Dimehead NAM Player

[Dom Mcsweeney]

This might have been answered elsewhere, but I couldn't find it: I know the pedal has mono outputs (Line Out and XLR Out) but does it only proces the signal in mono? And if so, I presume the headphone output is dual mono?

Yep. It's mono/dual mono.
If you want more than that, you'd connect this to something more preferable.
(I'd assume you probably already have a decent set of pedals if that's what you are already used to doing )
Eg. Guitar > Drives > Dimehead Pedal as an Amp > ['stereo fx unit of choice']

Since Cab IRs are linear, it usually won't matter at all if they are placed before or after any reverbs or delays.
So, it's totally fine to go from the NAM pedal into more expansive dedicated fx units, straight from the mono output and it'll sound great.

 

[northern_fox]

Should be getting mine today! My thoughts are that people seem to expect two guys handbuilding these units with higher end hardware to be direct price competitors with things like companies like IK/tonex or feature-rich platforms like the multifx flagships with. I think @laxu is correct in asserting that the target market is narrower. I really can't see it as a direct competitor to anything else for feature/price points, but if you are a NAM user that wants to use NAM live and such, it's simply a solid performance-oriented solution that can run full standard captures with near zero latency.

For someone like me, that's enough to make me want it. I have about six million options for other effects to use it with between pedals or multifx. It won't be sufficient as a standalone pedal for me, and I do wish they had been able to make it a smaller "player only" style thing like the TX one, but it's barely bigger than the big tonex so it's not too big of a deal to me. I plan to use it for live use only and therefore don't need stereo or deep feature sets.

But one thing I want to point out about it is that the NAM training and ecosystem are so much smoother and easier to manage than tonex. I almost never make tonex captures - the process is okayish, but the organization and management is so awful that I'd rather just not do it unless I need a specific capture for live use. At least with NAM files, I'm free to organize/name/manage them as I see fit and I do find it much easier. And I've already personally made hundreds of captures that I'll be able to use without having to recapture them into tonex and deal with that whole ecosystem of software.

In the loop of an FM3 it will be right around 4.5-5 ms total latency. Then you've got the infra + fx of FAS and the tone of NAM!

 

[Elric]

It's kind of funny in Leo's vid where talks about how sh*tty the interface/UI is and his inflection and word choice make it sound like it's a feature. LOL.

 

[Elric]

In the loop of an FM3 it will be right around 4.5-5 ms total latency. Then you've got the infra + fx of FAS and the tone of NAM!

Yes, it's a shame the FM3 cannot do realistic amp tones on its own.

 

[northern_fox]

Yes, it's a shame the FM3 cannot do realistic amp tones on its own.

Did I say that? It's all preference

 

[Elric]

Did I say that? It's all preference

You do you. Spending 60% the cost of an FM3 to supplement the amp tones with another device implies it, I would say. It adds cost and complexity to your setup, so I assume you would claim it is in some way benefiting your rig or it would not merit the effort.

I get how capturing is useful and own multiple devices so I get it we're all gearheads. It just strikes me funny in context. I think it was FM3 with "the tone of NAM!" that felt amusing. Like, if only the MF3 had toanz.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I think @laxu is correct in asserting that the target market is narrower.

IMO they could've easily broadened their target market without spending extra money on hardware.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Re: running it along with an FM3 - well, even if I personally wouldn't do so, I could kinda understand it because you could also save quite some CPU cycles on amps, freeing up some juice for FX. But personally, I'd possibly rather get an FM9 should I need more horsepower.

 

[northern_fox]

You do you. Spending 60% the cost of an FM3 to supplement the amp tones with another device implies it, I would say. It adds cost and complexity to your setup, so I assume you would claim it is in some way benefiting your rig or it would not merit the effort.

I get how capturing is useful and own multiple devices so I get it we're all gearheads. It just strikes me funny in context. I think it was FM3 with "the tone of NAM!" that felt amusing. Like, if only the MF3 had toanz.

Plenty of folks use them with real amps too. Play what you like - that's all that really matters

 

[laxu]

Re: running it along with an FM3 - well, even if I personally wouldn't do so, I could kinda understand it because you could also save quite some CPU cycles on amps, freeing up some juice for FX. But personally, I'd possibly rather get an FM9 should I need more horsepower.

The FM3 runs the amp + delays on the same core so at most you could throw in an extra delay or something by removing the amp block. Pretty pointless compared to how complicated the rig gets by making the amp sim external. It's not like Tonex or NAM sounds any better than Fractal either.

With a HX Stomp you'd get more use out of this kind of setup since that can allocate the DSP more freely.

 

[Sascha Franck]

The FM3 runs the amp + delays on the same core so at most you could throw in an extra delay or something by removing the amp block.

Oh, didn't know that. And right, in that case, the effort would likely not be justified.

 

[Sedaxel]

I have mixed feelings about this pedal. But at the end, I find it a no-go for me, personally.

It´s great the ultra low RTL. Actually, it´s even hard to believe. Kudos to Dimehead, it´s impressive.

It´s also good for pedalboard integration, for guitarists who need an AIAB pedal. And being the currently most accurate profiling system, makes it a fantastic choice for that use.

But, even for pedalboard guys, I find it hard to choose this over other solutions that offer some other advantages (size, price, effects...).

For instance, in my amp based live rig, I could use an AIAB when I don´t want to carry around the amp, or just for rehearsals, keeping the sound and feeling as close to the real amp as it can be. I´ve tried it with NAM into a Raspberry Pi. It´s a great. I just didn´t keep that way because of the hassle of wires, midi, power supply, unstability and whatnot. So, IN MY USE CASE, to go that route again would imply having an small pedal, with low current draw to be powered with my lopper/Switcher (no additional PSU) and with MIDI. And absolutely not @ 600€, sorry. For that price I just get a Kemper Player without any kind of doubt.

I don´t like unreadable screens (Leo says that letters are so small that even with glasses it´s hard to read). I don´t like cramped footswitches (and would have no use for 4 in a AIAB pedal with no fx, anyway).

For me, this kind of product would make sense if it costed the same as ToneX One, with the same size AND with MIDI. Anything else, and I´m sorry to say it, has no interest for me, and I believe it would be obsolete tomorrow.

But again, great work from a small company. Hats off.

 

[Sascha Franck]

But again, great work from a small company. Hats off.

Pretty much this - and I applaud anyone trying to jump into this pond full of bigger sharks.
But still, I think if they had asked some more (experienced!) folks about their opinions, they could've done quite a bit better without facing higher part or R&D expenses.

As we say in Germany, I think of this as being "neither fish or meat" ("es ist weder Fisch noch Fleisch").
Too big to fit on any pedalboard, too small for the switches. Not enough functionality to serve as a standalone (others than for very, very simple duties), too much functionality to just serve as an AIAB pedal. A comparably high amount of on-unit-encoders but pretty much defenitely not of the right type (endless encoders). Nice featureset on one hand (built in XLR, to name one), lack of some really useful other features (aux in to name one). Apparently the first device to load long IRs without horrible latency on on hand, no FX loop (!), just mono and no proper tweaking options on the other hand.

Sure, some of that stuff might've added a bit to the cost, but in case it had an FX loop, 3 footswitches instead of 4 (or just none), I'd already think about it myself.

Whatever, for me, that's a whole lot of missed opportunities. And I think I'm defenitely not the only one to look at it that way.

 

[NotApplicable]

The "namplayer.fw" file from the update archive is encrypted. If you poke at another file in the archive, you'll eventually find the key to decrypt it.

What's the point?

I finally got around to poking at this more and, in my opinion, there are thread-safety issues with this code. That's kind of scary to me.

Luckily, manipulating a position-independent executable into a shared library is pretty easy, so you can work around some of the issues without having to reimplement everything. My Raspberry Pi 5 is humming along.

 

[Antipodes]

As we say in Germany, I think of this as being "neither fish or meat" ("es ist weder Fisch noch Fleisch").

In English there is/was the usage "neither fish nor fowl" (not all that common these days) which seems to come from the same place.

be neither fish nor fowl

1. like one thing in some ways and like another thing in other ways 2. like one…

dictionary.cambridge.org

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

In English there is/was the usage "neither fish nor fowl" (not all that common these days) which seems to come from the same place.

be neither fish nor fowl

1. like one thing in some ways and like another thing in other ways 2. like one…

dictionary.cambridge.org

That is indeed the English version of it.

 

[Dom Mcsweeney]

There's been a new firmware update today:

Dual NAMS,
Tuner,
FX Loop,
FX: Tremelo, Modulated Delay, 60s Convolution Reverb all can be run simultaneously...
Live Display Mode (current preset displayed clearly with nice bold font)

Firmware – Dimehead

www.dimehead.de

=)

Pipp made a great video to explain it all:

 

[Mongillo19]

I want to like NAM but every capture/profile I try just feels like there is a blanket over it. I feel like it has to be me with all the rave reviews.

And yes I'm making sure I'm not putting an IR on top of a capture with a baked in cab. But that's essentially what it sounds like

 

[Dom Mcsweeney]

If at all possible, there's magic to be found in dialling in and capturing your own gear... just like IRs are amazing fun to make.
Otherwise you may find your tastes differ to what other people have offered up, and that's pretty normal.

That being said, there are definitely some awesome packs on Tonehunt. What kind of amp tones are you into? Perhaps you could describe it and post asking for recommendations over in the NAM community?

 

[Mongillo19]

If at all possible, there's magic to be found in dialling in and capturing your own gear... just like IRs are amazing fun to make.
Otherwise you may find your tastes differ to what other people have offered up, and that's pretty normal.

That being said, there are definitely some awesome packs on Tonehunt. What kind of amp tones are you into? Perhaps you could describe it and post asking for recommendations over in the NAM community?

Not a bad idea!

Just think of 2000s metalcore so nothing wild (6505 and a TS9 lol)

Or a nice dual rec

I do have a nice collection of amps but tbh it sounds daunting to get it set up and I feel out of my element trying to capture them