Step-by-Step Reamping Guide

    Seen a few threads complaining about sub-par replication of tones when reamping and thought it would be prudent to have a step-by-step guide on how to set up your Kemper for reamping, since no one RTFM


    1) Set channel for DI signal: You can do this by choosing your preferred reamp channel (SPDIF, main output) in the output section. and setting the option to GIt Studio. Alternatively, if you want to hear the effected sound on the right channel and the DI signal on the left, set the mode to Git/Stack. You could always set the SPDIF to git studio and the master output to master stereo or vice versa if you have enough inputs on your interface.


    2) Adjust the DI output level: This is the commonly ignored step that leads people to get into trouble when their DI recording is not hot enough/too hot for the reamping process, which causes trouble down the line. Click on the input menu and adjust the clean sense parameter to a level where clean sounds have the same loudness as the distorted sounds. Using Git/Stack in the output section would be useful in such a situation, as would having more inputs on your interface. This basically ensures that the git studio output is perfectly leveled while keeping the noise floor down - adjusting the dynamics of the instrument to the digital headroom of the profiler.
    The input LED is a helpful indicator in this regard: it should flash yellow consistently when hitting the strings hard. However, avoid a deep orange or red colour, which could result in clipping in the DI signal.


    3) Reamping; You should have an SPDIF cable hooked up from your interface to the SPDIF input of the Kemper, or a TS cable from the interface to the return input of the Kemper. Go to the input section and change the input source to either "Return input reamp" or "SPDIF input reamp". As soon as you press play on your DAW, you should hear the guitar DI being fed to the Kemper. Stop the playback and create another track. Set the input on this track to SPDIF or your master output. Don't forget to change the output type on the Kemper in the output section to master stereo or stack, depending on whether you want to use the Kemper delay and reverb or not.


    4) Setting reamp sense: Now comes the final stage of reamping before you hit record. You need to play back the DI track through your Kemper and watch the input LED. It should turn to yellow on the hardest string hits, but not more. You need to set the appropriate level for the DI signal from within your DAW by raising or lowering the volume on the DI track. Note, this cannot be set in the Kemper.


    This is all you need to do if you're reamping a clean amp, but if distorted sounds are what you're going after, there's one more parameter to utilise: reamp sense. This is the knob you need to turn if you feel the amount of distortion in your profile differs from the original. The difference occurs because the DI signal might not be the same as the input signal from your guitar. Turn up reamp sense to introduce more distortion into your signal, or down to lower it. As mentioned, it's not necessary on clean tones.


    In the case of distorted profiles, there is an alternative procedure for input levelling that you could follow, given that the clean sense levelling and final levelling of reamp sense have an opposite relationship. Set reamp sense to the opposite value of the original clean sense setting, eg. -2 db and +2db. Then level the amount of distortion by adjusting the output volume of the DI track within your DAW. Once this is done, you have found the correct input level by default and there's no need to watch the input LED.


    5) Arm the track and hit record.

    Guys, latency has more to do with your entire chain connecting the Kemper to your DAW. The main reason for latency is usually the interface you're using. Some simple checks:
    1) Are you using the appropriate drivers for your card/interface?
    2) Have you lowered the sample rate to the lowest possible without getting audio/recording errors?
    3) Are you using an appropriate USB/firewire port? Some USB devices use 3.0 ports, some 2.0 for best results.
    3) Have you engaged the constant latency button in the output option of the Kemper, to ensure that everything is in phase?


    @Raoul23, what interface are you using for Protools? I'm using an RME Fireface 800 with Samplitude and my latency is down to 3 ms for input and 4 ms for output at 128 samples, which I think is fair enough.

    It could also be useful to check your re-amping roundtrip latency. Latency compensation in DAWs is mostly used to compensate plugin latency and not to compensate outboard latency.


    Here is a article which handles how to integrate outboard gear to a DAW. They've used Cubase for this, but it can be reproduced with any other DAW. There are also some plugins out there build for delay compensation. And some DAWs have build in systems for this.
    http://www.soundonsound.com/so…les/cubase-1211.htm#para4


    There is one very quick way to adjust roundtrip latency... Just send a simple click (not too loud) through the Kemper, make sure the Kemper is set to constant latency. Record this and you have the difference.
    I don't like to set a negative delay to a recorded track to compensate latency, because I like to see the track aligned how it is meant to be. But another way is to add a negative delay to the DI track before reamping, when you have measured the value.

    Quote from nightlight

    Guys, latency has more to do with your entire chain connecting the Kemper to your DAW. The main reason for latency is usually the interface you're using. Some simple checks:
    1) Are you using the appropriate drivers for your card/interface?
    2) Have you lowered the sample rate to the lowest possible without getting audio/recording errors?
    3) Are you using an appropriate USB/firewire port? Some USB devices use 3.0 ports, some 2.0 for best results.
    3) Have you engaged the constant latency button in the output option of the Kemper, to ensure that everything is in phase?


    @Raoul23, what interface are you using for Protools? I'm using an RME Fireface 800 with Samplitude and my latency is down to 3 ms for input and 4 ms for output at 128 samples, which I think is fair enough.


    Nightlight im im using a digi 192, when I tried some reamping and to see how amps sounded in a song the track was way out of time so it was hard to see what it sounded like

    Quote from Raoul23


    Nightlight im im using a digi 192, when I tried some reamping and to see how amps sounded in a song the track was way out of time so it was hard to see what it sounded like


    If you've got issues like this I would first check where the main problem with the latency is. So we speak about a delay greater than 10ms right?
    After that, one really easy solution is to measure the delay and to give the DI track a negative delay, which will send the DI track earlier to the Kemper. So you compensate before you send it to the Kemper and you should perfectly hear what you will get.

    Have you locked your interface to the Kemper clock? Another thing you could do is free up some system resources before reamping. Freeze the tracks you've recorded with the FX and then try to reamp and see if things improve.


    Latency compensation is also used when recording midi, but I've never experimented with it for audio. Should be as simple as setting the appropriate value, you should try that click test suggested by Navar.

    The constant latency button worked a treat, thanks.
    2 other questions.
    The reamping sound from the KPA is coming back in the right channel only, the recording on the left, can this not be centered somehow?
    The original recording being sent to the KPA is quite loud and it's hard to tell if the new sound coming back from the KPA is the right one to fit the track.
    If I turn down the monitored channel the KPA volume turns down also.
    Any thoughts on this?


    Thanks,
    Mike