Captures/profiles, for me; are ultimately a useless diversion. NTTAWWT

[Mongillo19]

I don’t see any point in having a profiler or capture device, unless you A. stick to a handful of sounds or B. have amp(s). I don’t play old Marshalls, where the EQ is about as useful as tits on a bull.

I play Orange and Mesa, where the EQ is highly interactive, and there are (in the case of Mesas) multiple modes that change the sound drastically. And yes, I do fiddle with the EQ and modes a lot, depending on the guitar and sound I’m going for, if I’m using dirt pedals in front; etc.

I don’t know about Quad Cortex, but the Kemper went to s**t when you drifted too far on EQ or gain. Drove me f*****g nuts.

I still think there is a feel that capture device's have that I can't replicate on my fractal. Something about the sag or give in said devices. Fractal can seem a touch stiff to me. If anyone has any fractal settings to help with this all ears!

 

[paisleywookiee]

I still think there is a feel that capture device's have that I can't replicate on my fractal. Something about the sag or give in said devices. Fractal can seem a touch stiff to me. If anyone has any fractal settings to help with this all ears!

There’s a lot that can be done in the power amp section, with negative feedback, voltage, etc. IMO Fractal passed Kemper awhile ago, in terms of feel.

 

[Mongillo19]

There’s a lot that can be done in the power amp section, with negative feedback, voltage, etc. IMO Fractal passed Kemper awhile ago, in terms of feel.

If I recall, lowering Variac and negative feedback is what may lead to that?

 

[Gearzilla]

If I recall, lowering Variac and negative feedback is what may lead to that?

Something as simple as monkeying with the master volume or adding a compressor out front can really alter the feel. Have you tried that yet?

 

[paisleywookiee]

If I recall, lowering Variac and negative feedback is what may lead to that?

Both affect feel greatly IMHO, yes.

Something as simple as monkeying with the master volume or adding a compressor out front can really alter the feel. Have you tried that yet?

This too.

 

[Mongillo19]

Something as simple as monkeying with the master volume or adding a compressor out front can really alter the feel. Have you tried that yet?

Compressors definitely help! Unfortunately I'm regarding amps like the deluxe reverb which atleast in the initial page has a level but not a master volume

 

[ejecta]

Totally agree with the OP. Yeah I was thinking of getting a Tone X but honestly if I want my amp direct I’ll just use my amp with something like a Tone King Ironman into my Helix for cabs. Or if I don’t want to wag the amp the Helix tones are good enough for direct. I really don’t get using a capture device to just run into some light weight solid state amp and cab. At that point I’d just use one amp tone for the gig and take my head and 1x12.

 

[Mongillo19]

Both affect feel greatly IMHO, yes.

This too.

The negative feedback got me where I wanted to go. Didn't realize how it could really make a model sound more full

 

[creative360]

Drove me f*****g nuts.

That won’t do. Glad you have what works for you.

 

[DLC86]

I still think there is a feel that capture device's have that I can't replicate on my fractal. Something about the sag or give in said devices. Fractal can seem a touch stiff to me. If anyone has any fractal settings to help with this all ears!

Imho the secret to the right feel is finding the sweet spot on the speaker related parameters in the amp block. First choose an impedance curve that you like and then dial in speaker compression, compliance, drive and thump.

 

[laxu]

I still think there is a feel that capture device's have that I can't replicate on my fractal. Something about the sag or give in said devices. Fractal can seem a touch stiff to me. If anyone has any fractal settings to help with this all ears!

Roll through the speaker impedance curve settings, especially if you are plugging into a poweramp and real cab. On top of that you can adjust so many different parameters in the amp block alone and the IRs chosen have a big impact on how it sounds.

If anything you might find those other devices have higher latency which might translate to "more give".

The "feel" thing is so hard to define and IMO blanket statements that modeler X does this and that don't work when all Fractal models don't feel the same to play.

 

[dronerstone]

Hmm. I 100% know what you mean @JiveTurkey

Even though the price of the ToneX Pedal is really tempting, and it's most probably an awesome unit, I'm still hesitant.

On the other hand, I stick to a single preamp (as a base for everything else) these days, so having an "infinite" amount of profiles isn't exactly what I'm after.

PS: Also option paralysis.

 

[Karl Houseknecht]

This may be the most anti-TGF attitude, but I found picking and sticking with a modeling platform and even sticking with mostly one amp on that platform to be the most freeing experience I’ve had in the last 20 years of modeler use. No diversions here.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

This may be the most anti-TGF attitude, but I found picking and sticking with a modeling platform and even sticking with mostly one amp on that platform to be the most freeing experience I’ve had in the last 20 years of modeler use. No diversions here.

It's only freeing once you've gotten 20 years of FOMO out of your system.

 

[jellodog]

This may be the most anti-TGF attitude, but I found picking and sticking with a modeling platform and even sticking with mostly one amp on that platform to be the most freeing experience I’ve had in the last 20 years of modeler use. No diversions here.

I hear ya. I use the Bandmaster model 95% of the time. Occasionally I go on an "Amp Safari" which is fun, but so far I've always returned to the FAS Bandmaster. The cabs have changed quite a bit over time, though.

 

[TheOrangeChannel]

With our last album - this one for reference:


I tracked all of the guitars. Then came in the next day. For some reason - and to this day I have no idea why... corrupt hard-drive maybe??? - some of the microphone tracks had 'offline' items in Reaper, and the files no longer existed on disk. WTF..... but the DI tracks were there just fine. So so weird. It was only some of the clean tracks too, not the high-gain stuff. Anyway....

I reamped the DI's through my Kemper at the time, which was running profiles of my Diezel amps and more or less saved the day without having to re-track.

Now the song in question is the last one - Apocryphal - and to be honest, I hear the difference being the guy that recorded it all. Those cleans stand out to me as being different to the rest of the songs. Not in a bad way, I like them well enough... and it probably doesn't even cross most people's minds when they hear the track.

Ultimately I use whatever it takes to get the job done, and whatever takes my mood at the time. Despite my flippancy a lot of the time, I'll use anything I can get my hands on if it sounds good.

But I do care about accuracy - I think that is important, because even today in 2023 for me the gold standard is a valve amp into a 4x12 running V30's, with an SM57 on it.

Oh snap dude, I love you guys! Positive lockdown find on the streamers for sure!

 

[Orvillain]

Oh snap dude, I love you guys! Positive lockdown find on the streamers for sure!

Thanks man!

 

[riffy]

I did not think I would be doing my own captures, I bought the Kemper or the Tonex.

I don't have that many smps anymore. But, I have a boatload of friends that do have a lot of them still. So, I have been capturing theirs. I get to set them up the way I like them. I get to use cabinets that I know well and that I really like. Some of them I bake in, some I do not.

So, for me, the profiling or capturing paradigm has been working extremely well for me

 

[James Freeman]

This may be the most anti-TGF attitude, but I found picking and sticking with a modeling platform and even sticking with mostly one amp on that platform to be the most freeing experience I’ve had in the last 20 years of modeler use. No diversions here.

Shhhh, don't reveal the best pro tip in the world.

 

[Sascha Franck]

This may be the most anti-TGF attitude, but I found picking and sticking with a modeling platform and even sticking with mostly one amp on that platform to be the most freeing experience I’ve had in the last 20 years of modeler use. No diversions here.

Every bit what I'm doing these days when playing live. Well ok, it's two modelers and two amp models (Amplifirebox as a dirt pedal platform and Amp Academy as a clean channel), but I might even be able to reduce it to just one (the AFB - even thinking about this more or less seriously).
For recording I'm using more stuff, but I always start with my live setup and only deviate in case I think I need something kind of special.

Considering a Tonex pedal, though, but as far as the current affairs go, that would never see my live board. I'd rather use it a) to capture my most used live board sounds (so I could just leave it in the car or generally packed) and b) to capture some more esoteric things. I could as well imagine getting a Kemper for home/recording use, simply because I happen to dig the UI.
But all these are getting lower and lower on my radar. I'm just extremely happy with what I have right now and could pretty easily call it a day for all times (of course I don't, but that's got almost exclusively to do with the uitilitarian side of things), at least considering "normal" guitar sounds.