What happened to that "home made" modeler?

[Boudoir Guitar]

Oh god that f****ing thread. I distinctly remember watching it happen in real time; that was the beginning of my (current) disgust with TGP in general.

I understand the Siva is a bit rough around the edges, but i wonder if any of those morons stopped to watch this:



To recap, this an end-to-end SPICE modelling unit - the only one i'm aware of besides Fractal products. With Wi-Fi audio inputs. USB recording output. Free-form signal paths. A shitton of cabs, effects and models. A single control UX which honestly looks better than some units i've seen people raving about in forums... and it was all put together by a single guy?

My professional background is electronics and software engineering, and i tell you, i was just floored when i saw that video.

I do have to admit, though, the guitar tuning was REALLY hard to get past in that video.

 

[Gearzilla]

I don't remember, nor am I going to watch/listen to any clips re: sound. That was the only real standard I was going to hold it up to -- my recollection was a bunch of "holy shit, look at that awful UI!!!" when, in all honesty, its a pretty solid UI for a dude making shit in his garage. Whether I'd buy it or not was kinda irrelevant from a curiosity perspective.

All I’m saying is if someone is going to spend all day in the kitchen preparing a nice meal don’t serve it up on a turd.

 

[Bob Zaod]

I honestly thought it became the St. Rock Amperium

 

[Bob Zaod]

In all honesty I could prolly build one with a Raspberry PI4 but I dont have the patience.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

All I’m saying is if someone is going to spend all day in the kitchen preparing a nice meal don’t serve it up on a turd.

I can certainly appreciate that perspective!

 

[Foxmeister]

I've no idea how many he's sold, but Smoothhound was at the London Guitar Show last month with the SIVA.

 

[the-trooper]

I've no idea how many he's sold, but Smoothhound was at the London Guitar Show last month with the SIVA.

That's pretty awesome.

 

[Sascha Franck]

To recap, this an end-to-end SPICE modelling unit - the only one i'm aware of besides Fractal products. With Wi-Fi audio inputs. USB recording output. Free-form signal paths. A shitton of cabs, effects and models. A single control UX which honestly looks better than some units i've seen people raving about in forums... and it was all put together by a single guy?

That's all great (and I really mean it). I remember being impressed myself by all that back then.
Yet, doesn't help at all with the one-knob-only affair. The guy should've teamed up with a UI designer as good as he is as a technician. They'd possibly have a winner in their hands. But the guy apparently ignored anything regarding that.

 

[mbenigni]

That's all great (and I really mean it). I remember being impressed myself by all that back then.
Yet, doesn't help at all with the one-knob-only affair. The guy should've teamed up with a UI designer as good as he is as a technician. They'd possibly have a winner in their hands. But the guy apparently ignored anything regarding that.

The really weird thing was the way he defended his massively complex multieffects processor with one knob as a matter of personal preference, even when I softballed the inquiry as “possibly cost savings or just not an early priority?” At that point my eyes rolled hard enough to eject me right out of the thread.

I’ve only skimmed through the first few pages of that thread (mainly to see whether I was one of the “dicks”), and honestly, it didn’t seem all that rough. We are frequently harder on one another, for no particular reason.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

The really weird thing was the way he defended “massively complex multieffects processor with one knob” as a matter of personal preference, even when I softballed the inquiry as “possibly cost savings or just not an early priority?” At that point my eyes rolled hard enough to eject me right out of the thread.

I’ve only skimmed through the first few pages of that thread (mainly to see whether I was one of the “dicks”, and honestly, it didn’t seem all that rough. We are frequently harder on one another, for no particular reason.

Yeah, I confessed to being a dick before reviewing the evidence myself. While presuming I was a dick is usually the best roll of the dice, I don’t think it really panned out in that thread. There was definitely some give and take going on even amongst the worst offenders in that thread.

 

[laxu]

I had to look what I posted and stand by those words. It was not ready to be a commercial product.

 

[DrewJD82]

My thoughts on all that pertain more to a single guy taking on a pretty monumental task rather than the actual device itself. I can totally side with railing against Fender or a bigger company for an amateur-ish launch, but that thread was a bit tough to read considering it was an actual amateur launch.

That’s the exact area where I think it’s far better for all involved to show some positive support than beat the guy down into believing his efforts are futile. At one point, Cliff was just a single guy building something he believed in and I saw the hurdles he faced early on, which mainly in the digital vs analog discussions more so than, “There’s already stuff out there that’s better”

Edit- All that said, tune your fucking guitar if you’re going to demo ANYTHING.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I wonder if you can engage the loop via expression pedal?

 

[Gearzilla]

My thoughts on all that pertain more to a single guy taking on a pretty monumental task rather than the actual device itself. I can totally side with railing against Fender or a bigger company for an amateur-ish launch, but that thread was a bit tough to read considering it was an actual amateur launch.

That’s the exact area where I think it’s far better for all involved to show some positive support than beat the guy down into believing his efforts are futile. At one point, Cliff was just a single guy building something he believed in and I saw the hurdles he faced early on, which mainly in the digital vs analog discussions more so than, “There’s already stuff out there that’s better”

Edit- All that said, tune your fucking guitar if you’re going to demo ANYTHING.

The only relevant aspect for the product in that thread—beside the poor promotional material—was the guy let his ego get in the way of constructive criticism at the time. Though to his credit in the future he did eventually implement some of the feedback.

 

[Baba]

Lol, I was pretty much done going to TGP on the daily, so I completely missed that thing/thread.

Definitely could have benefited from a GUI designer/upgrade, but what he did was pretty damn impressive.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I wonder if you can engage the loop via expression pedal?

I'm sure you can. But before you will have to hop over to a utility menu and look for that Boss-alike modulation matrix that you will now have to navigate through with one clickknob only. But that's an evening well spent.

 

[621]

I respect the builder, but it's too expensive for only having this amp available, and most importantly, the sound and UI. At this price point, it should be better than nux, ampero etc.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Just looked it up. More expensive than a Helix LT (+£110), no wireless fun either, as the transmitter is out of stock. But hey, there's more expensive zen meditation courses - and operating a modeler with that kinda UI certainly yields similar results.

 

[mbenigni]

My thoughts on all that pertain more to a single guy taking on a pretty monumental task rather than the actual device itself. I can totally side with railing against Fender or a bigger company for an amateur-ish launch, but that thread was a bit tough to read considering it was an actual amateur launch.

That’s the exact area where I think it’s far better for all involved to show some positive support than beat the guy down into believing his efforts are futile. At one point, Cliff was just a single guy building something he believed in and I saw the hurdles he faced early on, which mainly in the digital vs analog discussions more so than, “There’s already stuff out there that’s better”

Edit- All that said, tune your fucking guitar if you’re going to demo ANYTHING.

Yeah, I certainly didn't mean to diminish the guy's efforts then; nor would I now. Nor do I think it's particularly relevant to discuss whether it beats product x from competitors y at price z. If nothing else, you have to consider the massive differences in economies of scale.

Still, he himself wasn't being sufficiently realistic about the fact that it was an amateur launch with room for improvement. (Re: some of the lower-hanging fruit, oddly enough. E.g. slap a couple more encoders on top and map them to amp/FX parameters.) That's what will make his efforts futile, if anything will.

 

[Gearzilla]

If nothing else, you have to consider the massive differences in economies of scale.

When’s the last time you considered that when buying an electronics device?