That's weird... Maybe someone from Kemper can pitch in?
("Lock volume pedal", by the way, means that the position you select is maintained across rigs; otherwise it varies from rig to rig.)
Posts by Robrecht
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It doesn't include the pedal, that's what makes me wonder. All combinations with "Git" in their name on all available outputs ignore the volume pedal.Maybe that has something to do with the requirement, according to the manual, that the Volume pedal should be placed "Pre Stomps"? Maybe it's somewhere else in your rig?
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Yeah Ingolf, I'm fast.
Also, the "Git + Processing" output setting seems to include the volume pedal (but with AD conversion). From the manual:
QuoteGit + Processing (Not available for Spdif Output).
Similar to “Git Analog” but AD conversion is taking place. This puts the noise gate from the input section and the volume pedal in the signal path (if volume pedal is set to “Pre Stomps”).
Note: The volume control of the respective outputs will have no impact on the source settings “Git”, because they are made to reproduce the original instrument volume.
The "Pre Stomps" requirement may be a limitation though, depending on how you want to use it.BTW: Yes, there's AD/DA (or at least AD) conversion because you can route the Git signal to the S/PDIF out.
Huh, good point... -
If I understand it correctly, it doesn't affect any of the volume settings accessible through menus and knobs but rather has its own, moveable position. After pressing the Rig button, you can select where in the signal chain you want the volume pedal to go: "Pre Stomps", "Post Stomps" (but Pre Amp), "Pre Effects" or "Post Effects".
However, I don't think that will affect the unprocessed "Git" signal which is, after all, unprocessed (no AD/DA conversion).
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It's nice to have different tones so you can more clearly each guitar, but unless they're both panned dead center, I wouldn't worry about frequency overlap.
In a live situation usually everything is summed to mono, both guitarists come from FOH on both sides of the stage. Otherwise you'd have the people on the other side of the stage hear only the rhythm guitars during a solo and vice versa.
Yeah, I'm trying to get a similar tone to the other guitarist's powerfull midrange-driven sound so mine will hold its own, but not exactly the same.Oh yeah, another thing we found out while discussing the gig with fans who were present is that the soundguy apparently added a lot of reverb to the guitars. He was probably more used to mixing "classic" rock bands (we play melodic/proggy/Pink Floyd influenced/low-tuned death metal...). Nothing we (or my Kemper) could do anything about, unfortunately, since we didn't hear it from the stage.
By the way -- speaking about solo and rhythm guitar: we recently started slightly reducing the rhythm guitar's volume during solos as opposed to boosting the solo to "louder than loud", it works well as long as you keep it subtle!
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Glad you've got things sorted out, but what you've described isn't due to "digital amp emulation" at all. The same issue exists with tube amps too. It's called the Fletcher-Munson curve.
Long story short - create your patches at the volume level you intend to play them at.
Sorry, that's what I meant, actually -- the Fletcher-Munson curves apply to any sound source, of course, I didn't mean to imply that they're somehow a "defect" of digital emulators. The only thing that links this issue to digital amp emulation is the fact that digital simulators can be played at very low volumes, or even through headphones, whereas with a 150W tube amp it's kind of a given that you have to play and tweak it loud. It's a convenience of digital emulators that can lead to user mistakes like mine -- i.e., not taking the effects of volume into account.And I agree, the best way is probably to create two versions of each rig so I can use the Studio EQ to make more precise adjustments (I'd love to have a full parametric EQ in the output section though...).
Thanks everyone, I think I'm good to go!
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Hey folks, quick update. I've had one tweaking session at full volume last Friday, when only the other guitarist and I were present so we couldn't do a full rehearsal anyway.
One thing I've learned is not to use the dials too gingerly. I think that, unconsciously, the idea that these rigs were made by people with a lot more experience than myself held me back before: "these guys know how a guitar should sound, so let's not mess that up by turning the treble down too far!" What I've now realized is that, first, turning up the volume to live levels will change the sound anyway, so it would take some deep EQ-ing to even restore the "intended" sound of the rig, and second, of course, that I should just trust my ears and look for the sound I want. It may sound obvious, but I guess it takes some time with new gear before you lose the timidity to push it to its limits.
Another thing is that midrange helps. Our other guitarist gets a very bold, distinctive, warm sound from his 5150ii by turning midrange way up to about 3 o'clock, highs down to about 9 o'clock, and lows a little over noon, with a not too excessive amount of gain. I should not copy him exactly, to avoid getting overlapping our spectrum ranges, but his sound is so powerful that mine needs a lot of mids as well to hold its ground.
I think overall I can say that the "problem" was definitely not inherent to any technical limitations of the KPA, but it is, in a sense, inherent to digital amp emulation in general: since it allows you to play at much lower volumes than actual tube amps, you fall into the trap of creating your sound at "bedroom" levels, away from the rest of the band, which doesn't automatically translate well to live situations.
I'll try and post more detailed findings as I keep tweaking over the next rehearsals.
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Sure, I'll report what works best after I've had a chance to play at high volumes again (hopefully this Friday)!
I'm sure it's a common problem for many of us with time consuming day jobs, kids, homes in populated areas... we want to use those precious rehearsal times for actual playing so we tweak our sound at home, alone, using headphones or at low volumes, which is far from optimal for many different reasons.
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I love both the crickets and Don's track!! Thanks for sharing.
The repetitive atmosphere of the falling raindrops reminds my of this little Reich-like piece I made a while ago...
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Choose another profile. It's that simple.
You could make a profile of the other guitarists amp.Did you take the chance to browse through the variety of profiles while you have been rehearsing with the band?
If not, you have missed something.
So you're saying there are tiny little other amps... inside my Kemper?
That sounds like crazy talk, mister Kemper!! 
(I'm reminded of that guy on the forum who, if I understood his question correctly, thought the Kemper was an amp with only two channels: 'browse' and 'performance'...)
Kidding aside, I know my question sounds a bit obvious. I have tried different profiles during rehearsals. Due to various circumstances, I didn't have a lot of full-on rehearsal time with my Kemper before the gig, so I had to settle with a basic sound quickly and work from there, but of course the first thing I'll do at the next band practice is going through all the profiles again. I've been thinking about profiling the other guitarist's amp -- if I can find a good mike I will!
The problem is we only have one rehearsal a week, so I don't get to crank my speakers very often. That's why I wanted to collect as many tips and pointers as possible so I could make the most of those couple of hours next Friday.
If it sounds weaker then the first thing I'd try is the obvious I guess and crank up the volume a bit. Maybe try that in the next sound check.
btw, you didn't mention if you carried a backup amp, just in case. Do you?
Yeah, if I'd known during the gig, that would have been the first thing to ask the sound guy. The thing is I was pretty loud in the monitors on stage, and during the sound check I wasn't able to go and listen in front of the stage. The other guitarist (who has a wireless system) said it sounded ok but maybe he was biased towards his own guitar.I didn't have a backup amp (that's how much I trust my Kemper!
) but if anything had gone wrong I'm sure something could have been arranged -- some members of the other bands in the gig's lineup are good friends.My advice is to turn down the amp's definition parameter a touch. Chug chug is a boosted 5150 3 iirc. That tightness comes at an expense, which is that it can be harder to cut through without getting harsh. Not sure its gonna be that simple but worth a shot
Good point. I like Chug chug's general sound but I actually don't need it to be that tight. I'll be trying other profiles as well, but the tension between 'tightness' and 'cutting through the mix', and its relation to the definition parameter, is something to keep in mind.Maybe try setting your Main out to Master Mono so that both your FOH and backline get the same signal. Better still, why not use the Monitor out for your back line.
I decided to go with the main outs for both backline and FOH because I trusted the XLR cables I had with me more, and because I hadn't experimented that much with the monitor out yet (again because of time restraints the past few weeks), but next time I'll definitely do it the 'proper' way.Also, be sure to make your sounds (tweak rigs) at stage volume. If a rig sounds good at low level, when you raise the SPL you'll hear a prominence of bass and high freqs, which seems exactly the issue you're reporting.
Basically, if you use a higher volume than when you tweaked the sound, you shall add mids (or lower the other freqs and raise the overall volume.HTH
I knew about differences in sound perception at different volumes, but I didn't know they affected the midrange versus highs and lows balance specifically. This may have been a big factor in my high volume sound. I'll definitely try EQ'ing to compensate for this at the next rehearsal!The first thing that comes to mind with a stereo setup is you may have some phase cancellation going on, and that will always affect your tone negatively. Moving your speakers around can change this.
There weren't any actual stereo effects in my basic profile, but I guess phase cancellation can occur due to specific speaker placements with a mono signal as well. Something to keep in mind!How was it in rehearsals?
Did you have the impression that both guitars have their sonic place?
Or do you right in the midrange.
It's always good advice for a guitarist to occupy only a certain space and not to invade the territory of the bass and your fellow guitarist.
That's something I try to pay attention to, but with our current setup (my Kemper's new and since I got it, the other guitarist switched to the amp I was using before) we're just not quite there yet. It's part of what I want to work on.Thanks guys -- I now have a lot of ideas to try next time I get to turn up the volume!
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So I took my Kemper on stage for the first time yesterday, having owned it for about a month now.
Everything went pretty well; the sound guy was happy. I had thought about different connecting options beforehand; eventually I sent one XRL out to the PA and one to my two Alto ts112a active speakers as a backline (I don't use stereo effects extensively at the moment, only some ping pong delays here and there, and I figured it wouldn't hurt if they ping-ponged between the back and the front of the stage instead of left to right).
In short, setting up, the part I had been the most nervous about, was an absolute breeze.
One complaint I did get afterwards was that my guitar sounded "weaker" to the audience than that of the other guitarist, who plays through a 'classic' setup: a Peavey 5150ii and a miked cab. Now, this could be a volume issue caused by the sound guy (I could hear myself alright through the stage monitors), or it could be my peculiar back-to-front stereo setup (although my 'basic' distorted sound doesn't involve any stereo effects), but it's something that I've noticed during rehearsals as well. My sound is less focused, less "projected" somehow; it has plenty of highs and lows but seems to lack "body".
Is it the old "amp in the room" issue? I tend to think it isn't; at least, I'm not consciously looking for that and I don't care about mimicking the traditional guitar setup, I just want to sound good.
I realize there are a lot of unknowns here. I don't know exactly how the other guitarist sets his amp to get that authoritative fullness. It could just be the profile I'm using (Lasse Lammert's Chug Chug); it sounds amazing at home volumes and in a recorded mix, but maybe it isn't that well suited for live use? Can anyone comment on that?
Or are there any general tricks to get any profile to sound a little more focused? I'm not looking for ready-made solutions here; I haven't been able to experiment that much yet during rehearsals in the past month, so I will definitely start trying a lot of other rigs, boosts in front of the amp, EQ bumps at different places in the spectrum, tweaking the parameters in the Amp section... so, to clarify, this isn't a complaint about an issue with the Kemper (in fact, the smooth setup for the gig has made me even happier with it), just a "I need to do some fine-tuning, any tips?" thread!
Oh yeah, here's my Kemper on stage (to the far right in the picture, right behind me)!
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This is excellent... thank you!
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You do know that "browse" and "perform" are not simply two channels like "rhythm" and "lead" on a classic amp, right?
They're two different modes of storing and accessing hundreds of different sound profiles ("rigs").
You should probably start out in browse mode. Turn the right hand knob above the screen or press the left and right buttons in the + shaped button group on the right to browse through different rigs. There are plenty of rhythm AND lead (and crunch and clean) tones to be found.
Once you've found a number of tones you like, you can use perform mode to organize them in "performances" (groups of tones used for a concert or a specific song).
Or did your question mean something else?
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To be honest, I think the ease of use of the Kemper is more important than the exotic use cases that would require these features.
My old GT-10 has a very flexible signal chain, part of which can be split into two parallel chains, but the only things I ever used that for -- stereo spreading of direct and pitch-shifted tones, and parallel reverb/delay lines -- are already covered by the Kemper in a very intuitive way (a single knob).
Some of the changes suggested here would introduce inconsistencies with the hardware user interface (the layout of the A, B, C, D, stack, X and Mod buttons) and logic (one slot = one effect) that are built into the Kemper. Dissociating the way the device operates from the way the interface suggests it works is not a good idea. It would create confusion and get in the way of users trying to dial in their setup. Therefore I don't think more is simply better: adding the wrong features could harm the Kemper's user experience.
Mind you, this is just my opinion -- I don't want to dictate what others can or cannot need just because I don't see the usefulness of something!
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Then you may have -as example- delay and reverb parallel to each other which means the one does not corrupt the other.
You can already do that. There's a knob in the reverb section called 'Delay/Reverb Balance' that allows a lot of different combinations, like applying reverb only to the dry signal and not to the delay (as in your example) or vice versa. -
Very interesting, thanks.
+1 for a parametric EQ in the output section.
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This was brought up a while back and CK did propose having it headphone only and having it as an effect in the X slot. Quite a few people said they would be happy with this, maybe it will cahnge in the next firmware
Yeah, I remember that now, and it will neatly solve my 'problem'* going back and forth between speakers and headphones. Still, I can imagine some people wanting several different output presets for headphones alone, with different Space and EQ settings. And since Space is in the output section, I found it weird that it wasn't saved to presets along with the other parameters.* First world problem of course -- turning a knob now and then...
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That's a pity, as it would be great if it was automatically set to zero in my powered speakers preset and turned up again for headphones, along with the other settings.
Wait, I forgot -- wasn't the space parameter going to be headphones only? I haven't checked yet since the latest update. Still, it might be good if it was included in presets with the rest of the output settings. -
Use the left browse knob. The right one browses between presets, the left one between the available types of effects.
