Axe fx II is out

[MDV]

I see what you mean. It echoes another of my major complaints with impulses: 3 positions? $%&# off. Mic placement is an art in and of itself, and though the boundaries are finite, the variability is infinite. 5mm and 15 degrees away from your current, poor sounding placement could well be a kickarse placement. I can get an OK placement in 5 minutes, but I can also quite cheerfully spend hours refining a mic placement. Moreso when there two or more involved (phase, bitches! It can make or break you; kills noobs on contact; invaluable tool if you know what youre doing).

It all hinges on the ways it can recieve and relay a signal. If it can take a line in and send a line out (and why the $%&# wouldnt it? If it doesnt, thats a serious oversight) then you should be able to profile any pre, and then run it into any power amp, cab, speaker, mic etc etc etc. Power amp is another matter, since no matter how you capture the power amp (if its got a line in that it can profile from then you should be able to) youre still going to have to run it into another power amp after that: there are many obvious issues with this.

The other obvious thing to do is profile an amp through multiple cabs/speakers/mics/rooms if possible, etc etc. That is a potentially infinite job, even for one amp, so you'd have to pick some favourites.

Its pretty clear that theres a lot of possible homogeneity similar to the modeller+impulse homogeneity that we currently hear possible with this, but the usergroups would likely see to it that there are dozens of profiles, hundreds even, for dozens of amps. Its a far more flexible system than model+impulse.

It also pretty much cures the non-reproducability of an amped sound that I was on about before. You can capture the amp, settings, mic and location and use it again at another time. A 'save as' button for mic placements! That alone is very valuable (to me at least).

I need to find out more about it (like if it can profile a pre alone) but if the price isnt too extortionate, I may well buy one. It looks very promising indeed.

[JDC]

You cant get programable mic placements. Thats the hardest part.

Can ;)

Rammstein guitar bloke made a mic placement robot arm thing so he could save positions as presets, it's on youtube somewhere

[JacksonRR]

You know those Germans. They make good stuff.

[Kiichi]

You know those Germans. They make good stuff.

Thanks man, we don´t get many compliments since the 1930s^^

I need to build me one of those robot things too...where´s the nearest university?

[Johnny Mac]

I'm a big fan of German products. Native instruments Komplete 6 is out of this world used with Kore2 and Terratec's Axon midi guitar controller. You forget to eat it's that good.

This profile amp is a great idea and those vids were very convincing. Like Mark says done in the right environment it should slay an Axe FX and they're still bloody good.
I could make profiles of my Koch and flog them on he internet. Oh dear..... No seriously that thing is a dream machine.
See how digital is catching up. I still love tubes amps, we all do but this is closing the gap. That's got to be good for us, right?
I remember in the mid 90s when I was trying to make a living as a photographer. Digital SLR bodies were 10 grand and 1 mega pixel. Everyone scoffed as the quality was shitee. Now look at them. It nearly put Kodak out of business. So the amp sim products will get better and cheaper. Watch out Marshall don't get left behind like the British Motorcycle industry by your own complacency. Let's hope Dolph still has customers in the future too, for more huge Koch products.

[MDV]

Some interesting discussion of the kemper here:

http://forum.fractalaudio.com/lounge/31504-kemper-profiling-amplifier-next-axe-fx-style-modeler.html

Along with a healthy dose of butthurt, lots of fanboyism and suspicion. Cliff of FA interjects with some interesting comments here and there; while hes a bit of a belligerant tosser, he does clearly know his stuff (I 'meh' at the axe because its redundant and uninteresting to me, and it still has 'modeller' sound; that said, it is quite clearly the best modeller out there, with which good sounds are possible) and his comments are worth reading (like his guess, based on how he surmises the kemper works, that the demos will be of a fender and recto type amp (albiet after said demos are already out there; he seems to be a git, but not dishonest; he probably didnt know they were on the net already) because using those would hide limitations of its profiling ability.

I'm, still interested in this, but I'm gonna wait till theres much more material from it out there, especially with a wide variety of amps. I want to hear comparisons between the kemper after increases in gain, volume (sag/whatever) and EQ changes Vs the amp after similar changes have been made, especially.

Yeah, johnny; the day that a modeller does what the real thing does, just as well, I'll buy it without any compunction. Why wouldnt you? I'm not $%&#ing married to valves or anything; they just satisfy me the most at the moment :D But that day is not today. Modelling is getting better, but its still a blow up doll.

Well, it used to be a blow up doll. Now its more like a cloned body that died, was reanimated and is controlled by $%&#ing software written by a pornstar. Progress! But not the real thing.

[Kiichi]

Well, it used to be a blow up doll. Now its more like a cloned body that died, was reanimated and is controlled by $%&#ing software written by a pornstar. Progress! But not the real thing.

You are a strange, strange man....

The way I see it valve amps v. modellers will come down to a similar situation like we have with wristw@tches now. There is room for both digital displays and the old fashioned analog arm. You know what I mean, right?

[MDV]

Not really. When modellers are indistiguishable from valve amps in sound and feel, valves amps will be genuinely obsolete. They'll be collectors items at most.

These are just the facts.

A lot of people are getting to prefer modelled sounds already, as it happens. I've had people ask me for tones that are obviously pod/podfarm/axe created, and they prefer them to real amp sounds.

Edit: they didnt get it though. They ended up being happy with the proper amp tones.

[Afghan Dave]

Well, it used to be a blow up doll. Now its more like a cloned body that died, was reanimated and is controlled by $%&#ing software written by a pornstar. Progress! But not the real thing.

Woww....

Well, if I could buy that I would quit playing the f**king guitar and devote all my spare time to something I'd really enjoy....

[JacksonRR]

Jesus Christ, MDV. That was too long to read through. 17 pages in, the conversation boiled down to: someone calling Cliff out for his "predictions" of the demos that have been out for months, everyone saying they have no idea what it's really doing and dog farts. I made the choice to stop at the whole page about farts.  :roll: Still keeping an eye on the Kemper, especially since a rack unit will be made and hopefully cheaper and better looking.

[MDV]

You probably got the jist of it from that. The main and most valid point in there is that its a 'snapshot' of the amps behaviour on given settings; it does model how changes would alter the behaviour. I believe kemper said as much in the namm vid too (eq changes wont be the same as in the amp, specifically).

I went through it right to the lock :lol: it devolved into an argument about assessment of the accuracy of models between one of the members and a mod.

[Johnny Mac]

Nice analogy Mark!  :lol: I think I'd still play the guitar Dave, just at the same time as getting.....enough already.  :lol:

So this Kemper amp. Did he put some kind of signal though the amp which made that weird sound and that was enough for this thing to clone the entire Fender amp?

[Johnny Mac]

Anyone getting Kemper GAS?

[JacksonRR]

So this Kemper amp. Did he put some kind of signal though the amp which made that weird sound and that was enough for this thing to clone the entire Fender amp?

Basically. It sends a known set of frequencies at known volumes through the amplifier, analyzes the difference in EQ, volume dynamics(how much compression is applied) and harmonic structure for those frequencies at those volumes, and applies that to it's parameters and then allows you to make some remarkable changes. That's how it seems, anyways.

[Johnny Mac]

So this Kemper amp. Did he put some kind of signal though the amp which made that weird sound and that was enough for this thing to clone the entire Fender amp?

Basically. It sends a known set of frequencies at known volumes through the amplifier, analyzes the difference in EQ, volume dynamics(how much compression is applied) and harmonic structure for those frequencies at those volumes, and applies that to it's parameters and then allows you to make some remarkable changes. That's how it seems, anyways.

It's a very clever idea. I hope its as good as these you tube vids.