Monitor out sounds better for recording than main or direct out?

    I've started doing some recordings with the Kemper, and I was trying out different outputs (mono not stereo) into my recording interface, and I find that the Monitor out seems to have a more pleasing sound than the Main Out or Direct Out. It's hard to describe, but a bit fuller and less "digital" sounding. Is there something on the Monitor output compensating a bit for running into a monitor speaker? It's almost like a very slight power amp simulation which just warms it up ever so slightly.

    Quote from Lokasenna

    Do you have any of the output EQs set differently? Are your outputs all using the same source in the Kemper? Are you recording into the same input on your interface, same levels out from the Kemper, same level on the interface, etc?


    I don't think I've ever touched an "output EQ", where do you find that? Does the Monitor Out have a different default EQ than the others? Other wise, yes they are set to Master - Mono (except for the Main Out which is master stereo but I use just the L output). Going into the same recording interface input, same everything. It's not a huge difference, but its noticeable, enough to make me prefer it.

    Output EQ lives in the output settings, a few pages to the right of the output sources. You get one for Monitor and one for Main - I use it to adjust the signal going to my Xitone so I can get it as close to my desk monitors as possible, that way once I've tweaked it to sound good while jamming I know it's fairly close to a good recording tone.


    Are you using any stereo effects? If so, that will make the L output sound different from Mono, which might be using a summed signal.


    Other than that, I can't think of anything that might cause it.


    One thing you might try, if your recording software can run VST plugins, is Voxengo Span. It's a frequency analyzer, and you can compare two different signals to see what parts are different.
    - Record a dry, direct guitar signal to your DAW
    - Hook up one of your interface outputs to run into the Kemper
    - Reamp the dry signal through your Kemper twice, once using the the Monitor out and once using Main, recording them to individual tracks
    - Pan one track left and one track right, sending them both to another track with Span loaded.
    - The current version of Span looks different from what I have, so I don't know specifically how to get it set up, but you can have it display a separate line for your left and right signals. Fiddle with the speed and resolution, maybe set it to Average instead of Instantaneous, and then press play.
    - Ideally the two curves should be more-or-less identical. If they aren't, you'll be able to see exactly which frequency ranges are different.


    What interface are you using?

    I think Lokasenna could be spot on with the stereo effects. Since we have two guitar players in the band I am goning mono to the PA using only left main out. And I expirienced the same, monitor out sounded different than the left main out until changed the monitor-out setting from "Master Mono" to "Master Left". Differences gone.

    I checked all the EQ levels and they are same. I played around a bit more, and I didn't notice any difference this time.
    I always disable the effects on any profile after I load it, but it's possible that bouncing around I might have forgot and that's why it sounded different.


    So I tried switching outputs with the effects on, and yes you can notice a slight difference there because of the stereo/mono issue, so that must have been it.

    Just checked Main and Monitor Out, exactly the same signal, no difference at all.


    Did you check that "Monitor Cab Off" is not activated?

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