As a consumer, finding out that I paid $800 for a device that was basically nerfed out of the box would be a hard pass for any future purchases with a manufacturer . Borderline unethical in my view. At least Neural DSP delivered-ish on the promise of the Quad Cortex. Either way Line 6 and Fractal remain the top choices for me. I'm a hardcore Helix user and cannot see a reason to change. They sound great. Super flexible and the workflow just makes sense.
I almost bought a kemper player a couple of weeks ago, so glad it was out of stock at the time. $300 is extortionate so glad it was out of stock, this pricing strategy has most certainly cost kemper a new customer.
I run a helix and a Kemper in parallel .. the Kemper amp tones are far superior. The helix effects are far superior. So I combined the two for best of both
StompXL user here. No skin in the Neural/Kemper game. The thought that an upgraded software subscription was needed to "unlock" hardware that I'd already purchased would get me fuming. I just really hope this model (pun intended) doesn't catch on. If it does, this bass player is going back to a trusty SansAmp.
No guys. Listen. The nano cortex isn’t supposed to be a slimmed down QC. It’s an amp in a box like the Friedman IRD/X or the Universal audio lion/dream/ruby etc and it happens to also have an IR loader, some basic effects and captures amp profiles. YOU bring more robust effects and a drive pedal to the party. For what it DOES do, it’s worth the price, especially considering the vast library of pro quality captures and that it can seamlessly toggle between 4 at a time. Will it get updates to expand its capabilities, I’m sure it will. But I’ve owned every digital unit on the market other than the ToneX (it’s on my list) and I think once you properly frame your view on what the nano is and what it isn’t, it makes sense for a lot of players who already have their boutique drive pedals and favorite delay or chorus pedals. This nano is a perfect pedalboard companion.
>>The nano cortex isn’t supposed to be a slimmed down QC. --- Then they should've named it something else. Anyone would assume that the Nano CORTEX is a nano version of the other CORTEX. They certainly knew this when they decided to name their new product like this.
@@Tigermaster1986 I agree. The marketing for this product was atrocious and the hype "movies" they made didn't help. If they'd have just come out and said that it's basically an amp in a box that can load any existing capture, create new captures and has some basic effects to get you by if you don't need anything fancy and 4 presets, I think it would have been better received. I forced myself to watch whatever that marketing video was and they were hyping it up like it was the second coming of Christ so no wonder people had much higher expectations. I think the name doesn't really matter but properly defining what it was/wasn't at launch, I think led users to do their own speculation and hype-building.
Neural Nano definitely does have stereo outputs! I'm also pretty sure that this product is mostly intended for people who want to capture their amps very quickly and easily and have them sound great with almost no effort. I can't think of a single competing product that does that for $550, to be fair. I think that Dimehead pedal is $100 more and more aimed at a wider audience but I'm not sure you can order one and have it delivered in the next 2-3 days as it is now(?)
For the cost of the updates with the Kemper Profiler, you are better off just buying the Fractal FM3 as it will blow it away featurewise and Fractal NEVER charges for updates, and puts them out more frequently than Line6 (I was a previous Helix user). Kemper is pretty much done with now that they are not the only game in town for high end modeling and amp capturing.
I have given up buying flagship new gear. You get shafted by lies that never realize. Better to wait and buy a finished unit from someone who treats their customers well. Someone who gives updates and UPGRADES, making sure the customer buys into the eco system. All devices sound good, I don't need Kemper or Neural to get a good sound.
Here is how I use my Nano Cortex. I captured all my amps and preamps that I enjoy using and connect a Rocktron all access midi footswitch so I can access any 15 of my amps or preamps per bank, with or without IRs, on the fly, at my feet with basic effects which sound great by the way. Best thing I've bought in a long time and something I enjoy using as much as anything on my pedalboard. Also, can take it wherever whenever because its more portable than say a bunch of amps or rack gear. Also... I can download captures of other peoples amps and preamps and pedals for free if I want to add to my arsenal. Im totally happy with it! Plus, you are mistaken, it does have stereo out. It has left and right out and it has a stereo headphone jack as well. How else would it project the stereo effects like ping pong delay that is built in. You should get familiar with the gear you are talking about before you make a video about it. Just sayin..
kemper was known to be a very serious and cutting edge company who would support their products for long time, and now it has lost A TON of credibility pulling this move, which by the way will have potentially a bad influence in the whole market (creating features that are already there but locking them behind extra paywalls, which is quite an anti-consumer move). I hope the consumers will signal their contrariety to this practice by not buying it.
Kemper is doing the same thing as daw software. You have to pay for the upgrades. Nobody complains about that! I don’t see the big deal! It’s their software, they can do what they want with it! They have to make money to stay in business! That’s just how it works!
No that's not how business works, that's how you lose costumers. Bitwig was about to lose many costumers, by adding Add-on's to Bitwig, and wanted people to buy them, but people spoke out, they apologised, and stopping the add-on thing. It's a hardware unit, and they released upgrades which were already inside the hardware unit, they were not informed, it's the same business plan as Waves, Reason, etc. I can tell you MOST people doesn't use Waves plugins anymore. Not everyone is dumb enough to lose money to level 2- 3- 4 -5 -6 upgrades. This is just a beginning. This is the company that left Access Virus Ti, while owners had issues getting it to work on the newer computers.
People will get REALLY disappointed when they realize that Nanocortex updates (for added effects and such) come with a price. I would bet that's also the case.
I don’t see that happening. The industry is learning a valuable lesson at Kemper’s expense right now. Neural have already accumulated enough ill will with QC owners by taking an eternity to deliver some of the features they promised at launch.
@@FastRedPonyCar What lesson Kemper learned? To provide a upgrade path (for a price) won't hurt Kemper. The frustration from those who think that "if the hardware can handle, I want it for free" will pass. Things will sell as they always do. The price for upgrades might change and adapt, but the era of free stuff won't last much longer. It's just not sustainable.
You haven't covered the most obvious : the code is there. That means there can be piracy, and at this point is it illegal ? I mean i'm just messing with the code of something I bought.
Kemper released a free update for the PLAYER and a paid Upgrade at the same time. Don't get confused by the nonsense you've read on social media. If you want to upgrade to all the features that the Kemper Stage has you can pay for the UPGRADE....which will continue to get free UPDATES.
So if you don't pay for the upgrade, have you then paid too much for the Player because you paid for processing power that isn't needed? Not that compute power is that expensive, but I'd be curious about your answer. Would a non-nerfed Player for $100 less, that can't be upgraded, be more fair? One thing that irks me most is that companies are not up-front about all these things. There is no publicly shared development path. Users are basically fully depended on these companies but they have no clue if and what a company will do to support the hardware in the future. I feel that is where Kemper failed massively here. If they had said: here's a product, but before you buy, consider that there will be free updates and paid upgrades in the future, there would've been no backlash.
@@CoverBandConfidential I tend to agree. Something like: "here's a memory chip you can buy to expand the number of available slots in your Kemper" would be an upgrade. What they are selling is a software update.
@@rutger4131 Are you kidding, you're asking about Kemper being upfront about future updates to their products when they've spent the last 12 years giving us users enormous free updates and support. When the Player released ten months ago Christophe Kemper posted on the Kemper forum that they would more than likely offer two paid upgrades to the stock unit...and everyone replied bring it on take my money. Now ten months later we have guitarists having nervous breakdowns on social media about these paid upgrades...and of course every Fractal, Line 6, ToneX and Neural user jumping in on the hate wagon.
@@CoverBandConfidential Who decides whether it's an upgrade or update, TH-cam "influencers" click baiting us viewers for subscribers? 🙂👍 So only a new piece of hardware with a more powerful or less powerful computer chip, a slightly different shape, slightly bigger or smaller is now considered an upgrade? Then changing pickups in our guitars or speakers in our amps is also not an upgrade, it's just an update.
As a consumer, finding out that I paid $800 for a device that was basically nerfed out of the box would be a hard pass for any future purchases with a manufacturer . Borderline unethical in my view. At least Neural DSP delivered-ish on the promise of the Quad Cortex. Either way Line 6 and Fractal remain the top choices for me. I'm a hardcore Helix user and cannot see a reason to change. They sound great. Super flexible and the workflow just makes sense.
I think you are correct, it is unethical
I almost bought a kemper player a couple of weeks ago, so glad it was out of stock at the time. $300 is extortionate so glad it was out of stock, this pricing strategy has most certainly cost kemper a new customer.
If you think that sucks I buy $200k cnc machines then have to pay $30k for someone to type in codes to turn on options.
I run a helix and a Kemper in parallel .. the Kemper amp tones are far superior. The helix effects are far superior. So I combined the two for best of both
StompXL user here. No skin in the Neural/Kemper game. The thought that an upgraded software subscription was needed to "unlock" hardware that I'd already purchased would get me fuming. I just really hope this model (pun intended) doesn't catch on. If it does, this bass player is going back to a trusty SansAmp.
Can relate.
I agree
No guys. Listen. The nano cortex isn’t supposed to be a slimmed down QC. It’s an amp in a box like the Friedman IRD/X or the Universal audio lion/dream/ruby etc and it happens to also have an IR loader, some basic effects and captures amp profiles. YOU bring more robust effects and a drive pedal to the party. For what it DOES do, it’s worth the price, especially considering the vast library of pro quality captures and that it can seamlessly toggle between 4 at a time.
Will it get updates to expand its capabilities, I’m sure it will. But I’ve owned every digital unit on the market other than the ToneX (it’s on my list) and I think once you properly frame your view on what the nano is and what it isn’t, it makes sense for a lot of players who already have their boutique drive pedals and favorite delay or chorus pedals. This nano is a perfect pedalboard companion.
>>The nano cortex isn’t supposed to be a slimmed down QC.
---
Then they should've named it something else. Anyone would assume that the Nano CORTEX is a nano version of the other CORTEX. They certainly knew this when they decided to name their new product like this.
@@Tigermaster1986 I agree. The marketing for this product was atrocious and the hype "movies" they made didn't help. If they'd have just come out and said that it's basically an amp in a box that can load any existing capture, create new captures and has some basic effects to get you by if you don't need anything fancy and 4 presets, I think it would have been better received.
I forced myself to watch whatever that marketing video was and they were hyping it up like it was the second coming of Christ so no wonder people had much higher expectations. I think the name doesn't really matter but properly defining what it was/wasn't at launch, I think led users to do their own speculation and hype-building.
Neural Nano definitely does have stereo outputs! I'm also pretty sure that this product is mostly intended for people who want to capture their amps very quickly and easily and have them sound great with almost no effort. I can't think of a single competing product that does that for $550, to be fair. I think that Dimehead pedal is $100 more and more aimed at a wider audience but I'm not sure you can order one and have it delivered in the next 2-3 days as it is now(?)
Are you hurry?
@@Theliraan No, I'm Steve
For the cost of the updates with the Kemper Profiler, you are better off just buying the Fractal FM3 as it will blow it away featurewise and Fractal NEVER charges for updates, and puts them out more frequently than Line6 (I was a previous Helix user). Kemper is pretty much done with now that they are not the only game in town for high end modeling and amp capturing.
I have given up buying flagship new gear. You get shafted by lies that never realize. Better to wait and buy a finished unit from someone who treats their customers well. Someone who gives updates and UPGRADES, making sure the customer buys into the eco system. All devices sound good, I don't need Kemper or Neural to get a good sound.
Here is how I use my Nano Cortex. I captured all my amps and preamps that I enjoy using and connect a Rocktron all access midi footswitch so I can access any 15 of my amps or preamps per bank, with or without IRs, on the fly, at my feet with basic effects which sound great by the way. Best thing I've bought in a long time and something I enjoy using as much as anything on my pedalboard. Also, can take it wherever whenever because its more portable than say a bunch of amps or rack gear. Also... I can download captures of other peoples amps and preamps and pedals for free if I want to add to my arsenal. Im totally happy with it! Plus, you are mistaken, it does have stereo out. It has left and right out and it has a stereo headphone jack as well. How else would it project the stereo effects like ping pong delay that is built in. You should get familiar with the gear you are talking about before you make a video about it. Just sayin..
Thanks for sharing!
Currently Line 6 products are the best choice. Don’t know in the near future they gonna change it or not
kemper was known to be a very serious and cutting edge company who would support their products for long time, and now it has lost A TON of credibility pulling this move, which by the way will have potentially a bad influence in the whole market (creating features that are already there but locking them behind extra paywalls, which is quite an anti-consumer move). I hope the consumers will signal their contrariety to this practice by not buying it.
nobody bought the kpp for what it would do in the future
Kemper is doing the same thing as daw software. You have to pay for the upgrades. Nobody complains about that! I don’t see the big deal! It’s their software, they can do what they want with it! They have to make money to stay in business! That’s just how it works!
Apple doesn't do that.
No that's not how business works, that's how you lose costumers. Bitwig was about to lose many costumers, by adding Add-on's to Bitwig, and wanted people to buy them, but people spoke out, they apologised, and stopping the add-on thing. It's a hardware unit, and they released upgrades which were already inside the hardware unit, they were not informed, it's the same business plan as Waves, Reason, etc. I can tell you MOST people doesn't use Waves plugins anymore. Not everyone is dumb enough to lose money to level 2- 3- 4 -5 -6 upgrades. This is just a beginning. This is the company that left Access Virus Ti, while owners had issues getting it to work on the newer computers.
People will get REALLY disappointed when they realize that Nanocortex updates (for added effects and such) come with a price. I would bet that's also the case.
I don’t see that happening. The industry is learning a valuable lesson at Kemper’s expense right now. Neural have already accumulated enough ill will with QC owners by taking an eternity to deliver some of the features they promised at launch.
@@FastRedPonyCar What lesson Kemper learned? To provide a upgrade path (for a price) won't hurt Kemper. The frustration from those who think that "if the hardware can handle, I want it for free" will pass. Things will sell as they always do. The price for upgrades might change and adapt, but the era of free stuff won't last much longer. It's just not sustainable.
You haven't covered the most obvious : the code is there. That means there can be piracy, and at this point is it illegal ? I mean i'm just messing with the code of something I bought.
I think it’s got stereo out….
Kemper released a free update for the PLAYER and a paid Upgrade at the same time.
Don't get confused by the nonsense you've read on social media.
If you want to upgrade to all the features that the Kemper Stage has you can pay for the UPGRADE....which will continue to get free UPDATES.
So if you don't pay for the upgrade, have you then paid too much for the Player because you paid for processing power that isn't needed? Not that compute power is that expensive, but I'd be curious about your answer. Would a non-nerfed Player for $100 less, that can't be upgraded, be more fair?
One thing that irks me most is that companies are not up-front about all these things. There is no publicly shared development path. Users are basically fully depended on these companies but they have no clue if and what a company will do to support the hardware in the future. I feel that is where Kemper failed massively here. If they had said: here's a product, but before you buy, consider that there will be free updates and paid upgrades in the future, there would've been no backlash.
If the unit had the functionality all along, that’s not an upgrade.
@@CoverBandConfidential I tend to agree. Something like: "here's a memory chip you can buy to expand the number of available slots in your Kemper" would be an upgrade. What they are selling is a software update.
@@rutger4131
Are you kidding, you're asking about Kemper being upfront about future updates to their products when they've spent the last 12 years giving us users enormous free updates and support.
When the Player released ten months ago Christophe Kemper posted on the Kemper forum that they would more than likely offer two paid upgrades to the stock unit...and everyone replied bring it on take my money.
Now ten months later we have guitarists having nervous breakdowns on social media about these paid upgrades...and of course every Fractal, Line 6, ToneX and Neural user jumping in on the hate wagon.
@@CoverBandConfidential
Who decides whether it's an upgrade or update, TH-cam "influencers" click baiting us viewers for subscribers? 🙂👍
So only a new piece of hardware with a more powerful or less powerful computer chip, a slightly different shape, slightly bigger or smaller is now considered an upgrade?
Then changing pickups in our guitars or speakers in our amps is also not an upgrade, it's just an update.