SPDIF sound quality vs. Analog

mattclarkmixer · August 23, 2019 at 7:11 PM

I just tried using my Profiler with SPDIF for the first time. It's going out of the Kemper into an Avid HD I/O, and then into Pro Tools. The tone seems very plasticy, not what I'm used to hearing through the analog outputs at all. Any idea why this would be happening? Thanks

Michael_dk · August 23, 2019 at 8:51 PM

Check that the sample rate is set to the same rate on both kemper and interface

mattclarkmixer · August 23, 2019 at 9:02 PM

They are set to the same sample rate (44.1).

CelticGibson · August 23, 2019 at 9:13 PM

Remember that when you are using analog, you are adding your interface preamps to the mix so they are bound to add something to the sound that going direct digital would. You may just prefer analog because of this.

mattclarkmixer · August 24, 2019 at 12:53 AM

Quote from CelticGibson

Remember that when you are using analog, you are adding your interface preamps to the mix so they are bound to add something to the sound that going direct digital would. You may just prefer analog because of this.

That is something I had thought of as well. Pre-amps can indeed color things, but this seems more than that.

I read something that says that the Kemper needs to be the digital master and my recording interface needs to get it's wordclock from that. Anyone know if that's accurate?

deadman42 · August 24, 2019 at 9:50 AM

Quote from mattclarkmixer

I read something that says that the Kemper needs to be the digital master and my recording interface needs to get it's wordclock from that. Anyone know if that's accurate?

Yes, that's true. Most probably you will get noise (static clicks etc.) if you do it the other way round and the Kemper is not the master.

Regarding your sound issues i am wondering a bit as I do not experience that here. Vice versa I am happy that the last A/D conversion in the chain is the guitar input on the Kemper. After that I never leave the digital sphere until sound from Kemper or DAW hits my monitors again. Doing a lot of re-amping with the Kemper, all via SPDIF and it works so well.

Fingers crossed that you'll find the issue for the differences you hear.

Bryan Daste · August 25, 2019 at 7:30 PM

Double check your output settings for the SPDIF output? Could be something there.

mattclarkmixer · September 6, 2019 at 5:03 AM

Wanted to give a little update on this. I got it figured out that the SPDIF on the Kemper needs to be the master on the wordclock instead of my Pro Tools interface. i.e. now Pro Tools follows the Kemper's wordclock. Big difference. Now it sounds as it should, which is awesome! Thanks for everyone's advice.