Sonulab Stompstation Pro (NAM player pedal)

[Sascha Franck]

I don't get why some people seem to bother about hyper accuracy on a pedalboard.

Me neither.
I've recently played one set on a gig using my Valeton GP-50 instead of the main Tonex One driven pedalboard and even used kinda like the same captures (I've had Tone3000 recapture some of my Tonex patches) and the main obvious differences were boost, delay and reverb that I've switched on here and there.
For me, the reasons why I'm interested in a NAM box aren't all that much about accuracy but simply because it's *way* easier to create captures and because I think it's a much more future proof capture format than Tonex.

 

[BenIfin]

Is the "DRIVE" Block on the SSP (1) a "non-swappable-firmware-baked-in" NAM Overdrive Capture (?) or (2) a component modelled "drive pedal" ?

If its (a) I presume there are an additional 2 x freely loadable NAM Capture Blocks + the "non-swappable-firmware-baked-in" NAM Overdrive Capture ?

 

[BenIfin]

Pretty great Latency

 

[2dor]

Pretty great Latency

Sure is.

Just hope they release the firmware for calibration metadata and FX loop; holding out until that hits.

 

[riffy]

Honestly, I think this darn unit is looking pretty good!

 

[Richard_G]

Pretty great Latency

On the contrary, it’s rather small!

 

[2dor]

On the contrary, it’s rather small!

 

[Sascha Franck]

Great latency figures.

 

[aaltool]

Obviously not. Even standard is almost impossible for most of them (not sure about Anagram though). A2 does offer the option to "scale" the profile according to processing power.
Also you can assume it will be very good. I don't get why some people seem to bother about hyper accuracy on a pedalboard. You're usually not recording with this. In a live situation nobody is going to notice those details when the fucked up sound of your bass player muffles all over your meticulously crafted tones. Usually there's also a drum in the room.

Yeah I get it. I was more thinking in general, what would happen if these "NAM native" players are fed with a capture that is too resource-intensive for them. Will they convert or downscale it in some way, maintaining the ability to play them or will they completely refuse to play the capture at all? I know A2 should make things easier for hardware players but I am just thinking of the future. Like pointed out earlier in this discussion, what now is considered "hyper accurary" might be exceeded in terms of quality in the future - would this then make the Sonulab/similar device obsolete or would it be able to play the newer captures, perhaps in a downscaled format. Trying to figure how future-proof a device like this could be.

 

[2dor]

Yeah I get it. I was more thinking in general, what would happen if these "NAM native" players are fed with a capture that is too resource-intensive for them. Will they convert or downscale it in some way, maintaining the ability to play them or will they completely refuse to play the capture at all? I know A2 should make things easier for hardware players but I am just thinking of the future. Like pointed out earlier in this discussion, what now is considered "hyper accurary" might be exceeded in terms of quality in the future - would this then make the Sonulab/similar device obsolete or would it be able to play the newer captures, perhaps in a downscaled format. Trying to figure how future-proof a device like this could be.

Given the "slimmable" feature I think the Sonulab and any piece of HW that comes out with A2 slimmable support is safe for a good while; you ought to be able to trim profiles down to fit the compute &, when you feel the time's come for an upgrade, you can grab whatever's fresh on the market with more processing power (again, if needed).

In 3-5 years time, I think feature-set & UI/UX is going to be the key differentiator between units that support NAM; the industry's starting to adopt it & it looks like it's going to become adopted much like "IR" stuff was a good while ago.

 

[Sascha Franck]

In 3-5 years time, I think feature-set & UI/UX is going to be the key differentiator between units that support NAM; the industry's starting to adopt it & it looks like it's going to become the new "IR" stuff.

Absolutely looking like it. Which is very good.
I really, really wish for a unit with a NAM block as great as Genome. Doesn't even need to be *that* complexed, but a dual tonestack (pre and post, each with parametric mids and user definable frequencies for high and low shelves - at least in "expert" mode) would be fantastic already. Such a block could save you from hours and hours of capture hunting.

 

[Chocol8]

High quality pre and post EQ blocks would help lot now, and I think even with parametric captures that can duplicate a real amp at all settings, pre and post eq options are a powerful tool. Heck they are and have been with tube amps and hardware EQ forever.

 

[ACSlater]

Sold both my Line6 HX Effects and the Sonicake Pocket Master today, which pretty much gave me the equivalent of €399.
Preordered it is!