(UPDATED for new FW!) EVH amp vs Axe Fx, QC and TMP...

[timbuck3]

Imagine your job is to defend decisions that are not your own, and that you have no say in.

govt workers come to mind

 

[Mongillo19]

Oh, Tim. Where's the FM9 at?

 

[ian_dissonance]

Might’ve got a little stoned and went down a rabbit hole looking for clips of this thing that sounded good after reading about how people “couldn’t find a tone” with other modelers that love this thing and now I think either I hate almost every guitar tone, or almost everyone that bought this thing is really just trying to convince themselves it’s better because it was $1800.

 

[OrganicZed]

@sashimi With regard to modeling accuracy. Can the Helix get this tone? This was recoded by @iaresee when Fractal released the Cygnus modeling update. I don't think I've ever heard another modeling platform recreate this type of splaty / blocking distortion in the way that real amps do.

 

[the-trooper]

With regard to modeling accuracy.

Without going into accuracy, this sounds absolutely horrible

 

[OrganicZed]

Without going into accuracy, this sounds absolutely horrible

It's a classic tone (made famous by Neil Young), but definitely not something that I'd want to run as my core sound or anything.

 

[gearJunkie]

recreate this type of splaty / blocking distortion in the way that real amps do.

I can appreciate a spitty fuzz pedal, but for me, amp generated blocking distortion just sounds like something is broken.

 

[ian_dissonance]

Lol
Maybe this is not the same but I went down the rabbit hole with youtube clips for both the tmp and fractal, I wanted to see how they stack up against helix, and it’s like the only people bitching about modeler tone and accuracy are playing drop d butt chug triple rectum fryer riffs. Arguing about nuances of trash can tone (sorry guys I get the impression this is a kind of metal oriented forum, no offense intended). So I just try to ignore the modeling accuracy complaints for the most part. I just want a nice cleanish sound with some drippy reverb and tape delay, that I can throw a fuzz pedal in front of from time to time. Maybe that’s why Im perfectly happy with helix.

I’m happy with Helix as well, and I am mostly a high gain guy. I think it all come down to what you listen for. I can hear lots of differences in heavy distortion tones, but outside of edge-of-breakup, a clean tone is a clean tone to me. Pickups and playing dynamics are more important for clean tones for me than if it sounds like x amp.

 

[iaresee]

Don't drag me in to your Helix/Fractal debates.

 

[OrganicZed]

Where is the debate? This is a friendly discussion.

I think the Helix gets some great sounds and is a cool device. I have no hands on experience with that platform and wanted to know if the Helix could accurately recreate that type of breakup. If the answer is yes, then cool. If not, then I have helped identify a point on which one could compare the accuracy of the two platforms outside the context of "drop d butt chug triple rectum fryer riffs."

 

[DrewJD82]

I play drop C butt chugg Mark IIC++ riffs, thank you very much!

 

[MirrorProfiles]

A good modeller will do any genre of sounds accurately, kind of the point and the benchmark everyone’s been aiming for for like 20 years. TMP has an Uberschall, EVH, Recto and IIC+ for a reason

 

[JT]

 

[Lysander]

Might’ve got a little stoned and went down a rabbit hole looking for clips of this thing that sounded good after reading about how people “couldn’t find a tone” with other modelers that love this thing and now I think either I hate almost every guitar tone, or almost everyone that bought this thing is really just trying to convince themselves it’s better because it was $1800.

To be fair, every single Fender tone i heard from the TMP sounded *great* - on par with, if not better, than other leading platforms. If all i ever wanted were those, it'd be high on my list.

 

[JT]

60CycleHum-gate

 

[Orvillain]

Imagine your job is to defend decisions that are not your own, and that you have no say in.

I don't have to imagine it!

 

[Sascha Franck]

Why don't modeler manufacturers just make their own professional A/B YouTube videos comparing the modeled amp and the modeler and post them officially.

Because they'd do these in their favour. You'd only ever hear the tones the device is able to reproduce while those it can't cover would be left out.

 

[Sascha Franck]

The other thing that I don’t get is how things like this don’t get flagged in testing.

Don't get it, either. But it's happening all the time.

I've been involved in several betatests over the last decades - and releasing unfinished products seems to have become something pretty common when the product was software driven and could be updated (it's even worse with pure software products).
At least rather often, once a product gets closer to release, testers are being asked whether there's showstoppers left, both obvious and hidden ones. At that point in time there shouldn't be any obvious ones anymore, yet, some will often still slip through. But there shouldn't be any hidden ones anymore, either (the TBP ones might qualify as such). And those are actively allowed to slip through all the time, at least given my experiences as a tester and a user.

There's some reasons why this could happen, corporate greed (as the-trooper already mentioned) certainly being a major one. But sometimes companies just have less than qualified betatesters, such as folks being way up the arse of the company because they feel so special being testers (betatesting fanbois are the worst that could happen to you as a company, but for obvious reasons companies still love them), such as folks not really having a clue (often true for celebrity testers), such as badly coordinated tests and what not. I've seen all of this happening more than once (and sometimes all of it together). It's really making you wonder, because in the end it's absolutely stupid - but it still seems to happen again and again.

 

[Sascha Franck]

@sashimi With regard to modeling accuracy. Can the Helix get this tone? This was recoded by @iaresee when Fractal released the Cygnus modeling update. I don't think I've ever heard another modeling platform recreate this type of splaty / blocking distortion in the way that real amps do.

These kinda tones have been dragging me towards Fractal again and again. And I actually don't think the HX modeling could get this done. That kinda "ouch, poor amp is *this* close to dying", in fact quite reminding me to some Neil Young sounds (that you've mentioned as well).

Without going into accuracy, this sounds absolutely horrible

I'm sure it does in case you're into polished low-tunage-chugga-chugga.

 

[Sascha Franck]

but for me, amp generated blocking distortion just sounds like something is broken.

And that's the entire point of it. Amps *this* short before giving up have a very special character. And lots of it. No need to like it, but there's certainly something to it.