I underestimated the importance of convenience

[MadMaxG79]

A little backstory: I play in a primarily covers band. A couple of years ago I started creating backing tracks for a lot of the songs we cover, so that I (and other members of the band) could practice my parts to drums, bass and vocals from the original songs. The idea was that I would just use my phone and either plug into the aux input of my modeler of choice and start playing away. And I did in the beginning - but mostly just to justify the time I spent creating all those tracks. The thing is that my modeler is not always on the floor in front of me. I have to pull it out of the closet and hook everything up before I can start playing. So it quickly became a little too much of a hassle to hook everything up and actually practice to backing tracks.

Fast forward to last week where I got my new modeler and it has bluetooth connection. At first I thought very little of this feature. As if it was something I would never really use. Well, that's until I remembered all those backing tracks I had lying ready in my Dropbox account*. Man, did I have fun playing along to those most of the weekend! And it even made building presets more engaging because I can suddenly hear how the changes I make to my sound affects the entire mix. Sure, it will sound different with my actual band mates, but at least it's a good starting point. And I can plan out all the scenes I need, what to include when and where and when I have to switch them on during the performance. It was so much fun I forgot I was actually practicing

And another thing: My current modeler has an output meter that always shows me where my output for the current preset is. And can track it easily when I add an overdrive or something like that. No more hooking up my modeler to my computer, opening up a DAW, making sure that everything is working properly and then meticulously going through every preset and scene, just to make sure everything is leveled properly...

Oh, and scribble strips. I remember when the Helix first came out and I thought: "Sure, that looks pretty. But who really needs that?". Turns out I do. I never wanna go back to no scribble strips.

What about you? What are the "convenience" factors you can't live without?

*Then I discovered the Moises app, which can extract the different instrument tracks from a music file so you have instant backing tracks. That was a both exhilarating and depressing experience to learn how easy it is and that I didn't have to spend all that time assembling all those backing tracks...

 

[ragingplatypi]

I care so much more about the cases/bags for my gear than I used to.

 

[AFKAEjay(retired)]

I have a Kemper player permanently placed on the armrest of my couch
Stream audio to practice/study, I run Ireal on an iPad.
Stream audio from my tv as a headphone interface (..and play along if the movie is not all that)
Record to a daw on my ipad (yes, multitrack daws logic/cubase run on iPad these days)

 

[Lysander]

What about you? What are the "convenience" factors you can't live without?

UX... and size.

I'd kill without remorse for a full-DSP Helix the size of, say, a Quad Cortex.

 

[norminal]

UX... and size.

I'd kill without remorse for a full-DSP Helix the size of, say, a Quad Cortex.

I predict the next iteration won’t have a built-in expression pedal. So we might not be far off. Fingers crossed.

 

[DrewJD82]

The mini-tuner display when you’re editing on the front panel of a Fractal product. Having that show up on every page makes me smile every single time I look up and don’t have to navigate from the page I’m on.

 

[MadMaxG79]

UX... and size.

I'd kill without remorse for a full-DSP Helix the size of, say, a Quad Cortex.

I'm almost the opposite when it comes to size. I want plenty of buttons and at least one built-in expression pedal (I remember my trusty old ToneLab SE which had two exp pedals right next to each other). I really don't want to deal with external controllers, expression pedals, a power supply for those things and a board to hold it all together. And I want a big screen so I can see everything clearly.

 

[iaresee]

What about you? What are the "convenience" factors you can't live without?

No more cables. I rarely have to troubleshoot bad cabling on a pedalboard at a gig. I just plug in, power up and I'm ready to go.

 

[Lysander]

No more cables. I rarely have to troubleshot bad cabling on a pedalboard at a gig. I just plug in, power up and I'm ready to go.

Also, multifx units killed the entire concept of pedalboards for me.

I just cannot bother to wire individual pedals around anymore, specially when the big players (Helix, Fractal) sound just as good, if not better, and allow me to have signal paths which would be a nightmare in real life.

 

[MadMaxG79]

Oh yeah, scenes. I know we take them for granted by this point, but I still remember having multiple presets for single songs because I didn't have scenes.

The fact that I can press a single button and have multiple effects turn on and off is something a pedal switcher can do as well. But it can't simultaneously turn the knobs of those pedals...

 

[laxu]

Scenes are probably the big one for me too. Enough that I'd use MIDI to build something similar with my Strymons.

Also compact units. It's pretty nice to be able to throw the BluGuitar Amp 1 into my backpack and just go. Obviously having a cab available is a requirement.

And knobs. Nothing frustrates me more than having to jump through a big list of steps to adjust params. Which is the big source of my discontent with some modelers on the market.

 

[Mikael Dez]

I love the convenience of the Quad Cortex touchscreen, and the ability to use the rotary switches to change parameters. Also scenes/snapshots - coming from Helix and now QC, it’s useful for live use but it’s also nice for A/Bing tones.

 

[Sedaxel]

I understimated the convenience factor time ago.

But one day I had a problem in the middle of a gig, and needed to tweak things on my Amplifire12... but I was absolutely unable to do it. That day I changed my mind and bought a Helix LT.

The LT was a wonderful UI experience. Now I give more importance to convenience than any other feature. Well, maybe being able to clone my analog rig easily and reliably to carry it with me in a small format, and having the posibility to load clones of amps, knowing they are very accurate, for the sake of tasting great amps almost for free, are features that I value on par to convenience.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

Fun thread!!

For a long time I only had one guitar. I would take it to every room but sometimes the guitar would be upstairs and I was to lazy to get it.

So for me the best I did in this hobby:
- living room: Yamaha Thr10ii + Telecaster
-home office: HX stomp + Stratocaster

Those are the rooms I always play. It’s nice to be able to play a bit while watching a movie. But the Yamaha is also good enough to really get some practice in.

 

[KingsXJJ]

Being able to grab and go when the mood or moment hits is awesome. Anything that allows you to play more easily is just great!

The Ampero Mini with 100 drum patterns and a touch screen is great for this. You can find them for around $180 new.

 

[ChordInversion]

For me, two big conveniences are headphone out and USB recording output - both of which need to be active at the same time. I have an audio interface, so USB recording isn't a requirement, but it sure is pleasant, especially if it provides extra tracks.

I come down on the "no built in expression pedal" side, but I do like lots of knobs and switches on the unit. So the FM9 and Tone Master Pro work for me as full size modelers go. Line6 hasn't hit that sweet spot for me yet.

 

[Mikael Dez]

For me, two big conveniences are headphone out and USB recording output - both of which need to be active at the same time. I have an audio interface, so is USB recording isn't a requirement, but it sure is pleasant, especially if it provides extra tracks.

I come down on the "no built in expression pedal" side, but I do like lots of knobs and switches on the unit. So the FM9 and Tone Master Pro work for me as full size modelers go. Line6 hasn't hit that sweet sot for me yet.

I think it was the Headrush MX5 that every single time I wanted to use it as an audio interface I had to go in settings and toggle something - it wasn’t just “on”. That’s why that unit got sold off basically.

 

[mbenigni]

*Then I discovered the Moises app, which can extract the different instrument tracks from a music file so you have instant backing tracks. That was a both exhilarating and depressing experience to learn how easy it is and that I didn't have to spend all that time assembling all those backing tracks...

I'm very late to the moises game as well, and OMG it's a game changer. To think of all the years I spent practicing over full studio recordings (and wondering whether I was really making the changes on time, or just hearing the cues), trying to make multitrack recordings of rehearsals to practice over (only to annoy the s*** out of the rest of the band), or building backing tracks ground up (instead of practicing my own parts)... Now you just drag an MP3 over, mute/solo as needed, and play.

Ahem. Kids these days.

 

[mbenigni]

P.S. Touchscreens and poo switches FTW!