Modelers Losing Their Luster

[Baba]

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

 

[JiveTurkey]

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[Stone]

 

[Jarick]

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[ian_dissonance]

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.

Weird thing is I do this the Helix all the time. Pick an IR, pick an amp, turn the standard knobs, and play. Option paralysis/constant deep diving isn’t the gears fault, nor is it necessary.

 

[Mongillo19]

Weird thing is I do this the Helix all the time. Pick an IR, pick an amp, turn the standard knobs, and play. Option paralysis/constant deep diving isn’t the gears fault, nor is it necessary.

Yeah I get wanting something simple but I'd rather the options of tone tweaking than not when all is said and done

 

[Frodebro]

Weird thing is I do this the Helix all the time. Pick an IR, pick an amp, turn the standard knobs, and play. Option paralysis/constant deep diving isn’t the gears fault, nor is it necessary.

I throw together quick presets all the time in the Axe-FX. It’s not complicated at all if you know exactly what you’re going after. I’m not one of those people who holds up the line at McDonald’s because he is overwhelmed by the choices on the menu…

 

[ian_dissonance]

Yeah I get wanting something simple but I'd rather the options of tone tweaking than not when all is said and done

I throw together quick presets all the time in the Axe-FX. It’s not complicated at all if you know exactly what you’re going after. I’m not one of those people who holds up the line at McDonald’s because he is overwhelmed by the choices on the menu…

There are definitely a lot of people that see options and have to touch everything. I don’t get it, but it’s a thing. I’ve assisted on live tracking sessions with amps and pedalboards where we spent 6-7 HOURS auditioning cabs and mic’s and boosts and moving the cab around the booth, etc, etc. But I doubt those guitarists and engineers think about all that shit when they just want to jam (at least I would hope). I’ve also seen guys go in, stick a Fredman clip in front of a speaker, give a couple chugs, move the mics an inch and get some killer tracks. The gear doesn’t create the minutiae, the operator does.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Weird thing is I do this the Helix all the time. Pick an IR, pick an amp, turn the standard knobs, and play. Option paralysis/constant deep diving isn’t the gears fault, nor is it necessary.

(Or just keep playing on the “just an amp” preset I already have set up on each platform since I’ve been using them all for a lot of years?)

 

[Frodebro]

There are definitely a lot of people that see options and have to touch everything. I don’t get it, but it’s a thing. I’ve assisted on live tracking sessions with amps and pedalboards where we spent 6-7 HOURS auditioning cabs and mic’s and boosts and moving the cab around the booth, etc, etc. But I doubt those guitarists and engineers think about all that shit when they just want to jam (at least I would hope). I’ve also seen guys go in, stick a Fredman clip in front of a speaker, give a couple chugs, move the mics an inch and get some killer tracks. The gear doesn’t create the minutiae, the operator does.

The guy who moved the mic an inch knew exactly what he was after, and exactly how to get there. That’s all there is to it with modeling, too.

 

[metropolis_4]

Safe to say that the vast majority of players (myself included) haven't really experienced power tube distortion of any degree - let alone to the point of being able to identify the various differences between say a screaming quartet of 6L6s vs EL34s. I'm sure some here can, (Mr. DeGenaro being one) just saying that most can't.

Really? I thought the opposite - that a vast majority have experienced that… maybe I’m just getting old

 

[holoholo]

The modelers aren’t losing their lustre, we are

 

[Orvillain]

Safe to say that the vast majority of players (myself included) haven't really experienced power tube distortion of any degree - let alone to the point of being able to identify the various differences between say a screaming quartet of 6L6s vs EL34s. I'm sure some here can, (Mr. DeGenaro being one) just saying that most can't.

BTW - tubes aren't like .... off and then on in terms of distortion.... or more accurately called saturation. There is a curve to it. Plenty of people experience power tube saturation, even at regular listening levels. You don't need to crank the tits out of an amp to get some power tube saturation characteristics.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

BTW - tubes aren't like .... off and then on in terms of distortion.... or more accurately called saturation. There is a curve to it. Plenty of people experience power tube saturation, even at regular listening levels. You don't need to crank the tits out of an amp to get some power tube saturation characteristics.

Isn't it all most accurately described as distortion - because whether its compression, clipping, added harmonic content, etc., etc., they all amount to a distortion of what the original signal was?

Agree that pretty much anyone who has ever plugged into a sub-50 watt tube amp no matter how quietly they've played it, have heard pretty substantial amount of distortion that is not just from the pre-amp gain stages.

 

[Orvillain]

Isn't it all most accurately described as distortion - because whether its compression, clipping, added harmonic content, etc., etc., they all amount to a distortion of what the original signal was?

Agree that pretty much anyone who has ever plugged into a sub-50 watt tube amp no matter how quietly they've played it, have heard pretty substantial amount of distortion that is not just from the pre-amp gain stages.

No, I think there is a cut off point where you drift from saturation into distortion. Distortion is when you start to outright clip and generate square waveforms on your scope. Saturation is where the shape changes in subtle ways, but overall doesn't lose its shape altogether.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

No, I think there is a cut off point where you drift from saturation into distortion. Distortion is when you start to outright clip and generate square waveforms on your scope. Saturation is where the shape changes in subtle ways, but overall doesn't lose its shape altogether.

Nah, anything that deviates form the input signal is a distortion. Compression is a distortion as much as clipping is.

 

[Frodebro]

Nah, anything that deviates form the input signal is a distortion. Compression is a distortion as much as clipping is.

Yep, and tubes always have a slight amount of distortion regardless of the signal fed into them. Even a Twin Reverb has measurable distortion, though most people aren't going to actually hear it as such.

 

[Orvillain]

Nah, anything that deviates form the input signal is a distortion. Compression is a distortion as much as clipping is.

Ok bro

 

[Orvillain]

I mean, even ChatGPT can tell the fucking difference, but whatever.

 

[ian_dissonance]

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I mean, even ChatGPT can tell the fucking difference, but whatever.

Saturation is just subtle distortion. For the purposes of explanation it’s different, but it’s really a distinction without a difference.