QC or AM4?

[cardinal]

Do you think the QC is actualy the best gear to do capture ? I m tired to tweak my FM9 , the result isn t as good as my IRX or Imperial pedals or Synergy stuff straight in my daw . But i don t want to carry all that gear ... (i always play live with FM9) not bad at all but ...

I'm tried QC and Kemper, and preferred QC by far. The Kemper profiles I made all had a cocked wah thing that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of. I accept it was probably user error but I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. QC is idiot proof since it does everything (Kemper requires you to "refine" it).

I've not tried NAMM or ToneX since their ecosystems seem more complicated. The Neural DSP stuff is all self contained: just buy the box and use it to make captures and play it back.

 

[Shask]

And what about Hotone Ampero II stage ? Captur is similar to others ?

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The Chinese companies are using a reduced-quality version of NAM, so they are not going to be as accurate.

 

[GJgo]

I was on this fence until yesterday when I ordered an AM4, looking forward to it. What I'm hoping to get is a 4 channel replacement for my tube amps at gigs that require a silent stage. Planning on keeping all my pedals etc., and just dropping this in place of the amp & cab.

I have fantastic amps and cabs & did consider capturing them, however I've learned from recording real amps vs. good sims that getting an amateur mic'd amp to sound as good as a pro sim (on a recording) takes quite a bit of work and was concerned that might translate here.

 

[BenoA]

I never played one but at 699$ the AM4 sounds like a pretty good piece of gear for the price. It also has a very huge community of users out there.

I spent some good time with a QC and really liked the way it sounded through good studio monitors but as for the many multi-fx I tried, I don't feel the "amp in the room sound", it's like playing with a studio processed sound. And at 1799$ it's more expensive than the Fractal.

If you just want to experiment with captures, you could grab a ToneX One and start with this, even the basic built-in effects are not too bad and there are like over 50,000 free captures to try. I own one and it sounds damn fine for the 150$ it cost me.

 

[Clay K]

And what about Hotone Ampero II stage ? Captur is similar to others ?

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I have one and love it. Tried it side by side with a qc and couldn’t justify the price difference.

 

[gibsonash]

I have one and love it. Tried it side by side with a qc and couldn’t justify the price difference.

Are you speaking about captur that is my interest .

 

[Clay K]

Are you speaking about captur that is my interest .

Wasn’t only speaking about the captures but yes. The only thing is , once you make a capture, the dsp gets limited somewhat

 

[OldGtrGuy]

I don't feel the "amp in the room sound", it's like playing with a studio processed sound.

Isn't that the case for all of them?

 

[BenoA]

Isn't that the case for all of them?

Probably! This is why I got rid very quickly of all that I tried. I would go back to my real amp or my Katana

 

[Shask]

Isn't that the case for all of them?

Yes, but I found some good tricks for that over the last year after hating the direct sound for years.

That is one reason I like the captures over the models. Making ToneX models of my actual tube amps are closer in dynamics. The other trick I found is mixing my own IRs. I like to mix different mics of the same speaker together with a room or rear IR to make it dark and distant sounding. That helps a lot make it sound more like the cab in the room instead of you sitting with your ear on the speaker. Just say no to cap edge SM57 IRs alone.

Some reverb on top of that, and you can get some sounds that don't seem so flat and processed.

 

[OldGtrGuy]

And what about Hotone Ampero II stage ? Captur is similar to others ?

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Wasn't aware of this unit, could be ideal.

Now considering the tonex one as well.

If it is not the AM4 I got then I really just want to capture my amp in the best and most accurate way.

Of course being able to download other people's captures is preferable too.

 

[OldGtrGuy]

Yes, but I found some good tricks for that over the last year after hating the direct sound for years.

That is one reason I like the captures over the models. Making ToneX models of my actual tube amps are closer in dynamics. The other trick I found is mixing my own IRs. I like to mix different mics of the same speaker together with a room or rear IR to make it dark and distant sounding. That helps a lot make it sound more like the cab in the room instead of you sitting with your ear on the speaker. Just say no to cap edge SM57 IRs alone.

Some reverb on top of that, and you can get some sounds that don't seem so flat and processed.

Can you use multiple outs to use more than 1 mic for a capture on the tonex one?

 

[Shask]

Can you use multiple outs to use more than 1 mic for a capture on the tonex one?

I only do DI captures. I have never found captures with baked in cabs I like much.

 

[OldGtrGuy]

I only do DI captures. I have never found captures with baked in cabs I like much.

I don't know much about it I've never used one before. I have the tonex software so I'm imagining you could either have the option to Mike your own cab and capture the whole thing or do it with a Di and then load IRS into the tonex?

 

[Shask]

I don't know much about it I've never used one before. I have the tonex software so I'm imagining you could either have the option to Mike your own cab and capture the whole thing or do it with a Di and then load IRS into the tonex?

I always make DI captures by running my amps onto a reactive loadbox. I get the pure sound that I can either run into a poweramp or cab, or into IRs direct.

You can mic your cabs and have it all in one, but I dont really see the point in that unless you have a big studio and you want to take your album tones on the road.

 

[OldGtrGuy]

I always make DI captures by running my amps onto a reactive loadbox. I get the pure sound that I can either run into a poweramp or cab, or into IRs direct.

You can mic your cabs and have it all in one, but I dont really see the point in that unless you have a big studio and you want to take your album tones on the road.

Well, I have the lowest budget studio ever

But yes for me the point of getting something is to capture my tone for travel gigs without having to bring my stack with me.

The thing that appeals to me about the QC is the bassist can also plug into the same unit. Not sure if these other devices allow that.

 

[Shask]

Well, I have the lowest budget studio ever

But yes for me the point of getting something is to capture my tone for travel gigs without having to bring my stack with me.

The thing that appeals to me about the QC is the bassist can also plug into the same unit. Not sure if these other devices allow that.

You can't do that with the ToneX, but you could buy about 9 ToneX Ones for the same price, so you wouldn't have to, lol.

 

[gibsonash]

Wasn’t only speaking about the captures but yes. The only thing is , once you make a capture, the dsp gets limited somewhat

After a captur (amp+cab) how many classic effects (dly/Cho/drive..) could you add in a patch ?

 

[DrewJD82]

If you want to go real cheap to see if you dig the capture/profile world, the Valeton GP-5 is under $100 and is so stupidly easy to use I only needed to watch a few seconds of a video to learn how to send NAM files to the pedal via the app.

I got mine for free when I bought some Cioks power supplies and figured I’d try it out for shits and giggles, I was pretty damn impressed. It’s got built in effects and a decent selection of each type, ping pong delays, tape delays, chorused delays, etc.

This is a capture someone made of Mick Mars’ Jose that Richard Fortus owns, the part that trips me out is he made the capture using Pete Thorn’s video on it and it sounds fucking great! (it’s going straight into the Fryette powering the 4x12)



There’s a website, Tone3000.com that has a fuckton of free captures and it’s setup pretty cool; there’s a dropdown menu where you pick a DI in the style/genre closest to yours and it runs the DI through the capture you’ve selected, so you can hear it before you download it. Then you just download it on your phone, use the Valeton app to open and send it to the pedal, the whole process takes about 15 seconds once you’ve found a capture you dig.

I’ll likely snag a couple of these to send to various friends houses for when I travel and I’m going to stash one of my pedalboard as a worst case scenario backup, I can just plug it into the PA and carry on like nothing happened.

 

[Juggernaut]

I run my QC into the Fryette power station into my 4x12, it sounds fantastic. I'm using all DI captures, it really sounds killer. The Kemper with DI profiles sounds really good as well. The Fryette made all the difference, I was using the Duncan Power Stage 700, it sounds great with bass, but not as good with guitar as the tube amp.