How do I get good Kemper sound on stage? It sounds too harsh

  • I've been starting a new band now, and we're currently practicing in a small room with a mixer and two PA speakers. When I connect my Kemper to the mix table, the output sound is really harsh. Equaliser is set to neutral, so it is not touched, gain is set to 50%, not to get distortion. It is such a vastly different sound than what I get at home from my F5 Monitors. I get that different scenario, different room acoustics and gear can have an impact on sound, but it's very different.. My Mesa Boogie John Petrucci fuzz sounded like a scraping sound all of a sudden. Had to turn the top EQ all the way down on the mixing table.. How do you guys do it to get good stage sound from this device?


    EDIT:
    -I've connected the Kemper to the Mixer's line input via Jack in to the Kemper's left channel
    -EQ is set to neutral on low, mid and high

    -Gain is set to 50%

    -I'm using payware presets from mbritt and TJ with cabs active. Sound is horrible on big PA speakers

    Edited 2 times, last by keem85 ().

  • What outputs are you using? Is the cab on?

    Yes, cab is always on, as I want to simulate the cabs of my profiles. I'm using mostly Mbritt's profiles and some mesa boogie fuzz sounds. I'm using left jack output on my Kemper and in to line channel on the mixer

  • Not familiar with F5 monitors, but if you've eq'd them for the room they're in maybe that's an issue?

    Are you using the main outs? Is that what the F5s were connected to?

  • Not familiar with F5 monitors, but if you've eq'd them for the room they're in maybe that's an issue?

    Are you using the main outs? Is that what the F5s were connected to?

    The F5 has not been equalized actually. They are just connected with a power cable and I'm running it with a normal jack cable in to Kemper's left jack channel (for stereo, but I'm still just using mono). I did the exact same setup at the practice session. Seriously, the sound was so horrible, crisp and dead. It felt like playing on a plastic battery micro amp.. Kinda the same sound you get from battery amps that you plug in to the guitar.. Just louder, ofcourse.. I'm not sure what I am doing wrong here, as the setup is identical as I have it home.. How can these big PA speakers output so much more high frequencies than my monitors? That was my initial first question.. Struggled with it for three hours yesterday, and I just had to call defeat.. I see all the big artists use Kemper, Mark Knopfler, John Mayer, and I wonder how they get their Kemper sounding so great on stage :/

  • Something's missing (John Mayer joke) mate.

    I've had my Kemper into a POS PA, MBritt powered speaker, Bose L1 MII, and SD700 with Kabinet.

    All of those sound awesome. Bit of tweaking for sure, but absolutely nothing major.

    There is something wrong/missing with the PA input you're using.

  • Ahh, hmm. The mixer table perhaps? Or the way I am cabling or connecting my Kemper amp to the mixer itself?

    You aren't Dave Matthews, perhaps? :/

    :D

    Oh I'm Dave Matthews all right. Just not that guy with all the tours and money.

    I had the name first though... crap I'm old...

  • Unfortunately you've got to go through a process of elimination...I think its unlikely to be EQ. Cab monitor seems the most obvious but you've checked that.


    Its also unlikely that the F5's are massively different to the Pa, but the volume you play at will be.


    You need to get access to a PA speaker and run the profiles though that at volume.


    Not the same scenario but I was gettign great sound via my guitar cab and really bad sound from the PA direct. actually turned out to be crap profiles diguised by the cab smoothing effect. Mbritts are good profiles but all profiles sound different through different signal chains..

  • A few observations some of which aren’t directly related to the harsh sound but should still be helpful overall


    You mentioned that you connect the Left Output to the Mixer. Have you set the signal at the main output to Master Mono? Some people assume that when using a single output the Kemper converts to mono however it doesn’t do this automatically. Therefore, if you run any stereo effects you you lose half the sound. This can be tested with a ping pong delay with different rhythms on each side. Unless you manually switch to mono you will only get one half of the rhythm.

    I would recommend setting up an output preset for home (stereo) and a separate output for live (mono).


    Are you using TRS or XLR outputs?


    Does the desk have separate Mic and Line inputs or are they shared?


    If you are feeding a mic level input into the mixer you will likely severely overload the input and get a horrible harsh signal.


    Some mixers have no way to turn off the mic preamp on the XLR input. If this is the case with your mixer try using a TRS cable instead of XLR.

  • Thanks guys! And thanks Wheresthedug I use mono signal in the output, so even if the jack goes to left channel, it outputs mono.. But I haven't considered that the mixer might have line inputs shared. To be honest I have no knowledge if this is the case.. But a TRS cable would resolve this? I think you might be right, that it has a built in preamp there.