Hi Everyone,
since reamping, especially over SPDIF, is one the coolest ways to use your KPA, i was wondering which way would be the best to get your dry guitar signal into your DAW. I already made the suggestion to the kemper guys to be able to put out the dry signals over SPDIF, but as long as this is not implemented yet, you need to do it over an analog connection. So i recorded some files for comparison at a VERY low level and normalized and limited the hell our of it to reveal potential issues. Turn your monitors up and the differences become even more obvious.
1. this is the guitar straight into the KPA and the direct out over an unbalanced (but quality) guitar cable to my Yamaha01V96.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5902643/di_kpa.mp3
Even with huge amounts of makeup gain, the signal stays crisp and clear.
2. this is the the guitar into a DI Box and its balanced output to the Yamaha desk.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5902643/di_box.mp3
You can hear the huge amount of background noise even though this a balanced connection.
3. this is the guitar plugged straight into the Yamaha desk.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5902643/di_impedance_problem.mp3
You can clearly hear what happens when you try to record your passive guitar pickup straight into a line input without some sort of impedance correction.
To sum it up, the direct out of the KPA is the best option to record your dry signals.