What does your modeller do that your "real" rig can't do?

[2112]

What features of digital modellers do you enjoy that go beyond the capabilities of a traditional amp & pedal rig? Having accurate amp models and a vast library of effects are the primary focus for most players, but digital rigs have the capability to go far beyond what a traditional rig is capable of achieving.

Here's some of my favourites.

Fractal
- Modifiers system, particularly the pitch follower. Change gain, delay & reverb mix based on the notes you're playing!
- The grid essentially lets you create custom effects by combining blocks in parallel paths and freely routing them.
- Advanced amp parameters to perform virtual mods to exisiting models.

Helix Stadium
- Hype Control to morph between "authentic" amp response and "idealised" amp response.
- XY and focus modes turn the touch screen into a real time controller.
- Command center and the ability to easily make effect footswitches momentary/latching.

Quad Cortex
- Capturing complete signal chains or capturing audio devices that aren't amps or pedals, such as preamps, channel strips or plugins.
- Ability to set your favourite parameters as the default when loading a block.

KEMPER
- Rig morphing.

BOSS
- Real time expression control of parameters. This has become a standard feature for modellers but it's at least worth pointing out this was a key feature of what is arguably THE first digital modeller, the GP-100.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

- Sounds the same day to day

- have the ability to store presets, instantly change between them.

- you can instantly change gear combinations like cabs, speakers, mics without needing to adjust a single cable or powering anything down

- potential to mod and tweak circuits in realtime without putting 500V DC through the ticker

- convenience of size/space/cost/volume. Access to libraries of rare and expensive amps

- ability to be controlled remotely

- they invoke the most boring discussions on latency and aliasing

 

[Piing]

My neighbors not calling the cops

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

More simple for me:

(1). Headroom is volume independent. Most obvious benefit is being able to play cranked amps at lower volumes, but I also find benefit on the other end -- a real Princeton Reverb with Pedals is a kinda hard rig to run unless you can run the amp at same volume setting any every playing situation. Pedals behave significantly differently at every volume knob setting on that amp.

(2). Cost. Princeton Reverb Reissue + a boost pedal + delay pedal = $1900ish feels like a very budget amp setup. FM3 ($1200) + PS170 ($400) + 1x12 cab ($400) = $2k and feels like a very extravagant digital setup.

 

[laxu]

Comparing just Fractal AM4 vs Mesa Mark V 90:

Fractal Pros:

• Near-infinite permutations of channel 3 settings instead of "pick one".
• Ability to instantly switch between tons of settings rather than having to tweak a lot of knobs to go from e.g MKIV mode to Extreme.
• Multiple instances of Graphic EQ instead of 1 + preset EQ.
• Tweaking the knobs on the fly based on what notes I play (Pitch follower) or how hard I play (Envelope follower).
• Ability to swap tubes with the press of a button, even if soundwise it's really fine-tuning.
• All the other amp models plus effects.

Fractal cons:

• 45W and 10W single ended modes are not modeled, and afaik there is no real good way to emulate these via other settings either.
• Channel 1 modes are not modeled. The Tweed mode especially is missed.
• Channel 2 is not modeled at all. While you can cover it with other models...it still sucks that it's incomplete.
• Channel 3 triode/pentode mode is not modeled. It changes the voicing in a significant way and IMO there's no "this is the better setting" position.
• Adjusting settings is not just "grab a knob or slider", but involves a bit of menuing. But at least there's no need to reach behind the amp to adjust reverb!
• "What are you using to amplify it" is always a concern. My Fryette Power Station or BluGuitar Amp 1 ME as poweramps are good, but don't feel exactly like the Mark V going direct into a cab.

 

[laxu]

Overall features on modelers that are expensive or complicated to do with pedals and real amps:

• Fractal's pitch/envelope followers to alter parameters. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a pedal that does this for e.g MIDI control?
• Expression pedal control is much easier to set up.
• Scenes. While this can be done with MIDI or loop switchers, it's still more complicated.
• Parallel routing. This gets complicated on pedalboards real quick, needing mixer pedals and whatnot.
• Amp switching. Doing this with real amps is expensive, while it's a press of a button on modelers.
• Amp and effects mods without warming up the soldering iron.
• Volume and overdrive are not tied together. While volume still matters for how you perceive the sound, at least you can crank that virtual Plexi without blowing off the roof.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Axe Fx III:

Ease-of-use
Headphones
Has effects I don't own
Can be used as an interface when I want to use my NDSP JP plugin
I can use the money saved not buying amps & effects to buy more guitars!
Oh, and the built-in metronome is nice too.

 

[saarangnarayan]

Kills my GAS for almost everything except new guitars.

 

[Gary_W]

I have a Stadium, need to sell my Kemper, have had other modellers and amps in the past. I’ll keep this generic as it applies to all modellers.

1. Ability to get cranked amp tones without upsetting the cat.
2. Space - my little home brew studio space (such as it is) is tiny. I don’t have room for multiple amps which, because it’s a tiny space, sound pretty bad in there.
3. Variety.
4. Ease of recording without buggering about with microphones in a space I haven’t got.
5. Presets (mine or someone else’s) - I like playing all kinds of stuff and being able to cover all the bases with minimal effort is great. With this goes consistency - I can return to ‘that tone’ really easily.

There’s more but that’s what I can think of right now.

 

[holoholo]

This feature is understated but valuable: being able to send different volumes to foh and to your monitor.

 

[Orvillain]

I've probably said this before, but I genuinely trapped myself in the Helix eco-system for about 10 years as an effects platform, because of various things that it does very well.

Snapshots; being able to control effect selection, effect parameters, and my guitar amp all at the same time, made playing shows an absolute breeze. Often times it felt TOO EASY to get from one sound to another.

This was great, but it did also mean I inadvertently started to lose "my sound" a bit, as I started bringing in all these pitch effects and glitchy tremolos and things like that.

Doing the above in a more traditional pedals rig involves a lot of cables, a lot of midi PC and CC programming, some kind of loop switcher, some kind of midi controller, and then having to manage all of that. Making changes on the fly becomes a lot harder, depending on the gear you choose. I genuinely don't think there's anything else out there that comes close to the experience of using Helix (or now Stadium) for an effects-only platform. Even Fractal is not quite as good.

Parallel effects routing is so much easier in the digital world too.

Being able to assign an expression pedal to the amp controls can be so powerful as well. You get a totally different experience, versus just putting a volume pedal in front of the amp, or a boost in the loop.

 

[laxu]

I genuinely don't think there's anything else out there that comes close to the experience of using Helix (or now Stadium) for an effects-only platform. Even Fractal is not quite as good.

What do you feel Helix does better than Fractal in this scenario?

 

[Orvillain]

What do you feel Helix does better than Fractal in this scenario?

A lot of it really comes down to one particular part of the Helix workflow - select snapshot. Go to parameter. Push in knob and move it. Assigns THAT parameter with THAT value to the snapshot. It is so easy.

Fractal?? You have to use the scene controllers. In software, this involves jumping around multiple panels to set values and mappings. On hardware, it is even more obtuse.

I could dig into it even more, but it really comes down to the same old thing - Fractal... super powerful.... but kinda poopy to use.

 

[DISTORT6]

I can bring ALL of my amps everywhere I go.

 

[Chocol8]

I don't do a lot of crazy effects shit, so the features that really matter to me when I am choosing digital are the same old classic reasons...size, weight, and headphones.

Otherwise, I keep gravitating towards tube amps and mostly analog pedals, with reamping or attenuators to control volume.

 

[ian_dissonance]

I don’t even have a “real rig” anymore, but dynamic modifiers, switching like 8 things on and off momentarily, multiple expression effects with a single pedal, fit in a small bag, weigh 7lbs, the ability to change up my core amp tones if I feel like it without changing any hardware, run off a portable charger, save presets for every effect that I can change across patches just by editing in one place. Some of those things can be done in hardware but you’d need so many extra gizmos or expensive specialized pedals that it would astronomically more expensive to put it all together.

 

[laxu]

A lot of it really comes down to one particular part of the Helix workflow - select snapshot. Go to parameter. Push in knob and move it. Assigns THAT parameter with THAT value to the snapshot. It is so easy.

Yeah that is a great feature.

Fractal scene controllers are a very overcomplicated solution and the way they don't show the actual values of the attached parameters makes them awful to work with.

From Fractal modifier system I only use the envelope and pitch followers because they are more sensible to configure.

 

[Stone]

Don't own any amps , for my Use the Fractal FM9 does everything i need or want.

 

[metropolis_4]

I don’t have a modeler anymore, but when I did:

• Real time amp tweaks, like I preferred my Mark amps with 6V6’s for clean and low gain and EL34’s for crunch and high gain. So the Fractal Amp block could become a 4 channel Mark where each channel can be my favorite mode and have its own EQ and power section.
• The ability to tweak every parameter at will. For example I can have a footswitch turn the gain knob on my TS808 while it’s also turning on a delay, turning up the mids knob on the amp, and turning down the reverb.

I’m sure I could think of more, but those are the first two that jump out to me.

Most of the things technically could be done with “real” gear, it would just take a lot more of it and be really complex. I mean, I could put 4 Mark tube amp heads in a rack and set up a MIDI switcher between them to do my first point.

 

[jay mitchell]

I can use the exact same rig with my Strat or one of my archtops and get all the sounds I want - convincingly - with purpose-built presets, and I can produce these sounds at any volume level that is called for. I no longer gig, but I did so successfully with a modeler-based rig for a number of years.

An amp-based rig would require many on-the-fly changes to accommodate all the sounds I use and lacks the ability to perfectly recover a given set of amp and effects settings that a modeler provides. None of the signal paths I use in a modeler are even achievable with a physical amp.

FWIW, I've never needed the virtual parameter controls in a modeler to match anything physical. As long as the required range of adjustment is there and the parameters I wish to control are exposed, I can use my ears and my dialing skills to achieve the desired result.