Hey Guys!

Here's my latest recording project on the Kemper. I'm excited to possibly perform this song live with another cover band next year.

Sorry for the low volume on the original track, I wanted to avoid a copyright warning on youtube.

Nice tone/mix! What did you do for the drum tracks?

Quote from Chris Duncan

That said, here are a few tips to make things go as smoothly as possible.

I also recommend two bars of click track, and you'd include that in the mp3. When they record their vocals, tell them to press record at the very beginning, i.e. where the drum clicks start. That way the vocal tracks can be dropped into your project at 0:00:00 and everything will line up perfectly.

Awesome, thanks so much for the tips.

I've always wondered about this... How exactly do I mixdown a project and include the metronome click track in the final mp3? This is what you're referring to correct? Send the vocalist an mp3 of my rough mix at the intended BPM but include two bars of click track (ie 8 clicks) before my actual audio starts, then my audio (mp3) would start playing without the click and the vocalist would do their thing over it.

Hey Guys! I know this isn't directly related to the KPA per se, but I know a lot of you will have some good insight/experience.

I'm looking to collaborate on future projects with other musicians, primarily vocalists, outside my city/state and I was curious to know how I go about importing their performances into my DAW (cubase). Is this as simple as everyone mixing down their performances into WAV files then I import everything into one DAW project and go from there? Or is there a different, more optimal/preferred way to import the raw audio into my DAW project? I heard somewhere that I could just "import everyone's project sessions" into one project however I wasnt sure what this means or if identical DAWs were required to do this.

My intention is to mix other people's vocal tracks into my mixes with my own guitar/bass/drum tracks.

Thanks again!

Thanks for all the input guys! Silencing the DI track was simply done by lowering the volume all the way to zero within focusrite's mixer console. Same recording quality, I just can't hear it during monitoring/recording/mixing which was my goal. Then I mute the track in the DAW so it's muted at all angles.

And yes, that's correct, spdif L/R to DAW = two separate tracks, one wet, one dry (DI). Next time I'll tinker more before posting here, I just get so excited talking shop with all of you.

Ok thanks, I know focusrite (I'm using the 6i6) has virtual mixer. I haven't tinkered with it yet as far as adjusting levels on spdif R/L's.

Is there a way to adjust the spdif R/L output levels within the KPA? Or would that compromise the quality of the DI track?

Hey Guys,

I was curious to know if there is a way to record the DI track completely silent? In other words, as I'm monitoring/recording is there anyway to exclusively hear the spdif wet track while simultaneously capturing the spdif dry DI in the DAW? It's pretty distracting hearing the spdif R/L blended during the recording process.

Thanks again!

Hey Guys!

So I've heard it's possible to import guitarpro midi drum tracks into your DAW and then modify/replace each drum sound to your liking (eg. superior drummer samples).

I'm interested in doing more instrumental rock covers in the future and this seems like an easy way to save hours of programming drums

I'm assuming this method has been done for years and I'm just learning about it now. For those who've done this in the past/present, is it really as simple as it sounds? Any advice? I do not currently have drum software, but have been leaning towards getgood drums.

Thanks again,

Kevin

I'm excited to say I just finished my 1st recording with the KPA, and am really happy with the result. Its a cover of one of my favorite metal bands War of Ages.

Thanks again for everyone on here being so helpful and informative when I was figuring out how to use the KPA.

Quote from Wheresthedug

Assign it to one of th post amp FX slots. That way the loop will be recorded with the amp sound and play back the full tone as recorded without addin firther distortion. At the moment you have the looper recording a clean guitar signal then sending it througn the amp at the same time as sending the additional guitar sound creating a muddy situation. Also, if you put it after the amp you can actually change amp sounds between the original loop(s) and the later loop(s) live solo to create more clarity and separation between the parts.

Awesome, I'll give this a shot

Quote from Delinquent

Yeah I never noticed any degradation, I always placed the looper after the amp section in the x or mod slot with a stereo loop or via the main outs.

Thanks for the info! I'm primarily referring to high gain tones sounding poor. I want to say I was putting the looper/fx loop up front in the stomp A slot. What do you mean by stereo loop?

I was under the impression that if I set the KPA to have an fx loop in any slot, I can then run either a single pedal or an entire external pedal board via the direct out/send + return/input 1/4" jacks on the rear panel. I guess you're saying this hook up is correct, but the sound quality changes based on which slot the fx loop goes in?

For those of you using looper pedals with your KPA, I'm curious to know opinions on why my digitech jamMan sounds muffled w/ poor quality when I run it through the fx loop on the KPA (as well as directly in, in front of the guitar) through my orange 2 x 12. When I run the looper through the fx loop in my peavey tube head, the looper functions clean and clear, with all guitar parts sounding distinct. Using the digitech looper through the KPA, it almost seems as though there is sonically only room for 1 guitar sound, whether its the looped track or the one your playing in real time, but certainly not both like I get out of my tube head.

I have yet to tinker with looping w/ the KPA remote, maybe this will produce a different sound?

Thanks!

So I think I've narrowed down my poor playback issues to it likely being a hardware issue at the interface.......For all the Apollo Twin thunderbolt owners out there, has anyone had to troubleshoot constant poor playback issues? At first I was getting static filled playback in the DAW, regardless of SPDIF vs. analog tracking. BTW, monitoring from KPA through the interface sounds amazing (clean, no static, I'm definitely not recording/playing back a poor signal). I then completely turned off the KPA and DAW, leaving only the computer and Apollo on and tinkering w/ the windows sound settings.

After triple checking that both the playback and recording devices were defaulted to the Apollo Twin, I clicked the "test" button, where windows gives a nice little stereo jingle to confirm the device is working. 100% of the time, when I hit the "test" button to play the windows jingle through the Apollo, it plays back static filled. When I switch the default device back to the stock audio driver on the computer, it plays the jingle clean, no static/distortion. This occurs w/ Apollo playback both through headphones and studio monitors.

When I adjust the buffer size in UA console, the lowest setting produces the most severe static on windows playback, while the highest setting improves the static tremendously, however does not completely eliminate it. Triple checked the sample rates of the windows/DAW/KPA and everyone is @ 44.1 khz, also updated KPA firmware to most current. Windows sound settings are saying that all Apollo drivers are current and functioning properly. I also did a hard reset of the interface per owners manual specification (hold down multiple buttons, then switch on - red lights flash repeatedly) and the problem still persisted.

I spoke w/ UA this morning, and they're requesting I send them a few reports from my PC regarding system info and latency. I will do this asap. They also mentioned simply swapping out the thunderbolt cable. I'm currently using a brand new cable but it could still be the issue, I will also try to uninstall/reinstall the UAD software.They did confirm that I was using the recommended thunderbolt adapter for my computer as well.

Anyone else have a similar experience setting up their Apollo Twin on a PC? Thanks again.

Hardware

KPA power rack

Apollo twin mkii thunderbolt - w/ thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 1 adapter (Startech)

Dell G5 laptop - windows 10

Software

Cubase 9.5

UA Console

Quote from Michael_dk

If you mean "do I get the same effect by recording to guitar tracks separately with a stereo chorus in the kemper, recording only one side (mono) each time - as recording a stereo track of both sides of a single performance" - then the answer is no.

Precisely what I meant to say. Thanks. Makes sense. I'll keep this in mind when recording a "wet signal" using something like a stereo chorus effect.

Quote from Michael_dk

A guitar amplifier is not really a stereo source, so I always record mono.

Of course, if you're using stereo EFFECTS (eg. chorus etc) in the kemper, then it may make sense to record in stereo. However, it sounds like you're double tracking for rhythm guitar (I'm guessing rock or somesuch) - here I would definitely record in MONO.

For double tracking, make sure to record separate performances - not just making a copy of ONE recorded track.

Thanks! Yes, I'm primarily going to be recording hard rock/metal, and when I say double tracking, yes, that's 2 separate performances.

As far as tracking w/ stereo effects, would recording in stereo look like one DAW track with 2 signals R/L? Or would it look more like 2 separate tracks split stereo R on one and stereo L on the other?

Would I achieve the same results by just double tracking/panning 2 mono tracks w/ a stereo effect? Or is this where I need to just go an experiment?

Awesome, thanks for the clarification.

Hey Guys,

Seeking some clarification on how everyone prefers to track in their DAW w/ the KPA. Does this change if you're going SPDIF vs. analog?

My goal is to basically record mono "wet" guitar tracks, dialed in straight from the KPA tone profile (double tracked/panned). I'm curious as to whether or not there would be any real difference in recording single track stereo R/L and double track/pan it that way vs. record single track mono and double track/pan it that way. Would the sound difference be negligible or would it actually be a huge difference of technically 4 guitars vs. just 2?

~8 years ago when I last dabbled in home recording, I was double tracking/panning all guitars mono and was very happy w/ the sound. But now w/ the option of SPDIF (or even analog?) being stereo L/R, I'm confused how I should proceed.

Also, if choosing to track in stereo, will the recorded single track simply have both R/L signals on a single track or is it more meant to be split between 2 tracks - one track R and one track L? Or will both of these examples sound exactly the same?

I understand how to manipulate the VST audio connections/track input/output settings in my DAW, I'm just not sure if I should be focused on mono vs. stereo, 1 track R/L vs. 2 separate tracks R/L if tracking stereo.......

Thanks for your guys' input on this!

Quote from nightlight

At the bottom left of the Console window, there is a box that would be saying Clock Source: Internal. Click on that and change to SPDIF.

How are you connecting the Kemper to the Apollo though? It doesn't have coaxial SPDIF, only optical. When I tried to connect using a converter box, I ran into tonnes of problems.

Nightlight, thanks for the advice, yes I have SPDIF already selected in Console. The following 3 items below are what I am using to connect the KPA to Apollo via SPDIF. So you're saying regardless of satisfactory sound quality while live monitoring through the Apollo (via SPDIF from KPA, sounds great!) I could STILL encounter poor quality playback on tracks in the DAW?

I played w/ just about every SPDIF output setting in the KPA, all of which produced the same static-filled playback.

At this point, I'm going to upgrade my KPA firmware this weekend and see if that makes any difference. You're saying I may possibly have a faulty converter?

Cable Matters Toslink Cable (Toslink Optical Cable/Digital Optical Audio Cable) https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod…age_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Monster Cable 650DCX 1 meter Digital Coaxial Cable https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod…age_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Optical to Coaxial OR Coax to Optical Digital Audio Converter, Bi-Directional Digital SPDIF Toslink Optical to/from Coaxial Digital Audio Signal Adapter/Repeater by ROOFULL https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod…age_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Quote from JSB

Output>Page 5/7 for powerhead, or page 5/6 for non-powered, should give you the S/PDIF clock, as seen in pic 2 below.

Interesting, I must need to update my KPA firmware. That particular space is left blank when I'm on page 5/7.

Quote from JSB

On the KPA, press Output, go to page 5/7, the third dial from the left is the SPDIF clock, what's yours set at?

I was just looking here and I do not see any settings/buttons/knobs for "SPDIF clock" (KPA power rack). I just got my KPA SPDIF -> Apollo Twin -> PC/Cubase setup for the first time yesterday, and wanted to confirm that I had everything setup correctly. I'm successfully tracking into Cubase via SPDIF, however I am getting some very mild static/crackling on playback (monitoring sounds great, no clipping).

I haven't experimented w/ changing DAW buffer settings yet, but maybe this will clear things up.

Quote from nightlight

The Kemper needs to be the master clock when using spdif. If you set it to slave, it won't work.

I've triple checked my settings in Apollo console/Cubase and both are set to 44.1khz/SPDIF. Does this mean by default the KPA is "set to master", or am I missing some other setting in the KPA itself?