Kemper Profiling Amplifier Rack BK Black + Remote Control, Profiling Amplifier Rack BK Black User manual

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KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER

The deeper view & reference manual 1.5

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tice. (Rev October 5, 2012 12:27 PM).

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Table Of Contents

Reference Manual

8 The deeper view

Volume Master/Output Section Volumes and Volume Link Output Sources

17 Stack Section

Ampliﬁer EQ Cabinet

22 Stomp Section

Wah Stomps (orange) The Wah Parameters Compressor and Noise Gate Stomps (cyan) Noise Gate Distortion Stomps (red) Chorus and Modulation Stomps (blue) Vintage Chorus Phaser and Flanger (purple) Phaser Flanger

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER4

Equalizer Stomps (yellow) Graphic Equalizer Studio Equalizer Metal Equalizer Stereo Widener Eect Loops (white)

44 Eects

Delay Reverb

50 Rig

Tagging Snapshots Pedals

53 System

LCD/HW Setup Pedal Settings Date and Time Version Information

56 Pedals, Program Changes and MIDI

Expression Pedals Switches Double Switches Operation of a MIDI remote pedal

60 External Storage

Managing large amounts of rigs

67 MIDI parameter documentation

Index

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER6

Reference Manual

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER8

The deeper view

Welcome to the reference part of the KPA documentation. We assume that you have already read the ﬁrst

part of the documentation (“The Basics”) by now, and therefore know your way around the product fairly

well. Most of this section is dedicated to the description of all the parameters for the Stomp modules and

eects; however, we will also provide additional details about certain aspects of the product and try to

give you a deeper understanding of how things work in our ampliﬁer.

Volume

The VOLUME knob on the right side of the lower panel is the individual volume of the currently-selected

rig. Note that this parameter does not drive the sound into any power amp distortion, so it will not change

the character of the sound, only the volume. The setting is stored with the rig.

 If you want to modify the overall volume of your Kemper Proﬁling Ampliﬁer, use the MASTER VOLUME in-

stead.

The KPA is designed so that every proﬁle, distortion or compression will produce approximately the same

loudness, thereby avoiding any extreme volume drops or peaks when you browse through the rigs. All the

factory rigs come with VOLUME set to the center position, which is the unity or default volume.

If you feel that clean rigs sound softer or louder than distorted rigs, please don’t try to ﬁx it by adjust-

ing the volume of the rigs! Instead, you should readjust the “Clean Sens” parameter in the INPUT menu to

match your guitar to the KPA.

Try using the VOLUME knob to adjust the level of each rig to suit a particular song in a set list, rather than

to balance the level between all the rigs. Be sure to store the rig afterwards, if you want the volume change

to be permanent for that speciﬁc rig.

THE DEEPER VIEW 9

Master/Output Section

In the Output Section you ﬁnd all settings that control the physical audio outputs of the Proﬁler. You can

set individual volumes and route dierent signals individually to several outputs. The whole Output section

settings can be stored as a local preset, in the way you have learned already with the stomps and eects.

 Note: The volume level settings are not stored with the local output presets, as switching the presets

would result in dangerous volume jumps.

 Note: The settings of the Output section are not stored per rig, but stay global settings. In the Proﬁlers ter-

minology: They are locked and cannot be unlocked.

Volumes and Volume Link

In the ﬁrst page of the Output menu you ﬁnd individual volumes for dierent physical outputs.

 Note: You will not ﬁnd a volume for the Spdif output, because it is a good habit to keep the digital Spdif

signal at its full level.

When you press the correspondent button on top of the display, you can link or unlink the respective vol-

ume to the Master Volume Knob. Any volume that is linked will be controlled by the Master Volume Knob,

without having to enter the Output menu again. You can link more than one volume to the Master Volume

Knob. If you turn Master Volume, these volumes are adjusted relatively to each other. All Volumes can still

be controlled individually by the soft knobs in the Output menu.

An obvious live application is to unlink the Main Output that is going to the main mixing desk of the venue.

Now you can change the volume of your Monitor signal or Headphone while the important main signal re-

mains unchanged.

 Note: When more than one volume is linked to the Master Volume Knob, and the highest volume has

reached its maximum, then softer volumes cannot be increased any more by the Master Volume Knob. This

is a necessary technical rule to preserve the relative volume settings. If one volume stays too soft, then

change the setting individually in the display.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER10

 Note: Linking or unlinking a volume never causes volume jumps. So it’s save to change the link settings

even live on stage.

Output Sources

In the second page of the Output menu you can modify the routing to the physical outputs, or in other

words, select the signal sources for the outputs. If you feel that every output delivers the signal that you

need, then feel free to skip this chapter. The factory settings for the signal sources cover most of the regu-

lar applications.

Each output can tap many dierent points in the signal ﬂow. Here is a summarized description of signal

sources, that the outputs can tap. Not that not all sources are available for all outputs. The following listing

is not necessary the order of appearance but the best order for description.

O Self-explanatory – the output is muted.

Git Analog (Only available and default setting for the Direct Output).

The pure and clean instrument signal is sent to the Direct Output by an analog splitter, no AD/DA conversion is taking place. The analog signal level is the same as on the instrument input. Useful for reamping or running a second amp in parallel.

Git + Processing (Not available for Spdif Output).

Similar to “Git Analog” but AD conversion is taking place. This puts the noise gate from the input section and the volume pedal in the signal path (if volume pedal is set to “Pre Stomps”). Note: The volume control of the respective outputs will have no impact on the source settings “Git”, because they are made to reproduce the original instrument volume.

Git Studio Similar to “Git + Processing”, but here the instrument signal is sent out at studio

level, which is much louder as the original level. Thus no separate DI box is needed to record the pure instrument for reamping purposes. Since the instrument volume is high, the recommended leveling of “Clean Sense” in the Input Section is important.

Stack This signal is tapped directly behind the “Stack” section and does not include any

post amp eects.

THE DEEPER VIEW 11

Mod Stereo (Not available for Direct Output and Monitor Output, as these are mono outputs).

This stereo signal is tapped directly behind the MOD section and contains the whole signal, but without Delay and Reverb.

Mod Mono Delivers a mono mix of the “Mod Stereo” signal.

Mod Left (or Right for Direct Output).

Delivers only one side of the stereo signal of “Mod Stereo” . This will sound similar to Mod Mono but often less dense, depending what stereo eects are used.

Master Stereo (Default setting for Main Output and Spdif Output, not available for Direct Output

and Monitor Output, as these are mono outputs). Represents the full signal with all eects in stereo.

Master Mono (Default setting for Monitor Output).

Delivers a mono mix of the “Master Stereo” signal.

Master Left (or Right for Direct Output).

Delivers only one side of the stereo signal of “Mod Stereo” . This will sound similar to Master Mono but often less dense, depending what stereo eects are used.

Delay/Reverb wet

The following three settings are only available for the Spdif Output. It allows you to simultaneously record

the pure instrument signal for reamping purposes (as described in “Git Studio”) and a mono ampliﬁer

signal on your digital audio workstation. The pure instrument signal appears on the left side of the digital

Spdif signal, the amp signal on the right.

Git / Stack The left signal is the pure instrument, with noise gate and volume pedal (if volume

Git / Mod Left The same as above, but with the right signal taken from the left channel of the MOD

Git / Mod Mono The same as above, but with the right signal taken from the mono mix of the MOD

(Only available for Main Output and Spdif Output). Only the wet stereo eect signal of the Delay and Reverb are sent to the Output. If no Delay or Reverb is active, the output will remain silent.

pedal is set to “Pre Stomps”). The right signal side will carry the Stack signal and does not include any post amp eects

section

section.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER12

Now after the straight explanations of the output sources, here are some useful applications and com-

ments for your inspiration:

The Direct Output acts as an analog buer amp for the instrument input, when set to “Git Analog” – the

default setting. It qualiﬁes well for reamping purposes as it provides a ground lift switch, as well as the

other analog outputs. Try dierent combinations of ground lifts for best hum and noise suppression. One

ground lift switch should always be o (that means “grounded”). Often you get best results if the Direct

Output is the one connection with no ground lift.

The Output Source setting for Direct Output is only active, when not in Proﬁler Mode and no analog ef-

fects loop (Stomp Loop) is active.

This can be used for a trick when you are proﬁling ampliﬁers: When you set Direct Output Source to “O”,

you can mute the reference ampliﬁer by simply switching from Proﬁler mode to Browser mode. Back to

Proﬁler Mode your reference amp will play again.

Tip: the reference amp can also be muted while you stay in the Proﬁler mode. Simply press the ON/OFF

button while you listen to the proﬁle (setting “Kemper Amp”) to mute the reference amp. This way you

can listen to the pure proﬁle by your monitor speakers without having your reference amp play along. But

be aware that a valid A/B comparison of the original amp and the residual proﬁle is only possible when

your reference amp is playing even when you listen to the proﬁle, because muting the reference amp will

change the acoustic environment.

Use the Direct Output or any other output at setting “Git” for connecting an external instrument tuner.

The Monitor Output allows to run the amp sound without virtual cabinet, while other outputs still contain

the virtual cabinet. Engage “MonitorCabO” to switch o the cabinet. Any Output Source can be applied

to the Monitor Output with “MonitorCabO”. Of course the “Git” settings remain unaected by “Monitor-

CabO”. Read more about the Monitor features in the chapter “Monitor”.

The Main Output at Source setting “Delay/Reverb wet” will deliver the wet stereo eect signal of the Delay

and Reverb only. If you set the Direct Output to “Stack” or “Mod”, which is the complementary dry signal,

than you can send your amp signal through three cables to the front mixing desk. Your front mixer now

has the ability to mix the eect signal to the dry signal according to the actual room ambience of the ven-

ue. This method is called the Wet/Dry/Wet setup. Your mixer will love you for that!

And still you can use the Monitor Output separately from all that for your individual stage sound!

THE DEEPER VIEW 13

If you don’t need the Monitor Output on stage, you can expand the Wet/Dry/Wet setup to a four cable

Wet/Dry/Dry/Wet setup. Set the Monitor Output to “Mod Left” and the Direct Output to “Mod Right”.

Both Monitor and Direct Output form a new stereo sum, containing everything but Delay and Reverb. Now

you can send two stereo sums to the front mixing desk, where the Delay and Reverb signals are separated

from the non-reverberant eects (X and MOD).

Please take care that the cabinet for the Monitor Output is not switched o (“MonitorCabO” not en-

gaged). Also the volumes for Monitor and Direct Output should be the same.

If you want to control the volume of this setup, then link all participating volumes to the Master Volume

knob by the link buttons described above (Volume Link).

You can also setup an individually controllable stereo output separately from the Main Output: Set Monitor

Output Source to “Master Left” and Direct Output Source to “Master Right”. Link both volumes of Direct

and Monitor Output to the Master Volume Knob, and unlink Main Volume. Now you have a stereo monitor

signal, controllable by the Master Volume Knob, independent from the Main Output, that goes to the main

mixing desk.

Please be aware that you cannot disable the virtual cabinet for the Direct Output as well, as this function is

reserved for the Monitor Output only.

Monitor Output

The Monitor Output is dedicated to deliver a signal for your own monitoring on stage, unless it is not

“abused” for other purposes described above in the Chapter “Output Sources”.

You can connect the Monitor Output to a linear speaker or a side wedge on stage. If the speaker has no

power amp, you will need a separate power amp to drive the speaker.

The Monitor Output is also made for connecting it to a guitar speaker cabinet. Also in this case you will

need a power amp to drive the speaker. You can use any power amp, from tube amps to digital amps.

When you use a tube amp, please connect the Monitor Output to the eect return of the tube amp. This

way you only use the power amp portion of your tube amp, while the pre amp is not in the signal ﬂow. The

pre amp would otherwise color the sound.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER14

Running your Proﬁler through a guitar speaker cabinet is a special case, that needs some more explana-

tion:

The guitar speaker is a special speaker, as it is only capable of transmitting a limited frequency response.

Listening to music through a guitar speaker is not fun, due to that reason. But for guitar playing, espe-

cially for distorted sounds it is a must, as it damps the harsh high frequencies of the distortion. The lower

frequency components are heavily colored by the guitar speaker. This is why it is an important part of the

guitar sound.

To record the guitar sound through a guitar cabinet or further amplify it for a live concert it is inevitable

to place one or more microphones in front of the speaker to capture the complete sound of the rig. The

choice and positioning of the microphones will add even more ﬂavor to the sound, and is an art of its own,

but fortunately easy to learn.

The Proﬁles in your Kemper Proﬁling Amp are captured by the same way. To have an authentic sound it is

as easy as connecting the Main Output of the Proﬁler to your studio or live mixing desk.

Now here is the crux: We have met many users of the Proﬁler that have a hard time to get used to the

sounds of our rigs, as they are taken by microphones. Many users are not familiar with these sounds, be-

cause they have been using their existing tube amps at home, in the rehearsal room or on small stages

without a monitoring system. They feel the miked sound is not the real guitar sound.

But we have to state: The miked sound IS the real sound. It is the sound that you hear on every record and

on every big concert. This is the sound that you will present to your audience. There is no other way to get

the sound of your amp on a recording or a big PA than by using microphones. It is standard since decades

to use close microphones in front of the speaker to capture the sound. Have you ever had the chance to

listen to the pure amp sound of your guitar heroes? Probably not, because you needed an invitation to

their home or rehearsal room. What you have heard is their great sound through a perfect microphone set-

ting – the only way they can present their art to you.

You hopefully understand now that it’s a good idea to get familiar with and care about the miked sound,

because this is what your audience will hear. You will get better results when you run the full proﬁles and

rigs through the monitor system of the live venue, as the singer and keyboarder use to do. This gives you a

better control about the sound in relation to the other instruments. Many professional musicians work like

this, they listen to the whole stage sound by stage monitors or in-ear monitors.

There are two more drawbacks of guitar cabinets: They are heavy, and they have a focused sound.

THE DEEPER VIEW 15

Focused means, the high frequencies are the loudest when you listen on the axis of the speakers. The high

frequencies are damped when you listen o-axis. Every speaker has a bit of this focus eect, but guitar

cabinets are really bad. The closer you stand by the cabinet, the more you get of axis and out of the focus,

because your ears are positioned much higher than the axis of the speakers. You will need quite a loud

volume to sit well in the musical mix on stage. Guess who are the victims? Your fellow musicians and your

audience in a small venue, who listen much closer to the axis of your speaker. Again they don’t hear what

you hear. And this might be the reason why guitarists are suspected to play too loud: It’s the focus.

Enough said.

The Proﬁler oers the possibility to run a guitar speaker cabinet, as mentioned. To make it sound perfect,

you have to bypass the virtual cabinet of the proﬁle by engaging “MonitorCabO” in the Master/Output

menu. If you don’t do that, you will run your sound by the virtual and real cabinet in a row, causing the rig

to sound mued and overdone.

If you switch o the cabinet in the STACK section instead, the virtual cabinet will be bypassed for all out-

puts.

The sound you get is not the raw pre amp or power amp sound of the proﬁle. Instead, the impedance

curve of the original cabinet that has been used for the original proﬁle is retained. That means, you can

use a solid state power amp or a digital (class d) power amp to drive your cabinet. It is not necessary, and

would be a bit contradictionary to use a tube power amp, even though you can.

This might require some more explanation: There are two main dierences between tube power amps and

solid state power amps. While solid state amps try to optain a linear frequency response, tube power amps

often create an “artistic” nonlinear frequency response.

Solid state amps oer a low output impedance that dampens the resonances of the speaker. Tube power

amps don’t dampen that well, and let the speaker act out their resonances, thus creating an individual fre-

quency responce in addition to the tube power amps responce. This is sometimes called “interaction of the

amp and the speaker” by whatever reason. But technically spoken a solid state amp interacts to a higher

degree with the speakers by actively dampen the individual resonances of the speaker.

This behaviour makes the sound of solid state amps and digital amps more predictable, since they do not

recolour the sound. It allows the Proﬁler to colour the sound by the original impedance curve of the origi-

nal virtual cabinet, bringing the sound very close to how the original amp used to sound “in the room”.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER16

This way you can run proﬁles of dierent amp models by the same monitor cabinet, even if your cabinet

does not match perfectly to certain amp models.

Of course we cannot anticipate the exact sound of the speaker cabinet you use. Some little ﬁnetuning on

the global Monitor Equalizer will help you to create the perfect “amp in the room” sound.

You can use tube power amps, too. If you own a tube guitar amp with a send and return jack on the back,

you can connect the Monitor Output of the Proﬁler straight to the return jack of your tube amp and thus

bypassing the pre amp section. This guarantees for the least colouration of the sound. Still your tube pow-

er amp will additionally colour the sound. You are running a tube power amp and a virtual tube power amp

in a row. You might need some larger corrections of the global Monitor Equalizer to make it sound right.

If you own a matching tube amp and cabinet and you want to replace the preamp by the Proﬁler but still

use the cabinet, you might get better results by proﬁling the preamp (tap it on the eect send of your

tube amp) and play the proﬁle to the eect return of the tube amp.

STACK SECTION 17

Stack Section

The Stack section is the heart of the KPA. It represents the raw virtual guitar ampliﬁer as deﬁned by the

proﬁle. Every proﬁle is represented by the 3 modules that make the Stack section.

Ampliﬁer

The AMPLIFIER button calls up a list of parameters that allow you to change the character of the proﬁled

ampliﬁer in numerous ways using the soft knobs.

 Deﬁnition

The “Deﬁnition” parameter controls the characteristic ﬁngerprint of the preamp. The proﬁling process au-

tomatically sets “Deﬁnition” to a value that represents the reference amp. You could, for example, use it to

modernize the proﬁle of a vintage amp without having to use additional stomps. Alternatively, start with a

proﬁle of a modern tube amp, and use “Deﬁnition” to give it a more vintage sound when driven into distor-

tion. You can also use “Deﬁnition” to align the sound of your guitar to the sound of your amp, if required.

Don’t be afraid to keep experimenting until you get the balance that sounds best to you.

Vintage amps distort the lower harmonics in the guitar signal which gives them their bluesy sound. These

amps were originally designed to deliver a clean sound, so to achieve a creamy distortion, these amps

need to be driven by a typical transistor-based device like a treble booster.

Modern tube amps use a dierent approach, in which the higher overtones of the guitar strings are the

driving force for the distorted sound. The expensive boutique amps take this concept one step further, by

providing an extreme level of top-end frequencies and a large dynamic range. The distortion has a spar-

kling quality to it, and preserves every nuance of the strings and pickups. Together with the characteristics

of the actual speaker, the individual distortion behavior creates the ﬁngerprint that identiﬁes the ampliﬁer.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER18

 Power Sagging

“Power Sagging” models the interaction between the guitar signal and the distortion stage. Increase the

amount of power sagging to emphasize the velocity and energy of crunch sounds. The guitar sound gains

additional energy and presence, without raising the perceived volume of the distorted signal. When you

turn “Power Sagging” beyond 50%, you go beyond what can be achieved with an analog tube amp, but

without losing any of the natural characteristics of the sound. At full force, power sagging can make spar-

kling clean notes sound louder than distorted ones, so you can use it to expand the dynamic range of the

original sound. With “Power Sagging” set to 0%, the original dynamic range of the proﬁle is maintained.

Power sagging is a phenomenon that occurs when the tubes draw a lot of electric power at high distor-

tion rates, thereby weakening the supply voltage. Under such load, the tubes will change their distortion

characteristics and sort of shut down; then as soon as the load lessens, the tubes catch their breath again.

What might at ﬁrst seem like a technical limitation of the tube amp design has turned out to be a real ben-

eﬁt for the musical expressivity of the guitarist. The KPA masters this technical behavior without degrad-

ing or changing the basic character of the amp model whatsoever.

• The ampliﬁer interacts with the guitarist and reacts to the plectrum and ﬁngers with the highest possible

sensitivity.

• The guitar sound gains extra energy and presence, without raising the perceived volume of the distorted

signal.

• Muted picking gives better results than usual, as the plectrum will not be suppressed.

• The realms of clean and distorted sounds move closer together, causing the velocity and energy of the

crunch sounds to grow. The amp doesn’t just distort everything mercilessly - instead, all of the ﬁne nuances are represented faithfully. The overall sound becomes much more alive, with more punch and juice. It almost sounds as if a compressor has been switched o, thereby allowing the guitar to establish itself a lot easier among the other instruments on stage, such as the drums or bass.

As the dynamic range of an analog tube amp is limited by the laws of physics, power sagging can only go

to a certain level before the breakdown of supply voltage destroys the beauty of the distortion character-

istics. The KPA allows for a much wider dynamic range, while preserving the character of the tubes at the

same time.

STACK SECTION 19

Turning down the volume knob on the guitar results in a very natural, clean sound with full dynamics and

lots of energy.

Power sagging cannot be reproduced using a conventional compressor, but it can be further enhanced

with our dedicated compressor circuit. The breathing of the tubes becomes most apparent with dynami-

cally played, semi-distorted or so called crunch sounds. With fully distorted sounds the tubes are always

under full load, while clean sounds don’t put any load on the tubes at all. With sounds such as these, pow-

er sagging has only a minor eect.

 Pick

The “Pick” parameter allows you to control the level and sharpness of the pick attack independently from

the sustained portion of the sound. The result is also independent from the amount of distortion. You can

use this parameter to make clean sounds even more percussive without having to use a compressor. With

fully distorted sounds, you can revive the attack phase of any notes that get drowned in the natural com-

pression caused by distortion. If you set “Pick” to a negative value, it will soften the attack, resulting in a

more ﬂuid sound.

 Compressor

This compressor is dierent from the stomp compressor, because it is a part of the simulated amp circuit.

In other words, it allows for completely dierent sounds compared to compressors that are inserted before

(pre-) or after (post-) the amp section. Distorted signals are not aected by compression, so only clean

signals will be boosted. The dynamics of your playing are fully retained, so, purely by the strength of your

picking, you can go from a crunchy sound to a compressed, clean sound. The volume knob on your guitar

works exactly as you would expect: for instance, reducing the volume of your guitar will transform a dy-

namic crunch into a clean, compressed sound with full energy.

 Clarity

“Clarity” changes the sound of the distortion in a new and unique way. Turning the “Clarity” soft knob to

the right will bring the clean character of the sound into focus without lowering the amount of distortion.

The distortion itself will become less forward in the mid frequencies and sound far more transparent.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER20

 Tube Shape

“Tube Shape” controls the distortion characteristics of the tubes, ranging from very soft to very hard. All

kinds of crunch sounds can be dialed up, from warm blues to singing metallic to harsh. Depending on the

gain setting or the playing style, the resulting eect can be rather subtle; completely distorted sounds are

mostly unaected by this parameter, as are clean sounds. Set the value to 3 o’clock to simulate the typi-

cal sound of preamp tubes. To achieve a power amp tube character, try setting “Tube Shape” to 9 o’clock.

Power amp tubes produce a much harder distortion, because the negative feedback in the power amp cir-

cuit linearizes the tube ampliﬁcation, making the distortion curve edgier.

 Tube Bias

“Tube Bias” inﬂuences the overtone structure of the distortion. While the eect on the character of the

sound is fairly subtle, you should feel a quite a dierence in the distortion dynamics: as you increase the

amount of “Tube Bias” the guitar will go into distortion much earlier in the dynamic range, yet still retain a

lot of dynamic headroom. At maximum value the distortion characteristics mimic those of a Tube Scream-

er.

Holding the EQ button will bring the equalizer into focus. Use the soft knobs to control the frequency

bands of the equalizer. We assume that you will have set the equalizer of the reference amp to your pre-

ferred setting before proﬁling. Eectively, the equalizer in the KPA is a recreation of a generic passive

tonestack, but it is designed to have more impact on the frequency bands. When all soft knobs are in the

middle position, you will hear the unaltered sound of the proﬁle.

Cabinet

The CABINET button brings the cabinet section into focus. You can freely combine cabinets and amps

from dierent proﬁles to create new stacks. The cabinet has three parameters to tweak its character in an

artiﬁcial way:

STACK SECTION 21

 High Shift, Low Shift

Both of these parameters inﬂuence the characteristic formants of a cabinet proﬁle, thereby simulating a

change in size. “High Shift” will make the higher formants more prominent, whereas “Low Shift” does the

same for the lower frequencies.

 Character

Use this parameter to change the overall character of the cab. Turning the knob to the right of center will

enlarge the peaks and notches in the frequency response curve. This will emphasize the character of the

cabinet, and may sound too penetrating at extreme values. Turning it to left of center will smooth the dif-

ferences between the peaks and notches in the frequency response curve, and ﬂatten the character of the

cabinet. Towards the leftmost position, the sound will resemble that of analog cabinet simulations (which

often have a very simple frequency response and little character).

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER22

Stomp Section

The STOMPS section holds 4 Stomp modules called A, B, C and D which are placed in the signal ﬂow be-

fore the ampliﬁer stack. The modules represent your choice of virtual stomp boxes. The STOMPS section is

all mono because the ampliﬁer will only accept a mono signal. In dierence to that, the X and MOD stomps

in the EFFECT section work in stereo, if desired.

The Stomp modules oer you all kinds of eects which are identiﬁed by eight dierent colors that are

easy to memorize:

Distortion Red

Wah Orange

Chorus Blue

Phaser & Flanger Purple

Compressor Cyan

EQ Yellow

Delay Green

Eect Loop White

Press and hold any STOMP button to bring it into focus. If the stomp is active the display will change its

color to match the eect. The soft knobs will display the parameters available to edit.

There are two ways to choose a new eect: either turn the BROWSE knob to select a new local eect pre-

set, or turn TYPE, to change the basic algorithm of the module.

Many parameters are common to several dierent eects, such as “Mix”, “Volume”, “Rate” – to name just

a few. When you change the algorithm of an eect using the TYPE knob, the values of these mutual pa-

rameters will not be changed. This allows for eect types that share a mutual parameter set to keep these

values. For example, you can create a great ﬂanger eect with your desired rate and depth setting. Then

STOMP SECTION 23

select the phaser by turning TYPE to check the same settings with the phaser algorithm, that is somewhat

relative to the ﬂanger. Some generic parameters, common to most of the stomp eects, are:

 Mix

Controls the amount of eect in the signal. At the default setting of 100% you get the most intense eect.

With some eects, such as Wah or Compressor – only the eect signal is audible at the 100% position to

give the strongest eect. With other eects, typically modulation eects like ﬂanger or phaser, the dry sig-

nal is still in the mix for maximum interference with the eect signal.

When MIX is at 0% you will hear no eect. The MIX control is scaled to perfection individually per eect,

so there is no volume drop or boost at the 50% position. Some eects, such as the Air Chorus, don’t oer

a MIX control, as this would contradict the character of the eect.

 Volume

The “Volume” control allows you to change the gain for driving the next distortion stage. The output vol-

ume of the stomp eect can be boosted, or attenuated, by +/-24 dB, which is much more than in the real

world. This will reduce the need to switch to a dierent rig, if all you need to do is boost a solo sound; just

dial the stomp eect that you need for the solo and boost the Volume control. By activating this stomp

you engage the eect and the boost at the same time.

 Stereo

The “Stereo” parameter is only available for the X and MOD modules in the EFFECTS section. It controls

the stereo intensity of these eects. With modulation eects this is done by osetting the LFO modulation

phases of the left and right side. For other eects parameters, such as ﬁlters, frequencies are shifted in op-

posite directions for the left and right sides. That way, even the Wah Wah can create a stereo eect, when

dialed up in the eects section!

The recommended value for most eects is +50% (or +90°), which will often produce the nicest stereo im-

age. At the middle zero position the eect will be fully mono. With negative values you will get the same

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER24

stereo eects as with positive values, but the left and right sides are reversed. With extreme settings of

the stereo parameter, you can exaggerate the stereo width.

Wah Stomps

The Wah eects are a versatile collection of dierent eects, that can all be controlled by a Wah pedal.

Alternatively, you can switch from Pedal Mode to Touch Mode and control the eect using your picking

strength.

Wah Wah This is the classic Wah pedal eect. By modifying the “Peak” parameter you can

Wah Low Pass An alternative Wah pedal eect derived from the Access Virus synthesizer.

Wah High Pass Similar to the Low Pass Wah, but it will cut the low end of your guitar sound

Wah Vowel A vowel ﬁlter, that simulates a talkbox eect. The vowels are extended to a

Wah Phaser A huge phaser eect that you can control using the Wah pedal. The Wah

(orange)

achieve dierent Wah characteristics.

It’s a 4-pole lowpass ﬁlter, with the “Peak” parameter emphasizing the ﬁlter resonance.

when you move the pedal up.

broader range compared to existing vowel ﬁlters, as it includes some european vowels as well. The range is: U O Â A Ä E I IÜ Ü Ö OE O U - Choose the desired range using the “Manual” and “Range” parameters.

Phaser is derived from the regular phaser eect, that is described in detail later. In addition to the common Wah parameter it has inherited two additional parameters from the regular phaser: “Stages” and “Peak Spread”.

Wah Flanger The Flanger is a special version of the ﬂanger, based on a delay with feedback,

that creates a pitched resonance or ringing eect. Use the “Manual” parameter, or the pedal, to control the delay time, or pitch. Use the “Peak” parameter to control the intensity of the resonance.

Rate Reducer This eect reduces the sampling rate of the audio signal passing through. The

sampling frequency is controlled with the ‘Manual’ parameter. Lowering the sample rate results in a raspy, scratchy quality as well as aliasing. Use the ‘Peak’ parameter to continuously control the quality of the sample rate interpolation, which will alter the harmonic content drastically.

STOMP SECTION 25

Ring Modulator Here, the signal is modulated by a sine oscillator. The pitch of the oscillator is

controlled with the ‘Manual’ parameter - note that the ‘Manual’ parameter is bipolar, therefore a setting of ‘0’ will have no eect. Lower settings produce a tremolo-like eect, whereas higher settings bend the complete harmonic structure of the instrument into a bell-like character by shifting every frequency component either upwards (sum frequency) or downwards (dierence frequency). The ‘Stereo’ parameter divides the sum and dierence frequencies into the left and right channel. The bipolar nature of the ‘Manual’ parameter can now be used to reverse the stereo panorama. As usual, the ‘Mix’ parameter adds the direct signal. With ‘Mix’ in the middle position, the ring modulation becomes amplitude modulation.

Frequency Shifter The frequency shifter is a rarely seen eect and can be thought of as a ‘deluxe’

ring modulator. Even today, only a handful of frequency shifters exist in the digital domain. It is as useful in creating beautiful, subtle harmonic deviations as it is in producing high-pitched, clangourous noise. Like the ring modulator, it uses a sine wave to modulate the signal, but in such a way as to produce only the ‘sum’ or ‘dierence’ frequencies of the two signals. In contrast to a pitch shifter, which preserves the dependencies of the harmonics, the frequency shifter bends these dependencies, resulting in a bell-like spectrum. It’s not unlike a shortwave radio that hasn’t been tuned correctly. Use the ‘Manual’ parameter to determine the pitch of the sine wave. This is a bipolar parameter where the centre position (0) will result in no audible frequency shifting. Turning ‘Manual’ clockwise results in a linear frequency shift upwards, while turning it counter-clockwise results in a downwards shift. Note how the shifted signal loses its harmonic structure. When ‘Manual’ is adjusted to the far left, you will notice that the pitch starts to rise again. This is the result of frequencies being shifted past 0Hz, which causes them to be mirrored upwards. The ‘Stereo’ parameter allows continuous adjustment of the phase of the left and right channels, thereby creating a subtle, or blatant, stereo-widening eect.

 At the lowest pitch, or longest delay, it will resonate on an E major chord.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER26

The Wah Parameters

 Manual

This is the base value for the Wah eect. It determines the zero or heel position of the pedal. When “Pedal

Mode” is set to o, “Manual” controls the static pedal position.

 Peak

This parameter controls the intensity of the eect. The actual choice of the physical parameter depends on

the eect type: for Wah Wah, and other ﬁlter eects, the “Peak” control varies the Q-factor or resonance

of the ﬁlters. On other eects it controls the feedback of the eect, which is quite similar to Q-factor or

resonance.

 Pedal Range

This parameter determines the maximum impact of the pedal, as an oset to the value selected for the

“Manual” parameter. Negative values of “Range” will reverse the swell direction of the pedal or touch ef-

fect, so the eect will go down, when you push the pedal forward.

 Peak Range

Determines to what extent the position of the pedal inﬂuences the “Peak” intensity. Many original wah

pedals have a dependency between the pedal position and the Q-Factor of the wah ﬁlter. This can be con-

trolled by “Peak Range”.

 Pedal Mode

Selects how the Wah eect responds to the Wah pedal, or to touch response.

STOMP SECTION 27

O The pedal has no eect. The eect will be static, and can still be controlled by the

“Manual” soft knob.

Touch Uses the picking strength to control the eect, as described below.

On The Wah pedal is active. Control the impact of the pedal by the “Range” parameter.

Bypass @ Stop The Wah pedal is active. The stomp eect will be smoothly faded in when you start

moving the pedal, and smoothly faded out when you stop moving it.

Bypass @ Heel The Wah pedal is active. The stomp eect will smoothly fade out when you park

the pedal at the heel position.

Bypass @ Toe The Wah pedal is active. The stomp eect will smoothly fade out when you park

the pedal at the toe position.

 Touch

This mode resembles the classic Touch Wah behavior, where the depth of modulation is controlled by the

picking strength, and is available for all Wah eects. As with the regular Wah pedal, the “Range” param-

eter controls the intensity of the Touch eect.

When “Touch” is engaged, three more parameters are added to the eect, that you can access by pressing

the right Page button:

Touch Attack Controls the speed of reaction to the guitar attack.

Touch Release Determines the rate at which the eect falls back to its rest position.

Touch Boost Use this to extend the scale of the Range parameter. You will also notice, when

“Range” is low, but “Touch Boost” is high, you can push the intensity up to a ceiling, that can be useful for certain eects.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER28

Compressor and Noise Gate Stomps

(cyan)

Compressor

A compressor for guitar is mostly used for clean sounds, as the strings of the guitar decay pretty fast. On

distorted sounds, the distortion itself adds compression as a side-eect; this means the compressor could

even be in the way, as additional compression will kill the dynamics and touch-sensitivity of the distortion.

Still, there is always the nice trick of compressing the guitar to the max, then gently driving it just into the

distortion of the ampliﬁer, so that every tone of the guitar gets the same decent amount of distortion.

Clean sounds beneﬁt from compression, as it helps to lengthen the sustain of the strings. Another typical

application is to emphasize the attack of the picked strings with the attack time parameter. In the KPA you

should use the “Pick” parameter in the AMPLIFIER module to achieve this eect. It has been optimized for

controlling the energy of your pick, and does this job much better than a regular compressor.

The Stomp Compressor is a faithful recreation of a vintage stomp compressor. We also added a new pa-

rameter, called “Squash”, to make our compressor even more versatile.

There is no immediate need to readjust the compressor’s volume on clean sounds, as its volume is auto-

matically adjusted to the unity volume of the rig.

 Intensity

Controls the amount of compression applied to your instrument. At zero position there is no compression.

In the ﬁrst half of the Intensity range the eect will be fairly subtle, as the compressor will only cut the

loud attacks of your instrument. Then, as you increase “Intensity” past halfway, you will start to hear the

soft notes getting boosted as well.

STOMP SECTION 29

 Attack

Adjusts the reaction time of the compressor. The higher the “Attack” value, the longer it takes for the

compressor to kick in. This will let the ﬁrst peak of the signal pass unaected when you hit a string, thus

increasing the percussiveness of your pick.

 Squash

This gives you control over the dynamic behavior of the compression. At the center position the compres-

sor will work as you expect. When you turn “Squash” towards zero, the compressor will emphasize the ﬁrst

phase of the strings’ decay, resulting in less “squash”. When you turn it more to the right, the ﬁrst phase of

the strings’ decay gets squashed, and the volume sags. You will notice that the compressor recovers from

squashing when you let the strings decay further - even boosting the sound a little, compared to when you

hit the strings. Now, the compressor becomes really noticeable!

“Squash” does not change the compression ratio. The compression ratio is always inﬁnite on vintage

stomp compressors.

Noise Gate

In addition to the noise gate in the input section (see “Basics and Proﬁling” manual), there are two new

noise gates available as stomp eects, developed speciﬁcally with the hi-gain player in mind.

Whereas the noise gate in the input section is designed to preserve the guitar’s dynamics exactly, the

stomp noise gates behave like classic downward expanders. Downward expanders attenuate a signal once

it has fallen below a certain threshold, and are often used to tighten complex metal-ring. This is because

a palm mute will still retain all of its ‘chunk’, but will also become more percussive, thereby preventing the

dreaded ‘mud’. The two noise gate stomps feature dierent expansion ratios that were deemed the most

musical.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER30

 Gate 2:1

This noise gate is a soft expander, with an expansion ratio of 2:1. That means when the guitar has decayed

to half its level below the treshold, it will be attenuated even more, resulting in a quarter of the original

level. It is triggered earlier than the 4:1 gate, and the eect is more subtle.

 Gate 4:1

This noise gate is a more aggressive expander, with an expansion ratio of 4:1. That means when the guitar

has decayed to half its level below the treshold, it will be attenuated even more, resulting in one eighth of

the original level. It is triggered later than the 2:1 gate, and with a more aggressive eect.

As with the existing noise gate, there are no attack or release controls, as we have selected the shortest

possible times without introducing any signal degradation. The attack time is 0.05 ms (that’s 50 microsec-

onds, or one twenty-thousandth of a second), while the decay time is 50 ms. You can use the Noise Gate

Stomps in combination with the noise gate in the input section to beneﬁt from the dierent noise gate

characters.

Distortion Stomps

The KPA oers a variety of distortion stomps that have been modeled on vintage guitar distortion pedals.

Every one of these classic pedals is famous for its distinctive character, and has been exploited by some of

the greatest guitar heroes of all time. We have carefully modeled the distortion curves and tonal character-

istics of these legendary eects, including the original tone controls.

 Drive

Use this to boost the gain of the signal as it comes into the distortion stage - the higher the gain, the more

distorted the sound.

(red)

STOMP SECTION 31

 Tone

Some of the original distortion pedals that inspired this collection are equipped with tone controls.

Green Scream The sound of this one just screams

‘tubes’ - a very special kind of overdrive

Use the Tone control to soften the sound

with a lowpass ﬁlter. which results in a wonderful, smoky tone. Good for achieving a subtle distortion eect whilst still retaining headroom for dynamics.

Plus DS A more extreme distortion. Like in the original, this does not feature

a Tone control.

One DS The ‘orange’ one. A very harsh distortion,

popular with the grunge movement.

The bipolar Tone control allows for great

versatility by combining both a low pass

and a high pass ﬁlter - turn it down for

a warm, dark tone, and up for a harsh,

brittle sound.

Mun A big distortion eect famous for its fuzzy

character.

This eect uses a dual ﬁlter array, similar

to One DS. Use lower values to soften

the sound with a low pass ﬁlter, and

higher values for a brighter, thinner

sound.

Mouse DS A clear, powerful distortion that’s perfect

for making leads cut right through the mix.

Use the Tone control to soften the sound

with a lowpass ﬁlter.

Fuzz DS A classic “fuzzbox” overdrive. No tone control, just in-your-face fuzz.

Metal DS A sharp-sounding, high-gain distortion,

Use the 3-band EQ to shape the tone. optimized for metal music.

Type Diagram

Linear

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER32

Type Diagram

Recti Shaper

This is the characterictic curve of the Recti Shaper.

Regular Distortion

This is the characterictic curve of the regular distortion.

Soft Shaper

This is the characterictic curve of the Soft Shaper.

Hard Shaper

This is the characterictic curve of the Hard Shaper.

Wave Shaper

This is the characterictic curve of the Wave Shaper.

 Treble Booster

A classic sound-shaping stomp pedal, that doesn’t feature a built-in distortion. Instead, the Treble Booster

is made to shape the high frequencies of your guitar so that they improve the distortion as well as mak-

ing it more transparent, especially when being used with old ampliﬁer models that were not originally de-

signed for distortion. Use the “Tone” control to shape your sound.

STOMP SECTION 33

Before you reach for the Treble Booster, please try the “Deﬁnition” parameter in the AMPLIFIER menu ﬁrst.

This will also modify the distortion result, but directly in the proﬁle, and with less changes to the residual

frequency response.

 Lead Booster

This is a tunable peak ﬁlter that can emphasize speciﬁc frequencies of your guitar. Set the desired sound

by using the “Tone” control. The Lead Booster can neutralize the Treble Booster to a certain extent, when

they are used together in the STOMPS section.

 Pedal Booster

With the Pedal Booster you can use the Wah Pedal to control volume, instead of having to use a dedicated

volume pedal. The parameters are the same as for the “Volume Pedal” parameter in the RIG menu.

Chorus and Modulation Stomps

(blue)

Vintage Chorus

The Vintage Chorus is an emulation of the 70’s chorus technology based on bucket brigades, which can be

considered a predecessor of today’s digital sampling technology. The Vintage Chorus not only covers the

exact sound of the famous Chorus Ensemble but also many other models of that era which were based on

the same basic circuitry.

You may notice the somewhat dull sound of the eect signal; this is due to the limited sample-rate of the

bucket brigade. When this signal is mixed to the direct sound, it will result in a very warm chorus sound,

because the overall signal gets a low and mid frequency boost. When you place the Vintage Chorus in the

STOMPS section before the amp, you will achieve the well-known, mono modulation eect. When placed

in the EFFECTS section, the Vintage Chorus will sound more lush with less modulation, since it works in

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER34

stereo. This is because there is a separate chorus for the left and right sides, modulating in opposite ways.

If you prefer the original mono sound, set the “Stereo” parameter to the middle position.

 Note: If you happen to own an original chorus unit from the analog era, you may notice that our choruses

don’t feature a volume boost when you switch them on. This is because our philosophy is to always main-

tain the same volume level, no matter whether eects are being used or not. This makes it easier for you

to choose the best eect purely by its character, and not to favor one eect over another simply because

it sounds louder. Of course, if you still want the volume boost, you can always use the “Volume” parameter

for this.

 Rate

Use the “Rate” parameter to adjust the speed of the chorus modulation.

 Depth

Use the “Depth” parameter to adjust the intensity of the chorus modulation.

 Tip: For the original Chorus Ensemble sound leave the “Depth” parameter at exact middle position and use

the “Rate” parameter to create your favorite sound - the original devices did not have a depth control.

 X-Over

Each of the chorus algorithms feature the “X-Over” (crossover) parameter. By raising the value of “X-Over”

you can protect the lower frequencies from being inﬂuenced by the chorus modulation, thus giving the

sound a stable bottom end. This feature was inspired by specialized bass chorus units; we found, however,

that this type of crossover control is not merely an advantage for bass sounds - it is suitable for shaping

any sound.

STOMP SECTION 35

Hyper Chorus

The Hyper Chorus is probably one of the most complex choruses ever made; it is a six-voice chorus with

up to three delay lines for both the left and right sides. Despite this, it is staggeringly simple to use, as you

only need adjust the “Depth” parameter to achieve a huge, warm sound.

 Depth

By adjusting “Depth”, you change the amount of detune and fatness that the chorus adds to the signal -

everything else is perfectly adjusted to give you the lushest chorus sound with no further tweaking neces-

sary. You can even choose very small amounts of detune without the typical comb ﬁlter eect of a regular

chorus. When you bring “Depth” down to zero, the chorus eect completely goes away, even with the

“Mix” parameter at full position.

 Amount

If the full sound becomes too complex, you have the option to continuously reduce the amount of delay

lines. You can smoothly fade the numbers of delay lines from one to three on each stereo side. So yes,

even 1.5 choruses are possible: this simply means one chorus is at full volume, the other is at half.

 X-Over

Increase the value of the “X-Over” parameter to prevent the chorus eect from modulating the lower fre-

quencies of the input signal.

Air Chorus

The Air Chorus is a subtle kind of chorus, as it doesn’t mix the direct sound with the processed signal; in-

stead, it modulates the pitch of the left and right sides of the signal independently from each other. The

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER36

resulting chorus sound happens in the air between the speakers, where both signals are added together -

hence the name. This is actually how the famous Jazz Chorus ampliﬁer works.

 Depth

In most circumstances, as with the Hyper Chorus, the “Depth” control will be the only control you need for

achieving the sound you want. Higher values will give you a noticeable but delicate chorus, whilst lower

values will create a subtle stereo-widening of the soundstage, but without the typical beating eect you

often get with a chorus.

 X-Over

The “X-Over” parameter enables you to position the bass and middle frequencies of your signal to a stable

mono position between your speakers, while the highs still ﬂoat around.

Vibrato

The Vibrato eect modulates the pitch of the sound using a sine modulation.

 Rate

Use the “Rate” parameter to adjust the speed of the modulation.

 Depth

Use the “Depth” parameter to adjust the intensity of the modulation.

STOMP SECTION 37

 X-Over

Use the “X-Over” parameter to blend out the vibrato eect for the lower frequencies of the signal. This will

result in an old-school modulation eect, quite similar to a scanner vibrato of a Hammond organ.

Rotary Speaker

The Rotary Speaker chorus type is a faithful recreation of the sound produced by the legendary Leslie

speaker - best known for the classic eect it has on the sound of the Hammond organ. The Leslie speaker

modulates the sound by rotating both the bass speaker drum and the tweeter horn inside a cabinet - but,

crucially, they are rotated at dierent speeds from each other. The result is a complex example of the Dop-

pler eect, and the way it aects the sound is magical - something rather like combined vibrato, tremolo

and chorus.

Our Rotary Speaker eect won’t color the sound; instead, the coloration will come from the amp cabinet

proﬁle. By engaging the Rotary Speaker on an amp and cabinet sound that you like, you turn your cabinet

into a rotary cabinet, while maintaining the character of your amp.

Interestingly, you can actually proﬁle your own rotary cabinet. If you get the chance to have a real rotary

speaker in your studio, as long as you can connect line or guitar signals, you can take a proﬁle of it. Please

refer to the Proﬁling Guide for further instructions. Of course, the KPA already comes with rotary speaker

proﬁles and rigs that we have captured from the real thing.

 Speed

Use the “Rate” parameter to switch between Slow and Fast rotation. You will notice that the change in ro-

tation speed is not immediate, thus recreating the acceleration and deceleration of the rotating speakers in

the original.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER38

 Stereo

Use the “Stereo” parameter to adjust the angle of the two virtual microphones relative to the speakers. If

you want the eect to be mono, set the Angle to 0° (center position). Negative values will reverse the ro-

tation direction. Only the high rotor is tapped by two microphones, the low rotor is mono with one micro-

phone – a regular practice of recording a rotary speaker, whether live or in a studio.

 Low/High Balance

Use the “High/Low Balance” parameter to adjust the balance between the outputs of the bass rotor and

the tweeter horn. Lower values result in a sound that is darker and duller, while higher values will result in a

brighter, thinner sound. For a faithful emulation of the classic Leslie sound, leave the parameter set to the

center position.

 Distance

Use the “Distance” parameter to adjust the distance of the microphones from the cabinet from 4cm up to

50cm. The closer the microphones, the more intense the amplitude modulation (tremolo) will be. At the

maximum setting there is no noticeable amplitude modulation.

 Mix

Use the “Mix” parameter to adjust the balance between the input signal and the output of the Rotary

Speaker eect. For an authentic sound, this is best left at 100%, but it can be very useful if you want to

achieve less conventional sounds.

STOMP SECTION 39

Phaser and Flanger

(purple)

Phaser

Our Phaser is a huge ﬁlter bank comprising up to 12 ﬁlter stages for each stereo side.

 Note: There is a similar phaser in the group of Wah eects, that can be controlled by the wah pedal.

 Rate

Determines the rate or speed of the Phaser modulation. When the Tempo is engaged, the rate will be dis-

played in musical values.

 Depth

Determines the modulation depth of the Phaser in relation to the “Manual” value.

 Manual

This parameter deﬁnes the center frequency for the modulation - in other words, it is around this fre-

quency that the Phaser will sweep. With “Depth” set to zero, you can use “Manual” to create a constant, or

static, Phaser sound.

 Feedback

Intensiﬁes the Phaser eect as peaks get higher and notches get lower.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER40

 Peak Spread

You cannot ﬁnd this parameter in any vintage phaser, because it would have been too expensive to realize

in the analog domain. With “Peak Spread” you can control the spread and width of the phaser peaks and

notches in the frequency domain over a wide range. At a narrow setting (more to the left), you can hear

the phaser peaks being focused to a narrow ﬁeld. At a wider spread the phaser seems de-coupled, and

dominates the whole sound spectrum.

 Stages

You can select the number of phaser stages from 2 to 12, in steps of two. The more stages you select, the

more complex and diuse the phaser sound becomes.

 Stereo

Osets the phaser modulation of the left and right signals. With extreme left or right settings, the modula-

tion will go in opposite ways. At the middle position (zero), the phaser will be mono. Use small deviations

to the left or right of zero to achieve a gentle stereo eect.

Flanger

The Flanger eect shares the same heritage as the Phaser, and the resulting sound is somewhat related,

too. This is why we put both in the same eect family with color code Magenta (Purple). However, the

Flanger is not based on analog ﬁlter technology, but on very short bucket-brigade delays.

The parameter set for the Flanger is almost the same as on the Phaser; only the parameters “Peak Spread”

and “Stages” are not available.

Thanks to the overlapping parameter set, you can switch back and forth between Phaser and Flanger with-

out altering the basic parameter values.

STOMP SECTION 41

 Note: You can ﬁnd a similar ﬂanger, called Wah Flanger, in the group of Wah eects, that can be controlled

by the wah pedal.

Equalizer Stomps

This group of Stomp eects oers you a nice selection of high-quality equalizers. They can be placed ei-

ther before or after the stack section, as each conﬁguration has a dierent impact on the sound.

The “Mix” parameter is common to all the equalizers, and controls the impact of all the EQ bands com-

bined.

(yellow)

Graphic Equalizer

An 8-band, octave equalizer, with ﬁxed frequency bands ranging from 80Hz to 10KHz. Very often, this will

prove to be the easiest way to control the frequency spectrum of your sound.

Each band can be boosted or attenuated by 12dB. You can control the mix of the original and the equal-

ized sound by using the “Mix” soft knob.

Studio Equalizer

The Studio Equalizer is a full, 4-band parametric equalizer, similar to those found in professional mixing

desks or digital workstations. It oers one lowshelf, one highshelf and two peak equalizer bands. All four

bands have adjustable frequency, and the two peak EQ bands come with adjustable bandwidth or Q-fac-

to r.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER42

Metal Equalizer

This can be thought of as the little brother of the Studio Equalizer. It’s a 3-band, half-parametric EQ, in-

spired by the equalizer of the Boss Metal-Zone stomp (you can ﬁnd a model of this among our stomp dis-

tortions).

The Metal Equalizer is perfect for creating the mid-scoop that characterizes the typical metal sound, but

since it is also a regular equalizer, it is also suitable for many other sounds and genres.

Stereo Widener

Not an equalizer in the traditional sense, but it does use equalisation to work its magic. By emphasizing

certain frequencies on one stereo side, while attenuating them on the other, it creates a subtle stereo ef-

fect. This is done symmetrically, so that when the signal is summed to mono, the eect is completely can-

celed out with no coloration to the sound.

Use “Intensity” to control the impact to the sound. At higher values of “Intensity” you can actually drive

the sound out of phase; this is not a problem, however, as the sound still stays mono compatible.

With “Tune”, you can tweak the eect to your taste by shifting the focus towards lower or higher frequen-

cies.

Eect Loops

The Kemper Proﬁling Ampliﬁer oers a hardware eects loop, represented by the DIRECT OUT/SEND

jack and the RETURN jack on the back side of the amp. These are actually the same jacks that you use for

proﬁling. You can apply the hardware eect loop in any of the STOMP modules or in X or MOD in the EF-

FECTS section. As you might have guessed, you cannot use the hardware eects loop in more than one

location of the signal ﬂow. So if you try to engage the loop at more than one location, the ﬁrst loop in the

signal ﬂow will win!

(white)

STOMP SECTION 43

In the X or MOD sections you can even choose an eect loop with a stereo return (Stereo Loop). In this

case, the ALTERNATIVE input will work as the right input.

The Distortion Loop is made for connecting distortion pedals to the KPA, and is only in mono. The feature

unique to this loop, is that any volume boost of a preceding eect will be applied to the send jack, thus

driving the distortion pedal. This is actually what you would expect, anyway.

The regular Mono Loop and Stereo Loop do this dierently: here, the volume boost of a preceding eect

will be applied after the return of the loop. The send level will be unaected, so the connected eect will

not be overdriven. The regular Mono Loop and Stereo Loop are suitable for all non-distorting eects.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER44

Eects

Delay

The Proﬁling Ampliﬁer provides three types of delays, each of which can be found in the DELAY module

on the right hand side of the panel:

Tap Delay The delay time is linked to the tempo as selected in RIG settings, or by the TAP tempo

button.

Free Delay Delay time is freely adjustable in milliseconds, and is independent from the TAP tempo.

The delay time can be changed transparently, with no audible artifacts, which is also true for the tap delay.

Analog Delay Delay time is adjustable in milliseconds, like in the free delay. However, adjusting the

delay time will create those crazy pitch shifts or Doppler eects, known from the good ol’ bucket brigade delays.

Beside these dierences, all three delay types work in the same way, and oer easy ways to create mono

or stereo (ping pong) delays. Only the left delay tap will feed its signal back to both delay taps; this simpli-

ﬁcation will help you to create great rhythmic delay patterns without increasing the density of the sound.

We use a specially designed bandpass ﬁlter to control the loss of high and low frequencies with every de-

lay tap, from the softest natural decay up to an artiﬁcial tone shaping.

At high “Feedback” settings you get a tape delay sound, complete with inﬁnite oscillation and tape-satura-

tion eect. For the tape delay saturation we use the softest saturation algorithm possible. The modulation

will even give a mono delay a full stereo width, creating an airy eect on stereo delays, and adding wow

and ﬂutter to a typical tape delay sound. All this will happen separately, or simultaneously, when you use

the following parameters:

EFFECTS 45

 Mix

Determines the volume of the delay signal relative to the direct signal. It works like a send control on a

mixing desk. At three quarters of the range, the delay signal is as loud as the direct signal; beyond this

point it will start to attenuate the dry signal. Eventually, with “Mix” turned all the way to the right, you will

only hear the pure, delayed signal.

 “Delay Mix” is always accessible via the row of knobs in the upper half of the panel.

 Tap Left & Tap Right

(Only in Tap Delay). These two parameters set the delay time of the left and right delay taps in musical

values, creating a nice little delay pattern. Setting both taps to the same value will produce a mono delay,

while dierent values will create a ping-pong delay. Only the left delay will feed its signal back to both

taps, so it’s a good idea to set the left to a bigger value than the right; this will result in a true ping-pong

eect. Swapping the values will result in a dierent pattern. The settings are mostly in multiples of a 16th

notes, including odd values like 5/16 or 7/16. To create more complex and interesting rhythm patterns, try

using a mix of odd and even values.

 To create swing or shue rhythms, try using the triplet values.

 Delay Time & Delay Ratio

(Only in Free Delay and Analog Delay). The “Delay Time” is set in milliseconds. The “Delay Ratio” deter-

mines the ratio of dierent delay times between the left and right delay taps. The “Delay Time” always

represents the longer delay tap, the other “Delay Time” is just a divider of the displayed time. As with the

Tap Delay, the feedback is only taken from the left delay tap; thus, swapping the ratio of the left and right

delay tap will not only reverse the stereo sides, but also produce a dierent rhythm pattern.

 Feedback

“Feedback” determines how much of the delayed signal is fed back into the delay to be repeated again.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER46

When “Feedback” is at zero, there will only be one audible repeat. As you increase the feedback, the num-

ber of repeats increase until, at 100% (center position), the delayed signal will continue repeating inﬁnitely.

As you push the values above 100% the delay is slowly driven into the tape saturation. You will notice that

the ﬁrst values above 100% have a very ﬁne resolution - this allows for very subtle control over the amount

of tape saturation.

 “Delay Feedback” can be controlled with the dedicated knob in the upper half of the panel.

 Bandwidth

This parameter gives you access to the delay’s bandpass ﬁlter mentioned above. When set to zero, there

is no sound coloration whatsoever. Increasing the parameter will narrow the bandwidth - at ﬁrst you will

notice a gentle attenuation of the high frequencies, that will cumulate with every delay repetition. As you

narrow the bandwidth a bit more, the same will happen to the bass frequencies. When you turn “Band-

width” beyond the center position, you can clearly hear the character of the bandpass ﬁlter: after just a

few repetitions the center frequency of the ﬁlter will resonate more and more.

 Center Frequency

This parameter lets you adjust the center frequency of the bandpass ﬁlter. You will ﬁnd a nice, standard

value at the center position, perfect for most applications. However, when “Bandwidth” and “Feedback”

are set to higher values, the center frequency becomes clearly audible, creating a distinct, musical tone

that you might want to tune to your music. This is why the “Center Frequency” is not only labeled in hertz,

but also in musical semi-tones that can be precisely adjusted!

 Modulation

This parameter will add slight deviations to the left and right delay independently, creating a nice stereo

eect and de-coupling the delay from the dry signal. With higher values you will create a wow and ﬂutter

eect, typical of a tape delay.

EFFECTS 47

 Volume

For regular delay applications you should leave delay “Volume” at the center position, as the volume of

the delay is usually controlled by the “Mix” parameter. However, when “Feedback” is above 100%, the de-

lay’s volume increases with each repetition, until it’s caught and compressed by the tape saturation. In this

state, the delay has turned into a sound generator - the level of which cannot be controlled by the “Mix”

parameter any more. In this case, the delay “Volume” parameter will give you instant control of the overall

delay level.

Reverb

Our reverb oers studio-quality algorithms and works closely with the delay eect. It comes with 5 dier-

ent types that allow you to determine the room size, ranging from Matchbox to Large Hall.

 Mix

Reverb “Mix” works exactly like the delay “Mix” parameter, and can be controlled with the dedicated knob

in the upper half of the panel.

 Delay/Reverb Balance

“Delay/Reverb Balance” is a unique parameter that allows continuous control over the routing of the delay

and reverb. For this parameter to work as expected, you will need to have both delay and reverb “Mix” set

to a value other than zero.

At the center position, the delay and reverb are simply set in a serial conﬁguration; this means the reverb

comes after the delay, and both the dry and delay signals are fed in equal amounts to the reverb. This is

pretty much what you would expect in the ﬁrst place.

Now, when you turn “Delay/Reverb Balance” more to the left, you will notice that the delay reﬂections will

vanish from the reverb; at fully left position, only the dry portion of the delay gets reverberated. Now, the

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER48

delay and reverb are working in a parallel conﬁguration. You will hear delay reﬂections and a reverb tail,

but the delay signal doesn’t feed the reverb.

As you turn the “Delay/Reverb Balance” more to the right, the opposite happens: the delay reﬂections

keep their reverb tail, but the dry signal loses its reverberation and becomes completely dry. This will em-

phasize your instrument, as the reverb will not appear until after ﬁrst delay reﬂection.

With “Delay/Reverb Balance” set all the way to the right, you can also get an interesting fourth conﬁgu-

ration: set reverb “Mix” set to maximum, and instead of hearing a repeating relay reﬂection, you hear a

repeating reverb tail. These reverb repeats can then be controlled by delay “Feedback” and “Time”. So, in

this conﬁguration, the delay module becomes a pre-delay to the reverb, oering all the features of the de-

lay such as feedback or tap tempo.

 Please note: Since the reverb oers a pre-delay parameter of its own, it is a good idea to set it to zero in

this conﬁguration, so it won’t oset the timing of the reverb tails.

 Time

Determines the decay time of the reverb, from very short to inﬁnite. While the dierent room sizes of the

reverb types determine the density of the reverb reﬂections, reverb “Time” is a sort of feedback parameter

for them. Unlike other digital reverbs, our reverb time does not change with the room size. This makes it

easier to choose the appropriate room size by character alone.

 Pre-delay

In a natural reverb there is a silent time-period between the dry signal and the ﬁrst reverb reﬂection. You

can adjust the length of that period using the “Pre-Delay” parameter. Generally speaking, you should use

a short pre-delay for small rooms and a longer one for large rooms. Increasing the pre-delay on short re-

verbs can give the impression of a bigger room. Also, a long pre-delay will separate the dry signal from the

wet, thus making it sounding more direct, but without losing the room character.

The KPA oers an unusually long pre-delay. You can even try to match it to a musical timing, such as an

1/8th note. If you like this idea, you should actually set Pre-delay back to zero and use the Delay eect for

that purpose. The way this works is described in the Delay/Reverb Balance parameter section above.

EFFECTS 49

 Damping

The reverb tail of a natural room gets darker over time because the high frequencies decay faster than

the lower frequencies. As sound waves travel through the air, the oscillation of the air causes friction that

attenuates the sound as it travels; because high frequencies oscillate faster, they cause more friction per

time, resulting in a faster attenuation. This eect is simulated by the “Damping” parameter. With zero

damping, the reverb sounds somewhat artiﬁcial, so you should consider this parameter to be as important

as “Reverb Time”.

 Bandwidth & Center Frequency

You may have seen this before: that’s because this is the same, special bandpass ﬁlter as in the delay. In

this case, however, the ﬁlter will not change the color of the sound over time (this is the job of the “Damp-

ing” parameter), but instead create a constant coloration for the Reverb. Use “Bandwidth” to narrow the

frequency response of the reverb from soft to artiﬁcial. Adjusting “Center Frequency” will change the main

focus of the coloration from low to high frequencies. Again, you can set the frequency to a speciﬁc musical

note. The reverb will resonate around this note when you set “Bandwidth” to higher values.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER50

Rig

This button is used to access all rig-related parameters that are not covered by the knobs on the front

panel.

Tempo

The “Tempo enable” soft button enables or disables the tempo for a rig. When tempo is disabled, all tem-

po-related values in the KPA fall back to a default tempo of 120 BPM and the values are displayed in mil-

liseconds and hertz. The “Tempo” soft knob sets the tempo in beats per minute.

Tagging

“Show Tag” enters the tagging mode. Since the KPA can literally store thousands of rigs, and organize

them in several ways, it is crucial to tag them. Several tags are automatically assigned when you create a

new rig; these are based on the information you provided when you ﬁrst switch on your KPA, such as your

name, the date and the time. In addition to the “Tag” button in the RIG menu, we also provide a soft button

in the AMPLIFIER and CABINET edit menus for entering tags.

You can create additional tags for the brand and model of amp that you proﬁled, the location where the

proﬁling took place, as well as other things, such as the microphones you used, or the type of pickup the

sound was optimized for, etc.

You don’t have to ﬁll in all of the tags, but the more you do, the easier it will be to ﬁnd a speciﬁc rig later

on. To use the tagging function you simply navigate through the list of available tags using the soft knob

“Scroll”, or press the “Edit” soft button to enter a name.

Use the page buttons to navigate through the text, and then select a character using the soft knob “ABC”

to switch between upper and lower case.

Character Use the “Character” soft knob to select a character

Insert Use the soft button “Insert” to insert a space to the left of the currently selected

character.

Delete The soft button “Delete” clears the currently selected character and closes the gap.

Done When you ﬁnished inputting the text, press the soft button “Done” to complete the

procedure.

Snapshots

Back in the RIG page, the soft button “Browse Snapshots” allows you to browse snapshots with the

BROWSE knob.

Snapshots are backups of entire rigs, and are automatically generated for everything that would otherwise

be lost. For instance, a snapshot is created when you store over an existing rig. This way, you can go back

to what you’ve overwritten, at any point in time. You can also take snapshots manually by using the soft

button “Store Snapshot” in the regular play screen.

RIG 51

After pressing “Browse” you can use the soft button “Delete” to delete a selected snapshot, and the soft

button “Load” to load a selected snapshot.

On the next page of the RIG menu, you can determine the location of the volume pedal to be pre-stomps,

post-stomps, pre-eects or post-eects as well as set the range of the pedal.

Pedals

The Kemper Proﬁling Ampliﬁer will easily work in combination with two expression pedals - one to control

volume, and the second as the Wah pedal that works with the family of Wah eects.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER52

The Volume pedal does not have its own eect type, as this would block a stomp or eect slot every time

you wanted to use the pedal. Instead, you will ﬁnd two parameters for the Volume Pedal in the RIG menu.

 Volume pedal position

Selects the position of the volume pedal in the signal ﬂow:

O The volume pedal has no eect

Pre-stomps Directly before STOMP A

Post-stomps Right after STOMP D. At this position you control the gain of the ampliﬁer.

Pre-eects Right before STOMP X. At this position you control the overall volume of the sound, but

delay and reverb tails will still decay naturally, when you swell down the pedal.

Post-eects Right after the reverb. At this position you control the overall volume of the sound,

including reverb and delay tails, that can instantly be attenuated.

 Volume pedal range

This is a bipolar parameter. In the middle position, the volume pedal has no eect. When you set the range

more to the left, you determine the minimum volume at heal-position, while the maximum volume at toe-

position stays the same. At the minimum position, the pedal performs the swell from zero level, just as you

would expect from an analog volume pedal. When you turn “Volume Pedal Range” to the left half, the vol-

ume pedal turns from an attenuation pedal into a booster pedal. Now, the heel stays at standard volume,

and the toe-swell will give you a volume or gain boost. The maximum boost, at the top position of “Volume

Pedal Range”, is +24 dB.

SYSTEM 53

System

Press this button to access the global settings pages. Global settings do not change when you switch to

another rig.

LCD/HW Setup

On this page you can control the settings for the display and adjust the “Line Frequency” parameter. The

soft button labeled “Factory Rigs” will allow you to reload all the Factory rigs that came with the KPA.

Please note that your own rigs and proﬁles will not be overwritten. Press the soft button labeled “Startup

Dialog” to enter the Startup Dialog setup where you can enter your name and the current time and date.

This will be used by the KPA as the default Rig author name and to automatically timestamp any rig that

you create. This dialog did appear automatically the ﬁrst time you started the KPA but in case you skipped

that step you can enter the information on this page.

Contrast The soft knob “Contrast” lets you set the contrast of the display. Adjust this

settings if you ﬁnd the display hard to read under certain circumstances.

Brightness The soft knob “Brightness” controls the brightness of the display.

White Balance The soft knob “White Balance” adjusts the white balance of the display.

Line Frequency The soft knob “Line Frequency” lets you choose between a Line frequency of

50 or 60 Hz. The Noise Gate will use this setting to eliminate ground hum which frequency is based on the physical location the KPA is being used at. Auto 50 or Auto 60 will detect the Line frequency automatically while 50 or 60 can be used if the automatic detection fails.

Brightness Using the page buttons you can navigate to the next page where you can set the

brightness separately for the color LEDs, the buttons and the LED collars and the TAP button using the soft knobs.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER54

Quick On this page you can determine the function of the QUICK button using the soft

knob “Quick Function”. This function allows you to use the QUICK button as a shortcut to get to often used pages like “MIDI Settings” or “Browse Snapshots” directly.

Rig Autoload On the same page you can use the soft button “Rig Autoload” to activate the Rig

Autoload function. This will automatically load a rig when it is selected in the rig browser. The “Load” button in the rig browser will disappear when you activate “Rig Autoload”.

Direct Edit The soft button “Direct Edit” will change the behavior of the section buttons

on the front panel. Instead of holding them brieﬂy to enter the edit page for a module or section, clicking on a button like AMPLIFIER, EQ or STOMP will immediately display the edit screen.

Pedal Settings

On this system you can determine the kind of pedals that you want to use with the KPA with the soft

knobs and initialize them using the soft buttons. You will ﬁnd more detailed information regarding pedals a

little bit further down in this manual.

MIDI Settings

On the next system page you can assign up to 128 MIDI program change numbers to rigs in the KPA to

switch between them by using an external MIDI pedal or by sending program changes from your com-

puter.

To do so, ﬁrst select the rig you want to assign a program change number to and then press the SYSTEM

button. Navigate to the MIDI Settings page using the right page button, select a desired PrgChg slot using

the soft knob labeled “MIDI PrgChg#” and then press the soft button labeled “Assign”. Use the soft button

labeled “Unassign” to unassign a rig.

On the next page you can set the MIDI Channel that you want to use for communication between the KPA

and your other MIDI devices using the soft knob labeled MIDI Global Channel.

SYSTEM 55

Date and Time

On this page you can set the date and time using the soft buttons “Edit Date” and “Edit Time”. Make sure

the correct date and time is entered as this will help you to organize your rigs and proﬁles.

Version Information

On this page the Firmware version of the KPA is displayed. KPA Version is the version of the KPA operat-

ing system. KPA Date is the date the version was released. DSP Date is the date the DSP version was re-

leased. The soft button labeled “CPU ID” will display the CPU ID.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER56

Pedals, Program Changes and MIDI

The Kemper Proﬁling Ampliﬁer features two jacks for the direct connection of expression pedals or switch-

es.

Expression Pedals

An expression pedal works just like a wah or volume pedal, but is made for digital devices. It only needs

one cable with a stereo jack, connected to one of the dedicated pedal inputs.

The PEDAL 1 INPUT is routed to the wah stomp eects, as well as a few others, including the phasers and

ﬂangers. Pedal 2 represents the Volume Pedal that can be found in the RIG menu. You can conﬁgure both

pedal inputs on page 3 of the SYSTEM menu.

If you use a regular expression pedal (e.g. Roland), please select Pedal (Type 1) with soft knobs 1 or 3. If

you use an expression pedal with reversed polarity (e.g. Yamaha), please select Pedal (Type 2).

You can monitor the changing swell value of the pedal on soft knobs 2 and 4. If you ﬁnd that the pedal

does not cover the full value range, press “Pedal Init” on the respective soft button, then perform a full

swell on the pedal to re-calibrate it.

 Note: The two expression pedal destinations can also be accessed by MIDI controllers via the MIDI IN jack.

Pedal 1 (Wah Pedal) responds to MIDI controller #1 (Modulation Wheel). Pedal 2 (Volume Pedal) responds

to MIDI controller #7 (Channel Volume).

Switches

Besides the expression pedals, the two jacks can also be used to connect switches (or a combination of

both). Switches can be used for all kinds of tasks, such as switching eects, engaging the tuner, or to tap

the tempo. Simply select the desired destination by soft knob 1 or 3.

PEDALS, PROGRAM CHANGES AND MIDI 57

 Note: the Proﬁling Ampliﬁer expects so-called “momentary” switches. These close the contact when you

step on them, and open it again when you lift your foot o. Channel switches for tube amps are not com-

patible with the KPA, as they use a latching mechanism instead.

Double Switches

The “Double Switch” selection is special: it can take a double or stereo switch from a single jack, so the

other jack is still free to use an expression pedal, or even another stereo switch.

In BROWSE MODE, the default assignment for “Double Switch” is Rig Up/Down. In Proﬁler Mode, it switch-

es from Kemper Amp to Reference Amp, and in the Store Menu, it will navigate the cursor to the left or

right. Alternatively, you can create your own “Double Switch” set-up by assigning any combination of the

available functions with the Soft Knobs.

Operation of a MIDI remote pedal

The Kemper Proﬁling Ampliﬁer connects easily to MIDI remote pedals from any manufacturer. Simply con-

nect your MIDI pedal to the MIDI IN jack of the KPA. There are three groups of MIDI messages that the KPA

can receive:

 Program Change

You can assign up to 128 program change numbers to your Rigs. The assignment is done in the SYSTEM

Menu/Program # Assign.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER58

 Expression Pedals

The two expression pedal destinations can also be played by MIDI controllers. Pedal 1 (Wah Pedal) re-

sponds to MIDI controller #1 (Modulation Wheel). Pedal 2 (Volume Pedal) responds to MIDI controller #7

(Channel Volume).

 Eect Switches

Some MIDI pedals allow you to assign control change numbers (CC#’s) to individual foot buttons. These

can be used to switch stomps and eects in the KPA. Here is the list of the control change numbers:

#1 Wah Pedal

#7 Volume Pedal

#16 All Stomps Invert

#17 Stomp A on/o

#18 Stomp B on/o

#19 Stomp C on/o

#20 Stomp D on/o

#22 Stomp X on/o*

#24 Stomp MOD on/o

#26 Delay on/o (cuts tail)

#27 Delay on/o (keeps tail)

#28 Reverb on/o (cuts tail)

#29 Reverb on/o (keeps tail)

#30 Ta p

PEDALS, PROGRAM CHANGES AND MIDI 59

#31 Tuner Select

#33 Rotary Speaker (slow/fast)

#68 Delay Mix

#69 Delay Feedback

#70 Reverb Mix

#71 Reverb Time

#72 Gain

The respective eect is engaged by a value greater than zero, and bypassed by a zero value. If you use

CC’s #26 or #28 to bypass the Delay or Reverb, you will cut the eect tails abruptly (the same happens

if you bypass them from the front panel of the KPA). To bypass the Delay/Reverb without cutting o the

eect tails, you should use CC’s #27 and #29 respectively (this is the recommended approach for live per-

formance).

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER60

External Storage

In the regular play screen of the KPA you can press the soft button labeled External Storage to create or

restore backups, import or export rigs or format a USB stick.

Pressing the soft button labeled “Backup” will take you to a page where you can either backup all of the

rigs and presets in the KPA using the soft button labeled “Backup” or restore a backup from an USB stick

into the KPA using the soft button labeled “Restore”.

A USB stick that has been formatted by the KPA will contain a folder called Shared.

Using the Import/Export soft button will take you to a page where you can import all rigs from the shared

folder or export your current rig or all rigs using the soft buttons.

When you download rigs from the internet or receive them by email simply copy them into the “Shared”

folder on your USB stick in order to import them into the KPA.

The “Format Device” soft button will take you to a page where you can format the USB stick that is insert-

ed to the back of the KPA. Please be aware that formatting a USB stick will delete all the data on it.

Managing large amounts of rigs

If you are a ‘rig collector’ you might be looking for a convenient solution to delete selections of rigs from

your KPA. While the KPA itself supports deletion of individual rigs, deletion of many can be time-consum-

ing and cumbersome. Let me share a methodology using your PC or MAC to clean up your data.

KPA backup archives are based on a standard ﬁle format, which is called tar. These archives can be un-

packed with standard freeware like for example 7-zip, Zipeg, GuiTar, GNU-tar and others. We are recom-

mending 7-zip for PC and GuiTar for MAC.

Unpacking a KPA backup archive on your PC or MAC will give you free access to the folders containing

the individual rig, snapshot, and local preset ﬁles included in the backup. The folder Stomp for example

contains all your local presets for stomps, but obviously not the program code for the KPA stomps. In this

unpacked state of a KPA backup on your you can easily select and delete rigs or local presets.

EXTERNAL STORAGE 61

Let me explain this process step by step for PC ﬁrst. Please scroll further down for MAC instructions. If you

should be using dierent tools, this process could vary slightly.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER62

 PC/Windows Instructions

• Download and install 7-zip on your PC http://www.7-zip.org/

• Create a backup of your KPA data on your USB-stick (KPA User Manual page 36).

• Remove the USB-stick from your KPA and plug the USB-stick with the backup into your PC.

• Open the USB-Stick using the File Manager on your PC.

• Open the Folder Backups, which contains your KPA backup archives e. g. 2012-07-13 17-27-25.kpabackup.

The archive name indicates the time, when it was created on the KPA.

• Select the latest backup, cut and paste it to your desktop.

• Now right click on the backup archive on your desktop, chose 7-zip, select unpack ﬁle.

• A pop-up window will ask you to conﬁrm the path, where the unpacked data should be stored. Press Ok.

• Now you ﬁnd a normal data folder on your PC desktop with a name like 2012-07-13 17-27-25.

• Double click on this folder.

• Now you see the various folders for rigs and dierent kinds of local presets.

• Double click on the folder Rigs.

• Here you ﬁnd one ﬁle for each rig on your KPA.

• Now you can start your clean-up work and delete rigs, that you don’t need anymore.

• As soon as you are done with your clean-up work, close all folders.

• Now is the right time to store the original backup archive in a safe place on your PC and avoid conﬂicts

with the new cleaned-up backup archive, which will carry exactly the same ﬁlename. Select the original backup archive on your desktop for example 2012-07-13 17-27-25.kpabackup, cut and paste this into a folder on your PC, where you store all your KPA-backups. Should you accidentally delete a rig during the clean-up process, you can always restore this backup and recover all your data.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER63

• Double click on the unpacked backup folder on your PC desktop e. g. 2012-07-13 17-27-25.

• Select all the ﬁles and folders contained (Ampliﬁer, Tonestack, MIDIAssignments,….).

• Right click, select 7-zip and Add to an archive.

• A new 7-zip window will pop-up suggesting name and format of the new archive.

• You can leave everything as suggested e. g. archive format tar, but you need to change the ﬁle extension in

the ﬁrst row from tar to kpabackup., so that the ﬁle name is identical with the name of the original backup archive, that you stored at step 15.

• You will now ﬁnd a new backup archive e. g. 2012-07-13 17-27-25.kpabackup amongst the folders.

• Cut and paste this backup archive into the Backups folder of your USB-stick.

• Plug the USB-stick into your KPA.

• Restore this backup on your KPA

• Congratulations! You just cleaned up your KPA.

Now is an excellent time to create a new backup of your ‘clean’ KPA. This new backup archive will carry the

actual time stamp in its name. You should add this backup archive to the backup folder on your PC (same

folder as in step 15).

EXTERNAL STORAGE 64

 Instructions for Mac users

• Download and install GuiTar on your Mac

• http://download.cnet.com/GUI-Tar/3000-2250_4-48290.html

• Create a backup of your KPA data on your USB-stick (KPA User Manual page 36).

• Remove the USB-stick from your KPA and plug the USB-stick with the backup into your MAC.

• Open the USB-Stick by double-clicking on its icon.

• Open the Folder Backups, which contains your KPA backup archives e. g. 2012-07-13 17-27-25.kpabackup.

The archive name indicates the time, when it was created on the KPA.

• Select the latest backup and drag it to your desktop.

• Add the sux ”.tar“ to the ﬁlename. Select the ”use .tar“ option in the pop-up window that appears. You

will now see a tar archive on your desktop with a name like 2012-07-13 17-27-25.kpabackup.tar

• Double-click on the tar archive and you will see a regular data folder on your desktop with a name like

2012-07-13 17-27-25.backup.

• Double click on this folder.

• Now you see the various folders for rigs and dierent kinds of local presets.

• Double click on the folder Rigs.

• Here you ﬁnd one ﬁle for each rig on your KPA.

• Now you can start your clean-up work and delete rigs, which you don’t need anymore.

• As soon as you are done with your clean-up work, close all folders.

• Now is the right time to store the original backup archive in a safe place on your Mac and avoid conﬂicts

with the new cleaned-up backup archive, which will carry exactly the same ﬁlename. Select the original backup archive on your USB-stick and copy this into a folder on your Mac, where you store all your KPAbackups. Should you accidentally delete a rig during the clean-up process, you can always restore this backup and recover all your data.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER65

• Go back to the unpacked backup folder on your MAC desktop e. g. 2012-07-13 17-27-25.backup.

• Select all the ﬁles and folders inside that folder.

• Open the GuiTar program by double-clicking on its icon in your applications folder and click on Compres-

sor.

• Drag all the selected ﬁles and subfolders from the KPA backup to the GuiTar window and select tar as the

compression type.

• Click on “Compress“ and give the archive a name like 2012-07-13 17-27-25.kpabackup and save it to the

Backup folder on your USB-stick.

• Locate the archive in your Backup folder on the USB-stick and control-click on it and select Information

from the pop up menu.

• Click on Name&Sux in the Information window and delete ”.tar“ from the ﬁlename and hit Enter. Select

the ”Use .kpabackup“ option in the popup window.

• Unmount the USB-stick from your Mac and plug it into your KPA.

• Restore this backup on your KPA

• Congratulations! You just cleaned up your KPA.

Now is an excellent time to create a new backup of your ‘clean’ KPA. This new backup archive will carry the

actual time stamp in its name. You should add this backup archive to the backup folder on your Mac (same

folder as in step 15).

All this should be done with caution and conscious, that these ﬁles do contain your precious data. You

should always keep a copy of the original backup ﬁle, before you even start to manipulate content. Don’t

modify ﬁle names! Renaming of rigs or local presets needs to be done on the KPA. If you should delete

rigs, which have a Midi Program Change # assigned, this won’t cause any inconsistencies, because these

assignments will be reset automatically during the restore on the KPA. If you stick to these rules, it’s safe,

you won’t lose any data, and the KPA will perform well.

EXTERNAL STORAGE 66

We strongly recommend, not using a hex-editor or similar tools to manipulate content within any of these

rig or local preset ﬁles e. g. for tagging purposes. This can cause ﬁle corruptions which could force hangs

of your KPA. Stay away from these tools!

By the way the main reason, why we are packing all user data into one backup archive, is, that it speeds up

the transaction signiﬁcantly. The time to write data on USB-sticks is primarily scaling with the number of

ﬁles.

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER67

MIDI parameter documentation

The Kemper Proﬁling Ampliﬁer features over 400 dierent Midi Parameters. Those will not ﬁt into the 128 possible Midi Controller. This is why we support the extended Midi Controller format: The NRPN (Non Registered Parameter Numbers).

NRPN allow to address 16384 dierent parameters (that is 128 x 128) and even have a parameter resolution of 16384 values (14 bit) compared to 128 values (7 bit) with regular controllers.

NRPN messages consists of a set of four controllers being sent in a sequence. These four controllers are:

Dec Hex #98 $62 Address Page Is the most signiﬁcant byte of the Parameter Number #99 $63 Address Number Is the least signiﬁcant byte of the Parameter Number #38 $26 Parameter Value LSB Is the least signiﬁcant byte of the Parameter Value #6 $06 Parameter Value MSB Is the most signiﬁcant byte of the Parameter Value

If a high parameter resolution is not available, you can simply skip #38 and only send #6 as the value.

THe MRPN has a deﬁnition ﬂaw: It allows for either sending both #6 and #38 (in this order) or only sending #6 for lower resolution. But the deﬁnition does not tell how the receiver would know whether to wait for a #38 following and ﬁne tuning the #6 or immediately perform the parameter change with the advent of #6.

This is why we have changed the NRPN deﬁnition a bit by reversing the order of #6 and #38. If #38 is received it will memorized until #6 is received - both values will be combined to a high resolution

value (14 bit). If #6 is received without a precedent #38, it will be interpreted a low resolution value (7 bit).

This is what you send for high resolution values (14 bit):

$B0,$62,Address Page $B0,$63,Address Number $B0,$26,Parameter Value LSB $B0,$06,Parameter Value MSB

This is what you send for low resolution values (7 bit):

$B0,$62,Address Page

MIDI PARAMETER DOCUMENTATION 68

$B0,$63,Address Number $B0,$06,Parameter Value

$B0 is the Midi Start Byte for controllers at Midi Channel 0. The Kemper Proﬁling Ampliﬁer will listen to the Midi Channel that is set as the Midi Global Channel in the

System Menu.

The standard setting is “Omni”, saying it responds to every channel.

There is two types of parameters in the Kemper Proﬁling Ampliﬁer and their properties:

Continuous Parameters (like Gain, Volume,)

- Are fractional numbers and Will always cover the whole value range

- Will be smoothed upon reception of multiple continuous values. Thus, high resolution (14 bit) values are not necessary for a smooth parameter movement, only for accurate target values.

Switch or Section Parameters (like Type, On/O)

- Are integer numbers and will start counting from the least signiﬁcant bit.

- That is the LSBit of controller #38, when sent for high resolution, or the LSBit of controller #6, when #38 is left out for low resolution.

- Values out of range will activate the highest value in the range, but should not be used due to future compatibility

- Switches are “O” at the value zero and “On” at all nonzero values.

Rig Address Page 4

0 Rig Tempo 1 Rig Volume 2 Rig Tempo Enable

Input Address Page 9

3 Noise Gate Intensity

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4 Input Clean Sense 5 Input Distortion Sense

Ampliﬁer Address Page 10

2 On/O 4 Gain 6 Deﬁnition 7 Clarity 8 Power Sagging 9 Pick 10 Compressor 11 Tube Shape 12 Tube Bias 15 Direct Mix

Equalizer Address Page 11

2 On/O 4 Bass 5 Middle 6 Treble 7 Presence

Cabinet Address Page 12

2 On/O 3 Volume 4 High Shift 5 Low Shift 6 Character

Stomp A Address Page 50

0 Type 3 On/O 4 Mix 6 Volume 7 Stereo

8 Wah Manual 9 Wah Peak 10 Wah Range 12 Wah Pedal Mode 13 Wah Touch Attack 14 Wah Touch Release 15 Wah Touch Boost

MIDI PARAMETER DOCUMENTATION 70

16 Distortion/Shaper Drive 17 Distortion/Booster Tone

18 Compressor/Gate Intensity 19 Compressor Attack

20 Modulation Rate 21 Modulation Depth 22 Modulation Feedback 23 Modulation Crossover 24 Modulation HyperChorus Amount 25 Modulation Manual 26 Modulation Phaser Peak Spread 27 Modulation Phaser Stages

30 Rotary Speed (Slow/Fast) 31 Rotary Distance 32 Rotary Balance

KEMPER PROFILING AMPLIFIER71

33 Compressor Squash

34 Graphic EQ Band 1 35 Graphic EQ Band 2 36 Graphic EQ Band 3 37 Graphic EQ Band 4 38 Graphic EQ Band 5 39 Graphic EQ Band 6 40 Graphic EQ Band 7 41 Graphic EQ Band 8

42 Parametric EQ Low Gain 43 Parametric EQ Low Freqency 44 Parametric EQ High Gain 45 Parametric EQ High Freqency 46 Parametric EQ Peak Gain 47 Parametric EQ Peak Freqency 48 Parametric EQ Peak Q-Factor 49 Parametric EQ Peak Gain 2 50 Parametric EQ Peak Freqency 2 51 Parametric EQ Peak Q-Factor 2

52 Wah Peak Range

Stomp B Address Page 51