tl/dr... good luck picking your gear.
 
Chris@AxeFxTutorials said:
If you're referring to me, I must say that was probably one of the harshest things I've ever said to anyone on a forum, maybe even in life. At the time, I felt you were acting like and exhibiting characteristics of an a-hole, calling someone else's hard work a derogatory name. Remember I did back you up regarding that whole XL/non-XL rant when you were with a client.

But again at the the time, you acted a certain way and I reacted a certain way.

Honestly I have not seen any of the clips, sounds, and patches you are referring to. So if you are alluding to me being quiet about that, I wouldn't know how to be any louder.

People can change. Perhaps what was said in that "fart" thread inspired you to change.
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Nope Chris, I'm not changed myself - I'm a very polite and normal guy, always was. People who were at the german axefest last year knows that, so does the staff a G66 and most of other business partners I'm working for the last 17yrs. I started at the bottom of the reapir business for musicians, later worked for many companies, distributors before starting my own business.

My post didn't told this to people, it was just frustration and neither you or Cliff deserverd it because it's not your or Cliffs fault. - true. I'm / I was in a very dificult situation right now or then, very much things going sideways, which might explain it, but I don't defend myself here. It was too much overcooking anger at that point and it was wrong doing it at that point. anyway....you calling me something ugly was not the whole point - it was what happend afterwards....it was a verbal stoning and even thise who had the power to stop it and the knowledge and wisdom to do it, did nothing.....they want it happen. :(

PS, some additional info: My business has nothing to do with Axe support - today I'm providing tube amp service and individual modification work for musicians, backline rental companies and distributions (recently providing tech service&support for all customers of the swiss distributor of Friedman Amplification, just in case you need a reference) and doing pro rig support - building racks and pedalboards for pro customers. So I also see some AxeFx units from time to time - and regarding the XL-story, I only backuped the meaning of my customer and my angryness copying over 30 patches by hand, each parameter step by step....due of XL/Mk2 incompatibility....

My main job is to set the stuff up noise and hum free, to fix tube amps all brands, even to fix old non-supported fx devices such as Eventide, Lexicon or the TC M5000 unit, were I seatch for spares around the globe and found a company in florida which could provide me certain dynamic RAM chips, nobody has ....etc. This is my main job....

Beside fixing lighting gear for PRG switzerland 2-3 days a week.....so the axefx has a very little role in the puzzle. I wish it would be more, but it seems most guys do not touch the advanced parameter anyway..... ;)

Maybe I acted like a a-hole for some people when reading my post back then not knowing anything about me. That's fine. But it was not only you - there were other people who believed it's okey to trow stones against me, not knowing shit. My rant goes not in your direction only.....
I know that you are an important guy for the axe community, that's all I have to know. I read some of your "other" posts to, but I don't need to comment everything. ;)

Regarding the patches, the clips....they were most read for weeks. Search for Super666 The Evil Super Reverb (was even on the FAS facebook page, thx to M@) my Bassman ODS Patch, the ODS102 or the latest ODS FORD MUSTANG Fw18 thread. I know my tones, I can even play and explain them....and all these folks who think they could trow stones against me back then are pretty quiet now....

I'm not give myself a better name here, it's just the same sound from people who think someone who are not with FAS is against FAS. This is like a very fundametalism religious argumentation. if you are not with the lord, you're against him. This is about a piece of hardware and somebody who has his doubts or needs more infos or whatever is not automatically disrespect FAS.
My post was somehow disrespectful and I feel not very good to choose that way I did back then. But I did and I can stand with it saying this was a mistake, which makes it not better or worser... I did, simple. Now I give them my highest credits for the new firmware and you all can hear why - it's got the same charcteristics and structure as I know it from the amps...which is a very good sign. I always posted examples......never only spread out words.


I know you're a great guy, that's why I spend so much words - otherwise I wouldn't do anything....
 
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I appreciate it Paco, even though it may not have been necessary for either of us to type all that we did above haha! I saw past the words you typed in a few threads over the years and know you mean well and do good work. That a-hole instance was just a moment in time for me.

I think everyone here has some "other posts." We are human (except for one guy who recently alluded that he isn't). I just think it's a shame that anyone is judged solely on those 1-5% of their posts compared to 95-99% positive and helpful.

Oh well moving forward yes?
 
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The ears have it, and they are all different... As usual.
And I want everything guitar related (what guitar player doesn't?), but... I am satisfied with what I have now.
So the only real winner in this shootout Im guessing will be the one who is satisfied with what they are using currently, like me...
BTW I can make the Axe sound good or bad just by adjustments alone, as Im sure you can the Kemper. And one mans patch can be another mans trash.
So for me, unless you are able to program both of them to exceed what "I" like in both, its a wasted test sound wise.
Thanks for the effort in any case but the point still exists for me..
Why? Because both units can sound great, have great features blah blah blah... I get it...
So it reverts to, for me, once again, what you are currently satisfied with...
So Im expecting no surprises here in other words from my end of the pond.
But test away ;)
 
The only people in my opinion that have a legitimate reason to be heated in this debate are Cliff and Cristoff (sp?). They have a direct stake and are direct competitors for better or worse and whether it's nice or it's not. Everyone else is an end user and whether someone buys 10 KPA's or 20 AxeFXII's has no direct impact on their livelihoods or well beings. Being pissy about it is stupid.

We're all allegedly guitarists. That makes us musicians. We should be discussing music and not measuring our genitals. Basically anything that is not factual is useless and anything that is agenda driven is destructive. We're supposed to be making music, not become professional assholes.

As for the OP, this is really, really simple. Make a list with two rows (AxeFXII and KPA) and three columns made of "what I absolutely need", "what would be nice to have", and "deal breakers". Don't even look at the capabilities or features of either unit, make the list based on actual things that fit your situation. Be specific, be thorough and don't forget to include things that seem trivial.


Then go through each one of those and make check-marks in each row for each column and the device that fits the bill is the better choice. Even better yet rather than use check-marks you can weight the answers with a 1, 3, 9 scale of importance if that helps to create a clearer picture.

In the event of a tie I'd probably go with cheaper one. Just be sure that when you are calculating cost don't make the same mistake that a lot of us have made which is to leave out things like controllers, racks, power conditioners, monitors, DI boxes, preamps, mics, bacon flavored ice cream, etc. Etc. includes cab packs and profiles if they are going to be necessary to do what you need.

Remember that this is your money and you will be the one playing it. And I'm sorry, but every single one of these types of conversations regardless of how genuine or legitimate will turn into a useless, stupid, shit fest because it is the internet and people don't possess the ability to communicate properly through the text on a screen for a ton of reasons, but mostly because communication is 80% non-verbal....we're missing about 40,000,000% of what people are really saying by the time it gets to the 361st post. Add anonymity and stupidity and agenda and the phase of the moon and the productive life of a thread like this is measured in nanoseconds. That's not your fault, it's just reality. Welcome to the communication age where we can do everything except communicate. :)

Put even more bluntly every question you may have had has been answered to death hundreds if not thousands of times on a lot of other forums already. There is no revealing or undiscovered information that would be uncovered by asking again. That's not me trying to be rude (even though I am sure that I succeeded at it). My point is that we all know what the answers are going to be, we know what is going to happen, yet we all jump right in and do it again.

At the end of the day just pick what fits your needs and don't worry about "what if's" and "what could be's" because if you find something that fits the bill and fulfills your requirements it's the right choice regardless of whether it has all the bells and whistles and shit that something else does.
 
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