So, I would like to gather some opinions and informations, do a bit of brainstorming and maybe collect some ideas for future reference.
The reason I am now thinking about such a setup again (I've been there already and even used a laptop based kinda hybrid rig for two musical productions way back already) is that, as I got my Tonex One pedals, I fooled around a lot more with guitar amp (and related) plugins than usually. I'm also trying to sort out some of that large pile of plugin mess, so I tested quite some on guitars along the way.
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Possibly the most important observation: Regarding core guitar tones, what I have available within my DAW is *much* more than sufficient for absolutely all use cases I could ever imagine. There's absolutely no need to wait for whatever company to release a new line of modeling hardware just because of the core tones. The combination of things such as NAM, Tonex, HX Native, Amplitube and what have you allows me to dial in the most fantastic tones already.
The best thing being that, as I own both Helix and Tonex hardware, I have alread put the most of these core sounds through some live paces, and they stood up so well that there's absolutely nothing missing for me.
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Next: Unlike with hardware, I don't have to wait for any hardware company to perhaps come up with some features or tonal options I'd like to have in my daily arsenal.
It's all there already, really. Here's a few examples:
- If you have read some of my posts regarding amp modeling hardware, you will know how much I would love something like a global block functionality implemented. But so far, nobody but Boss and FAS is offering this - and both have some serious shortcomings. With a computer based setup, this could be realised, even sort of easily (both Mainstage and Gig Performer, which would be the two main contenders as live hosts for me, allow for such a setup).
- In general, I would love to have my live rig to work every bit as a loop/MIDI switcher controlled hybrd rig. These have always delivered the best happy medium between quick access/tweakability while still offering more or less complexed patch switches without tap dancing. No current hardware modeler allows me to set up anything like that on the same level even as even my lowlier hybrid setups. A computer based setup would however deliver that, pretty much ins spades even.
- I just happen to like quite some FX that simply aren't there in the hardware modeling world, unless I'd combine several units, spend a lot of money and have a lot of configuration tinkering to do.
Nifty filters (such as the most excellent free Two Filters plugin), incredible delays (such as UVI's Relayer), fantastic reverbs (such as NI's Raum or any IR-based reverb), incredible phasers, granular pitch madness, wicked step filters (such as to be found in U-He's most incredible Uhbik series), it's all there already. And I can add anything at any time.
- Even guitar-to-MIDI would be possible without any dedicated hardware. I don't exactly need that, but you never know...
- If I wanted to come up with some advanced live looping, that'd be zero issues, even Ableton Live Lite allows for more than each and every hardware based solution out there already.
There'd possibly be way more examples, but I'll leave it at that for now.
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Another important observation: Apart from Jam Origin's MIDI guitar (which I have no real need for) and a live host (easily sorted by purchasing Mainstage for a mere €35), I own all of that stuff (and then some, in fact quite some...) already.
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That should be it for the opening post, will get into my hardware considerations next...
. Assuming you're serious: scribble strips, tuner, auto-engage, LED colors, mini display, update on preset load, tap tempo, control over the inevitable functions that don't have midi support, response curves, hold functions, etc. The list of things that are impossible or difficult with midi is pretty long. Maybe you don't need any of those features or you're comfortable with the work it takes to get them with a midi controller, in which case you'll be fine, but my point is: using midi instead of a dedicated foot controller means giving up quite a bit. I would even say that's the most significant downside of a computer-based rig.
