Hi everyone,
I have had my Kemper for almost six months now and have enjoyed every minute of it...apart from one slight issue I have been having:
I have an issue with noise on some profiles (potentially all profiles – the issue is likely masked on medium to high gain profiles).
The noise can be heard shortly after playing a note – it is more noticeable with lower frequency notes, and with chords. The noise is a kind of crackling noise which completely disappears when the ‘Amplifier’ section of the Kemper is disabled. In contrast, the noise is more apparent (and sounds very ‘digital’) when the ‘Cabinet’ section is disabled.
The noise increases as the ‘Pick Attack’ parameter of the ‘Amplifier’ section is increased (to a more positive value) or decreased (to a more negative value) from its neutral ‘0’ position. The noise persists (albeit at a lower level) when the ‘Pick Attack’ parameter is set to ‘0’. The noise is also made more apparent by a boost in high frequencies.
Here is a sample of the noise:
https://soundcloud.com/hulcamanic/kemper-noise-example
In the above sample, the same notes are played 5 times on the same profile - ‘Rocker Clean – AK47’ (just a clean factory profile selected at random), with all FX turned off, noise gate off, and with different ‘Amplifier’ section parameters being altered to highlight the noise:
1st chord: ‘Pick Attack’ parameter is set to ‘0’;
2nd chord: ‘Pick Attack’ parameter set to ‘-5.0’;
3rd chord: ‘Pick Attack’ parameter set to ‘+5.0’;
4th chord: ‘Amp’ section disabled; and
5th chord: ‘Cabinet’ section disabled and ‘Amp’ section enabled with ‘Pick Attack’ parameter set to ‘0’.
The above is just an example, and the noise occurs not only with the Factory Presets, but also with commercial profiles I have purchased.
The noise occurs even though the input (clean sense) is set such that the input LED is always green, and the output level is set such that the output LED is also in the green. The noise appears to be independent of guitar type, pickup type, leads etc, and whether or not the guitar is plugged directly into the Kemper. The noise can be heard through different outputs – I have tried the headphone output (through AKG K271 headphones), and the main outputs and monitor outputs (through Dynaudio BM5A studio monitors and through an RCF NX 12-SMA powered speaker).
I can’t say for certain whether the noise has always been there through the various firmware upgrades (I started on v1.5.4 and am
currently on v2.0.1), however even with earlier versions I can remember deciding not to use particular profiles due to what I perceived as excessive noise when I played certain chords or notes.
I believe a similar problem has been discussed in these threads:
Clipping sound on most presets
Nothing suggested in the above threads appears to help in removing the noise. Setting the ‘Pick Attack’ parameter to ‘0’ reduces the noise, but does not eliminate it. A system reset and a flash reset did not improve the issue.
Apart from this issue, which I hope is fixable, the Kemper has been immensely enjoyable – I am playing more guitar than ever before, and that for me is the single biggest indicator for a good piece of gear.
Any help would be appreciated.
