So NAM A2 is shitting all over everything and I'm here for it.

[DanTravis62]

I'm a capture/digital amp guy. I love my Quad Cortex. I sold all my IIC+'s, Rectifiers, ENGLs, Vox(es) and almost all of my overdrive pedals. It nails 99% of the amp tones I'm after and it captures the pedals at damn near 100%.. The key is capturing your own tones, your own settings. A lot of stuff out there for the kemper, axe-fx, and even quad sound like absolute dogshit.

I tried the NAM out multiple times (pedal, vst, etc..) and it's the same issue. You have no idea what kind of equipment these dudes are capturing with. Every time I read "Captor X" in the description, I skipped. That thing adds such a weird high end artifacting that it will make the nicest tube amp sound like a PODxt. It's always better to capture your amp at your settings with your guitars using quality amp load boxes. I have multiple captures of my amps for different guitars and different tunings.

100% this. I doubt ill ever buy another pedal again. Still haven't used NAM but anything captured through a CaptorX was an immediate nope. Sold that thing as quickly as I could. Much better results from the Fractal Loadbox.

Ive gotten to a point where a common amp like a stock 5150, ill use a digital version, and I've started slimming down my tube collection to modded or more rare amps that I'd miss even if I capture them well. My guitars all sound so different that I will always make a tweak here or there when I fire them up.

I'll agree and reiterate that your experience with amp modeling is going to be highly dependent on what capture/model/profile you are playing and who made it.

There are almost no "Stock" captures/profiles/models of anything that I've ever played that sounded good to my ears.

Conversely though, I could record with a profile of an amp, or the amp itself, and you guys would never know the difference


The key with digital is the question "are you willing to put the time and effort into it?"

If you are, you can make it work wonderfully. If you expect to fire up whatever the latest flavor of the month unit is (in this case the NAM A2) and immediately get results like people like Piggy, vultures, Medic, or I get, you are doing the equivalent of plugging a guitar into a stock marshall plexi with the volume at 2 and wondering why it doesn't sound like "'ain't talkin bout love."

 

[The~Kid]

Plus don't forget the fact you need a laptop worth a damn, monitors, interface and all this other BS especially if you are looking to play live with this stuff......



What's that cost..... 4 or 5 thousand bucks just to sound decent. So if you have all this stuff to begin with fine but for others who look at this and just use real gear either digital/analog gear in pedals or amps this is just crazy. No matter how good it is I don't care.....




Maybe they can easily have it in a pedal or make a real amp and sell that and then I will care.....



Until then I'm just going to look at this stuff and be like meh, it's cool but who gives a fuck and I aint buying an expensive ass Apple/Intel Laptop, monitors or some other shit and what have you

 

[CJ7]

I

Plus don't forget the fact you need a laptop worth a damn, monitors, interface and all this other BS especially if you are looking to play live with this stuff......



What's that cost..... 4 or 5 thousand bucks just to sound decent. So if you have all this stuff to begin with fine but for others who look at this and just use real gear either digital/analog gear in pedals or amps this is just crazy. No matter how good it is I don't care.....




Maybe they can easily have it in a pedal or make a real amp and sell that and then I will care.....



Until then I'm just going to look at this stuff and be like meh, it's cool but who gives a fuck and I aint buying an expensive ass Apple/Intel Laptop, monitors or some other shit and what have you

I'm not disagreeing with you, and I don't do NAM captures, but the cost to get up and running from scratch with digital is less than analog. And some of it you need regardless, like an interface and computer.

 

[The~Kid]

I

I'm not disagreeing with you, and I don't do NAM captures, but the cost to get up and running from scratch with digital is less than analog. And some of it you need regardless, like an interface and computer.

Okay say you don't have a laptop, interface, mic or whatever else...... Monitors, power amp etc etc or whatever......

Maybe to sound below average the cost ain't that high but to sound decent youre looking to spend a pretty penny I figure. Maybe 1,000 bucks on the cheap side and 3+ or 4+ thousand to sound decent I figure and then 5 years from now some other new "The best thing since sliced bread" or whatever other BS comes out....



I mean let's be real here. Why don't they make real amps or pedals if it's that good or practical or the best ever... Because it ain't.

 

[VonBonfire]

I wont be antidigital if they nail it

I knew you were soft.

 

[PiggySmallz]

Okay say you don't have a laptop, interface, mic or whatever else...... Monitors, power amp etc etc or whatever......

Maybe to sound below average the cost ain't that high but to sound decent youre looking to spend a pretty penny I figure. Maybe 1,000 bucks on the cheap side and 3+ or 4+ thousand to sound decent I figure and then 5 years from now some other new "The best thing since sliced bread" or whatever other BS comes out....



I mean let's be real here. Why don't they make real amps or pedals if it's that good or practical or the best ever... Because it ain't.

You're overthinking this. Digital or analog...the next best thing is coming out very soon. Thats how companies remain competitive and relevant, marketing the best new technology and advances to their product.

You're also making an assumption that choice between digital and analog is for someone new to guitar and whether or not they want to sound great or not great. The reality is there is an investment regardless and at that level they have no idea what does or doesn't sound great. Either way having 100 options at $4k with less maintenance may be more appealing than 1 option.

Also arguing why they still make analog amps and pedals if digital is better is just as pointless as asking why they still sell combustion engine cars when electric cars exist. Its because there is still a market for both. There's a world where both digital and analog can coexist. Not everything has to be all or nothing.

Dont overthink it. You're the consumer try a bunch of shit that's available to you and find what you like. You don't need to justify why you like it.

 

[Soundstorm]

I absolutely love my Quad Cortex with the new V2 capture tech. I love that it's all self contained and i don't need to go through some wacky capture process. I only use my own captures, everything else I've tried has been shit. So, on the road it's the QC, at home in my own studio it's my real amps. Same tones and feel, any location.

 

[Tone Monster]

AI will crack the code sooner rather than later…

 

[CJ7]

Okay say you don't have a laptop, interface, mic or whatever else...... Monitors, power amp etc etc or whatever......

Maybe to sound below average the cost ain't that high but to sound decent youre looking to spend a pretty penny I figure. Maybe 1,000 bucks on the cheap side and 3+ or 4+ thousand to sound decent I figure and then 5 years from now some other new "The best thing since sliced bread" or whatever other BS comes out....



I mean let's be real here. Why don't they make real amps or pedals if it's that good or practical or the best ever... Because it ain't.

The same can be said for analog?

To sound semi decent, I could get a used mid-grade modeler and either headphones or a cheap frfr speaker and be good around $500.

Full analog can vary just as widely, but you can a decent tube amp used for $500, but now I need a cab. And I don't have EQ, tuner, OD's, modulation, etc.

Bang for buck to sound decent is digital. I think both have their places, but to say digital is more expensive to sound halfway good is crazy.

 

[Shask]

I'm a capture/digital amp guy. I love my Quad Cortex. I sold all my IIC+'s, Rectifiers, ENGLs, Vox(es) and almost all of my overdrive pedals. It nails 99% of the amp tones I'm after and it captures the pedals at damn near 100%.. The key is capturing your own tones, your own settings. A lot of stuff out there for the kemper, axe-fx, and even quad sound like absolute dogshit.

I tried the NAM out multiple times (pedal, vst, etc..) and it's the same issue. You have no idea what kind of equipment these dudes are capturing with. Every time I read "Captor X" in the description, I skipped. That thing adds such a weird high end artifacting that it will make the nicest tube amp sound like a PODxt. It's always better to capture your amp at your settings with your guitars using quality amp load boxes. I have multiple captures of my amps for different guitars and different tunings.

I think the best experience with these units is when you can capture your own gear with your settings. When you do that, the copy you make is VERY hard to tell from the real thing.

Yeah, if you depend on sorting through captures from other people, you are going to have to find someone who dials in stuff like you would.

 

[Shask]

Idk.....

I really think this capture stuff is overrated...... Its not even modeling the amp really and it's just a capture of one sweet spot.....

Its cool and all but from what I hear it's not even modeling an actual amp and it's just kind of like a frame of an amps setting and that's it.

If you take a capture of your gear at your favorite settings, then you dont need a bunch of knobs to dial things. You already have your favorite sound captured. Why get 100 different settings that sound like crap when you only want the one setting?

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

I'll agree and reiterate that your experience with amp modeling is going to be highly dependent on what capture/model/profile you are playing and who made it.

There are almost no "Stock" captures/profiles/models of anything that I've ever played that sounded good to my ears.

Conversely though, I could record with a profile of an amp, or the amp itself, and you guys would never know the difference


The key with digital is the question "are you willing to put the time and effort into it?"

If you are, you can make it work wonderfully. If you expect to fire up whatever the latest flavor of the month unit is (in this case the NAM A2) and immediately get results like people like Piggy, vultures, Medic, or I get, you are doing the equivalent of plugging a guitar into a stock marshall plexi with the volume at 2 and wondering why it doesn't sound like "'ain't talkin bout love."

I just want to ask a question here. I have seen kemper live and it was awesome. I have no qualms with the sound.

But does it feel like an amp?

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

If you take a capture of your gear at your favorite settings, then you dont need a bunch of knobs to dial things. You already have your favorite sound captured. Why get 100 different settings that sound like crap when you only want the one setting?

This is how i feel. I just want one great sound 99% of the time

 

[chumbucket]

I would love to try some of the capture software. I dont really want to capture shit as much as try what has been captured to see if it is good.

I wont be antidigital if they nail it

The official standalone and plugin app is Gateway. Easy to use but you need to know the maximum input level at unity gain for your audio interface for the best results.

https://www.neuralampmodeler.com/users

Check out @2dor 's captures on Tone3000 -
https://www.tone3000.com/2dor

 

[DanTravis62]

I just want to ask a question here. I have seen kemper live and it was awesome. I have no qualms with the sound.

But does it feel like an amp?

Depends on what you mean, this question is too broad

If you hook a kemper up to a big rack power amp, or the return of an amp, does it feel like an amp? Yes.

Does it feel like an amp when you're playing it on headphones or recording on your computer at low volume? No.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

The official standalone and plugin app is Gateway. Easy to use but you need to know the maximum input level at unity gain for your audio interface for the best results.

https://www.neuralampmodeler.com/users

Check out @2dor 's captures on Tone3000 -
https://www.tone3000.com/2dor

Ah. Ok. Well i do neural. I am just moreso talking about with volume. I dont have that kind of setup

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Depends on what you mean, this question is too broad

If you hook a kemper up to a big rack power amp, or the return of an amp, does it feel like an amp? Yes.

Does it feel like an amp when you're playing it on headphones or recording on your computer at low volume? No.

I am never expecting headphones or low volume to matter. I play like that for practice. Not for fun

 

[DanTravis62]

I am never expecting headphones or low volume to matter. I play like that for practice. Not for fun

Okay, well if you mean when you play at volume yes it feels like an amp - although that can depend on the profile

In general the high gain profiles tend to feel amplike

The clean ones (especially if it's like a cranked vintage fender, or hiwatt, or something like that) feel less amplike

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Okay, well if you mean when you play at volume yes it feels like an amp - although that can depend on the profile

In general the high gain profiles tend to feel amplike

The clean ones (especially if it's like a cranked vintage fender, or hiwatt, or something like that) feel less amplike

That is cool. That is one of the things that kept me from being interested.

 

[chumbucket]

Ah. Ok. Well i do neural. I am just moreso talking about with volume. I dont have that kind of setup

You can run a line out from an audio interface into a power amp and then into your 4x12. I've got a ton of DI profiles that sound great into a real cab.