Quacky wah-wah sound to many rigs...

  • Hi all, just got my Kemper "Lunchbox" the other day. Condition of unit was excellent; barely used, no scratches, original plastic, power cables, etc, everything but the box. The unit appears to be working 100%. I've had 2 "issues".


    1) Issue number one....after browsing and sampling many, many profiles...twice I experienced the Kemper to just stop making any sound...it stayed powered up, but all of sudden, in the middle of changing a rig, no volume would come out. I made sure my headphones & cable were fine. The first time it happened I thought it was a bad rig with no volume. But the second time I knew something was up. I turned the power off and back on and that fixed it.


    2) I find many of the amp profiles (stock and Amp Factory) have a "quacky", wah-wah like sound to them....is this just me? Has anybody else noticed that? Not all the rigs, just some.


    Thanks in advance from a very nube Kemper user.

  • I had the Kemper go silent on me the other day. I was also scrolling through lots of profiles when it happened. It's a brand new lunchbox non-powered version. I also got it back up by restarting it like you did.



    As to the wah sounds you are getting, could you tell us a little about your setup? What power amp and speaker cab are you using? Is it a stationary wah sound, like a cocked wah, or does it sound like someone is working a wah pedal up and down?

    PRS Singlecuts
    Kemper PowerHead/Remote



    Quote from skoczy

    When you turn the knob on KPA, you wake up the captured souls of tube amps living inside.

  • Thanks for the quick reply. I had a feeling the silent moments were something to do with buggy software. As for the wah thing, it's VERY slight; I will have to get back to you with more info on what rigs are giving me this sound.

  • 1) Issue number one....after browsing and sampling many, many profiles...twice I experienced the Kemper to just stop making any sound...it stayed powered up, but all of sudden, in the middle of changing a rig, no volume would come out. I made sure my headphones & cable were fine. The first time it happened I thought it was a bad rig with no volume. But the second time I knew something was up. I turned the power off and back on and that fixed it.


    About this I experienced sometimes this fault, expecially scrolling fast with "autoload" engaged. I wrote in the past to the support for this, and I saw that now it happens more rarely, but probably the problem is not yet completely solved.


    2) I find many of the amp profiles (stock and Amp Factory) have a "quacky", wah-wah like sound to them....is this just me? Has anybody else noticed that? Not all the rigs, just some.


    I believe that what you experienced is probably due to the multiple miking of the profile itself, I don't know if the KPA is capable also to catch phases interaction between more microfones, probably yes. For me, I really like some profiles of this type and I store them as good reference for starting particular sounds too. I'm not sure of this, it is just an hipothesis...

  • [quote='djkctech','index.php?page=Thread&postID=104079#post104079']1) Issue number one....after browsing and sampling many, many profiles...twice I experienced the Kemper to just stop making any sound...it stayed powered up, but all of sudden, in the middle of changing a rig, no volume would come out. I made sure my headphones & cable were fine. The first time it happened I thought it was a bad rig with no volume. But the second time I knew something was up. I turned the power off and back on and that fixed it.


    About this I experienced sometimes this fault, expecially scrolling fast with "autoload" engaged. I wrote in the past to the support for this, and I saw that now it happens more rarely, but probably the problem is not yet completely solved.quote]


    yep ive suffered this a couple of times to when scrolling fast through profiles ?(

  • With regards 2, that sounds lke your noise gate may be enabled, go to the input section, turn the noise gate all the way off, and then lock the I out section with the lock button.


    If you need a noise gate chances are that the 2:1 and 4:1 gate stomps will do the job much better without creating the quacks effect.


  • About this I experienced sometimes this fault, expecially scrolling fast with "autoload" engaged. I wrote in the past to the support for this, and I saw that now it happens more rarely, but probably the problem is not yet completely solved.


    I was also scrolling quickly through profiles using the "autoload" when mine went silent. I have been careful to not scroll this way, and the KPA has worked perfectly since. I think you might have found my problem!


    :thumbup:

    PRS Singlecuts
    Kemper PowerHead/Remote



    Quote from skoczy

    When you turn the knob on KPA, you wake up the captured souls of tube amps living inside.

  • Original poster, I read your problem on gear page as well... PLAY WITH THE DEFINITION KNOB IN THE AMP BLOCK... That wah sound may very well be definition too high or low for your guitars, trust me on this. Adding definition can often give the Kemper this high mid push that could explain what you are hearing, surprised no one has mentioned this yet.

  • Original poster, I read your problem on gear page as well... PLAY WITH THE DEFINITION KNOB IN THE AMP BLOCK... That wah sound may very well be definition too high or low for your guitars, trust me on this. Adding definition can often give the Kemper this high mid push that could explain what you are hearing, surprised no one has mentioned this yet.


    I have mentioned this several times in different threads and using slightly different words. But I am a 100 % with you. Although the definition parameter is a very nice option, it can easily be exaggerated and result in a tone that might first be tempting, but then - after a while - I come to realise that it has to be used very carefully (at least if your goal is to get a "natural" sounding guitar amp sound).


  • I have mentioned this several times in different threads and using slightly different words. But I am a 100 % with you. Although the definition parameter is a very nice option, it can easily be exaggerated and result in a tone that might first be tempting, but then - after a while - I come to realise that it has to be used very carefully (at least if your goal is to get a "natural" sounding guitar amp sound).


    I wholeheartedly concur.


    It's like using a wah wah - it sounds great, and it cuts through the mix, but after awhile you need to back off all those mids.

    PRS Singlecuts
    Kemper PowerHead/Remote



    Quote from skoczy

    When you turn the knob on KPA, you wake up the captured souls of tube amps living inside.

  • My real tube amp and preamps do this "quacky wah wah" sound, which i a few words is what my tone chase is all about. You will find that Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are fans of the aforementioned quacky tone (no, they don't use a wah all the time), which is produced by multiple gain stages and tone shaping circuits. It also takes careful adjustment of the amp and pedals so the rig will respond like this to picking dynamics.


    The Kemper is the ONLY device that I know of capable of reproducing this behavior, which IMHO places it at the top of the modeling/profiling food chain.


    So this isn't a defect, it's a feature - and a quite awesome one at that.


  • 2) I find many of the amp profiles (stock and Amp Factory) have a "quacky", wah-wah like sound to them....is this just me? Has anybody else noticed that? Not all the rigs, just some.


    Thanks in advance from a very nube Kemper user.


    I bet you are using high gain pickups.

  • My real tube amp and preamps do this "quacky wah wah" sound, which i a few words is what my tone chase is all about. You will find that Steve Vai and Joe Satriani are fans of the aforementioned quacky tone (no, they don't use a wah all the time), which is produced by multiple gain stages and tone shaping circuits. It also takes careful adjustment of the amp and pedals so the rig will respond like this to picking dynamics.


    The Kemper is the ONLY device that I know of capable of reproducing this behavior, which IMHO places it at the top of the modeling/profiling food chain.


    So this isn't a defect, it's a feature - and a quite awesome one at that.


    I agree, unless it's too much of a good thing. Then it starts to sound like a cocked wah, which can be fatiguing to hear, imo.

    PRS Singlecuts
    Kemper PowerHead/Remote



    Quote from skoczy

    When you turn the knob on KPA, you wake up the captured souls of tube amps living inside.