GP-50 ordered.
Possibly *the* no-brainer of the year for me.
Seriously, this is checking sooo many boxes. Even given that it's not the lowest latency device (there's worse, though - and I will never nest this with other digital stuff anyway), also given that the FX aren't much to write home about (I really only need "servicable" delays and reverbs), the amount of goodies it has in it is almost staggering.
- Battery operation. Just great.
- Runs on USB bus power.
- Most well rounded audio connectivity options in this bracket *by far*. Heck, you can even record a DI track while monitoring through the onboard stuff. That's something pretty much no other cheaper devices allow for. And you can even record via BT - so in case you're jamming with the looper and have a great idea, just connect to your phone and record away (likely depending on the phone and mobile OS, though, but still...).
- Fantastic (!) control options. Regarding those, you can get vastly more out of this than with some *much* more expensive devices (programmable switches - AM4, can you hear me?).
This is actually what sealed the deal for me, as, once a dual external FS is connected, I will be able to dial in my most used 2x2 sounds, namely a clean(-ish) and a dirty one with lead variations each. These will take me through any gig, should anything ever happen to one of my main setups.
- Any kind of MIDI connectivity. Classic wired MIDI, BT MIDI, USB MIDI. Not sure whether I'll ever need it, but it's there.
- Best looper layout there is for a 2 switch looper (let's hope the switches for setting loop points are exact, but Valeton has some looper experience).
- Proper mobile editing app.
- In this price bracket, I haven't seen such a properly written manual from a chinese company ever before. Clear, concise, proper english, you can find every relevant information instantly. Shows that they really seem to care about the user experience.
Ok, I rather stop before I start sounding like a goddamn gearfluencer - but seriously, it's almost as if they've heard any single wish I may have had for such a kind of device (ok, it'd be killer if they had an autosave function, such as the Zoom stuff, but it's a minor thing).
Obviously, I have no idea how well I will get along with the sounds, but in case it's even remotely like the stuff I've heard from the GP-5 so far, that should be a non-issue. After all, this is meant to become a gigbag, jamming and backup unit, so I really don't need the toppermost of the poppermost in terms of sound quality.
Should be there in a week or so (will be sent to my parents-in-law, because that's were we will be over x-mas, so I might get it somewhat later).
