Volume pedal increasing gain without being plugged in (resolved)

  • I will have to do some more troubleshooting today, but yesterday I ran into an issue with a huge amount buzzing coming from my Kemper. It started right in the middle of a practice. I swapped every cable connected anywhere, swapped out the wireless unit for a cable and swapped it. I tried going XLR and 1/4. I tried multiple guitars. It occurred on any patch with maybe three or more gain dots, so it wasn't just a high gain patch issue. Only thing I didn't do was go straight to the PA. We were practicing in the basement, since it was 89 out and our usual practice space doesn't have AC.


    I'm going to troubleshoot it some more, today, but I thought I remembered doing some type of a "Kemper reset", a while back, when I was having a different problem. This reset a bunch of stuff back to factory, but kept my profiles and performances.


    I saw this in the manual:

    In case any inputs or outputs don’t operate as you would expect, or you experience any other unpredicted behavior,
    the soft button “Init Globals” in System Settings will reset most global parameters in System Settings and Output
    Section as well as returning all locks to their default state.


    but I thought there was something I had to hold down while I powered the Kemper on to reset things, while keeping my profiles. Am I imagining this, or is there another type of reset that does what I am looking for? Thanks.

  • I hooked my Kemper up in my computer room, and am still getting the issue through studio monitors, through the XLRs. I tried restoring my last backup, same issue. I loaded a profile in Browser mode, and it sounded fine. I loaded the same profile in Performance mode, and it sounds TOTALLY different. I disabled the stomps and effects, to make sure it wasn't that.


    You can hear the noise immediately jump up, when I switch to performance mode, in the middle of this.


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  • Hi Patrick,


    Does it buzz without anything plugged into it?


    If you have everything backed up, I think you can do a factory reset.


    Is your unit in a rack with any permanently installed cables? If so, if you unplug everything from it (except headphones), does it still buzz.


    If none of this works, I would put in a ticket. If none of this works, my guess is that your KPA popped a cap in the DC regulator and it is putting noise on everything.... but I could be totally wrong.

  • OneEng1, there is no sound with nothing plugged into it. I'm probably going to have to do the reset, like you said. I opened a ticket with the info I put in this thread, so hopefully they can get me straightened out. Got a gig on Friday, so I'm feeling the pressure. May end up having to go to my backup plan (Helix or tube amp), but I'd really prefer not to.

  • Tried unlocking the input and switching profiles a few times. Problem was still there. Support replied with how to do a full wipe and restore. I did that, and through phones I think it sounded better. My computer gives me some buzzing through the Kemper, so I won't be 100% sure until I move it to my living room, but the gates I had set up appeared to be killing the noise, which they weren't doing when this problem started.


    Only thing I did differently between it not working and working was I had used two expression pedals (volume and morph), rather than just volume. Those were the first things I took out of the chain though, when the problem started. May have just been a coincide, but it feels like something got "stuck" in the Kemper. Going to go with only the volume pedal, on Friday, until I have more time to test, since that's what I normally go with.

  • Gig canceled. I'm going to call it good. So far, the only thing I can think of I did differently was that I had two expression pedals hooked up, rather than one. Probably just a coincidence, but I'm going to do some more testing set up that way, when I get a chance.

  • i honestly can’t see the problem being the two pedals. The pedals aren’t connected to anything with an earth so cant add earth loop buzz. They don’t pass any audio so can’t add any audio noise either. I would definitely keep looking elsewhere.

    Wheresthedug I didn't mean that the buzz was coming from the pedals, I meant that something with the pedals caused the input gain to get stuck at a really high level. The issue remained, even after both pedals were completely removed from the chain. It is usable now, but I do think the noise floor is still higher than it used to. Also, from the clip I posted, the same profile sounded totally different in Browse mode and Performance mode. The inputs were set identical, and completely turning off the effects blocks and using identical output settings made no difference. It really seemed like something was stuck, in the Kemper.


    So far, I have tried with two more guitars (four total), three different power strips, three different sets of cables for everything in the chain, two different PA systems, two different monitors, XLR and 1/4, three different houses and four different rooms.


    I did a small gig last night, and the problem was no where remotely close to like it was at my last practice, after doing a complete wipe on it. I only ran the volume pedal, and not the morph pedal, last night. I'll try to test it out with both, for an extended time, at home. I still think there may be something else going on, though. With the 4:1 gate at around 2.5 vs. 0.0 where I did have it set, it is still usable though, so that is a reasonable solution to me. It is still odd that I had to move it up on anything moderate gain or higher though.


    I wonder if something could have gotten knocked/vibrated loose in the Kemper, to cause the noise floor to raise.

  • With a digital amp there is nothing really to get knocked or vibrated loose that would cause noise. Even if there was, it would almost certainly affect both modes in the same way as they both share the same hardware and only the software changes between the modes. It sounds like there is still a setting different between the two modes but I don't know what it is.

  • With a digital amp there is nothing really to get knocked or vibrated loose that would cause noise. Even if there was, it would almost certainly affect both modes in the same way as they both share the same hardware and only the software changes between the modes. It sounds like there is still a setting different between the two modes but I don't know what it is.

    Browser and Performance are both matching, since wiping the memory and restoring the backup. Them not matching was the strangest thing I've seen on my Kemper, in about four years. I broke out my Helix today, and the noise floor seems to be about the same as the Kemper, on the higher gain patches, so maybe the problem is fixed, and I'm just imagining there still being something wrong. I'll have to mess around with both of them. It was definitely completely usable for about a four hour gig, with no major issues, so that made me feel a lot better.

  • I have some rigs that are just noisier that others. I am particular about the noise floor though and really like "dead silent" to happen when I am not playing (yea, never was a fan of the ole 5150 ;) ). Still, higher gain rigs tend to amplify pickup and cable induced noise.


    Have you ever played with a ceiling fan near? That took me a few minutes to figure out too. Thought something was wrong with my KPA ;). Bizzar sound when you are playing through a FRFR near the fan. Sounds like the KPA is breaking up.


    Also, I have a Furman high quality noise reducing power strip. This is really great for clubs that have crappy power. I have gotten some buzz from noisy grounds before too.


    For my strats, I put gold foil all around the pickup area and grounded it to the cable ground to help get rid of the buzz. My PRS is pretty quite for the most part and hasn't needed such work.

  • Thanks for the tips. I thought of lights, but wouldn't have thought of a fan. I've been in places with them and without them, and that wasn't the problem for me. I think the main problem was resolved with the full wiping of the memory and restoring my rigs. For some reason, the input gain was cranked WAY up. Nothing was locked, only in performance mode, and they was no way to get it back to normal. For the remaining noise floor, after trying a Helix and tube amp, it just seems this is the normal noise floor.

  • ... and the problem is back. Same profile sounds completely different between browser mode and performance mode. The gain is massively increased. Nothing is locked or different between Browse and Performance.

  • Latest test:


    1) Start profiler

    2) Open Performance Mode

    3) Open Performance 3 (MB Classic Rock) and select the profile in slot 4 (Plexi Drive). This has a gain slightly above 12 o'clock. There is a green scream at 0%. I completely disabled the stomps and other than the noise gate disappearing, this did not affect the tone. Gain seems super high for this setting. This is what I normally use for classic rock.

    4) Export rig to browse pool

    5) Switch Profiler to Browser Mode

    6) Load the most recently saved profile (Plexi Drive)

    7) Gain is still very high. This is inconsistent behavior. The gain had been lower in Browswer mode, but now seems to match, but still be way higher than it should at roughly half gain.

    8 ) From Rig Manager, load the profile that most closely matches the gain level from the same pack (68 Mars 50 1 8R). This profile has a gain that seems to match it's setting. I tried to disable the stomps block prior to saving, but it will not save like that. The stomps gets reenabled upon saving.

    9) Save this to Brower pool.

    10) Toggling between the two profiles, the Plexi Drive sounds like something I'd use for metal, while the 68 Mars 50 1 8R sounds like something I'd use for classic rock, even though both have the same gain.


    After I had fully wiped the Kemper and loaded the backup, it worked for one night. After that, I didn't use it for about two weeks. The next time I loaded the Kemper, the problem was back.


    Creating a new backup, to send to Kemper.

  • Changed title to reflect what is now happening. If I load the performance pool profile and browse pool, it now has the super high gain sound that it has in performance pool. This was not the case the last time I wiped my profiler and reloaded everything.