NAM: Neural Amp Modeler

Mike Oliphant said:
I'm not sure about other DAWs, but in Reaper, you can have it oversample the plugin from 48k to 192k and back - then NAM wouldn't be doing the resampling.
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I think reaper is the only daw able to do this at the moment afaik, and that was just recently added if I'm not mistaken.
Anyway, metaplugin and blue cat patchwork can do the same thing in all daws.
 
Do any of you have experience playing with captures made at higher sample rates? Did you think the improvement in sliding was worth the effort? I’ve read some things here and there on the FB group, but my memory is a bit fuzzy right now about actual user experiences.

I have some old reamps at 48kHz that I still need to get done. I didn’t want to jump around with sample rates until I finished.

Just wanted to mention that I am still enjoying the simplicity of the NAM plugin interface.
 
bikescene said:
Do any of you have experience playing with captures made at higher sample rates? Did you think the improvement in sliding was worth the effort? I’ve read some things here and there on the FB group, but my memory is a bit fuzzy right now about actual user experiences.

I have some old reamps at 48kHz that I still need to get done. I didn’t want to jump around with sample rates until I finished.

Just wanted to mention that I am still enjoying the simplicity of the NAM plugin interface.
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It sounds / feels exactly the same to me personally using high gain - certainly not worth 2-4x CPU use in my case. Not sure about EOB/cleaner sounds where any artifacts might be more apparent. In fact, I can almost never tell which is real and which is NAM in a blind test using standard 48khz - even if aliasing is measurable with sine waves it doesn't mean you will be able to pick up on it with normal guitar tones. I think in many cases we hear what we want to hear.
 
northern_fox said:
It sounds / feels exactly the same to me personally using high gain - certainly not worth 2-4x CPU use in my case. Not sure about EOB/cleaner sounds where any artifacts might be more apparent. In fact, I can almost never tell which is real and which is NAM in a blind test using standard 48khz - even if aliasing is measurable with sine waves it doesn't mean you will be able to pick up on it with normal guitar tones. I think in many cases we hear what we want to hear.
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Thanks. My ear is less critical on clean and EOB sounds, even though I spend a lot of time using those types of tones. I’ve been happy with the dirtier sounds of NAM.

I did experience a noticeable jump in quality going from 100 Epochs to 500+ in training early on. I was just curious if higher sample rates would lead to a change like that.
 
bikescene said:
I did experience a noticeable jump in quality going from 100 Epochs to 500+ in training early on. I was just curious if higher sample rates would lead to a change like that.
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Unless there's a really clear aliasing issue with a capture, then it's unlikely. Going from 100 to 500+ can result in significantly better ESR depending on the train so it's not surprising! The bottom line for me is - if I can't hear or feel a difference in blind isolation AB, then there's nothing more I personally care to improve regardless of what's possible to measure in null tests and sine sweeps. And in many cases with captures of my own gear I find this to be true for me. It's harder to compare "feel" because of the monitoring context, but for sure in terms of what it sounds like played back.

I do think some people claim to hear aliasing in captures they did not make that is really just noise from the actual amp they find unpleasing or a badly trained capture, etc - not having an original reamp to compare to makes it a bit subjective in terms of perception, even if it's still measurable.
 
northern_fox said:
Not sure about EOB/cleaner sounds where any artifacts might be more apparent. In fact, I can almost never tell which is real and which is NAM in a blind test using standard 48khz - even if aliasing is measurable with sine waves it doesn't mean you will be able to pick up on it with normal guitar tones. I think in many cases we hear what we want to hear.
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EoB/cleaner sounds should make aliasing less apparent since there's less harmonics to fold back. As a cleaner-sounds user I kinda don't worry about aliasing at all with the current day options.
 
Time to build that computer based rig. LOL. Then NAM fans can wait out the hardware shake out.
 
So whilst my Axe-Fx is on a ship somewhere halfway across the Atlantic, I'm having to "make do" with an audio interface, MacBook Air and baby Genelecs and I've been very pleasantly suprised by NAM.

My current signal path jam is:

Ideofunk's EJ Fuzz Face capture (NAM) ->
Amalgam Audio '64 Blonde Bassman, Normal Crunch Bright (NAM) ->
York Audio Matchless 212 M25 / H30 blend mix #08 IR ->
Valhalla Delay ->
Light touch of Logic Pro comp ->
Subtle dash of Logic Pro Space Designer "Large and Brite" room IR.

I'm just using the basic NAM Player plugin, but that Blonde Bassman is really something! 😍

I hope Cliff will add a 6G6-B to the Fractal models some day 🙏

EDIT:

Ideofunk's Benson Germanium Fuzz is easier to control because there are multiple capture settings wheras the EJ capture only really has one level and a lot of gain, although it also has a lot of Mojo. I'm using both now for different reasons at different times :-)
 
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jellodog said:
So whilst my Axe-Fx is somewhere halfway across the Atlantic, I'm having to "make do" with an audio interface, MacBook Air and baby Genelec and I've been very pleasantly suprised by NAM.

My current signal path jam is:

Ideofunk's EJ Fuzz Face capture (NAM) ->
Amalgam Audio '64 Blonde Bassman, Crunch Bright (NAM) ->
York Audio Matchless 212 M25 / H30 blend mix #08 IR ->
Valhalla Delay ->
Light touch of Logic Pro comp ->
Subtle dash of Logic Pro Space Designer "Large and Brite" room IR.

I'm just using the basic NAM Player plugin, but that Blonde Bassman is really something! 😍
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You had me at EJ Fuzz. Then Blonde Bassman... :chef
 
jellodog said:
Seriously, that fuzz is fantastic!

As with a lot of these captures, it took a bit of experimentation to ascertain the (ballpark) correct levels but once I got there, it was truly wonderful.
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I've been curious about NAM, may have to try it out sooner than later. :beer
 
Mongillo19 said:
It's pretty great! However I cannot for the life of me find a good dual rec capture 🤣

If anyone who uses NAM has any suggestions I'm all ears
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You'd think by now there would be? I'm sure it's out there though. :unsure:
 
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