AxeFx vs Kemper vs real amplifier.

[Rogue]

For direct recording or FOH, if your priority is a bunch amps, get a Kemper.

If your priority is a bunch of effects, get an AxeFX.

If your amp(s) work just fine for you, get a Two Notes product.

 

[Rogue]

I think a lot of the overzealous defense of the AxeFX (and to a lesser degree, the Kemper) was because of the kind of criticisms the units received initially. The majority of the comments I read were along the lines of "They'll never get digital to sound like analog", "Tubes will always sound better than digital", or "I hate solid state crap." Most critics had never tried the unit, and so their comments were uninformed. Most of the fans of the new product just wanted people to listen for themselves, and not have a bunch of troglodytes poison the public's opinion before they had a chance to hear it for themselves.

It's the HEM syndrome (High End Modeler). It makes one behave in a cult-like way. It's really only a small percent that actually contract it, they just happen to be the loudest so it makes it appear larger than it really is.

 

[steve_k]

For direct recording or FOH, if your priority is a bunch amps, get a Kemper.

If your priority is a bunch of effects, get an AxeFX.

If your amp(s) work just fine for you, get a Two Notes product.

 

[James Lugo]

Read through the thread this morning, some pretty good stuff in here. So I guess a thing that has come to mind with a lot of this talk is where for me a lot of amp product demos can be a bit deceiving and here’s my feelings on it. So many times you listen to these amp product demos and there’s the main amp they are trying to sell or promote and literally nothing else going on. No vocals, no secondary guitars, no BGV, no keys, no layers etc. Usually nothing but programmed drums and DI bass. The most musically simplistic arrangement possible. All you hear is the amp in question insanely loud and usually way out of balance from what a real mix would be. No sonic competition. So you hear this and you think man that’s massive. It doesn’t give you a true perspective as to what the amp can really do when tested, meaning on a real record with real music and real arrangement. And this is not to say that this amp or that amp sim can’t do it, it’s just my opinion that listening to most amp product demos it can be very easy to be fooled. Personally I have struggled mixing records with amp sims, maybe the producer fell short, maybe the playing fell short, maybe I fell short. Who knows. Maybe the next sim record I mix will be astounding.

 

[ejecta]

For direct recording or FOH, if your priority is a bunch amps, get a Kemper.

If your priority is a bunch of effects, get an AxeFX.

If your amp(s) work just fine for you, get a Two Notes product.

Exactly!!

 

[zentman]

I'm gonna run opposite to the crowd here.

For direct recording-either
For a studio guy matching clients amps for the future-Kemper
For FOH-either
For live use in general-Axe II
For bringing you real amp with real amp tone or for recording your real amp-Two Notes.

 

[Shark Diver]

In the words of those that created it, "the Kemper is as good as it will get as it cannot get any better. It profiles exactly the signal fed to it and stores that impulse"

So, there's no way to improve on the way it captures profiles, or plays them back - EVER? Even in their videos they will run it twice for "refinement". Come on man, who makes a statement like that?

 

[Rogue]

So, there's no way to improve on the way it captures profiles, or plays them back - EVER? Even in their videos they will run it twice for "refinement". Come on man, who makes a statement like that?

The AxeFX crowd?

 

[squank]

So, there's no way to improve on the way it captures profiles, or plays them back - EVER? Even in their videos they will run it twice for "refinement". Come on man, who makes a statement like that?

The AxeFX crowd?

 

[ejecta]

So, there's no way to improve on the way it captures profiles, or plays them back - EVER? Even in their videos they will run it twice for "refinement". Come on man, who makes a statement like that?

The AxeFX crowd?

Noooooo......... we never see that.

 

[steve_k]

In the words of those that created it, "the Kemper is as good as it will get as it cannot get any better. It profiles exactly the signal fed to it and stores that impulse"

So, there's no way to improve on the way it captures profiles, or plays them back - EVER? Even in their videos they will run it twice for "refinement". Come on man, who makes a statement like that?

Why would I make that up? You can sift through these 10 pages on TGP. The Kemper folks make that statement. Quite frankly, I couldn't give two shits about it. Just stating the obvious between what the Kemper does and what the Axe does. Two totally different things.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... ?t=1248693

 

[Shark Diver]

In the words of those that created it, "the Kemper is as good as it will get as it cannot get any better. It profiles exactly the signal fed to it and stores that impulse"

So, there's no way to improve on the way it captures profiles, or plays them back - EVER? Even in their videos they will run it twice for "refinement". Come on man, who makes a statement like that?

Why would I make that up? You can sift through these 10 pages on TGP. The Kemper folks make that statement. Quite frankly, I couldn't give two shits about it. Just stating the obvious between what the Kemper does and what the Axe does. Two totally different things.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... ?t=1248693

I didn't think you made that up. I was astonished that any company, especially a tech one, would come out and say, "it cannot get any better". Really? So, 5 years years from now nothing could possibly be better than what it is today. There maybe a technology that isn't even invented/discovered yet. They are so bold to say that the signal feed can't be purer or more accurate? That the method used to capture can't improve? Or the method used to recall it can't improve? Just seemed like a pretty ignorant statement for them to make. These are the kind of things that turn people off to this digital revolution: "Our's is the greatest, and as good as it will ever get". Laughable.

 

[tfridgen]

In the words of those that created it, "the Kemper is as good as it will get as it cannot get any better. It profiles exactly the signal fed to it and stores that impulse"

So, there's no way to improve on the way it captures profiles, or plays them back - EVER? Even in their videos they will run it twice for "refinement". Come on man, who makes a statement like that?

Why would I make that up? You can sift through these 10 pages on TGP. The Kemper folks make that statement. Quite frankly, I couldn't give two shits about it. Just stating the obvious between what the Kemper does and what the Axe does. Two totally different things.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... ?t=1248693

I didn't think you made that up. I was astonished that any company, especially a tech one, would come out and say, "it cannot get any better". Really? So, 5 years years from now nothing could possibly be better than what it is today. There maybe a technology that isn't even invented/discovered yet. They are so bold to say that the signal feed can't be purer or more accurate? That the method used to capture can't improve? Or the method used to recall it can't improve? Just seemed like a pretty ignorant statement for them to make. These are the kind of things that turn people off to this digital revolution: "Our's is the greatest, and as good as it will ever get". Laughable.

That's not what he said, he said, his technology would not get any better. He didn't mention anyone elses.

 

[squank]

In the words of those that created it, "the Kemper is as good as it will get as it cannot get any better. It profiles exactly the signal fed to it and stores that impulse"

So, there's no way to improve on the way it captures profiles, or plays them back - EVER? Even in their videos they will run it twice for "refinement". Come on man, who makes a statement like that?

Why would I make that up? You can sift through these 10 pages on TGP. The Kemper folks make that statement. Quite frankly, I couldn't give two shits about it. Just stating the obvious between what the Kemper does and what the Axe does. Two totally different things.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... ?t=1248693

I didn't think you made that up. I was astonished that any company, especially a tech one, would come out and say, "it cannot get any better". Really? So, 5 years years from now nothing could possibly be better than what it is today. There maybe a technology that isn't even invented/discovered yet. They are so bold to say that the signal feed can't be purer or more accurate? That the method used to capture can't improve? Or the method used to recall it can't improve? Just seemed like a pretty ignorant statement for them to make. These are the kind of things that turn people off to this digital revolution: "Our's is the greatest, and as good as it will ever get". Laughable.

Well, that's not what he said. And I'm pretty sure he didn't have that meaning behind it, either. You also have to remember that English is not Mr. Kemper's first language, and there could be a translation issue.

To me, the comment from Kemper above was to reassure buyers that the product was already finished and ready for professional use when they released it.

I bought my AxeFX in early 2008, and back then it was definitely not ready for Prime Time. It was no walk in the park to dial in great patches with the early firmware. The improvements to the firmware were definitely a welcome advancement, but they were also a royal pain in the ass. EVERY time you updated the firmware, you lost all your saved level settings, so you had to go back and retool all your gig patches for unity gain. And even updating the FW was cumbersome, using a midi connector instead of just USB (a colossal FAIL on Fractal's part).

The Kemper does have expanded capabilities built in. So the unit WILL get better. Just not in the profiling department. The overall functionality of the unit will improve, and that is a good thing. But like Steve (and Christof Kemper) said, it already does its thing.

 

[steve_k]

Well for fucks sake....OK. Go back to arguing with your wives and or girlfriends. I'm out of this one!

 

[Shark Diver]

In the words of those that created it, "the Kemper is as good as it will get as it cannot get any better. It profiles exactly the signal fed to it and stores that impulse"

So, there's no way to improve on the way it captures profiles, or plays them back - EVER? Even in their videos they will run it twice for "refinement". Come on man, who makes a statement like that?

Why would I make that up? You can sift through these 10 pages on TGP. The Kemper folks make that statement. Quite frankly, I couldn't give two shits about it. Just stating the obvious between what the Kemper does and what the Axe does. Two totally different things.

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... ?t=1248693

I didn't think you made that up. I was astonished that any company, especially a tech one, would come out and say, "it cannot get any better". Really? So, 5 years years from now nothing could possibly be better than what it is today. There maybe a technology that isn't even invented/discovered yet. They are so bold to say that the signal feed can't be purer or more accurate? That the method used to capture can't improve? Or the method used to recall it can't improve? Just seemed like a pretty ignorant statement for them to make. These are the kind of things that turn people off to this digital revolution: "Our's is the greatest, and as good as it will ever get". Laughable.

Well, that's not what he said. And I'm pretty sure he didn't have that meaning behind it, either. You also have to remember that English is not Mr. Kemper's first language, and there could be a translation issue.

To me, the comment from Kemper above was to reassure buyers that the product was already finished and ready for professional use when they released it.

I bought my AxeFX in early 2008, and back then it was definitely not ready for Prime Time. It was no walk in the park to dial in great patches with the early firmware. The improvements to the firmware were definitely a welcome advancement, but they were also a royal pain in the ass. EVERY time you updated the firmware, you lost all your saved level settings, so you had to go back and retool all your gig patches for unity gain. And even updating the FW was cumbersome, using a midi connector instead of just USB (a colossal FAIL on Fractal's part).

The Kemper does have expanded capabilities built in. So the unit WILL get better. Just not in the profiling department. The overall functionality of the unit will improve, and that is a good thing. But like Steve (and Christof Kemper) said, it already does its thing.

Whatever, but to say that how you capture a profile can never get better makes no sense to me. I don't care, but I would imagine 5-10 years from now there will be much better ways to profile an amp.

 

[dooredge]

Kemper's statement about his tech was actually in this thread: https://www.thegearpage.net/board/showth ... st15283094

 

[Shark Diver]

I'm out. I'm going to go grab a beer with Steve.

 

[IntenseJim]

Kemper kemper boys....I mean temper temper

 

[Shiny_Surface]

The first time I saw the term "Kemper Tantrum" used I lol'd.