As someone who is making lots of models, I’d put myself somewhat in the target market for this. A lot of the unique features are things I specifically requested for Amplitube (even in their official request forum).
I’m hoping I can be won over.
Out of the entire customer base of Kemper and ToneX users, what percentage of them are going to make a model? There’s definitely a significant portion of them that aren’t buying these devices/software to make models, but only to access the library created by others.
For these users, the fast and queued cloud training isn’t really going to win them over - a big advantage for them would be the NAM support, because at the moment the NAM pool of free models is significantly bigger than of Tonocracy models. I suspect it will always remain a good order of magnitude bigger too just based on the fact it doesn’t cost to get into. I think it may be a tougher sell to the average NAM or ToneX user who has either invested money or time into one of those formats, and where both formats have built up quite sizeable libraries already.
For users like myself, who makes a lot of models (and sells them), then obviously the capture process and free cloud training is ideal. For the free cloud training to continue, there would need to be a steady stream of sales. I don’t think it’s possible to guarantee that the free cloud training will always be offered, even if a small % of users are responsible for most of its usage. IK were first on the scene with this tech, and have a lot of access to huge social media followings and media outlets - they have a massive online presence, and were first to offer it to people. For a creator to sell packs, there’s obviously lots of issues but to have any kind of success with sales there needs to be a large userbase. ToneX has a low price of entry, and a very affordable pedal. I know people that have gone that route who hate IK, but because the price, features, sound quality and pool of models are all quite favourable. They’re not fussed about the training because most won’t make a model, and even if they do they might have a good graphics card, or they might only make a handful of models and the wait would be acceptable to them.
IK didn’t see how offering cloud training could work numbers wise. I hope the release of Tonocracy forces them to rethink their position, but my gut feeling is they’ll think “most users don’t need this, the small number of people that do can just buy a graphics card/new computer instead”.
One other aspect is as someone who creates his own content, the included models and IR’s has zero bearing on my desire to buy it. No matter how good the included stuff is, I’m always just going to use my own models and IR’s. I knew the included ToneX stuff would be cack, so I opted for their cheapest version that allows me to make my own models. It works well to pay less and avoid buying bundled things you don’t want (even if they’re great).
