kemper "crackling" issue --

  • So I've had my Kemper - nonpowered rack for 22 days. It has sounded really nice and exactly what I was hoping for. Yesterday, my FCB1010 arrived, along with the uno4kemper chip. I did the install, hooked it up, and all was working well, except that there was a weird crackling sound through the input. I switched out everything from guitar to cable to room to outlets, to rig. nothing helped. The crackling goes away when my volume knob on the guitar is all the way down. It is still there when a cord is plugged in even without a guitar - it comes through all of the various outputs and exists despite which input I use. I've searched the forum for answers and haven't found any, but did notice that others have had crackling. I've been playing for 30 years and would've definitely noticed this immediately. I plugged the same cable and guitar into my standard 3rd power amp into the same wall outlet and there is no crackling. Thus, it definitely has something to do with the Kemper. I did a few things at the end of my prior session playing with the kemper that might have caused it or may just be coincidental in time:


    - plugged in a new FCB1010


    - did a rig back up to the flash drive


    - deleted all non-favorite rigs from the kemper


    I did the flash init/reset that I read about on these boards. That did not solve the problem. turning the noisegate up to about 7 stops the crackling when I'm not playing, but you can still hear it when I am playing. Plus, I've never needed a noisegate and would hate ot "have" to use one as a workaround as my tones are mostly clean and crunch stuff, but nothing high gain.


    I have started a work ticket with Kemper support, but was hoping that maybe someone on here knows of the issue or seen it resolved. Kemper support has already asked me to do a few things and they have been very responsive, but I would like all the help and insight I can get.


    I keep thinking that either the FCB1010 somehow shorted/messed up the input (though I'm not sure how that would happen given it gets plugged into the midi connections), or one of these actions noted above caused some sort of software glitch that is causing the problem. Or, I suppose, I might have a faulty input jack, but that seems unlikely since the same crackling occurs with the alternate input on the back.


    Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'm still within the window for the next 6 days to return to Guitar Center without issue. If I do that, I'd like it to be because I'm reasonably assured there was a hardware issue and I'd rather have a new unit without the issue than already be fixing this unit. But if it is a simply software glitch, then that'd be great to know so I can avoid all of the return repurchase hassle....

  • Do you perhaps have only socks on (no shoes) and touch the controller with your foot?
    (no joke, I get sort of noise/interference when I step with my socks on the Liquid Foot switches :)

  • I had a software bug at one point due to a corrupt profile I downloaded, it caused popping when I changed presets. I had to delete all my profiles and do a fresh firmware update to get rid of it. If that doesn't work I'd take it back and get a new one. Good luck!

  • Kemper support has also suggested that I do a system reset. I plan to do that when I get home from work. In everyone's general experience, is it normal that software glitches would simply happen like this? I've only updated to the newest firmware, added in a dozen TAF profiles and hooked up the FCB1010 one time. Otherwise, I have not added anything to the Kemper. I'm not sure what would cause a software glitch. I've read that the Kemper platform is pretty stable.

  • I've had just the one in 7 months and I download a lot of profiles so I'd say it's pretty stable. I'm also pretty sure my problem came from the flash drive that came with my pre-owned unit.

  • So I got home from work yesterday, tried the ground lift buttons. That did nothing to fix the crackling. I performed the system reset and it SOLVED the problem. Yeah! l ran through 100+ profiles with no issue at all. I hooked up my FCB1010 and it works great - no issues there. I booted it all up again this morning and everything is working perfect still. So this is all very good news.


    I'm a bit worried, though, because I haven't been able to figure out what caused the problem? If a system reset fixed the problem, it must've been a software issue. I'm hoping there's nothing more I need to worry about, but my window for a return and replacement unit without cost to me is only a matter of days. Maybe it was caused by mass deleting 602 non-favorite rigs all at once? Who knows... I just don't want it to happen again.


    By the way, I've seen lots of threads about slow boot up time. I'm not bothered by the boot up time at all. 35 seconds for 642 rigs. When I deleted all of 34 rigs, the boot up time was only a couple of seconds faster. If I delete rigs going forward, I plan to do it just one at a time and hope that will help to avoid further glitches.

  • So I got home from work yesterday, tried the ground lift buttons. That did nothing to fix the crackling. I performed the system reset and it SOLVED the problem. Yeah! l ran through 100+ profiles with no issue at all. I hooked up my FCB1010 and it works great - no issues there. I booted it all up again this morning and everything is working perfect still. So this is all very good news.


    I'm a bit worried, though, because I haven't been able to figure out what caused the problem? If a system reset fixed the problem, it must've been a software issue. I'm hoping there's nothing more I need to worry about, but my window for a return and replacement unit without cost to me is only a matter of days. Maybe it was caused by mass deleting 602 non-favorite rigs all at once? Who knows... I just don't want it to happen again.


    By the way, I've seen lots of threads about slow boot up time. I'm not bothered by the boot up time at all. 35 seconds for 642 rigs. When I deleted all of 34 rigs, the boot up time was only a couple of seconds faster. If I delete rigs going forward, I plan to do it just one at a time and hope that will help to avoid further glitches.


    Glad you got it sorted :thumbup: