[SOLVED] Sound very harsh and hard? Please help a new KPA owner!

Hi and Welcome,

i would say that the KPA can produce any tone. But the first thing to start with is your monitoring solution. I dont know your headphones, but maybe a lot of the harsh tones is just the specific sound of the AKG. To sort this out you should try to compare to some quality studio speakers. Maybe this will already solve the problem.

Another great way to get a lot of "warmth" into clean and slightly crunched tones is the compressor in the amp section. It really to reduce a harsh and thin charakter of a tone.

Hi and welcome,

Agree with Tyler, the K701 are very "dry" and known to lack bottom end, the fact that they are open back doesn't help either. The K240 would be a better choice if you want to remain open back, otherwise the K271 are excellent. Audio Technica makes some fantastic stuff as well.

Try the KPA through some studio monitors or a PA and you'll hear the difference, if you need headphone playing I would consider to get some of the above mentioned cans.

Agreed with the others that it could be a headphone related issue. I still think that you should be able to get a good tone even on lower quality headphones. My tips would be

Try Tyler's Cabs out, there are a large selection of different mic positions here, thus they will affect your tone to a great degree. Find one that's close to your taste and tweak form there.

From the tone controls for the amp, I usually find myself removing some on the treble and a little on the presence. If you are going for Jazz and Blues tones you made need to reduce one or both of these substantially.

You could also try adding some compressor and power sag in the advanced amp settings.

Hope this helps

Spence

Quote from XpennoKPA

Try Tyler's Cabs out,

...the OP is looking for Jazz and blues sounds...Tyler cabs are fantastic but a bit more on the hard side....

and always remember: the tones you get from the kpa are recording sounds... sounds you have when putting a mic directly in front of the speaker (most of the profiles are made this way). you cannot compare these sounds to those you get from a tube amp sitting somewhere in the room unless you really use monitor speakers with the kpa... then you come closer.

Which video are you talking about? Link? Check my thread " All my rigs" I've posted all the rigs I use and I'm also in to Blues/ Jazz

regarding the sound itself:

if you have the same guitar you can try to virtually copy that setup by searching for a warm vibrolux profile and turn on a tubescreamer or sth similar to the okko in the stomp section. add a little delay and play with stombox tone control and amp eq. if you want to change the character of an already overdriven amp from vintage to modern or other way round then try the definition parameter in the amp-menu (left vintage, right modern). be sure to have set the clean sense in the input section right for your guitar. if any of the input or outpu led's go red, you will have very harsh digital clipping.

@ guitarnet: the one from his first post.

hi!

If i had to replicate this sound, i will probably choose "Pure blues" preset or something similar and will try to smooth the sound rolling off the volume and tone of my guitar. Maybe use the TS overdrive with minimum gain and low tone or Pure Booster with low gain... A thick plectrum can help to smooth and thincken the sound. Tray v-picks if you can.

I will try it tonight

Saludos!
Paco

Ops, getting blind....

Try reducing the clean sensitivity in the input. I have a strat and tend to go for 4 rather than the default 7.5

Sometimes it's hard to get used to what a real amp sounds like because you've been using something that doesn't sound like a real amp.

IMO, you can use the most expensive headphones in the world, YOU DO NOT listen to a guitar amp through headphones, any distorted or hi gain tones will sound nasty, only very clean tones with some chorus and stereo delay will sound nice...IMO.

Listen/play the KPA through studio monitors.

Quote from Guitartone

Sometimes it's hard to get used to what a real amp sounds like because you've been using something that doesn't sound like a real amp

I remember the first time I tried a tube amp... I was used to digital gear, their compressed sound and lack of dynamics and i thought that the sound i was getting from the amp was harsh.

The guy in that video (Greg) can get an awesome sound with every gear he uses. I think that part of his awesome sound is in his control of the dynamics.

Perhaps not exactly what you're looking for but tonight I made this. Just looking for some sounds. With volume gain set low I can get creamy warm sounds. Guitar is strat EC. I played with neck and bridge pu. At the end I put a drive stomp before the amp. Please only listen to the sounds, playing is crap and quick recording....... On soundcloud I hear som digital noise I don't hear at the original recording and the original has more dynamics. Just to get an impression.....

http://snd.sc/zlEObd