Posts by RobMiller

+1

For my setup, usb to iPad rig manager would be my preferred connection. I don’t want another app open on my DAW computer screen and switching back and forth between daw and rig manager. I’d prefer to be able to connect my iPad to my rig manager viaUSB and have a separate screen with the app running on the iPad rather than on my Mac (I personally don’t need recording feature on iPad, just the rig control). Network connection is a problem for me with my unique network setup so I can’t use this feature. Might be possible but just too much to figure out to make it work correctly.

**Update**

So I fixed the issues I was having!! 🥳 🎉 I’m going to explain what I did to fix the problems so maybe others with similar issues can learn from this. Hopefully you won’t suffer the same frustration I did.

I had several problems effecting my equipment and causing bad sounding recordings.

•Something was wrong with my Mac settings and I had to reinstall everything OS, DAWs, Plugins. Also had to reset the PRAM. (This made a noticeable improvement but still wasn’t correct.. just better.)

•Dirty Power

I bought a dirty power tester and learned my electric was very dirty coming from the power company. This was effecting the equipment also. After buying a new power conditioner and dirt filter I noticed a small improvement but didn’t really fix the sound much as I thought it would.

•RF interference (THE BIGGEST CULPRIT)

Spotty RF waves in my house was effecting my equipment the most. I bought testers to test my house with but I learned that my Line6 Stomp powered by a power bank with headphones, a high gain preset, and my guitar was the best tester for this. I walked around my house with the stomp and guitar looking for RF dead zones. I learned my music room had the most RF interference in the house BY FAR! Once I found a good room with no visible RF I moved all my equipment there and tried a recording.. Beautiful sounding!

Between all my Google home devices (8 of them) WiFi Google cams (5of them) WiFi light switches (12) WIFI Routers (3), dimmer switches (40) and all the LED lighting (like 60 of them).. It was drowning my audio signals.

The Solution.

Because moving my equipment to that quiet room wasn’t an option (my son’s bedroom) I instead bought a 18u metal rack with casters so I could create a faraday cage around the equipment and the casters so I could find dead zones when recording anywhere in the house I needed. I installed a triplite battery backup also so I can move it around without shutting everything down. So far everything works great.

In this rack the equipment sounds even better than the dead zone room.

Now I can’t hear a difference between the headphone jack on the Kemper or headphone jack on the Clarett connected to the Kemper, or even monitoring the Kemper in the DAW. Identical 🙌🏻🥳🎉 So happy!

Thanks to everyone that worked to help me with this, I appreciate your efforts! 🙏🏻

Still working on building the rack so don’t judge. Lol

I just bought a new $60 USB-A cable to try and a Jitterbug FMJ to try out also. I sometimes hear a little bit of digital noise and hoping this will fix that and also improve or fix the sound.

Finally,

Spdif is my preferred way to connect, but I run the Kemper direct USB the most since the update.

Spdif cables are high quality (can’t remember the brand though) but I don’t think this is the problem because if I direct monitor from the clarett the Kemper sounds ok.

I have two different usb cables for the clarett 8pre and both of them came with the clarett, usbc/usbc, usbc/usba. Tried both no difference.

I will not continue testing with Spdif for now atleast. Only usb, I’m trying to simplify things so we can find the issue.

Wheresthebug

Yes, Guitar > Kemper > Kemper USB Out > Mac USB In > DAW

This is how I’m connected in right now. I don’t see any point to further test any other equipment since they all have the same issue. I’ll only be testing this way for now.

Thank you so much for your replies! Good advice also thanks. It’s very reassuring reading all this. I tried all these things but didn’t find any results. because of your comments I started looking in other areas to find the problem. I think I’m making progress and finally on the right track to figuring this issue out.

I’ve been looking for some professional recorded DI stems to test that resemble my playing and finally found decent L and R guitar DI tracks. As soon as I played the DIs in Cubase I instantly noticed a big difference in sound. They sound bright and crisp compared to my DIs I tried several of my pluggins like DSP Nameless Suit and the guitars sounded great. So now I know for sure this isn’t my ears but something weird is going on between my guitar and my DAW. I still don’t know what’s going on exactly but it’s progress.

My best guess is I got dirty power or radio frequency’s messing with my signal. My signal has always been a little noisy at this house.

Could dirty power cause issues between the Kemper and Mac..? Again the Kemper sounds good at the unit, just not good once in the daw. 🤷‍♂️

I have a couple questions and I’m hoping to get some answers. I’m a long time guitar player but I’m not very experienced in guitar recording and I believe I’m experiencing recording issues but can’t be totally sure until I get some questions answered. Equipment I use is Kemper (power rack 2021), Helix, Two Notes CaptorX, Laney IRT studio, and Clarett+8pre. I’ve done recording with all these devices on multiple DAWs Cubase 12 Pro, Studio One, Logic Pro and multiple computers, Gaming PC, Dell PC, IPad, and currently recording on a Mac. I’m currently using headphones as monitors audio technica ATH-M50x

No matter what I try, my recordings are bad.. not horrible but not usable either. It’s always the same problem with all equipment listed above. My recordings don’t match what I hear at the equipment (Kemper for example). Let’s use a stereo recording for example, If I plug my headphones in the front of the Kemper it sounds crisp in the highs, the stereo field has wide depth, bass feels good and mids are good. Sounds legit.

The same performance recorded in daw in stereo isn’t wide, too much mids, no crisp and almost sounds like the recording was done in a tin can (yell into an old coffee tin can and that’s kinda what it sounds like) I’ve tried 1000s of experiments trying to fix this problem like sample rates, volume levels, PCs, Audio interfaces, guitars, cables, EVERYTHING! Lol and I’m about done with music I’m so exhausted of all this. I must be missing something and need help PLEASE 🙏🏻

I’m just starting to second guess everything I know so sorry for the noob questions

Questions

1. Should the audio from the Kemper headphones match what I record on a DAW in a stereo recording? Is quality loss normal using USB or Spidf? XLRs, TRS has some issues btw.

2. Does Buffer size play any effect on sound quality? Or is it just to adjust the latency..?

3. Is it normal for the Kemper USB audio signal to be so hot? Peaks and I have to adjust every preset.

4. Is there any software that analyzes audio and can look at this?

Just any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

I’m not sure if this is a fluke error or not but I just got this message while using Logic Pro. This was while using the Kemper viaUSB with logic sample rate at 44.1 and obviously the Kemper at 44.1

One of my main experiments/tests lately is recording the Kemper USB with short strums with pauses and then playing my guitar in between those pauses (with direct monitoring turned on) for comparison.

No matter how I connect the Kemper to my Mac and DAW I cannot match the monitor direct tone. Same with Helix.

Was using KRK monitors but I’m currently using Headphones because my studio room is under renovations. Same result with both though.

I have a recording problem that I’ve been trying to fix for over a year and need some help. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with my Kemper though.

I’m trying to record my Kemper on my Mac but it never sounds very good. In any of the DAWs I’ve tried it always sounds a little compressed but thin and the highs don’t sound as crisp. The Kemper sounds great on its own but once the audio is in the daw it just doesn’t sound good. ..almost good but just off.

I’ve tried XLR cables, spdif through my Clarlett+8pre, and even the Kemper usb,.. always the same result. Sample rates are good on ALL settings, latency is very good, low. Even my helix sounds great direct but bad on my Mac and any DAW.

Any ideas? I’m getting desperate and have no other ideas on what to trouble shoot.