Kepex Wiring Quandry

A

ADATlove

New member
I happened upon a pair of Kepex Valley People gates. Now I'm trying to install them into my system and I ran into a problem. I've been getting distorted, ungated output when my patch is solidly inserted. When I pull the patch cable out a bit, I get a normal gated output.

The ins and outs of the units are the screw-in wire type (no 1/4" or xlr). The input is pretty standard; it has a hot, a cold and a ground. However, the output has a single screw for hot/cold and then a screw for ground. I traced my cable back and discovered that the hot and cold are soldered to their standard tip/ring positions. I have a feeling this is my problem. Should I toss a jumper between the tip and ring solder points? Should only hot OR cold be used, thus creating an unbalanced output (as opposed to the clearly balanced ins)?

Your aid and expertise are greatly appreciated.
 
I would try the latter, just use hot or cold. You also may wish to tie one of them to ground as well, but do some research before trying that.

It's also possible you may need to flip the hot and cold on the input barrier strip to get the proper gating action in relation to your patchbay. But don't try that until you've sorted out the output issue.

I don't use that particular unit, but I have done some wiring with barrier strips. So hopefully this will be of help.
 
Thanks, I'll try disconnecting the negative wire and if it works I'll keep it that way. When the patch cable is halfway in I get fine gating (or at least it seems fine to me but I have never used this model before).
 
As far as the gating working fine when the patch cable is half in, I think that means your wiring is reversed. Another way to tell is if the bypass doesn't work properly.

If that is the case, then try flipping positive and negative on the barrier strip on the way in. Then put the patch jack all the way in and see if the gating and bypass work properly.

If it goes "pffft" and a little puff of smoke comes out, don't blame me! :eek:
 
SonicAlbert,
It's working! I disconnected the - wire on the output and everything seems to be working just fine. Quite a nice little gate! The problem seems to be that the back panel seems to instruct the user to wire both + and - wires to the same pole but it works when you use only one. The question remains: what about that loose - wire? Does it just hang out or should I try attaching it to the ground?

Now for another Kepex II gate question. I finally wired up the Key input and after reading a lot about this feature I decided to give it a try. But I'm not sure I'm solid on how to use it. From what I understand, I could send a snare to the Key input and use it to trigger the gate on, say, a guitar. So every time the snare is hit I should hear the guitar track peak through. Is that correct? If so, what do the controls on the gate affect, the signal coming through the key or the signal being gated?

Throw all your thoughts on gating and keying right at me!
 
Glad it's working for you!

The signal coming in the key input is what affects the gating action. That's the whole point of it. You could for example send a drum loop to the key input and have that gate a synth pad. The result would be a rhythmic version of the synth sound.
 
sorry changed my post. You solved the problem. I had grounding problems with my valley stuff so different anyways. Really good gates, good choice.
 
I have a bunch of Keepex and Gainbrains that I haven't dusted off since my tape days. They really are good units, and one of these days I'll have to dust them off and re-cap them. Just as soon as I get a round tuit.....
 
I picked mine up as part of a massive gear score from my alma mater. They installed a digital board with built in effects and had a new ProTools setup so the analog stuff was sitting there, unused and unwired. So I ended up paying about $30 for a pile of sweet pieces of gear, including this pair of Kepex gates.
 
The problem is that dipshits now believe pro tools and digital is the shit. Fucking kill me now, kids calling my equipment "old stuff". Funny how they see an la2 in my rack and think it is not as good as a "pro" toolz plug-in. AAAAArgH!
 
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