Dry signal recording for reamping - KPA Direct out vs DI Box

    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.

    Sorry I'm a newb with the kemper and first time I try using spdif......
    In my daw (cubase 7) I can track with spdif my dry track (left) and my wet track (right) with my spdif conections...
    Now when I try to reap, I choose the spdif input in the input section of the kemper but when I try do reamp I don't get any sound
    or I get a weird feedback ....


    My interface is and rme UCX!


    Thanks all!!

    Quote from webstersp

    Sorry I'm a newb with the kemper and first time I try using spdif......
    In my daw (cubase 7) I can track with spdif my dry track (left) and my wet track (right) with my spdif conections...
    Now when I try to reap, I choose the spdif input in the input section of the kemper but when I try do reamp I don't get any sound
    or I get a weird feedback ....


    My interface is and rme UCX!


    Thanks all!!


    Welcome!
    Are you familiar how to route the recorded dry guitar track out of your DAW and inside the KPA?

    Quote from webstersp

    Sorry I'm a newb with the kemper and first time I try using spdif......
    In my daw (cubase 7) I can track with spdif my dry track (left) and my wet track (right) with my spdif conections...
    Now when I try to reap, I choose the spdif input in the input section of the kemper but when I try do reamp I don't get any sound
    or I get a weird feedback ....


    My interface is and rme UCX!


    Thanks all!!

    Than, I think, you've done something wrong in your TotalMix. You have to check your routing and mixer settings in your RME TotalMix. Make sure, that only the output bus from your DAW is going to the spdif output on your RME. It works perfect with my RME UC ... if you don't get it I can make some screenshots of my TotalMix later this evening.


    The only thing I noticed is a little loss of gain during reamping with spdif. But that's more a problem of the DI signal (especially with high gain output passive pickups) than the reamping process. The most beautiful thing for me would be a kind of "reamp sense" parameter for adjusting the reamp gain without changing anything else.

    no havent touch to total mix beside splitting my spdif from stereo to 2 mono tracks....
    I changed the output of my DI track to spdif, tries with the DI track than with a bus and didn't work.


    I would really love those screenshot since my first language is french and I sometimes have problems understandin 100%
    english with technical words!!

    I've been meaning to do a test like this, but by running the guitar into a good DI and then a nice preamp like one of my APIs or Neves. I may be having a lot of downtime later this month, this will be one of the A/B's I'll run. Really hoping the KPA DI ends up comparable!

    Quote from webstersp

    no havent touch to total mix beside splitting my spdif from stereo to 2 mono tracks....
    I changed the output of my DI track to spdif, tries with the DI track than with a bus and didn't work.


    I would really love those screenshot since my first language is french and I sometimes have problems understandin 100%
    english with technical words!!

    Sorry, I was too late home yesterday, I'll take a look at my settings today.

    Maybe a stupid question, but how do you setup your Kemper to record split spdif? I record my guitar using the spdif, but I also wanna record a DI signal. I know that the direct out works, but the less cables the better. AND, can you, with a simple cable (spdif) between your kemper and interface (saffire pro 40 for me) reamp?


    - How do you split spdif to record both the Kemper (the chosen profile) and DI?
    - Can you reamp with just one spdif cable between the interface and the Kemper? (don't feel like switching cables around every time i need to reamp)

    Quote from RustyNotes


    - How do you split spdif to record both the Kemper (the chosen profile) and DI?
    - Can you reamp with just one spdif cable between the interface and the Kemper? (don't feel like switching cables around every time i need to reamp)


    Just push the Output button, go to SPDIF and dial it in. Don't remember exactly what it's called, but you'll get it.


    You need to have both SPDIF input and output connected.