first gig with the KPA- not great

    hello my fellow KPA'ers. i'm hoping that you can help me out. i've been subbing regularly with a band that uses IEM's as their primary way of monitoring. i got my KPA about a month ago and purchased some of the m. britt profile packs (which are amazing). i've spent the last 2 weeks tweaking about 10 patches that sound phenomenal through the headphone jack using headphones. last night i took the KPA out on it's maiden voyage with this band and the results were less than spectacular. first off, part of the problem is that i had my volume pedal placed pre-stomps, which meant that my higher gain patches were almost clean. i've since moved the volume pedal to the pre-effects position where i vastly prefer it.


    my main problem was that all of my patches that sounded great through the headphone jack were very thin sounding through my IEM's. the gain patches (after i fixed the placement of the volume pedal) were very harsh and gritty sounding- almost like the cabinet was bypassed. i checked to make sure that the KPA was configured correctly. i was coming out of the left "main" output via XLR and had the KPA set to "main mono". the cabinet light was definitely lit and i made sure to tell the soundman to set the EQ flat in my IEM's.


    i don't have an FRFR speaker or access to a PA system but i'm not sure that i would need to tweak the KPA with either since this band only uses IEM's as monitors. is there something that i'm missing or have overlooked? i can't believe that the tone would be THAT much different coming out of the headphone jack than it would coming out of the main output.

    Is it the same inears you're using to tweak your patches? If yes, then the problem must lie between the main out and the desk. Check the output level. The KPA main outs are very hot. I recommend a value of around -15 to -20 dB, if you're going in to a mic preamp input. The sound of the output distorting can be very similar to the sound of the KPA with Cabs off.

    I've unlinked the master xlr outs and set them to -20db, so the master volume doesn't affect the level going to desk. Saves me from the temptation to turn up and overdrive the input on desk

    Quote from sambrox

    Is it the same inears you're using to tweak your patches? If yes, then the problem must lie between the main out and the desk. Check the output level. The KPA main outs are very hot. I recommend a value of around -15 to -20 dB, if you're going in to a mic preamp input. The sound of the output distorting can be very similar to the sound of the KPA with Cabs off.


    yes, i had the main out running at -18dB. i also had them unlinked from the master volume. my clean patches weren't distorting though. they were just thin and bright sounding. the gain patches however sounded very nasty- almost like the cabinet was set to off

    I have a similar issue. I have pretty good headphones that I mix with, in a room to the side of my church's stage. However, when I use my westone ear-buds the guitar sounds thin and harsh comparatively. However when I use my Bose $100 ear buds, I like the sound of my guitar and it sounds similar to by big headphones that I mix with. For practice I prefer to use the Westones because of the clarity and the ability to pick out what the other musicians are doing, which is important since I'm the music director and responsible to make sure everything is working (as I work with about 15 musicians that serve one or two weekends a month each and we do 5 different songs each week with about 35-40 songs in our recent repotoire, thus each weekend with a different team and set list) However, for the services, I use my Bose. It doesn't block as much room sound as the westones and lets me feel more connected.
    Thus if you are confident that what the house hears sounds good like when you mixed and can hear what you need you hear to perform well, it comes down to whether you can live with a harsh sound.

    Did you spend some time in rehearsals with the band or just bring your Kemper to the gig and go in cold? Sounds like the latter which is pretty ballsey. Guitar on its own vs in a band setting vs even the actual gig is hard to judge as the dynamics change.

    Quote from SwAn1

    Did you spend some time in rehearsals with the band or just bring your Kemper to the gig and go in cold? Sounds like the latter which is pretty ballsey. Guitar on its own vs in a band setting vs even the actual gig is hard to judge as the dynamics change.


    nope. no rehearsals. i've played with this band before both using my axe fx II (which has since been sold) and my tech 21 flyrig. i was pretty sure that it would work since the patches that i tweaked sounded amazing with my IEM's through the headphone jack

    Quote from Grooguit

    I have a similar issue. I have pretty good headphones that I mix with, in a room to the side of my church's stage. However, when I use my westone ear-buds the guitar sounds thin and harsh comparatively. However when I use my Bose $100 ear buds, I like the sound of my guitar and it sounds similar to by big headphones that I mix with. For practice I prefer to use the Westones because of the clarity and the ability to pick out what the other musicians are doing, which is important since I'm the music director and responsible to make sure everything is working (as I work with about 15 musicians that serve one or two weekends a month each and we do 5 different songs each week with about 35-40 songs in our recent repotoire, thus each weekend with a different team and set list) However, for the services, I use my Bose. It doesn't block as much room sound as the westones and lets me feel more connected.
    Thus if you are confident that what the house hears sounds good like when you mixed and can hear what you need you hear to perform well, it comes down to whether you can live with a harsh sound.


    so, would the ultimate solution be to invest $600-$800 on a great set of IEM's? i have friends that use high quality IEM's that love them and are satisfied with their guitar tones with them

    You can also try monitoring directly from the KPA, and have the rest of the band monitor mix sent to the Aux input. This is assuming you can have the guitar signal taken out of your mix send and not impact the rest of the band. That way you get the nice direct KPA sound of your guitar, and can balance in how much of the rest of the band you want. That's how I use mine live, and I just do a quick IEM's out check to see how the guitar sounds in the FOH.


    sean

    I have been told the Main and Monitor Out signal is the same as what comes out of the headphone jack, however the headphone jack always sounds warmer to me when I hook up my Carvin EM900 system. It must have something to do with the impedance value of the headphone jack(?).


    The regular output does sound brittle to me as well when used for IEM purposes (not to FOH).

    The key to everything is patience.
    You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.
    -- Arnold H. Glasow


    If it doesn't produce results, don't do it.

    -- Me

    i use mine with ultimate ears ue18 iem's with a behringer x32 desk . The default on the desk is pre fader and eq on the aux send and without any reverb , delay etc. This makes all the drums vocal mics etc sound very dry compared to the sound of the kemper, which is a complete sound as you wanted to hear it. I went thru the settings on my monitor mix on the desk and managed to change each channel to post fader and post eq and that made it sound a whole lot better and sit in the mix :)

    I use IEM's and id never go back to playing without them. I think you should tweak you sounds through a PA at gig volume. I send the main outs to the desk which are routed to my IEMs so I can take effect of the awesome space effect. This really enhances the IEM experience. But then I also send the monitor out to the desk but this feeds FOH and can be eq'd without effecting my IEM mix