Issue with my new Remote, or a software glitch between it and Kemper 99% sure

  • I just got a remote and used it all week and it worked perfectly every time. I lead worship at a church. All week, and during soundcheck and a run through of the setlist tonight, everything worked perfectly, as it did all week, and nothing was moved as I left everything set up all week. As soon as I walked out on stage and the service began I had no sound. Nothing, no noise, no clicking popping, the exact thing you'd expect if the Kemper was stuck in tuner mode and muted. I initially thought it was a loose or broken cable.In the middle of the song, (while singing) I moved my volume pedal to access tuner and there was no signal going to my Kemper (as it didn't register the notes I played) After the service I went back on stage investigate and it worked perfectly as it did all week and prior to the service. I'm 99% sure the issue was with something in the Kemper, which scares me because I don't know if I can depend on it in the future, and we have two more services in the morning. Here's why I think that.


    Here's what it can't be: The sound man was getting no signal during the service when the issue occurred. I switched guitars between songs. I changed rigs in a performance. It wasn't an issue with the Kemper effect loop, as the loop was bypassed on all the rigs in that performance. (and that wouldn't cause the tuner to not register a signal anyway.) I pressed the tuner button a couple times to go into and out of tuner mode. Later I pulled the plug on the volume pedal. I bent down when during instrumental section of a song and checked the cables going from my guitar into my line6 m5 and from there to the Kemper input. I brought the volume pedal heal to toe numerous times (which is running as an expression pedal in to the kemper, which is set to control volume) The volume pedal seemed to be functioning well anyway, since it put the Kemper in tuner mode in heel position, and back to normal in toe position. (at least everything looked normal on the remote, except it not registering notes from my guitar in tuner mode) I couldn't see the Kemper itself since it's wired up off stage in a closet


    Thus everything that could be checked during the service (except the input of the Kemper since it sits in a closet off stage) was checked. Right after the service I walked up on stage and everything worked perfectly, I double checked that the cable going into the Kemper input wasn't was solidly in place, just in case it was barely making a connection. If one of my cables wasn't working good, it would be quite odd, since nothing was cutting in and out, popping cracking or anything, and there wasn't a lose jack or anything like that, before or after. It's really odd, since if there was some sort of software glitch going on, the Kemper didn't get powered down or anything. The Remote was functioning normally prior to, and after the service, and visually looked like everything was working fine during the service, aside from the tuner not registering my notes during service. No my guitar volumes weren't down.


    The irony is that I didn't even use my wireless system this weekend, opting to play it safe with a cable. It's really disconcerting, because it could have been quite disastrous, as we play to a click track and there was a new song we did this weekend in which I start with an 8 measure riff, thankfully the team covered well, but it could have been quite worse. To make matters worse, I usually sing lead on 3 or 4 or our five songs, and we transition every song to the next with me usually speaking during the song transitions. To make matters worse, I'm often playing the lead guitar parts and starting songs. As I play with a different combination of volunteer musicians each weekend (we have 3 drummers, 6 guitarists/bassists, 4 keyboardists, and 6 singers that each service a weekend or two a month) with about 40 songs that are used once every month or two, It's not like we can easily prep for a disaster the way a band that plays similar sets with the same musicians regularly.


    To summarize, I checked every cable and connection in my signal chain and nothing was not working. I couldn't even get to cut in and out. Besides, any issue it could have been would have been limited to the cables from my guitar to the Kempers input, as nothing later in my chain would affect the internal tuner not getting notes) Thus the issue couldn't have been the effects loop in the x slot, the main output on the Kemper, or anything else in the PA system signal chain. It was 100% perfect before, and 100% perfect after. And zero sound or noise of any sort during the service. I'm kind of annoyed because I just laid out a lot of money for the Remote, figuring it was the professional thing to upgrade, even though I had used my $150 Behringer FCB1010 with Uno4Kemper without the slightest glitch for the past year. (150 services, 100 soundcheck/setlist run throughs, 50 rehearsals, and countless personal practice sessions during the week)

  • From your description, I would suspect cable (guitar to m5), the m5 or cable (m5 to Kemper). Your description of the tuner engaging with the expression pedal sounds like the pedal, Kemper and remote were functioning properly. The remote does not have any input signal passing thru it so I don't see how the remote could be the source of the problem. By your description, you were not getting an input signal. This implies gear in front of the input jack (assuming levels are set properly which you described as being so). Troubleshooting issues which heal themselves can be very difficult to resolve unless they stay in this mode until the issue is found. Best of luck.

  • Alwainwright. I appreciate the help. However, I just can't see it being the cables, as I only had two, no patch cables prior to kemper input. Again, every thing was perfect before and perfect after. Nothing was loose or unplugged. I only use two cables. prior to input and the M5 which was powered and in bypass mode the entire time. I even pulled the cable out of the back of the m5 going to the Kemper and tapped on it (which I would have heard a sound with a fairly high gain profile and in-ears with my guitar mix up) That alone would have bypassed the one cable and the m5 and even a guitar issue as if both my guitars could have magically lost 100% signal at their output. I played with everything except the input jack on the Kemper (offstage and intact when I checked later) throughout the set and touched nothing until picking up my guitar after the service, putting the expression back down to toe position and instant sound was there and continued to be there as I once again jiggled everything around. I didn't have a pedal board full of ins and outs. two quality cables, and visible power and a bypassed m5. (the only thing I wish I tried in hind site was going into tuner mode on the m5 and seeing if I got a signal there.) believe me, I would LOVE it to be a cable and more than happy to throw it out. I have a budget to replace broken things like broken cables and wouldn't personally cost me a dime.


    I suspected that there was something glitchy with the Kemper getting the muted by the volume pedall (used as an expression into jack 5 on remote-no signal passing through it) As if somehow once the Kemper got muted it forgot to unmute even though it visually left the tuner in toe down position. The only thing that changed with my set up was using the remote and an expression pedal to it (a very good one with a Dunlop Xl ) If there was a cable issue, I couldn't recreate it after.


    For the time being, I am going to unplug the expression pedal and turn off that exp pedal input set up for it, at least for this weekend, not doing any swells with this set list. If I need to mute I can just press the tuner. And just for the sake of it, I'm throwing out the 1 cable.

  • im not sure but i think i got a similar Problem,
    from time to time , when i don't use the pedal which is in Pedal input 6
    and setup up for Volume Control, and then will use it again
    it simply didn't work, i did not switch off the KPA or change anything
    it seems it simply forget what it should do when it is not used
    maybe when your pedal was down it stays with volume off
    and after a while the pedal is simply not seen by the KPA anymore
    thats why you got no sound
    i aleas hace to go to the setup page change randomly some settings , then move the pedal
    then its there again
    will check today when the pedal is in off position and the pedal is "lost" by the kpa
    if the vol stays at zero when moving the pedal

  • @Grooguit & @digbob - I'll let my setup 'idle' some today to see if I can duplicate. I usually let mine 'idle' with expression pedal at toe, I'll try heel position.





    Edit: After sitting for 2 hours in heel position, everything functioned as normal when going to toe position. Sorry, can't duplicate with my setup. Best of luck finding the source of your issue. Please let us know if/when you find the source.

  • If I'm not the only one with this issue, hopefully it's something that gets addressed in 4.0. I didn't really have a chance to play with things today. I just went ahead and unplugged the expression pedal and turned off the setting for it. I don't really need a volume pedal, as I use autoswell effect in my m5 when I need that. (kinda hard to sing, play, and lead a worship service doing the volume pedal dance anyway) I mostly hooked up the expression pedal with the impending morph feature coming soon, having just got the remote this week to experiment. In any case their was no issue today. But that isn't encouraging, as I didn't have an issue all week, before or after last night's service, so I can't really say taking the expression pedal "solved" my issue. That's the problem with intermittent issues, you never know when they'll turn up or how to diagnosis the cause. I'm going to have another guitar and basic signal path set up for the future. We sometimes have a third guitarist that stands behind me. So I'm just going to put a speaker cab sim direct box with a line 6 m13 the church owns and leave it set up and grab it if I ever have another issue. The weekends where someone is using that input, I'll generally spread out the lead and song starting duties to the team anyway, so we can manage if it ever happens again.