Hi Guys
I had some PM conversation with @JerEvil recently where he asked for help setting up reamping in mixcontrol.
I know this has been a source of frustration for many users, so I ended up writing a novel, where I tried to explain in detail and in a what I hoped was a fairly understandable language.
I want everyone to be able to read it, and plan to put it in my signature for easy answering of questions, so I'll include it here. What I hope you guys will do is to read it and tell me what is unclear (referring to specific points, please!). It's not perfect at the moment, so this is a starting point for refinement.
The pictures that go along with the explanation:
[Blocked Image: https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1567/23926192539_ba3bfeb6ae_b.jpg]Skærmbillede 2016-01-10 kl. 15.53.58 by Michael Reisenhus, on Flickr
[Blocked Image: https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1480/23998438980_f54e2c3528_b.jpg]Skærmbillede 2016-01-10 kl. 15.50.02 by Michael Reisenhus, on Flickr
The explanation itself - Part 1:
I assume that you know how you get kemper to pick up the signal, and your question is only on the computer/DAW/interface side of things.
I use SPDIF, but the general process should be the same.
1) Let's assume that you record like me, which is to a stereo track, where the DI signal is on the left, and the "amp" signal is on the right.
2) In order to hear the amped signal only while playing back, you need to hear only the right side of that stereo track. But of course you want to be able to pan it in the mix. (here I am talking in general, before any reamping)
3) I achieve this by putting a gain plugin first in the chain. Inside this, there is the pan knob, which allows me to hear only the right side of the recorded track (the amped side) or the left side (the DI part of the track). Or any blend, but that's rarely interesting! So turning the pan knob INSIDE THE PLUGIN all the way to the right, I now have only the right side playing - that is: only the amped signal (unlike the picture, where it was setup for reamping, and thus turned to the other side - the principle is exactly the same).
4) that gain plugin pan/balance setting means that I have the "amp" signal playing in the right side only. That's not very helpful. So I engage the "mono" button, which then makes the signal after that internal pan pot MONO. This puts it right in the center. This means that I, during playback, can pan it from there to wherever I want - left, right, center, whatever.
...Actually, some useful information about (most) pan pots:
On a mono track, a pan pot works as a pan pot - panorama, moving the track across the stereo field from left to right etc etc.
On a stereo track, a pan pot works as a BALANCE CONTROL - i.e. left/right balance. how loud is the right side of the signal as opposed to the left side.
(technically, the pot does exactly the same whether it is a stereo track or mono track, it is simply a pot that progressively turns down the volume of the side you're turning it away from).
This means that inside the gain plugin, I use it to balance left to right such that there is 0% left side signal and 100% right side signal.
Monoing inside the plugin then adds the left side signal and the right side signal and puts it in the middle. Since there is no signal in the left side, the net result is you get 100% right side, but now in the middle. This effectively means that AFTER THAT GAIN PLUGIN with those settings, the track essentially behaves like it was a single mono recording.
5) for reamping you will need to send only the left DI signal back to the kemper. That means that instead of balancing it so that only the amp side is playing (by using the gain plugin), you balance it so that only the DI side is playing. Now you have a mono DI track. These are the settings that are shown in the picture I shared before.
6) So now, inside the daw, you can just play the DI track. Sounds horrible. We want to get it out of the DAW and into the kemper.
7) In order to maintain our gain staging, we keep the volume fader at zero. We also make sure that it is panned to the center - otherwise we are messing with the volume again. (yes, I said volume - remember, a pan control is essentially a combination of two mono FADERS, that can only take signal away from either one side or the other side). My screendump ERRONEOUSLY shows that the track was panned - this should NOT be the case!
So, we have a mono SIGNAL we want to get to the kemper. But it can't go there directly from the harddisk, it has to go through our interface somehow
9) We set the track's channel output to do this; I use audio channels 7+8 to do this. I've given these a more descriptive name inside my DAW, but in reality, they are two "unnamed" audio pathways. They are actually arbitrary. It's just channels my interface is capable of receiving audio data on, from my DAW. Generally, channels 1+2 are used for the regular playback signal. I've chosen to use 7+8 for spdif output.
10) My interface tells my daw: "you can expect to RECEIVE signal on these INPUT channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, ..., X. These are all INPUT channels, and I don't care what you call them when you talk to the user. And I myself call them whatever I darn well please"
11) My interface also tells my DAW: "you are allowed to SEND signal to me on these channels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ..., X. These are all OUTPUT channels, and I don't care what you call them when you talk to the user. And I myself call them whatever I darn well please"
12) The tricky part: the output channels in the DAW do NOT (necessarily) equate directly to corresponding physical outputs on the interface!! When the daw sends signal along, say, "output 3", it is essentially saying to the interface "here's some audio from MY "output 3" ". THE OUTPUT IS OUTPUT OF THE DAW - NOT OUTPUT ON THE INTERFACE!!!! Read that again.
13) points 10, 11 and 12 above have given me and many others much frustration and confusion!
14) So now the interface gets some audio from the DAW. WE MUST STILL TELL THE INTERFACE WHAT TO ACTUALLY DO WITH THAT AUDIO STREAM!!!
15) We want the interface to route that DAW output to one of the actual, physical outputs ON THE INTERFACE. In my case, the spdif output.
16) Look at point 9 again. The DAW sends audio along "some channels" called "7" and "8".
17) We want the interface to take the input from the DAW and funnel it to the Kemper via the PHYSICAL spdif output on the interface. This is done in the mixcontrol software, which is our "telephone line" to the interface - it's here we can tell it what to do with "stuff".