The Annual NAMM predictions rumours thread 2024

[metropolis_4]

Isn't this the same with Fractal and L6? (ie. main tuner takes over whole screen)

The always-available small tuner on the FM's is awesome, loved that.

The dumbest screen-related thing to me on the QC is that using tap tempo takes over the whole screen with a giant bpm display that lasts for a few seconds. Very unnecessary and potentially debilitating, if you need to quickly access a switch for anything else right afterwards.

Yeah, I think that’s why it stood out to me as such a nice thing about the Kemper. You always have that visibility into your signal chain, and you can always press one of the buttons to quickly access any block without going through any menus.

I suppose on Fractal you can at least see in/out levels, and you can easily see and change your levels for all outputs, which has been really useful to me many times

 

[Sedaxel]

Tuners are weird. I like my Polytune better than any of my digital gear tuners. Not sure why; maybe just because it matches the polytune clip on that has served me well over the past 4-5 years.

The best tuner I´ve ever tried is the one in the Zoom G1X Four. Never tried the Polytune, though. I´ve heard great things about it.

 

[JiveTurkey]

The best tuner I´ve ever tried is the one in the Zoom G1X Four. Never tried the Polytune, though. I´ve herad great things about it.

I get it. It's an easy thing to get attached to.

 

[mbenigni]

The dumbest screen-related thing to me on the QC is that using tap tempo takes over the whole screen with a giant bpm display that lasts for a few seconds. Very unnecessary and potentially debilitating, if you need to quickly access a switch for anything else right afterwards.

I also find it annoying that you can't drag and drop blocks on the visible path when a block's parameters are pulled up. I don't see any reason the visible path can't remain interactive while editing an effect. I'd go out on a limb and say that 25-50% of the "touched the screen, nothing happened" complaints are related to the need to first dismiss an effect's parameters.

 

[Mongillo19]

I also find it annoying that you can't drag and drop blocks on the visible path when a block's parameters are pulled up. I don't see any reason the visible path can't remain interactive while editing an effect. I'd go out on a limb and say that 25-50% of the "touched the screen, nothing happened" complaints are related to the need to first dismiss an effect's parameters.

110%. That was such a big gripe for me and disrupted the flow often "oh yeah I have to tap off this editing to move it but then tap it again to get back to what I wanted to edit"

First world problem but it definitely was annoying

 

[mbenigni]

110%. That was such a big gripe for me and disrupted the flow often "oh yeah I have to tap off this editing to move it but then tap it again to get back to what I wanted to edit"

First world problem but it definitely was annoying

This will raise some eyebrows, but I think it's a testament to how great the UI is in general, that problems this small stick out as much as they do.

Another example: the long-press options on the Output blocks are tremendously useful (e.g. MUTE and SOLO buttons that can be effortlessly assigned to Scenes), but that long-press takes just a little bit too long. It would be nice if those options were somehow integrated with the output selection list that comes up on short tap - and enabled for Scenes by default, along with all the amp/effect block bypass switches. (I don't know what the performance impact of having a zillion parameters Scene-enabled is, but for the way I work, it would be better for everything to default to On.)

 

[TubeStack]

And while we're griping, I can't believe you can't select the colour of a switch LED when assigning more than one effect/amp/whatever to it. It just gets auto-selected white. Yes, you can give it an overall name for the performance screen, but you can't pick a colour. Like, for example, if I have an overdrive + delay assigned to a switch, it's automatically white and there's nothing I can do, I can't make it orange to just match what the OD colour usually is. (You can do this for Scenes, but not in Stomp mode.)

 

[TubeStack]

(And, besides being functionally annoying, this ^^^ is one of the simple pleasures of digital multi-effects that first hooked me: assigning things to switches and picking the colour, from when I first got an HXFX. Always made me smile and felt fun, as nerdy as that is.

 

[yeky83]

Different take @Ed DeGenaro .

Trying to play at that skill level, to tracks, with a click, with another guitarist at that level, at that tempo and then dropping out at a random spot to adjust your master volume and then jumping right back in on cue is going to be next to impossible.

That's why he cocked his head for a microsecond to the guy in front and asked for a bit of help to my mind.

He talks with a dude while playing all that, so I think he could've turned around and adjusted the knob whenever. Probably was more concerned with keeping soundcheck levels for the FOH/recording, then decided what the heck and turned it up?

It's live and we're listening to some dumb conversation SPL, fluorescent-lit, tiny stage, backing track, awkward product demo live performance. Dunno why anyone would think someone has an inability based on who knows what's going on.

Just watched some of the video again and... at 0:50 Abasi says "I'm too loud," to which Reyes says, "it's OK." So yeah, turns out Abasi was too loud on stage, whadayaknow. One could poke fun at the inability of a seasoned pro for not realizing that crappy live recording levels could've been different than actual live levels, but whatever, people make mistakes.

 

[DrewJD82]

Tuners are weird. I like my Polytune better than any of my digital gear tuners. Not sure why; maybe just because it matches the polytune clip on that has served me well over the past 4-5 years.

I never realized how much I took the tuners in the G-Force or Fractal stuff for granted. I’ve always had a tuner just a footswitch press away for the last 20 years. Every time I sit down with the Shiva and a few pedals, I go to tune up and remember, “Shit, I actually need a fucking tuner now!”

 

[TubeStack]

I never realized how much I took the tuners in the G-Force or Fractal stuff for granted. I’ve always had a tuner just a footswitch press away for the last 20 years. Every time I sit down with the Shiva and a few pedals, I go to tune up and remember, “Shit, I actually need a fucking tuner now!”

Haha yes, another reason why I keep my Stomp on my mostly-analog board, no need for a separate tuner.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

people make mistakes.

BUT SKILLED PEOPLE MAKE ADDITIONAL MISTAKES IN ORDER TO CORRECT THE ORIGINAL MISTAKE. HOPEFULLY. AND MAYBE A THIRD ONE TO COURSE CORRECT FROM OVERCORRECTING THE SECOND TIME.

 

[TubeStack]

I never realized how much I took the tuners in the G-Force or Fractal stuff for granted. I’ve always had a tuner just a footswitch press away for the last 20 years. Every time I sit down with the Shiva and a few pedals, I go to tune up and remember, “Shit, I actually need a fucking tuner now!”

In fact, you should add a Stomp to that setup! @JiveTurkey' s patented Stomp In The Loop™ approach is super useful and sounds/feels great.

It would also be interesting to hear your take on L6 effects...

 

[GTR37]

For some reason, I was thinking about exactly this this morning. My guess is they would go with the same sized screen regardless, so they could get better price per volume on the part, and invest less in R&D for an OS and UI overhaul. Fewer switches/encoders, less I/O, and half the processing power (a la Stomp vs. Helix Floor) would seem likely, but...

Or they could buy that one new SHARC that fractal mentioned and have it be basically as powerful as a Helix floor with one path which would mean you probably would not have to worry about things blacked out and not able to be added
Basically stomp on steroids

 

[DrewJD82]

In fact, you should add a Stomp to that setup! @JiveTurkey' s patented Stomp In The Loop™ approach is super useful and sounds/feels great.

It would also be interesting to hear your take on L6 effects...

I almost pulled the trigger on the HX One about 5x last week and I know I’ll get one at some point, just not yet. For this rig I want it to be individual pedals that do one thing only, outside the Meris LVX that’s delay + crazy shit.

I used the M5 for years and would buy a couple more of those if I saw them cheap enough just to have kicking around, I can only imagine the One is a considerable upgrade.

 

[GTR37]

Here's a very crude mockup (good ol' MS Paint LOL) of where NDSP could take a "Dual Cortex" design without significantly impacting UI/UX. Move a hard power switch to the back, make the top right footswitches assignable to bank up/down vs. tempo/tuner per user preference, and make the top right encoder assignable to various global volumes similar to the QC "big knob" at top left. Take my money.

View attachment 18089

Take off the right side and make it 6 buttons

 

[TubeStack]

I almost pulled the trigger on the HX One about 5x last week and I know I’ll get one at some point, just not yet

Dude, me too! It would be a killer add-on to the QC and I keep flipping between getting one and not getting one. A QC + HX One and Dunlop 8 expression pedal on a Metro 20 board would be super slick and pretty much cover everything for me (other than not having amp models if the QC crashes, like the Stomp does).

It's just money I don't want to spend right now though, and add to that I already have a Stomp, seems kind of extravagant/unnecessary. (But when has that stopped anyone here... )

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Here's a very crude mockup (good ol' MS Paint LOL) of where NDSP could take a "Dual Cortex" design without significantly impacting UI/UX. Move a hard power switch to the back, make the top right footswitches assignable to bank up/down vs. tempo/tuner per user preference, and make the top right encoder assignable to various global volumes similar to the QC "big knob" at top left. Take my money.

View attachment 18089

The thing about a dual cortex that I don’t quite get is that, for me at least, the hardware is the main intriguing part of the Cortex. If we’ve learned one thing on forums, it’s that switches and I/O are where the cost savings are.

Nobody ever loved their Stomp because of how fun and easy it was to build/edit presets on.

 

[mbenigni]

Take off the right side and make it 6 buttons

I like that idea in terms of form factor (and I understand that the screen remains too small to correspond with 8 buttons; 6 buttons looks like a more natural fit.) But 6 encoders would change up presentation of parameters for most amp and effects blocks. Usability would be compromised, and OS/UI differentiation would greatly increase complexity from a software perspective.

If you're going to try to lop off a few buttons and make it smaller/ save on hardware costs, I'd sooner keep just A-H (8 buttons) and allow the user to reassign D, H (or anything else) to tuner/ tempo/ preset change, etc. according to their own needs.

 

[mbenigni]

In fact, you should add a Stomp to that setup! @JiveTurkey' s patented Stomp In The Loop™ approach is super useful and sounds/feels great.

It would also be interesting to hear your take on L6 effects...

@JiveTurkey can't use the Stomp in his loop as a tuner because his amp is Never Clean™.