Buckle up folks, this is a long one, and only after one evening!
I found a used limited edition red Hotone Ampero 2 Stomp for sale for a fair price, literally right across the street from where I live. I felt that was divine intervention, so of course I had to buy it.
Firmware update
First update was not smooth sailing. It's a bit unclear from their website what is the latest software version for their editor, and the device itself. Their website support section is a bit annoying to use too.
- The editor software compatible with fw 1.0.5 that was on my unit was called "Ampero II Stomp v1.3.0". This is compatible up to fw v1.3.0.
- The firmware I needed to install was version 2.0.0, but many pages kept offering 1.3.0 first so I was confused until I downloaded both and checked the release note dates.
- There was also a USB Audio Firmware v2.0.1, that apparenly adds sample rate options for the USB audio interface features. It comes with a separate DFU installer app.
- Finally there is an "Ampero II" v1.0.3 editor that is compatible with fw v2.0.0.
It is of course not at all obvious that you need to change the entire editor software, especially when they have near identical version numbers, just 1.3.0 vs 1.0.3.
The firmware update process itself was very slow. It took like 10 minutes or more using the "Ampero II Stomp" app. No indicator on device, just a bar and some file size counter on the editor software.
The new "Ampero II" software is better as it has "Check for update" for both the editor itself and the firmware. So I expect future updates will go smoother.
When I finally got the unit upgraded, its UI had also been upgraded to the one you see on the newer Ampero II (why couldn't they just call it "Ampero II Go" or something stupid like that!) and Ampero II Stage.
Sounds
Amp modeling
Let's get this out of the way. This will not impress those who are used to the highest tier of amp modeling like Fractal, Helix or QC. There's a bit of the old modeler "caricature" to some of its sounds where it might get too midrangy, bassy or bright too easily unless you go out of your way to fix it.
The amp models themselves can be kinda hit and miss, where I could dial really good sounds out of many models, while others just didn't work for me at all. It's not even a clear distinction between "normal" models and what Hotone calls their "next gen" models, of which there are only few, marked with "HQ" at the end.
The HQ models seem almost like a "demo version" of some Ampero III they might make in the future, or an abandoned project or something when in 3 years there's only a few of the HQ models available, and not even for the most popular amps like Fenders, Marshalls etc. There's a HQ Mesa JP2C and Soldano SLO instead.
Many of the models react to guitar volume knob and picking dynamics in a decent manner where they are fun to play, but there's just not the same "dimension" to many models you find on higher end modelers.
There's separate preamp models of all the amps, but also a single poweramp model with switchable tube types, sag, negative fb and B+ voltage controls.
Hotone has said on Facebook that the Ampero 2 Stomp should get the Tone Catch capture feature in a future update, and I'm hoping that will fix any complaints I would have about the amp models.
As it is, for the price point I think it sounds pretty good nevertheless when you figure out the right amp/cab pairing.
Cabs
The stock cabs are actually pretty solid. You have a decent range of single mics, and then 4 different multi-mic mixes. Which are a real life-saver, because setting up a dual cab block preset does not work well because of the way the blocks are split into rows.
You basically can't make a one block parallel split, even though you can move the start and end points of the parallel path.
There's a "cab follows amp" feature in the global settings, that matches them automatically when you change amp models, but I could not find a list of what the pairings are.
My advice for the stock cabs is to use any of the mixes as a starting point, then mess with the mic placement dropdown. It works in an intuitive manner even if it's far from the granularity of Fractal, QC or even Helix.
Impulse responses
You have 50 user slots for impulse responses. That's plenty. You can easily import even multiple IRs using the editor software. Then it will ask which slots you want to assign for each IR, so it doesn't need to be in sequence. It even seemed to convert my 48 KHz IRs just fine, though I haven't tested if this has any effect on quality. In any case, adding IRs is super easy.
However there's one big inconvenience with IRs. Whenever you change them, it defaults all the low/high cut and especially the resolution to normal instead of high. This is pretty annoying so it's best to find your preferred IR, swap it to high res and do your low/high cuts if needed.
Effects
Most of the effects are actually very good!
There's not a whole ton of reverbs, but the ones that are there are all quite good!
There's plenty of different delays and they sound good as well to my ears, though I haven't explored them in detail yet.
Noise gate is good. It allows sidechain input so you can put the block wherever you want in the chain and still trigger it based on e.g left input. I do wish that as a convenience you could have a basic one in the input block like Fractal does.
There's also a comprehensive pitch section but it ranges from pretty good to absolutely terrible. Unfortunately the "virtual capo" equivalent seems downright broken, where it just warbles in pitch and sounds awful. This is weird because harmonizers, octavers, dual detune and more work fine, track quickly and sound totally alright. It's not Fractal or Helix quality pitch shifting, but totally usable.
Lots of wahs, drives, modulations, filters, and EQs. Compressor options are very few.
There is also the Fx loop block, and separate send and return blocks similar to the Helix. You can also assign inputs and outputs to the fx loop send/return if you want to save blocks.
I need to try more of the effects to truly evaluate them, but generally what I've tried has been anything from alright to good.
DSP limits
It uses a dual core SHARC + ARM Analog Devices ADSP-21573 DSP chip. Hotone somewhat misleadingly calls it "tri-core" but the actual signal processing is dual core, with ARM for UI etc.
The block limit is 12.
With an amp and cab or IR block, you can fit in a pretty standard guitar signal chain to the 12 slots: Gate - Wah - Comp - Drive - Amp - Cab/IR - EQ - Fx Send - Mod - Fx return - Delay - Reverb.
The reverb is clearly one of the most demanding effects and its options are the first to become limited. The limitation is shown the same as Helix, dimmed models in the list when you try to change them.
Without the amp/cab block, I was able to cram in something like several different stereo delays, two reverbs (with limitations), a pitch block and a bunch of lower CPU usage blocks. So using this as purely an fx unit would work fine, as long as the routing options available are ok for you.
Hardware
- USB port location on the side is inconvenient. Would've preferred it in the back.
- Expression input being the first port from the right is dumb. I plugged my guitar into that at first and wondered why I'm not getting any sound!
- @timbuck3 will be pleased to know there's a stereo fx loop on the side. It uses TRS jacks for send and return.
- MIDI DIN in/out are on the other side. It supports MIDI in/out over both USB and MIDI ports and you can choose if it's used for one or both.
- There's a little lock button on the hardware that prevents you from accidentally turning knobs or tapping the screen. Maybe useful for live?
Basic mapping of the hold functions for the 3 footswitches is spot on: Tuner, Looper and toggle between Preset and Stomp/Scene mode.
I hate only 3 footswitches, but with this one it's generally good enough. Probably hard to fit more in this form factor. I wish Hotone allowed the 5 scenes you can use on the Ampero II Stage though, on the Stomp you can program only 3 and can't do more even with external footswitches or MIDI.
The Ampero II Stage seems like the sweet spot product where you get e.g BT editing/audio/MIDI, a bit larger screen, more I/O and a few extra footswitches/scenes in about the size of a Boss GX-10. Stage's processing capabilities are identical to the Stomp afaik.
Display
The touchscreen is nice and responsive, I'd say it worked better than the QC I had. Maybe because it's just 4", there's less chance of pressing outside the action areas?
The Ampero 2 and Stage have a 5" screen, which I'd say is spot on for this UI.
Viewing angles are ok. On the desk you mostly have poor black levels when viewing the unit at an angle, but on the floor it looks better. There seems to be no brightness control for the screen.
Font sizes could be larger, as patch name and quick params can be hard to see in the Preset mode. There's two modes for this view where one shows patch bank/number bigger and the other shows patch name bigger. In both cases the smaller text is too small to read unless standing right above the unit.
