Clean sens affects high gain tones

  • When I set clean sens at zero I am getting a little bit of red coming on the input light, when I set clean sens way down I don’t get any red, when I set it way up it’s red all the time…
    This is using high gain tones and I don’t understand why the clean sens is affecting distorted tones…
    No, my pick up is not too close to the strings and everything else seems normal - my only question, why does the clean sens affect distorted tone?
    When I change distortion sens, the tone gets more distorted but the red light does not come on at all any different, it has no effect on my high gain profiles… Just the clean sens…

  • clean sense isnt an input attenuator. It shouldnt have any effect on high gain tones. It affects how loud the volume is gain is lower, and can cause clipping when you have it set even at neutral when using high output humbuckers. Distortion sense can be thought of as an offset to the gain setting, so you either get globally more or less gain on all profiles

  • OK, I understand what you’re saying, but why does the clean sens affect the input red light and tone on all my distorted profiles, rigs?
    I was always under the impression that clean sens does not change anything in a distorted profile?
    I was also under the impression that you can change it per rig… I know when I change it on any given rig I can save it so I can have my sens completely different on every single rig… If I want to…

  • I dont know how the light works but there shouldnt be any difference in tone once gain is past ab 5 or 6. Record two clips, mix them up or have someone else rename them, and try to figure which had clean sense too high and you were getting the red light. It should just be telling you that once you lower gain, you will get digital clipping because the output is too high.


    Not sure why the kemper works like this or if its really important as a feature. I think its there so you can switch guitars that have different power pickups and theyll be the same volume. But the feature typically causes more confusion than help

  • Yes, it (clean sens) definitely affects my distorted input levels, all of them… The distortion sens only affects the amount of gain, but it does not turn any lights red even when it’s full…
    But the clean sens (in all distorted Rigs), when turned hi - the red light comes on and then when turned right down the red light never comes on and it’s always green… Weird…
    By the way, thank you for that foobazaar website… I have learned more from that then you could imagine! Great job brother!

  • But the clean sens (in all distorted Rigs), when turned hi - the red light comes on and then when turned right down the red light never comes on and it’s always green… Weird…

    Clean Sense controls the level hitting the AD converter. The led is indicating where this level is at; before any processing takes place. Whether the rig is clean or distorted is irrelevant.

  • Ok Trazan,
    I don’t understand it all but I think you have made it clear that clean sense Affects any rig… So it must be set so that the red lights aren’t on or just very briefly sometimes

  • Ok Trazan,
    I don’t understand it all but I think you have made it clear that clean sense Affects any rig… So it must be set so that the red lights aren’t on or just very briefly sometimes

    Ideally, you want your light to be hitting orange every now and then, but it should never hit red, IIRC.


    But yes, one of the Kemper mysteries, and something that was talked about a lot on this forum, is the fact that if your input LED is clipping (at least in terms of the light), reducing clean sense stops that for all rigs.

  • AHHHHH, so the red light should never ever come on? I thought it was OK every once in a while… But I think you make sense, no pun intended, that lowering the clean sens until red never comes on is best idea… I will try it tonight,

  • Clean Sense controls the level hitting the AD converter. The led is indicating where this level is at; before any processing takes place. Whether the rig is clean or distorted is irrelevant.

    i think this is completely wrong. Its not controlling an analog attenuator. Again if someone wants to make an a/b clip with a gain setting of 5 or above and see if this tonal difference isnt completely an invention of mental bias, ill eat my shoe

  • I don’t understand… Maybe I wasn’t clear… or maybe we are talking about two different things…
    When I am playing through any given rig with gain set between five and seven, it makes a drastic difference where I have the clean sens set, if it is said hi, the tone goes to crap and the red light is on all the time… If it is set to low, The tone changes to a weaker tone with lots of treble And of course, then there is no red light, just green…
    I can make a video in seconds to show you… send me your email via personal message and I’ll gladly do it tonight… I think this is what you mean?

  • i think this is completely wrong. Its not controlling an analog attenuator. Again if someone wants to make an a/b clip with a gain setting of 5 or above and see if this tonal difference isnt completely an invention of mental bias, ill eat my shoe


    I'm not sure I understand. Clean Sense doesn't affect gain and it makes no tonal difference, unless you go into the red zone and into soft clipping. I don't have the schematics, but it would be strange if that input led isn't indicating the level hitting the converters...

  • I think the confusion with clean sense is only what Kemper Amps has created. One of the first things I read (which I'm not sure is still there) is that the input LED should never clip.


    Later, on the forums, IIRC, Mr CK himself has said use your ears. Don't worry about the LED.


    Adding to the confusion is threads like this, where users have pointed out that clean sense affects the LED even when on a distorted profile.


    As far as an impact on the tone, I am not sure.


    But Mr CK also said, "Use your ears, not your eyes."


    To be frank with you, I find this quite ridiculous. Why have the LED at all if we are to use our ears. What's more, many of us don't trust our ears, we rely on level inidicators and LEDs to tell us if something is clipping.


    Seriously, this whole thing is a hopeless mess. I would suggest not overanalysing and just focus on whether your tone is what you want it to be. At this, the Kemper excels, input LED notwithstanding.

  • I dont care about clean sense. Setted it to 0.
    No problems at all and i play a lot of rigs and many diffrent guitars. I take care that my pick up highst is absolutly ok and that the output led is not clipping. If it clips i reduce the outputparameter of a rig in the rig. Thats all.

  • I also recommend not to care too much about the clipping input led (except it is permanent red during playing).
    More important is the output-led - though even this isn't a big deal when it sometimes turns to orange or even red.

  • I don’t understand… Maybe I wasn’t clear… or maybe we are talking about two different things…
    When I am playing through any given rig with gain set between five and seven, it makes a drastic difference where I have the clean sens set, if it is said hi, the tone goes to crap and the red light is on all the time… If it is set to low, The tone changes to a weaker tone with lots of treble And of course, then there is no red light, just green…
    I can make a video in seconds to show you… send me your email via personal message and I’ll gladly do it tonight… I think this is what you mean?

    Very odd. I thought I had thoroughly tested this, as I was also very confused at first about what the setting actually did. Gonna throw my shoe on the grill.


    Maybe something changed. Anyway in general I turn it down a little bit so if I turn gain down and strum on the bridge humbucker I don’t clip. I don’t bother changing the setting if I use the strat style guitar though

  • Very odd. I thought I had thoroughly tested this, as I was also very confused at first about what the setting actually did. Gonna throw my shoe on the grill.
    Maybe something changed. Anyway in general I turn it down a little bit so if I turn gain down and strum on the bridge humbucker I don’t clip. I don’t bother changing the setting if I use the strat style guitar though

    Hi , I recommend to open a support ticket, send a soundfile and a backup. They will help you out I think.