Compressed clean sounds

I have no idea what could be causing compression like that. Have you tried other amps and speakers?

Are you using a powered Kemper or some other power amp?

I assume you're using the active cab skipping the Kemper's power section, aren't you?sorry if this sounds trivial but it was not clear to me from your answer

Try and set Clean Sense high enough so that the red blinks at times, chances are it's set too low.
Also, check that Pick Attack is zero'ed.

Are you driving your RCF with a proper gain staging?
As for the passive cab, have you switched the Booster on?
In general, at what volume are you playing?

does the Limiter LED on your RCF monitor light up?

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It could be that you're running out of headroom in your clean profile.

So taking a step back to basics (I apologize if I'm going on about something you already know), an ideal amp would take a signal and multiply it by the gain and replicate the input perfectly, just at a larger magnitude. We know that guitar amps are not ideal, when you apply a small amount of gain, they are close to ideal (no compression), but as you raise the gain, the signal gets more and more squished, and you hear mild compression, heavy compression, crunch, serious distortion, and finally heavy metal mayhem. Running out of headroom is the phrase everyone uses when they mean you're no longer just raising the clean volume with the gain knob, but you are starting to distort (compression is a form of distortion).

So now, coming back you your question. Are you running out of headroom? Well you could pump a sine wave in, and look at the output to see if it's still a sine wave, but it's easier to just lower the input signal or gain until it no longer sounds compressed and you get your headroom back. Then raise the volume on the output side (which does act like an ideal amp until it hits the red) to get you up to drummer level. It sounds like you are already doing this last step via the KPA monitor volume. Some people might refer to this whole process as correct gain staging, because you are taking control of how you set the gain before, inside, and after the amp, but I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly what that phrase means, I hear it used in lots of different ways.

Quote from Hurricane

My and also my professional clean-profiles sound and feel rather compressed via my FRFR- and also via my 2x12" Guitarbox. I don't use any compressor in the slots and also there's no red light in Input- or Output-LED. I also disabled the compression-rate-factor in Amp-section.
What else could be the reason?

When you say "compressed" - what exactly do you mean? What are you hearing, and what do you want to hear?

Quote from Michael_dk

When you say "compressed" - what exactly do you mean? What are you hearing, and what do you want to hear?

this would have been my next question also

My advice would be back down the input volume (the channel volume) and then raise the master output up to compensate for turning the input down.

It sounds like your kemper is almost clipping and that might be leading to this compressed sound?

Quote from Hurricane

I hear the signal like using a Stomp-Compressor with ratio-value and Attack-value rather high. And like this is also the playing-feeling. No red Input-LED but sometimes a yello Output-LED (I don't think it's a volume issue, because it also with many professional profiles).

And how would you describe it in terms of the SOUND - i.e. what are you hearing in the transients, what are you hearing in the sustain, etc?

A guess from me: You feel like the attack is attenuated, is this true?

High noise gate?

Er... have you tried turning down the amp compression (in the, well, amp section)?

Lowering input level would obviously lessen the action of said compression, but dialling it right back or off could deliver that "Aaahhh..." moment. I think. YMMV.

Quote from Hurricane

Maybe my ears are bleeding (after 35 years of gigging) but I don't know what you mean with "hearing in the transients". What I can say is, that it sounds like playing through a compressor, i.e. high attack, evened tone, long sustain, less dynamics. The overall sound is good (as my bandmates and the spectators tell) but feels unnatural, when playing.

By transients I mean attack of the notes It's just because you initially described the tone from settings on some type of effect pedal or whatever, rather than the tone itself.

For instance, high attack - do you mean high attack setting on a compressor? Depending on the compressor "type" / piece of gear, that could either mean you're not hearing enough pick attack/note attack compared to the sustained note - or too much :-). But from your most recent description, I am guessing that you're not hearing enough note attack, and that all the notes are basically the same volume and with "too long" sustain (unnatural decay). Is this right?

Quote from Hurricane

Yes that's right.
It sounds to me, as if I play through a compressor. Too much attack, notes all the same volume and too long sustain.
There are a few clean "Fender Super Reverb"-Rig Sounds, which are not influenced by this. I will check if these contain different Amp-Settings (as described by MonkeyMan).

See, now I'm a bit confused and want to check just in case When you say TOO MUCH ATTACK - you mean the pick attack is too loud (while the sustaining part of the note is lower, but longer than you'd expect). Correct?