How do you optimize the input level?

    What's the best way to optimize the input level so that I'm sending as strong a signal as possible to the KPA to minimize noise?


    I watched the Kemper tutorial regarding the Input stage, but in that, it just reviews clean sense, distortion sense and the alternative input option. And from what I gather in that video, the clean sense feature is more for making sure the clean and distortion sounds are balanced, correct?


    Right now, my input LED just lights up to a bright green (never hits red, even when I'm on my bridge humbucker pickup playing heavy chords). It doesn't sound bad or anything like that. So I'm okay with leaving it where it is. But I know sending a strong signal in, helps to cut down some noise. So I just want to make sure I've got my input level in the best possible state before I really start putting time into setting my tones and saving rigs.


    I only use one guitar, so I don't need to worry about different levels for different guitars. At this point, I don't have anything plugged in, in between the guitar and KPA front input. Though I suspect I'll soon be adding a wah (unless I find some wah sounds that I like using an expression pedal connected to the KPA), as well as my wireless.


    Thanks!

    Clean sens to adapt KPA to your guitar. Dist sens to balance clean vs. distorted sounds (leave it at zero if you don't encounter any problem). You might want to watch that video again ;)

    Quote from mrs-zambesi

    Clean sens to adapt KPA to your guitar. Dist sens to balance clean vs. distorted sounds (leave it at zero if you don't encounter any problem). You might want to watch that video again ;)


    I just did. And it says "clean sense allows you to adjust the loudness of clean sounds." Maybe I wasn't clear in what I was asking in my original post. What I'm asking is if there is basically an input level control, so that I can increase the input hitting the Kemper resulting in stronger signal coming in, improving signal to noise ratio. For example, when using my old rig (a G-System), it was recommended to use an input buffer like the Lehle Sunday Driver to increase the strength of the signal hitting the G-System up front, improving signal to noise ratio. If that's what clean sense is, then it's not exactly explained accurately and I just missed it.


    It seemed to me that increasing the distortion sense would be the closest thing to do to accomplish this. But again, I may not be understanding it correctly.

    Quote from OhG


    It seemed to me that increasing the distortion sense would be the closest thing to do to accomplish this. But again, I may not be understanding it correctly.

    no, just leave distortion sens alone.
    Turn clean sens up until you get a bit of red in the input LED. It's nearly impossible to clip the profiler`s input due to a smart soft clipping circuit. Believe me, the S/N ratio is never critical with the Kemper and will be just fine.

    Clean Sense does two things; sets input gain, and levels clean and distorted sound (It can act very different from a regular amp. E.g. the loudness can be reduced when you raise the gain, if CS is set very high). I really don't watch the input led at all, I just set CS so that I get a somewhat natural transition into distortion.


    You CAN just set the CS for maximum input (going into the red occasionally) and not bother about the clean/mean balance, but then you might get peculiar results, like a level drop when a distortion stomp is inserted).


    Quote from mrs-zambesi

    Dist sens to balance clean vs. distorted sounds


    Distortion Sense is only a global control for gain sensitivity/amount. It does not alter levels.

    Edited once, last by Trazan ().

    Quote from Ingolf


    Believe me, the S/N ratio is never critical with the Kemper and will be just fine.


    cool. In that case, I won't bother with it. It sounds good now and if the Kemper doesn't generally have noise issues, then no need to worry about it.

    May I take the liberty of referring you to the rant I posted a few minutes ago about letting go of the old-school mentality of trying to hit inputs as hard as we can without clipping, OhG?


    Confused with Ouput cliping led behaviour ! Need help please.


    Bearing in mind that the Kemper's converting your signal to a digital one, and that its internal dynamic range is very likely humungous, I feel that said rant may provoke an epiphany for you. I may be wrong, but you never know...

    Quote from Monkey_Man

    May I take the liberty of referring you to the rant I posted a few minutes ago about letting go of the old-school mentality of trying to hit inputs as hard as we can without clipping, OhG?


    Confused with Ouput cliping led behaviour ! Need help please.


    Bearing in mind that the Kemper's converting your signal to a digital one, and that its internal dynamic range is very likely humungous, I feel that said rant may provoke an epiphany for you. I may be wrong, but you never know... http://www.kemper-amps.com/for…?postID=290361#post290572


    Hell yes! I love rants! LOL. I've actually been very impressed with how quiet the Kemper is for the most part (especially as compared to the G-System which is what I've been using). I just want to make sure I understand the important pieces before I spend too much time tweaking my tones for live gigs, so that I don't have to go back later and re-do them all because of some bonehead mistake I missed.

    Bonehead mistakes are my speciality and what defined my life, mate. LOL


    I s'pose the take-home message from my rant is, at least as far as this particular discussion goes, that the pursuit of hitting the input hard without clipping will gain(!) you nought in the real world. Quite the contrary - it'll place you closer to being in danger of degrading your signal, if anything, with clipping being the most-obvious candidate.

    Remember to lock the Input once done, and save the preset for your guitar. Or the input settings will be derived by the rig you load.


    Distorted Sens serves the purpose to increase the amount of distortion of the... distorted sounds as an overall gain control. It will proportionally affect any rig as long as there's an amount of Gain >0.


    Not sure you saw the tutorial I published here some weeks ago, it might be worth a reading. Feel free to look among my thread if you wish.


    :)

    Hey dudes,


    I've got a small and probably idiot question.


    I saw in a kemper tutorial how to ajust de CS. And I did exactly the same. It said to put gain in 0 and ajust CS, testing by increasing the gain until the sound with 0 gain and with more gain sounds with the same volume.


    I was only able to do this with CS all the way down to -12dB


    Is this normal?

    Kemper bearded user from Blanes, Catalunya.

    Yes, that's the whole point of Clean Sense; to level out the differences between clean and distorted sounds.


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