Is this normal fizz? My ears or digital distortion

    Is it me or is this wrong! I'd appreciate some input here.


    I'm use mainly semi-clean rigs with a bit of gain...no hi gain stuff.


    I find that ALL of them have a VERY annoying distorted sound that tends to occur when more than one note is played.


    NONE of my tube amps sound like this and I've heard the same sound in guitar modellers.


    These are factory rigs and using 1.6.0 (although it is there in all other versions)


    It sounds either like digital clipping or some weird intermodulation and makes me dislike my KPA.


    There is no clipping in my external gear and it occurs in headphones too.


    Here's some rough, simple samples where it can be heard clearly.


    Sample 1
    http://sdrv.ms/XSagWS


    Sample 2
    http://sdrv.ms/117Ijlr


    Sample 3
    http://sdrv.ms/117Iptc


    It doesn't happen on cleans, only if there is any gain (even a little) applied.


    Please tell me this isn't normal.


    Gizmo

    No, it's not normal.


    What profile? What are your clean/distortion sensitivity settings? What about output settings?

    Thanks for the input pima,


    All rigs with any gain at all...even a slight amount, do it. I just ran through a bunch of Kemper amp rigs and all the same.
    Clean rigs don't do it (unless I turn the gain up).


    It's only really audible when two or more notes are played and most easily heard during the note decay.


    Input sens makes no difference to it and I can't eq it out in the output section.


    Can you hear it in my samples?


    Gizmo

    [quote='Guitartone',index.php?page=Thread&postID=690


    Here's the guitars I've used, with very similar results:


    Gibson 137 (Humbuckers)
    Gibson Blues Hawk (p90's)
    Yamaha SA2200 (humbuckers)
    G&L Comanche
    G&L Asat
    MIM Strat
    MIM Tele
    American Strat
    Gretsch White Falcon
    Fender Jazzmaster


    As you can see, pro level guitars, going straight into the KPA with good setups. I like my action not too close to the pickups for the best tone and I gig with all of them through amps including Tweed Deluxe, Princeton Reverb, Super Reverb and others.


    I don't hear it on high gain or with quick cut-off playing, it's hard to hear with single notes, but easy when two notes are allowed to decay naturally on slightly overdriven tones (without any effects or stomps)

    I found I was getting some fizz because I had the humbucker of my Steinberger too close to the strings. Dialing it down did wonders. Also be very, very careful about your input gain setting and make sure you're not going into the yellow on output gain. I had to do a lot of gain matching on profiles to get it just right but it was well worth it. Now the fizzies are gone.

    Hi zerocrossing,


    I know it's not the guitar, I have tried every type. single coils and HB. My strings are high off the pups.


    If I back of the gtr volume, it still exists until I get to almost zero volume, when the profile has totally cleaned up (it no longer has any "gain" at all).
    It happens without me adjusting any of the rig parameters and the the output stays completely green.


    I've had both clean and distorted sense up and down....no different. I don't know any other way to adjust input gain.


    Clean profiles work just fine, I can strum hard without ANY distortion at all. I only have to play a crunchy or slightly overdriven profile gently to get the effect.


    Has anyone actually listened to my samples?


    I've heard this sound before on a GSP 1101 and an 11R (but not as bad)......maybe it's just me, but I find it most unpleasant.


    I've just played through my Rocktron Chameleon and it is there too, but nowhere near as bad...and that's 15 year old digital technology.


    Quote from zerocrossing

    I found I was getting some fizz because I had the humbucker of my Steinberger too close to the strings. Dialing it down did wonders. Also be very, very careful about your input gain setting and make sure you're not going into the yellow on output gain. I had to do a lot of gain matching on profiles to get it just right but it was well worth it. Now the fizzies are gone.


    I just listened to the samples again. First time I read the post I was just on an iBook and I couldn't hear anything egregious. Now I'm in my studio and... I'm not hearing any excessive fizz here either Maybe a little too much on noisy3. Of course you're going to have more distortion when you play multiple strings as you're by default increasing the energy going into the amp. The only thing I can tell you is to perhaps try an EQ pre amp profile to dial down stuff above 8 khz or so. Experiment with different amps. Some real tube amps just sound a bit fizzy when you start to crank the gain up.

    I can hear what the OP is talking about in his clips. I'm not sure I've heard that exactly with my KPA.


    Gizmo, allow PMs. And send me a PM, by the way.

    Can't seem to access your clips on Ipad, but I had issues with fizz, solution was to go to cab parameters and slightly lower the high shift, I also like to crank the character a bit. Worked for my ears and it may for you if it's the same thing.

    New talent management advice to Laura Cox -


    “Laura want to break the internet? let’s shoot another video of you covering the Nightrain solo in the blue singlet, but this time we’ll crank up the air conditioning”.

    Quote from Delinquent

    Can't seem to access your clips on Ipad, but I had issues with fizz, solution was to go to cab parameters and slightly lower the high shift, I also like to crank the character a bit. Worked for my ears and it may for you if it's the same thing.


    Thanks Delinquent, I'll try that.


    I'm also going to make another sample and put the times in post to point to exactly what I hear, as "fizz" is probably very subjective.

    Hi Almogaver


    Its the same through both the monitor out and SPDIF.


    I think my use of the word "fizz" is misleading.
    It is more likely the intermodulation distortion as mentioned by burningyen.
    I find it excessive and quite annoying....and very digital sounding.


    I've never heard it like this in any recordings of my amps.




    Quote from almogaver

    Hi Gizmo,


    Are you recording/monitoring through the KPA SPDIF Out?

    I'm experiencing the same problem...yes, I definitively can hear that "fizz", it's like a background blanket of hiss behind the notes. I'm a KPA user just from one week and this drives me crazy, I was thinking my unit was defective.
    I get this even with gain at 0! Here's my sample of this: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?njtrbjil4cicn6w
    Please someone tell me how the problem can be solved, it's really a deal-breaker for me :(

    Yep - I hear the same in some of my profiles too (what profile is this?) - It's at the tail-end of the chord. What kind of pickups are you using? Is this is a guitar with active circuitry?


    What version of the firmware are you using?

    Thanks for your help.
    Morgan Dual 40 Clean, it's one of Andy44's profiles from The Amp Factory.
    Guitar is a custom Telecaster, neck pickup, it's a Lindy Fralin vintage (so passive and low output, by no means I'm going to clip the input with something like this). Guitar is direct in the KPA. Clean sense is at 3.5.
    Firmware it's the latest, 1.6, but I also tried to downgrade to 1.5 with no improvements.
    I also tried system reset, flash format and reinit, reinstalling from USB. Nothing changed.

    Quote from gorillabendz

    Yep - I hear the same in some of my profiles too (what profile is this?) - It's at the tail-end of the chord. What kind of pickups are you using? Is this is a guitar with active circuitry?


    What version of the firmware are you using?