VAI hears 1/1000th of a second latency in Modeling (No Way cheap shot)

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Morphine said:
Beato asked him his philosphy on modelers. So yes, he was asked for his opinion.

Interestingly enough, I play through an Axe-Fx and I didn't find his comments to be bashing the unit. Only why chooses not to use it in that fashion.

It's quite interesting how ones bias can color how one perceives the exact same information as someone else...
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Beato asked him because he most likely has seen the video from last year's NAMM where he was bashing modelers, when nobody asked him, about it.
"Beato asked him his philosophy on modelers" was politely asking Vai why was he bashing modelers a year ago.

Even if it was true, why is Vai so amazed by a ~20 years old technology and why having a clone Vox, Marshall etc. preamp by Synergy is a better solution, than setting up the original real amp version made by Vox and Marshall in the studio, if you are all about being the "real" thing.

He also claimed that the poweramp doesn't add to the sound. Clearly he hear things that I don't and I hear things that he doesn't.
The end of the day his credibility is on stake and it doesn't look good.
 
unix-guy said:
I seem to recall someone here saying they recently worked with Rick and got him running on an Axe Fx III... Maybe @camilovelandiamusic?
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I'm friends with Rick! But it was Matt that got him set up with his Axe FX III Last time I went to Rick's place, he had just gotten the Axe FX III, so he hadn't set it up yet. I did help him make a preset on an Axe FX II years ago. But Rick is an old-school guy, and he has a big studio. Control room, big live room, and several other smaller rooms, and everything is isolated. He has the perfect environment to crank amps and he has been recording and using great amps for decades. Also add do that his assistants that can help him set anything up. It's hard to get someone like that to switch to digital.
 
All I can say is I would like to get him into the lab and perform some controlled test measures to see if he does have auditory processing ability that otherwise exceeded any recorded observations for human listeners.

can’t say it’s humanly impossible just because no one has ever demonstrated anything close to that type degree of temporal resolution and the underlying physiology of synaptic firing likely has a hard “speed limit”.
 
Morphine said:
Guys like Steve seem to be intimately in tune with their instruments. If he says he can FEEL it (he didn't say he could HEAR it) then I don't have much reason not to believe him.

I don't see why he would feel the need to cook up such an elaborate bullshit response when he's pretty well known for being genuine, helpful, and generous with his time and insight. When he was asked why he changed the Jem he simply said, "because I can". Didn't cook up a bullshit story. When asked why he doesn't like modeling he could have just as easily said, "because I don't".
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I'm in your camp. I think he's genuine.
 
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levipeto said:
That's ever more scary.
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Why? He believes it, so he says it. Nothing inherently wrong with that. As I said before: the man is so far beyond mastery of the instrument, his perception is hardly fathomable. How he articulates his feelings may or may not be 100% correct, but I don't doubt for a second he feels a difference and doesn't enjoy it.

To quoth Mr. Brown:

Everybody's talkin'
All this stuff about Steve
Why don't they just let him live?
That's his perogative.
 
iaresee said:
Why? He believes it, so he says it. Nothing inherently wrong with that. As I said before: the man is so far beyond mastery of the instrument, his perception is hardly fathomable. How he articulates his feelings may or may not be 100% correct, but I don't doubt for a second he feels a difference and doesn't enjoy it.

To quoth Mr. Brown:

Everybody's talkin'
All this stuff about Steve
Why don't they just let him live?
That's his perogative.
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Even the sentence : "I don't like modelers" doesn't make sense.
What modelers? How much time have you spent with them? When was the last time you tried any of them?

He is still on Axe II and uses it for effects, only. Obviously he is out of touch of technology. He is basicly saying he doesn't like modelers from 10 years ago, because that was the last time he tried them.
 
If you can still use real amps then go for it. There just so many of us who can’t (or shouldn’t) at the gigs or recording situations.

Vai has techs who load and set up everything for him. He enjoys real amps for a reason.

Rick can use real amps too. That’s great. I just wish his preference for them didn’t translate to a disdain for modelers for others. And I’m sure he’s said in the past modelers work for some people. But he clearly doesn’t prefer them and usually makes it known.


levipeto said:
Even the sentence : "I don't like modelers" doesn't make sense.
What modelers? How much time have you spent with them? When was the last time you tried any of them?

He is still on Axe II and uses it for effects, only. Obviously he is out of touch of technology. He is basicly saying he doesn't like modelers from 10 years ago, because that was the last time he tried them.
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That’s his touring rig. He has a 3 in another setup.
 
I don’t know. In my opinion, Mr. Vai had an opportunity to endorse the Synergy brand once the whole Carvin relationship ended, and that’s what he did. Artists like Steve go where the money is. In the interview he even mentions that his YouTube channel brings in a few thousand a month.

Personally, I believe he’s just simply set in his ways. If a company such as FAS was willing to pay him what he’ll be raking in from his Synergy module sales, then maybe his whole opinion would be different.

But if you were to sit him in a studio and A/B the Axe-FX III vs a real amp, like the Larry Mitchell video, I bet your ass he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. I’m sure he can hear things the average player can’t, but let’s be honest here, his ears are probably trashed like most of the guitar players from that era.
 
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I've never experienced discernable latency with the Axe FX III. I use it exclusively for recording, and I think that's where you'd feel it or notice it too. In fact, if it was that significant, that would mean that anything I play to the grid, would actually show up behind the beat because of the so called latency. It's more like the other way around because I rush like hell sometimes hahahaha.
 
Morphine said:
Beato asked him his philosphy on modelers. So yes, he was asked for his opinion.

Interestingly enough, I play through an Axe-Fx and I didn't find his comments to be bashing the unit. Only why chooses not to use it in that fashion.

It's quite interesting how ones bias can color how one perceives the exact same information as someone else...
Click to expand...

Here is the reference to that nobody asked him about modeling. It was a year ago at Namm 2019.
Beato (probably) have seen this and asked about it, since Vai will happy talk about it.
I am sure he will bring it up again at NAMM 2021.



 
I think if Steve Vai at his age & stage in his career has to "bash" a product to sell another one ...something is very very wrong :rolleyes:
He could pick and choose any brand or piece of gear he wanted.

Instead of bitching why doesn't someone run a test and compare a DI to the Axe-FX outputs?.......seems pretty easy right?
If there is a delay 1ms or higher someone of that talent has every right to pick and choose ...he is giving honest feedback.
If there isn't that is a different story.
 
If I said that I can observe the time it takes light coming from a bulb when I flip the light switch to hit the opposite wall of my room, would I be correct? After all, even moving at the speed of light, it does take time to travel 10 feet across the room.....

Is that beyond human perception ?

perhaps what I’m actually seeing is that i have a bulb that takes several seconds to come to full brightness, and im not seeing the actual boundary of light moving across the room but instead just detecting a change in brightness over a much longer period of time ?

or do you just let me go on thinking I can perceive things faster than the speed of light, while knowing it’s technically not even possible ?
 
No human, regardless of ability, can detect 1.3 ms of latency. That's how long it takes sound to travel about 16 inches. If you are 10 feet from your speakers it's taking the sound 10 ms to reach you.

Tube amp sales are in rapid decline. Whenever a disruptive technology comes along those who are being impacted will resort to disparagement to hawk their wares.
 
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