Living in an apartment where neighbors are constantly complaining. Playing at lower volumes while still maintaining sound integrity?

  • So just to be fair I sold my Peavey Classic 30 now, and I got a very small Yamaha THR5 for free from my brother. I'm thinking of connecting my (soon to be purchased) Kemper to this Yamaha amp and use it as a speaker for home practicing.. My question is if I can play at lower volumes and still keep the integrity of the tone? I'm just trying to figure out a way to get similar sound at home as when in gig.. Because on a normal tube-amp you would have greatly different tones from low volume to high, because of the tubes, overdrive etc etc.. I'm hoping that with a Kemper, I can get get similar tones at low volumes as I would when playing it loudly. What's your experience folks?

  • Hey keem85,


    yes, with the Kemper you can use fully tube saturated sounds @a decent bedroom level!

    But you should´nt forget that speakers may responde differently @different volume levels and every room sounds differently.

    So your sounds may need some tweaks to be adjusted to the acoustic enviroment.


    Have fun!


    St.Fuzz

  • Just buy a pair of good open headphones. That would be a lot better than playing through the THR5.


    The Kemper has a parameter called Space that you can assign to headphones only and it gives you some kind of amp in the room feeling.

  • Just buy a pair of good open headphones. That would be a lot better than playing through the THR5.


    The Kemper has a parameter called Space that you can assign to headphones only and it gives you some kind of amp in the room feeling.

    Thanks! But why would that be better than through the THR5? I feel that the spatial awareness is crucial to my own playing and self-esteem during play? At least that's why I have learnt up until now.

  • Hi keem85


    I received my KPA last week and spent some time with it this weekend (wife and kid take up most of my time ;)


    I only used headphones until now and I confirm that it sounds amazing! I checked out some Plexi and Tone King Imperial profiles and I just couldn't stop playing. I played a screaming maxed out Plexi next to my sleeping baby son.


    Being able to do that was the main reason for me getting the Kemper and I confirm that I don't regret getting it ;)


    cheers


    guizmo

  • Thanks! But why would that be better than through the THR5? I feel that the spatial awareness is crucial to my own playing and self-esteem during play? At least that's why I have learnt up until now.

    The Space parameter actually produces a little stereo effect (like being in a small room). This is less tiring to the ears than a pure mono signal. It's not so much an "amp in the room" but rather a "room" feeling ;)


    The "amp in the room" parameter would be "pure cabinet". You can find a Kemper video tutorial explaining this parameter.

  • I've never used anything from the THR line, but I think they have an AUX input that bypasses their own amp simulation, so you should be able to use it as a powered speaker for the Kemper. But a pair of good headphones is a good tip, the Kemper sounds great through them and they allow you to play 'loud' without disturbing the neighbours.


    Like stfuzz says, the sound integrity at low volumes is absolutely there. If a 100 tube amp has been profiled at an earth-shattering volume to get that hot tube sound, the Kemper will give you that same sound and feel at bedroom levels or in headphones. It behaves exactly the same way at any volume.


    The only problem is that your ears don't... :S At different volumes, we tend to hear a different balance between highs, mids and lows, even if the spectral content of the sound hitting our ears is exactly the same (an effect described by the infamous Fletcher–Munson curves).


    It's not a huge problem, you just have to make sure you don't go straight from unpacking and playing with your new Kemper at home to your first gig with it, as you may be surprised by the difference in perceived balance (a profile that sounds a little thin at home may turn out very boomy when you turn up the volume). Try to give it a test run at rehearsal/gig volume first and select your profiles/tweak the output EQ for that situation.


    The good news is it's pretty easy to do (you can save output EQ settings as presets for different situations) and it doesn't affect the feel or gain structure of the sound, so you can absolutely get that hot, overdriven sound at home.

  • Thanks! But why would that be better than through the THR5? I feel that the spatial awareness is crucial to my own playing and self-esteem during play? At least that's why I have learnt up until now.

    Well, I have a THR10 and I much prefer to play with headphones than to play through the Yamaha. Maybe it's personal preference but given that your neighbours complain a lot I think that you should try the headphone route.


    The Space parameter actually produces a little stereo effect (like being in a small room). This is less tiring to the ears than a pure mono signal. It's not so much an "amp in the room" but rather a "room" feeling ;)


    The "amp in the room" parameter would be "pure cabinet". You can find a Kemper video tutorial explaining this parameter.

    Yes, true. But for someone that still doesn't have a Kemper it's easier to just explain that way.


    Also the recommendation about open headphomes is to make the binaural effect more prominent as you can hear with both ears some of the bleeding from the other side and even some reverb from your room.



    This has worked very nice for me at least.

  • Thanks!! Do you guys know of a wireless headphone that have low latency for this matter? I have a wireless Relay G10 jack in my living room.. Would love to do the same with headphones for practicing also :)

  • Thanks!! Do you guys know of a wireless headphone that have low latency for this matter? I have a wireless Relay G10 jack in my living room.. Would love to do the same with headphones for practicing also :)

    I also have a wireless for my guitars at home. Just a simple one that works perfect.


    I have searched the wireless headphones and didn't find anything with low enough latency. If you do let me know.

  • Cool. I might try it.. But I would want to play after backing track on my TV aswell.. So I hope the Yamaha will suffice :) We'll see.... I'm struggling to find the KPA here in OSLO. None of the music stores have it.

  • I don't have a bag so can't say for sure, but I think that they don't fit into the same bag.


    As for using the KPA with backing tracks, I just take the headphone out from my mac and use a y splitter to use the aux input of the Kemper. Works like a charm and isn't too complicated to set up.

  • As for using the KPA with backing tracks, I just take the headphone out from my mac and use a y splitter to use the aux input of the Kemper. Works like a charm and isn't to complicated to set up.

    I do the same from my Focusrite Interface. Out from the interface into the aux input of the Kemper.


    My headphones are always connected to the Kemper and I even watch movies or youtube through the headphones connected to the Kemper. The headphones amp of the Kemper is great.

  • I do the same from my Focusrite Interface. Out from the interface into the aux input of the Kemper.

    I was going for the simplest solution possible, meaning no audio interface as I don't record right now. So you go from your Focusrite with 2 TRS jacks into the inputs of the Kemper? Is the sound any better with the interface? I'm not complaining or anything, just wondering ;)


    And yes, the headphone amp of the KPA is great. Most people seem to prefer it over the headphone amps of their audio interface (especially the cheaper ones).

  • I was going for the simplest solution possible, meaning no audio interface as I don't record right now. So you go from your Focusrite with 2 TRS jacks into the inputs of the Kemper? Is the sound any better with the interface? I'm not complaining or anything, just wondering ;)


    And yes, the headphone amp of the KPA is great. Most people seem to prefer it over the headphone amps of their audio interface (especially the cheaper ones).

    I wanted an interface to record some ideas. Nothing fancy. Just enough to share with my bandmates and keep the writing process going when we can't meet at the rehearsal room.


    And then Toast Me happened. So I went for an interface with MIDI connections and SPDIF. The cheapest one I could find was the Focusrite 6i6.


    In the end I am not using the SPDIF.

    No TRS jacks. Just regular jacks. Main outs (left right)to the back inputs in the focusrite. Two outs of the Focusrite into the aux inputs of the KPA.


    I have different results with different headphones in the Focusrite headphones output . Don't know a lot about it, but it's not completely impedance related.


    For example I have a pair of Sennheiser HD 598 (50 Ohm) that sound great both in the Kemper and in the Focusrite. I just select to have Space in the focusrite to have a similar sound.


    But I have also tried a pair of Beyerdynamic DT 880 in the 32 Ohm version and they sound OK through the Kemper but very bad through the Focusrite. I think this version of these headphones is not very good honestly.


    But what I mean is that yes, the KPA headphone out is A LOT better than the Focusrite one.