Bad recording sound through DAW

Welcome to the forums.

First thing to do is ditch the Audacity and get a nice DAW program. Next is to make sure you are recording at a good volume. I find it best to record guitar at a volume slightly higher than talking volumes. 74-80db. Set your main volume (in output settings) to about -12.0db to start with.

I monitor my guitar thru the DAW and not thru the Kemper because I want to hear exactly what the track sounds like. This also allows you to monitor with DAW plugins on the guitar.

If things are set correctly, the sound of the guitar going into the record track should be exactly the same as the sound when the track is rendered (played back).

One last thing, if the tone is too dark or muddy then raise the profile's Amp Definition parameter, but do it slowly until you hit your sweet spot.

Quote from Guitar Dave

I'm very satisfied by the sound i get from it using the cab of a Boss Katana as monitor, but i have issues in recording.

You may be happy with the Katana monitor, but unless you used a mic on that cabinet that's not what you're recording. Maybe just try monitoring your Kemper through whatever monitors or headphones you use in Audacity. Find a profile with a cab that sounds good that way and it should sound the same in your recording. Once you pick a profile with a cab you like for the recording, you could still use your Katana through the Kemper monitor out bypassing the cab if it helps your performance.

Quote from BayouTexan

First thing to do is ditch the Audacity and get a nice DAW program

Nothing wrong with Audacity: it yout guitar won´t sound different in any other DAW.

Quote from Guitar Dave

the sound i get out of the recording is bad (muddy, not clear and not well defined) comparing to the sound i get out of the monitor.

How are you monitoring your recorded sound? Compare Kemper with Headphones and your recording with headphones, if it sounds different, get another interface or record digital.

Quote from Guitar Dave

Tomorrow i'll try with a different DAW (cakewalk). I'm scared that monitoring through DAW could lead to input delay, that does not occurr monitoring through kemper.

Totally agree. Also, If you listen through the Kemper headphone jack, the recorded tracks should sound exactly the same on playback,

Make sure the correct "Rec. Source" parameter is selected in the Output section.

Quote from Guitar Dave

Thank for you feedback!

Tomorrow i'll try with a different DAW (cakewalk). I'm scared that monitoring through DAW could lead to input delay, that does not occurr monitoring through kemper.

Before doing it i'll try also to tweak parsmeters inside asio4all to see if it could bring some benefit.

The DAW is unlikely to be the problem. Find a DAW you like and learn to use it to its limits. Too many people jump around between DAW, modellers/profilers, plug-ins etc without ever learning how to use any of them. Go for a free version if possible if you do decide to try a different DAW.

You are correct about delay (latency) being a potential issue. It is generally believed that anything less than 15ms is imperceptible with regards to playing feel but some people are more sensitive than others. I tend to use direct monitoring most of the time but you should be able to use either on the ideal world. The Kemper USB interface is pretty atrocious at the moment with round trip latency around 11ms using generic drivers. Good dedicated interfaces can get this down to around 2ms. I expect the situation to significantly improve when Kemper release their own dedicated drivers though.

Adding on to Alan's comment, Sound travels at 1.13 feet per millisecond. If you stand 4 feet from your amp, you are experiencing a real-world latency of 4.5ms. You can of course lower this latency by playing outside with the wind blowing toward the back of your amp. Same thing goes for when you are playing with a drummer 4 feet away. Just don't play Against the Wind.

BTW, Most DAW's have latency compensation and tools to tighten everything up in a mix so it becomes almost a non-issue when recording.