Am I phasey or am I crazy?

I have been fighting my KPA for a week now trying to figure out why it suddenly sounds different. I think it has happened before and a flash format and init took care of what ever it was. Now I can't seem to correct it.

Here is an example using the stock profile "Sabbath" with the delay turned off. The delay made it even worse, it was the only effect on this profile. Clean sense 4.0 Dist sense 0, no clipping.

http://soundcloud.com/lbarrington/phasey-sabbath

I don't know if that's what people have called phasey, but its nasty sounding. There is a lot of extra noise, swooshing sound, cocked wah kinda like, harshness, popping, and kinda muffled all at the same time. All profiles are doing this, clean ones are less noticeable, but they are affected. Here is what I have tried.

It started on 1.5.2, so I upgraded to 1.5.3.
Downgraded back to 1.5.2
Reset global settings
Flash format and init
Downgraded to 1.1.1
Reset global settings
Flash format and init
Upgraded back to 1.5.3
Changed all my cables
Disconnected Midi and extra cables so it's just input and left main out to my interface.
Tried five different guitars. Single coils, humbuckers, actives.
Tried different headphones. Currently using ATH-M50s which have always served me well.

This was recorded through my POD HD 500's FX Return. Today I turned off the stack and recorded a clean signal that passed through the chain and then reamped it using VSTs and IRs and it sounded great so I ruled out the HD 500 coloring it. I also recorded it through my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 to make sure.

I was starting to think I was just having ear fatigue, but it's been a week and I was away from it for 3 days. If the clip sounds normal to you then maybe it is my ears.

So I'm willing to listen to any advise on how to proceed. Anything else I should try? Should I call Kemper?

-Lonnie

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll try to give a better example. Probably not a good choice of stock profiles to do this with. The noise floor is raised and the dynamics are gone.

I will have a comparison tone tonight as it is all relative. It is as if it is getting compressed too much. If you look at the soundcloud waveform, you will see when I hold the chord whole notes that the signal increases in amplitude.

Noise Gate is at 0. Clean Sense is at 4 Dist Sense 0. The input and output lights never hits red, or even yellow. In facts when recording it tops out at -12 db so the levels are in check.

I'm working now, but will have a comparison audio post later.

-Lonnie

I have monitored it many different ways. I mostly use my ATH-M50 headphones at home either plugged into the HD500 headphone jack, or directly into the KPA headphone jack. Last weekend I took it to a friends house and connected the main output to the power amp in of a Peavy Renown that I always play through and it usually sounds great. He agreed that something was amiss.

To clear up any confusion of guitar/pickup/cables/playing technique I did the following test.

Left ear - Same track as before KPA with Sabbath rig with delay disabled.

Right ear - Same song section played after one bar, same guitar, same cable, same settings on KPA except I pressed the Stack button to disable the stack. Same interface, same DAW, same fingers, same pick. I then used the Amplitube VST on the right channel with a Sabbath patch consisting of an amp and speaker cab only.

When I finished I had to lower the right side volume down to try to equalize the sound both at -12db. You can hear a large difference in the dynamics of the notes and the way the noise floor is being pushed up. Then when holding the long notes they rise in volume on the left and fade on the right.

http://soundcloud.com/lbarrington/phasey-vs-not

I hope you have headphones or a balance control to compare. I can post them as separate sound clips, but thought this was a good way to compare.

Thanks guys for trying to help me straighten it out.

-Lonnie

Good news. I'm not crazy.

Today I was searching the forum for 'noise' and found a lot of posts from back in may when we were going to 1.08 or so and there were complaints very similar to mine. Since one person said they downgraded to 1.0.4 and solved it, I figured it was worth a try. I had already tried to go back to 1.1.1 with no luck. Well this time it worked. All the rigs sounded glorious again. So I upgraded to 1.5.2 and it seems to be stable. What ever was stuck was not cleared by resetting global settings or flash format and init. I don't know what it was, but it seemed to be the reverse of a noise gate. It was amplifying the low noise. I also remember I was getting incredible feedback when I was playing through a power amp at volume that I usually didn't get.

Jam day tomorrow so I'll give it a more in depth test, but I'm taking 1.0.4 on a memory stick just in case.

-Lonnie