Tone issue, through cab and interface

    Quote from Judkins401

    ANY sort of distortion is extremely synthetic and strange sounding, as they were in the demos I uploaded.

    It’s definitely strange as your demos sound terrible. However, I have also recently been noticing a strange distortion sound on all my profiles. Nothing like as bad or obvious as your but something different.

    Quote

    It seems every profile, stock, purchased, and the one I profiled myself has something added into the gain/distortion. A lot of them almost sound like theres a very subtle wah or instability to the tone itself, and a graininess that doesn't belong.

    It’s funny but that is exactly how I described it too. A sort of cocked wah sound and unstable warble. The KPA is normally so rock solid that my first responce is also to assume user error (particularly when the user is me). I then start to doubt my hearing and assume I must be imagining it (in most cases I am). But this one has me stumped. I think something has happened to the sound and there is a very unpleasant wah to the mids now. I can’t put mu finger on it exactaly and I might still be imagining it but last night I took the same MBritt 69 Marshall profile and PRS 513 the sound guy told me was the best live sound he had ever heard and was looking arround to check my wah wasn’t accidentally switched on. The definition control was set at 10 on the profile. I managed to improve it somewhat by taking it down to 5 but there was still a hint of the wah sound there. I tried several other profiles and made a quick profile of my Mesa Mark V:25 and in all cases it still thought I was hearing it. Turning down definition helped each time but it still didn’t sound the way I remember it previously. I’ve been noticing this since upgrading the the 5.7xxxx firmwares but I don't specifically recall the first time i noticed it.


    I still think it could be my imagination or confirmation bias based on the number of people who complain about the mids (even though they can’t identify the kemper in a blind test) but I am gradually starting to think there may be something more to it.

    Quote from Kempermaniac

    Did you check the global noise gate? Is the input section locked? If it's not all input parameters are loaded with the profile. This can screw things up.

    I have checked this with no luck. The weird tone is only there when strumming and playing. After a week of trial and error, it seems I have 2 separate problems going on.


    1. Kemper has a weird fuzzy, grainy, digital overtone with ANY distortion present whatsoever, and even on cleans/bass amps when i strum even slightly hard. It's almost like a "wherrr" static over tone that cannot be EQd out (but there isno clipping on input or output, outputs have been as low as -30db and, volume knob on several guitars has been turned down. tried 3 interfaces, mac and a pc, have done factory resets, have done forced firmware updates, etc etc and the problem persists. The audio I am getting out of the kemper is completely un-usable even in a mix which I know is not the standard or what you guys are getting out of yours!)


    2. I am losing signal quality through my USB interface. When I play the Kemper through the interface directly through the studio monitors, it sounds much, much better. That weird overtone is still there, but you can feel and hear the kemper tone trying to come through. When I switch from direct monitoring to my daw for recording, the signal I am getting is garbage. thin, harsh, dull. (I've tried 3 interfaces now, a pc, a macbook pro, and every audio setting known to man as far as sample rates etc.) What's interesting is I found through trial and error that this is not a new thing, and that even my mic'd amps have this issue, I just never noticed it before until hearing the comparison of going straight through the monitors, and it's night an day.


    The combination of these 2 things has me at a standstill. I can't even begin to think of what else could be causing it. I've even removed my graphics card and wifi card, bought a 100$ USB cable, tried different plugs and cables. I'm stumped!

    Have you tried it with good headphones straight out the KPA headphone socket yet? You need to isolate the variables as much as possuand trouble shoot systematically. The first thing to do is makes sure you are only hearing the effect of the KPA with nothing else in the signal chain. Test a pair of headphones with music sources you are familiar with to make sure they are working properly. Then use them straight into the KPA. That way if the sound isn’t right you know the problem is in the KPA. However,if that sounds OK then start moving down the signal chain one step at a time.

    Quote from mikeb

    This is what happens to my tone when my distortion sense is too high for my pickup / guitar. Try -7 on that control.

    This I haven’t tried! I haven’t even come across this on my searches. Now I’ve googled it and I think there’s hope. I can’t wait to get home from work tomorrow and try it!

    Quote from Wheresthedug

    Have you tried it with good headphones straight out the KPA headphone socket yet? You need to isolate the variables as much as possuand trouble shoot systematically. The first thing to do is makes sure you are only hearing the effect of the KPA with nothing else in the signal chain. Test a pair of headphones with music sources you are familiar with to make sure they are working properly. Then use them straight into the KPA. That way if the sound isn’t right you know the problem is in the KPA. However,if that sounds OK then start moving down the signal chain one step at a time.

    I sure did. That’s kind of how I realized I had 2 separate issues going on rather than just one. In fact I’ve started a spreadsheet of different combinations and settings I’ve tried because it’s getting overwhelming! Lol. My signal chain at this point is just kemper to interface to daw. Ive removed my rack and peripherals completely. I believe the kemper issue may be the distortion/clean sense as suggested by another user and I’m going to try that tomorrow!

    A TON of profiles are too hot for a simple Seymour Duncan JB.. I don't really get why but it's super easy to adjust distortion sense. Also adjust clean sense. Again I don't know why but it seems to effect the roll off/ trailing distortion even with distorted profiles.