Hotone Ampero II Stage MP-380

[KingsXJJ]

Mine is powered no problem at all with a simple True Tone 1-Spot. Works perfectly every time.

Same here.

 

[KingsXJJ]

I think the Ampero ll Stomp is the funnest little gadget I’ve bought in a long while. So easy to use and jam with at home while practicing. Sounds great to me and I have some big toys too. Just a near perfect solution for my current needs at home. Great desktop unit.

 

[KingsXJJ]

I am looking for an Ampero II Stage and Stomp upcoming firmware update featuring many more “HQ” amp and effect modules.

Hotone are you listening? Any word on Facebook groups or the like? Has anyone asked their support team yet?

If NUX does it for the $200 Amp Academy then surely Hotone can deliver. Seems like, comparatively, there is plenty of horsepower available for that. A thought as well, have you heard anything @laxu ? I know we have different models that are very close especially under the hood…

GO HOTONE!

 

[GTR37]

I am looking for an Ampero II Stage and Stomp upcoming firmware update featuring many more “HQ” amp and effect modules.

Hotone are you listening? Any word on Facebook groups or the like? Has anyone asked their support team yet?

If NUX does it for the $200 Amp Academy then surely Hotone can deliver. Seems like, comparatively, there is plenty of horsepower available for that. A thought as well, have you heard anything @laxu ? I know we have different models that are very close especially under the hood…

GO HOTONE!

Laxu is going to have to start charging consulting fees

 

[KingsXJJ]

Laxu is going to have to start charging consulting fees

Nah, he loves this stuff.

 

[KingsXJJ]

These off brands are a bit of a headscratcher to me. If legacy brands with decades of experience and history under their belts have uphill battles making this type of gear work and be GOOD; how (other than IP theft/industrial espionage) can we expect this type of stuff to move the needle?

I’m not sure theft is involved. It might be. Technology usually spreads after it’s released one way or another.

I hope outright theft, espionage or any other nefarious practices involved. There’s a lot of tech talent in the companies in the manufacturing nation they live in. And a lot of musicians. As long as it’s limited to observing and analyzing your competitor’s products in order to compete more effectively and quite possibly cheaper, I’m totally good with that. I don’t see a lot of similarities in the hardware or GUI of the Hotone and other products that I’ve tried. But it certainly is possible that algorithms and such were stolen. I truly hope not.

 

[KingsXJJ]

I’m curious how many Ampero II users we have her. Besides @laxu and myself. I’m giving one a go and putting it through it’s/my paces.

I’m having easy fun right now exploring the Marshall stuff earlier Plexi through the JCM900 so far and it’s been serious fun. And for me it’s particularly fun to play with all of the stuff you can through in front of it. I’ve never owned many of these amps so I can’t speak to their authenticity down to the nth degree but they pretty much sound as I expect and it’s pleasing to play.

Anybody else having fun with theirs?

 

[SpaceForceCMDR]

I’m curious how many Ampero II users we have her. Besides @laxu and myself. I’m giving one a go and putting it through it’s/my paces.

I’m having easy fun right now exploring the Marshall stuff earlier Plexi through the JCM900 so far and it’s been serious fun. And for me it’s particularly fun to play with all of the stuff you can through in front of it. I’ve never owned many of these amps so I can’t speak to their authenticity down to the nth degree but they pretty much sound as I expect and it’s pleasing to play.

Anybody else having fun with theirs?

I have a Stomp and love it. Playing through headphones with the stereolizers sounds really good.

I also enjoy turning on the automatic "cab matching", one less thing to have to pick when flipping through amps.

I really like the UI on the desktop app.

 

[JCW308]

I’m curious how many Ampero II users we have her. Besides @laxu and myself. I’m giving one a go and putting it through it’s/my paces.

I’m having easy fun right now exploring the Marshall stuff earlier Plexi through the JCM900 so far and it’s been serious fun. And for me it’s particularly fun to play with all of the stuff you can through in front of it. I’ve never owned many of these amps so I can’t speak to their authenticity down to the nth degree but they pretty much sound as I expect and it’s pleasing to play.

Anybody else having fun with theirs?

I had the Stage (I'm an authorized dealer) but wasn't thrilled with it compared to Kemper so I moved it along. I had two with noise issues, where other units from other manufacturers are dead silent.

 

[Jkist7]

I made a post over on the other page about how I think the Ampero Stomp II is the best overall modeler on the market, all things considered. I still stand by that claim. The recent Boss releases could certainly challenge the throne, but I've not played those yet.

Yes, Fractal everything is better. Yes QC is more capable. But the Stomp does a hell of a lot right. Best in class UI and editor IMO. Great tones, fast to dial in, can be bought for very cheap, mine has been completely reliable, looks sexy, etc etc.

I still love mine, and I own an FM3 as well.

 

[the-trooper]

These off brands are a bit of a headscratcher to me. If legacy brands with decades of experience and history under their belts have uphill battles making this type of gear work and be GOOD; how (other than IP theft/industrial espionage) can we expect this type of stuff to move the needle?

There's only 1.5 billion Chinese people. That's only 5 times more than Americans. No way you could find at least a dozen capable programmers in 1.5 billion. Right?

 

[laxu]

I am looking for an Ampero II Stage and Stomp upcoming firmware update featuring many more “HQ” amp and effect modules.

Hotone are you listening? Any word on Facebook groups or the like? Has anyone asked their support team yet?

If NUX does it for the $200 Amp Academy then surely Hotone can deliver. Seems like, comparatively, there is plenty of horsepower available for that. A thought as well, have you heard anything @laxu ? I know we have different models that are very close especially under the hood…

GO HOTONE!

Hotone's Facebook page seems like the best place to get new info, even though most of the time it's marketing. That seems to be where they announce new fw updates first.

I'd also love to see more "HQ" models, they do sound a bit better than the regular ones.

Hotone will be at NAMM so if they announce anything new, it will be there.

 

[laxu]

I made a post over on the other page about how I think the Ampero Stomp II is the best overall modeler on the market, all things considered. I still stand by that claim. The recent Boss releases could certainly challenge the throne, but I've not played those yet.

Yes, Fractal everything is better. Yes QC is more capable. But the Stomp does a hell of a lot right. Best in class UI and editor IMO. Great tones, fast to dial in, can be bought for very cheap, mine has been completely reliable, looks sexy, etc etc.

I still love mine, and I own an FM3 as well.

Yeah that's why I'm so positive about it as well. It's just a good overall package, even if it's not the best in class for sound.

If it was in the 1500-1600 € price range of the FM3 and QC, it would be unacceptable that there's a broken virtual capo effect, that the MV amp models don't go into powertube distortion if you crank the master etc.

But the A2 Stomp is 444 €, and for that you get:

• Better usability than all but the QC.
• About the same feature set as the QC. Just less footswitches/encoders, no capture creation ability and can fit less stuff in a single preset.
• Boots really fast. You could restart this something like 10 times before the QC finishes booting once.
• Amp modeling that falls a bit short, but still sounds really good and feels satisfying to play.
• Effects that are not as good as the top dogs, but still pretty good.

It's in that sweet spot of what people kinda want from a "HX Stomp 2" or "GX-100 Core" - compact form factor, good usability and enough capability to do most things you'd want.

It's a shame there's no capture creation capability on the Stomp because that would make it so easy to recommend over the Nano Cortex or Kemper Player. Hotone's 1st and 3rd party captures are not yet at a level where there's something for everyone and more like NAM or Tonex are. Too bad they built their own system, because piggybacking on NAM (even if it means using lower quality captures) would have been pretty huge.

 

[Tito83]

I have the Ampero II Stage. Got it mostly after buying a dirty cheap Tank-G and was very impressed by how close it got on such a cheap unit, it really should be at least as good on the Ampero. The prospect of having captures of my UA amp pedals captures on a more reasonably priced, full featured multi-effects unit was really appealing for gigging. When I got it I was very much surprise about the size.

Effects are a mixed bag. Some are basically unusable, which is a bummer. I never experienced this since maybe the Zoom 505. You can't change your tone catch through scenes and they are really DSP hungry, wish I had more wiggle room. The lock screen could go full screen so it would be easier to read on gigs.

Overall I'm happy with the purchase, but really wishing future updates will address some of these issues. I still have my pedalboard with the HX Stomp and a few pedals, and I sure miss some aspects of it, especially the effects. I much prefer the basic tones I have now with the Ampero, albeit clones of my UA pedals. Also love how much smaller and lighter it is compared to my pedalboard.

 

[laxu]

I have the Ampero II Stage. Got it mostly after buying a dirty cheap Tank-G and was very impressed by how close it got on such a cheap unit, it really should be at least as good on the Ampero. The prospect of having captures of my UA amp pedals captures on a more reasonably priced, full featured multi-effects unit was really appealing for gigging. When I got it I was very much surprise about the size.

Effects are a mixed bag. Some are basically unusable, which is a bummer. I never experienced this since maybe the Zoom 505. You can't change your tone catch through scenes and they are really DSP hungry, wish I had more wiggle room. The lock screen could go full screen so it would be easier to read on gigs.

Overall I'm happy with the purchase, but really wishing future updates will address some of these issues. I still have my pedalboard with the HX Stomp and a few pedals, and I sure miss some aspects of it, especially the effects. I much prefer the basic tones I have now with the Ampero, albeit clones of my UA pedals. Also love how much smaller and lighter it is compared to my pedalboard.

Yeah if they can reduce the capture CPU usage you could maybe fit two captures + fx into a preset. That would go a long way. Now you might have to run multiple presets, but the switching is pretty instant so that can work.

PS. Upload your captures to the Hotone community, I'd like to give them a spin on the A2 Stomp.

 

[KingsXJJ]

I have a Stomp and love it. Playing through headphones with the stereolizers sounds really good.

I also enjoy turning on the automatic "cab matching", one less thing to have to pick when flipping through amps.

I really like the UI on the desktop app.

That’s great to hear! I also use mine with headphones. I too really enjoy the stereolizers… a lot. I’ll have to try the cab matching function!

Thank you,

 

[KingsXJJ]

Today, I was again messing around tonight playing with Marshall amps and in front stuff. I did something a few days back that has helped me do that easily and thought I’d share. I used the “Simple is Good” factory patch and copied quite a few based on it as a template. From there I simply swap whatever needs to be and save it. Amps, cabs, boost and or drives take no time to change. And I’ve built a number of patches with early Plexi’s on up the gain chain. Pretty sweet.

Kicker? I kept the name the same across all of them. I have no idea what’s under the hood unless I look. That’s fun!