Revenge of the crackling/buzzing sound

Quote from no_dice

Okay, I've spoken to another user, and he tested his KPA with the same profile and said he does not get the same noises as I do. Even my wife, who takes no notice of my guitar playing at all, commented about the noise. I'm not making this stuff up out of some crazy desire to have problems with my equipment.

Is there any chance it could be a problem with a setting in my KPA and not a hardware issue? Could possibly sending a backup to support help?

Also, with no cable plugged in, there is intermittent noise that registers on the tuner around G#1/A1. What the heck is going on with my KPA?

G#1 is approx. 50Hz and is indeed ground loop noise. Turning off electrical devices in the room, using a power conditioner and touching the base of the guitar plug should solve that - maybe not completely, but it shouldn't be noticeable when you play anyway.
However, i too have noticed some 'farty' sounds with high gain, and they are stereo so they are coming from the Kemper. For me, it's almost all patches with gain between 5.6 and up, no tubescreamers involved. No clipping, pickups are fairly low output, volume is bedroom-level, speakers are 12".
I'll try and debug my own unit and see what's what when i get back from work today. CK, if you're reading this, i'd appreciate your input tonight.

This whole issue is fairly simple. Electric guitars produce hum and noise. By turning down the volume pot on your guitar that noise disappears. All that noise will be amplified by the Profiler, cause it's an amplifier.
As I said, I have the same noise and hum with the same guitar in the same room, but using analog equipment.
There is no point to search a flaw in the Profiler.

This is not static noise - neither in my case or in the OP's clips. This is dynamic, and reacts very much like clipping.

Again, i'll sample it myself and post.

So, it seems my problem was something rattling in the room. Long story short, my unit is alright.

As for no_dice, i agree - it shouldn't be intermittent - but is it?
It's constant throughout the clips you posted. It's behind the guitar sound too.
If it's an outside source, the power conditioner shouldn't help either. This sounds like a particularly mean version of static noise, perhaps accentuated by the tubescreamer - and this is where CK was right.
Remember that the profiler's Tubescreamer range is between -5 and 0 - anything above 0 is ignored - so to emulate a real TS with the tone at noon you'd set the profiler's TS at -2.5. Your settings have the tone at 0.3, meaning maximum.
Ever try using a TS with the tone on maximum?

It might be a problem with the unit, i'm not dismissing anything - if the shielding for the PSU wasn't right or something of the sort, but i've never heard of a fault like that in a profiler so let's not jump ahead of ourselves.
Make sure one of the ground switches in the back of the unit is pressed it (shouln't matter which) and record something with a stock Lasse Lammert profile.
I'll record the same, and we can spot the differences

No, i'm saying a power conditioner might solve whatever 50Hz hum is in there, in hopes that we can isolate the problem - so work with one.
I have read your post, i know you used a power conditioner - my point was that the 50Hz hum (like what was captured in your tuner) is not coming from the walls, but from an external source.
This has nothing to do with your outlet, grounding or guitar, so your cable is irrelevant. The excessive noise coming from your guitar when it's plugged in is coming from an external source as well - possibly the same external source - and is being compounded by the tubescreamer.

As for the noise you recorded with nothing connected, this is coming from something else.
Speakers, screens, cellphones, bluetooth transmitters, amplifiers etc. can all attribute to this.
To some extent, this is normal and unavoidable but is being compounded by the TS, again. So record the same thing on a stock preset that i also have, with the power conditioner active and one of the ground switches on, and lets compare noise levels.
If yours is truly excessive and a different room doesn't solve it (just to make sure this is not an unshielded electrical device) then the problem is in the profiler.

Hey no_dice, I finally got around to testing those profiles. sorry for the delay. I used the Green Screamer in front with similar settings to yours, and I tried the Cobra Crunch, TOTW4, and TOTW6 profiles. Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time to test and couldn't find this thread when I did to reference your clips.

I only tested with a guitar plugged in, but should mention that the first part of your clip sounds like something is shorting out or picking up interference - you can hear the buzzes pop in and out. The amp profiles cannot explain that - there is no reason the noise wouldn't be constant, AFAIK. I'll try to test this tonight.

I don't think ground hum has anything to do with this. The KPA is digitally emulating amps - its virtual power supply is algorithmic. Since the hum sound is clearly getting amplified and manipulated by the digital profile processing and not layered on top of the digital output after converting back to analog, if there was a ground loop it'd have to affect only the input of your signal before digital processing. Since this sound is not constant but shows up under certain conditions, I don't think it's a ground loop.

It is possible that a ground hum is catalyzed by the KPA producing an output signal. In this case; however, it shouldn't matter if you used distortion or not. You would also clearly hear the sound when using clean profiles. Also, the noise gate settings shouldn't affect the tone, yet it appears that this is the case.

The first part of the second clip, where the guitar is plugged in, but nothing is being played indicates to me that the first point is kind of moot - you can't hear any buzzes swell in and out. You also mentioned you couldn't get the sound to appear on a clean profile.

Just looking at the 2nd soundcloud clip, it looks like you're clipping. I think that might actually at least partially explain this - at least its a variable that needs to be eliminated (or maybe that's just soundcloud). the 1st clip has more headroom, but I've found I need to give the KPA a little more headroom than I would assume to completely get rid of clipping. If my Output LED hits orange at all, there will likely be some clipping depending on what I'm playing. The 2nd clip seems to behave diffferently than the 1st clip. In the 2nd, the bad sound occurs as your palm mutes sustain, but as their levels recede, the noise fades out and you are left with just the background static noise, not the offensive noise.

Also, for some reason, there sound like there's a resonance or wobble to your mutes in the 2nd clip (but not the first). I'm not sure where that's coming from.

As far as getting that sound on palm mutes, I didn't really get it. The closest I could get was with the Cobra Crunch with the Green Screamer in front. I used unusably-high gain settings on the profile, with a +2 volume boost on the TS and TS drive on about +2-4. If I used a light mute and a heavy pick attack, I could get a kind of buzzy distortion, but it was clearly the amp breakup, not a mystery sound like you're getting. It certainly wasn't there with my normal muting technique, and if i didn't use such extreme gain, I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to get it at all. It faded out quickly as the notes decayed, unlike your clips where it seems to sustain independently or inversely to the note decay.

Anyway, the sound is clearly interference IMO. The KPA's digital processing sounds fine - it's just amplifying that noise. If there's anything wrong with the KPA, I think it would have to do with the input jack or something else before the A->D converter picking up more interference than it should.

CONCLUSION: The KPA is getting a high level of interference fed into its digital processing. I can't tell where it's coming from - it could be part of the KPA, but it could also be your house, your guitar(s), or other nearby electronics. The interference in addition to the profile's distortion characteristics are simply not "gelling" together at all, getting that buzzy sound. The Cobra Crunch seems to be the worst, especially at the gain levels you are using.

My theory for why clip 1 sounds so offensive is that the noise gate is removing some but not all of the noise, and the remaining noise is what you are hearing. Also it sounds like you might be using more gain in clip 1 vs. clip 2. In clip 2, the mute seems to duck the noise for a second, but as it bleeds back in, it is quite offensive; however, it quickly restores itself to normal background static noise.

The second half (different profile) of clip 1 sounds like there is much less gain, and clearly sounds less offensive. The interference is still audible but is not being as heavily compressed, amplified, and distorted by the profile.

Here's what I'd like you to do, so that I can further test this. Record a DI pretty much identical to clip 2. This should capture the interference you are picking up (which I cannot simply reproduce). I can then reamp that through the profiler and share the results. I expect them to be the same. Likewise, I will record a DI and send it to you, and you can reamp that through your profiler and see if you get the same noise. This would at least tell us if it's a guitar issue, and maybe reveal some other things.

no problem. also export your exact rig and post it. i don't think think that's an issue since these are free profiles. I want to make sure any tweaks you've made are captured and we isolate that issue up front. Even using the extreme TS boost plus extreme gain I didn't get the same result, but I may have tweaked Definition or something else (I didn't reload the profiles because I already had them...because they're awesome).

I agree it'd be quite crazy all your guitars and both your apartment and your dad's house started exhibiting interference problems at the same time. Reamping via SPDIF with your DI's vs. mine should tell you some good information - it's all digital so there's no means for the KPA to recieve analog interference.

Have you tried applying slight pressure in different directions to your input cable where it connects to the KPA? I'm wondering if it has something to do with a bad connection on the jack. So it'd be like you have a bad instrument cable, but it'd occur even when you switch cables.

Are you using any kind of outboard processing in the patches?

I found using the pick function in 'amp' causes crackling.

have the same problem with noise in most of the gain rigs and a lot of clean rigs

no_dice and I are in the process of figuring out his issue. It is not really driven by an oddball parameter or whacked up profile or anything like that - it's more of how a particularly bright and saturated distortion tone responds to noise. I can dial in a rig so that I replicate the nasty sound he's getting, but I'm using much more extreme settings than him. I have also reamped his DI's through my KPA using the exact same rigs he's having trouble with, and they sound fine. It seems like somehow his Kemper's input might be adding additional noise than when he records his DI's direct to his interface. We have more testing to do. Just wanted to point out this is separate from the Pick parameter issue (which CK has said will be adjusted to reduce artifacts in the next release!).

Dare I say to load Kaos from blank flash??? I don't like putting this out there but I had a ton of issues with my KPA until I accidentally loaded 1.0.4 kaos which bricked my unit. I then held <> with the latest Kaos file on a blank drive and now my issues are gone. Again, I hate to say it but from reading the forum there may have been a glitch between 1.0.4 and 1.0.8 (if I have the versions right???.) I have refrained myself from posting this but I have come to the conclusion that some of you out there may be experiencing the same issues I was and maybe this can help. I would try to load from flash first as I am not sure if bricking had anything to do with it but it may have. Do this at your own risk though. My unit now responds to all of the features better than ever. I don't know how this is possible but it is true. 100%. Note that after this some settings were exaggerated and had to be adjusted down because something was suppressing (so to speak) the emulations.

Note that the reason this bricked my unit is 1.0.4 is not compatible with the Powerhead. Which I have.

Quote from deadpan

Note that the reason this bricked my unit is 1.0.4 is not compatible with the Powerhead. Which I have.

Oh that's bad. It shouldn't have loaded at all.
How will this be dealt with?