Input level philosophy

    I need your advise, as I misunderstood the input level and preset concept so far as it seems. To make it clear: This thread is not about a misfunction of the KPA, I just want to understand how I use this concept best for my needs.


    I thought the input presets I can save for different guitars are made to adjust the different output levels of my guitars (e.g. Tele vs.PRS) to receive similar gain results no matter how hot the pick ups are. Therefore I created presets for all my guitars, even acoustics and the Uke and thought when changing the guitar live, I change the input preset from one tailormade for guitar A to another tailormade for guitar B.


    Now I understood, that this input level is more thought rigwise, to adjust levels and distortion behaviour that way.


    What does this mean for my live use philosophy? What are your experiences? Shall I lock the Input section and when I change the guitar unlock it, change the input section and lock it again? (Possible but not too easy in a live situation) or do I have to accept, that the different guitars behave differently and work on input presets rigwise?


    What do you recommend?


    Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

    When you lock Input, it stays locked between rig changes, and this kinda tells that it's an initial setup, and nothing that you would need to modify rig-wise.
    Clean Sense is simply your input level, no black magic here, just set it up for your different guitars/pickups and store Input presets accordingly, just as you said.
    Distorted Sense is, however, like an overall gain modifier, if you feel like that most of the rigs you play with your guitar (and of course correctly set up input levels) have too much gain, you lower it, or raise it if you feel like that most of the rigs don't have enough gain. Simple as this.
    Also, none of these parameters color the tone at all, think of the Distorted Sense parameter as an overall gain knob, adjusted to your taste.

    Use your ears, not your mathematical sense.

    Thanks for that info.


    And how do you and all the others handle this while gigging with several guitars? Do you lock the input preset or do you adjust and store it rigwise no matter which kind of output your guitar may have?

    Personally I see no use in compensating for lower output pickups by adjusting the input section.
    I want it like in real life: my strat won't drive a given amp as hard as a Les Paul for example.


    It's good to have an option like this to be able to make a given PU virtually hotter than before but it's nothing I use regularly.

    "Distorted Sense is, however, like an overall gain modifier, if you feel like that most of the rigs you play with your guitar (and of course correctly set up input levels) have too much gain, you lower it, or raise it if you feel like that most of the rigs don't have enough gain"


    From my experience - and I could be wrong - I don't believe Distorted Sense works quite like this. It's not a "gain-gain." It's more of a "how much faster and easier does the distortion distort in this amp."


    I have a crackly Electromagnetic field near my house. Probably from the absurdly connected power pole in my back yard. It sucks, but I've learned some ninja stuff about noise gating and interference.


    I've jacked Distorted Sense up about 2-3 db and it has actually NOT resulted in the usual "noise gain" that usually accompanies a similar increase in regular gain. It's allowed me to go much more higher in gain without increasing my noise floor, which has been a bit of a godsend.


    So I believe what this parameter does is tell the amp to trigger distortion earlier and with lower picking dynamics.


    Anyone verify this?


    It's what the documentation from Kemper leads me to believe as well.

    Quote from DocLine6forum

    Personally I see no use in compensating for lower output pickups by adjusting the input section.
    I want it like in real life: my strat won't drive a given amp as hard as a Les Paul for example.
    It's good to have an option like this to be able to make a given PU virtually hotter than before but it's nothing I use regularly.


    Well, the difference with an analog amp is that we are hitting an A\D converter. The higher the input signal (ideally 0 dB), the better the converter works (so that it can use all the resolution (24-bit?) with the hottest signals).
    It's the same for the CLR.


    Quote from carlosxuma

    From my experience - and I could be wrong - I don't believe Distorted Sense works quite like this. It's not a "gain-gain." It's more of a "how much faster and easier does the distortion distort in this amp."


    Anyone verify this?


    It's what the documentation from Kemper leads me to believe as well.


    Hey Carlos, please refer to the wiKPA for this. Among other things:


    Quote

    [[ckemper]] The two controls Gain and Distorted Sens act the same. Their scaling is different though.


    Distorted Sens [...] adapts the level vs. gain for distorted sounds, if that's required. Increasing Distorted Sens by 5.0 is equivalent to decreasing Gain by 1.5.

    Quote from viabcroce


    Well, the difference with an analog amp is that we are hitting an A\D converter. The higher the input signal (ideally 0 dB), the better the converter works (so that it can use all the resolution (24-bit?) with the hottest signals).
    It's the same for the CLR.


    You present this in a very idealistic way. If we hit the the A/D converter with the same hotness of input signal all guitars/pickups would have the same hotness which is unrealistic.
    With today's resolution of A/D conversion there's no need any more to hit the converter as hot as possible.
    you don't do it with recording interfaces either.