Well, I was not able to return my Kemper (which may be a good thing). Kemper support feels my unit is working normally. Since I do not feel the unit sounds correct I do not want to unload it onto some poor bastard on the used market.
So I set out to get the original tone I was looking for when I bought the unit. To make sure I have tried everything. So I purchased M.Britts Profile 1 pack to get the 3P Plexi + Tim 6 2 profile used in Paul Davids Top 5 Kemper Profiles YouTube example. This sound is the main reason I bought the Kemper. What is another $40 when I have an $2000 brick sitting in front of me.
Of course my unit does not sound anything like PDs video. Not even close.
So I went to MBritts SoundCloud example of this amplifier. His MP3 sounds very close to my Stage. His is a touch clearer but they are very similar. This confirmed what Kemper support claimed, my unit is not broken.
But MBritts example sounds nothing like PDs video. It is a little muddy and the bass is flubby. Very unlike PDs video, but very much like all of my Kemper profiles. So does MB have a dead Kemper that sounds like mine does???
My unit has 2 issues: No singing overtones and distant compressed flubby sound. Playing low notes it just disappears into flubby nothingness.
So I set out twisting and turning every knob on the Kemper. The knob that made it start to sound decent was actually the AMP COMPRESSOR. If I jack this up to around 5-6 the sounds gets a little more in your face with some overtones.
This got me about 40% there to match PDs sound. Looking at his WAVE file display in Goldwave, I see that his loud parts were much more compressed than mine. But his sounds WAY more present and lively, how can it be MORE compressed than mine????
So I added a stomp compressor AFTER the amp section set to the SOFT default. KA-Freakin-BOOM! It was as if someone turned on a light and I could see for the first time.
So now I am about 75-80% there to where I want to be. I still dont have the overtones I hear everyone else get. And the answer to a dead sounding over compressed sound was to add two more compressors. Who would have guessed. So I am finally at a sound I am happy with. still not 100% but closer.
I also tweaked a few other things like the Amp def, EQ, Direct mix. Maybe if I start all over again I can get closer to PDs sound.
Here is a sound clip of where I am at this point. IT IS VERY LOUD!!!