Powered Profiler putting out hot signal to main board

  • It is fine at home in my studio but when I bring it to a venue and send it through their system I have to turn the Profiler down to to -25dB on the master volume and even then their gain structure at the main board is almost turned completely down and they are still on the verge of distorting the channel. When I get back into my studio I'm fine playing it at -1DB. Thoughts?


    Boosters/Compressors in the Profiler are not the culprit

  • It’s highly likely that the stagebox inputs onstage are feeding mic preamps not line ins as Ingolf has suggested. Many desks don’t have mic/line switching for their XLR inputs, and sometimes also no input PAD to drop it signal down. Plenty of mic pres have a minimum gain value of 15-25 dB or so though. What desks are you typically running into at different venues, if you recall?


    If the Kemper’s -12dB isn’t enough attenuation, what you require is a DI box that can step down the signal level further e.g. -20dB and -40dB steps are common. I’ve said it before on these forums and been challenged, but a DI box is not completely replaced by the output features of the Kemper, nor the input features of smarter consoles, and this is one of the examples.
    If you use a passive, transformer-based DI, you’ll have the added benefit of being decoupled from the FOH rig as well, providing some level of protection for your kit if there is a floating earth at a venue or a mixer PSU that decides to let go.


    DI boxes are also ideal for wedging venue doors open, tilting back real amp cabs, tripping up people who shouldn’t be wandering the stage, throwing at drummers and muting banjos etc. so they really are the musician’s Swiss Army knife that should be taken to all gigs.

    Ed / Audio Systems Engineer / Kemper Stage + Fender fan