Hi folks!
TL/DR is at the bottom if you want to skip the prose.
I'm a hobby musician like most of us, I think. I'm not in studios and I also don't play big arenas. If you play at home and in rehearsals and small to mid sized gigs, rock to metal, then you might be in a similar situation as me and this review might be helpful.
Like probably many of you I started my gear-journey without any clue what I actually wanted.
My long time friend and guitar teacher is absolutely anti-modelling so naturally I wasn't looking into it
at the beginning.
That was pretty much until someone told me of the mysterious "Axe-Fx Ultra". I looked into it and
was fascinated by the videos of Ketil Strand. But moneywise these units were WAY out of my league.
My first modeller was a Pod X3 Pro and I had a great time with this unit. Especially because it enabled me
to try out what all the "wet/dry/wet" fuss was all about.
The next modeller that really caught my attention was the Kemper. The concept still sounds absolutely amazing to me.
Unfortunatelly if I'm honest even though I really wanted it to do the thing, I never really got there.
And after many considerations I decided to go the exact opposite way and invested into a traditional rig.
This thing is a beast and even though it's far from perfect (amateur wiring on my part) I can get about 90% of all sound combinations I
need. It tickles my gear nerdiness with a Wet/Dry setup, all sorts of interessting routing and all sorts of knobs to turn.
But most important of all, there it was, THAT sound. That creamy, midrangy, sometimes a bit dirty but lovely tube tone.
So... case closed?
Not quite because of a lot of very obvious problems.
1. I tried to fit as much flexibility as I could into a rig that's as small as possible. But even then it's quite a bit of Equipment. And even though I prepared it
to be as convenient as possible to set up it's still a lot of cabeling. Which leads to
2. So many points where things can go wrong. Due to Covid I only had the chance to play this rig in rehearsals and it is SO FRICKING FUN. But I already
dread going live with it. Since it's all interconected it's not like taking one pedal from the pedalboard and go on with it.
If for example the ENGL would go on strike for whatever reason the whole thing would colapse, since it is all based around the engl sound.
So from the moment this thing was complete I was thinking about some sort of spare and or replacement solution. Something that could take its place and make a decent job.
Easy to setup, lightweight but most importantly, again, it had to sound at least good.
As I said with the Kemper I never got there and with the Helix LT that I was fortunate to shoot at a decent price at some point I couldn't get there either.
Here is what I honestly think about modelling and comparing helix to kemper to axe to whatever:
If you are at pro touring level it really doesn't matter. Because the environment in which these devices are being used is able to make it sound great no matter
which of the units is being used. I think they are all reliable and I think they are all great. I could maybe see someone on a pro level NOT choosing an Axe-Fx because on tour even the most solid things break and usually they do at the worst time and in the most remote corner of the world. But there's still a probability of a musicstore in a reachable distance that either has a Kemper or a Helix or now a QC. But that's just speculation and opinion of course.
At my level there are BIG differences. Not even necesseraly in sound quality but more so in what each unit offers to get me to the point I want to be.
Overall I think I'm a simple guy when it comes to sound. I want a decent amp as a basis and then a few effects to enrich it. But the start is always the simple amp sound.
If I have to use tons of EQs and compressors and whatnot to even get close to the sound I get from an amp with all the knobs at 12 o'clock then I think the unit is not the right one for me
even if it sounds good enough in the end. And it's not that I don't like tweaking but in my opinion modellers promise to deliver that basic sound without a hastle and then give you the opportunity to build on top. That's why I think it is fair to expect any modeller to sound good without using any effects.
So now I'm trying the FM3. I think I can honestly say that I'm not attached to any unit. The one that gets the job done for me
is the one I'll use. If that had been the Helix I wouldn't be here writing this review.
(Split because its too long :-D)
TL/DR is at the bottom if you want to skip the prose.
I'm a hobby musician like most of us, I think. I'm not in studios and I also don't play big arenas. If you play at home and in rehearsals and small to mid sized gigs, rock to metal, then you might be in a similar situation as me and this review might be helpful.
Like probably many of you I started my gear-journey without any clue what I actually wanted.
My long time friend and guitar teacher is absolutely anti-modelling so naturally I wasn't looking into it
at the beginning.
That was pretty much until someone told me of the mysterious "Axe-Fx Ultra". I looked into it and
was fascinated by the videos of Ketil Strand. But moneywise these units were WAY out of my league.
My first modeller was a Pod X3 Pro and I had a great time with this unit. Especially because it enabled me
to try out what all the "wet/dry/wet" fuss was all about.
The next modeller that really caught my attention was the Kemper. The concept still sounds absolutely amazing to me.
Unfortunatelly if I'm honest even though I really wanted it to do the thing, I never really got there.
And after many considerations I decided to go the exact opposite way and invested into a traditional rig.
This thing is a beast and even though it's far from perfect (amateur wiring on my part) I can get about 90% of all sound combinations I
need. It tickles my gear nerdiness with a Wet/Dry setup, all sorts of interessting routing and all sorts of knobs to turn.
But most important of all, there it was, THAT sound. That creamy, midrangy, sometimes a bit dirty but lovely tube tone.
So... case closed?
Not quite because of a lot of very obvious problems.
1. I tried to fit as much flexibility as I could into a rig that's as small as possible. But even then it's quite a bit of Equipment. And even though I prepared it
to be as convenient as possible to set up it's still a lot of cabeling. Which leads to
2. So many points where things can go wrong. Due to Covid I only had the chance to play this rig in rehearsals and it is SO FRICKING FUN. But I already
dread going live with it. Since it's all interconected it's not like taking one pedal from the pedalboard and go on with it.
If for example the ENGL would go on strike for whatever reason the whole thing would colapse, since it is all based around the engl sound.
So from the moment this thing was complete I was thinking about some sort of spare and or replacement solution. Something that could take its place and make a decent job.
Easy to setup, lightweight but most importantly, again, it had to sound at least good.
As I said with the Kemper I never got there and with the Helix LT that I was fortunate to shoot at a decent price at some point I couldn't get there either.
Here is what I honestly think about modelling and comparing helix to kemper to axe to whatever:
If you are at pro touring level it really doesn't matter. Because the environment in which these devices are being used is able to make it sound great no matter
which of the units is being used. I think they are all reliable and I think they are all great. I could maybe see someone on a pro level NOT choosing an Axe-Fx because on tour even the most solid things break and usually they do at the worst time and in the most remote corner of the world. But there's still a probability of a musicstore in a reachable distance that either has a Kemper or a Helix or now a QC. But that's just speculation and opinion of course.
At my level there are BIG differences. Not even necesseraly in sound quality but more so in what each unit offers to get me to the point I want to be.
Overall I think I'm a simple guy when it comes to sound. I want a decent amp as a basis and then a few effects to enrich it. But the start is always the simple amp sound.
If I have to use tons of EQs and compressors and whatnot to even get close to the sound I get from an amp with all the knobs at 12 o'clock then I think the unit is not the right one for me
even if it sounds good enough in the end. And it's not that I don't like tweaking but in my opinion modellers promise to deliver that basic sound without a hastle and then give you the opportunity to build on top. That's why I think it is fair to expect any modeller to sound good without using any effects.
So now I'm trying the FM3. I think I can honestly say that I'm not attached to any unit. The one that gets the job done for me
is the one I'll use. If that had been the Helix I wouldn't be here writing this review.
(Split because its too long :-D)
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