Recording Set up



  • Well after a few months of messing around with my Kemper I have came here to ask the question. What settings should I have for recording?


    I'm pretty sure I've had my set up wrong this whole time so I wanted to ask the pro's or anyone experience what am I doing wrong. I've had some Kemper tone packs from STL and Joey Sturgis and there tones sound to "bassy" or muddy, just not good no matter how much I play with the tones.

    I watched videos of people showing off there tones and it sounds so good and some with the same packs I have so it made me realize that maybe I just don't have my Kemper set up right.


    Currently I have my Kemper hooked with an XLR to the L Main Output straight to my Audio Interface (Focusrite 2i2 3rd gen) running Reaper for my DAW and KRK Classic 5 studio monitors. I have attached Images of my Output Settings of each page. My Input is untouched since I bought my Kemper.


    Currently the way I have things set up is by adjusting the Master volume to -49db and adjusing it with the interface for clipping and I'm pretty sure that's not how you use it.

    Any help is much appreciate it.

  • Your interface has combo inputs which are configured to automatically engage a mic preamp when an XLR is plugged in but bypass the mic pre when a 1/4” jack is used. By using XLR to XLR cables you are going through the pre amp which is boosting the already line level signal of the Kemper by an amount normally required to turn a mic level signal into line level. This explains why you need to trim the output of the KPA and the input of the interface.


    You need to use XLR to TRS cables for a balanced signal or just a simple 1/4” instrument cable (TS) for an unbalanced signal. Although the Focusrite combo input accepts both TRS and TS I’m not sure if the 1/4” input is balanced or not. If the KPA is relatively close to your interface and you don’t have a lot of electrical/radio interference you should probably be fine with just a regular instrument cable. You can certainly try this in the first instance to see if it helps your level and tonal issues. If it does then investing in a couple of XLR to TRS cables would be a good idea.

  • Your interface has combo inputs which are configured to automatically engage a mic preamp when an XLR is plugged in but bypass the mic pre when a 1/4” jack is used. By using XLR to XLR cables you are going through the pre amp which is boosting the already line level signal of the Kemper by an amount normally required to turn a mic level signal into line level. This explains why you need to trim the output of the KPA and the input of the interface.


    You need to use XLR to TRS cables for a balanced signal or just a simple 1/4” instrument cable (TS) for an unbalanced signal. Although the Focusrite combo input accepts both TRS and TS I’m not sure if the 1/4” input is balanced or not. If the KPA is relatively close to your interface and you don’t have a lot of electrical/radio interference you should probably be fine with just a regular instrument cable. You can certainly try this in the first instance to see if it helps your level and tonal issues. If it does then investing in a couple of XLR to TRS cables would be a good idea.

    I had the very same issue as you have. I bought the XLR to TRS cables as suggested and it fixed it on my UAD apollo twin X.

  • so XLR to TRS cables is the way to go when connecting Kemper to the Apollo Twin?last month i was talking to Igor he is a famous guitar player from europe,he told me he was using TS cables to connect Kemper to the Apollo.

    Guitar: Fender Strat HSS<3 Schecter Custom Solo II

    Signal Chain: Kemper->AxeFX 3>Neural QC>Apollo Twin->M-Audio Monitors

    Computer:Mac Studio

  • Here is how my brain thinks about it:


    XLR cables were designed for microphones. Microphones output a low voltage.

    TS cables are meant to carry higher voltages coming from guitars, equipment, etc.


    Lets assume you are getting 1mV of noise on your cables from your surroundings etc.

    A microphone may only output 10mV at a certain pressure level.

    This means you will have a ton of noise. 10% of your signal will be noise (1/10).


    A guitar may output 1000mV of voltage.

    This means you will only have .1% of noise on your signal (1/1000).


    Since noise shows up much more in low output voltage microphones, a new type of cable needed to be designed to eliminate as much noise as possible. The XLR was created. It splits the signal into positive and negative halves. These halves are brought back together at the end of the cable. When the two are brought back, any noise that couples on to the cable gets canceled out. +1 and -1 = 0.


    So a TS cable has two wires. Lets call them + and ground. Lets say the voltage is on the + wire.


    An XLR has 3 wires. Lets call them +, -, and ground. A positive voltage is on the + wire and a negative voltage on the - wire. This is called a balanced connection. The voltages are balanced to the ground connection.


    The confusion with the Kemper is that it does not output a low voltage on its XLR connections. Audio devices expect a low voltage coming from a microphone to their XLR connections. The Kemper outputs a high voltage you would expect from a guitar or equipment.


    So you do not want to run XLR-XLR from the Kemper to your device. It will overload the devices preamp.


    The longer the cables are, the more noise will get coupled on to them. They are antennas after all. Picking up every broadcast coming from tv stations, radio stations, electronic appliances, computers, etc


    So you can run TS cables as long as you want until you start hearing noise. Then switch to XLR->TRS cables. Assuming your audio interface accepts TRS cables (balanced line level).


    As Wheresthedoug pointed out, the Kemper XLR outs are balanced to reduce noise. And it also puts out a higher voltage than normal to move the noise floor down as well.


    Another thing to think about is how does the equipment create the balanced XLR style signal. An easy way is to use a transformer. Does this transformer color the sound at all? Who knows. My ears are trash and I would never be able to tell any differences between any cables or methods :S

  • So you can run TS cables as long as you want until you start hearing noise. Then switch to XLR->TRS cables. Assuming your audio interface accepts TRS cables (balanced line level).

    my audio interface is the Apollo Twin

    Guitar: Fender Strat HSS<3 Schecter Custom Solo II

    Signal Chain: Kemper->AxeFX 3>Neural QC>Apollo Twin->M-Audio Monitors

    Computer:Mac Studio