Clean sens Setup

    Hi all!

    Particulary, what made me write this question is that when i use my gibson les paul custom , if i am playing a medium/high gain rig, when i lower the gain button until i arrive to a clean setting, the output gets cracked , goes really red . I am using , clean sens at 2.5 and distortion sens at 0 . which i think are adequate settings . but maybe i am wrong ?

    BTW: Until this day i am not really happy with my clean sens and distortion sens settings . I have got a Gibson les paul custom and a variax( with plenty of different outputs), and didnt find a steady solution for conecting any guitar, and being not in need of changing often settings of a rig to acomodate a different guitar when i plug in . Anyone using a variax and another guitar to tip me ?

    Thanks for help .

    Edited once, last by Tone (May 1, 2013 at 7:51 PM).

    Clean and distortion sense have nothing to do with output - lower the volume of the presets, that should do it.

    As for sense settings, if the Variax hasn't got a good balance of volumes you're in a bit of a problem.
    You can use a compressor pre-gain, but it will definitely color the tone. Otherwise, you could create clean sense presets and lock the input, but you'd have to change them when you switch guitars.
    If you want to use more than one guitar for a song, you'd have to create multiple presets of the same amp for different guitars.

    "But dignity is difficult to maintain
    stamina requires constant upkeep
    repetition is boring
    and you pay for grace."

    If you have been setting the Variax to have different output levels to add realism to the various guitar sounds, that is understandable. But, if the differences are too extreme:

    You may want to even out the differences some with Variax Edit (at least with the ones you use live). You can then also edit the gain on some Kemper rigs to give you the response you are looking for, without needing to change to a different Input setting.

    The Variax has an extreme amount of gain variation in the presets - but, there is more than enough range to make the vintage strat as loud as your LPC, if you want to. I was able to make Variax clones of all my guitars when I had one. BTW- That Variax tele bridge pickup sounds great in the neck and middle position of a Variax Les Paul body:)

    thanks for tips ! Atm i only use the variax home , dont use it live, but maybe the best choice would be unlocking the input and making presets for each guitar, the thing is that variax has plenty with different outputs, and sometimes i design a new guitar :D . I think the marriage between the Kemper and Variax is lovelly ! My variax never sounded so good !

    But what makes me confused i read somewhere on forum that The distortion and clean settings should be tuned , to have the clean volume and distortion volume equal in power, if i have a distorted rig and starts do deacrease its gain until it gets clean, if output ged clipped (red), doesnt mean that the clean is higher volume than the distorted one ?

    You'll see the input clipping before the output - otherwise, what's causing the clipping is somewhere after the input (where the clean sense is).

    "But dignity is difficult to maintain
    stamina requires constant upkeep
    repetition is boring
    and you pay for grace."

    When you say you are lowering the Gain button I'm assuming you are lowering the Gain knob on the front of the KPA. Generally I can 'clean up' a profile that way but to get a really good "clean" sound it is better to start with a "clean" profile. Changing the parameters too much on any profile seems to leave a lot to be desired at least that's what I have experienced.

    Not to say the advice you are getting about the Sensitivity settings isn't good but it doesn't look like anyone noticed your mention that the problem happens when you dropped the Gain level...

    BTW - you don't have to make your clean sounds as loud as the gain sounds. It might be more difficult to do it with a Variax. They have a different dynamic range (and likely different impedance) than a conventional guitar.

    I can see the advantages for recording, where it is good to have plenty of signal on all the tracks.

    But recordings are mixed after the musicians play, not at the same time.

    If you play live, you may not want to do it. I think the FOH sound technicians will like your Kemper a lot better if you don't do this.

    If your clean sounds are as loud as your gain sounds when you play live, they will be too loud, compared to the rest of the band. Imagine playing a hard fast song with a recto rig. The next song is more of a medium tempo, and you use a sparkling clean fender or JC120 sound. Should it be the same volume as the recto? Is the rest of the band playing this song just as loud as the one before it?

    Clean sounds "cut through" a mix more than gain sounds. You may also tend to turn the guitar up more with clean sounds to get the additional brightness.

    So for live use, a balance that works from song to song will make the rest of the band and the Sound Technician happy.