Audio issues, Kemper Sounds Thin, noisy and nowhere near demos of profiles I've purchased?

    Hey guys! :)

    I've been on and off thinking somethings wrong with my Kemper as of late or it might be my ears. :/

    I have tried a lot of profiles, all the stock profiles, paid MBritt, Tone Junkie, Sinmix, ReAmpZone, Live Ready Sounds and more and all I'm getting is a thin sound that makes the tweeters crackle at times while playing. I feel like almost every mid- to high gain profile sounds the same, I can get some nice sounds out of it but it reminds me of when I had a Fullbore Metal pedal into my first amp, a Spider Line 6 75W.

    Below are a few audio samples using different Profiles on my Gibson LP Studio 2018, bridge humbucker with tone knobs at max in standard tuning.

    Profile - Tone Mister A4 (Free Profile) by Tone Junkie;

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/gsnqhzw42363…r%20A4.wav?dl=0

    Profile - LL-Chain Of Damnation (Stock Profile) by Lasse Lammert;

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xsvsw6awzae…rofile.wav?dl=0

    Profile - 3P Plexi Klon 2.1 (Stock Profile) by MBritt;

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/gp7yq0qd8q8x…%202.1.wav?dl=0

    Profile - Savage V02 21 that my friend EQ'd (Purchased Profile) by SinMix;

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/r7vfj9na3e7h…to2x12.wav?dl=0


    I have the following setup and routing ---- Guitar --> Front Input on the KPA --> Scarlett 6i6 via SPDIF --> DAW.

    I have two Yamaha HS8's connected to the 6i6 via two TRS cables.

    Regarding the sound and what I've tried

    - Restored it to factory default and from a backup file

    - Turning Purecab on and off, different levels etc

    - Noise Gate in stomp slots at different levels etc

    - Fiddled around with definition and clarity

    - Switching Cabs

    - Fiddling with both the front EQ's and the EQ

    - Clean and Distortion Sense

    - Using different Drives, Boosts and Dist stomps in the stomp section

    - Lowering/increasing output levels in the output section (also turned purecab on and off here)

    - Hooked my Kemper into another set of Monitors and into a Orange PPC212 CB cab

    - Made sure that I'm not using a profile without a cab in the cab section

    - Tried High/Low shift in the Cab Section

    - Tried a High/Low pass in the X-slot

    - Switching ALL cables

    - Switching guitars, EC-1000 with EMG's, Solar with SD-pickups, Jackson JS32T with stock pickups, Yamaha TRBX505 Bass Guitar

    - Tried different power outlets

    - Bought a power conditioner

    None of the above has helped.

    I am fully aware of that the KPA should sounds like a mic'd amp and not an actual amp-in-the-room feeling when using studio monitors.

    Using direct profiles with my PPC212 through a Baby Bomb 30 does make it sound fuller, but I'm still not getting much of a difference.

    I know that demos can lie and that many youtube videos aren't very representative but I'm not getting near that tonal difference between profiles that I've heard in the store before purchasing it or in youtube videos (I did try the powered KPA in the store through a PPC212 but went with the unpowered one).

    Is it my ears? Could something be wrong with my KPA? Is it my playing? :/
    Am I making an excuse for not practicing enough? :/ Do the stock profiles sound close to my recordings for the rest of you?

    Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. :)

    Try bypassing the scarlet, and spdif.

    Go direct out of the monitor out, into a power amp and guitar cabinet.

    My solution when using a scarlet interface was to go from the scarlet

    into a little tascam mixer. Problem solved.

    The recordings sound fine to me on ATH M50x headphones too.

    Sounds like there may be something strange going on in your interface settings or monitors settings. Alternatively it could be you room. You could be listening in a spot in the room with serious comb filtering due to reflected sound cancelling or boosting the effect of direct sound.

    Oof. I was juuuust jamming on some Tone Mister A profiles and it did not sound like that. :/

    Strange. Almost sounds like the cab was off (not quite that drastic) but I see you’ve checked a lot of things.

    Is your Lock button lit up?

    Quote from Wheresthedug

    Sounds like there may be something strange going on in your interface settings or monitors settings. Alternatively it could be you room. You could be listening in a spot in the room with serious comb filtering due to reflected sound cancelling or boosting the effect of direct sound.

    My room is not treated in any way, but I've tried my setup in other rooms, at a friends place and even outside. I've tried low volumes and almost maxed everything out but still has the very same issue. I tried bypassing the 6i6 going with my HS8's from the main KPA outputs to find that it still persists. ||

    I'm starting to wonder if my expectations are unrealistic and that I have spiced my memory up a bit from trying it in the store. :/

    I sent a message to support a few months back where they reamped a DI and compared it to my KPA, there was a slight difference in sound but not a lot. Think I forgot to get back to them now that I think about it. :huh:

    Quote from dickjonesify

    Oof. I was juuuust jamming on some Tone Mister A profiles and it did not sound like that. :/

    Strange. Almost sounds like the cab was off (not quite that drastic) but I see you’ve checked a lot of things.

    Is your Lock button lit up?

    Really? :huh: What guitar and speaker are you using? :/

    Yeah it's definitely not turned off, I made sure of it :(

    It is, I've locked a studio EQ in the X slot that I only use for high gain profiles (had it off for all the samples provided in this thread though). :/

    Quote from Popes666

    My room is not treated in any way, but I've tried my setup in other rooms, at a friends place and even outside. I've tried low volumes and almost maxed everything out but still has the very same issue. I tried bypassing the 6i6 going with my HS8's from the main KPA outputs to find that it still persists. ||

    There are two easy ways to discover if the room is having an effect:

    1 - headphones straight out of the KPA headphone socket (also rules out the interface, speakers and any accidental DAW settings)

    2 - play a sine wave from your DAW at various frequencies and walk slowly around the room (rules out the KPA from the equation). In an untreated room you will most likely find that there are spots where certain frequencies are either reduced by at least 20db and other spots where they are boosted by similarly crazy amounts. The issue is at its worst in the dead center pf a cube shaped room. In many smaller rooms there can be spots where frequencies like 80hz ( guitar thump) are almost totally cancelled.

    Even if it turns out this is not the cause of your problem it is an excellent exercise in getting to know your room and how it affects the tones you hear from your monitors.

    Quote from Wheresthedug

    There are two easy ways to discover if the room is having an effect:

    1 - headphones straight out of the KPA headphone socket (also rules out the interface, speakers and any accidental DAW settings)

    Headphones doesn't make much of a difference to my ears. :( I've got the same headphones as you, the ATH M50x.

    Will try sine wave later on tonight. :)

    Quote from Zappledan

    Perhaps there's another KPA user near you so you can compare in person.

    Quote from Wheresthedug

    Or, as the OP mentioned his memory of the sound in the store, could he perhaps take his KpA into the store and compare side by side there?

    I'm afraid I'm the only one using a KPA in close proximity. Did reach out in a local FB group so fingers crossed. :)

    The store of the two in my town only sells the KPA from their website nowadays ;(