Dialing in my KPA to the atomic CLR, tips or suggestions.

    Hi,
    I just got my CLR and am thrilled. Been stuck with headphones for quite a while and first thing I notice going into the CLR is my effects are much more present and I will have to dial them back. I also am hearing more highs (some kind of harsh) which I am working on dialing back on my performances. I'm having to eq everything differently now.


    Any tips on how to optimize my rigs with the CLR?
    What are you using to dial in your tones, I know there are so many ways to affect the eq including inside the amp or the cab.


    Either way I am very happy to finally have my CLR!


    Thanks


    RC

    I would like to know too.


    I can play loud at my house where I dial in my tones. But what sounds good at my reflective-surface home is opposite of a good sound at the tone-suck, carpeted wall bar I play at.


    Plus the wooden box stage is awful boomy, and you have to have the CLR (or any amp) up off of it or you get a bad rumble.


    I notice my CLR wedge sounds quite different sitting Backline vs Wedge. Like any speaker, placement makes a BIG difference. I like playing an iPod thru it and hearing it in different places in the room.

    Edited once, last by ur2funky ().

    I think the CLR give us for the first time at budget price the clarity of what has been profiled. No excuses now, no tricks.


    @Glowing: does this happens with rigs you've never eq'ed as well? If you eq'ed for your HPs you'll certainly have to redo things from scratch.
    Are you maybe playing at a higher volume now with the cab? This would explain the prominent highs you're hearing. Also, the environment matters a lot. Are there lots of reflective surfaces in the room? Could you try in a different place? Like a theatre, an old-fashioned living room or a library with carpets? :)


    @ ur2funcky; maybe it's obvious to you, but are you properly setting the DSP according to the cab's position? Also, remember that the surface it lays on and proximity with walls (specially corners) heavily EQs the sound.

    I'm interested in the following questions: How do you CLR-Users set your KPA-Output-EQ? Do you think there's something to cut or boost to match the CLR or do you leave the EQ flat?

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    I'm new to the CLR, so I don't have any eq setup yet, just flat in the Kemper. So far just messing with placement, orientation, and as viabcroce mentioned, the bass +/- on the back. At home the CLR is on an isolation pad.


    It's nice having the monitor eq and main eq with a different speaker in each, you can tone match them a bit.


    Had the CLR on for about 8 hours yesterday (full-range music at normal to on-stage listening levels) comparing it with my QSC 8 & 12, and I have a DXR10 coming later this week to try that tooo.


    One thing that surprised me unboxing the CLR, it's quite a bit better looking in person than I was expecting. So far, it easily wins best speaker biased on looks. ;)

    Quote from Kempermaniac

    I'm interested in the following questions: How do you CLR-Users set your KPA-Output-EQ? Do you think there's something to cut or boost to match the CLR or do you leave the EQ flat?


    I leave it flat. The CLR's are my reference.
    I think the most important thing for glowing tubes is: Fletcher-Munson.
    Dialing in your rigs loud makes you dial back treble (and bass, too). It's a natural thing.

    Quote from Kempermaniac

    Do you think there's something to cut or boost to match the CLR


    Ingolf is right. The CLRs are as transparent as they can be (70-18.000 +/- 2.5 dB). They can well be considered a reference.
    One great advantage when using them is that you exclude one term from the sonic equation: you have the player, the guitar, the rig, the real "amp" (power+cab/headphones) and the room, which linearly (and not linearly in some cases) sum to each other.


    In real life, given a player and their guitar, the equation usually goes down to profile, amp and room.
    Once sure about your room, if you do not like what you hear from the CLR at performance volume you know you have to tweak the profile, or choose a different one. With many "amps" you never know if the profile was meant as you're hearing it.


    :)

    I also had this problem when I got my CLR.


    I dial back the treble around 1.0, and the presence around 2.5 notches then work my way from there as needed.


    The good news is, once you hit the right EQ settings, you will hear the true power of the Kemper!

    Its interesting, profiles that sounded good with my Yamaha DXR speakers or headphones do not sound so good with the CLR. I know that's an eq issue as the CLR sounds really amazing but am finding that I need to go through and listen to all my profiles again and find the ones I like best with the CLR.

    You will have all new profiles now.


    I was using an EV ELX112P when I got my Kemper, and it was very muffled (but not to my knowledge).


    When I got the CLR, I thought the CLR was way too trebly but then realized it was just more accurate than the EV.


    I then had to take months trying to dial in tones with the CLR because I was so used to the EV it was quie a transition.


    But I couldn't be happier with the CLR in the end, now I know what I am hearing is so true of what the Kemper is putting out.


    It actually helps a lot for gigging purposes, I find that when I go direct I am hearing nearly exactly the same tone out of the PA and there is really no EQ necessary.


    That's the big reason why I bought the Kemper in the first place, so it has really made me enjoy it that much more.

    Quote from vablows

    It actually helps a lot for gigging purposes, I find that when I go direct I am hearing nearly exactly the same tone out of the PA and there is really no EQ necessary.

    Well, this is true only when the PA has got the same amplitude response of the CLR. Most PAs prove themselves to have by far less linearity and transparency than the Atomic.
    But is IMO good policy to leave FOH sound to the mix guy and enjoy your sound on stage. It would be so anyway, so no reasonto worry :D

    This will probably get me flamed but at low volume, bedroom levels I knock the monitor out mids back 2db and shave 1 db off the presence and all my profiles seemed to sound better.


    Still futzing with it but it sounds better to me.


    YMMV and all that jazz.

    Quote from nightlight

    Not sure about "budget price", but I've heard enough reviews to believe "no excuses, no tricks" :thumbup:

    :D
    Well, they outperform units costing 2-3 times more... it is a budget unit. If you want to buy a racing car and spend 25.000 € for one that performs it's a real bargain, isn't it? :thumbup:


    Quote from goodkungfu

    This will probably get me flamed but at low volume, bedroom levels I knock the monitor out mids back 2db and shave 1 db off the presence and all my profiles seemed to sound better.

    Personal preferences can't be blamed, and this is not exactly one of those "flaming" sites LOL
    Anyway, at low volume the mids become prominent to our ears, so what you find you're doing makes sense. Nothing to do with the cab in itself :)