FX LOOP BUG? - NOISE

    Hi all,


    A while back I posted about tone suck in the FX loop. I stopped using the fx loop for my FX pedals in the loop for a bit then I tried again once the loop could be adjusted down to not overload my pedals.


    But I have been finding the loop is very noisy - like a white noise hiss when turned on. You only notice it on decent headphones or if you turn the monitors up nice and loud.


    Strangely the lower the FX loop output level the higher the white noise. Anyway I have been investigating further and think I may have found a bug.


    So try this. Turn your kemper up nice and loud on your monitors. Then turn on the fx loop (post) in the x slot. Background hum seems to get quiter but can you hear a hisssssssss? Try touching your strings. That could release the hiss sound. It is almost like there is a noise gate effect on the loop.


    So I looked at the mono loop parameters and started playing with them. Here is where it gets weird.


    If I turn 'ducking from <0> to -0 the hiss vanishes completely and the 'noise gate' effect is gone. The 'tone suck' from the loop also appears drastically reduced. But my fx in the loop don't sound as they should.


    Now I think there may be a bug with the ducking parameter because at <0> it shouldn't be doing anything to the sound should it?. What it appears to do is kill hum introduce hiss and also deaden the tone by introducing some sort of noise gate. But at one tiny notch back suddenly the blanket is lifted and things sound as they should. (with fx bypassed in the gate). Except if I turn my fx on I don't get the full fx level because the ducking parameter isn't neutral anymore.


    Can anyone shed light on this? It is 100% reproducible every time for me.

    Quote from nightlight

    If you turn off the loop, is there still noise? What setting is your noise gate at?


    Noise Gates are completely turned off.


    Setup is as follows: Patch cable directly from send to return. Loaded a pretty gain-y amp that has lots of noise when I have any noise gate off.


    - FX Pre-Stack
    1) FX off: typical hi-gain amp noise can be heard and behaves "naturally", no swelling or something
    2) Loop Distortion: Noise completely disappears. Noise appears when I touch strings or play. Especially when playing "palm mutes" there's some noise at the end post-ringing and then disappearing. Sounds like a bad setup noisegate.
    3) Loop Mono, Ducking 0.0: same behavior as described in 2.
    4) Loop Mono, Ducking -0.0: same behavior as described in 1.


    The noise heard in 2+3 is different from the gainy noise I get in 1. It's something in addition, like a static white noise and pretty disturbing. Gladly using option 4 solves my problem but it seems like a workaround. I want to use a TubeScreamer as Pre-FX with "Loop Distortion" but that won't work with the behavior described in 2.


    I didn't test this whole behavior with setting the Loop Post-Stack!


    Why not try engaging the noise gate in the dedicated section? I'm pretty sure you won't hear any noise at all.

    Quote from nightlight


    Why not try engaging the noise gate in the dedicated section? I'm pretty sure you won't hear any noise at all.

    The noisegates were disabled for testing the different scenarios and carving out that there are differences. In my productive workflow I have noisegates enabled - of course :)


    But: the white post-tone-noises described in scenario 2+3 can't be eliminated with a noisegate so that it sounds good and natural.

    Quote from Cronos81

    Thread is a bit old but I can confirm the noise. Anything new on this topic?

    I’m wondering this too. I’m having this exact issue using a Big Sky in the stereo loop. It’s just so noisy that it kind of defeats the purpose of having this crystalline tone/reverb. I’ve searched around to troubleshoot and the main answer I’ve been seeing everywhere is setting the ducking parameter to -0, but then fall victim to tone suck. Wondering if this is something that can be remedied in an update since so many others seem to deal with the same issue?

    I've been having the same exact issue. I've tried multiple ducking settings trying to find a sweetspot where the effects come through without choking delay repeats, or tone, while managing the hiss, and I'm still having a pretty gnarly hiss, this also seemed to start recently, but then again I've been using the KPA at fairly low volumes and this is my first time really turning it up.


    Anyone have new info on this?


    EDIT: Even on lower volumes I'm getting the hiss and whistle. Ugh.

    Same here.

    I ended up making all the test with a simple jack cable and the result is still really bad.

    I decided to stop using the Mono loop or distorsion loop for now. That's really a pity since I really enjoy the possibility to add and control external pedals through this ;(