Concerned about tones Im hearing from new Strat with Kemper

    Quote from lasvideo

    Explored the INPUT options. I dropped the Distortion Sense a little bit to -2.2 db. Ive gone thru about 50 rigs and the Strat sounds good. No other modifications have been made. This seems like a good omen.


    Yes, Input sense is very important. You have to set it right for every guitar, to get the best sound. The strength of signal from guitar differs a lot. It depends on strings material, pickup construction, pickup height.... This is what I wanted to suggest you to tweak. :)
    BTW, you can save different setups of input sense as presets for different guitars you have. When you change guitar, all you have to do is switch input preset. ;)

    Quote from Peto

    set it right for every guitar, to get the best sound. The strength of signal from guitar differs a lot. It depends on strings material, pickup construction, pickup height.... This is what I wanted to suggest you to tweak. :)
    BTW, you can save different setups of input sens


    Don't get me wrong, but Christoph Kemper has explained it over and over again: The input sense setting does NOT have an influence on the sound. It's just a way of balancing the perceived volume of clean against distorted sounds.

    Quote from Peto


    Yes, Input sense is very important. You have to set it right for every guitar, to get the best sound. The strength of signal from guitar differs a lot. It depends on strings material, pickup construction, pickup height.... This is what I wanted to suggest you to tweak. :)
    BTW, you can save different setups of input sense as presets for different guitars you have. When you change guitar, all you have to do is switch input preset. ;)


    Actually I did try it when I read your suggestion, but I had so many other parameters tweeked it didnt seem to do what I needed. Now it has done something to the high frequencies that come out of the Fat 50s pups and allowed the guitar to sound good with most of the rigs on my system (770). So, a belated thank you is in order :)

    Quote from joerch

    Don't get me wrong, but Christoph Kemper has explained it over and over again: The input sense setting does NOT have an influence on the sound. It's just a way of balancing the perceived volume of clean against distorted sounds.


    You are right that Clean sense does not have influence on the sound, but Distortion sense has influence on distortion level.
    This is what I meant (from KPA manual):
    If you feel that your guitar tends to drive the distortion too hot (or too soft) for the majority of preset rigs,
    then calibrate your guitar by setting “Distorted Sens”, to the left or right from the neutral zero position.


    I think this is the lasvideo's problem with Soloist vs Strat.
    I have Ibanezes with Bill Lawrence XLs which are really hot pickups and I always have to switch input sense when switching to Strat.

    lasvideo-what are you listening through? powered FRFR speaker or something else? I would consider letting someone send you a profile that sounds good with their strat or LP and the input settings so you can try it and give feedback on a common known profile. Just a thought. I can send you one for comparison or someone else. Let me know if this is something you'd like to pursue.

    "More Guitar in the Monitors" :thumbup:

    Quote from Peto

    I think this is the lasvideo's problem with Soloist vs Strat.
    I have Ibanezes with Bill Lawrence XLs which are really hot pickups and I always have to switch input sense when switching to Strat.


    Yup. That was my problem. And making that adjustment seems to have cleared up the problem. :thumbup: My Strat and its Fat 50s sound great thru the Kemper.

    Edited once, last by lasvideo ().

    Quote from bshaw92

    lasvideo-what are you listening through? powered FRFR speaker or something else? I would consider letting someone send you a profile that sounds good with their strat or LP and the input settings so you can try it and give feedback on a common known profile. Just a thought. I can send you one for comparison or someone else. Let me know if this is something you'd like to pursue.


    Thanks for the offer,bshaw92. I am listening thru a FRFR monitor. The QSC K10. I appreciate the offer but this adjustment I made to the Distortion Sense seems to have done the trick. Ive gone thru about 50 rigs and the Strat sounds good.

    Quote from Guitartone

    For the record.


    My Teles destroy my Strats when using the Kemper. :D :D :D

    Then maybe your teles are just better than your strats....


    I can't confirm this at all, my strats ('58 original, '66 original, '56 reissue) sound excellent with the the KPA, my teles ('66 original and 90's standard) sound excellent, too, there's no difference in quality.


    I don't have any problems with KPA and strats, they fit perfect and they're my main guitars. Les Paul, SG and ES-335 sound great, too, for sure it depends always on the used profiles. Some amps sound better with strats/single-coils, some with Humbucker-guitars.



    [Blocked Image: http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w489/kingbee789/3_strats_zpse972c35f.jpg]

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    first name: Guenter / family name: Haas / www.guenterhaas.de

    I have my dist. Sense at 0. I stopped playing with those long ago. I have the amp profiles do the work so when I plug any guitar in, it sounds like I would expect. So many variables, so little time.

    "More Guitar in the Monitors" :thumbup:

    Quote

    Yes, this was EXACTLY my experience at first mdeeRocks. I have 720 rigs on Kemper (many of them TAF). Just about every rig that had boosted Gain suffered from that shrill bad tone. Upon inspection, many had Definition set to 10. Lowering it to 5 helped a lot. And setting Clarity to 5 sealed the deal. :)


    I have no amps to profile and will rely on files I download or purchse in the future. But now I know they will work with the Soloist AND the Strat.


    Definition at 10 makes the profile very modern sounding for the lack of better explanation. I don't like my strat with 5150 :)
    I am glad you sorted it out


    These are some proper guitars. My strats sound great with kemper, assuming I have a profile made for a strat. Half of my playing is my strat too.

    Hello Lasvid ! I'm happy thet you finally got this strat singing !!! Input sense is really really important.


    I had the same issue with an 92 US strat, it sounded like shit on crunch & higher gain. Tweaking profiles did help but I couldn't stand tweaking each rig since my squier tele sounded far better on the same stock rigs :cursing:


    Here is how I solved the issue : I sold the strat !!! I suspected the stock PU to be the reason of a bad tone. Good guitar setup did not change anything.


    I bought a cheap squier body & neck bought some Fender Hot noiseless PU ( Jeff Beck model ) and had all the electronics (quality parts) mounted by a specialist. Once all was up I dialed my best strat profile and WOW , I sounded instantly stellar. So good that I use it now on 90% of my recordings.


    Now I got this 300€ strat sounding like a custom shop US strat LOL : hear it in action on a JTM rig here


    I dont' believe the made is USA hype anymore , all those overpriced strats and LesPaul (especially in europe here )are just marketing tactics to get your money, this is why I buy second hand, japanese & chinese guitars now.

    Quote from mdeeRocks

    Definition at 10 makes the profile very modern sounding for the lack of better explanation. I don't like my strat with 5150 :)
    I am glad you sorted it out


    As it turns out, Definition and Clarity did not solve my problem.They just reduced it a little. After more research I found by going into the INPUT menu, I could completely fix my issue by reducing the Distortion Sense from 0 to -2.2. Thats all I had to do. Now the Strat sounds great with all 700 profiles on my Kemper.

    Quote from waraba

    had the same issue with an 92 US strat, it sounded like shit on crunch & higher gain. Tweaking profiles did help but I couldn't stand tweaking each rig


    Im glad that I found by going into the INPUT menu, I could completely fix my similar problem by reducing the Distortion Sense from 0 to -2.2. Thats all I had to do. Now the Strat sounds great with all 700 profiles on my Kemper. I am so glad I didnt have to sell my Strat and can now fully enjoy using it with the Kemper. Though it took a couple of days to figure this fix out.

    Quote from lasvideo

    Im glad that I found by going into the INPUT menu, I could completely fix my similar problem by reducing the Distortion Sense from 0 to -2.2. Thats all I had to do. Now the Strat sounds great with all 700 profiles on my Kemper. I am so glad I didnt have to sell my Strat and can now fully enjoy using it with the Kemper. Though it took a couple of days to figure this fix out.


    Just to be clear about this (and it has been stated by CK several times): reducing distortion sense does not change the sound at all.
    You could have lowered distortion in all profiles you saw fit instead.
    Nothing more, nothing less.
    And quite surprising IMO because I'd expect a user to raise distortion on quite some profiles because of the low level pickups of generic Strats.
    I know I did, and I'm originally a Strat player (similar to Günter), too.
    So what you actually did was quite the opposite of what was to be expected.


    I'm 100% positive the culprit lies elsewhere.

    Your conjecture is interesting, but it works in practice and thats all that counts to me. :)


    BTW, heres a quote from CK that might clear things up...


    You are right that Clean sense does not have influence on the sound, but Distortion sense has influence on distortion level.
    This is what I meant (from KPA manual):
    If you feel that your guitar tends to drive the distortion too hot (or too soft) for the majority of preset rigs,
    then calibrate your guitar by setting “Distorted Sens”, to the left or right from the neutral zero position.

    Yes, I know this statement of course.
    What I want to say is you could have changed/lowered the distortion level of a respective rig instead and achieved the same.
    I stand by my statement that I find it illogical that this should be the general culprit here (and also want to fight the birth of another myth ... ;) )
    Good thing is you're happy with your Strat now.
    Later on I'm sure you'll find different ways to make it sound awesome through the profiler. :)

    The only scenario where I would use distortion sense is when my guitar would go down on a gig and somebody would hand me a replacement with much hotter or weaker pickups that my rigs were dialed in for.
    Only then I would change the distortion sense accordingly to make up for it.


    In any other case distortion sense would remain untouched and I'd tweak a rig for the use my guitar instead.

    The Fat 50s on my Strat are way hotter then the HB on my Soloist.
    Soloist sounds great with Dist sens at 0. Strat sounds great with Dist sens at -2.2.
    My instincts and extensive testing of all other parameters make it clear I made the right choice. And CKs quote supports my experience.
    Bottom line, everything sounds great and I am happy :)



    BTW -(Global change of Dist Sens makes more sence then on a rig by rig basis in the way I use the Kemper.)