PA sound - I'm doing something stupid...

Have you touched the OUTPUT button?
That is where you can unlink you outputs to make level adjustments for running it though a FRFR or PA system.
I run mine into an FRFR monitor through the monitor out. I run the main out to the house system. Both as mono.
Works great and really sounds outstanding.

Lowering the gain on the channel would be my guess. If you're getting a clipped sound even after reducing levels on the Kemper, it's likely that the gain on that channel is set too high.

Been seeing a lot of these issues of late. What's up?

Quote from nightlight

Been seeing a lot of these issues of late. What's up?

I suspect it is an issue with many guitar-players not being involved with PA much. In bands who do their own PA from the stage this job usually lands with the bass-player or drummer. Possibly because they have less gear to look after. I have never had problems hooking the KPA up to any mixing console (analogue or digital), or to any computer/recording audio-interface. There's the possibility of an odd broken unit, but beyond that it is just a question of some basic knowledge. Keeping track of the signal-chain in various amp-simulators is very different to just placing a microphone in front of a traditional tube-amp. I've seen many guitarists with such equipment who get their distortion from many other places than the stomp or amp-model they think it originates from.

With Soundcrafts Spirit Notepad OP should be able to experiment with both balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (1/4" jack) outputs from the KPA. Decent sound in a headset connected to the notepad should shouldn't require more than turning the pre-amp level down so that it doesn't clip. This mixer is able to handle signals up to +14dBu on the mic-input and +30dBu on the line-input.

Someone should write up a simple tutorial to give people a better understanding of the signal-path and gain-staging. If the guitar sounds good in a headset connected to the KPA it should also sound good at FOH with only a little tweaking of the KPA-output and channel-gain on the FOH-console. Good mixing-consoles and audio-interfaces have neutral channel-preamps that don't color the sound, but it is still wise to try to balance the output on the KPA so that the mixer's input gain-control can remain close to or just slightly above 0dB. You should try to minimise attenuation and re-amplification in any signal-chain to maintain the best possible S/N-ratio.

As an example: I'm running my KPA through a Behringer X32 rackmount mixer for practise and also at small venues where I handle FOH myself. In this setup I connect the KPA with XLR to a linked pair of channels. The KPA's main volume sits at about -10dB with the mixer's channel gain at +4dB. This output-level also works well with other mixers such as a cheap Mackie analog mixer as well as a high-end Midas Pro2 digital console that I use from time to time. For comparison a vocal condenser microphone such as a Shure Beta87A has the X32-mixers channel-gain at about +40dB. Your guitar signal should be suitable for just about any mixer with the KPAs main output at between -10dB and -20dB. There has been very few occasions where I had to go below -20dB.

Quote from V8guitar

OK, tried to get a decent sound via a PA and all my attempts so far it's very clippy/distorted.

Admitedly I've not had much of a go, but I tried at our rehearsal room and started with very little signal and then the clippy/distorted sound - definitely not eq-able.

It was set to line input. There is a possibility that the channel was faulty but...

I don't have easy access to a PA so have tried to use my mini mixer ( spirit notepad) through headphones and get the same result. Note I don't think I can change the input to line but it has adjustable gain. Will it work trying to use the mini mixer?

When I bought it ( second hand) the chap plugged into a monitor to demo and it sounded fine so I know it's OK, although not sure what output he used though. I've not changed anything much since then..

I did what paults suggested and turned the output to -20db.

So, some questions:

1) Anything obvious I'm not doing right?
2) Any easy way to test it at home?? I'll try to get a powered monitor.
3) Should using monitor or main make much difference to the basic sound ( I am getting the same result)

BTW I have read the manual

I know this is user error and wonder if it's just a comedy of errors....duff channel and wrong type of input on the mini mixer??

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I don't think you are doing anything stupid I just don't think its the KPA. I bought my KPA and hooked it up to my small PA that consists of 2 Yamaha S115V's a power amp and a Mackie 1604 mixer. I run out one of the XLR's on the KPA and set the output to Mono. It sounds amazing no matter what profile I use. I think my output is set between -30 and -20. No where near to clipping on the mixer. I take the same setup to practice, we have a small powered board but speakers are like Harbinger 12" speaker and horn and the board is a powered Behringer. Distorted profiles sound like fuzz and just not a good sound at all. I make sure the same things no clipping on the board but no matter what you do you cannot get it to sound good. So now I just bring my FRFR to practice and no problems. So my point is try the KPA on some good equipment, we use the same sound man with a nice system so the KPA sounds great through that each night.

I wouldn't be so quick to junk your current gear. After all, it's just a mixer, routing your sound to a speaker pair. You might run into similar problems live in case the soundman doesn't know what he's doing and you should be able to offer a solution.

Perhaps run something else through the mixer and see if it's acting up.

Great! you are making some progress

Quote from V8guitar

Going to get some time with a proper mixer. Just found out that the main PA I tried the channel was faulty so i just need to get back on it!

That would explain a thing or two...

Is that the same channel you were using when you have a big, loud guitar cabinet on stage?

It all started like this: "Give the bad channel to the guitar player - his amp microphone is never turned up in the PA. His stage volume is more than enough".

Hooray!

No - I'm glad you are getting a great sound:)

Don't be so hard on yourself, Guy.