Amp Modeler Tier Ranking

Fwiw, in general, I'm wondering whether capturing in itself will one day become obsolete.

The top tier modelers are already covering sooo much tonal ground that pretty much everybody should find a suitable amp for pretty much any situation. And by now even the cheaper range of modelers is massively catching up in terms of quality and quantity.
Obviously, the main advance of component modeling being that the model is in fact acting like a real amp, something just not possible with capturing (as has been discussed ad nauseum), even if advanced techniques such as Kemper's Liquid Profiling might close that gap to some extent.

IMO, captuing as is might only stay relevant for some folks with whatever unusual amps (be it rare ones, modified ones or whatever) and/or combinations of amps and stomp boxes. Anything more typical will be covered sufficiently by component modeling pretty soon, very affordable options included.

Capturing IMO would only be able to stay around permanently in case it'd really capture pretty much everything I'd throw at it. Let's say I'd be splitting my input signal by frequency and then amplifying both splits quite differently (which could make a lot of sense in some situations, such as in keeping your lows tight and clean while getting successively more driven the higher you go (I know, sort of like the old TS808 trick, but I'm thinking about a more drastical approach). From all I know, such creations can't be captured very well right now.

Another option for capturing to survive would be if there were ways to represent all (or most) of the captured amp within one single capture, possibly by utilizing some clever interpolation algorithms, along with certain refining procedures (perhaps that will never really work, but getting a lot closer should be possible). But until we'll be seeing that, I'm sure the market is flooded with component modeling offering pretty much any amps that ever existed.

Yet another thing would be if capturing could profile even some truly weird sounds. Such as the tones of an SY-300/1000 (obviously in plain pickup mode). Or some other wild filtering creatures and what not. But I don't see that to happen any day soon (btw, would love to know what, say, NAM makes from some SY tones...).

Personally, the only reason for me to still sort of lust after a Kemper is it's IMO excellent onboard UI and the established libary. But the latter will become less and less important. Fwiw, at first I thought I would defenitely buy a ToneX pedal one day - but right now, I wouldn't even know why, especially as I'm generally fine anyway and as the HX Stomp has seen two massive updates which should keep my tonal needs sorted pretty much forever.

Really just wondering how much of a market there still is for capturing devices.
 
Anyone who thinks the Gt 1000 core isn't F tier, I have one for sale in excellent shape

idk, there's enough EQs in it if you mid boost the front of a clean model with like +48dB of gain and mid scoop post amp the boss can really rip mesa style, if you beat the clean or crunch models you get back mesa cascading gain sounds, like you would expect from 5 tube stages, it doesn't just fold up into square waves.

I think boss is 32 bit internal modeling resolution, higher than any others, with low gain drives into edge of breakup models you can get bubbly distortion textures with the boss that fractal literally can't do. cause fractal doesn't spend a lot of resources on the first 25% of the gain pot, or the last 25% of the gain pot, from 9 o'clock down it's shit, with or without bright cap. putting drives into that consequently also shit
 
Personally, the only reason for me to still sort of lust after a Kemper is it's IMO excellent onboard UI
I've read enough of your posts to understand why you feel that way, but no single sentence could better prove @Orvillain's point about people's use cases/ needs being different. On the face of it, I read "Kemper for its excellent UI", and...

Scanners-head-explosion.gif

Getting lots of mileage out of this one this week LOL.
 
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I've read enough of your posts to understand why you feel that way, but no single sentence could better prove @Orvillain's point about people's use cases/ needs being different. On the face of it, I read "Kemper for it's excellent UI", and...

Scanners-head-explosion.gif

Getting lots of mileage out of this one this week LOL.

See, even I can perfectly understand how the Kemper UI isn't something for everybody. But I still happen to just dig it - at least for home/studio/recording purposes (never used one live but on a club session when it was one sound and a boost, preadjusted by the owner).
The main things I dig are pretty easy, but pretty much no other modeler offers them:
- Amp controls instantly available, endless encoders with great LED readouts.
- FX adjustment available almost as instantly, just one click away.

Seriously, having at least briefly checked out most alternatives (including borrowing an Axe FX III for a week), none of them would come close. Oh well, the QC possibly would, but you still need to go back from editing mode to select something else, same with the TMP. With the Kemper, all that is just so flawless.
 
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See, even I can perfectly understand how the Kemper UI isn't something for everybody. But I still happen to just dig it - at least for home/studio/recording purposes (never used one live but on a club session when it was one sound and a boost, preadjusted by the owner).
The main things I dig are pretty easy, but pretty much no other modeler offers them:
- Amp controls instantly available, endless encoders with great LED readouts.
- FX adjustment available almost as instantly, just one click away.

Seriously, having at least briefly checked out most alternatives (including borrowing an Axe FX III for a week), none of them would come close. Oh well, the QC possibly would, but still need to go back from editing mode to select something else, same with the TMP. With the Kemper, all that is just so flawless.
Makes sense. I always recognized that, if you were going to do things the way Kemper assumed you were, then the KPA's design/ features/ interfaces made perfect sense. Sort of a "shortest distance between two points" mentality. Unfortunately, I often needed to do things a little bit differently, and I'd be vexed by how inflexible the Kemper could be.
 
and I'd be vexed by how inflexible the Kemper could be.

I think it's indeed a little inflexible as soon as you want something more advanced. The fixed signal chain, just one amp at a time, etc. - all only akin towards pretty traditional usage.
No idea whether I'd get along with one live (very likely yes, especially as the parameter lock function is just excellent IMO), but for recording purposes I actually want my core sounds to be available and adjustable as quick as possible, anything wicked can as well be delegated to other tools. It's how I'm doing things now and I'm pretty happy with it, the Kemper would perfectly fit in that scenario.
 
Fwiw, in general, I'm wondering whether capturing in itself will one day become obsolete...
I think you're touching on all the right questions here, but I'm not sure I'd arrive at the same answer. We could see capturing becoming more granular (e.g. capturing of subsystems are even components, and their interactions.) And we could begin to see multi-point captures that are "aware" of control interactions. Still black-box profiling, but much more complex. I think of it as engineered modeling and profiling "meeting in the middle". (I think this may actually describe what's happening with QC "models", but I never got a straight answer on that.)

The next question is, would it ever be practical for the end user to do their own profiling at this level, or would it all happen behind closed doors during product development? And if the latter, do we consider this a "profiling" device or not?
 
I think it's indeed a little inflexible as soon as you want something more advanced. The fixed signal chain, just one amp at a time, etc. - all only akin towards pretty traditional usage.
No idea whether I'd get along with one live (very likely yes, especially as the parameter lock function is just excellent IMO), but for recording purposes I actually want my core sounds to be available and adjustable as quick as possible, anything wicked can as well be delegated to other tools. It's how I'm doing things now and I'm pretty happy with it, the Kemper would perfectly fit in that scenario.
Agreed on all points.

And, by this point, I think you owe it to yourself to try one for a while!
 
Pop Tv Questioning GIF by Schitt's Creek's Creek

but also;

Here I Am Mirror GIF by Jeopardy!

I seriously have no idea how you managed to use anything prior to Helix considering what you need. It must have been painful :oops: :nails:rofl
Lol, I'm the same way, with my 4 total signal paths, separate path for band mix, mono to XLR/stereo to 1/4" outs, etc.

I'll tell you how I did it, lots of outboard/physical gear and cabling, lol. The GSP1101 did the "snapshots-ish" thing before HX did though.
 
Lol, I'm the same way, with my 4 total signal paths, separate path for band mix, mono to XLR/stereo to 1/4" outs, etc.

I rather use a small mixer for all these kinda things. Allows me to create patches without having to think about anything else. And, possibly even more important, access is immediate. Grab a knob/fader, done.
 
I rather use a small mixer for all these kinda things. Allows me to create patches without having to think about anything else. And, possibly even more important, access is immediate. Grab a knob/fader, done.
I used to use a small mixer for this, BUT, now I just put the Helix on the floor and all is right in there, no extra cabling or power supplies, etc.

Also, IF, I have to adjust anything, I can do it with my feet, mid-song.
 
I didn't mind the sounds of the QC at all. I found the feel almost equal to the Kemper. It was the whole ecosystem that turned me off. Liking things on your phone to be able to see them on your QC. Having a connection to the internet all the time. The unstable Wi-fi. Backups to the cloud. Not easy to use IMO....and the lack of editor which of course has changed.
Now as far as I have heard there are quality issues. This is where the influencers have a lot of pull. When ToneJunkie announced that his died, it makes me not want one. Unfortunately that's the lay of the land.
 
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Liking things on your phone to be able to see them on your QC. Having a connection to the internet all the time. The unstable Wi-fi. Backups to the cloud. Not easy to use IMO....and the lack of editor which of course has changed.
Now as far as I have heard there are quality issues. This is where the influencers have a lot of pull. When ToneJunkie announced that his died, it makes me not want one. Unfortunately that's the lay of the land.
I do wish you could browse captures/presets on the cloud from the QC itself, but I actually grew to like browsing on my phone/ iPad/ PC when I was away from the unit. I'd be reading TGF at work and someone would bring up an amp I'd never heard of. Just alt-tab over and search for it on NDSP.com, and I'd have a capture waiting for me when I got home.

As for "connection to the internet all the time", I really feel this is a misperception. I connect to update my firmware (and this, not as often as I might like LOL), and to download captures every now and then. It's not like my preamp/MFX unit is a 24/7 web browser. (Internet connectivity was pretty unstable, admittedly, until I recently upgraded my router. I get a very consistent, strong signal now.) Also worth noting that the editor has made internet over CAT5 and backups to PC over USB alternatives to the previous WiFi and cloud features.

Quality issues are definitely something to consider. I can't speak to the statistics vs. the competition, but I do have to acknowledge that my first QC was defective. #2 has been rock solid for years, and I run it many hours, day in and day out. Always thoroughly vet a purchase while you're still inside your return window.
 
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