HOTONE AMPERO STOMP / STAGE NOW " IMPORT " NAM FILES

[JCW308]

If the Ampero II Stage had 2x the horsepower, it would be unbeatable at that price point. Unfortunately, it is a bit weak in horsepower once you start adding in captures.

 

[laxu]

If the Ampero II Stage had 2x the horsepower, it would be unbeatable at that price point. Unfortunately, it is a bit weak in horsepower once you start adding in captures.

For sure. That said..just using the amp models is not bad, especially into a good poweramp and cab.

 

[Dom Mcsweeney]

Leo Gibson just dropped a comparison:

 

[DLC86]

Leo Gibson just dropped a comparison:




View attachment 41467

I wonder if he thought about matching the gain in the ampero vs whatever he used to create the software profiles... The last result especially is a bit suspect.

PS: the last two samples in the second part of the video sound like they have quite a bit more gain

 

[timbuck3]

This is great news

 

[GTR37]

If the Ampero II Stage had 2x the horsepower, it would be unbeatable at that price point. Unfortunately, it is a bit weak in horsepower once you start adding in captures.

I think the Ampero 3 will be very interesting
According to a post from FAS a while back there are new chips that are pretty powerful
One chip is equivalent to a full helix floor or beyond cpu wise
I am sure once those start getting utilized it will be a new game for the lower tiered units like Hotone

 

[Mike Oliphant]

I assume they have some sort of conversion process for the weights in the NAM files to work with their capture system.

Most likely, they just run their tone capture audio through NAM, producing the output of model. Then they would just capture it as they would any other signal.

 

[Mike Oliphant]

What I can see happening then is a lot of those will be uploaded back online to Hotone's version of a tone cloud server, where people can upload and exchange worse quality files (not NAM files). I don't like that. It feels wrong to me.

I never think it is a good idea to criticize a technology because of potential misuse by users. That would be like saying NAM is bad because you could use it to model Kemper or QC captures.

 

[BenIfin]

I think the whole "NAM Conversion" vs "NAM Purity" is totally irrelevant - the *only* thing that matters is the resulting sound and tone.

Yes - it looks like what Hotone is doing may (?) not be "good" (?)

But then - look at the Sonulab pedal

It too takes NAM Captures and modifies them to run in its proprietary format - result - see the video below - A/B audio demo starts at the 1min 25sec mark - I cant tell the difference.



And before anyone says "what about the "Null Tests" .... well .... from Leo's own video tests

- NAM Software -40.8
- Dienhead Pedal -40.3
- Tonex Software -38.1
- Tonex Pedal -34.9
- Sonulab -33.7
- Quad Cortex -33.3
- Kemper -30.9

The Sonulab Pedal which loads and then "propriotizes" the NAM Captures to the Sonluab Format -null tests better- than the Quad Cortex or Kemper and is virtually identical to the Tonex Pedal !!

 

[laxu]

Most likely, they just run their tone capture audio through NAM, producing the output of model. Then they would just capture it as they would any other signal.

The NAM transfer to Ampero is too fast for that.

 

[Mike Oliphant]

The NAM transfer to Ampero is too fast for that.

It is the only plausible way for them to be doing it.

The NAM capture process happens on a PC, correct? That should be doable very quickly.

 

[laxu]

It is the only plausible way for them to be doing it.

The NAM capture process happens on a PC, correct? That should be doable very quickly.

It's faster than their Soundclone app seems to be. That's why I expect they are doing data conversion instead.

 

[Mike Oliphant]

It's faster than their Soundclone app seems to be. That's why I expect they are doing data conversion instead.

If it is cloning actual gear, it has to do the capture in real time. If it is capturing a NAM file, it can do it much faster.

 

[Los-D]

Valeton is a Hotone brand, right? 10-band EQ apparently helps a lot on the NAM converted tone. I would assume the Ampero II uses a similar process.

 

[BenIfin]

Valeton is a Hotone brand, right? 10-band EQ apparently helps a lot on the NAM converted tone. I would assume the Ampero II uses a similar process.

Yeah I saw that. Nothing wrong with using eq to "correct" what the NAM Capture actually sounds like.

However, it requires some drastic eq'ing -and also- it invalidates the whole point of have NAM Captures in the Hotone/Valeton as the imported and converted NAM Captures don't sound anything like the actual real NAM Captures.

Its very "not good" because when Hotone/Valeton was testing this before release it is inconceivable that they too did not realize how bad the "conversion" is, yet they still have proceeded to "promote" this as a "feature" when it clearly and objectively it is not.

Maybe they will "fix" this ? Who knows.

Just my 2c

 

[laxu]

A fairly sizable EQ cut at 100 Hz with a relatively wide Q helps for sure, but I still don't get why there's such a low end difference.

When the capture feature was added to the Stomp, the captures I did don't exhibit this phenomenon either.

I feel like there's been a bit too much seat-of-your-pants development at Hotone, maybe to combat the Mooer GS1000?

 

[KingsXJJ]

A fairly sizable EQ cut at 100 Hz with a relatively wide Q helps for sure, but I still don't get why there's such a low end difference.

When the capture feature was added to the Stomp, the captures I did don't exhibit this phenomenon either.

I feel like there's been a bit too much seat-of-your-pants development at Hotone, maybe to combat the Mooer GS1000?

The GS1000 looks promising. Earlier versions of Mooer’s modeling didn’t do it for me but looks like they stepped it up a gen or so. Might sound great now.