They have posted a
preliminary guide to the Amp X. It seems to be missing some info but there's already some things you will find interesting.
Note that the below is based on what is in the guide as well as my own speculation. It could be wrong.
Signal chain
Everything in
blue is digital fx. I believe the fx chain will be more fixed so you might not be able to reorder these and to me there isn't a real need to do so either as this is how most would set up a standard fx chain.
Guitar -> Wah -> Boost/comp -> Drive/fuzz ->
"Special" -> Modulation -> Delay -> Reverb -> Amp ->
Fx send (mono) ->
Fx return (stereo) ->
Modulation -> Delay -> Reverb ->
Cab ->
Outputs
Editing
The
front panel guide is not very thorough yet, but I assume this is how it's going to work:
- Press one of the 04 buttons (Pedal/Amp/Fx/Cab) to quickly go to the relevant block. Fast!
- Use 08 knob/button to select an fx type and model, possibly toggle it on/off, maybe scroll between sets of parameters shown in 02 controls. How well this works remains to be seen.
- Use knobs 02 "X Controls" to edit the chosen effect. More parameters can be accessed, and deeper editing performed, using the incremental knob/button and AMPX's main display screen.
- You can toggle drive, boost, mod and delay on/off on the fly with buttons 12, 13, 17 and 19 if they are not programmed on e.g footswitches.
- The settings of all knobs except MASTER can be stored in presets.
- When a new preset is recalled, the stored values are recalled, but the physical position of the knobs remains in the last selected position.
- When a knob is moved, its current value is shown in the OLED display. The stored value is also shown. The display now shows the approximation of both values. In this way, you can see exactly where the slider was saved in the preset. This seems like a pretty decent way to handle presets, even if it's not able to show you your settings right off the bat but you could always hit e.g the Amp button to probably see more.
Interesting bit is that with the flap closed the bass/middle/treble/presence controls will work as a post-EQ, just like they do on the Amp 1. With the flap open, they will control the amp tonestack. I'm not sure I love the flap open/closed behavior here so I hope there is a way to toggle between the two while keeping the flap open.
This is a departure from the Amp 1 where the tiny side "custom controls" would blend between two preset tone stacks while the EQ was similar post EQ. I can say this approach is massively versatile because I can dial the Amp 1 to sound like so many amps just by varying the EQ and side knobs. I guess the idea with the Amp X is that you dial your amp tones at rehearsal, and use the post-EQ controls to fit it to work in a particular venue. E.g if you have a room that is too bright, you can turn down the treble or presence to combat this and it applies to all your presets.
The Amp X channel select says "Choose between the chosen amp’s Modern, Classic, Vintage and Clean channels." I assume you can assign any 4 channels here that can then be switched between considering many amps don't have 4 channels. Would make it pretty fast to edit each channel to your liking.
Here's a small screenshot I captured from the short promo video on the Amp X product page:
This is probably the view you see if you press the Home button 06. Preset name and fx chain. The knob most likely moves between the bottom row blocks, pressing it selects it and lets you edit it or choose a model.
Footswitching
AMPX also has a freely assignable foot switch concept, which allows you to save and recall up to two presets per switch, and freely assign switching (e.g. pedal On/Off switches) and control functions. If you need more switches, you can do this by using a BluGuitar REMOTE or an external MIDI controller, and these will also be part of your programmable rig.
This seems like a very smart approach where you could have e.g switching between 4 presets with two footswitches and 4 on/off toggles for fx. I feel this is more than enough for most usecases and obviously you can program things differently (maybe preset inc/dec on one switch?).
I'm glad that BluGuitar has stuck to using their Amp 1 switches here too because those feel just as good when used with a foot or hand and they are afaik also pretty easily user replaceable should they break or get damaged, though obviously not an off-the-shelf part.
Outputs
I think you are pretty well covered here. You could build a wet/dry/wet + FOH rig by running the main line outs to a PA, the stereo out to a stereo poweramp and two cabs and the main speaker out to a cab. Blug has said you can assign IRs to different outputs so some of these could use cab sims and others not. There's also a mono send, stereo return fx loop for any pedals you might want to use.
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I've been trying to tell people not to treat this unit as a Helix, Axe-Fx/FMx or similar competitor. It's more like an amp with fx rather than a virtual studio in a box. I think people who want to replace their Axe-Fx 3 with it will be disappointed but many will love it for its more straightforward approach.
I think my biggest concern is how well selecting stuff and editing fx will work on it. The tiny screen, one knob approach is often full of compromises. I don't think they will release with an editor app for it when the hardware comes for sale but expect they will have one when the Blugprint stuff gets released.
Blug tones are killer.