Volume, volume, everywhere...

  • My Kemper will be here in a day or two and I just wanted to get the groups opinion on volume - which always seems to be a struggle with modeling or in this case profiling. I've found the right volume in the right place in the chain or rig can make the difference in a mediocre tone and killer tone - so I wanted to see how you guys approach dialing in your Kemper.


    Specifically for this approach I'd like to focus on going direct to studio monitors (no mixer). What I usually do is set my monitors to +4dBu (assume the Kemper outputs pro levels) and set the monitors volume to about %75 percent. Then with my pod lets say, I set it's master voume to about 50% - and dial in the amps channel volume from there. Now I know that with a pod the best signal to noise ratio would be for it's master volume to be at 100% if I was going into a mixer, etc., but that's what works for me.


    How do you guys approach the same with your Kempers?


    Are the built in and rig manager tones you can access balanced pretty well with volume or are they all over the place?


    Do people who create rigs typically keep the eq and amp channel volume at half so you can tweak from there or?

  • The only place where volume affects tone in the KPA is in front of the amp section, where it impacts gain. Post-amp it is only an issue if you're clipping (which you obviously don't want). I find that the rigs on the Rig Exchange are all over the place regarding output level, and so I typically have to adjust one of the post-amp volumes for my purposes.

    Go for it now. The future is promised to no one. - Wayne Dyer

  • So assuming there is nothing in front of the amp:

    • What volume do you run monitors at?
    • What is your master volume typically set to?
    • Channel volume?
    • Are you adjusting master volume to taste or channel volume and trying to leave master alone?

    My problem is usually that out of the box everything sounds quiet or muffled - like you have to increase volume everywhere to get the sounds to "open up".

  • I typically adjust rig and cabinet volume to level things out. For practicing at home I'm going spdif out, playing live using main output and that level stays around -15. The main output really depends on the board at the venue, KPA is known to have a healthy output level.