Noise issue

  • I have the powered toaster since a couple of weeks and both a Marshall 1936 (2x12) cabinet and an active monitor (dB Flexsys).


    I am really impressed with the sound quality and versatility, but seem to have an issue with noise/buzz on certain rigs.


    There is an audible noise / hizz coming in the background of a tone but only when a note is actually played on my guitar. If I turn down the volume on my guitar it is dead silent. If I turn it up and play a note, the noise/hiss is in the background clearly audible.Some rigs are really bad, others not.


    The moment I switch off the "Amp" section on the Kemper, the noise is gone.I have tried to eliminate all types of sources for the issue (lights off, Pc disconnected, Tv off, different cables, noise gate, different volume settings,...) but nothing has changed.The level of noise is definetely linked to the type of guitar, some are more silent, others are really bad. a PRS513 is really bad for example (even in humbucker mode).


    "Bad" is for sure relative, the moment you crank the whole thing up the noise will be more hard to hear due to the overall volume level and it's not that the noise is way louder than the real tone, but once you hear it you don't stop hearing it and that annoys me.


    There is one thread in the private forum tips and tricks area on "cleaning up noise" with even some audio examples which is identical to my issue. Unfortunately this thread is not closed or the original question remains unsolved, this is why I reach out to this forum now.

  • I think it's just down to profiling a noisy amp with too much gain. The reason it's silent when you're not playing is likely to be because of the noise gate in the input section. Try an experiment : turn the noise gate knob anti-clockwise until the display says 0 and don't fret or dampen the strings. Plenty of noise and hum now?


    On the other hand, it could very well be due to 'bad power' caused by lighting etc. I played a gig some months back where I had to crank the noise gate to somewhere near max to get rid of horrendous buzz, which could be heard whilst playing, although masked by the guitar tones, of course. Sometimes we're just unlucky, us guitar players.

  • I am leaning towards the electric being the culprit as sambrox mentioned. In my house, I hardly ever play my Kemper because the ambient electric noise is so prevalent - mostly due to cheap dimmer switches throughout the house. There are SOME areas I can tuck away in but they aren't convenient.

  • IMHO: all true. In addition it could be your guitar, especially if it uses single coils and not humbuckers or if its got active electronics.


    In general the Kemper is the most silent amp I ever played.

    Ne travaillez jamais.

  • All,


    thanks for your valuable feedback.


    My guitar is a PRS513 which offers a variety of different humbuckers / single coil settings.


    If I play it through my "real" Marshall JVM410 head it is pretty quiet, but certain rigs in the profiler (where the gain is above 12 o'clock) are really noisy. Again, but only when a note is picked.


    I experimented and found out that if I roll down the tone poti on my guitar, the noise disappears. Sometimes turning to 7 is enough, some other rigs I have to roll it down almost all the way.


    some rigs are dead silent, even with gain, others are awful.


    Turning around with my guitar in the room on all axis influences the noise and in some weird positions even makes it almost silent, but I still cannot figure out the source.


    Any further ideas based on these last findings?

  • To the OP, this may be actually a silly question but, do you play near a pc?
    When I play near mine its horrendous, there's a heavy "chip frying" noise. Even more, when in single coil mode and put the guitar near the pc, I can even hear some noise that is made when moving around the mouse haha!

  • Yes, there is a PC nearby, but it is switched off (really off, not just hibernation mode). So this cannot be it.
    Furthermore, if it would be PC noise, I should be able to hear it when the volume on the guitar is turned on. However, with the volume poti on the guitar fully turned on, the Kemper is still quiet. Only if I pick the first note, the noise becomes audible as a kind of background "shadow" to the original noise. Once the note fades out, the noise goes as well. So it is not some kind of always audible noise but really only comes into play when a note is played and "spoils" the note.


    It for sure is somewhat linked to the "amp" section of the rig, if this one is deactivated the noise is instantly gone (but so is of course also the amp sound itself and leaves a pretty useless rig, so this is not an option but might help to pinpoint the source).


    ok, gotta watch the 2nd half of the Euro finals now :)

  • Adding one more item that I missed:


    The noise gate starts reducing / killing the noise from 7 upwards but that of course also influences the sound massively. If I combine the tone poti on the guitar with the noise gate I can effectively kill the noise but this has a massive negative influence on the sound color (more dull), so this is not a permanent fix.


    anybody having any idea of how to fix this efficiently and/or what is causing this buzz?

  • anybody having any idea of how to fix this efficiently and/or what is causing this buzz?


    I had some buzz when I connected the Kemper via USB with my Laptop. The Laptop itself is connected via USB with my mixing desk. So I assumed ground loop problem. But ground lift did not help. This was ONLY with the USB canle plugged.


    Now: last night I tuned one rig with the Kemper knobs (no USB cable). And I suddenly got his buzz! Annoying high frequency and as described before the noise gate cannot perfectly deal with it. So I fiddled with the plug from Kemper rear input to my Line 6 relay. And the buzz stopped. Then came back. Went away again. Like a kindof loose connection. The guitar sound never stopped, though. Its not really loose, but something seemed wrong... It is a cheapo patch cable. I will replace it tonight with somethinbg better.


    Anybody else had that experience?

    Ne travaillez jamais.

  • @ PaulReedSmith
    The noise you hear is electromagnetic interference. This can come from lots of sources around you (PCs, fluorescent lights, switching power supplies, motors, etc.) It is not coming into your Kemper through the power cable (as evidence by the fact that some orientations of your guitar produce almost no noise) Rather it is coming into your guitar pickups from a radiating source. Your pickups detect this noise and send it out your guitar cable to be amplified by the Kemper along with the good signal produced by your stings. The more the amplification (gain) the more you hear it. Especially at high gain levels when lots of compression is occurring. At high gain, your guitar signal and noise are both amplified by the same gain, but the guitar signal being stronger begins soft clipping (distorting) while the noise just gets louder. So it sounds relatively louder (compared to your music) than it does at lower gain. Single coils pickups are the most susceptible, but even guitars with humbuckers can pick this noise up especially if there is no shielding in the electronics cavities where the signal wires are just an unshielded pair. I have a PRS Core Mira and was disappointed to see no shielding in the cavities. I shielded it myself to make it more quiet. Why an expensive guitar like this is not shielded amazes me. Of course the ultimate solution is to get away from the source of the offending electromagnetic interference, but in my case I could not identify where it was coming from. I actually took my guitar and a portable amp, and walked all around my house trying to find where it was coming from and could not. So I live with it, but I can minimize it by ensuring that all my guitars and cables are well shielded, and this makes it more tolerable.

  • Hello People,

    I cannot find a solution for this anyware, so I post it here since it is more or less related.

    I have some noise after I play clean in any profile. I recorded at different gain leves, switched cables, used noise gate in the input and before the rig, changed the clean sense...I think a tried all. I also tried with 2 different guitar (Ibanez AS200 and Ibanez AZ Prestige, both are new).

    I also experience some distorted sound when using the volume pedal, when the sounds comes in.

  • In case anyone has the problem I solved it to around 90%. My problem was a fizz after playing clean - mainly on ac30 profile. Made worse by gain and boost and a telecaster.

    solved almost entirely by switching the eq pedal off that I had on the stomps. Which killed the tone. So I went into the eq pedal and found dropping the 5000hrtz down. To almost 12 o’clock. Way quieter now. Doesn’t quite have the nice snap it had but it better fit recording.


    the gate had no effect on the fizz while the note was playing.


    still annoying as I have bass profiles that are completely silent. I need to do some lore digging
    but For now This seems to 90/95% do the trick.

  • Hellu gals n´pals :)


    I said it before and I say it again: The noice gate is NOT a magic Dolby™ kind of

    filter that sort out unwanted sound. It is a GATE, that when not playing your

    instrument, is CLOSED, if threshold is set properly.

    When playing your instrument the gate is OPEN and all unwanted sound will

    pass through, together with the sound of your instrument.


    Cheers !

    The adjective for metal is metallic. But not so for iron ... which is ironic.

    Edited once, last by Hoki Toki ().

  • I had this problem with my Kemper tonight. A Very loud static noise that was Really annoying, that I've never had before. Turning up the noise gate fixed it, but then the delay and feed back would get killed. This is what brought me here, to see what others have done. Well after being super frustrated with the answers, I tried my Own fix which was (LOL) turning off the computer and restarting it. And whalah it's back to Norm! Just my two cents. Maybe this quick and easy fix will work for you? If you leave your PC on all the time like I do, this may be the answer. Good Luck! It seems to fix many, many other problems!