Soundcheck went great, but then ...

  • Good Morning Community,

    I played a "living room gig", last Saturday. The idea was to record/ film the session to produce promo material. Soundcheck went great with my Kemper PowerHead (latest firmware). Then we had an hour free time before the performance.


    We started playing and with the first note I realized something isn´t working as expected. All of my clean sounds were much to quiet, all distorted sound had less distortion and all effects were not as prominent as intended - that was the case with all performances I used throughout the gig. Plus, I had to play my guitar turned to the right side, whenever I played the guitar in front of my body, or turned it to the left, there was a crackle sneaking into the sounds. I had no choice but to play the entire show (120 Min.) in the best possible position.

    I identified 3 to 4 sounds that were still the best among the bad and used them as good as possible, even if they were spreaded over several performances. Step-Dance Nightmare. But please remember: we got filmed live and it just had to work in some way. I managed to restart the Kemper during an extended intro section but it didn´t help me. I´m pretty sure the Kemper was the reliable workhorse in that scenario - as always.

    Setup:
    Guitar > Cable > Kemper > Main Out (Stereo) via Jack Plugs > PA
    (We´re/ I´m running that setup for years and never had any issue.)


    Ok, long story short. I took notes afterwards about all the differences I could identify. I could spot two changes between soundcheck and show.


    1) The film crew had set up their equipment in the meantime: Four cameras, room mics, power supply and cables criss-crossing everywhere.

    2) The host had set up small lamps everywhere in the room for indirect lighting. One lamp drew its power from the same sub-distribution as my Kemper Powerhead.
    (This lamp was standing on the left - in front of me (10 o´clock))


    I would be very happy if you could support me with your knowledge so that something like this does not happen again.
    I will not be satisfied with the recordings we made and besides that the band spent a lot of money for nothing ...


    Thank you so much!

    -stenson


    https://www.stenson.de

  • Are you still having problems with the setup since the gig? This would help determine whether the issue is something in your set up or something in the environment on the night.


    What guitar were you playing? Does it have active pickups? On possibly is a failing battery on the guitar. Easy to test.


    If it still happening then we can probably rule out the host or film crew. If it is no longer happening it could be related to them but could still be coincidence so need to trouble shoot methodically.

  • Not sure if you tried different cables but that is the first thing that came to mind wile reading your post. I agree it would be good to know if you still have the issue. Once you have everything hooked back up and if it is working, flex the cables near the connectors and see if anything happens.

  • Is the guitar/the pickups/the cable fully functional?

    Having to play the guitar in a certain position suggests there's something wrong with the guitar electronics.


    Are you still having problems with the setup since the gig? This would help determine whether the issue is something in your set up or something in the environment on the night.


    What guitar were you playing? Does it have active pickups? On possibly is a failing battery on the guitar. Easy to test.


    If it still happening then we can probably rule out the host or film crew. If it is no longer happening it could be related to them but could still be coincidence so need to trouble shoot methodically.

    Thanks guys for your support to sort this out. As I have said, no issues during soundcheck. I played an Ibanez AT100 CL-SB (HSS Guitar) & a Music Man Axis Hollow-Body (HH) for songs in drop-d during the whole show. I rebuild the same setup a day later in the rehearsal room and it worked like a charm… No broken cables - Í did turn and twist any cable in that setup. The problem existed exactly the 120 Min. of the show. May I have to work on my Karma … ;)

    Take care,

    -stenson

    https://www.stenson.de

  • Just a thought, the expression pedal can be put at the start of the chain by default, if you dip your volume using that, it would produce all the effects that you describe. Mine is always at the end of the chain so I can lower my gain sounds without changing the character. I hope it sorts itself out man.

    A brace of Suhrs, a Charvel, a toaster, an Apollo twin, a Mac, and a DXR10

  • Just a thought, the expression pedal can be put at the start of the chain by default, if you dip your volume using that, it would produce all the effects that you describe. Mine is always at the end of the chain so I can lower my gain sounds without changing the character. I hope it sorts itself out man.

    Thank you Morph for that angle! You’re right. I forgot to mention it or to consider it at a possible reason for my problems. Typically I have a Expression Pedal (Boss FV-500H) connected to the Kemper Floorboard. I never used it because I use the guitar volume for those moments and the morph function for all other situations I need to master. But the expression pedal is the one component I did change. It was not connected. Maybe, by accident I have an expression pedal configured in all my Rigs and without that pedal … the Kemper possibly plays by min. values on Gain, Reverb, Delay, … etc.


    The only fact that contradicts here is the growing hum noise I got by moving my guitar …


    Thanks a lot, I will do further testing and let all of you know about my findings.


    Take care

    - stenson

  • The 'soundcheck' wasn't really a soundcheck since it was not done in the final configuration of the room. There might be other functional issues related to the Kemper config and expression pedal, but the timing of the soundcheck should be the big lesson learned.


    My guess is EMI interferance as well.

  • The 'soundcheck' wasn't really a soundcheck since it was not done in the final configuration of the room. There might be other functional issues related to the Kemper config and expression pedal, but the timing of the soundcheck should be the big lesson learned.


    My guess is EMI interferance as well.

    Yes, you are absolutely right. I learned a ton. THX

  • That must have been a terrifying experience! Nothing worse than all that planning, set up, practice, etc, then a spooky issue right when the curtain goes up.

    Yepp, I got the first sound bites from the recording today and it sounds awful. I fu**** it up. Will never happen again.

  • Are you using a pedal for a volume pedal? If you left your kemper on between SC and Show and that pedal accidentally got unplugged from the remote, it could become uncalibrated (system button 6-11) I have had it happen and it resulted in the "full volume" only being 3/4 of the way up, resulting in lower output of everything including gain and volume.

  • I wonder if they would consider a change to address this. If no pedal, then volume = Max


    Burkhard

    That is exactly, what the PROFILER does. However, the PROFILER can only detect "no pedal connected" if nothing is plugged into the PEDAL socket of PROFILER or Remote. If the pedal gets diconnected on the other end of the TRS cable or the cable breaks, the PROFILER doesn't know. Technically,. the PROFILER only responds to the electrical resistance of anything plugged in. That is how expression pedals work.

  • That is exactly, what the PROFILER does. However, the PROFILER can only detect "no pedal connected" if nothing is plugged into the PEDAL socket of PROFILER or Remote. If the pedal gets diconnected on the other end of the TRS cable or the cable breaks, the PROFILER doesn't know. Technically,. the PROFILER only responds to the electrical resistance of anything plugged in. That is how expression pedals work.


    Ah - I didn't realise the cable was still plugged in with the pedal disconnected.

  • Ah - I didn't realise the cable was still plugged in with the pedal disconnected.

    Hi! No that was not the case. I had the remote on the floor and no expression pedal and no cable was connected. I absolutely understand your thoughts, but there was no cable connected besides the connection between remote and Kemper.

  • Are you sure nothing was accidentally plugged into the PEDAL sockets at the back of the PROFILER? Perhaps an instrument cable?


    If nothing is plugged into the PEDAL sockets (2 at PROFILER plus 4 at Remote) the PROFILER realizes it and uses pedal controller defaults, which is:


    Volume Pedal toe

    Morphing Pedal heel

    Wah Pedal heel

    Pitch Pedal heel


    You see that reflected at page Pedal Links.