Are new amps really needed?

northern_fox said:
Do it all the time - but honestly 90% of it is ruined by ear fatigue after tweaking the same amp for 45 minutes and the end result usually isn't better than the original in my case. The hours of my life I've spent A/B/C/D comparing making things "better" only to realize a day later they all actually sound pretty bad compared to the first version I made :sweatsmile: The danger of tweaking is real
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Yeah I can see that. When I do it I try to keep to a specific property I'm trying to eliminate or enhance and always start from the closest, unchanged template.

The worst tweak hole I went down was trying to recreate the Deftones Adrenaline tone and to this day I still cant do it.
 
Romo82 said:
Yeah I can see that. When I do it I try to keep to a specific property I'm trying to eliminate or enhance and always start from the closest, unchanged template.

The worst tweak hole I went down was trying to recreate the Deftones Adrenaline tone and to this day I still cant do it.
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The noob mistake I finally stopped making (and why I think an amp matching guide would be helpful) - A/B every single parameter and decide which sounds better tweaked either way. Then move on to the next, and so on. Every time, it seems like you're doing better - until the end when you've managed to create some frankenstein of an amp that sounds so terrible that you immediately delete out of shame
 
northern_fox said:
Every time, it seems like you're doing better - until the end when you've managed to create some frankenstein of an amp that sounds so terrible that you immediately delete out of shame
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Sure is fun though! The best thing to do is probably, I guess try to set a goal, if you have some actual goal in mind, the end result will likely end up better.
 
Romo82 said:
Yeah I can see that. When I do it I try to keep to a specific property I'm trying to eliminate or enhance and always start from the closest, unchanged template.

The worst tweak hole I went down was trying to recreate the Deftones Adrenaline tone and to this day I still cant do it.
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Oof, yeah. I've given up on trying to replicate tones from albums, there's no practical way to know how much of it is the amp and how much is the production in 99% of cases. The one exception is Gojira albums- just take a 5150, put all the knobs at 5 and you're good to go :lol:
 
Romo82 said:
Doesn't anyone else "build" their own amps from the extensive number of models and massive adjustment parameters already available? Select the basic ballpark amp, change a tone stack here, a bias there, input/output tubes etc.
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Never built an amp in my life and have no idea how to do it, but played with Amp block parameters here and there and this is my take: the products by guys like Bruce Egnater and Cliff (FAS models in the Axe itself) are good for a very specific reason: their builders KNOW what to do. They might change one little thing for something to go from "great" to "OMG". It took them tens of years to get that understanding. I don't have it.

I can experiment all day long with extra parameters in Carol-Ann amps but as Alan said himself, and I honestly believe it is true: "don't try to "improve" the amp, it's good enough already". There is little to no chance I will come up with something amazing just by switching tonestacks and fiddling with Master Vol Cap parameters. This is not how amp building works. No way I will come up with his and Dr. Z's new model just by playing with Amp block. No way.

So yeah, once I see that our own Marco Sfogli becomes a user of Mezzabarra amps, I naturally want to try that one. Nothing wrong with that. Robben Ford uses Dumble, but I don't want Robben's tone, even if I love the sound of Dumbles and use it a lot. Once I see that Egnater released a new device, I want to hear and test it.
See where this is going? If you don't know EXACTLY which sound you need (not like! need - that's a totally different thing!), you have to try a lot.

The advise of "play with tonestacks to get the ballpark of that amp's tone" is great and valid, but not really accurate and in many cases not even helpful. There are reasons why some people are much better than everyone else when it comes to the amp building magic.
 
you can narrow down to 5-6 amps, 5-6 cabs and get all the core tones imaginable, existing out there…are all the existing amp models needed?
 
cole lewis said:
Yes, craving a model of an amp you don't even know the sound of. Total opposite of gear addiction.
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Every one of us is constantly trying to replicate tones that don't exist anywhere except in our own heads, be it that we've never actually heard them or that we heard them 1+ second ago and our memory of them is not a dependably objective reality already.
 
unFILTERed said:
are all the existing amp models needed?
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10 years after the first release of the first Fractal product we have SV20 added to the collection of 300 amps. Nothing new, nothing fancy - just a small 20w version of the 100w SLP. Who needs it, right? Same amp, same sound, smaller wattage. What's there you can't achieve with its big brother?
Well, you should read the comments for it if you didn't yet. People are absolutely in love with it. It is insanely good. Why? No idea.
So the short answer: yes, because you never know.
 
Of course we need new amps! We need new innovative tube amps that haven't even been designed and built yet. If for no other reason so that they can then be modeled. The real magic is in the original designs of tube amps in the first place!
 
I would love to see some really cool new amps that Cliff @FractalAudio could cook up. I know a few of the FAS amps are based on previous amps, but I would guess he has a few circuit designs in his head that would make most wonder how we haven't had these before. I mean the FAS Modern series is crazy good and better than a Mesa IMO!
 
Chromatizm said:
10 years after the first release of the first Fractal product we have SV20 added to the collection of 300 amps. Nothing new, nothing fancy - just a small 20w version of the 100w SLP. Who needs it, right? Same amp, same sound, smaller wattage. What's there you can't achieve with its big brother?
Well, you should read the comments for it if you didn't yet. People are absolutely in love with it. It is insanely good. Why? No idea.
So the short answer: yes, because you never know.
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Joe Bfstplk said:
By you? Apparently not.

But if everyone was just like you (or me, or, say, Mia Khalifa), the world would be a pretty boring place, wunnit?
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it was not ment seriously/the way you guys got it…I was trying to say if you think that way, if you ask that….you can think also this way and ask this.

And added my experience, thought on that matter. I think 5-6 amps, 5-6
cabs, with all the advanced parameters you can get all the tones out there.

Does it mean it should be reduced to 5-6 amps, all the rest is unnecessary…..ofcourse not.
 
Chromatizm said:
10 years after the first release of the first Fractal product we have SV20 added to the collection of 300 amps. Nothing new, nothing fancy - just a small 20w version of the 100w SLP. Who needs it, right? Same amp, same sound, smaller wattage. What's there you can't achieve with its big brother?
Well, you should read the comments for it if you didn't yet. People are absolutely in love with it. It is insanely good. Why? No idea.
So the short answer: yes, because you never know.
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Most likely it was something Fractal could add with fairly low effort. Most of the code is likely to be very much the same as other Marshall models. IMO it's just a worse version of the 50-100W models, just like the real thing.

I believe Cliff himself has said that if it was up to him, there would be nothing but custom FAS models in the box. But he knows that would not sell. Line6 guys have said the same thing.

I'm with them on this. I don't care what it models, as long as it sounds/feels like I prefer or I can shape it to do that. For me there's little appeal to having 300+ amp models. The appeal is that the amp modeling sounds really good.
 
laxu said:
I believe Cliff himself has said that if it was up to him, there would be nothing but custom FAS models in the box. But he knows that would not sell. Line6 guys have said the same thing.
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I love the Line6 Original amps they are great and 100% on Quality over quantity
 
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