I'm finally going to use my Kemper live for the first time next week.
Beeing the only guitarist in the band i used to use 2 miced cabinets at both sides of the stage with my tube head, for a wider sound and the ability to pan my guitars left and right on the desk.
Will running 2 xlr's from the Kemper in mono give the same effect? I don't want to go stereo for issues with stereo effects and i find one signal dead center with all the other instruments quite thin sounding.
Were going for a final rehearsal tomorrow so any tips that might save me time fiddling around would be appreciated
Mono to FOH question
- EmGee76
- Thread is marked as Resolved.
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i use my KPA in mono but just coming out of the left side on the KPA i dont think using both and panning hard left and right would do any harm, or be any different than using just one cable. Make sure the KPA is set for mono out though
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"Will running 2 xlr's from the Kemper in mono give the same effect?"
Firstly: two identical signals, one panned fully left, the other panned fully right are theoretically again like one sound dead center. So how come?
" ...i find one signal dead center with all the other instruments quite thin sounding."
Theoretically that should be not be true. BUT: no two cabinets are perfectly the same, so are two mics. In addition you added micro delays by ever so slightly varying the mic distance between left and right. In other words: Practically you might have created a slightly fattening delay-based stereo effect that you obviously liked. I am quite sure, I would as well. Because I do this "studio trick" all the time in Kemper!
So: two XLRs from the Kemper (being strictly setup in mono) going fully L and fully R is identical to one XLR cable from the Kemper with the mixer on dead center. And it will be much cleaner and thinner than before.
My two cent:
1. Mixwise it is a good practise to offset the guitar slightly from the center, not clashing with the lead vocals and bass (which typically sit dead center).
2. Use two XLR cables from the Kemper. Setup your Kemper strictly mono (if really desired) but with one exception: in one stereo slot do add a stereo delay. Set delay time to about 40ms at first. Pan left and right. Feedback to zero. And then listen what happens. This should be sounding quite close to your old setup. Now vary the delay time in steps of just 1ms. The sound will change. Find your sweet spot. If all goes right you will have a similar effect as before but at the sweet spot it might be even fatter, bigger, more pleasant and more transparent in respect to the other instruments. (BTW: if you like it, then next time use a quad delay!
)All the best and if you really test this: let me know how it worked out!
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Maybe your method with one delayed signal would work, maybe i will try it out, though it doesn't seem very practical in a live situation where can't hear the sound through the PA speakers and tweak it properly.
If once setup correctly (rehearsal room and headphones, maybe, or small PA?) it should just work fine. The exact sweet spot values depends very much on your guitar and profile, though.
BTW: the proposed delay will also implicitly work as very complex toneshaping EQ! Its the magic of combiltering. Some call it "phase issue".
This method is centuries old! Think about a huge orchestra. There are say 5 violins. Those 5 do not only make the sound louder. In fact your ears distance to all of those is slightly different (tiny delay). When they play very accurately together (time and pitch wise) then this magic happens. They sound like one huge and very smooth and pleasing violin. This is exactly your trick with 2 cabinets/mics!
As soon as one violin goes out of pitch too much or out of groove - then the magic is over and they just sound amateurish.
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I will try this as well, thank you spinner!