YouTube: Kemper Profiling Amplifier KPA Review

It's funny how on product K's forum Clark is labelled as an "Axe Fx II" user when all he has is a G1 product. BTW I don't feel he's saying the produkt K is krap (hehe) either, like posted by transgenre guitar player. All he said is that he suited him less well, no ? But not that the sound his bad. Lots of insecurity and bias there. That being said, I like many samples I heard of produkt K myself and I wouldn't mind owning one. I don't understand that need to choose a camp
 
fremen said:
All he said is that he suited him less well, no ? But not that the sound his bad.
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Well...when Clark keeps on advising not to buy the unit, and get an Axe-Fx instead...or a real amp. That the Kemper "has no purpose". Honestly, is anyone surprised if this would create a little Axe-Kemper fight? I'd think that it was pretty obvious, it's an outright invitation. ;)
 
I have many subscribers on my YouTube channel. This video is meant for those people who care what MY opinion is. All I'm giving is MY opinion and I think I made it clear in the video.

IMO it's funny that I posted this thread at several different forums and nowhere else was there any discussion on whether I'm biased except the Kemper and Axe-Fx forum. People that are EMOTIONALLY attached to these products have a need to over analyze what I said. The truth is simply that I made that video at 3AM and I was sleepy as hell. If I said "just get a real amp or the axe-fx" I'm clearly not stating it as a scientific fact.
 
If you posted this on the Kemper forum, you've got "balls of steel". (Doh, someone already used that joke).
 
I really like the KPA. Had it for six months or so. I didnt look at it like a competing product to the axe as most KPA lovers/haters do. Based only on it's merits as a standalone product, does it rock-yes. Would I buy another instead of a single tube head, yup. If that was what I was replacing. I finally sold mine because it wasnt enough to completely back up the axe2. It is slowly being developed, and I guess every product on the planet develops slowly compared to the axe2. Hasnt been a noticeable upgrade in months. Foot controller is still vaporware. As wonderful as it is to have 1000+ profiles out there, it is like finding a needle in the haystack to find the ones I want. No good software for it yet-as far as management.

The boot time is better now-should have seen it in the old firmware. Importing profiles used to require a boot as well.

Best thing that could happen to this product-line6 buyout. Put the line6 software tools, which are really pretty nice, behind a decent product-and you might have a winner. On the flip side, that would take line6 from lower end mass producted mediocrity to a higher end product. Insert the kemper brains into a line6 floor pod form factor, and rack form factor...win/win from this mans arm chair.
 
Clark Kent said:
Nope I'm not on that forum. :) I actually haven't even read what they've said and I plan not to do so.
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I was on that forum; checked it every day like all my product forums. Lots of angry folks over there. A lot of folks need to claim it as good as the axe, and I guess I get that whole "product loyalty where you spend your dollars" thing. But for a former owner of both, and a user of TGP, KPA and Axe forums, I saw them as individual products and the one way bashing got old. To the point that I really didnt like getting on that forum. Deleted all my links to it the other day when I got the delivery notification-the dude on the other end of the sale got it. I think it could be something really cool when it grows up a little more. It certainly isnt bad now, and not as limited as the 11R(had that too), but it has a ways to go. And in it's current form physically cannot begin to compete with the axe. There just arent enough buttons on the beast to do what my standard layout is now-and I am nowhere near as complex and most axe users.

Flip that around-does it blow every mini head out of the water-sure. If you want to replace a heavy amp head, and modest amount of pedals etc and save your back-it's a great answer and cheap considering. Better than the 11R-I think so. Better than the HD500-I couldnt find much to like about the HD500(lots of folks love this thing too!). KPA is easy, sounds good, small, and should be a solid platform moving forward. As it sits, it just isnt set up to replace an axe. Nothing wrong with a silver medal.

Ahh crap, rambling again. Need coffee. THe main thing I wanted to express-please don't let this forum turn into the bash fest that that forum often is. I could throw something in here about the KPA being green with envy, but that would just be corny.
 
I thought that the review was extremely straight forward. As a matter of fact I thought that it showed off a lot of what was good about the thing....I suppose that anything that shows the other side (meaning honest limitations/issues) is considered just being a hater rather than being frickin' honest.

Clark's been around here for quite a while and he has his own way of doing things and it works great for him. He's the first person that ever explained tone matching in a way that I understood years ago and showed how to do it with some pretty impressive results. In my opinion based solely on what I've seen from the guy he knows how to make gear work. The video is so simple and straight forward that there isn't a whole lot of room for speculation or anything. I mean he turns a knob and you can hear what it does....good and bad. The tone block section is one area that has always been glossed over in other 'reviews' and it's EXACTLY how I thought it would be. It's a static EQ; once you capture the profile you are pretty much stuck with that other than basically putting a 3 band graphic EQ in there. This is one area that the AxeFXII's modeling is clearly an advantage. Of course that would be seen as being a fanboy type comment I'm sure. :)

Clark was also one of the more critical owners of the AxeFX a while back. Like I said before, I trust his opinion immensely because there are far too many people out there (including myself in many cases) that will gravitate towards the positives and just kind of gloss over or ignore the negatives of something. He doesn't do that. Being critical, tough, thorough....whatever you want to call it is something that we need more of. Too many times we'll see or hear about something and only get a small portion of the story. It isn't the definitive, end all, be all review, but he makes some very important points that a potential buyer should be aware of and can at least have the ability to see them rather than be surprised about them later on only to be disappointed.

And to be honest nothing in there that he pointed out as shortcomings was enough to make me say that it's junk and I wouldn't ever use one. I think that for the most part I could get around everything in there because it's just like any other piece of gear; you have to work at it to get it to sound how you want it. What it did for me was point that out.

I also agree with Carydad in regards to the tons of profiles out there. I think that it'd probably be faster for me to just make a preset rather than try to audition a thousand of them to try to find one that sounds like what I'm looking for. I don't have a single guitar amp on hand anymore and relying on the work of others means that I'm relying on their ears, their tastes and their ability to capture it exactly how I want it. That will be fine for a lot of people and more power to them. I'd rather have my success at dialing in a patch in my own hands.
 
Thanks for the overly kind words shasha! :D

I think people don't always realize the cultural differences. I grew up in Finland and Germany and generally speaking both of those countries are "serious" countries. The stereotype is that we don't have a sense of humor right? :D I think that is why I don't like to sugar code anything. If I had bought the Kemper I would've been disappointed. F.ex. I had never heard about the boot up time or performance mode not being available. Those alone would make me disappointed. After that... the fact that the profiling process isn't flawless. My honest review would be that the Kemper isn't ready to take over the world. If everything worked AS PROMISED that could be possible.
 
loulou said:
and so what ?
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Just supporting the OP and adding a match demonstrating that the TM process is indeed pretty accurate. He prefers his method and many question his opinion based on the use of a camera mic. Here is a clear example of equivilant type tones. The Kemper user's is EQ'd with more bass but that doesn't discount the fact that the tones are on par.


That's "so what". Nice to see you took the time to sign up to the forum just to enter this thread. :) I would have commented respectfully over on the Kemper forum but they lock the forum to outsiders.
 
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Clark Kent said:
But I'm awake now and could easily say it again. :D
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Sure, because you got "balls of steel" right? :lol

I am still not convinced about your review being that honest though :? since you did not answer if you tried to fix your 125hz issue with EQ and still not provided the reference amp clip for the comparison. Also when you say that the KPA is not able to do high gain properly, would not be more fair to say that you were not able to do it instead? I tell you this because I have been checking videos and reviews from some time since I might get one and other users seem to get good results with high gain amps.
 
carydad said:
Best thing that could happen to this product-line6 buyout. Put the line6 software tools, which are really pretty nice, behind a decent product-and you might have a winner. On the flip side, that would take line6 from lower end mass producted mediocrity to a higher end product. Insert the kemper brains into a line6 floor pod form factor, and rack form factor...win/win from this mans arm chair.
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I know you were making a serious comment here... but that's pretty funny... no need to say more... Who's taking bets on how long before this thread gets locked out? :D
 
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