My next modeller

S

sliberty

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My main rig is an HX Stomp, HX One and Pirate Midi Bridge4. I own a ToneX and a ToneX One. And I have a bunch of gift cards burning a hole in my pocket (first world problem, I know). I've been unhappy with the ToneX family because of the crap software. Supposedly that is about to be resolved (or at least improved). Tones can be great, but its painful to find what you want, and configure the pedal the way you want to. If the new software is good, I may sell the ToneX and just use the ToneX One with the ToneX One Controller from Greg Smith (if you aren't familiar with this, RUN and find out more). In the mean time, I will soon have enough giftcard money to buy a Nano Cortex for like $50 out of pocket, and have been GASing for it. But of course its not the only option.

I want something that has great captures, and lots of them to choose from. Commercial captures are my preference as they tend to be higher quality AND have good demos to listen to before buying. I don't plan to do any captures of my own (but never say never). I don't do any home recording currently and likely will never do much - this will be used for home practice/jams/rehearsals/gigs almost exclusively. I also would prefer to get a device made by a company that actually will support it with firmware upgrades and app upgrades over time (this was not my experience with Hotone by the way - their support is really disappointing)

Is the Nano Cortex the best way to sooth my GAS? Or are there some other devices in a similar-ish price range that are worth considering?

Yes, I know that everyone has their own favorites, so I am expecting personal opinions. But please don't just say "I like xyz best". Provide your reasons so that I can decide ofthose factors matter to me.

Thanks,
Steve
 
sliberty said:
Nano Cortex
Click to expand...

sliberty said:
made by a company that actually will support it with firmware upgrades and app upgrades over time
Click to expand...
the office fourth wall GIF
 
@2dor Still, NAM has a certain Kickstarter feel to it. It is not unlikely that the current hardware solutions will not support future updates to the NAM technology and will become obsolete and useless in no time.

The Kemper ecosystem is still the safer and, above all, more mature option. Furthermore, the market for truly professional Kemper profiles is many years ahead of the other platforms and has an enormous variety and wealth of offerings.
 
2dor said:
NAM profiles beat the pants off Kemper though and at least there's no DLC upgrade path for the NAM Player..
Click to expand...

That’s subjective. I have a Kemper (have had it for ten years), and I can get great sounds out of it. Plus, Kemper has great customer support/service. And integrity.
 
I use a QC as my main rig, and though I would have rather have had a 3 switch sized unit on the same platform, I choose the Kemper player.
Reasons:
- flexible efx slots..pre amp…NC only offers gate and harmonizer…2 things I never use.
- More physical controls on the unit…I can do 99% from the unit once my sounds are setup
- Ability to send both a cabsimmed signal to foh, as well as a stereo noncabsimmed feed to cabs (= my usecase)
- Better verb then QC
- I consider the much debated upgrades as an asset…it’s great to have such a powerhouse in such a small enclosure. Something as simple as a global EQ on both outputs adds a lot a value for me.

The profiling tech does what it promises to my ears (I make my own). Obviously some others do better on the meter readings…in my mind…when you need a meter to measure..they all do what they supposed to do: sound good/the same to the human ear.

Hotone and Mooer are hitting the market with “a lot of stuff for the price”. Personally I’m not convinced about their profiling tech yet, also not about their time efx…but…that could well be a gap in my knowledge on those products. Also some super affordable nam players…nam is proven tech by now…but I’d be reluctant to go all in on these early products today….and would value the maturity of Kemper over it.
 
Frodebro said:
That’s subjective. I have a Kemper (have had it for ten years), and I can get great sounds out of it. Plus, Kemper has great customer support/service. And integrity.
Click to expand...
As far as accurate profiles are concerned NAM has been proven to perform much better than any profiling tech out there. I'm not saying Kemper can't get good tones but I'd look at NAM for "the best profiles".

FWIW I use a Quad Cortex for gigging & band practice because it suits my needs better (easy to tweak on the fly & I can run 4 signal paths through it - 2 guitars, bass & vocals). The Neural Capture feature isn't as good as NAM profiles though
 
2dor said:
As far as accurate profiles are concerned NAM has been proven to perform much better than any profiling tech out there. I'm not saying Kemper can't get good tones but I'd look at NAM for "the best profiles".

FWIW I use a Quad Cortex for gigging & band practice because it suits my needs better (easy to tweak on the fly & I can run 4 signal paths through it - 2 guitars, bass & vocals). The Neural Capture feature isn't as good as NAM profiles though
Click to expand...

I don’t worry about accuracy, I only care about sounding good to me. Which is pretty much every unit on the market these days.
 
I went from Tonex+Stomp to a QC - the QC did not sound better but I just like the experience a lot more. I don’t think you will solve your gas with a NC if you’re looking for better sounds, especially where Tonex has a better capture marketplace and you mentioned that as important.
 
sliberty said:
My main rig is an HX Stomp, HX One and Pirate Midi Bridge4. I own a ToneX and a ToneX One. And I have a bunch of gift cards burning a hole in my pocket (first world problem, I know). I've been unhappy with the ToneX family because of the crap software. Supposedly that is about to be resolved (or at least improved). Tones can be great, but its painful to find what you want, and configure the pedal the way you want to. If the new software is good, I may sell the ToneX and just use the ToneX One with the ToneX One Controller from Greg Smith (if you aren't familiar with this, RUN and find out more). In the mean time, I will soon have enough giftcard money to buy a Nano Cortex for like $50 out of pocket, and have been GASing for it. But of course its not the only option.

I want something that has great captures, and lots of them to choose from. Commercial captures are my preference as they tend to be higher quality AND have good demos to listen to before buying. I don't plan to do any captures of my own (but never say never). I don't do any home recording currently and likely will never do much - this will be used for home practice/jams/rehearsals/gigs almost exclusively. I also would prefer to get a device made by a company that actually will support it with firmware upgrades and app upgrades over time (this was not my experience with Hotone by the way - their support is really disappointing)

Is the Nano Cortex the best way to sooth my GAS? Or are there some other devices in a similar-ish price range that are worth considering?

Yes, I know that everyone has their own favorites, so I am expecting personal opinions. But please don't just say "I like xyz best". Provide your reasons so that I can decide ofthose factors matter to me.

Thanks,
Steve
Click to expand...

2dor said:
Best captures are NAM & the best NAM player on the market is the Dimehead NAM Player.

I'd get that if you want the best sounding captures
Click to expand...

TheTrueZoltan! said:
Kemper Profile Player

LOTS of professional profiles available and much more trustworthy than some NAM kickstarter style hardware.

www.kemper-amps.com

Kemper Amps

Kemper Amps
www.kemper-amps.com www.kemper-amps.com
Click to expand...

F.w.i.w.

If you think null tests are useful in determining the "musical value/quality" of a unit, then for static profiles, NAM is %100 at the top of the tree - period.

However ..... if you start to move the controls of your amp "copy" to suit what you want, things get interesting.

If you do the same test using Kempers Liquid Profiles with control changes where their in-built Amp Tone Stack matches the Amp you are copying, the the KPA using Liquid Profiles jumps to number one.

See this test here => https://youtu.be/bIhDlFnz5B0?t=692

Yes, NAM is not in this test, but as NAM usually scores only 0.2 <-> 0.4 better than Tonex, it is still well behind the KPA LP null test - ands that's even assuming it maintains it integrity when moving controls

The Catch's ?

=> you need to make or buy Liquid Profiles - that's not an issue.

=> the Liquid Profiled Amps must match the ~40 or so KPA Tone Stacks in the KPA

The Good Part ?

=> there are 3 or 4 totally free Liquid Profile Packs on the KPA site that are amazing and contain a great variety of meat and potato amps

=> the ~40 or so Tone Stacks cover probably > %99 of what >%99 of guitarists use and want

Just food for thought.
 
liquid profiles sound cack, unfortunately. NAM sounds best, but I’d only really recommend Dimehead as a NAM player. I don’t see them being able to come up with decent reverbs etc.

The reverbs for ToneX are bad too. And IIRC I don’t think ToneX can output both an IR and a non IR signal. Kemper verbs are OK, I think NDSP can probably muster something OK too.

Not sure what I’d even recommend. If we’re talking about JUST amp sounds for a capture device, I would say that NAM captures are best, followed by ToneX, followed by QC/NC. If you want the best captures, then I wouldn’t recommend a Kemper. It’s old and IMO it shows its age a lot. Yes you can get “useable” tones out of it, but you can get useable tones out of a POD 2 or Headrush. The others capture amps more accurately across the board and sound better.
 
If I was deadset on using captures for a gigging rig I'd test out a NC first hand and see how it handles everything top to bottom with feel in the hands, general knob usability and the app (if you dont like it you can return it, no loss). If it's good enough and works a treat then at least the footprint is good, not breaking the bank. A cheap second hand kemper would probably be next on the list because you know it's at least robust and there's a zillion profiles out there. Hard to reccomend more because you already dont like ToneX and the Dimehead player while great, is expensive and you'd want to be a real NAM enthusiast to justify it imo. Like the best one trick pony.. but if you want that trick, its the one to get.

This is why if Line6, TMP, Fractal or more modellers had capturing (either their own or preferably NAM) it would be such a benefit instead of choosing a dedicated one shot capture device. At the very least if you didn't gel with the captures the amp sounds are great (and vice versa).

These discussions are pretty humorous... I remember when PodHD's were new and exciting... I'm guessing a headrush or HO-tone sounds just as good these days, endless options out there.
 
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