… ain’t any freakin’ modeler, dude …

…I AM
THE PROFILER
 1

KPA’S FORUM EXCERPTS

Table Of Contents

INTRODUCTION – READ ME FIRST! ......................................................................................................... page 2

WHERE TO START FROM ....................................................................................................................... page 5
TROUBLESHOOTING ............................................................................................................................. page 10
HARDWARE .......................................................................................................................................... page 15
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT ....................................................................................................................... page 19
FILE & RIGS MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................. page 49
PARAMETERS........................................................................................................................................ page 57
FX ......................................................................................................................................................... page 60
SETTINGS ............................................................................................................................................. page 66
USE ...................................................................................................................................................... page 67
SOUND ................................................................................................................................................. page 34
PROFILING ............................................................................................................................................ page 38
REFINING ............................................................................................................................................. page 47
EVERYTHING ABOUT (VIRTUAL) CABS ................................................................................................. page 44
KEMPER DEFAULT AMPS & RIGS (& SERVICE PACKS) ........................................................................... page 21
PROFILES .............................................................................................................................................. page 76
SPECIAL PROFILES ................................................................................................................................ page 79
CHARGED-FOR PROFILES ...................................................................................................................... page 82
RECORDING ......................................................................................................................................... page 72
MIDI...................................................................................................................................................... page 73
ASSORTED STUFF ................................................................................................................................. page 77
OTHER HARDWARE .............................................................................................................................. page 27
BASS .................................................................................................................................................... page 78
THIRD-PART ......................................................................................................................................... page 83
WASTING TIME ..................................................................................................................................... page 85
AGREEMENT & EDITING INFORMATION................................................................................................ page 86
 2

INTRODUCTION – READ ME FIRST!

Hey, welcome 

This document (familiarly called the wiKPA) is a work in progress. Feel free to contact me for any flaws, dis-
crepancies, incorrectness and whatsnot @ gdimare@libero.it.
Also, feel free to notify me any contents you’d like to see added to the document.

CHARACTERISTICS AND USE

The page numbers in the TOC are clickable to jump to the related page. Just hit [Alt+Left Arrow] to jump
back (NB: the shortcut might be different on some keyboard layouts).

A trick for those who would like to search the forum for some information referenced in the wikpa. Usually,
sentences are just copied&pasted from the source. So, provided the information actually comes from the
Kemper forum, by choosing the right sequence of words a simple search via the internal search engine
should return the proper post/thread. This is not always true tho, because sometimes the quotations have
been edited to give them a different form.

The wikpa contains quotation from Eng. Kemper himself. Just look for the string [CK].
Generally speaking, a string between squared brackets refers to the nick of the member (in the Kemper fo-
rum) whom the following sentence is taken from.
I’ve usually used this kind of labeling for Kemper members only. So, searching for “[“ or “]” would be a good
way for looking for Kemper team statement or suggestions ;)

The version number is easy to decipher: its structure is yyyymmdd, where 20171203 hence means Dec, 3Rd
2017.
You’ll always find the version of the document in your possession both in the file title and in the Agreement
& Editing Information section at the end of this document.

WARNING
Before proceeding with your reading, please be sure you read the Agreement & Editing Information chapter
at the end of this document!

Generally speaking, the links provided in this document can be no longer available on the Net at some
stage. I do my best to keep links up-to-date but can give no guaranty that all of them are still active.

Adobe Reader users: please check that your copy of AR is set to allow link connection (Edit -> Preferences -
> Trust Manager -> Change Settings -> Allow All Web Sites). Link clicking won’t work otherwise.

The above might apply over other pdf readers as well.

KNOWN ISSUES
Some dotted list’s bullets miss their background color.

Some information is incomplete and awaiting for conscious editing. It’s been labeled [TO EB EDITED].
 3

HISTORY

2012 09 25

Updated with the relevant forum contents up to the date of editing.

Some chapters have been displaced for a more logic sequence;

New chapters added: What to expect (and to not expect) from your KPA and Shortcuts.

TOC edited for a better reading.

2012 08 05

Updated with the relevant forum contents up to the date of editing.

Burkhard from Kemper has personally reviewed the document, correcting, integrating and adding
information.

The section Where To Start From has been growing, and it’s becoming a collection of basic tips for
the newbies.

Some chapters have changed their name and their contents have been better organized and divid-
ed.

The version number is now split for easier detection and readability.

Some more cosmetic editing has been done.

More typos have been corrected.

2012 07 16

Updated with the relevant forum contents up to the date of editing.

A new chapter, Troubleshooting, has been added. Some of the contents from the Use chapter have
been moved here.

A new chapter, Where To Start From, has been added.

A new chapter, Everything About Cabs, has been added.

For a easier reading, the

Some more cosmetic editing has been done.

Further typos have been corrected.

 4

2012 07 06

Updated with the relevant forum contents up to the date of editing.

A new paragraph, History, has been added!

A new section, Wasted Time, has been added. Its title is self-explicative ;D

A new section, Special Profiles, has been added. It links to peculiar profiles such as Axe-Fx’s ones.

A new paragraph, Accessories, has been added to the Third-Part section.

The information related to cabs has now been differently organized.

The wikpa is now printable.

Page numbers in TOC now correctly line up.

All the Internet links now are properly linked and formatted.

Lots of cosmetic editing have been done.

Lots of typos have been corrected.

The file is much lighter now (about ¼ than before).

Enjoy reading!

Gianfranco Di Mare
 5

WHERE TO START FROM

MAIN INFORMATIONAL RESOURCES FOR THE KPA USER

The kemper site
The Kemper forum
KPA Basic And Profiling Manual
KPA Reference Manual

HOW TO REGISTER ON THE KEMPER SITE

Follow this link. In the upper right corner there is a small link to Login. Click on it and then on Sign up as a
member. Fill in the form. The requested serial number is reported on a small sticker underneath the unit. It
should start with kpa...

In case you had joined the forum before owning a KPA, and now you want to upgrade your status w/o los-
ing your previous information, PS’ storage and the like, just login, click on your name, click on the 3rd tab
(Register your amp), enter the serial number and click on Upgrade account.

WHAT TO EXPECT (AND TO NOT EXPECT) FROM YOUR KPA

The KPA is able to “learn” the sound of a given combination of an amp+cab+microphone, and to reproduce
it with astonishing accuracy. Given the way profiles are taken, the comparison has to be made between the
KPA (diffused by a monitor or a cab) and the mic’ed amp listened through the same monitor or cab.
On the other hand, there are other ways to profile an amp which don’t use a mic, or a cab (via a DI for ex-
ample): even in these cases the comparison will give faithful results only using the same chain for the two
signals.

As of today (Sept, 2012) the tone controls of the KPA are generic, meaning they do not change their action
through the different profiles to mimic the profiled amp’s tonestack behavior. So, if you have more than
one “sweet spot” on your amp is advisable to take as many profiles as the tonestack settings you’ll use.
There’s of course nothing bad in using the KPA’s tonestack: simply it will, in most cases, not reflect the be-
havior of the reference amp’s controls. On the other hand, it is very powerful, allowing you to get extreme
setting which would be impossible to achieve on the reference amp.

To fully appreciate the factory profiles (and any profile in general) it’s important to understand that a pro-
file is generally taken from a rig (a certain guitar through an amp and a cab) which the author found well-
sounding. He or she set the guitar’s controls and PUs, and the amp’s tonestack in a certain way. Then they
profiled the rig. Those settings will then depend on the player’s taste and the used instrument.
Another key issue to keep in mind is that the players who profiled their amps for the factory profiles are all
professionals, used to work in studio. Their sounds are recording-ready, that is mostly conceived for sound-
ing good in a mix (of a certain genre) rather than for a solo performance.
The above-mentioned elements explain why you might find a certain profile not to your taste: mostly, the
reason is that you’re using a different combination of guitar+pickups, and/or listening to the sound solo ra-
ther than in a mix. So don’t be too fast in discarding a profile which doesn’t sound good at first: it might be
a hidden pearl, especially if you use more than an instrument. On the other hand, often tweaking a bit a
profile you don’t like can give excellent results.
 6

Last issue: amp cab or monitor/PA cab? The KPA (like all the high-end digital preamps) performs through an
algorithm which is called to take in account all the non-linearity of an amp+cab system we guitarists love so
much. All you need is a medium to make the results reach your ears. Generally speaking, it would be a mis-
take to use a guitar cab, because it would give a double contribution to the sound (like drawing a subject
through distorting lenses, and using the same distorting lenses to examine the drawing). The same applies
to the poweramp you’re going to use wit you KPA: it should be as linear as possible, in order to keep the
simulation as faithful as possible. But several KPA users have reported they like using a guitar amp and a
guitar cab (which are non-linear by definition), and it’s always possible that you’ll like the results, so exper-
iment at will! In these cases, you may want to disable the amp and or the cab from the KPA panel. Find
what best suits your tastes/needs.
Another good way to use the KPA is with profiles taken w/o the cab (for example with a DI box). They are
made to be used in conjunction with a guitar cab.

A QUICK GET TO KNOW YOUR KPA TUTORIAL

The profiles are created by sending a few test tones through your setup. The test tones are generated by
the KPA. After creating a profile, you can then swap out the cabinet and use any other cabinet stored in the
KPA.
The KPA is set up to allow you many different ways to monitor it, for example

hotel room -> headphones;

home -> a pair of decent studio monitors, or if you like it loud, a power amp and a cabinet;
studio -> easy, directly into the board;
gig -> many options; for example, you can play a power amp + cabinet for your stage sound (this is
what most people are used to) and supply a stereo signal for the FOH mixer at the same time.

The Master Volume control can also be 'un-linked' from the stereo feed, so you can adjust your stage vol-
ume just by turning a knob, while leaving the signal that's being send to the FOH alone.
Or you could just supply the stereo feed and have the mixer send that signal back on your monitor(s)/IEM.
Read the manuals, they answer a lot of questions (see above).

Your KPA is really easy to use. You just got to breath and forget the amount of buttons there are: it’s really
just a plug and play system.

A KPA profile is like a mic’ed amp dialed in a specific way. This means that a single, untweaked profile won’t
probably sound good with different guitars and/or pickups. Though the guitar doesn't matter for the crea-
tion of the profile, each profile really does sound best with a particular guitar/pickup. This is easy to under-
stand, since the people who profiled an amp most likely set it the way they liked it played with their in-
strument of the moment.
Using the KPA, you’ll really come to appreciate the difference in tone between different guitars and
pickups.

One important tip: don’t use the Volume knob. Use the Master knob instead.
The Browse knob selects different rigs.
You can disable the cab by pressing the Cab button off. To change a cab hold it for longer than a second and
then use the browse knob again to select different cabs.
The same method applies with all the stomp buttons, A through D to X through Verb: press to acti-
vate/deactivate or hold for more options, different parameters etc.
If you tweak a profile to your liking and save it, press Snapshot. Then press the Quick button and all your
snapshots/favorite rigs are in one place and very easy to find. You must set the function of the Quick button
 7

from the System menu (see here for further details).

YOUR “REAL” RIG

Put as much time and effort into selecting an output system as you did choosing your KPA. The whole digi-
tal experience changes drastically using different cabs and different types of cabs.

IS THE KPA OVERKILL IF I DON’T PLAN TO PROFILE AMPS ?

A: Not at all! I haven’t profiled an amp and don’t intend to anytime soon, there’s no need. The profile quali-
ty keeps getting better from the rig exchange to even think about micing an amp.

A: Simple answer, no. This is what make the strength of the product, anybody in the world can profile any-
thing and share it. The online library is already huge, but if there is an amp you stumble across that you ab-
solutely want the tone and that isn`t available you know you will be able to profile it.
Honestly, I haven`t profile anything and I`m not planning on doing so. Profiling to some extent need the
same skill require to mic an amp for recording. Some people are now doing it very well and I think that
even if you were giving me a killer amp to profile I`m not sure I will achieve the same result without a lot of
trial and error.

AN EASY START
The KPA comes with about 200 or so factory presets. But there are plenty of good profiles to be had
everywhere else. All you need is an USB stick (4 GB will be enough, more is useless).
There are two USB connections on the KPA’s back, at the moment only one is functional. Put the USB stick
into the working connector: the KPA will format the drive automatically and create folders it will recognize
(now it will have an empty Shared folder on it).
Register on the Kemper site: follow the link, in the upper right corner there is a small link to Login. Click on
it and then on Sign up as a member. Fill in the form. The requested serial number is reported on a small
sticker underneath the unit. It should start with kpa...
(NOTE: in case you had joined the forum before owning a KPA, and now you want to upgrade your status
w/o losing your previous information, PS’ storage and the like, just login, click on your name, click on the
3rd tab (Register your amp), enter the serial number and click on Upgrade account.)
Go to the Rig Exchange page, and download profiles you want to try.
Remove the USB stick from the KPA and plug it into your computer’s USB slot. It will show up on your desk-
top.
Put downloaded profiles and cabinet files in the Shared folder (for available cabs you can also see the
THIRD-PART chapter).
Properly remove USB from your computer.
Plug it back into KPA. In a few seconds you will see external storage show up on your display at the top.
Hit the button above that. Import (everything will be imported into your KPA). Remove the USB stick… And
pretty much you’re good to go.

Now, let's say tomorrow you want to download more profiles or cabs.
Download them and copy and paste them back into the same "Shared" folder. The KPA will only Import the
new profiles you added, it recognizes the existing profiles/files already on the USB stick and doesn't import
them again.

If you want to save all the profile files on your PC, plug the USB into your PC, open the Shared folder, copy
and paste all the files into a new folder you create on your PC.
 8

If you have a backup file or firmware update on your USB stick copy them as well onto your PC.
Now when the next firmware update arrives you can take the same USB stick, plug into the KPA, format it
and no worries, everything you had on the USB stick is already saved on your PC.

PROFILE FILES
The profile file format is a proprietary .kipr. This is not a file a computer’s OS can manage, so no surprise if
yours report an error such as “unable to open/manage the file”. You’re supposed to copy the profile file(s)
onto an USB stick in order to move the files into your KPA.

APPROACHING A NEW PROFILE

Do not be scared to try the KPA’s controls and see how they affect the sound. If you are insecure about
their behavior don’t forget to learn what they do in advance, so you’ll have the highest satisfaction! Some
controls may have a strong impact oven the sound, some others a more subtle one. Other controls might
have a more noticeable effect when tweaked in conjunction with others… you will learn it.
If a control’s impact over the sound seems at first irrelevant or too subtle to you, just wait until you’ll be-
come more expert o you learn something through other users 

I generally use all the parameters available to make a good sounding rig a great sounding one (to my
ear/taste), not because I have to but because I like to.

I think the guitar amp is part of my instrument and I want to know it like I know my guitar. The KPA is some-
thing completely new so I want to know how it works. I mean not the bits and bytes of the programming
behind it but I want to know how the different settings influence the sound. Especially the new ones that
you don't find on your tube amp.
What I almost certainly do when I meet a new profile:

adapt the input (clean sense and especially distortion sense);

turn down the noise gate;
set the power sagging to where I like it;
switch off the reverb and delays.

What I am dealing with right now when I decide to use a profile more seriously:

EQ before the amp (in the stomp section);

EQ after the amp (in the X-slot);
This, and especially the High Shift parameter in the Cabinet section, can change so incredibly much
on a sound…

CLEAN, CRUNCH, DISTORTED

When you want gain, choose a profile with gain. When you want crunch, choose a profile with crunch. Or,
add a stomp in front of the rig section or, add eq in the X-block to tame the top-end a bit. Usually, just add-
ing gain (via the gain control) to an existing clean profile is sub-optimum... you can add a bit, but more than
a bit can get gritty/fizzy. On the other hand, cleaning up a distorted profile works much better.
In order to improve the crunch sounds, make sure your Clean Sense and Distortion Sense are dialed-in to
your guitar: these can make a big difference in your tone.
 9

Visit the cab controls section, where a good bit of difference can be made just by changing the cab eq.
Plan on spending some time auditioning the MANY existing profiles on the exchange. You can pretty quickly
find profiles that match what your ear wants to hear.

If you’re not satisfied, better than tweaking a profile that just doesn't have what you are looking for, I'd
choose a different profile or use a different cab. If you are on FW 1.1 you should have profiles of a S. Mehl
and Siggi Mehl amp. Try those for a start and save off all cabs of the various profiles. It's a Greenback cab
you will definitely want for crunch sounds. Try that cab with the various Marshalls from the rig exchange.
There is a Golub Marshall profile that is the godfather of crunch when you pair it with that Siggi Mehl
Greenback cab. I just recorded a song with a Green Day vibe and that Golub Marshall was just THE sound.
There are also many other great crunch profiles. Try Pete Turleys Marshalls, they sound fantastic and save
off his cabs either. They are vintage Marshall cabs with original Pulsonic cones, you can't get much better
than that.
Also try the various free packs of the [And44]. He has a great WEM Dominator profile that can be paired
with the Greenback as well for a great 18-Watt-Marshall-like crunch.

LOUD POPS & BUMPS WHEN SWITCHING KPA ON/OFF

Hearing such impulsive noises when switching your KPA on/off are a normal behavior.
Some electronic devices are gifted with an electronic system preventing impulsive, switch on/off noises to
feed the Line out. The KPA is said by Kemper to be among those. Nevertheless, some users have reported
(as long as many others) is not. The cause, as reported by staff members, could be in a defective silencing
device.
If this case is yours, the correct behaviors is to always start switching your rig off from the cab(s), then
poweramp –> pre –> device. And the other way round when switching on.

LISTENING THROUGH HEADPHONES

[CK] Be aware that listening thru headphones is a different perception than listening to speakers in a room
with natural reflections. That refers to any music, but especially to a guitar amp.
 10

TROUBLESHOOTING

DATE/TIME CLOCK FAILURE

Should you receive a Hardware Issue detected - Date/Time Clock failed. Please contact support error, it
could be related to an exhausted or misplaced or defective backup battery (at best), but it might also be an
issue with the quartz of the clock. The clock is important because all rig and preset names are enhanced
with a time stamp on file system level. This way the file system makes sure, that each file gets a unique
name, because you could give two rigs the same name e. g. 'Max'. If the clock isn't running two files could
have exactly the same name and this could cause data integrity issues. While you are still working with your
Profiler please takle care and assign unique names, if you store anything.
[timo] If you have a rig and you modify it and try to "Store As", it will overwrite the previous rig without
warning, since all rigs now do have the same time. So the actual "rig name + rig datetime" is staying the
same. The KPA needs a working clock.

EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
The KPA may not react or boot in some rare cases. Here follows a summary of tricks to get it back to life.
NOTES from [CK]:

the flash memory has no influence whatsoever on volumes, noise, aliasing or spdif;
the system reset sets all global values to their initial state;
a flash initialization simply erases all rigs and cleans the file system.

KPA DOES NOT REACT ANYMORE

 Switch the main knob to off
 wait a few seconds
 switch on again

If the above did not help:

 Switch the main knob to off

 wait a few seconds
 unplug the KPA
 wait 5 minutes
 plug
 switch on again

There is a security switch in the power supply, which protects against power spikes. The switch will release
as soon as a capacitor is empty.
In order to quicken the capacitor discharge it’s possible to switch the KPA on while the power cable is dis-
connected.

KPA DOES NOT START ANYMORE

There are different reasons why the KPA may not start anymore. The most common thing is a corrupt rig
e.g. after downloading a corrupt file. To reset the last used (corrupt) rig do like this:
 11

 switch the main knob to off;

 wait a few seconds;
 hold the Rig key;
 switch KPA to tuner while still holding the Rig key.

If the above did not help there are other keys to reset other parts of the KPA memory.
To reset the (corrupted) MIDI settings do like this:

 switch the main knob to off;

 wait a few seconds;
 hold the Quick key;
 switch KPA to tuner while still holding the Quick key.

To reset the (corrupted) System settings do the following (NOTE: all your system settings will be erased, not
your rigs):

 switch the main knob to off;

 wait a few seconds;
 hold the System key;
 switch KPA to tuner while still holding the System key.

If the three options above did not help your KPA back to live, you may have a completely corrupted rig li-
brary or even the firmware may be corrupted. Check the sections below to recover from this.

NOTE: [burkhard] The reset holding both Amplifier and Cabinet button did only temporarily work in FW
1.0.8 and was basically a combined System, Rig and Quick reset. It’s not available anymore from FW 1.0.9,
and it’s been replaced by the others.

INSTALL OR REINSTALL THE FIRMWARE

 Switch the main knob off;
 download the latest KPA firmware;
 use your usual KPA-formatted USB stick;
 copy the unzipped firmware file kaos.bin into the root folder of the USB stick (NOTE: there must be
no other copy of the kaos.bin file elsewhere on the stick);
 plug the USB stick into the KPA;
 press and hold both '<' and '>' keys;
 switch KPA to tuner while still holding both keys;
 something like 'booting and installing' will be displayed;
 wait until the firmware is reinstalled;
 erase the internal flash memory. NOTE: all the rigs will be erased during this procedure!
 switch the main knob to off;
 hold the left/top soft-key above the LCD;
 switch KPA to tuner while still holding this key: Maintenance Module will be started;
 in the Maintenance menu go to Memory;
 use Memory FormatFlash and InitFlash;
 check if the KPA works (booting, tuner);
 reinstall your rigs. I recommend to just install the stock rigs (in case you have corrupted rigs on your
USB stick);
 load additional rigs;
 12

 check if all rigs work.

FLASH MEMORY UPDATE

[timo] We've all heard about flash memory failures resulting from too many writes, but the KPA’s flash can
be definitely updated several hundred times. In those cases when a flash memory reset is advisable, and
the operation doesn’t bring the expected results, you can try and update it more than once: the firmware
flash has several partitions and the update process will try them one after another. Before you do that, turn
off the unit by leaving it on and pulling the power cord. Then wait 1 minute. After that, connect the stick,
press and hold the PAGE buttons and turn the unit on.

BOOTING FROM THE USB STICK

Booting from the USB stick is done by pressing the Exit button while turning the unit on.

CHECK THE KPA HARDWARE

 Switch the main knob to off;
 hold the left/top soft-key above the LCD;
 switch KPA to tuner while still holding this key;
 Maintenance Module will be started;
 in the Maintenance menu go to Test;
 a lot can be tested (buttons, knobs, led, memory…).

Note: make a complete KPA backup before performing the check!

S/PDIF CRACKLES
This is my general procedure regarding crackling noise on KPA's SPDIF Out:
 Set 44.1 as sample rate both on your DAW and your soundcard.
 Set "SPDIF" (not "internal" or other) as sync source on your soundcard.
 Check whether increasing the buffer size (number of samples) on your DAW helps.
 Check your SPDIF cables, try a different one.
 In case you are on a previous version, install FW 1.5.0.

WILL I LOSE MY DATA ?

A system boot will not affect the profiles (but will cancel user settings). Formatting the flash will cancel eve-
rything.

RESETTING KPA TO FACTORY DEFAULTS

After doing a bit of research this is the procedure that seems to work to cure all aliasing, output, gain,
noise, pop, clicks and other misc odd things. I believe the reason for this is extremely corrupted system set-
tings. It seems to occur out of the box. Simply upgrading firmware does not fix the corruption nor does de-
leting rigs.
The symptoms my KPA was exhibiting were:
 13

1. Out of the box, first thing I noticed was popping/clicking every so often, I was using XLRs at the time
(I believe this indicates you have corruption).
2. S/PDIF levels extremely loud, clipping on every preset into my audio interface, my S/PDIF was set to
slave to the KPA and 44.1 kHz.
3. Sound was slightly odd sounding, never could put my finger on why.
4. XLR outputs outputted a very gainy signal which was NOT clipping my interface, again, subtle but
odd and hard to deal with in terms of gain levels on my interface, seemed I could never set the
KPA's volume levels correctly for certain profiles.
5. Noise levels got extremely high and I thought my guitar was broken. Eventually I realized I could lit-
erally tap the tip of my guitar cable on a table and hear it easily through my speakers.
6. Odd high note aliasing tones which people are posting about.

A system and a MIDI reset didn’t help. Then I performed the Flash memory wipe as such (NOTE: ALL the rigs
will be erased during this procedure!!):

switch the main knob to off;

hold the left/top soft-key above the LCD;
switch KPA to tuner while still holding this key;
Maintenance Module will be started;
in the Maintenance menu go to Memory;
use Memory FormatFlash and InitFlash;
check if the KPA works (booting, tuner);
check all the KPA settings;
go into the System block and hit Factory Rigs right most soft button. This restores all factory de-
faults.

After this your KPA will be fresh, like new, and more importantly have cleaned out FLASH memory and
should work flawlessly!
All my problems have been solved meaning no noise, no popping, gain controls are perfect, output levels
are perfect, high note aliasing noise gone.

NOISE
Although I wasn't picking up radio stations, I was getting loads of noise. I formatted the flash memory on
the KPA and redid the presets from factory default; after the total reset everything sounds great again.
My theory is an internal gain control is set to max and nothing resets it except this.

" PASTE BUFFER IS EMPTY ”

If you get the "Paste Buffer is empty" error on the screen, boot the unit holding System pressed 'till you
read "Initializing...".

INITIALIZING GLOBAL SETTINGS

Holding down the system key for the duration of startup (until an 'Initializing…' message appears) when you
switch-on the KPA resets the System cache. Was a fix after the update, no need to do it every time, just the
first time after update. No danger of losing anything, presets, rigs, settings, cab, etc.
 14

We had a few users with their KPA's suddenly sounding "phasey" - for no apparent reason. All reported that
after doing a KPA reset (press the System button while you switch the KPA on), the phasey sound went
away.
The reset works for LEDs going dim as well.

PROFILES WITH THE “&” SYMBOL IN THEIR NAME

They are safe from FW 1.0.9 on.

AUTOLOAD
In case of a defective profile making the system crash: when the Autoload option (the small box appearing
at top right corner, when browsing profiles) is checked, the rig is loaded immediately as soon as the cursor
is on that rig (profile). Uncheck the Autoload, locate the cursor at the profile, and delete it.

CLEAN SENSE SETTINGS LOST

Q: I added some new rigs today and then all the sudden all of my rigs had a different clean sense setting!
A: [timo] You may have accidentally unlocked the INPUT section. Try locking it again by pressing [INPUT]
and [LOCK] and check again.

RIGS LIST… LOST

Q: I rebooted and held the System key to reset; the unit came up showing 0 of 0 rigs: all my rigs were gone!
A: Check that you don't have selected a View like My Rigs. This setting is not reset after reboot.
If this does not help, try booting with holding down [RIG]. This will rescan and rebuild the Rig database.
 15

HARDWARE

SPECIFICATIONS
NOTE: some of the following information has been deduced and is not official

DSP: Freescale DSP (formerly Motorola), 400 MHz-equivalent

SS Memory: probably Samsung K4S281632K-UC/L75, 128Mb K-die SDRAM

Algorithm for tube simulation runs @ >700 kHz sampling rate

Audio latency: 2 ms and a bit

Dynamic Range of AD/DA Converter:

Front Input: >108 dB
Alternative Input: 105 dB
Return: 105 dB

Master Output: >108 dB

Monitor Output: >108 dB

Headphones Out: ¼ inch TRS stereo, 33 Ω

S/PDIF (24-bit) acts as Master only

Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz

Power consumption: about 15 W

INPUTS
Returns (XLR and TRS) and the Alternative Input are balanced. The front Input is unbalanced.

OUTPUTS
XLR outputs: +10dB balanced; max output level 22dBu.
TS outputs: ¼ inch +4dB unbalanced with ground lift. Max output level 22dBu.
Monitor Out: unbalanced, with ground lift. Max output level 16dBu.
Direct Output/Send: ¼ inch TS unbalanced, with ground lift. Max output level +16dBu.
Headphones Out: ¼ inch TRS stereo, 33 Ω

You can feed 2 PA's from the 2 XLR Outs as your live monitor rig, and use the other 2 main outputs to go
FOH, using all 4 outputs at the same time.

MONITOR OUT
FW 1.1.0 has optimized the Monitor Out for use with power amp and cab (with cab off on the KPA) and has
added a complete new eq section to the Monitor out (press and hold Master to access the Output menu
 16

and scroll to the Monitor Out page).

Monitor out is meant to be used for monitoring purposes, not as main signal in to your DAW.

S/PDIF
In order to connect the KPA to an audio interface via S/PDIF you need a S/PDIF cable. One digital S/PDIF ca-
ble can transmit a stereo signal. So you need one cable from KPA’s S/PDIF Out to your audio interface’s
S/PDIF In. If you want to do reamping you need another S/PDIF cable from your audio interface’s S/PDIF
Out to KPA’s S/PDIF In.
In most cases, a simple cinch cable from your Hi-Fi will do.

SIGNAL CLIPPING
[CK] you don't need section level meters, as it's virtually impossible to clip a signal. The exception is the in-
put and output, where you find a level meter.

SHUTTING THE UNIT OFF

Q: I'd love to connect my KPA to my power distributor so with one flick of the switch all my units (audio in-
terface, midi floor controller, speakers etc) fire up and ready to rock. Except I'm worried about hard-
stopping the KPA but killing the power. It seems when manually powering off unit using the 'chicken head'
switch it does a graceful shutdown, and I don't want to inadvertently break anything. Anyone else doing
something similar?
A: [timo] Turning the unit off with the chickenhead is better, since there are indeed some procedures dur-
ing shutdown. It won't break your unit when you pull the power, but to keep performance up (boot time
etc.), you should, at least once a while, shut it down properly with the chickenhead to give the system a
chance to shutdown properly. The general recommendation is: use the chickenhead to turn the KPA off.

LIGHTS
The difference in brightness is not a bug, it represents different states. For instance, the rig buttons dim,
once you hit the "end" of the list of rigs you can scroll through. The stomp buttons get dim when you switch
all stomps off (press Stomps to do so). Same is true for the Stack and Effects section.

Q: My Exit button is very low glowing, and Page buttons are extremely low glowing, almost not noticeable.
Is it normal?
A: [CK] The half lit on buttons are often meant to show you an option. E.g. the Exit button lights up if you
can leave a menu with it; the Page button lights up if there are more menus to the left or right.
[burkhard] Anyway, the basic brightness of various light elements can be adjusted on page 2/8 of the Sys-
tem menu.

MUTE
The tuner mode is meant to be a mute function. It is also accessible by foot switch and MIDI CC ([burkhard]
Tuner select and mute is CC # 31)

GROUND SWITCH
[CK] Cutting ground loops by the switches can prevent hum AND hiss.
 17

One output should always have the ground not lifted tho, to give the Profiler a solid ground.
A so called ground lift switch is actually not made for "lifting the ground", but for cutting a ground loop.
A ground loop exists when two or more devices are grounded to the wall outlet and have their grounds
connected as well by the audio cables. This creates a large ring of metal and acts like an electric coil. It can
catch hum like the pickup coils of your guitar do. But it can also catch noise from computer devices, too.
Often it is enough to lift one output to cut into this loop. The Profiler itself is not grounded by the power
cable, so it requires one (but not more) ground connections by an output or input.

W\D\W
Q: Is it fair to assume that I can take the monitor out to the effects return of my amp for a dry middle signal
and then send the stereo outs of the KPA to my stereo power amp for the wet sides? I want no effects in
the middle and effects on the wet sides.
A: Unfortunately you cannot do that, the only think you can exclude from the monitor out is the cab emula-
tion.
Q: Thanks! What about the direct out? It says something in the manual about using it as a mono send. Does
this mean that it can be assigned at any point in the effects chain as a loop? Could I add the loop before the
stereo effects and use the direct out for the 'dry' signal?
A: Yes, this is possible. not using the return you must use the mix value to balance the wet part.
A: Actually, I think you can set your monitor out to not carry any effect signal and thus make such a setup
possible. I saw this in the debug mode. But since the Kemper guys gave the advice to not mess around
there maybe you shouldn’t. The advanced system options in the debug mode are not made for normal us-
ers, the chances to borck the unit (if you don't know exactly what you're doing) are quite high.

CLEAN SENS AND DISTORTION SENS

These are the controls for the Input sensitivity for clean and distorted sounds (in case you put a dirt box in
front) and they allow you to compensate for the PU output. The 3 color led on top of the input is your clip
led. This enables you to avoid clipping the A/D. Very similar to what the black box and the orange box have.
[CK] Clean Sense is not a simple input gain: You will notice that it will not affect the gain of a distorted
sound, while it has an impact on the pure input gain.
Distortion Sense is also not a simple booster, as it does not affect the gain of clean sounds.
This Sense controls are necessary on the Profiler, because we offer the volume compensation for clean
sounds. That means when you turn the gain to zero, you get a fully clean sound at regular volume. You
could not do this on an analog guitar amp. But if your guitar itself is loud or soft, the clean sound would be-
come too loud or soft. This is what you level with Clean Sense. It took me a while to create this, and I un-
derstand that this might be a bit confusing, as those controls do not react as you would be used to. But just
use it as described and don't think about it deeper.
The Clean Sense will also care for the best leveling of the digital instrument input, as some of you stated.
Doing this is easy: just set your guitar so that clean sounds feel as loud as distorted sounds. When done,
there is no risk to clip the input with that guitar.

[CK] The default for Distortion Sense is the middle position. If your guitar is quite hot, turn it down: it will be
as you would turn down the Gain on all profiles.
And yes, if your guitar does not clean out well, there might be too much gain and distortion.

Q: Please describe the interaction between clean and distortion sense. How do you set the correct level of
distortion sense? The input light seems to be independent from distortion sense settings.
A: ...till you don't put a pedal in front of it, then it starts working. With the guitar in to the KPA I leave dis-
tortion sense to 0 and use only clean sense.
 18

[CK] The Clean Sense is to balance between clean and distorted sounds. That is between clean and distort-
ed settings of the same profile, as well as between different clean and different distorted rigs.

You can save each Clean-Distortion input adjustment and lock it when you play with each of your guitars.

[CK] The two controls Gain and Distortion Sense act the same. Their scaling is different though.

TUNER
The range of the KPA tuner is OK with a 9-string (F# - A) guitar, I have no problem tuning it.

You can set it to mute (tuner settings). Little three led tuner (just above chicken head knob...) is also usable.

I'm always afraid to switch the knob accidentally one step too further and shut down the whole unit, eeeks!
I hope the upcoming KPA ground controller will come out soon and fix that problem.
A: You can switch it via MIDI via any pedalboard, so you don't need to touch the chickenhead on stage 

The LEDs on the tuner knob are actually a real time tuner, you don't need to go into the tuner menu.
 19

SYSTEM MANAGEMENT

SAFETY TOOLS FOR THE GIGGIN’ MUSICIAN

Get a small USB stick, put your backup and latest firmware upgrade on it from your KPA. Put some Velcro
on it and the inside edge of your KPA on the back. This way, if you ever need to, you can restore your KPA
at a gig. Or if you are at home doing an update, you know where that damned USB stick is. One thing I rare-
ly hear about is how easy it is to upgrade with an USB stick... it's cheap insurance for sure. Oh, and make a
backup of your files on your PC too.

UPDATING FW
 Download the KPA FW updates from the website;
 copy the unzipped firmware file kaos.bin into the root folder of the USB stick (NOTE: there must be
no other copy of the kaos.bin file elsewhere on the stick);
 with the KPA switched on, and the flash drive firmly inserted, it will notify you that a new version is
available. Go ahead and update it using the on-screen instructions;
 once updated it will boot up (slowly the first time, so don’t be alarmed);
 copy all the new rig packs that you want to add into the Shared folder on the flash drive. NOTE
[burkhard]: the KPA is able to automatically see all rigs and local presets (e.g. local presets of cabs)
stored in the Shared folder of the USB stick; they will be imported regardless the sub-folder they
are stored in and even if they are packed. You could put a complete backup archive file into the
Shared folder and import all rigs and local presets included in that backup.
 click on External Storage on the KPA and then on Import -> import all;
 sit back and enjoy 

RESTORING THE INITIAL FACTORY RIGS

It can be done through the pages in the System menu. It works after formatting the flash memory as well.
System -> Factory rigs -> Restore factory rigs
This should get it all back (including the factory FX).

Any rig can be tweaked and saved as often as you want. You can have hundreds of versions of the same rig,
if you want. If you have tweaked the factory rigs and saved them under the same name, the restore will
create duplicates of the original ones. If you've deleted some of the factory rigs, they'll be there again.

NOTE [burkhard]: Restoring Factory Rigs will be named Importing Factory Rigs in the next FW versions, be-
cause the name has been misleading. A restore would wipe out all the old data, while the Import Factory
Rigs only adds those factory rigs and local presets which are not there anymore at all or have been edited.

SYSTEM RESET & PERSONAL DATA

A system reset (turn KPA on while holding down the System button until you see “Initialize...") won’t erase
any of the presets you’ve saved. It will however erase your saved manual settings (like LED color brightness,
clean and distorted sense etc.).
 20

THE LOCK FUNCTION

Lock feature locks a particular function so when you change rigs that thing won't switch for the stored rig
preset. You can lock almost any setting. For example, long hold the Input button, set your guitar clean and
distorted sense to taste, now hit the Lock button. When you flip through rigs now the input sensitivity
won't change. You would use this particular setting for one particular guitar.

[01000100] Click and hold the Lock button. The lights on the buttons on the upper half of the Profiler will
go out (except Input which is most likely locked). Now, while still holding the Lock button, select Stomps, Ef-
fects, etc. These LEDs will now light up. Change rigs and the locked sections will stay the same.
For example, to audition cabs quickly, lock Stomps, Amplifier, EQ and Effects. Changing rigs now only affects
the cabinet.

Good also to set the reverb when playing live: adjust it to the room on the first rig and lock it for the even-
ing, no need to change you saved rigs.

I run a stereo loop in the "X" slot in the effects section, activate, set it where I want it and then lock it. Now
I can run my Timeline, Boomerang with every rig by stomping them on or off just like running them in any
other amps effects loop.

I have permanently locked TC G-System in the Stereo loop, so whenever I want it in my signal chain I just
turn the X on.

Q: If I have locked my wah say on slot A, does that mean if I download a patch where someone carefully
setup an effect on stomp A... that I'll be missing that effect since I have a wah there?
A: You can unlock it any moment and check the downloaded patch and move the stomps (press and hold
stomp to access the menu) accordingly.

SAVING PARTS OF A RIG

On the KPA it’s possible to save not only cabs as a single element, but your Local Preset of amplifier, stack,
individual stomp, the whole stomp group, input as well
 21

KPA DEFAULT AMPS & RIGS (& SERVICE PACKS)

RIGS INFOS
In this section some infos are provided about the origin of some official rigs (i.e. coming from Kemper). This
is not exhaustive, and it’s a WIP. I’ll be collecting information as long as I find it.

D'Lux Dirty – Cactus: Fender Deluxe '65

Senseamp Disto 3: Tech 21

The Blackback cabs are G12H30's and somewhere between 1976-78, with 75 Hz Resonance.
The Greenback are G12M25's and bought in the early 80s.

FACTORY-RIG REFERENCE LIST WITH AMP/CABINET/MIKE-NAMES (INCLUDES RIG PACKS 01 AND 02)
Here you can download a reference list showing original amp-, cab- and mike-names used for the KPA fac-
tory rigs.

RIG PACK 01
Hi Players, here‘s some more info on the profiling session for the Rig Pack 01.
First I like to thank Markus Wienstroer and Dirk Baldringer for doing great work. Markus brought in some
hot stuff from his great collection of amps, all these amps are fine tuned for reaching the max in perfor-
mance and tone.
Some of these amps are hard to find nowadays and some just one of a kind, their simply unique. The Siggi
Mehl amp, or the JCM from 1981, tuned by Dirk Baldringer, or the old S. Duncan Convertible amp. Even the
speakers used in the different cabs are really old vintage stuff, broken in well.
Christopher Kemper profiled a Leslie and added new local presets for the Phaser Stomp.
Dirk Baldringer of Studio 25 spent a great amount of time and passion, for getting the most out of every
setup we took a profile of.
We really tried to push the whole thing a step forward and will do in the future. One of our goals will be to
release new Rig, Profile and FX Packs on a more or less regular base and make them available for all KPA
Players.
By the way, I think the Rigs of this package are very “tweakfriendly” so, give them a tweak.

Siggi Mehl 100 – Markus Wienstroer often used this Amp during the last 15 years for many recordings, the
Amp appears on a big bunch of productions and No.1 Hits through the years, and on a Myriad of TV and
Radio Commercials. It was also used on the “Mensch” Album of Herbert Grönemeyer.
The Amp started out as a very old London City Head and has been heavily modified over the years by Siggi
Mehl. Markus and Siggi tried to get that sound they imagined on their minds.
After all mods, it seems the last original part that stayed in the Amp is the old Output Transformer from the
London City. Every other component has been selected by Siggi to fit perfectly into the whole concept of
this Amp.
This Amp is a unique item and there‘s only one in the world. We can‘t buy it, so we have been very happy
to get profiles of this one.
 22

RIG PACK 02
[guitardroid] In this Rig Pack a part of our goal was to come up with some very tweak-able sounds, just to
give a good basic amp sound with great substance, so the already experienced customers and tweakers can
dial in their
own sound, based on some good tuned vintage and custom amps.
Going along with the great Rigs of Bill Ruppert I personally like the Pack02 a lot. So… Let the Tweaking
begin!

Zodiac – Been playing a bit more with the Zodiac, tried the S. Mehl Greenback cab with it and suddenly I
thought I knew that sound. It took me a day to remember where I know that sound from, but now I know:
it's the sound of early Pink Floyd with Syd Barret. I did some research and seemingly he played Selmer amps
as well. So if you are into early Floyd, change the cab of the (crunch) Zodiac to the Mehl Greenback, plug in
your Strat and have a go. Important is a Treble Booster for that sound. I use a BSM RM (Rangemaster clone)
in front of the KPA, but you can use the built-in Treble Booster also.

Siggi Mehl 50 is custom built by Mr. Mehl, there's only one in the world.

1965 Blackface Bassman and Vox AC 15 are modded by Siggi Mehl.

[billruppert] I wanted to explain what my profiles are all about.

1. Surf's Up is in response to people asking for a surf sound. It’s a great emulation of a "spring reverb" and
when the gain is cranked it becomes total punk surf guitar!
If you get any clipping due a stronger pickup output just reduce the volume control on the right till the mas-
ter led is in the green and save.

2. Smashing Fuzz is a perfect profile of a fuzz like the one used by Billy Corgan of the "Smashing Pumpkins".

3. Germanium Fuzz is a profile of a contemporary big selling germanium fuzz pedal. Its sound is pure ger-
manium!
It cleans up pretty well with the guitar volume rolled back.

4. Studio 15 4/12 is a profile of an late 80s’ British amp I used on hundreds of sessions. It’s a small combo
that uses 6V6 output tubes. In this profile it runs through a 4/12 cabinet.

5. Drive-Thru Speaker: have you ever wondered what it would sound like if you could plug your guitar into
the drive-thru speaker system at your local fast food hamburger restaurant? This is it! It’s a great for break
downs in songs that totally low-fi your guitar sound.

6. K. Model is a profile I made of a vintage amp (Kay Model 703 1962) I used when I recorded with the late
virtuoso blues harp player Jr. Wells. It has a perfect dirty Chicago blues sound that the KPA profiled exactly!

7. Marshall Studio 15 is an small combo amp I used on hundreds of sessions. It uses 6V6 output tubes and
DC voltage on the tube filaments to keep AC hum at a minimum.

8. Fender Rhodes Piano and The Zeppelin Rhodes 2 are profiles I created to emulate the sound of an elec-
tric piano using just an electric guitar.
 23

9. Kemper Banjo will transform your electric guitar into the sound of banjo! It’s great for single lines as well
as finger picked chords.

10. Electro is a 1962 Danelectro Twin Twelve 300 I have and the profile is very true. Only difference is the
original physically rattles when its cranked!

FACTORY RIGS SORTED BY GAIN AS OF 1.1.1.7641B - THE COMPLETE LIST

Courtesy of [dhodgson]
The list is sorted against the gain as displayed by the Gain knob, i.e., a reading of 15 LEDs is very close to a
gain of 10.0.
The Gain knob readings on the KPA reflect absolute measurements, not modifiers to the amp's original pro-
filed baseline gain. That would be an interesting concept, though - imagine being able to get back to any
amps' original gain merely by centering the gain knob to 5.0 or some such. Today, it's impossible to tell if a
profile's gain has been retouched or not.

1 Gain LED VAB Clean 2 - 2012-07-19 18-27-11

MS170-00 - 2011-09-19 15-54-57
Sultan - 2011-11-10 16-36-39
Strumming 02 - 2011-11-09 17-52-30
Californication - 2011-11-06 19-30-10
Stone Clone - 2012-04-22 17-21-46
CK Rotary Speaker - 2012-04-22 19-52-04
Steave Clean - 2012-04-26 16-25-03
Simply Clean - 2011-11-10 17-29-13
D'Lux Clean - Cactus - 2011-10-18 17-16-52
D'Lux Clean - SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-16-56
S.Mehl 50 Clean - 2012-07-19 18-17-47
Rocker Clean - M80 - 2011-09-10 00-18-07
Rocker Clean - AK47 - 2011-10-18 17-20-40
Muted Raindops - 2012-04-22 17-19-09
Diamond - 2011-11-09 19-39-50
Fischers CAE100 clean1 - 2011-10-07 16-35-07
Fischers Fan clean1 - 2011-10-07 17-06-33
King Clean - 2011-09-16 18-34-29
Kemper Banjo - 2012-07-10 15-24-07
Fischers Sold 100 - 2011-10-07 17-03-42
Jazz Clean - SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-18-23
Fischers Xtacy6 - 2011-10-07 17-01-37
Jazz Clean - R121 - 2011-10-18 17-18-19
GT 75 Clean - 2012-01-23 18-19-39
Gondwana MB1 - 2011-10-07 17-34-01
Gondwana Fan Clean2 - 2011-10-07 18-07-25
Goldie Triode Clean - 2011-10-18 17-17-46
9 V BJL - 2012-07-19 18-11-48
9 V Clean - 2012-07-19 18-13-29
AC Clean - R121 - 2011-10-18 17-01-06
AC Clean - SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-13-53
Zo-Di-Yak Clean - 2012-07-19 18-31-22
Vab Clean - 2012-01-15 16-43-53
Till's Recto Clean 2 - 2012-05-22 14-40-46
Use Your V- Knob - 2012-04-26 16-20-36
UWB TWIN 335 - 2011-10-08 21-54-48
Bad Kitty Clean - 2011-10-18 17-14-21
Twin 1 Clean - 2011-10-18 17-22-26
2 Gain LEDs
Early Fripp - 2012-04-20 15-04-46
Mr-Sandman - 2012-04-20 16-02-06
3 Gain LEDs
Black Bass Clean - 2012-07-18 14-51-31
Converter Clean - 2012-04-20 14-57-52
4 Gain LEDs
Beat Boy - 2011-11-07 13-18-58
Soul Dano Clean - 2011-10-18 17-21-39
Tabla Delay - 2012-07-20 10-05-47
Little Rebel Clean - 2011-10-18 17-18-44
Strumming 01 - 2011-11-09 17-27-26
Zeppelin Rodo's 2 - 2012-07-20 12-11-35
Rodo's Piano - 2012-07-20 12-06-47
British 800 Clean Lo - 2011-10-18 17-16-28
The Chief Clean - R121 - 2011-10-18 17-21-55
The Chief Clean - SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-21-58
Trainer Clean - 2011-10-18 17-22-06
London Color Clean Lo - 2011-09-10 23-48-22
Mr. Jack Blues - 2011-10-18 17-20-14
Fischers Sold 100-2 - 2011-10-07 17-04-57
Breath - 2011-11-10 14-17-48
Jazz Dirty - R121 - 2011-10-18 17-18-26

5 Gain LEDs
British 800 Grit Lo - 2011-10-18 17-16-41
Gondwana AC 1970 - 2011-10-08 21-59-28
London Color Clean - Cactus - 2011-10-18 17-19-18
Voice 15 Dirty - 2012-07-19 18-29-49
Walking Moon - 2011-11-08 20-22-21
Matchbox 1 Clean - SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-20-04
Zo-Di-Yak Crunch 1 - 2012-07-19 19-01-39
Country Mile - 2011-11-09 20-07-04
MS176-00 - 2011-09-19 16-38-52
UWE 1974 B 335 - 2011-02-03 19-25-26
Gondwana Fan2 - 2011-10-07 17-12-32
Little Prince MD421 - 2011-09-07 17-23-01
Little Prince Blue - 2011-09-07 21-18-52
Little Pop Prince - 2011-11-10 18-24-16
Twin 1 Gain - 2011-10-18 17-22-29
Zo-Di-Yak Crunch 2 - 2012-07-19 19-02-32
Fischers Jazz Fux Clean1 - 2011-10-07 16-21-11
Gondwana Clean Fan7 - 2011-10-07 17-54-05
Goldie e906 - 2011-10-18 17-17-53
London Trem Grit - R44 - 2011-09-10 22-26-16
Charlie B's Teacher - 2012-07-19 20-50-12
Little Prince SM57 - 2011-09-07 17-22-36
Rocker Clean Drive - AK47 - 2011-10-18 17-20-45
Goldie Blend - 2011-09-07 23-27-51
Rocker Clean Drive - M80 - 2011-10-18 17-20-48
Rocker Dirty - Woodpecker - 2011-10-18 17-20-59
Matchbox 1 Clean - AK47 - 2011-10-18 17-20-00
Silverclone Twin Clean 2 - 2011-10-18 17-21-32
Silverclone Twin Clean 1 - 2011-09-11 15-33-19
Jazz Dirty - SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-18-30
Black Bass Crunch - 2012-07-18 16-27-26
Keith - 2011-11-10 18-28-10
London Trem Drive - MD421 - 2011-10-22 16-52-44
Silverclone - R121 - 2011-10-23 16-40-03
Silverclone - Blend 2 - 2011-10-18 17-21-21
9 V Crunch - 2012-07-19 18-15-15
Drive-Thru Speaker - 2012-07-12 17-22-32
6 Gain LEDs
Country Fun - 2011-11-10 17-18-22
Silverclone - Cactus - 2011-10-18 17-21-24
Silverclone - Blend 1 - 2011-10-18 17-21-17
Fischers Fan clean2 - 2011-10-07 17-07-43
You Too - 2011-12-16 15-47-18
VAB Crunch - 2012-07-19 18-28-14
Hey Jim - 2011-12-08 20-18-23
Mr. Jack Drive - 2011-10-18 17-20-29
Fischers Jazz Fux Clean2 - 2011-10-07 16-23-17
Till Dawn - 2011-11-10 15-20-38
Fischers Rock Fux Clean1 - 2011-10-07 16-24-43
24
High Way - 2011-12-09 17-41-48
MS039-00 - 2011-09-18 15-01-13
Gondwana AC1970 crunch - 2011-10-08 22-01-12
GT 75 Crunch 1 5881 - 2012-01-23 18-19-10
On The Edge - 2012-07-20 10-07-40
Tube Train Snarl - 2011-10-18 17-22-24
Gondwana Mars clean - 2011-10-07 17-39-05
Goldie Triode SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-17-50
Chorused Surface - 2011-11-23 12-58-26
Fischers Jay MP 1978 - 2011-10-07 17-02-51
UWE jtm E 335 - 2011-10-08 21-35-26
S.Mehl 50 Vintage 2 - 2012-07-19 18-26-03
Rocket Dirty - 2011-10-18 17-21-09
Rocker Dirty - MD421 - 2011-10-18 17-20-52
Gondwana Mars Clean2 - 2011-10-07 17-49-56
Rock The Billy - 2011-11-10 17-24-22
Raunchy - 2012-07-19 20-23-51
Gondwana Fan RS2 - 2011-11-10 16-22-11
7 Gain LEDs
Gondwana Fan Crunch3 - 2011-10-07 18-03-48
Soul Dano Drive - 2011-10-18 17-21-42
Paul K's Lead - 2012-07-20 10-39-14
S-Mehl D- Mod Cr - 2012-04-22 20-01-32
Rocker Dirty - SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-20-55
Pure Blues - 2011-11-09 18-33-00
Matchbox 1 Dirty - Cactus - 2011-10-18 17-20-07
The Chief Dirty - Cactus - 2011-10-18 17-22-03
Hell's Kitchen - 2011-11-06 19-25-04
The Chief Dirty - CU29 - 2011-10-18 17-22-00
Matchbox 1 Dirty - R121 - 2011-10-18 17-20-10
UWE Mars 1974 - 2011-10-07 18-18-08
Rocker Dirty - e906 - 2011-10-18 17-21-02
Silverclone Twin Dirty 2 - 2011-10-18 17-21-36
D'Lux Dirty - SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-17-03
UWE AC A 335 - 2011-10-08 21-53-42
Alright - 2011-11-07 13-36-45
Voice 15 Fuzzed - 2012-07-19 18-30-35
AC Top Boost Cactus - 2011-10-18 17-14-04
From Dusk... - 2011-11-10 15-09-37
UWE AC B 335 - 2011-10-08 21-51-31
Plexus Brutalus - 2012-05-23 15-22-54
JMP77-001 - 2011-10-22 16-39-02
Spreaded Crunch - 2011-11-10 16-32-15
Voice 15 Crunch - 2012-07-19 18-29-02
Gondwana MB Crunch1 - 2011-10-07 17-38-16
Gondwana MB Crunch2 - 2011-10-07 17-38-04
GT 75 Crunch 1 6L6 - 2012-01-23 18-18-52
D'Lux Dirty - Cactus - 2011-10-18 17-17-00
1962 Electro - 2012-07-20 11-54-01
King Fat - 2011-09-16 18-36-14

AC Normal Drive - 2011-10-18 17-13-57
Stone Clone Drive - 2012-04-22 17-22-53
Saturday Night - 2011-11-10 14-08-31
69 - 2011-10-26 11-55-57
Surf's Up - 2012-07-10 11-19-30
The Rover - 2011-11-06 17-10-16
AC Top Boost - 2011-10-18 17-14-01
Lotta Love - 2011-12-08 19-42-50
Les is Paul - 2012-07-20 10-21-56
Spirit of Paul K. - 2012-07-20 10-32-38
Gondwana Fan1 - 2011-10-07 17-10-18
8 Gain LEDs
Tube Train Dirty - 2011-10-23 16-44-17
Fat Crunch - 2011-11-10 16-42-31
Fischers Xtacy3 - 2011-10-07 16-58-16
King Brit - 2011-09-16 18-32-02
Fischers Jay MP100 High2 - 2011-10-07 16-49-03
Mystic Crunch - 2011-11-09 18-33-51
King Raw - 2011-09-16 19-36-41
Rotary Dayz - 2011-11-10 18-34-58
TLS 60 Crunch - 2011-09-17 17-22-14
MS043-00 - 2011-09-18 15-16-18
Mr. Jack Dirty - 2011-10-18 17-20-25
Sheryl C. - 2011-11-10 14-30-12
Bad Kitty Clean Drive - 2011-10-18 17-14-39
UWE JCM A LP - 2011-10-08 21-51-08
Dancing Devil - 2011-11-07 13-24-13
Both Worlds - 2011-11-07 13-20-43
Gondwana Fan Crunch2 - 2011-10-07 18-05-54
Gondwana Fan BM crunch - 2011-10-08 21-57-52
UWE JCM B LP - 2011-10-08 21-50-08
Fischers AC BM Booster - 2011-10-07 16-53-38
Goldie Pentode SM57 - 2011-10-18 17-17-42
Fischers Jay MP100 High3 - 2011-10-07 16-50-46
Bad Kitty Gain Drive - 2011-10-22 16-44-17
British 800 Overdrive Lo - 2011-10-18 17-16-48
Studio 15 - 2012-07-20 11-57-49
Ford Boost - 2011-11-23 13-07-47
Fischers Xtacy4 - 2011-10-07 16-58-43
Revolution - 2011-11-10 16-48-37
GT 75 Crunch 2 5881 - 2012-01-23 18-18-34
Ford Mile - 2011-11-10 16-11-29
Fischers AC - 2011-10-07 16-54-34
Fischers Jay MP100 High1 - 2011-10-07 16-46-32
Halobacter - 2012-04-22 17-51-58
MS045-00 - 2011-09-18 15-22-35
Fischers CAE 100 Boost - 2011-10-07 16-36-59
Mr. Nice Guy - 2011-11-06 17-34-36
Pound Mark 2 Crunch - 2012-04-22 19-57-19
UWE JCM C 335 - 2011-10-08 21-49-41
25
GT 75 Crunch Boost 6L6 - 2012-01-23 18-22-20
SANSAMP Disto 2 - 2011-09-17 17-09-02
9 Gain LEDs
UWE jtm D 335 - 2011-10-08 21-41-56
Steave Crunch 01 - 2012-02-21 18-25-17
London Trem Drive Hi - M80 - 2011-10-18 17-19-31
Black Bass Cream 2 - 2012-07-18 19-50-48
Black Bass Cream - 2012-07-19 19-58-49
Soul Dano Gain - 2011-10-18 17-21-46
Thick Mood - 2011-11-10 13-52-08
S.Mehl 50 Scooped - 2012-07-19 18-20-40
Baldis 803 - 2012-04-26 16-14-59
Baldis 802 - 2012-04-26 16-15-14
Baldis 801 - 2012-04-26 16-14-41
Fischers CAE 100 OD1 - 2011-11-24 17-08-14
GT 75 Crunch 2 6L6 - 2012-01-23 18-18-00
TLS 60 Clean Pwr - 2011-09-17 17-23-23
Fischers Jazz Fux OD2 - 2011-10-07 16-18-58
Fischers Jazz Fux OD1 - 2011-10-07 16-19-12
MS175-00 - 2011-09-19 16-39-54
UWE jtm C 335 - 2011-10-07 18-30-34
S.Mehl 50 Vintage 1 - 2012-07-19 18-25-10
Converter Crunch - 2012-04-20 15-00-51
10 Gain LEDs
K.Model 1962 - 2012-07-20 11-56-00
ACE 03 - 2011-12-14 15-46-28
King Pwr 6L6 - 2011-09-16 19-34-33
S-Mehl D- Mod L1 - 2012-04-25 14-40-21
Dual Boogie Hi Gain - 2011-10-18 17-17-10
Electron Scream - 2012-04-22 19-01-41
S.Mehl 50 LA - 2012-07-19 18-19-50
King Modern 5 - 2011-09-16 19-31-24
Blackface Bass Dimed - 2011-10-18 17-16-09
King Modern 4 - 2011-09-16 19-29-00
Till's Recto Vintage - 2012-05-22 14-43-17
GT 75 Scream 5881 - 2012-01-23 18-16-22
S-Mehl Amp Lead - 2012-04-22 20-00-17
Dry Queen - 2011-11-09 19-40-53
King Modern 2 - 2011-09-16 18-55-17
Wet Queen - 2011-11-08 20-20-56
AC Top Boost Link - 2011-10-18 17-14-09
Gondwana Fan4 - 2011-10-07 17-13-52
Gondwana Mars Lead - 2011-10-07 17-45-17
Little Rebel Dirty - 2011-10-22 16-51-39
King Vintage - 2011-09-16 21-08-55
Graveyard Jam - 2012-07-19 20-57-12
Till's Recto RAW 2 - 2012-05-22 14-43-03
Dual Boogie Pushed - 2011-10-18 17-17-17
Till's JVM 2 Mics 4 - 2012-05-21 15-48-05

Broken Heart - 2012-04-20 15-44-29
Fischers Xtacy5 - 2011-10-07 17-01-10
Mr. Jack Overdrive - 2011-10-18 17-20-32
11 Gain LEDs
King Modern - 2011-09-16 18-38-12
Till's M-100 2 Mics - 2012-05-22 14-39-14
Till's JVM 2 Mics 5 - 2012-05-21 15-48-37
Till's Recto Modern 3 - 2012-05-22 14-42-49
Till's Recto Modern 1 - 2012-05-22 14-41-03
Till's BiAmp 3 - 2012-05-21 15-46-47
Till's BiAmp 2 - 2012-05-21 15-46-10
Till's BiAmp 1 - 2012-05-21 15-45-39
Till's Recto Modern 2 - 2012-05-22 14-41-21
TLS 60 Lead - 2011-09-17 17-32-26
Vab Lead - 2012-01-15 17-06-41
Till's 2211 2 Mics - 2012-05-21 15-43-41
Till's 2210 2 Mics - 2012-05-31 16-50-56
Steave Crunch 02 - 2012-02-21 18-28-27
Fischers Rock Fux OD1 - 2011-10-07 16-27-10
Mr.Phil Kay - 2012-07-20 10-41-56
Till's VK100 2 Mics - 2012-05-21 15-53-23
Fischers Sold 100-3 - 2011-10-07 17-05-27
Zo-Di-Yak Cranked - 2012-07-20 10-58-51
Melodic Wha - 2011-11-10 13-36-26
Till's 860 2 Mics 3 - 2012-05-22 14-35-01
Soul Dano Overdrive - 2011-10-18 17-21-48
GT 75 Scream 6L6 - 2012-01-23 18-16-43
Soul Sinner - 2011-11-10 16-58-21
Fuzzed Space Fox - 2012-07-20 11-12-05
Till's 860 2 Mics 2 - 2012-05-22 14-34-45
Till's JVM 2 Mics 3 - 2012-05-21 15-53-51
12 Gain LEDs
Dual Boogie Modern - 2011-10-18 17-17-14
Liquid Metal - 2012-02-23 18-28-59
26
Till's JVM 2 Mics 2 - 2012-05-21 15-47-23
S-Mehl D- Mod L2 - 2012-04-22 20-03-45
German Fuzz - 2012-07-20 12-03-42
Speed Licker - 2011-11-06 17-28-20
Fischers CAE 100 OD2 - 2011-10-07 16-41-36
Sabbath - 2011-12-07 19-18-58
Kerosin 01 - 2012-04-20 15-58-56
SenseAmp disto 3 - 2011-11-03 11-55-26
13 Gain LEDs
Phased Brain - 2011-11-10 14-05-12
MS166-00 - 2011-09-19 15-46-08
Talk To Me - 2012-07-20 10-44-04
S.Mehl 50 D-Drive - 2012-07-20 10-05-05
Black Cemetry - 2011-11-07 13-29-01
Gondwana Mars4 - 2011-10-07 17-31-18
Studio 15 4-12 - 2012-07-20 12-08-04
Fat Ed - 2011-11-10 13-34-07
Metalcave - 2011-11-06 17-41-20
Dry Metal - 2011-12-16 15-08-56
Living Thing - 2012-04-22 19-49-45
Pound Mark 2 Lead - 2012-04-22 19-58-25
Fischers Rock Fux OD3 - 2011-10-07 16-29-07
Converter Distortion - 2012-02-21 18-20-20
Gadda Da Vida - 2012-04-20 17-16-02
14 Gain LEDs
Steave Lead - 2012-02-21 18-29-23
Black Snake - 2012-04-23 11-04-34
MS042-00 - 2011-09-18 15-11-23
Smashing Fuzz - 2012-07-10 16-05-18
S.Mehl 50 Uebergain - 2012-07-19 18-23-41
15 Gain LEDs
Kerosin 02 - 2012-04-20 16-00-01
MS171-00 - 2011-09-19 16-42-24
 27

OTHER HARDWARE

MXR RUBBER KNOB GRIPS FIT THE KPA

After discovering how well the MXR (Dunlop) rubber knob grips fit on my KPA, I quickly realized it would be
helpful, since I'm doing a lot of editing and data entry, and the knobs on the KPA aren't the ultimate in
terms of tactile feel, in my opinion. Once I slipped those puppies on, I now have that just-right amount of
tactile grip, and they don't obscure the LEDs either.
The Dunlop ECB141 fits the small knobs on the KPA as well as the ECB131 fits the large knobs.
The Browse and Type knobs are so much nicer to turn with these on them. I now have both the large and
small versions on my KPA, and I'm leaving 'em on.
They are most essential on the Bass, Middle, Treble, Presence, Browse, and Type. Because of their tactile
grip, you have to be careful not to bump them accidentally, so I haven't yet found the need to put them on
all knobs--6 is perfect for now.
I am loving the feel of it. I can fly around the unit faster and with more precision. It only takes a light touch
with one fingertip (one that has Fast Fret, lemon oil, body oil, and a touch of perspiration), which is not
easy with the plastic knobs.
I got them here.

CABS
See here.

USING THE KPA WITH A REAL AMP

[CK] If you use a poweramp, don't set it's volume to high and bring all volumes down on the Profiler.
Better leave all volumes of the Profiler at roughly zero dB (that is either maximum or middle position of the
knobs), unless not modified for other reasons, such as level settings between rigs.
Then adjust your power amps volume up so that it still hurts a little. After that turn down the Monitor Vol-
ume (linked to the Master Volume knob) down a bit to the desired volume, so you have some 3 or 4 dB of
headroom to push by the knob.

Tonight, I ran the KPA into my effects return on my tube amp. Turned off cabinet on the profiles (and
locked it there) and it sounded pretty freaking good. I guess YMMV depending on the type of amp.

A: Problem is, with that setup is you don’t have control over the amp, it’s just a vessel, so no control over
volume or any type of EQ to cater for the amp being "backline".

A: Use the Send instead.

A: [0100000] You could also use the KPA’s Monitor Output. Check the box Monitor Cab. Off in the Output
section and you're done. This way you don't have to lock the cabinet off and, more importantly, you can
still send your 'full' signal to the FOH, PA in the rehearsal space etc. via the main outs.

CONNECTING STEREO FX
The FX loop can be stereo when used in the Effects X section. Connect the Direct Out from KPA to the effect
input, then connect the effect outputs to the Alternate Input and the Return jacks on the KPA.
 28

EXPRESSION PEDAL COMPABILITY WITH KPA

Expression pedals with no stereo jack won’t work with the KPA.
Both Boss FV-5 pedals work fine. FV-500 has an expression jack, you can use it with a stereo cable. For FV-
50 you need a Y-cable.

ACTIVE VOLUME PEDAL AS EXPRESSION PEDAL

[burkhard] It’s possible to use a normal volume pedal instead of an expression pedal. You just need a
standard Insert cable (TRS jack on one side and two TS jacks on the other ends): plug the TS jacks into in-
and outputs of your pedal and the TRS jack into the Profiler, and there you go.

Actually you’re not stuck to pedals, as you can put any kind of pot between Tip and Ring. (1) (2).

NOTE: [CK] When a pedal has dead zones, this cannot be avoided or worked around by the KPA, unfortu-
nately.

USB PENDRIVE
The USB stick will be formatted to 3 GB regardless a higher size.

SWITCHES
Latch switches won't work, you need a temporary switch. Mono cable for single switch, stereo on for dou-
ble switch. I use 2 Boss FS-6 connected with stereo cables to switch A, B, X and Mod.

USING AN EXTERNAL SOUND SOURCE TO BE MIXED WITH THE KPA

You can use the KPA as a mixer with some limitations. Run the L./R main outputs of your device (for exam-
ple a drum machine) into the Return and Alternative Input ports. Enable the Stereo Loop in the X Stomp in
Effects and use the Mix control to blend the KPA's amp and device’s signals.
In this setup, the stereo loop is ahead of reverb, mod and delay so they need to be set to whatever sounds
good with the overall mix. You lose the ability to use the effects on just the guitar.
As an alternative, you can of course use an external mixer.

FRACTAL AUDIO AXE-FX

Q: How can I have my KPA and the Axe-Fx work together connected to my audio interface?
A: This is the way I do it: From your KPA’s Alternative output go straight to the front of the Axe-Fx. Set your
outputs to each device to separate inputs on your interface. Create 2 I/Os in your DAW, and off you go.
Phase can be an issue so either remotely do that via your DAW, or Axe-Fx has a phase option in the menus.
In the end I just use the KPA alone now, in parallel the Axe-Fx just doesn’t cut it with the raw sounds the
KPA offers.
A: Use an effects loop block in the Axe-Fx instead of an amp block. Run the KPA in the loop. MIDI Through
out of Axe-Fx in to KPA. Set up multiple patches to switch together. It’s called the Rodney King rig.
A: In this video, Leroy Miller shows how he runs the KPA and the Axe-Fx together.
A: I run mine in an odd way: my guitar in the input of the KPA >> Direct out of the back of the KPA >> Input
of the Axe-Fx. Then both stereo outs from each device into my mixing desk, often found panning the KPA
left, and Axe-Fx right.
 29

ROLAND GR55, V99 & CO.

Use the L/R Main outs into the Return/Alt Return jacks on the KPA and set the first stomp to Stereo Loop.
This injects the GR55 into the KPA signal chain just after the front guitar input and noise gate, It works
great. Quite too. You lose the noise gate (and maybe the Clean / Dist Sense?) but gain a full guitar modeler
with alt tuning, tons of effects, all the Roland Goodness of the VGuitar setup.
Now, here's the cool part. After saving your KPA profile with Stereo Loop enabled in the Stomp section, dis-
able the stomp and save a second rig with Stereo Loop in the X slot of the effects section. Now dial up a
PCM synth tone and it's inserted in the mix AFTER the Amp section… nice and clean. With Stereo Loop in ei-
ther Pre (Stomp) or Post (Effects) position, you get a gain and mix control. Use them to blend GR-55 and
normal guitar input if you still have a non-gk guitar you want to use… or decide to make the mod below.
Tomorrow, I am installing a real, unbuffered guitar out jack in my GR55. I will pick off the signal from the
13-pin jack's terminating board. This will give me a noise free guitar out just like my VG-99 has. Then I'll
have tons of options via KPA front jack and Stereo Loop.
Next is MIDI setup so KPA rigs are changed via GR55 with correct pre or post Stereo Loop settings depend-
ing on what tones I want, i.e.: KPA with straight guitar, synth sounds, GR55 alt tuning, GR55 acoustic, mod-
eled guitar, etc… I am super excited this is gonna work.

Problem solved... I installed an extra output jack that taps into the guitar pickup signal before buffering. The
noise is gone and tone is restored.
The GR55 now is a very nice polyphonic effects and foot controller for GK equipped users.

I run my guitar into the GK IN of the GR55, then out the (modified (thanks a million to musicman65!)) Gui-
tar Out and into the Input of the KPA. This way, I play only the KPA and can control it via MIDI from the
GR55.
Then with another cable I connect the GR55 OUTPUT to the KPA’s Return Input. When I want to use a synth
sound from the GR55, I choose a rig on the KPA where I loaded the Loop in the X-slot and set the Mix to
100%. This way I play only the GR55 (You can blend the KPA and the GR55 by setting the Mix lower)
See here for the modified Guitar Out).

Using the G55 as a MIDI Controller

Here's a walktrough of what I did to use the GR-55 to control the KPA via MIDI.

* On the GR55 (once):

Edit -> System (tab) -> MIDI/USB -> GTR-MIDI (tab) ->
- SWITCH ON
- CTL PDL CC 24
- EXP PDL CC 1
- GK VOL CC 7

* On the GR55 (for every Patch):

Edit -> Master (tab) -> Pedal/GK CTL -> CTL (tab) -> CTL Function LED TOGGLE

* On the KPA (for every rig):

System -> Page 4:

 30

- Pedal 1 Expression (Wah)

- Pedal 2 Expression (Volume)
- System -> Page 5: assign a PC number for this rig.

You can't send a MIDI command with the EXP Switch of the GR55. That's why I use the CTL pedal to send CC
24. This turns on the MOD in the KPA (in which I loaded a wah) and I can use the wah with the EXP pedal.

Another note: CC assignments in the GR55 are system-wide, so you can't use the EXP pedal on one patch as
volume and on another as wah.
I set the GK VOL CC to 7, so I can control the volume with the GK knob on my guitar.

JAMMING ALONG MP3S WITH YOUR KPA WITHOUT A MIXER

You can jam along your MP3s without any bulky mixer by using the LOOP STEREO effect in the chain and
have it locked. I use the headphone out of my old iPod (you might use your cell phone) and connect it in
stereo to the two return jacks at the back of the KPA (you need a cable with a stereo 3.5mm jack to two
mono 6.3mm jacks). The LOOP STEREO is put into the MOD slot and you can adjust the balance between
guitar and external signal in the effect settings. With a headphone this is a very compact and portable solu-
tion. There are two caveats of course:

the external signal goes through delay and reverb, and

you lose any effect in the MOD slot of your rig.

LINE 6

Pedalboard – Converter for Line 6 pedalboard (Axe-Fx as well): http://goo.gl/cIHYm

HD500 – Using HD500 as a volume pedal.

The MIDI Command for the Volume Pedal is CC #7
If you use the HD Editor, then try this:

- Footswitch/EXP: EXP1
- CC #: 007
- MIDI-Channel: the same as the KPA
- Min Value: 000
- Max Value: 127

HD500 – Using HD500 as an Fx unit.

The HD500 is a pretty decent FX-only unit. And its fully MIDI-programmable, so you can control anything on
the KPA, if you like.
If you want to use both the pre/post options of the HD500 looper you should use its fx loop. Setting would
be:
Guitar -> HD500 guitar in -> HD500 Fx send -> KPA Guitar in -> KPA Main outs -> HD500 Fx return -> HD500
Main outs -> PA
Then all you need in the HD500 is an empty patch with only an fx-loop anywhere in the signal chain and mix
of course at 100%.

If you use the monitor-output of your KPA with an amp to make it loud the setup would be, the other way
round: You put the hd500 into the fx-loop of the KPA. And I'd put it after the amp in the X block. Signal
 31

chain is as above, only switch "KPA" and "HD500"; and, in this case you can leave the HD500 patch totally
naked.
In this scenario you only have one option, pre or post (no matter what you press on the HD500) depending
on whether you put the fx-loop in the X-Block of your KPA or into one of the stomps.

The "4 cable method" should also work:

Guitar -> HD500 Guitar In -> HD500 Fx Send -> KPA Guitar In -> KPA Fx Send -> HD500 FX Return - > HD500
Main outs -> KPA FX Return -> KPA Output (no matter if main or monitor)
You again need a HD Patch with nothing on in but the fx-loop (mix 100%). The fx-loop of the KPA must be in
the X-block. That way you'd have both pre and post options of the looper and could still use any output
setup the KPA you prefer.

I'm using the KPA + HD 500 with the 4 CM.

I put the KPA in the Loop of the HD 500. I only use the KPA's amp and not its effects ATM, as there's still
some controllability missing from the KPA FX (Delay Mix). Of the HD I only use the FX.

HD500 – Using HD500 as a fuzz box.

HD500 amps can be your new favorite fuzz boxes if you turn off the cab section and add an eq. I'm just run-
ning the HD500 in the KPA’s effect loop but the fact that I can put it post or pre amp (awesome feature of
the KPA) is more than enough for flexibility. I don't need both at the same time.

HDPro
[McRalfix] has written a document for explaining a way to use the KPA in conjunction with a POD HDPro in
order to use them with a Variax guitar. You can find it (and read the discussion) here.

ELEVEN RACK
I set up the KPA and Eleven Rack the following way, and it works great:
KPA Effects send-->ER Left line in-->ER Amp 2 out-->KPA Effects return
No amp or cab in the ER stack, obviously.
You have to change your input/output on the ER appropriately, and just the Amp 2 output level.

TECH 21
Battery life is very long on both the MIDI MOOSE and MIDI Mouse, they're great for a very basic set up just
to change patches, very well built too.

VOODOO GROUND CONTROL PRO

Like other units, this one can’t send multiple CCs. If you want to performs multiple tasks at once with a sin-
gle switch pressure (i.e. switching boost, reverb and delay on while switching distortion off) you have two
options:

use multiple rigs for that and label the GCP as you were just switching the Modules on/off;
save the IA settings to a preset. You can have different presets set with various combinations of IA
switches enabled/disabled. If you configure the GCP IA's for "XMIT W/Preset", the GCP will send all
the IA CCs whenever the patch is switched.

In order for the GCP to work with the KPA, be aware that GCP has PC=0 on bank 0 patch 1, KPA has PC=1.
You shall change this behavior from within the GCP interface.
 32

Basically, I did a factory reset on my GCP ( it was used), then, set it up so that there were 10 patches per
bank (no Instant access switching needed for me, it works better for me having 10 patches per bank). If you
are unfamiliar with IA, that means being able to "turn on" and "turn off" the stomp boxes you have loaded
in your rig (boost, chorus, delay , reverb, whatever you have assigned to the rig you are using).
From there, I went to bank 1, patch 1, and started going to town: Went to the KPA, went to one of my fa-
vorite clean patches (Rivera M100), hit the System button, went to global MIDI, and assigned the Rivera
M100 to CC 1. then, on bank 1 patch 1 (which would be 01), I hit edit on the GCP and renamed it "Rivera
Clean" for my use. It really is that easy, and for what I'm doing it is perfect. The GCP manual spells out eve-
rything rather easily, it really is a nice reliable easy to use pedal. Took me all of 5 minutes to get comforta-
ble with it, honestly.

BEHRINGER
FCB-1010
To those who own or are considering the purchase of a Behringer FCB-1010 to use with their KPA, I can
report that I've had success using the EurekaProm chip. Programming is pretty simple, and straightforward.
To those who aren't familiar with the EurekaProm, it's a replacement chip for the Behringer FCB-1010
pedal. It comes with configurations for many popular modeling rigs. Unfortunately, a configuration for the
KPA is missing as of yet, but one of the configurations which is included is a generic template which
worked great for the KPA.
The generic configuration is explained here. This configuration has 4 main areas which are accessed by the
Up and Down pedals:

PR = Preset mode - You can access all the patches in the KPA. Kind of tedious, but the next mode
simplifies it;
FP = Favorite presets - Using the Preset mode to find the KPA patch, you can save 10 favorite pre-
sets which are instantly accessible via the 10 footswitches on the FCB-1010;
EF = Effects or Stomp mode - You can program the 10 footswitches to turn on or off any of the 8
stomp and effect slots on the KPA;
SP = Special Mode - Two of the footswitches gives access to the on board relays in the FCB -1010
turning them on or off. Great for channel switching amps and such. The other 8 footswitches send
MIDI note numbers. I'm not sure if that's useful with the KPA.

Here's a quick synopsis of the process: once you have the EurekaProm installed, you basically just need to
program it to talk to the KPA. Since the EurekaProm doesn't have a built in configuration for the KPA, you'll
need to use the generic PP configuration. Follow the directions here to put the FCB-1010 in PP mode.
Once you're in PP mode, you'll need to program the switches to do what you want on the KPA. The process
is fairly simple. The four above-mentioned modes are available once you are in PP configuration. You'll use
PR mode and FP mode to setup your 10 favorite presets.
Basically you use PR mode to find the preset that you want on the KPA, then switch to FP mode to save that
preset to one of the 10 favorite slots.
Important. Before you can do any of this, you need to assign your favorite rigs in the KPA, to a preset num-
ber. You do this by going into the System settings in the KPA. One of the pages allows you to assign rigs to a
preset number. I started by assigning rigs to 127 preset slots. This way, I could use the FCB-1010 in PR mode
to scroll through those 127 presets. Until you assign rigs in the KPA, to a preset number, you cannot access
by MIDI, using the FCB-1010.
Summing up, here're 3 steps that have to happen before the FCB-1010 and KPA will talk to each other:

1. The KPA and the FCB-1010 both need to be on the same MIDI channel;
2. You have to have the rigs assigned to a preset number in the KPA;
 33

3. You have to put the EurekaProm in PP configuration. The other Eurekaprom configurations are set-
up for other units already.

Once done, the KPA and the FCB-1010 should talk to each other. After that, you just need to get them both
speaking the same language by programming the buttons on the FCB-1010.

Here's a video which shows the process of programming the FCB-1010 footswitches.
Last night I setup my FCB-1010 to give me access to 10 of my favorite KPA patches in FP mode, along with
setting one of the Pedals to control KPA volume and the other to control the KPA 's wah. I also setup EF
mode to give me direct access to toggle on or off all of the stomp box slots and effect slots on the KPA, in
EF mode.
I can report that it worked great.

FCB 1010 with UNO chip works like a charm for me. It's just a little more work to program it. The advantage
is that you can save the Uno prom settings on a computer and share them with others. You can't do that
with the Eurekaprom. The settings are only saved on the prom itself.
Works great programming with the USB-to-MIDI cable and pc and the FCB1010 PC Editor.
 34

SOUND

LESSON NUMBER ONE

Do not configure live sounds via headphones.

MY RIG DOESN’T SOUND LIKE THE CLIP I’VE HEARD/DOWNLOADED

When downloading a profile after having listened to a clip from another player, you should be aware that
the guitar and the PUs you’re using are really meaningful, just like for a real amp. Please consider the guitar
you are playing, and the pickup choice! The Profiler is very demanding when it comes to the quality of the
guitar connected. That is especially the case with profiles from boutique amps.
Also the monitoring system you’re using may make a difference, since not all the FRFR systems (despite
their name!) sound the same.

CHIMEY BRILLIANCE
On editing rigs I found out that the chimey brilliance is best to be controlled with a studio EQ in the stomp
section, that means BEFORE the amp module. To boost the highest frequencies before the amp module is
way much better than dialing up the presence control which is placed after the amp. With a modestly nar-
row boost as high as 6K or even 8K you can handle this without sounding harsh on the louder attacks. This
is quite realistically brilliant on soft, clean notes and more "woody", muffled on stronger notes that go into
overdrive.

Q: Take your favorite distortion pedal or overdriven amp - play something sensitive with your fingers -
that's right, bare flesh on the strings (a la Jeff Beck). Listen to the way the attack translates into tone - now
do the same on the KPA with a similar gain patch. It is not the same: it is a different feel/response altogeth-
er.
A: I actually agree with this part of what Hadley said and many have felt it. They usually describe it as 'stiff'.
There are things you can do to mostly but not completely eliminate this, the first being turn down the input
sense below what you think would be ok secondly roll your axe volume/tone down a bit more than you
would with other devices and only if needed compensate any lack of sustain by adding a little compression
with the amp block parameters. I’ve found this gets me the fleshy dynamic sensitive feel I like but it took
me a while to get there. obviously getting the right profile to start with is important. I did notice this stiff-
ness from day one but you can get it where you want it with some experimenting. I think if CK added an in-
put impedance selection choice it would greatly help in getting this type of feel as much lower impedance
settings naturally get you in this ballpark.
A: I like to lower or even shut off the noise gate, that gives me the feel I like.

I find the combination of these three 'ingredients' gets me closest to the string feel I prefer:

Amp Compression = .1 (the smallest amount you can dial in, but it makes a considerable difference
when you 'dig in')
Pick = +.3 or -.2 (very small settings)
Power Sagging = 2.5 to 4.0

Also, if I am using the Clarity control at 4 or 5, I often use a higher Amp compression setting (never more
than 2.0). Btw, the Clarity control seems to be a direct mix parameter and really helps certain profiles.
 35

Furthermore, the more Amp compression you use, the more you should increase (+) the Pick parameter to
maintain solid note attacks - this is especially true of high gain sounds.

IF YOUR DISTORTION IS TOO CREAMY

I am having great results by using fuzz pedals (within KPA) making the tone realer. At the moment I really
like one of the Silver Jubilees from rig exchange. The thing is, that the amp sounds a bit too "creamy". With
higher distortion levels the sounds are getting to lifeless because there are no edges anymore. That's with
almost all gainy sounds. To add some dirt and grit I use a fuzz pedal with gain at zero and volume around
0,5 to 1,5. The tone setting depends on what amp I play. Great results!! Roll off the volume and you get a
well distorted sound full of life.

A: You can also try to roll up the Definition some more.

A: Pickups are a large factor in this as well. Single coils will give you a crunchier sound than buckers.

EQ-MATCHING WITH THE KPA AND OZONE

The technique of eq matching is basically the same that is used by the new tone matching function of the
Axe-FX. By using a DAW with a plugin like Ozone you can do the same for your KPA. It´s easy, fun and very
powerful. It also has some educational aspect, as many users who are no mixing engineers or producers are
not sure how to eq their guitar tones to produce a sound that will work nicely in a mix. The truth is that
many guitar tones that sound great in a mix are not very pleasing if you play them solo. So getting into sig-
nature tones might give you an idea how to come close to a sound that will fit nicely into a song.
What is done here is very simple. Select an original guitar recording you like, where only the guitar is heard.
You can use intro parts, or stems from Guitar Hero/Rockband or other multitrack collections. Load that clip
in your DAW. Then use your amp profiling setup and record the same clip as good as you can. Then match
your recording against the original and apply the resulting eq curve to your own recording. Your recording
should now be almost perfectly close to the original. With the eq setting that´s enabled on your own re-
cording you now can profiles. That will give you a profile that´s pretty close. The good news is that you easi-
ly can get the remaining few percent by just combining rigs with the corresponding eq curve in the DAW.
This is very comfortable in Ozone, since you can store and name as many curves as you want and import
them on other DAWs. So if your recording doesn’t fit 100%, just match it with the original and the result is
nearly perfect.

Basically it is just the same as if you were profiling normally. The only difference is that you have the DAW
with the ozone plugin between your amp mic and the KPA return. Instead of connecting the mic to the KPA
return you put the mic into an input of your audio interface. So the setup is GUITAR -> KPA -> AMP -> CAB -
> MIC -> DAW -> PLUGINS -> KPA Return.
First step is to choose a reference (guitar only) soundclip that you like and to capture the eq curve with
Ozone. The resulting eq curve will be the "target". Then record the same riff or lick with your KPA profiling
setup to make it comparable and also capture this. The resulting eq curve will be the "source" that will be
transformed. Now you can simply transform your tone into the target.
Inside your DAW you have an audio track with the matched eq curve active. You then just need to activate
the real time monitoring for that track to hear your profiling signal with the eq match plugin enabled. Then
just take the profile as normal. Don´t worry about the additional latency of your Audio interface, the KPA
will compensate for that.

This video will demonstrate how to use Ozone. The only difference will be that you do not create an IR at
the end but take a profile.
 36

A great feature of Ozone is that you can load and save to captured EQ curves so you could use my tone-
match sets in your own DAW to test out for yourself.
The resulting profiles will need a little bit of tweaking to make them even closer. The results will be close
enough to give you an idea of how the sound will be when recorded. However, if you record the same part
again with the profile, the results might not reach a 100% match. What is really cool is that you can now
simply use the tone matching on your recording again, and the results be a total match.

You can also use this method to capture your amp in combination with some nice IRs like Redwirez, if you
use an IR loader instead of Ozone. Endless possibilities here...

You can find great guitar only tracks in many places, for example:

http://multitrackdownloads.blogspot.se/2012_03_01_archive.html
http://soundcloud.com/gtrtracker/tracks?page=1
http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii/…-ii-tone-match/

Especially the guitar tracks from guitar hero/rock band are great because in most cases these are the origi-
nal stem master tracks...

THE AMP-IN-THE-ROOM FEELING (whatever it is)

If you are likely to look for an amp-in-the-room sound coming from a FRFR you might consider this proce-
dure:

take the profile from the amp (i.g.: Mesa Rectifier). If you get to take it direct (DI box) you'll proba-
bly get better results;
load a flat mic or a far field mic'd cab IR (like Ownhammer ones or Redwirez's) in an IR Loader such
as Vortego boogex or Peavey Revalver III.V, and then take a profile of the cab. Guitar -> KPA IN ->
KPA direct Out -> Audio interface IN (DAW + IR loader) -> Audio interface out -> KPA return.
Save the "cabinet" section of this last profile;
Apply the cabinet you have saved to the first profile.

Obviously you'll have to experiment, trying different IR mixes, using mono cable to bypass the pres in the
audio interface and so on.
In this way you'll have something similar to the amp-in-the-room sound coming out from the FRFR monitor,
but you'll send the same sound to the mixing board (i.e. no mic'd sound).

If you want to have an amp in the room sound on stage and mic'd to the desk you have two different op-
tions:

use a tube amp and a guitar cabinet, so no FRFR onstage;

use the KPA’s Monitor Out (no cab selected) with another piece of equipment which might load far
field IR's, then in the FRFR. Axe Fx, Digitech GSP1101 with custom firmware and Torpedo CAB can
do that.

DJENT TONES
I have dialed in great djent tones with my KPA. Secret is a good OD pedal before the KPA... amazingly
enough just like a good amp.
 37

Me, too! I like the Green Scream - Drive 0, Tone -2.6, Volume +1 - (sometimes + a Studio EQ) in front of the
amp. Also, some of Tills' 1960 cabs automatically give me the high mid thump I like in these sounds.

For more djent-like tone and certain amps you can dial the tone faster using Metal DS stomp. Works very
good with passive thick sounding PUs that use to enhance the low-mid and low frequencies as BKP Warpig
or Holydiver. With brighter PUs such as EMG 81 or S.D.Pearly Gates it doesn't react as good, but in combi-
nation with StudioEQ you can achieve a very very good sound.

FINDING NEW SOUNDS

[CK] If you like to tweak, place a graphic eq or studio eq before and after the amp. This is one key for the
deepest sound editing. You will be capable of creating any kind of natural and artificial amp sound!

For example, if you are after high gain sounds try reducing the bass a lot before the STACK and then add it
later after the STACK. This can create great high gain sounds.

[01000100] Also try (G)EQ - DRV - (G)EQ before an amp. The Akai G-Drive among others had the same con-
cept (too bad the distortion itself was weak). Many additional great tones can be coaxed out of existing
drive pedals like this.

MARSHALL SOUNDS
The first time I'm really enjoying my Marshall profiles is now that I found the cab with Greenbacks (I think it
came with the Siggi Mehl profiles)... what a difference!

A: I was lucky enough to find out about that cab the first day I got my KPA, because I updated the Firmware
which contained the Siggi Mehl amps and those cabs. I was always a lover of vintage Greenbacks and even
before I got the KPA I had done a bit of research and found those cabs mentioned in the "amp and cabs
reference list". So I already knew where to look and changed every Marshall profile to this cab.
And it is still blowing me away because it is a perfect example of a great vintage Greenback cab. I was chas-
ing this sound since I started to play guitar in the 80s. I did use a '68 Plexi stack back then which my school
owned but being a kid I didn't have any clue of what I had and of course I had to give the rig back when I
left school. But this sound is just etched into my brain.
And you just can't get it from current production Marshalls. Although they are very good and Marshall real-
ly cares nowadays there is still something missing that you get from those old speakers and cabs.

USING ONE RIG ONLY

With a Wah-pedal-booster at the end of the stomp section I am fine with one single Rig. It works cool from
clean to crunch and way beyond.

MORE JUICE !
To add some juice/volume to clean (or any) profiles, add the Pure Boost in the "X" slot.
 38

PROFILING

COMPARING THE AMP AND THE KPA WHILE PROFILING

It’s important to be aware that the A/B comparison within the KPA is not comparing the real thing with the
profiled amp. The sound of the real amp is modified by the KPA’s buffering and again altered when passing
the A/D section in order to route to the monitors.
Comparisons should be made bteween the amp and the KPA in Browse mode.

HOW TO GET GOOD PROFILES

If you don’t find your (mic’ed) original amp and its profile (see above) to be the same, consider the follow-
ing:

Compare recordings! Record both amp and KPA (in Browse mode, see above) and compare the two
recordings thoroughly on your DAW monitors. I found out several times that I was completely
wrong with comparing while playing.
Check the 'sag' and 'compression' settings in the amp block.
Turn noise gate off.

[okstrat] I don't like most profiles put up on the exchange, the nasal phasey sound that SM57s have espe-
cially. Most profiles to my ears have this washy thing going on. Here's how I minimized that on my profiles.
BTW, I probably prefer my profiles because I'm dialing in the amp how I like, using a mic set up how I like,
etc... it's no wonder I like what I profile. I am going to bet most people are the same way - they like the way
they set up their amps/mics for the KPA.

1. Buy a MXL144 mic from guitar center. $99. It's a ribbon, and is a tiny bit dark compared to an
SM57. I think it is much more 'in the room' sounding though than an SM57.
2. Buy a TubeMP ART or equivalent preamp. No, it's not a Great River or anything like that, but you
can make up gain easily with one, and it supports using mics that need 48v. Got mine on sale at GC
for $29. A good mic cable is that much!
3. play around with mic placement. I like going center up and down and then to the left about 2-3"
from center, and at least 2" back, not right on the speaker grill. Starting from there, you can move
the mic around to taste.
4. Remember if you're dealing with a modern amp like a mesa or VHT, the tone is in the preamp, not
in cranking the power amp. So don't have the amp at earth shattering levels, you'll just get errors
on the KPA because of all the noise.
5. If at all possible, have the amp you're profiling in another room so you can only hear the miked
sound off the KPA. Headphones are great for this if you don't have a lot of space. If you can't get a
tone you like in the KPA before profiling, you're making your life really hard. Garbage in - garbage
out.
6. If it sounds good, it is good! Trust your ears, not star ratings or the fact that someone used super
amazing gear to capture a super amazing amp. Again, just go with what you hear, not what you
read. Our first instinct is to try to like something that is more expensive/rare, it's just human na-
ture.

KPA CONTROLS DURING PROFILING

Before starting the profiling process you can of course use the KPA’s controls to tweak the sound/response.
 39

I found that if I set the clarity where I want it (to match the reference) before refining, the KPA readjusts
the frequency balance during refining and I can get closer to the reference.

NOT PROFILEABLE AMPS

[CK] There is a handful of amps that cannot be profiled, because of uncommon circuits.

MIC TRICKS
Normally I hate central placing mics, unless it’s pure clean. For dirt it produces the best signal, but it’s too
harsh in the upper mids and generally awful sounding.
However, if you have a pop filter try placing it over the front of the SM57 and place it dead center. You’ll
get a more boomy sound, without the harsh highs/mids; and also it’s like micing up a different part of the
speaker that simply does not exist. I’ve not done this yet in my profiles but studios do it all the time… I’ve
recorded folk with that trick before with great results.

Another thing you want to try is use the most high/mid rangy mics you have up front closer to the center of
the speaker, and then use a ribbon mic and place it 2/12” or so at the rear of the cab and blend that in. It
can give an amazing depth to the sound. But don’t forget to invert the phase on the mixer.

Be careful with long cable runs though as impedance appears quickly the longer the cable… and tone starts
sucking, unless you used some sort of buffer.

For those that think the SM57 is "too much"… a little tip for you, as you sound like you don’t like SM57s: try
putting a toilet roll around the front of the SM57, then let the sound go through the "tube" into the SM57.
It makes it a lot more focused and lose the shrill of the SM57.

USING A PREAMP
If you want to use a mic that requires phantom power you have to use an external mic amp, since the KPA
doesn’t supply any.

DISTANCE MIC’ING
[CK] Distance micing is possible. The profiler will compensate for the latency. The reverb tail of the room
will shrink, which can be of an advantage, since the sound will be more direct. If desired, reverberation can
be added afterwards. What is more important: the profile will not capture the reverb tail, but only the fre-
quency response of the room. Still there is no dissipation at this short distance.
The distant micing is quite far away from the speaker, so you catch loads of room.
The difference between the original sound and a distance profile is caused by a psychological effect: the dif-
fusion of the room seems to soften the high end, even though it doesn't (as you have checked with the
match eq). I believe you could even come closer by creating more diffusion in the KPA. This is by better
adapting the KPA's reverb to the original room. The reverb should be a bit louder and a bit longer.

[CK] The room reflections create diffusions especially in the high frequencies that will let them sound soft-
er.
The Profiler will not copy the room and diffusion, but the correct frequency response, thus sound with
more high end. The profile is ok, even after short refinement, but the reception of the ear is different.
 40

PROFILE METERING
[CK] You don't need a dedicated profiling return level meter: The output level led will indicate this, as stat-
ed in the base manual. It's kind of logical: If you clip the profiling return, you will clip the output at the same
time.
Q: I generally leave the KPA Profiling Return level flat (i.e. 0 dB) and get everything correct at the source
(amp end.) If I've done my job correctly, the KPA should be in its 'sweet spot' and require neither boost nor
cut during the profiling process.
A [CK] If you keep your levels that constant you should be fine! You should never see an error message. The
auto gain corrects the return level so that all profiles have the same RMS level. This should not be in your
way. A future firmware [said @ 1.0.7 NdT] will apply the auto gain to the return level value, to avoid vol-
ume jumps. Don't worry too much about a maximum level. The profiling process is not sensitive to low
background noise caused by the signal chain after the amp. You will catch more noise anyway by amplifying
the reference amps input, which is natural for a distorting amp. This will only make trouble on extreme high
gain settings.
The Return Level in the Profiler Menu is a mixture of analog and digital level control. When you turn it all
the way down, it can capture even the highest studio levels.
The Output LED is also the level meter for profiling. It it's still green or yellow, the level is ok.
The Master led acts as clipping indicator of the return level while in profiling mode

When doing the cab profiles I thought about putting my "refining stuff" into a DAW and just play that back
to the KPA. Would be another great use for that "audio loop" function that was discussed before. Store a
"refining input" file, that works nicely for you, and the KPA could automatically do it.

AUTOMATIC LEVELING DURING THE PROFILING PROCESS

[CK] The reference amp volume is adjusted to the unity volume of the Profiler. This guarantees a constant
volume during a profiling session and prevents clipping on the return input. When you follow the manual
and set the volume of the reference amp similar to the volume of the actual rig, then the automatic leveling
will only apply small corrections. And you will not be surprised by a volume drop!

PROFILING A PREAMP
When profiling a preamp just use its Line level out back to the KPA instead of using a mic. After you get a
profile then you can try it out with the various cabs.

PROFILING AN AMP WITH NO CAB

If you want to profile your amp with no cab, be aware that a tube amp can’t work without a load
(cab/loudspeaker) at the risk of getting damaged/overheated.
You might take the signal from the Send, but this would give you the preamp signal only. If you want to get
the full sound of the amp you'll need to take a signal after the poweramp. You'll need a dummy load
providing both the load for the output transformer and a line out (DI box).
Keep in mind that it will sound in a way on its own, because the interaction between the poweramp and
the cab is a strong component in defining the sound of an amp.
Another way of getting the power amp signal is the power output some amps provide (such as some Me-
sa/Boogie). It's a 8 ohm out tho, very loud, and I'm not sure it would couple properly with the KPA.
Also see the Load box to profile directly out of the amp section here below.
 41

PROFILING DI
Even when profiling a DI, it's still worth making sure to record the signals direct into a DAW and ideally do a
reamp of a dry guitar signal that you record to compare both the KPA and the original amp using the switch
on the KPA as otherwise listening through speakers with both going and while you can hear your guitar
strumming too will never give you a clear picture.
The result from a DI will have its own cabinet which is a part of that sound. Disabling it will give you what
the KPA thinks the preamp on its own sounds like (the cab seems to represent power amp and cab), but of-
ten that's not necessary. Don't disable or replace if you’re going through the same setup as the pre-amp
was originally.
Also see the Load box to profile directly out of the amp section here below.

LOAD BOX TO PROFILE DIRECTLY OUT OF THE AMP

Q: How can I keep the 8 or 16 ohm load on my output transformer and take a DI tap from that so that I can
profile the amp by itself then add cabs as I please?
A: First, keep in mind that the results won’t be perfectly swappable: currently (FW 1.1.0) the KPA always
considers that there is a cab and removes something.

Also, all those power soaks only make sense if you are aiming at power amp distortion. And most users who
aim for it are shocked how shitty it really sounds when they hear it for the first time. So, using a simple DI
Box like the GI100 it totally sufficient if you want to take DI profiles at bedroom levels.

I can tell you nothing sounds as good as a speaker - and the Weber MASS Motors (scroll down here) are
speakers (electronically seen). I tested them against all kind of ohmic resistors with treble taps and even
against the famous PALMER PGA04 and the MASS motor was always way much better, more dynamic, al-
most as clear as a real speaker!!! Those new transformer based Powersoaks (I tested a Toneking Ironman)
also sounded really good but their price (and also their weight) was way too high for me. I only used it on a
small 2x6V6 amp so one 100 watt MASS motor was more than enough. For a short test I also used it to
dime my Fender Twin 65 TRRI. Did work - no smoke but normally the load should be twice as much the
wattage of the amp. So for a really rugged loadbox for a 100 Watt amp it is better to take two MASS motors
in series or parallel (like two speakers in a cabinet).
But even the MASS attenuator (not motor) would do fine as a dummy load as long as you are not miking
the signal in the speaker. And BTW those new, transformer based attenuators like the Ironman or the Ara-
com are really a different breed!
If you just want to use it for a DI profile you could also just use a speaker taken out of its baffle: without the
support of the wood of a cabinet, the speakers are much less loud.

Under this respect, the best load box would probably be a 8 or 16 ohm speaker which can handle 100 W.
Just cut and remove the cone and fix it on a board, you will have your "silent" loadbox.

But until there will be a change in the software that allows us to store a profile with the Cab button
switched off, the whole thing only makes sense if later you leave the cab switched on and play the KPA
through poweramp+guitar cabinet. If the reason why you want to profile without your speaker sound is
that you don't have a room where you can profile really loud, then it might be better to profile though a si-
lent cab. If you don't like the sound of the silent cab you can replace it in the KPA's cab section by your fa-
vourite cab.
You could also profile DI with a dummy load and before you go back to the KPA return you lead the signal
through a DAW and add a software cabinet there. But this is maybe a bit too much muddling along. Maybe
the best solution is to look for a room where you can play loud for just the short time it takes to do a profile
with a real cabinet.
 42

PROFILING STOMPS/FX
There are some pedals, mainly fuzz pedals, that like to see a guitar pickup at their input. Incoming line level
makes them do unexpected things.

In such cases I use a pickup simulation device I build by myself. Here´s how to do it; if you´re a little bit into
soldering, it´s quite easy.

A reamper which changes the signal from low impedance to high impedance should do the job. If you can’t
borrow a dedicated reamper you can also try a passive Di Box in "Reverse Mode", which means you con-
nect the KPA output to the DI output of the Di Box and use the input if the DI BOX as an output which con-
nect to your stomp box or amp. I used this a cheap reamper for years and it worked pretty nicely.

I've used a Radial dragster between my guitar and devices in the past to help with impedance issues. Inex-
pensive little thing that you can adjust to get back any lost 'warmth'.

Another trick for profiling fuzzes: run it in conjunction with an OD with zero gain; at refine turn the OD off.
The Fuzz Face is tricky as it loves to see a very high input impedance. That is why it cleans up so well when
you roll back your guitar volume control. Many guys even have trouble placing a wah in front of that fuzz.
A buffer will work, but will change the sound. It might sound OK tho… Try any Boss pedal in bypass, as its
output is always buffered. I would also try a passive transformer like an Ebtech to raise the impedance of
the KPA send to something the Fuzz Face can live with.

SMALL ROOM PROFILING

A surprising thing about the KPA is how it handles room reflections. In an attempt to crank the amp and not
disturb my neighbors I close-mic'd an amp in a small hallway with all the doors closed. Monitoring the mic'd
signal sounded bad - the reflections from the loud amp in a small room mixed in horribly. I shot the profile
anyway and it sounded great. It kind of had that nearfield/farfield quality, there seemed to be a little more
depth to profiles created this way.

EQING
After reading a post by Tyler about the 'Tyler Cabs' I put an EQ between the mic pre and the KPA and
boosted the lows and highs a bit. This really helped add depth and presence to the profiles.

PROFILING WITH EQ MATCHING PLUGINS

I wanted to test profiling through a DAW with VST plugins applied to the profiling signal. So the setup was
as this: GUITAR -> KPA -> AMP -> CAB -> MIC -> DAW -> PLUGINS -> KPA Return. I used Izotope Ozone as EQ
matching plugin.
First step is to choose a (guitar only) soundclip that you like and to capture the EQ curve. Then record the
same riff or lick with your KPA profiling setup to make it comparable. Then apply the tonematching plugin
and adjust it until it sounds as close as possible to the reference signal. Then you can even apply this EQ
curve to your profiling signal, while activating the real time monitoring which depends on the latency of
your audio interface. The KPA seems to tolerate and compensate latency so this should not pose any prob-
lem.
 43

AMP HISS
The profiling process will not add hiss. But the hiss is recorded and kept during the A/B comparison, to
make it fair. Once you save the profile or switch to browser mode the recorded hiss is thrown away.

UNWANTED COMPRESSION IN THE PROFILE

If your profiled amp sound compressed, then too much input is hitting the return signal path. Sounds like
you are not correctly setting your gainstage correctly.
Try setting the return level at -2 dB (that’s what I use), and it will auto-correct itself to 0 dB without com-
pressing the signal.
Also worth checking your Input levels (press and hold Input), setting your Clean sens / Dirt sens at good
levels. All this will have an effect when playing back.
Try to run everything at unity gain where you can… You indeed get a compressed profile if something is not
right.

DIFFICULT AMPS
I’ve had a few amps that just would not profile too well until I tried backing the mic off slightly, and lower-
ing the profile record in gain a tad. Lower the bass (if that’s what the problem area is) on the amp… let it
profile... then at refine turn the bass up again.

Some amp cabs have direction chambers that emit in a wide angle so what you think you captured actually
isn't… Try blowing white noise through the amp, then move the mic until you feel the presence heighten.
Normally you do this with phase issues but still works on some problematic amps.
 44

EVERYTHING ABOUT (VIRTUAL) CABS

SAVING CABS
Q: I just profiled just the power section and cab of my Nitro to use with my preamp profile I did the other
day and it worked fine but it doesn’t show up in the cab section…
A: While on the profile press and hold Cab and then press store, it will ask if you want to save the all rig or
the cab only.

LOADING NEW CABS

In order to have cabs to add, you can save the cab(S) from (a) rig(S) of your interest as a separate element,
or download some cabs (here’s a set. NOTE: don’t forget to download and try the cabs profiled by [tylerhb].
They have had a great success in the community! For further information see the chapter THIRD-PART).
Copy the cab files into your USB stick’s Shared folder, then import into your KPA.
Now, hold down the Cabinet button, use the Browse knob to go through the different cabinets.
[burkhard] The KPA is able to automatically see all rigs and local presets (e.g. local presets of cabs) stored in
the Shared folder of the USB stick; they will be imported regardless the sub-folder they are stored in and
even if they are packed. You could put a complete backup archive file into the Shared folder and import all
rigs and local presets included in that backup.
Once the cabs have been imported press the Cabinet button, then use the Browse knob and you'll see all of
them.

SWITCHING CABS OFF

You can exclude the cab from the signal path, if that cab is added as a “Cab” to the rig. Just press the Cabi-
net button. Light off = Cab off.
If you're playing through studio monitors or FRFR, or a PA, then leave Cabinet on.
If you're plugging into a poweramp and guitar cab, then press the Cabinet button to Off.

[CK] Switching off the cab can will have a small impact only, if you listen thru a guitar cab.

BROWSING CABS
Q: When I browse the cabinets, the Autoload function activates it immediately. That’s fine, but how can I
get out without having this one stored? Is there an ESC-button?
A: Press Exit.
A: As long as you don't save the rig it will remain as it was before you made any changes. However, if you
want to get back to the original cab you'll either have to load it (if it's been saved and is available), or load
another rig then come back to this one.

Q: When browsing cabs I don't have the time to monitor cabs into the list, it comes back after 3 sec to the
main screen. I have to turn again the scroll knob to get the list… Is there any workaround?
A: [CK] Press Autoload when the browse window is up. It will show Load. Next time the window will stay
and only disappear when you press Load or the Exit button.
 45

EQ’ING CABS
For the Amp eq, look top row of LED's, right in the center. You can also make shifts of cabinet's frequencies
by holding the Cabinet button down and finally you can make more global kind of change to agree with
what you playing through by holding master down.

BLENDING CABS
Many of you wondered if this would be possible, mixing your favorite cab sounds together for the ultimate
hybrid mix sound. Well, it is possible, and as far as I can say, it is awesome!!!
The setup is the same as tone matching done with a DAW plugin. In the original attempts the target signal
has been a classic signature metal tone, found on a record or something. In this case I used a KPA sound as
a target.
Take a normal amp profile with the KPA, which will be your "source" sound. Then exchange the cab to
something you would like as a target.
Now, use tone-matching as known: record a clip with the target sound inside your DAW, then record the
same clip with your source amp sound. Then use Ozone or any other tone-matching plugin to match your
source sound to the target. This will basically allow you to recreate a cab sound that you like.
You can also use this technique to blend between your source sound and the target cab and take some pro-
files with some nice blended tones: you don’t have to match 100%, settings like 50/50 will also give nice re-
sults.
Note: you do not have to limit yourself to one audio track with one instance of tone-matching: if you repeat
the procedure on a second audio track and use a different target cab there, you can have both sounds at
the same time and mix them together to your liking. Thus you can create mixed profiles without any limits.

USING REAL CABS

In the absence of a complete cab bypass, a workaround I’ve been using is to load a 'direct' profile, save the
cab (It should actually make no difference whether it is switched on or off) as 'direct' and use this as a blank
cab profile. Works very well.
Note: starting from FW 1.1.0, the cab bypass works much more effectively soundwise.

[CK] Direct profiles are perfect when you want to recreate your own amp and play it thru the cabinet that
you are familiar with. But in my perception it does not qualify too much when you want to play a variety of
different amp profiles on a gig or in the rehearsal room, as the “matched cabinet” aspect is gone then.
When you have a Marshall 4x12, you will not get an authentic sound when you play a Vox or Fender direct
profile. In this case it might be impossible to achieve a perfect recreation even with the perfect direct pro-
file or even the real amp, because the real cabinet does not match. You will probably have to equalize the
sounds to make them convenient.
The improved solution [from FW 1.1.0] in the Profiler makes your cabinet match easier to the profiles that
you like to play. If you want to use a guitar cab e.g. for monitoring on stage, there is no need for direct pro-
files.
When you run a regular profile in the KPA with MonitorCabOff, the virtual cab is separated from the amp.
There is an additional adaption taking part, creating an algorithmic improved direct profile so no heavy
equalizing is necessary among different profiles.
Of course you will have to adapt and compensate for the frequency response to the real power amp and
cab that you use. This is done by the global Monitor EQ. Once this is done, every profile should sound ele-
gant with your cabinet. I have improved the Monitor eq, I am sure you find the perfect sound without the
use of a larger Graphic or Parametric eq, that is much more complex to handle (and not useful for every-
body).
 46

LOCKING CABINET OFF

Q: Wish I was able to lock cabinet "off", and browse through presets. Usable when KPA is connected to a
power amp & guitar cabinet.
A: Use the monitor out with monitor cab switched off.
A [burkhard]: You can also switch the cab off in any rig and then lock the cabinet. Then the cabinet will be
off while you browse through the rigs and it will affect all outputs.

UWE BOSSERT'S CROW CAB

Tonight I was profiling my Bogner Alchemist because I really like the "clean" channel with the Boost on... I
mic'd it up and 40 or so seconds later or so I had my profile… I have to tell you though I really didn't like this
profile and was about to dump it when I thought let's check out some of the optional cabs and see if that
might make this profile happen… when browsing I happened on Uwe Bossert's Crow Cab… a Bogner 4 X 12.
Night and day difference… and I liked it more than the original.

GREAT CABS FOR THE MARSHALLS

Save the Siggi Mehl cab, it's a 4X12 Greenback (G12M25?) 25.

The 4x12 Blackbacks of Baldis 03 is also nice (Greenback G12H30?). That's the other one mandatory for vin-
tage Marshall sound. The cab is probably Markus Wienstroers as I know he owns one.
They sound just like it. And they are supposed to be very old cabs and surely sound very broken-in.

THIRD-PART CABS
In order for the KPA to see/load the third part cabinets, Create a Cabs folder (or any other meaningful
name) within your Shared folder and put them there.
You can also just put them in the Shared folder, it'll work either way. Previous option has got the advantage
of keeping things in order 
 47

REFINING

[CK] You can easily tweak the low end by refining the profile by playing low notes and riffs.

[CK] The guitar does not matter for the refining process. The Profiler mainly reads the dynamics of an amp,
when played by the guitar. Every guitar delivers enough dynamics to satisfy this aspect. In the end, the type
of guitar or pickup does not have an impact in the profiling result. If the result is good, the A/B test will pass
with any guitar. If the result was not good, the flaws will be obvious with every guitar.

The cool thing about refining is that you don't have to just use your guitar, you can change the tone, vol-
ume and gain on your amp during refining and that will change the profile. Not playing at all during refining
made a profile quieter with less gain, I refined again with playing and the volume and gain increased.

Adjusting amp settings while refining is pretty cool if you find your profile has too much gain, treble, etc. I
discovered this when I was refining a profile that was too bright, I turned the treble down and played my
guitar while in Refine mode.
You could just change the settings and re-profile, but this adds another useful approach to refining.

I discovered what the profiling problem I had was. After rereading the manual I spent about 30 seconds
playing chords, but really whacking them hard. Job done. No more thin crappy treble. In the manual it
states that one of the jobs done in the refining process is measuring/comparing transients. That seems to
mean the initial attack of the notes etc. Whatever, it does the trick. No more scratchy treble notes.
Lesson learned… RTFM… (silly me LOL)

What you play during refining matters. If you have large gaps of silence then it will adversely affect the pro-
file, so play solidly. Play a range of things, chug chords, palm mutes, open chords all over the neck, lead
lines etc. Just playing one thing has never worked for me, play both light and heavy rather than all just
hammering the guitar in a frenzied attempt to break the strings, unless your aim is purely to record a cover
of helter skelter of course.
Your point about what you play during refining making all the difference is absolutely true as that's the only
thing I changed. This time I played extremely hard power chords constantly without allowing any silence
whatsoever. In fact I even pressed the Finish button with my left hand while I was still picking with my right.
The new profile isn't completely indistinguishable from the preamp but I'd put it at 95% and that's more
than good enough for me, the earlier results were only about 75% of the way there.

My impression right now is that variation in playing styles (technically, not musically) while refining is more
important than just duration. If you strum the same chords in the same way for 10 minutes that won't help
much more than doing it for just a minute or two. I recently made a profile from 20 cm away from the
speaker and after the chords all over the fretboard I also played lots of small noises, pizzicatos, flageolets,
bright and ringing chords with clear, tight attacks all the way from pianissimo to fortissimo and double
bends that produce those strange subtones and all this weird stuff. That profile ended up much more tight-
er than earlier, closer ones. Seems like the KPA needs as much different info as possible, especially on tran-
sients, high-frequencies and dynamics. Of course it will need more time to play all that stuff, so the refining
will take longer, yes.
 48

It doesn't sound 100% the same if you leave the direct out going to the reference amp. So unplug it for final
tweak of your rig. This is not a very obvious difference and probably not something that everyone can hear
but believe me it's there ;-)
 49

FILE & RIGS MANAGEMENT

RENAMING TAGS
To rename the tags for the Amp or Cab block:

1. hold Amplifier or Cabinet for some time;

2. press the Show Tag soft key;
3. edit;
4. …and don't forget to save ;)

To change the 'Username' in the full rig press Rig -> Show Tag ...

Profile name, Author and comments can be edited from the unit. For the other fields, if you have a lot of
rigs’ names to edit, upload them to the Rig Exchange and edit, then re-download. Delete in the Rig Ex-
change if it's a duplicate of another profile. This is all we have until we get a software editor/librarian.

NEW TAG EDITOR

Some users have provider (WIP) a software tool to make tag editing easier and faster. See here for details.

STOCK PROFILES
Q: how I can get the stock profiles back?
A: Go to System, page one >> soft tab for Factory Rigs

SHARING CABS
Q: How can I share a cab of a rig I profiled?
A: Just select the rig, go to the cab section and use the Store. Don’t forget to name it correctly cause you
won’t be able to change that afterwards. You can now load the cab profile to the rig exchange.

LOADING NEW RIGS AND LOCAL PRESETS

[burkhard] The KPA is able to automatically see all rigs and local presets (e.g. local presets of cabs) stored in
the Shared folder of the USB stick; they will be imported regardless the sub-folder they are stored in and
even if they are packed. You could put a complete backup archive file into the Shared folder and import all
rigs and local presets included in that backup.

RECOVERING FACTORY RIGS

The factory rigs are not available for download, but you can obtain them from your KPA. Just insert your
USB stick into the KPA and create a backup of all rigs on the unit. Then reinsert the stick into your comput-
er, copy the new backup file from the USB stick, and append a new suffix: ".tar". This is an archive format
many compression utilities (such as Total Commander under Win) can handle (see section below).
 50

HOW TO ERASE ALL PROFILES/RIGS/CABS

1. Make a backup on the USB stick;
2. open it on the pc with Winrar or Total Commander; or use IZarc on a Mac;
3. erase the content of the Rig folder;
4. save the Rig folder and replace the file on the USB;
5. restore the backup. Done, the KPA is empty.

MANAGING PROFILES’ NAMES

If you find yourself w/ tons of random named patches, and want to clear out all the crap:

1. make a backup of the rigs, and use an USB pen to export the .kpbackup into your computer;
2. make another copy of the file, and change its extension to .rar or .zip;
3. use any compressed archive manager (Total Commander, IZArc…) to browse through the file fold-
ers;
4. delete what you want to get rid of from the cabs and rigs folder;
5. once happy rename the file back to the backup again (.kpabackup), and import back.

You can also get rid of unwanted effect settings and amp or cabinet presets.

There is no CRC control, otherwise the manipulated backup would be rejected.

Avoid renaming the profiles on your computer though, unless you’re using a proprietary tool.

Q: I edited almost all the rig names in OSX, but the KPA reads the name from the tag info unfortunately.
Anybody know of a quick way to edit the tags? I'd prefer to name my rigs based upon the profiled amp for
easier sorting, i.e. "Fender," "Cornford," etc. in front of the rig name.

MANAGING YOUR FAVOURITE RIGS THROUGH THE SNAPSHOT FUNCTION

The Snapshot button allows you to store the actual rig you've been testing/tweaking to your quick menu,
instantly. This way you can keep all available rigs on your KPA while sorting your personal short list selec-
tion (I have got 30) in the Quick menu. It will be manageable by pressing the Quick button and using the
Browse knob to navigate to your selection (be sure to have the Autoload checked, if not check it via the
contextual button.

To assign the Quick button to the Snapshot menu:

1. Hit the System button; in the bottom left of display, a Quick Function sign will appear;
2. Turn the 2nd knob (right under the Quick Function sign) until you read Snapshot Browser. You will
also see Version Information, which is the default and MIDI Settings. Stop at Snapshot Browser. The
Quick button now brings up your Snapshot Menu.

Note this is not exactly the same as having a Favorites option:

you cannot assign MIDI PCs to the snapshots (you’re limited to assigning the MIDI PC to the rig at
the settings of the snapshot);
if you edit them, you must save a new rig, make a new snapshot and cancel the old one. Is OK if
you're recording, not really the same playing live.
 51

To remove an item from the snapshots list, go to the Rig menu, press the 4th soft button (Browse Snap-
shots) and use the Delete soft button (the 3rd one) and confirm. Same as with the rigs.
This will not delete the profile or the rig from your KPA, only the snapshot entry.

ERROR ON IMPORTING RIGS

From version 1.0 of the firmware, the KPA is immune from corrupted profiles. They will just not load.

TOO MANY RIGS? FAST DELETE & RESTORATION

Push the Soft button One (top left button above the display) while you switch on the KPA and keep pushing
until the message Maintenance Mode appears. As soon as the unit has started please push the Mainte-
nance button, then the Memory button, and then Init Flash. This will clean-up the internal flash memory.
Shut down and start again. There will be no rigs on your unit right now. Now you can restore factory rigs
and which will bring your KPA into its initial state or import some from the USB stick.

A MORE CONVENIENT WAY TO MANAGE LARGE AMOUNTS OF RIGS

[burkhard] If you want to delete more than just a few rigs or local presets, the procedure can be time con-
suming on the KPA. Many users are already aware, that it is possible to unpack KPA backup archives and
manage content on a PC or MAC. If you strictly follow the following instructions, there will be no risk of los-
ing any of your precious sounds!
KPA backup archives are based on a standard file format, tar. These archives can be unpacked with stand-
ard freeware like for example 7-zip, Zipeg, GuiTar, GNU-tar and others. We are recommending 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, con-
tains all your local presets for stomps, but obviously not the program code for the KPA stomps. In this un-
packed state of a KPA backup on your computer you can easily select and delete rigs or local presets.

PC/Windows Instructions
1. Download and install 7-zip on your PC.
2. Create a backup of your KPA data on your USB stick (KPA User Manual page 36).
3. Remove the USB stick from your KPA and plug the USB stick with the backup into your PC.
4. Open the USB stick using the File Manager on your PC.
5. Open the Folder Backups, which contains your KPA backup archives e. g. 2012 2012- -- -07 0707 07-
-- -13 17 13 17 13 17- -- -27 2727 27- -- -25.kpabackup. (The archive name indicates the creation
date).
6. Select the latest backup, cut and paste it to your desktop.
7. Right-click on the backup archive on your desktop, chose 7-zip, select Unpack file.
8. A pop-up window will ask you to confirm the path where the unpacked data should be stored.
Press Ok.
9. Now you see a normal data folder on your PC desktop with a name like 2012 2012- -- -07 0707 07- -
- -13 17 13 17 13 17- -- -27 2727 27- -- -25 2525 25. 10. Double click on this folder.
10. You’ll see the various folders for rigs and different kinds of local presets.
11. Double click on the folder Rigs. Here you’ll find one file for each rig on your KPA.
12. Now you can start your clean-up work and delete the rigs you don’t need any more.
13. As soon as you are done with your clean-up work, close all folders.
14. Now is the right time to store the original backup archive in a safe place on your PC and avoid con-
flicts with the new cleaned-up backup archive, which will carry exactly the same filename. Select
 52

the original backup archive on your desktop 2012 2012 2012- -- -07 0707 07- -- -13 17 13 17 13 17- -
- -27 2727 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.
15. Double click on the unpacked backup folder on your PC desktop.
16. Select all the files and folders contained (Amplifier, Tonestack, MIDI Assignments…).
17. Right click, select 7-zip and Add to an archive.
18. A new 7-zip window will pop-up suggesting name and format of the new archive.
19. You can leave everything as suggested, but you’ll need to change the file extension in the first row
from tar to kpabackup, so that the file name is identical to the name of the original backup archive
you stored.
20. You will now find a new backup archive amongst the folders. Cut and paste this backup archive into
the Backups folder of your USB stick.
21. Plug the USB stick into your KPA.
22. Restore this backup on your KPA (KPA User manual page 36)
23. Congratulations! You just cleaned up your KPA.
24. 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.

MAC Instructions
1. Download and install GuiTar on your Mac.
2. Create a backup of your KPA data on your USB stick (KPA User Manual page 36).
3. Remove the USB stick from your KPA and plug the USB stick with the backup into your MAC.
4. Open the USB stick by double-clicking on its icon.
5. Open the Folder Backups, which contains your KPA backup archives (e. g. 2012 2012- -- -07 0707
07- -- -13 17 13 17 13 17- -- -27 2727 27- -- -25.kpabackup. The archive name indicates the creation
date).
6. Select the latest backup and drag it to your desktop.
7. Add the suffix ”.tar“ to the filename. Select the ”use .tar“ option in the pop-up window that ap-
pears. You will now see a tar archive on your desktop with a name like 2012 2012 2012- -- -07 0707
07- -- -13 17 13 17 13 17- -- -27 2727 27- -- -25.kpabackup.tar.
8. Double-click on the tar archive and you will see a regular data folder on your OSX desktop with a
name like 2012 2012 2012- -- -07 0707 07- -- -13 17 13 17 13 17- -- -27 2727 27- -- -25.backup. Dou-
ble click on this folder.
9. You’ll see the various folders for rigs and different kinds of local presets. Double click on the folder
Rigs. Here you find one file for each rig on your KPA.
10. Now you can start your clean-up work and delete the rigs you don’t need anymore.
11. As soon as you are done with your clean-up work, close all folders.
12. 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. Se-
lect the original backup archive on your USB stick and copy this into a folder on your MAC, 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.
13. Go back to the unpacked backup folder on your MAC desktop and select all the files and folders in-
side that folder.
14. Open the GuiTar program by double-clicking on its icon in your applications folder and click on
Compressor.
15. Drag all the selected files and subfolders from the KPA backup to the GuiTar window and select tar
as the compression type.
 53

16. Click on Compress and give the archive a name like 2012 2012 2012- -- -07 0707 07- -- -13 17 13 17
13 17- -- -27 2727 27- -- -25.kpabackup and save it to the Backup folder on your USB stick.
17. Locate the archive in your Backup folder on the USB stick, control-click on it and select Information
from the pop up menu.
18. Click on Name&Suffix in the Information window and delete ”.tar“ from the filename.
19. Hit Enter. Select the Use .kpabackup option in the popup window.
20. Unmount the USB stick from your MAC and plug it into your KPA.
21. Restore this backup on your KPA (KPA User manual page 36)
22. Congratulations! You just cleaned up your KPA.
23. 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.

NOTES: All this should be done with caution and consciousness that these files do contain your precious da-
ta. You should always keep a copy of the original backup file, before you even start to manipulate its con-
tent. Don’t modify file names! Renaming of rigs or local presets needs to be done on the KPA.
Should you 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.

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!

The main reason why we are packing all user data into one backup archive is that it speeds up the transac-
tion significantly. The time to write data on USB sticks is primarily scaling with the number of files.

MANAGING MODIFIED RIGS

I never use a profile as is and that I might eventually end up using the same base profile multiple time, but
with different modification, so I'm never modifying the original profile to be able to go back to the starting
point. So each time I want to map a profile to my MIDI controller to use it and eventually modify it I save a
copy of it with a “-“ in front of it. So I can scan quickly the profile I'm using and that I modified and also I can
go back easily to the original using the name.

Another idea: if you re-save both profiles to be compared then sort by date, they will be side-by-side at the
end of the list.

ORDERING & RENAMING RIGS – A PROPOSAL

I found for me a method to organize the rigs that I want to share with you, hoping it can give you some ide-
as.
I tried to override the following:

1. different profiles of the same amplifier, or different amplifiers with the same level of distortion, or
different amps of the same brand were scattered all around in no order;
2. profiles of strongly tweaked amplifiers were mixed with simple profiles with no effects or with no
tweaking and also with rigs that try to match particular song sounds;
3. acoustic and bass profiles mixed in open order;
 54

4. completely different volumes among different amps and different rigs that complicate a lot the re-
search of a sound and any comparison.

So that’s how I organized my RIGs collection:

Every rig where only the Amp section is present or there’s very little modification is named

AmpFactory Model GainLevel PUType

Examples:

FEN Mach Crun NE: Fender amp, Machete model, crunch sound, best suitable for neck pickup;
MAR JTM45 Cl BR: Marshall amp, JTM45 model, clean sound, best suitable for bridge pickup.

All these rigs are now ordered with the same amp factory and then model and you have them one near the
other to better compare the various sound.

Moreover, I normalized the Volume RMS to be more comparable and in a way that you can exploit all the
dynamic range without clipping the Output LED

For the same amps I ordered in the rigs, in the Stack Presets I save only the Stack section, and order by the
type of sound (Clean, Crunch, Drive, Lead, Metal). These presets are normalized in RMS volume as well, by
tweaking the Cabinet Volume.
When searching for a type of sound instead that for a type of amp, (say crunch) I can now scroll all the
crunch sounds and with similar volumes.

Some example of Stack presets:

CR FEN Twin NE: crunch sound, Fender amp, Twin model, suitable for neck pickup;
DR Corn Harlequin BR: drive sound, Cornford amp, Harlequin model, suitable for bridge
pickup.

Unfortunately, we don't have the possibility to share these presets unless we use the backup method that
replaces all.

I also use the following conventions:

All the rigs created by strongly tweaking an amp start with a “$” symbol. For example:

$ Walking Moon
$ Till’s Petrucci jaws
$ Strumming

All the rigs created to match the sound of a specific artist/song are named as

# Artist Song Px

where Px is the pickup position used. For example:

 55

# PF ComfortablyFirst F1: Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb, First solo sound, Fender Strato
Position 1 (bridge);
# GM StoryBlues G1: Gary Moore, Story of the Blues, Gibson position1 (bridge).

All the special rigs for acoustic, or bass, or virtual sound (like those from the VG-99) are named as “&”. For
example:

& Piezo Acoustic1;

& MarkBass602

Finally, I created some blank presets where all the modules and effects are switched off: they’re ready for
creating a sound from scratch or tweaking in a very user-friendly way. All these presets’ names start with !!,
and appear at the beginning of the rigs list. For example:

!!_BLANK_RIG1_!!: Comp in position 1, gate2:1 in position 2, Overdrive in position 3, EQ in

position X, Air Chorus in position MOD; Free Delay and Hall Reverb. All the fx are switched off, but
ready to be tweaked in few seconds.

I put the link to my KPA backup file in the OP.

Be careful! Before trying it to do a full backup first and also save all the rigs using the "Export all rigs" fea-
ture. This way, any rig created by you can easily be recovered.
In the coming weeks I will upload a new version with more optimizations. Anyway, the idea is to have just a
starting point where you can after easily refine and improve...

UPDATE: I have uploaded a new version of my backup file (on 1.1.1 KPA firmware version) you will find the
following updates:

High Gain profile selection from SilentUndergroundStudio.com;

High Gain profile selection from Juanma Blanco RIGs;
The RIGs created to match specific song sound are now ordered and grouped with the first charac-
ter going from “0” to “9” to faster switch and move between them.

Also, The Cabinet presets are now all normalized in volume and with good naming also.

A: It is amazing how much value is added by way of consistency and attention to detail. Same amps, same
rigs, but I can actually use the stuff now. I turn on the KPA with a simple aim, e.g. "What can this thing do in
the way of Fender clean?" Key up to "F"; it's all there. "What's the difference between a JCM800 and a JMP
in this context?" All under "MAR" where it belongs.
And your alternate naming scheme in the stack section is brilliant, too. If you build a rig out for a given song
and then begin to wonder whether that boutique Fender clone wouldn't sound better than the actual
Fender, it's right there. (I'd never even used the stack browse feature before last night, which is a little em-
barrassing.)
I haven't played around with programming in the Blank profiles yet, but I think I get the idea, and I think
this will work just fine until the Performance Mode materializes.
Anyone who has yet to really wrap your head around the hundreds of profiles at your disposal (and that's
probably most of us): you owe it to yourself to take 15 minutes and at least try this. Backup your KPA, re-
store Maurizio's file, and browse around for a few minutes. I'll be surprised if you don't consider it a breath
of fresh air. (And the more people who adopt this naming scheme for their own profiles, the easier it will be
to deal with merging new profiles going forward.)
 56

One thing I realized is I never use a profile as is, and I might eventually end up using the same base profile
multiple time but with different modification. That’s why I never modify the original profile: to be able to
go back to the starting point. So, each time I want to map a profile to my MIDI controller I save a copy of it
with a “-“ in front of it. This way I can quickly scan the profile I'm using and that I modified and I can easily
as well go back to the original using the name.

If you re-save both profiles to be compared then sort them by date, they would be side-by-side at the end
of the list. This way, all the profiles you edit lie together. It is a hassle to navigate between distant profiles
in the list…

SAVE STOMPS/FX PRESETS

Q: Is it possible to save stomp setups? Like if I set up a specific flanger, can I save it under some name so I
could use it again in a different rig?
A: Yes, you can save the whole current stomps or effects configuration as a single preset: press and hold
Stomps or Effects and press Store. It will ask you whether you want to save the setup or the rig. You can
have Stomps presets and Effects presets.
A: I just saved 10 effect presets onto a clean rig; this way I can go back and plug them into my rigs of choice.
A: It’s a great time saver when setting up gig presets!

USB SUBFOLDERS
Q: Is it OK to make sub-folders inside the shared folder for cabinets, Rig Pack 2, paid for profiles ect? Will
the KPA still recognize new additions?
A: Yes. During Import, all files (even in sub folders) are analyzed and sorted to the right locations. However
they will certainly not keep this folder structure on the KPA once imported.
 57

PARAMETERS

ABOUT ADVANCED PARAMETERS

[CK] Don't get blinded by special names of advanced parameters. For example, when you tweak a virtual
transformer you’re simply modifying the frequency response as with an equalizer. Use our Studio Equalizer
on X location to control the high end.

PICK
Q: I need to experiment with the negative pick parameter.
A: Pick between 9 and 10 'o clock, Sag and Compression at 9 'o clock. Leave the gain a bit higher than usual
and increase the bias a little bit (it reduce gain), Adjust Definition to compensate for the reduced pick sensi-
tivity. Just a starting point, for me it works.

SENSES
[CK] "Clean sense" and "Distortion sense" do not color the sound. Clean Sense only adapts the input level to
the KPA. Doing that, it takes care about the loudness of clean sounds while not altering distorted sounds.
Distorted sense does the opposite: It adapts the level resp. gain for distorted sounds, if that's required. Be-
lieve me, it would have been the same effect as modifying the gain knob on the KPA. There is no coloring or
additional dynamic whatsoever connected to these controls.
Those parameters also affect how Loud a patch will be when raising and lowering gain. For example, If dis-
tortion sense is low as u add gain from clean it won't get louder but as u back off gain it will get louder.
Raising distortion sense will add volume as u add gain. At least what I noticed. Very cool feature actually.
I don't know about others, but finding the "Distortion Sense" knob helped a good bit with the overall lack of
gain I'd been experiencing on single-note lines vs. chords. I've usually got it on 1.9 or more - I've not regret-
ted cranking this knob on saturated sounds yet. Now if I could just get a bit more "squish" out of the re-
sponse...
If you get input clipping on clean sounds, you need to reduce the clean sense. I have a Hõussel Tozz XL in
the Bridge Position with really has some extremely high output. So when adjusting the clean sense I select
the pickup with highest output and just hit the strings as hard as I can. The input led should become or-
ange, but not red. I need to reduce my clean sense to about 3.1. But after that even the TOZZ XL can pro-
duce a nice clean tone.
Your real input level depends on the Clean Sens parameter, and you should set it up according to your
pickups. The led above input will show when it's set up right - what you're aiming for basically is the LED to
be green all the time and maybe go a little amber/reddish when you hit your strings really hard. Everything
is fine until you experience input clipping.
Distorted Sens is something that is adjusted to taste by yourself. If you feel like that your KPA rigs have
overall less gain than you'd like, you raise it, if you feel the other way around, then you lower it. This sim-
ple.
Volume balancing should be easily achieved by the Cab/Amp volume controls, there's no need to touch the
Sense values for this.

Clean Sense shall not change the gain of any distortion, not even a distortion in the loop. That is the defini-
tion of clean sense and that's why it's called clean sense.
 58

CLARITY
Have you ever listened to a profile and thought 'I like the overall vibe, but it just sounds too smeared &
messy'? I certainly have, and the first thing I do is go to the Clarity parameter and set it somewhere be-
tween 4 and 5.5. Big difference immediately! Sometimes I then need to refine the Amp's EQ and gain set-
tings, but the end result is usually stellar.
The cool thing is that even though the sound gets 'cleaned up', the sustain is still there - this seems ideal for
modifying lead sounds for playing melodies & lines.
Clarity knob is not identical, but it is described in almost wet/dry mix terms. The clarity setting affects the
tightness of the lows but it also changes the frequency balance when it is adjusted.

VOLUME
You can choose the following volume positions in the rig menus:

Pre Stomps
Post Stomps
Pre Effects
Post Effects

The KPA has got three volume knobs:

1. Master Volume
2. Amp Volume
3. Cabinet Volume

[CK] None of these Volumes alter the sound. But the controls are scaled differently, giving you a different
perception.

The cab volume is hence easier for making fine adjustments. If you have an EQ on X, the cab volume is also
a very important part of your overall volume control.

A: They are input volume compensation settings. The clean sense should be set so that your clean rigs have
the same volume of your distorted ones and it does NOT influence how the guitar is driving the distorted
sounds. The distortion sense DOES influence how hot the guitar is driving the distorted sounds and practi-
cally compensate for too hot (reduce it) or too soft (increase it) PUs.
Q: So why not just use the cab volume (or amp volume) to balance out the clean profiles vs. the crunch pro-
files? Does the clean sense actually influence the tone, or just the volume?
A: In my feeling it influence the dynamic of the amp profiles and the 3D.

Q: Is there a way to assign the first expression pedal to volume between the stomp and the amp section? I
see it only fixed assigned to the wah-wah. I need the second expression pedal for overall volume all at the
end of the "chain".
A: [CK] Use the Pedal Booster. It does exactly what you are asking for.

[CK] The only volumes that can make the output LED clip while the input LED is green: the rig volume down
right and the cabinet volume. Both should be set to the middle position.
 59

TAP TEMPO
If you enable Tap tempo (just press that button twice) the Speed parameter turn from Hz to 1/8..1/4 and
that stuff.

Tap tempo is easy, you just have to plug in a latch footswitch on the back of the KPA and assign it to Tap in
the System menu. You don`t necessarily need to use a MIDI controller for that.

CONTROLLING PARAMETERS VIA EXPRESSION PEDAL

In the KPA there are a number of parameters/fx which can be controlled through an expression pedal:

volume
wah
rate reducer
ring modulator
frequency shifter
distortion
vowel filter

[CK] Another way to control distortion through a pedal is by using Pedal Booster.

[CK] The KPA remembers the latest volume pedal position even if you have physically disconnected the pe-
dal in the meantime. So if the last pedal position was '0', the KPA is practically muted until you load a rig
with Volume Pedal Location set to Off. However, when you restart the KPA, this should normally be reset
and start with pedal volume at 100% until you connect a pedal and send something different.
 60

FX

MORE FREEDOM
The MOD slot is actually open to all the stomp effects, just like the X-slot.

ARE EFFECTS/STOMP SETTINGS SAVED AS PART OF A RIG ?

Q: Are the stomp/effect types and settings saved within a rig file, independently of the stomp/effect pre-
sets on your KPA? I have loaded XXX’s back up and he has changed the names of most of the
stomps/effects presets. I bought an YYY pack and some of those rigs have stomps and effects added. So I
was thinking how do these YYY rigs link to stomp/effect presets that no longer exist on my KPA?
A: A combination of effects – including their on/off status – gets saved with a full rig. And yes, FX are part of
the KPA's OS, unlike rigs. You can delete a rig and you can delete an effect preset, but you can't delete an
effect.

AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE CLASSIC TUBE SCREAMER SOUND

I go for the Compressor + Pure Boost over the Tube Screamer. Or Compressor + Treble Boost. Tube
Screamers are mid "honky", IMO, they color the sound way too much, good for playing live, but not so good
at home.
A: That's the whole point of a tube screamer, the mids and then boost and saturation, especially in a high
gain/metal context. Of course certain amps like tube screamers more than others, Mesa Recitfiers for ex-
ample and sound awesome with them. And of course, it is a preferential thing as well.

My favorite Overdrive pedal in the KPA would be the combination of the Compressor and Pure Boost:

Compressor intensity between 3.5 and 4.5, Volume +1

Pure Boost Volume at between +0.4 and +1.0

NOISE GATE
The noise gate is stored per rig. Unless you lock the input section, it will turn itself back on as you go
through the rigs.

2:1 AND 4:1 NOISE GATES

The new gate 2:1 (FW 1.0.9) is excellent. Combined with the main one, it gets you completely silent without
modifying the dynamics at all.

The new 2:1 and 4:1 gates (FW 1.0.9) are basically expanders (the opposite of a compressor). This means
that loud signals get louder while soft signals get even softer. Normally, those loud signals should be your
guitar signals, while the noise should be the soft signals that are reduced. However, there might be situa-
tions where the signal and noise cannot be separated properly and the expander will fail. This might be the
case if the noise is extremely high while the guitar signal is rather soft. Maybe you could try set the clean
sense a little higher if your pickups are not that hot.
... this is why we have the more intelligent gate in the input section. It works much better in many situa-
tions.
 61

4:1 is very good for some full grown hardcore metal.

TS808
[CK] The TS sounds identical to the original. Take care that only the first half of the tone control reflects its
full tone range.
The KPA models the Reissue version.

ROTARY SPEED CONTROL

Q: Is there a way to accelerate the Rotary speed from slow to fast by a pedal (with the speed parameter)?
A [CK]: You can switch it by a foot switch. Assign it to the Rotary Speed.
NOTE: Rotary speed is controlled via MIDI through CC # 33.

MODULATIONS
Q: I would like to see all of the choruses, flangers and phasers totally stop all modulation when the speed is
set to zero (there is still some modulation at zero currently). This way, these effects could be used for
'stereophonic thickening' of the sound (without adding modulation), much like a very short stereo delay.
Q: totally agree, need more thickening fx without modulation. The stereo widener is quite good if you use it
in the x position.
Q: I see this especially important since we don't (yet) have a short 'ambient' delay we can use in the X slot -
a stereo chorus with zero modulation & a bit of pre-delay can create a huge sound.

A: Choose Phaser or Flanger and set the Depth (not Rate!) to zero.
Or choose Wah Phaser or Comp Filter and set Pedal Range to zero (or Pedal Mode to Off). Then set the de-
sired sound by Manual.
It's not a good advice to set rate to zero on any device for a static sound. Even if the LFO frequency goes
down to zero, you might end up with an undetermined (arbitrary) frequency setting.

I found a great sound using the Ring Modulation in Touch mode and adding it a little bit Pedal Range, it is
fantastic (at least for me!) how the effect and the modulation velocity goes slowing down with the time.
Don't be afraid to experiment with this, you will have great result...

Manual 5.1
Pedal Range + 4%
Pedal Mode Touch
Stereo + 60°
Mix 50%
Touch Att/Rel/Boost 0.0

and

Manual 5.1
Pedal Range - 6%
Pedal Mode Touch
Stereo + 60°
 62

Mix 50%
Touch Att/Rel 0.0
Touch Boost 0.6

TEMPO LOCK
When I save two patches with different tempo, it will not change the tempo on preset change.
But I got it working now, tempo changes on preset change. I did hold the Lock button and then same time
pressed tempo (to lock it) and pressed tempo again (to unlock it). Seemed to be locked somehow without
showing it.
A [burkhard]: you can set the BPM rate on page 2/3 of the Rig menu and lock it (softbutton 2). This locked
BPM will then be applied to the note values defined in Tap Tempo (Clock Left/Right) in any rig.

UNIVIBE
The Univibe is a phaser. It is not a mixture of a phaser with something else. The vibrato switch setting is the
phaser's effect signal only. The only difference to a regular phaser is the LFO waveform. We will have this
shape soon for our phaser too.

REVERB
Q: Is there a global reverb in the KPA? I wondered about this as when I use profiles with massive amounts
of reverb on them. Obviously I can turn this down but I wondered if there was a global control?
A: Yes, is there: push and hold reverb and the push Lock.

Spring reverb – There is a really good (bad) ;) sounding spring reverb in the KPA. It's called Matchbox in the
Reverb section. Set pre-delay to 0, limit the bandwidth a little bit (watch out, there's a lot happening be-
tween 0.0 and 1.0 already) and use frequency to turn it brighter. I have a few spring reverbs here (Accu-
tronics, Dynacord, no name...) and the KPA can capture their vibes easily.

Some loose KPA reverb ideas w/a high-gain sound (from David Torn):

roll-off the low-end RT response;

if you're playing high-gain rhythmic stuff narrow the bandwidth of the reverb-response; maybe
raise the frequency a bit.

lengthen the pre-delay;

use a little less "damping";
play w/the delay+reverb balance (probably turning it clockwise, more towards the 'verb);
pull the reverb/dry mix more towards "dry".

Then:

turn the 'verb on & off;

if the signal shows more volume with the 'verb off, simply raise the rig's volume, slightly.
 63

EQ
Adding the effect called Studio eq (or something like that) after the amp section can bring to life a lot of
profiles.

COMPRESSOR
Q: While I think it is nice, this extreme extent of cleaning up without losing volume irritates me a little. Will
check compressor setting tomorrow ASAP!
A: Turn the amp block compressor to 0 and you'll be back to normal. Reduce the clean sense as well.

The compressor in the amp section of the KPA works differently than any normal Compressor. I am not sure
how it works internally but I guess that it just temporarily alters the binary data concerning volume and dy-
namics of the profile. Normally, a compressor would need to react on the input audio Signal. Because of
this, a compressor always has some latency in its effect on the audio signal. The results of this can be audi-
ble as the typical compressor artifacts like the "snap" of longer attack time, distortion because of too small
attack and release times, "pumping" or "breathing".
The KPA Amp compressor does not show these behaviors, in fact it works like a "perfect" compressor
would react. It has no effect on the gain structure and it does not pump or breathe.
I use the compressor on every clean tone. You instantly get this beautiful warm tone even it this profile was
rather harsh or thin. I never use it on hi gain rhythm, but sometimes for soloing.
I agree, the Compressor in the amp block is excellent, sounds awesome with any of the clean Profiles, it
brings them to life.
This is a notable aspect about the KPA: although the parameters are adjustable in very fine increments,
sometimes a very small amount 'does the trick'. I used to avoid the amp compressor on od sounds because
I thought it degraded the attacks (in direct comparison), but after a lot of playing I feel that the .1 setting
makes the attacks feel and sound more amp-like to my ears, whereas no compression feels a little too flat
or direct, without enough 'bloom' to the notes (for my tastes). There still seems to be plenty of attack there
when you 'dig in', IMHO.
Yes, I can hear and feel the difference between 0 and .1. You have to play with authority to feel what's
happening, otherwise it's a bit subtle... I'm now using up to .5 on the amp compression, depending on the
natural/unnatural attack of the amp... IMO the KPA’s distortion can sound a bit sterile/solid state if there is
too much attack compared to the sustained body of the tone.
It highly depends on your style of tone. The cleaner your tone is, the more effect the amp compression will
have, since high gain tones are already highly compressed on their own. On clean to semi crunch tones, the
above-mentioned settings might be the way to go. For my metal stuff it´s not working out as clearly.

[CK] The Pick parameter in the Amp section works much better than any compressor when it comes to
changing the attack characteristic of your sound.
Also, the attack control of the compressor exceeds the values of analog compressor pedals.

DELAY
[CK] The KPA delay is a stereo or dual or ping pong delay. A classic dual delay works in parallel. You can get
the shimmering by the modulation parameter, that is set to a non-zero value by default, because we love
modulated delays so much.
You can set the delay time either by musical 16th notes in the Tap delay or by milliseconds in the free or
Doppler delay. There is a reason why our Tap Delay uses the uncommon setting of multiples of 16th (3/16,
4/16 etc.): 5/16 or 7/16 have no equivalent note symbol, but they sound fantastic.
 64

THE EDGE’S OR GILMOUR’S STYLE DELAYS

[CK] I am a big fan of the sound of The Edge and David Gilmour. Our delay algorithms are inspired by them.
The Edge and Gilmore do not use two delays in series, from what I know and hear. They use two delays in
parallel to achieve a stereo effect. This is a dual delay.

Chose Tap delay.

Set both delay sides to 3/16 clock (that is dotted eights)
Setup a reasonable feedback (50% ?)
Tap the desired tempo in regular quarter notes
Play eights notes on your guitar, as The Edge or Gilmore do (not fast 16 th, as the delay will fill in the
16th).
There you are!

Or:

set the left delay to 5/16 and right to 3/16.

Play eight notes.

You will get The Edge’s delay as a ping pong delay. A bit harder to play, but crazier, more stereo, more
rhythmic. I wonder if our heroes have ever used that delay setting.

WAH
This is what I ended up with after some tweaking: nice and smooth tone with my Les Paul and a Marshall
JMP profile:

Manual 3,5 (this is how deep the heel position goes tonewise);
Peak 4,5 (from the manual: varies the Q-factor or resonance of the filters);
Pedal range 50% (from the manual: determines the maximum impact of the pedal, as an offset to
the value selected for the Manual parameter. Negative values of Range will reverse the swell direc-
tion of the pedal);
Peak range -50% (from the manual: Determines to what extent the position of the pedal influences
the “Peak” intensity);
Mix 100% (the amount of effect mixed with the direct guitar signal);
Vol 0: this is a good one, if you set it to 1-5 you get a volume boost into the amp (more gain), while
the opposite way reduces volume into amp (less gain).

Try this for a genuine Cry Baby sound:

Manual 3.4
Peak 7.5
Pedal Range 31 %
Peak Range -43 %

A PEDAL ON THE EXTERNAL SOCKET TO CONTROL THE KPA’S WAH

The Kemper recognizes the MIDI cc #1 and #7 without being told anything else, you can leave the external
switch sockets on the back to be used for other things (such as tuner, or to turn on and off effects as I use it
 65

with an additional pedal).

If you set up the wah in slot A and lock it in place (setting it to turn off when you don't use the pedal in the
2nd settings page of the wah page) you can use it on every patch with no additional setting up, in my case
for example also freeing up the use of the control pedal of the GR-55 (which I had previously set to turn the
wah on and off) to be used for tap tempo as I have it set.

STEREO WIDENER
To get a huge sound some use a lot of delay or reverb. That may work in some cases, but sounds too much
processed in a lot of others. I found that the KPA Stereo Widener (I use it in the X slot) makes some sounds
very huge. I like the KPA with this effect more than the Axe-Fx with two amps/caps at the same time.
If the default settings does not work for you - the effect has some parameters to play with ...

FX STOMPS ORDER
Q: How do you move effects on the KPA?
A: Push and keep pressed Stomps (or Effects), navigate to the desired one using left/right buttons, select it
with the first soft button, move it with the 2nd 3rd one.

PITCH SHIFTER
Since firmware 1.10 added the Frequency Shifter we can create some nice modulated sounds. Try this for
the start:

 put Frequency Shifter in the A, B, C or D slot

 set Manual to 5.3
 set Mix to 25%.

also: use more than one Frequency Shifters with different Manual settings.
Enjoy!

CONTROLLING THE PRE-DISTORTION LEVEL

Q: I would like to assign Exp1 to control the pre-distortion level behind a compressor in the stomp section.
A: [CK] You can use the Pedal Booster.
 66

SETTINGS

YOUR FRFR HAS NO MOJO ?

Turn up your cabinet section volume! Makes a hell of a difference, at least with my NX 12-SMA.
A: Been telling all the time to use the cab volume and not the channel volume!!
A: I turn the channel volume to zero, then turn the cab volume to +5 (max). Then bring up the channel vol-
ume to a level that doesn't clip the Master. The most magical part of the KPA are the cabs, turning up the
cab volume increases the magic... especially with FRFR.

Do you have a somewhat honky/flat clean amp profile that you would like to 'spruce up'? Simply download
the Dammit Rig from the Rig Exchange and save the Dammit cab in your KPA - this cab naturally cuts the
mids and adds some very nice lows and highs. If the effect is 'too much', simply boost your amp's mids and
cut highs and lows as needed. This cab also works great for a really dark distorted profile as well.
 67

USE

SHORTCUTS
Hitting [TAP] once enables Tempo, just like pressing [Rig], going to page 2 and checking the Tempo Enable
case.

EMERGENCY USB STICK

[Burkhard] I’m always putting any new firmware in the root directory of my USB sticks instead of in the OS
Update folder. Up-/downgrades will work anyway, but on stage or in the rehearsal room you have always
the possibility to use this stick for a ‘boot and burn’ as well as restoring backup or importing rigs.

DOUBLE USB STICK

I have two USB sticks, one on which I made a backup of the factory presets. And one on which I deleted
everything except for "AC Normal Drive". I'm now going to dial in my typical 5-10 sounds based on only this
rig and see how far I can get. This not only prevents me from getting overwhelmed in the beginning by all
these different sounds but helps me to get to know the KPA better.
This USB stick will only contain sounds I use for rehearsing or live situations. On the second one I'm going
to store every profile I can get my hands on! This one I will use for browsing and looking for inspiration.
Maybe I should get a third one to organize my recording sounds.
NOTE: [burkhard] this procedure only works if you unpack a backup, clean up rigs and pack into a valid
backup-file again.

CONTROLLING THE KPA

As far as controller goes I`m using a MIDI controller for patch changes (GR-55), an expression pedal (Boss-
FV500) in Pedal 1 for Wah control and a stereo latch footswitch in Pedal 2 for Delay and Reverb On/Off.
However, Pedal 1 and 2 can be assign to various function.

KPA LIVE
As for getting good tone at a live gig, I'd suggest going into the house PA if there is one as well as having a
good wedge monitor throwing my tone and the rest of the band back at me.

An example from a pro: Andy Innes’ live setup (from his own blog):

“I have been running two KPAs side-by-side. One is my own KPA and the other an identical
clone of mine (achieved in under two minutes with a USB stick) rented from a backline compa-
ny in St. Louis. My guitars both have magnetic pickups and piezos (both signals travel down a
balanced [read stereo] cable into a Little Lehle switcher and then split – mags to the KPA and
piezo to a BSS AR133 DI box).
The mag signal travels through a TC Polytune (a fantastic invention that checks tuning on all
the strings simultaneously), then a Dunlop Cry Baby wah and is then split and phase / earth
balanced using a Lehle P-split. The identical signals are fed to the two KPAs and both go mono
to the PA mixer.
 68

Both KPAs are powered by a 1kVA UPS, which ensures no reboots, even if the whole stage loses
power. At any point, the engineer can switch from my main KPA to the backup if there is a
crash (which I have never had happen, but you can’t be too careful). I control both KPAs with a
Tech 21 MIDI Moose for now (compact and effective while waiting for the bespoke controller to
get released). The MIDI signal goes into KPA #1 and then gets mirrored via MIDI thru to the
KPA#2.
I control the internal stomps on the Kemper with a Roland FS -6.”

KPA MONO IN STUDIO

Q: Supposing they've only got 1 input for a guitar, can I connect my KPA using only the left (mono) output
(XLR) and go into their audio interface?
A: Of course this is possible. However I would disable any stereo effect, especially the reverb on the KPA if
you are recording this way. Add a nice stereo reverb inside the DAW then.

BOOT TIME
For the more impatient: remember that the KPA’s boot time depends on the number of rigs installed.

REAMPING
For reamping purpose, you can take a dry guitar signal from the Direct Out.
You can playback the guitar recording directly back into the Instrument Input or S/PDIF in. Make the correct
levels by the parameter Clean Sense and Distortion Sense in the Input menu.

REAMPING & GAIN STAGING

Proper gain staging is key. I'm not sure I have a clear enough picture of how you're doing it, but I'll tell you
how I've been doing it for years.

1. Generate a test tone of known level. For this I use a 1 kHz@ - 10 dBFS sinewave generated in Sound
Forge. Save this file out and import it back into your DAW.
2. Reamp the very simplest case: DAW line out -> Reamp box -> DAW instrument in. Loop the signal in
your DAW and adjust the instrument-level output trim on your Reamp box so that your DAW's instru-
ment input reads -10dBFS.
Your basic reamp loop is now properly gain-staged; any DI signal recorded to your DAW henceforth will
reamp out at the exact same level. This is your starting point.
3. Now connect your Reamp's instrument level out to the instrument level input of your guitar amp, and
connect the output of your guitar amp to your DAW however you prefer.
4. Generate some pink noise @ -10dBFS similar to step 1, and reamp this loop through your guitar amp.
5. Adjust your guitar amp's output levels and/or mic trims until the signal being received from your guitar
amp is also -10dBFS.

Your guitar amplifier is now properly gain-staged for reamping, and will generate consistent results from
session to session.

SOLO BOOST
Q: Is it possible to control the amount of gain with this switch? Let’s say off is gain on 5, and on is 10.
 69

A: Chose the Pure Booster as a stomp box and assign it to the foot switch.

A simple solution is to make a copy of a preset, add gain and volume to the second preset and then simply
switch between presets. Then, if you want to achieve the same with a stomp box, the obvious way is to
place a boost before the amp block. This however does not always allow adding much output volume.
I ended up adding lead boost before amp/cab block and pure boost after it, in the X slot. My foot controller
can switch both blocks on/off at the same time, so this works fine.

I have the Pure booster locked in the X slot, that way any patch I decide needs a volume boost I have it right
there, and available via IA on my MIDI pedal.
You can also put the volume pedal after the amp for a clean boost.
You could also use the Expression 2 jack on the back of the KPA for that kind of master volume or solo
boost. Then you have the box X slot free for other things.

VOLUME LEVELLING AMONG PROFILES

[CK] The rig volume (bottom row) is made for adjusting relative volume differences between rigs for your
performance. In general it should be placed on or around the middle position (unity volume).
If you do that, you should rarely see a red output LED.

We have put weeks of work into the Profiler for creating a constant volume situation.
One aspect of this is that the volume is automatically finetuned during the profiling process.
But this cannot be done 100% perfectly, because a perceived volume is not necessarily equal to a measured
energy.
One result was, that profiles with a large low frequency response gets softer and must be manually adjust-
ed.
We changed that behavior significantly in version 1.08. Now the bass response gets less weight in the level-
ing process. (This does not influence the sound of a profile, only its pure volume).
As some of you stated, the sound (here the frequency spectrum) of your guitar will also have an impact on
the perceived volume. A Strat single coil will deliver totally different results than a humbucker on a 7 string.
This cannot be anticipated or calculated.
Last but not least:
The output volume of your guitar. The levels of the guitars in our company differ by more than 20 dB.
That's more than a lot.
Clean sound fully depend on the volume of your guitar (unless you use a compressor) while high gain
sounds are mostly constant due to the compression aspect of the distortion.
This is why it' mandatory to tell the Profiler about the volume of your guitar by adjusting the Clean Sense
parameter in the Input menu. Please read the respective chapter in the Base Manual.

If you set the Clean Sense parameter correctly for your guitar, so that clean an distorted sounds have the
same energy for your ear, you have the perfect setting for your guitar:

 Only minor volume differences between different rigs

 No red LED on input or output.

I hope that will answer the request for an automatic leveling: it is there! Done by the machine during the
profiling process, and later modified by you with the target guitar, your ear and a simple tweak of a knob.
 70

LOCK VOLUME PEDAL!

I found out that always when I tweak the settings of a rig after a while the level was significantly lower than
that of the original rig. I searched all the possible gain stages (don't forget the volume setting at the end of
the cabinet menu) and still the original rig was always louder. Louder and cleaner. Now it turned out the
culprit was the volume pedal. I use a volume pedal in EXP2 set as global volume pedal after the effects. But
in the rig menu there is a tic where you can choose Lock volume pedal (which I did not). So in the original
rig this value was set to After stomps. Now with the volume pedal locked both volumes are equal.

OPTIMIZING TONE DIALING

Connect the KPA monitor out to a poweramp/guitar cab and dial in your tone on that setup (make sure
monitor cab is switched off!). Then go back to KPA > audio interface and load that same profile. Only tweak
the preamp EQ if needed and see what it sounds like now.

PLAYING ACOUSTIC GUITARS INTO THE KPA

For playing acoustic guitar with the KPA, I suggest you to try the "jazz clean sm57" rig, without the cab. Ad-
just the EQ, chorus, delay or reverb.
We can even bypass the amp and the cab, just keep eq and effects and the volume. It works too...
That's what I do with my nylon string acoustic - and it works wonderfully. Very natural.
Also, if you use a steel string acoustic with the Fishman profile, fool around a bit with the amp compressor
parameter. For me it yielded good results for some mixes where I needed a sort of more dense acoustic
sound.

DOUBLE AMP RIGS

The KPA cannot create double amp sounds (only one amp at a time can be used). But we can get a huge
'double tracked like sound' by using the Stereo Widener effect (you'll find this effect in the 'Yellow' EQ
group). Put it into the X slot (it is a stereo slot) and check it out: it works quite well, and is 100% mono-
compatible.

USING THE KPA AS A STANDALONE SPEAKER SIMULATOR (LIKE TWO NOTES TORPEDO) FOR TRADITIONAL
SETUP
Just use your guitar amp and speaker setup as usual. Then connect the effect loop send of your Amp with
the return input of the KPA. On the KPA, disable the Amplifier and EQ Section, as well as any overdrive or
distortion stomps. Then go to any of the stomp slots and select "Loop mono". Now the preamp of your amp
is routed before the "Cabinet" section of the KPA. Select any of that great KPA cabs you like. It sounds awe-
some and will give you a really great and consistent P.A. Signal.
Minus power amp though.

USB AUDIO ?
[CK] USB audio is not planned, as this would require the KPA to be the sole audio interface for your DAW.
Remember: you can only use one audio interface on your DAW without hassle.
And we assume that you all own a more appropriate audio interface. That is why we recommend to use
S/PDIF in combination with an audio interface.
 71

CHANGING AMP OR CAB ONLY

Q: If I want to change the amp OR the cab (FX too?) I need to go through a process to store the amp, store
the cab (store the FX too?) myself before they can be easily picked out and dropped into a new rig. Is this
the case? I do believe that Christopher responded that they are working on the ability to browse for all of
these options, I just want to make sure I understand the process for now.
A: This is one way of doing it and according to Christopher this will be made easier in a few ways. But there
is another way to do it already that not many people seem to consider and that is browsing speakers/cabs
using the lock function:

1. Select the Rig with the amp you want to use.

2. Use the Lock function to lock everything in that rig you want to use. That could be everything but
the speaker/cab.
3. Then change to another rig. As you have locked the amp (and maybe all the stomps and fx) all that
will be loaded from the new rig is the Cab. This way you can easily browse all the cabs in all your
rigs available in the KPA. No need to spend time storing a lot of stuff unless you really want to "cat-
alogue" your cabs.

I use the lock function often and think it's a killer feature.

Q: If I change the cab on a Profile and then want to go back to the original cab, do I have to reload the orig-
inal Profile/Rig to get back to the original cab?
A: If the original cab is saved by itself you can just select it.

BROWSING THROUGH RIGS

The function for an up/down pedal is there, but at the moment (FW 1.1.0) can be assigned only to a non-
latch stereo FS connected to the KPA, Boss FS-6 being just an example.

MORE FREEDOM IN CHOOSING/COMBINING STOMPS

The MOD slot is actually open to all the stomp effects, just like the X-slot.

CHOOSING A STOMP FOR A SLOT

Many seem to have a hard time remembering that you can scroll through FX only with the left dial (Type),
while the right one (Browse) lets you scroll through FX Presets only.
 72

RECORDING

Recording equipment and sound is only as good as what it’s played on.
You can have the best equipment, but will sound terrible in a uncontrolled room, likewise you can have
cheap stuff sound great in a decent treated room!

Firstly I'd recommend S/PDIF hookup as it’s the cleanest way.

Realistically, the source sound needs to be diamond as possible, depending then on the structure of your
track and how populated it is. Here are a few tips...

 Roll off the low end to about 100 Hz to make way for the kick and bass.
 Pan the guitars into space, use central for lead playing (but there are no rules).
 Double track (OR what I like to do, is track the guitar left, and add the reverb to the right) to get a
wider sound (depending on song of course).
 Trying using a filter sweep and search for any clashing freq (using notch pass at say 30 dB gain).

Ballpark here but...

 Anything from 0 Hz – 80 Hz is sub bass, can’t be heard but felt, so good for bass and kick.
 Anything from 150 Hz – 250 Hz will give the guitar some body (best on acoustic).
 Anything from the 300 Hz - 400 Hz is muddy mids, can cut here by small amounts to bring out de-
tail.
 Anything around 800Hz can make the guitar sound cheap: small cuts here can go a long way (de-
pending on style and gain structure).
 Anything around 1.5 kHz – 2 kHz is first natural harmonic and then again at 3 kHz – 5 kHz anything
beyond that is trouble and fizz.

Quite often, a recorded guitar track that sounds superb in a mix can sound terrible on its own. Try to listen
in context and don’t worry about how it sounds alone. But I can’t stress enough, the source sound has to
have all the ingredients to begin with!

As a rule, always try to cut and not boost - and only cut by small amounts. But only cut if its needed!

All that said, try and get a good source sound first that you’re happy with!
Really is up to your ears.

I would like to stress two things:

1. Always record an additional dry DI track using the direct out of the KPA. Even if you are not using it
now you then have the possibility to do reamping in the future. From my experience as a record-
ing/mixing engineer I can say that the psychological effect of the fact, that you do not have to care
about your sound while recording, is tremendous. It helps the artist to relax and really focus on the
performance, not the sound.
2. Try to get some experience with mixing. It will help guitar players to understand that a guitar tone
that sounds great while playing alone may often not work in a mix.
 73

MIDI

CC
In the KPA you cannot assign the MIDI CCs. This is the current assignment map:

CC #1 Wah (pedal)
CC #7 Volume (pedal)
CC #16 Stomp Invert (inverts Stomps A-D, X, MOD)
CC #17 Stomp A
CC #18 Stomp B
CC #19 Stomp C
CC #20 Stomp D
CC #23 Stomp X
CC #24 Stomp Mod
CC #26 Delay
CC #27 DelayMix
CC #28 Reverb
CC #29 ReverbMix
CC #30 Tab
CC #31 Tuner select and mute
CC #33 Rotary Speaker speed (slow/fast)

It is good to remember that if you use CC #26 to turn off delay you will also turn off the delay trails.
If you use CC #27 and send value 0 you will hear only the dry signal of the notes you play after that but you
will hear the delay trails from the previous notes. The same goes for the reverb.

Q: How should you assign multiple program change messages to the same rig? The menu allows you to set
only one.
A: You could select slot #1, press assign, select slot #3 press assign again and the rig is assigned to program
change 1 and 3. erasing the rig will leave 1 and 3 unassigned, changing a rig will "update" 1 and 3 (since it is
just a link to the current rig). On the Browse page the MIDI number only shows the first assignment in this
case ("1").

CONNECTING A MIDI FOOTSWITCH TO KPA

If you want to connect a MIDI footswitch to your KPA in order to change rig or effects do the following:

1. connect the MIDI output of your footswitch to the MIDI input on the rear of your green lunchbox;
2. go to browser mode;
3. choose a patch of your liking;
4. touch the System button. You will find 6 pages;
5. go to page four;
6. assign your rig, i.e. tell your KPA to save a connection to the pedal. Usually you would begin for in-
stance to assign your favorite rhythm sound to number one on the board, but you can do as you
like. The KPA can handle Program Change # 1-128.
 74

USING MIDI DEVICES THAT DON’T REFLECT THE KPA’S STATUS

You can quite easily set each preset to reflect the state of the KPA.

1. Make sure you have the MIDI CC number on the device set to match the stomps and the fx on the
KPA;
2. Select the preset on the device;
3. Look at the KPA and see what fx and stomp buttons are active;
4. Step on the device’s switches that corresponds to the active effect so the LEDs light up;
5. Step on the device’s 2nd switch (top left); [TO BE EDITED]
6. Step on the Store switch (top right); [TO BE EDITED]
7. Done;
8. Repeat for each preset.

It can be sort of tedious but once it's done, you're set.

OUT MIDI MESSAGES

The KPA is sending no MIDI messages yet (FW 1.1.0). It does sync to external MIDI tho.

REMOTE CONTROL VIA NRPN

The KPA features more than 400 different MIDI parameters. Normally MIDI controllers can only handle up
to 128 parameters max. This is why we are supporting the extended, 14-bit MIDI controller format NRPN
(Non-Registered Parameter Numbers: a very flexible, vender-defined method of messaging data through
MIDI). NRPN supports 16383 parameters with 0-16383 resolution each.
All parameters in the KPA are MIDI accessible via NRPN. NRPN allows everything to be accessible so it’s a
better interface for programmers.
NRPN just uses normal MIDI CCs. The controllers 98, 99, 100, 101 plus 6 and 38 are used for it. If your board
can send more than 4 controllers at the same time, you can control the parameters.

Examples:

Delay Mix: #9475

Reverb Mix: #9603
Modulation Rate (Slots 1-4, X, MOD): #6420, #6548, #6676, #6804, #7188, #7444

As regards hardware (foot controller), MIDI Solutions makes an event translator box that can map regular
CC events to NRPN. This device is the size of a pack of cigarettes and uses a software package to map up to
32 events... so that's 32 parameters of your choice accessible in real-time from your favorite MIDI floor
controller "translated" to the KPA by this device. It is powered by MIDI so if the KPA supplies MIDI power,
you can Velcro this inside the rear cavity and proceed to fully integrate the KPA into your live rig.

Basically, any MIDI controller able to send PC and CC commands will work with the Event Processor Plus
device to control the KPA. The only limitation will be in the MIDI Solutions Event Processor Plus which can
only map 36 events so that's 36 parameters that can be mapped to a foot controller. The normal MIDI Pro-
gram Change (PC) data sent to the KPA to change rigs doesn't require event mapping so the 36 events
would be CC #'s from the Soft Step mapped to 36 stomp, amp, effects, and other parameters. So all we
need is the NRPN mapping and we're set.
 75

A full documentation for of these parameters can be found here. Choose Documents from the drop-down
Category menu and you’ll find Profiler MIDI Parameter Guide (System Exclusive (SysEx) documentation).
For a third-part facility see here.

PROGRAM CHANGE MISMATCHES

The KPA Program Change #s go from 1 to 128. If you use a MIDI controller set to a fixed 0-127 range, your
only option is to use another bank (e.g. starting from PC#10) and set your KPA MIDI assignments appropri-
ate.

MOVING A RIG INTO ANOTHER UNIT

The MIDI assignment is not part of the rig file. A rig that is copied to a different KPA is just unassigned until
you assign it on that second KPA.

EDITING A PATCH AFTER MIDI ASSIGNMENT

When you assign the preset MIDI number, you cannot use anymore the Save as option, because this dupli-
cates the rig (including MIDI assignment). You need to use the Replace or the Rename options.
 76

PROFILES

Here’s a collection of clean rigs. Courtesy of [zappledan].

 77

ASSORTED STUFF

KPA’S FRONT SIZES

The upper half is 14½” x 3½”. The bottom half 14½” x 4.8”. The front as a whole is 14½” x 8.3”.
This is for magnetic skins produced by [CrossHairSB]. You can supply pictures of about 600 dots. Pictures
with a different aspect ratio will be deformed accordingly. You can have two different (detachable) images
for the two halves, or a unique image covering the whole front.
Also see this thread on Kemper forum.

KPA’S BACK COMPARTMENT’S SIZE

Opening dimensions = 12 1/4"(w) × 3 3/8"(h).
Inside dimensions = 14 3/8"(w) × 4 7/8"(h) × 2 7/8"(d).
 78

BASS

[CK] The instrument input is capable of taking an active bass. Please take care to adjust Clean Sense in the
input section to your level.
We have even generalized a bass paradigm: most of our Chorus effects feature a Crossover parameter that
remains the important bass fundamental unprocessed and stable. This is known from a famous bass cho-
rus, but we found it also helps other instruments.

BASS RIGS (both stock and user-created) [TO BE EDITED]

Ampeg B15
Ampeg SVt450
CLA
Eden Traveller
Eden WDTI
Gallien & Krueger 800RB
Genz Benz
MarkBass
Markbass Rocker 500
SVX Pop Bass (Amplitube 3 Free using the SVX bundle (Virtual Ampeg Bass Amps)
TC
Waves CLA Bass plugin (profile name: CLA Bass Start Me Up)
 79

SPECIAL PROFILES

AXE-FX II PROFILES
Link

Armin’s Axe-Fx charged-for profiles:

(000) 59 Bassguy.kipr
(001) 65 Bassguy.kipr
(002) Brownface.kipr
(003) Deluxe Verb.kipr
(004) Double Verb.kipr
(005) A-Class 15.kipr
(006) Top Boost.kipr
(007) Plexi Normal.kipr
(008) Plexi Treble.kipr
(009) 1987x Treble.kipr
(010) Brit 800.kipr
(011) Hipower Brilliant.kipr
(012) USA Clean.kipr
(013) USA Lead.kipr
(014) Recto Orange.kipr
(015) Recto Red.kipr
(016) Euro Blue.kipr
(017) Euro Red.kipr
(018) Shiver Clean.kipr
(019) Shiver Lead.kipr
(020) Euro Uber.kipr
(021) SOLO100 Crunch.kipr
(022) SOLO100 Lead.kipr
(023) Freidman BE.kipr
(024) Freidman HBE.kipr
(025) PVH 6160.kipr
(026) Mr. Z 38.kipr
(027) CAE 3+SE Rhythm.kipr
(028) CAE 3+SE Lead.kipr
(029) Energy Ball.kipr
(030) Wrecker 1.kipr
(031) Corncob.kipr
(032) Cameron High.kipr
(033) Fry D60 More.kipr
(034) FAS Lead 1.kipr
(035) FAS Lead 2.kipr
(036) FAS Modern.kipr
(037) Das Metal.kipr
(038) ODS-100 Lead.kipr
(039) Brown.kipr
(040) Buttery.kipr
 80

(041) Boutique.kipr

You can know more about Armin’s profile moving to the Charged-For chapter.

Axe-Fx II tweaked "Bruno" Profiles

KEMPER MELLOTRON FLUTES

Link

ACOUSTIC SIMULATIONS
Link

Link

STUDIO PREAMPS
Link

BANJO EFFECT
Link

FENDER RHODES ELECTRIC PIANO

Link

JAZZ CHORUS 77
Link

ROLAND VG-99
Dobro & Acoustic

GR-300 Synth

Django Maccaferri-Style, D-Hole Jazz Guitar

Acoustic-Banjo

LINE 6
POD HD 2.02 Plexi amps (Nrm, Brt)

Vetta II
 81

ROCKMAN X100
Link

SOFTWARE
Amplitube and Sgear
 82

CHARGED-FOR PROFILES

Some users sell − or distribute as donationware – their profiles.

[Armin]
The site: SoundSide

[And44]
The site: The Amp Factory

And44’s profiles hold the following conventions:

WL= Whitelight
DM = DarkMatter
Tim = Timmy
TS = Tubescreamer
BP = BrownPig
BB= BB Preamp
AC=AC Preamp

[Okstrat]
The site: Pete's KPA Profiles

This is donationware.
 83

THIRD-PART

PROFILES
Just follow the links ;-) The third-part profiles linked in this section are of course not supposed to be availa-
ble on the Rig Exchange page.

Free profiles
Silent Underground Studio
And44ClassicRig Pack
The Amp Factory free profiles
[okstar]’s profiles (donationware)

Charged-for profiles
Follow the link to the wikpa chapter.

Cabs
An amazing collection of cabs from the user Till (AKA Till’s Cabs).
This is the related thread.

SOFTWARE

iPad
TBStuff released TB MIDI Stuff, a full-featured modular MIDI & OSC control surface for iPad.
It allows to design your own pages with sliders, knobs, faders, drum pads, XY pads, ribbons or jog wheels
with the built-in editor (no computer needed), or you can use the three built-in controllers: a keyboard with
arpeggiator and some other cool features, a pads controllers with configurable pads banks or a 16 channels
mixer. The user can assign unlimited count of MIDI messages and/or OSC messages per control. TB MIDI
Stuff implements bi directional SysEx messages, with message requests mode, so you can do complex synth
editors.
With TB MIDI Stuff you are able to control KPA’s rig volume, gain, a, b, c, d, x, mod, delay, reverb with your
iPad. Here you can find the utilities for controlling the KPA’s NRPN calls via iPad.
Also see this discussion on the Kemper forum.

Tag Editor
[waraba] With the Help of Laurent (GuyTarero) and Phil (fernandes) we will provide a simple tool to edit
your tags on brand new profiles created with the KPA. The aim of this tool is to replace the painful process
the profilers used to do while turning knobs to edit 20 tags for a single profile.
In order to keep things easy, the user interface will just allow loading an existing profile, edit it, save it.
You'll be able to load , edit most tags , save and import any rig on your KPA. The editor won't truncate tags
for now, but your KPA sure will , during import. Keep it under 20 characters for most tags, that will be fine.
You can rename files and rig name.
We will then add some functionalities : copy/paste all tags from another rig , this way you'll just have to fill
the tag on a main profile then tag all other derivative rigs with just a few clicks.
 84

Follow the original thread here.

SKINS
The user CrossHairSB creates magnetic skins for customizing KPA’s look. Also see this thread on the Kemper
forum and this section of this document for further details.

ACCESSORIES
Everything about bags! Also, look for video cameras or photo bags, there are a lot big enough once you re-
move the internal compartments.
 85

WASTING TIME

DOES YOUR KPA MAKE YOU LATE FOR MEETINGS ?

Many times I'm so busy enjoying playing my KPA that I'm late for meetings or things I have to do.
I know I have to leave my place NOW, but I just can't turn off the KPA and leave, I play an extra few minutes
and am usually late.
Sometimes I'm thinking should I turn it on and play a bit before I leave, knowing what will happen, or
should I just leave it OFF.
WARNING: The KPA is addictive.

THIS FULLY GROWN MALE INDIVIDUAL™ LOVES HIS KPA

Because he doesn't need to constantly tweak and pedals sound great with it. I plug in and use the same
three or four presets every day and never get tired of it.

THE KPA’S BOOT TIME IS TOO FAST NOW!!

Yea I said it! It’s TOO FAST! [FW 1.1.0] Before I had time to go get my guitar, fix strap over my shoulder,
plug in and think about what to play. BUT NOW! I have to start playing right away and I don't know what to
play so I play poorly!

A: I agree. I used to be able to go make a cup of coffee while the KPA booted up, now I can't.
Please, CK, increase the boot time.

Q: Did you contact support?

THE WAYS THEY’VE CALLED IT

Little satanic toaster Tube ham radio gear
Cosmic toaster Cosmic Pink Toaster
Space toaster Black Star (for the black version)
Green toaster Lil green radio
Lunchbox Doom toaster
Radio-looking device Toaster
“She” Satanic toaster
Old radio Bloody magical device
Retro radio Lilly box
Mad scientist’s Lunch box medical diagnostics
 86

AGREEMENT & EDITING INFORMATION

Welcome here 

By downloading, opening and reading this document, you agree you’re aware of the following:

The contents of this document (graphics included) have been acquired from the Net.
The source for most of the material is the Kemper site.

The opinions, hints and techniques suggested here belong to the people who posted them and don’t
necessarily reflect my own opinions or Kemper’s suggestions.
You’ll often read “I”, “me”, “my” and similar expressions on this document. The pronouns and adjectives
are always referred to the person who has posted the pasted statement(s), whom incidentally may hap-
pen to be me as well.
In case you’re the author of a sentence or a technique reported in this document, and you don’t find your
name referenced and believe this is outrageous, feel free to contact me (see here) to have your forum
nick added to the quotation.

I’ve made my best to report the information as correctly as possible. I can’t exclude to have made mis-
takes though. Furthermore, I can give no guaranty that what’s been reported in this document gives the
promised results, or that is correct or accurate, or free from risks.
Therefore, by using fully or in part this document’s contents you do it at your own risk.

This is a work in progress.

Current version is 2012 09 25.

Produced on one’s own by

Gianfranco Di Mare
in Castelnuovo di Porto, Italy