Posts by sambrox

  • Additional Piezo signal

    You're right in that the KPA isn't designed for this way of working, but in theory it is perfectly possible with its existing feature set, it's just that the feature doesn't quite work as it should.


    It's not about having a stereo section; that part of the original post is misleading. The guitar's output goes into a stereo jack, which is split into two mono jacks, one carrying the magnetic pickup signal, the other the piezo. From here it's only mono. The magnetic signal goes into the KPA as normal, the signal flowing through the stomps, then the stack, then the effects slots (X & Mod), the delay and reverb, and then out. The piezo signal joins the flow at either X or Mod, as the return in a Mono Loop stomp effect (note we're not sending any of the main signal through the loop). Setting the mix of this to 50% should mix the main signal path (the magnetic pickup) equally with the loop return (the piezo pickup), and then the player is free to select which signal plays by simply using the pickup selector on the guitar. Sounds great, right? The only problem being, the stack affects the Mono Loop stomp signal which is placed AFTER the stack section, meaning it shouldn't have any influence over it at all. Unfortunately with the stack engaged, it gives the effect of the piezo signal going through a guitar cab, attenuating the highs above 5-6K Hz, losing a lot of the acoustic-sounding properties.


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • Additional Piezo signal

    Just set the mix value in the mono loop to 50%. Do me a favour though and try turning the stack on and off while playing on the piezo and listening for any variations in the high frequencies.


    Cheers,
    Sam


    ps I too had split signals, it was just that the stack section seems to still have influence on the sound of the piezo, even though it should be coming into the signal chain after the stack.

  • Additional Piezo signal

    The point is though, is that they should be independent, depending on the position of the pickup selector on the guitar. When I select the piezo, no signal is being passed from the magnetic pickup, therefore the Stack shouldn't have any influence on the sound whatsoever when the mix in the loop is set to 100%


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • Mono Loop in X and Mod stomp slots coloured by Stack section!?!

    I have a Fender Acoustasonic Telecaster that has a piezo pickup in the bridge position and a magnetic single coil in the neck. It's set up so that you can split the signal using a stereo to mono Y splitter jack cable, with the signals from each pickup on its own individual mono jack.


    A thoughtful poster proposed the theory of being able to use the return input on the kemper for the piezo signal, then set up a mono loop in one of the slots after the stack. That way you could get an electric, driven tone using the neck pickup going into the main kemper input as usual, but then the more acoustic piezo tone would feed into the kemper bypassing the stack, giving the option of the clean tone and the ability to mix the two at the same time, depending on the position of the pickup selector on the guitar.


    This would be fantastic. However, having just experimented with it, it seems that the Stack section influences the X and Mod slots, even though in theory any signal arriving via a loop to one of those slots should be independent. Turning the Stack section on and off while playing through the loop set to 100% mix changes the HF, giving the effect of turning cab sim on when the Stack is engaged, and off when it is disengaged.


    This is all very perplexing and slightly perturbing, as it would then suggest that any pedals or effects that were in a regular loop after the Stack would be sent via part of the stack anyway, in effect doubling up on the Stacks influence (your signal passing once through it on the way out of the kemper through the send, then once again after coming in through the return). What gives? I'm running the latest firmware, by the way.


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • Additional Piezo signal

    I just tried this out, and unfortunately it would seem there's a bug in the software somewhere. With the mono loop set in the X or Mod slot, switching the stack on and off changes the HF of the piezo signal, effectively giving the sound the characteristic of playing through a cab when the stack is engaged, even with the mix at 100% (as though there was an extra cab sim at the end of the chain that was also being engaged). It basically negates the effect of the acoustic-sounding piezo. It's a real shame, as splitting the signal like this would have been ideal for me. More worryingly, it reveals that the X and Mod slots aren't actually 100% independent of the stack section, so any delays, reverbs, choruses or whatever you have looped and assigned to one of the slots will be coloured twice by the stack/cab sim (once as your signal goes past the stack and out of the Kemper's send, and then again once your signal returns from the loop and back into the Kemper before hitting the Delay and Reverb sections).


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • Additional Piezo signal

    If I'm not mistaken, the OP is talking about a guitar not dissimilar to this :
    http://www.fishman.com/fishman…ender-2/acoustasonic-tele
    The signal from this guitar can be mono, using a regular guitar cable, or stereo, where the magnetic pickup will be on the left channel and the piezo on the right, thus splitting the signal (though this requires a Y cable).


    I have one of these and never thought about using the FX loop for the piezo signal! I'll try this today and report back how it works. Great idea! Up until now, I've always had the piezo signal going out to a DI and direct to FOH. This method would be ideal for me.


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • The Kemper Foot Controller: Evolution

    Quote from Kempermaniac


    Don't know if I'm getting everything right but I use a Roland FC-300 and it has a function named "Wait for a Num". That means: A change of a bank/performance is only complete with two steps on two different pedals of the FC-300. First step: Change bank/performance in advance, but stay on the currently chosen performance and slot. With the second step you choose the desired slot of the next bank/performance.


    This is exactly how my FCB and Uno4Kemper works in performance mode, although I'm not sure which firmware I have. I'll have to check at some point (all I know is, it's definitely not the latest revision, at least).


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • UPDATE - Stratocaster problem ( Stratitus) made the Kemper sound raspy with distortion when Gain was used. Guitar returned to Sweetwater

    Quote from Dlaut

    Even minimal fret buzz, on a strat, can be hard on the ears. When you are playing, and the volume of the sound coming from your speaker is louder than the unplugged volume on your guitar, it's easy to hit the strings with enough additional force to make them fret-out even more and increase the buzzing.


    I had several amps that I just could not play a particular strat on....other, darker amps were no problem. Then I had a new set-up done, and I could play it on any amp.


    The sound clip the OP posted sounds totally like fret buzz to me. I wouldn't even be looking anywhere else for the problem.
    Cheers,
    Sam

  • The Aliasing Problem

    Quote from HappyKemper

    Since you have so short time experience with the kemper maybe you have one of the noise gates up too much?


    This!


    When I first got my PowerRack, the only disappointment for me was the weird "aliasing" I was getting using high gain profiles. I realised that it was worst when picking very lightly or when letting notes die, which of course led me to the culprit : an over zealous noise gate!


    To the OP, try disabling any gates in the stomps section and then turn the input gate all the way down, then see if you can recreate the effect. I'll bet you can't!


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • KPA: Damned With Faint Praise

    Quote from DonPetersen

    which by the way is all the audience ever hears: mic'ed amps.
    on most stages I played I also relied heavily on the sound I got from the monitors, IEM obviously is all mic'ed sound. It's the only way to get a controlled stage sound really.


    there are obvioulsy close mic'ed sounds like the classic SM57 setup, but there are alternatives to that, like using ribbon and LDC mics - often together - to get a more 'even' frequency response.
    if you simply need a 4x12 roaring at you, you can always use a powered Profiler as a 'normal' amp head, feeding your cabinet, while supplying the FOH with a perfectly mic'ed sound.


    This!


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • Kemper PowerRack doesn't cut through the mix.

    Yeah, try a guitar cab. I have the Powerrack and have gigged using my old Marshall 1936 2X12. Sounded great. These days I'm using a PA wedge speaker on the side of the stage pointing inwards towards the band and feeding the main outs to front of house. Works for me! It takes a bit of getting to used to though, not having that cab blasting you in the back ;)


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • Tipps for Profiling

    Might be a silly question, but is your cabinet on the floor when you play live? Have you tried putting it on a stand or couple of beer crates or something? If the PA is sounding bright and toppy compared to your cab on stage, it could just be that you're listening to the cab off-axis, which will of course attenuate the highs and high mids. Try getting it closer to your ear height and adjusting the tone in the output section, then compare that with the sound coming out of the PA.


    And to whoever said that you can't profile an amp through a cab, then play through the same cab : wrong! Works a treat for me with the "cab off" in the monitor output section. Which gives me a thought; to the OP, you're sure you haven't globally turned the cabs off, right?


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • The upcoming foot controller vs the FCB1010

    Quote from ewrath2

    I wish I could use the "extra" pedal on the 1010 I have for some other parameter but unfortunately the Uno4K only allows the pedals to be wah and volume.


    In the KPA there's a setting for Wah to Pitch, amongst others, enabling you to use which ever pedal you have set up as wah on the FCB as a pitch controller (think Digitech's Whammy pedal...).


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • The upcoming foot controller vs the FCB1010

    Quote from Uno4Kemper

    Quoted from "sambrox"



    someone quoted the switching time via FCB at 30+ ms
    Then I have to correct this. Lag of the FCB1010 (between switch click and MIDI message at the KPA input) is 1 to 2 ms.


    Hmmm, sounds like the person in question wasn't running a Uno4Kemper EPROM then, maybe...


    Quote from Uno4Kemper

    Quoted from "sambrox"



    Having three cables (2 X midi and 1 power) is also quite inconvenient
    There will be a one-cable solution for the FCB1010 in the course of next month


    Cool! I'll look forward to seeing this! I saw the tutorial you'd linked to for modding the FCB to run off one cable, but it looked like it was a bit out of my league, haha!


    One thing I forgot to mention in my previous post is that the FCB occasionally

  • The upcoming foot controller vs the FCB1010

    For me, it's mostly about the increased lag over standard 5-pin midi. I'm pretty sure the switching time will be reduced over ethernet (someone quoted the switching time via FCB at 30+ ms, whereas the KPA is capable of less than half that IIRC). Having three cables (2 X midi and 1 power) is also quite inconvenient, especially as I'm also currently having to use an external pedal for spring reverb...


    Cheers,
    Sam

  • Rig Manager on Mac (Crossover,Bootcamp etc)

    Quote from thebrushwithin

    Thanks Brian, the Kemper does not show up in devices, in Virtual Box, yet in Preferences it says the connection is okay.


    Dunno if Virtual Box is similar to Parallels, but I connected the Profiler to the computer before trying to run Rig Manager, as Windows has to install drivers for it (requiring a virtual reboot of Windows, too). Then the KPA shows up under USB devices. Maybe you skipped that step...?


    Cheers,
    Sam