Awesome tone through amp but muffled, dull tone through studio monitors

    I'm kind of at my wits end, really really really trying to make this work for me, I want this unit to be as good as I know it should be. I've played with every setting in the input and output of my Kemper (Stage), I'm currently running the Kemper into my Focusrite 6i6 via the SPDIF Out and In (two cables). I couldn't get any clarity going through setup demonstrations on whether to use two spdif cables or one but when I try one it pops and crackles like nuts so I assume two is correct on that basis?


    My Focusrite 6i6 is an American model that I had imported but I'm using their in house adapter and playback sounds great otherwise going into my Adam T7V monitors w/ T10S sub, just not when playing/recording the Kemper.


    When I A/B an identical profile (even compared with a compressed/degraded youtube video), going through the exact same monitor setup, not touching any settings on the Kemper, my recorded sound is always lacking the same high end definition and 'real amp' sound and comparatively it just sounds boomy, dull, boxy, muffled, artificial, any combination of the aforementioned descriptions, no matter what I try... and it's really disheartening honestly


    I've tried switching pure cabinet on, off, half-way on, played with definition, played with it all, unchecked and checked every box in the input and output sections. I just seem to go round and round in circles and then after tinkering for long 3 or 4 hour sessions I just get frustrated and don't touch it for a few weeks, thinking I must just be ignorant and missing something or maybe I have a faulty unit or my brain just isn't functioning :D, I know this unit sounds better than this. Then I come back and I try again with a fresh mind, the process repeats.


    When I record one stereo track it's already a bit muddy, but when I start trying to stack tracks up (in Ableton) it just becomes so apparent, sounds like a boomy blob with no separation, even panned hard left/right. I could play with EQ in Ableton but I feel like the whole point of this is pre-polish right? Like I should be refining with EQ in the DAW, not completely reshaping a sound. I've tried just jacking up the treble and presence on profiles but that's not a real solution, just over-compensating with additive EQ like that I know it's not the right way to resolve this and regardless, while it sounds a little more accurate compared to a real amp, it also seems to bring out the artificial characteristic even more, just a trade off.


    One other thing I noticed is that when I switch the cabinet emulation off (just pressing the 'cab' button on the Stage), while it sounds obviously shrill and not how it should, the entire treble bandwidth that I feel like is missing from the recorded sound opens right up, so my very un-scientific, surface level assumption on that basis is that some setting isn't right in my cab section, the cab section is where the 'muffling' is coming from? I'm not sure.


    The global low and high cut in the output section are both switched off by the way. I learnt in my short stint in an Audio Engineering course that reducing bass also makes treble more apparent, so I tried setting the low cut to somewhere in the 80-120hz range and it just reaffirms to me that the frequencies I'm looking for aren't being drowned out by bass, they just don't seem to even be there in the first place in order to be brought out by this kind of reductive EQ setting, just sounds like I have no bass and also lack treble definition :D.


    I will probably keep the Stage because I'm basically using it as an advanced pedalboard going into my amp's "power amp in" with the cab sim switched off (effectively replacing the onboard preamp) where it sounds great! But I wasn't looking for an in-the-room amp sound buying this unit! :D I bought it to record in an environment where I can't make much noise (living on uni campus) and I'm beginning to doubt my judgement making this purchase :( the amp sound is a happy accident but beside the point unfortunately


    APOLOGIES for the essay!! Just trying to cover all bases


    TL;DR I really feel like I'm missing something here, there MUST be a setting, a switch, a dial! Something that takes this recorded sound from the uninspiring blob I have to the jaw dropping tones I hear in the exact same profiles online, through the exact same monitors in playback from what I assume is the same setup (SPDIF - digital to digital, no D-A-D conversion going on). What am I missing here? What should I try? Could I be using a bad cable or something that simple? Could I have just wired this incorrectly?


    If you made it this far, I appreciate any recommendations and knowledge, thanks

    I have the same problem. Yesterday everything sounded very good using Spdif. When I switched it on today the tone was muffled like there was a ton of blankets over my speakers ?????

    I found it!!


    I went to -output and checked -high cut!

    It was somehow turned all the way to the left, dont know why cause I never touched it ....??? Could be some preset I was checking yesterday dunno

    Once I turned it up somewhere around 7000 the dull sound was gone. I changed presets and came back to the first preset and it was auto matically set to 7272. Checked other presets and they all had their own settings again.


    Hopefully this solves your problem also. Good luck!

    Also try with Headphones direct from your stage to rule out your Focusrite, daw and monitors.


    Does that resolve it? If not I would use this as your base first to look at other things such as global settings.....


    In these instances you need to strip back to basics first to rule out as many parts in your signal chain.

    Sorry all for the long delay, it's been a truly hectic month and a bit for me, currently my Kemper is hooked up to my live rig and disconnected from the Focusrite but I will be able to try some of these suggestions in a week or so, however I do have some responses/updates and mostly good news since I made the original post:


    AbcMusic - I have been on top of my output section as I noticed other people have missed this simple fix as well, going through the forums. So I was sure it wasn't occurring for me and I happily ruled out that variable but thanks for your suggestion :)


    Wheresthedug - I haven't had a chance to try the analog inputs, at least not since purchasing the Adam monitors, originally I tried the analog inputs going out into a hi-fi stereo system via a 3.5mm jack, though that's probably largely irrelevant compared to using monitors so I will give this a whirl as soon as I can.


    V8guitar - I did see this suggestion in another forum page and tried headphones direct out of the Kemper vs via the Focusrite a few months back. There was a subtle but noticeable difference in the shape of a more 'authentic' feel when playing and a bit more zing in the high end but at the time, but it didn't seem like there could much more going on than just a bit of colouring from the preamp in the Focusrite, the Kemper always sounded much better to me through headphones than through the studio monitors regardless, which I always found surprising. Or at least it sounded far closer to the same profile coming out of my amplifier in the room.


    Kaschko - I will record some samples via SPDIF and the analog inputs for comparison and upload here when the Kemper is connected once more to my computer. I haven't delved into reamping at all but is it safe to assume, based on what you've said, that using two vs one SPDIF cable shouldn't impact the recorded sound at all?


    In the end I tried a few things:

    - I found out that I could do a factory reset without needing to delete and reupload all of the profiles into the Kemper, so I did this.

    - Immediately I noticed that the Kemper sounded about 5 times better through the monitors, the treble bandwidth I was missing 'came back' from the ether it disappeared to. So I guess I must have inadvertently tinkered my Kemper into oblivion without realising it, or some sort of bug had occurred... though to be honest it had the same issue from day one and I was seemingly always chasing my tail to resolve it, very confusing.

    - Since the reset, the 'pure cabinet' parameter seems to do a lot more in terms of making the Kemper sound closer to a real amp, rather than just further removing the high frequencies from the sound.


    I've now got the Kemper set with the low cut in the output section at 150hz, removing anything below that threshold (as far as I can tell). I admit I kind of don't like that I need to do this, because as far as I know the same ToneJunkie profiles I hear on their channel are not using this low cut and the required additional level of EQ to remove all of the seemingly very apparent 'boominess' concerns me and makes me think there's still some underlying issues, I have considered it could just be the fact I'm using a 2.1 setup, though the sub is set verrrry conservatively on about 2/10 volume, not sure.


    Overall, since implementing the factory reset and low cut, this device has gone from completely unusable to nice sounding coming through monitors, maybe from a 2/10 to a 7 or 8/10.


    I'm on the fence about just returning it, as it has honestly been a year of heartache and it still doesn't seem to sound as good as I originally thought it would, but also feel like I've F I N A L L Y made some kind of breakthrough with it, some actual progress. Hopefully I can salvage just a bit more perseverance.


    Thanks for your responses