Here's an update on my experience with the KPA:
First off, I use, basically 5 or 6 sounds. The majority of my gig is played between 4 settings - Clean, heavy crunch rhythm, heavy overdrive lead and slightly broken up, SRV-ish. Number five is fairly clean, good for chicken picking stuff for a couple country songs we play. Other than that, if we do Van Halen stuff I have Top Jimis profiles and I have a Slash sound I made from a Michael Britt profile from a Silver Jubilee earlier this week.
Anyhow - the first couple weeks, the sound that was giving me the most trouble was my clean sound. After the first weekend (I don't recall what I used for sounds) I profiled my Fender 68 Custom Deluxe Reverb. I originally tried Michael Britt's Grab & Go pack, in which he has profiles of this exact amp, but I have my own particular settings, and I've swapped out the speaker in mine to a Celestion G12-65 from 1979, so that amp has its own sound.
Anyhow, if you've read some of my other posts you'll remember I was having problems getting the onboard compressor stomp to give me what my MXR Dynacomp gives me when going into the Deluxe. A couple weeks ago I finally gave in and ordered a power supply for this pedalboard so I could have my comp and my wah, which I also couldn't get right using the Kemper's on board options. Ironically, while I was waiting on the power supply I got the Stack block comp sounding REALLY close to my MXR. Nonetheless, when the PS arrived I thre a Dynacomp out there.
My clean sound now is damn near pristine - I'm getting a lot of comments on it, especially from my bandmates. So I'm thrilled with that.
Now I'm having my biggest problems with my heavy rock crunch and lead sounds. Both are using a profile I made of my modified Marshall DSL100. My soundman has been telling me that he's missing the warmth and balls my tones have always had but all the gigs we've been doing we've been kind of rushed so I couldn't get out there and listen for myself. This evening I was finally able to do that and I can hear exactly what he's talking about. He's definitely not wrong. The problem, though, isn't with the Kemper, it's with my profile. It's definitely lacking down around 300-500hz. I could dial that in with the EQ but I don't have a slot open after the amp in the rhythm crunch sound so instead I'm going to re-profile that amp with a different speaker cab, as well as profile my Modded Marshall JMP-1/9200 rig. The tones I used to get out of that before switching to the Fender a few years ago were otherworldly - I've also recorded that rig a good bit, with the mic combination I'm going to use, and in those recordings, when mixed I didn't need to EQ the guitar at all, it just sat right there in the mix perfectly and sounded gargantuan - so I have no doubt I'm going to get killer results. I should have done that from the get go.
My SRV-ish tone uses a profile I took of the Deluxe with a Lovepedal Super Six w/Stevie Mod in front - using a Sennheiser 906. It's a really great sounding profile. I think when I redo the Marshall stuff, I'm going to run thre 906, in addition to my 421 and Unidyne III Sm57, then either blend it in or profile that separately, for more options. Then if these turn out ok I'll also profile my '86 Laney AOR100, my '65 Fender Bassman and my $400 Bugera Plexi Clone (that sounds amazing). I have one day, Sunday, to do all this so hopefully I can get the right tones dialed in.
So anyhow, that's where I'm at currently with my KPA. Since the vast majority of the stuff we play uses clean and only slightly overdriven tones, I'm really happy with the sound so far. Once I get these other profiles done (which I now know exactly what I need) I'll be that much happier.
Wednesday night a friend of mine, a fellow guitarist on this circuit, dropped in and caught the last song of the set - Turn Up The Radio from Autograph, which is a pretty rockin guitar sound and solo. After the song we were done. He came up & said, simply, 'That's it - Monday I'm buying one'...meaning the Kemper. And that was with the flawed sound. Can't imagine how he'd respond if I had the tone I'm going to have after I reprofile....