Modelers Losing Their Luster

[dronerstone]

Mine is late night cricket, frog, and bird harmonies. Sounds like I got a pond in the woods inside my head.

Definitely crickets here, right side only, but I'm almost deaf in that particular ear - for medical reasons, not music.

Seems weird to have one top-notch left ear, while the other side is extremely low in volume, but almost 24/7 plays crickets instead.

 

[Jarick]

So you know what.. modellers ARE losing a bit of their luster for me at the moment. I really just can't be fucked with all of the tweaking and dealing with blocks and pages and menus and settings and spdif reamp and all the rest of the clever shit. I just want to plug into a DD3 and a high-gain amp!

I hooked up my Friedman IR-X over the weekend as I hadn't played through it in a few weeks. It's refreshing to just get a great tone with no tweaking past moving a couple knobs around.

 

[Cainer]

that video actually relates to one of the reasons I love using a modeler - the side benefit of being able to get cranked amp tone without playing at welding volume is you can actually practice with a cranked amp. Used to have to practice at bedroom volume because of my living situation, then out on a gig the amp sounds and reacts totally different - now you can work everything out on the actual tone you'll be using live - of course it's always a little different based on interaction of crowd and bandmates, and the acoustics of the venue, but it's one less surprise variable.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I've been casually thinking about getting another amp, the latest Soldano has perked my attention, among others. But damn, I was getting some killer tone last night just jamming in Helix Native. I layered three instances of the plugin in separate tracks but all using my one DI signal. First was a boosted Dripman w/dual tweed 4x10 wide spread. Second was a Plexi/Panama with dual G25 cabs more centered, panned slightly left overall. Third was the WhoWatt and cab boosted with a red llama, panned slightly right overall. Each covered a particular range: bright lower gain; fat higher gain with mids; fat throaty low mid punch. Blend them to taste and bus them to a channel with verb and slight spacial adjustment using m/s style plugin. Damn... it sounds so friggin' good for that heavy, vintage, voodoo, trippy rock. If I get some more time today or tomorrow I'll post a track.

 

[Enchilada Jones]

I've been casually thinking about getting another amp, the latest Soldano has perked my attention, among others. But damn, I was getting some killer tone last night just jamming in Helix Native. I layered three instances of the plugin in separate tracks but all using my one DI signal. First was a boosted Dripman w/dual tweed 4x10 wide spread. Second was a Plexi/Panama with dual G25 cabs more centered, panned slightly left overall. Third was the WhoWatt and cab boosted with a red llama, panned slightly right overall. Each covered a particular range: bright lower gain; fat higher gain with mids; fat throaty low mid punch. Blend them to taste and bus them to a channel with verb and slight spacial adjustment using m/s style plugin. Damn... it sounds so friggin' good for that heavy, vintage, voodoo, trippy rock. If I get some more time today or tomorrow I'll post a track.

I don’t want to contribute to your GAS but I’ve been learning my way around the Soldano Astro over the last couple days and for me it is the perfect storm of digital meets analog.
As a straight up tube amp it had me listing my Friedman Little Sister within 24 hours because of a couple things. The Clean channel, lots of variety with or without pedals/boosts etc.
Then three other ‘channels’ that defy the typical shared EQ curse because of the assignable gain stages (‘Galaxies’).

As a silent recording amp (or FOH send and cab on stage for those enjoying that opportunity) it does a really good job. The deal was sealed when I realized I could set it up for four great sounds analog amp-cab on all channels then drop the master and send the DI to DAW or "FRFR" and assign IR’s that made great use of my settings without having to compensate for the switch from real cab to ir. I played for hours at that point going back and forth from cab to DI silent cab every fifteen minutes or so and only tweaked things like you do when playing an amp/cab.A little more or less treble of gain etc
And when I was in the silent DI side I would occasionally flip the toggle on the loaded IR’s not because I was in the ir rabbit hole but because I had looped a rhythm part and wanted a variation to play melody to it, the same way one might stomp on a pedal.

I’m convinced an analog front end with dedicated amp controls with easily switched cab room simulation is my happy place.
Helix in 4 cable right now for effects and midi. Works perfectly like it always does.
Going to try FM9 soon because one of them must go…too much fiddling about…menu diving is for the young.

 

[Achilles]

menu diving is for the young.

Stolen for my sig.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I don’t want to contribute to your GAS but I’ve been learning my way around the Soldano Astro over the last couple days and for me it is the perfect storm of digital meets analog.

Glad it's working out for you. Where did you get yours from? I noticed Sweetwater isn't stocked yet.
There is definitely still something about the feel of a real tube input. Playing... you know. Listening back in a recording... that line is almost gone now between modeling / real amp imo.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I hooked up my Friedman IR-X over the weekend as I hadn't played through it in a few weeks. It's refreshing to just get a great tone with no tweaking past moving a couple knobs around.

This is why I'm still keen to try the IR-X. Does all my core sounds (clean-ish and dirt channels, each with individual boosts) in one convenient package with the very parameters I usually finetune exposed WYSIWYG style.

 

[Enchilada Jones]

Glad it's working out for you. Where did you get yours from? I noticed Sweetwater isn't stocked yet.
There is definitely still something about the feel of a real tube input. Playing... you know. Listening back in a recording... that line is almost gone now between modeling / real amp imo.

I ordered from Sweetwater the day it was put up in there system. They said three weeks and a week later it was shipping.

yea agree once it’s recorded, or pumped through PA, it is indistinguishable but the work flow is a big plus in my mind for the amp with dedicated controls always right there to grab. it’s nice to hear it from a real speaker for inspiration though. That goes for modeler or amp for me.

 

[Jarick]

I've been kicking around getting a small combo amp again, probably trading in my Boss Katana Artist and some other crap I have sitting around that's too big and not worth it to ship.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I've been kicking around getting a small combo amp again, probably trading in my Boss Katana Artist and some other crap I have sitting around that's too big and not worth it to ship.

I have a most excellent somewhat modified Laney LC50 combo (lower gain V1 tube and modded so I can use 6L6s as the PA tubes, instead of the stock EL34, slapped an old G12 H100 Celestion in there, too). Pretty lightweight as well. Grabbed it for one gig last year and instantly knew why I'm not dealing with that mess anymore.
I absolutely love (pseudo-) analog, WYSIWG style user interfaces, but I prefer IR-driven "FRFR" monitoring over real cabs just sooooo much (let alone the additional comfort).

 

[Foxmeister]

Did someone edit the thread title, or was I extremely remiss in not revoking @James Freeman 's "Brit-card" for using the American spelling of lustre?

 

[FuzzyAce]

lustre

 

[Foxmeister]

lustre

We all need to understand that the calibre of a man is not measured by the metre, but by the standards he upholds, and should be at the very centre of everything he holds dear, throughout this theatre that we call life!

 

[FuzzyAce]

We all need to understand that the calibre of a man is not measured by the metre, but by the standards he upholds, and should be at the very centre of everything he holds dear, throughout this theatre that we call life!

View attachment 16006

I do use grey more now than gray. I blame that on my old place of work though, wasn't my choice!

 

[jellodog]

And don't get me started on sulphur!

 

[timbuck3]

I hooked up my Friedman IR-X over the weekend as I hadn't played through it in a few weeks. It's refreshing to just get a great tone with no tweaking past moving a couple knobs around.

THATS THE BEAUTY OF AMPS VS MODELERS

 

[la szum]

Every time I see someone arrogantly proclaiming that modeling sucks because nobody needs 100 amp models, I wonder to myself if they can survive a trip to the supermarket without needing a visit to their therapist on the way home.

So much bread in the bread aisle that I couldn't decide. So I came home with no actual bread.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I still consider that cast aluminium Helix chassis to be super lustrous, no matter how many times I had to try to turn spell check off...

 

[jellodog]

THATS THE BEAUTY OF AMPS VS MODELERS

I have an IR-X boxed up and ready to go if you want one. Just PM me