External Stompboxes on Input vs Loop

    Hey everyone,


    Been playing lots with our new Kemper. Of course, we still want to use all of our cool pedals (delays, dist etc.) but I'm having a tough time with using them on the input. I don't know what it is, but I swear I hear a difference when I go through any pedal vs just direct into the Kemper. It's subtle, but is there an impedance thing happening that's messing with the signal? It feels like it doesn't have the same bite, energy or push when I go through the pedals, and this is even with true bypass pedals & extremely short runs of high quality cable.


    I'm curious if the loop is what most of you are using - it's not always an option for me, since I want to capture the DI signal as well. But I tried the loop and still felt something was off. Am I going nuts or is there something actually odd happening here?


    Does the clean sense need to be adjusted when you're using delay pedals and such?


    Also, with any drive pedal into a clean amp profile, no matter if I use the loop or the front input, it sounds messed up. Like there's some kinda mix control set to half clean and half distortion pedal. Don't know how else to describe it, but why would it sound like that? I realize that the input of the Kemper is not the same as the input of a tube amp but even our Axe FX doesn't do that...


    Thanks,
    Sig

    Quote from SiegfriedMeier

    Hey everyone,


    Been playing lots with our new Kemper. Of course, we still want to use all of our cool pedals (delays, dist etc.) but I'm having a tough time with using them on the input. I don't know what it is, but I swear I hear a difference when I go through any pedal vs just direct into the Kemper. It's subtle, but is there an impedance thing happening that's messing with the signal? It feels like it doesn't have the same bite, energy or push when I go through the pedals, and this is even with true bypass pedals & extremely short runs of high quality cable.


    I just bought a xotic SP and put it in front of the KPA. I swear I have the same feeling. When the pedal is off there is something missing. Same thing with some other pedals.

    I can try it again but, I stuck a few fuzzes and overdrives in front of quite a few of the free And44 clean profiles the first day i got mine and they sounded fantastic. I think it really depends on the profile. You might want to post which exact profiles sound bad to you with pedals in front of them.


    J

    It would be interesting to know if and which way the sense settings have to change when there's a more robust input signal (for example coming from a distortion pedal), specially depending on the pedal's output volume.

    BTW - the new Firmware fixed something. Same profile, I can now use a TS808 or other pedal in front of it and it sounds killer. Definitely a MAJOR difference from the weird half clean/half distorted sounds I was getting before. No clue what was wrong, no clue what was changed in the new version, but it was fixed.


    Thanks Chris Kemper - I was actually starting to not like this box because of this!