New Amp -OR- Midpriced modelers -OR- Is anyone here (still) playing a Tonex?

[Bogner]

I got a Lelia Mara X V2 in black and a DF64 Gen 2 grinder. The Mara is well behaved for an e61 group HX machine due to some electronic trickery. I seem to be pulling pretty decent 17.5 g in, 40 +/- g out shots already. I just ran a couple lb. of Starbucks medium roast through the grinder to “season” it. The beans are oily and black. I had a major unplug and clean job after that. The grinder is back up and running. My actual drinking coffee beans are from a local roaster, and are real medium roast. My oat milk steaming chops leave a LOT to be desired. It’s pretty fun. Since I’m now blissfully retired, it doesn’t really matter that my first cup of coffee ( usually an Americano) is half an hour from flipping the on switch to first sip.

Private Stock Coffee

 

[archtop]

I'm back to Tonex with the "Mesa/Boogie Reference" and "ODS Legends" signature collections. $99 each certainly seems like too much $$$ but these collections sound awesome and meet most of my needs along with my own captures of a couple Marshalls.

I also have some NAM captures that sound great. NAM's batch processing is something I wish IK would add to Tonex.

 

[aamefford]

Private Stock Coffee

Core coffee.

 

[Bogner]

Core coffee.

I Don't Drink So I Was Painting With A Broad Brush. Sounds Fancy Enough To Me To Be Private Stock Or Hand Wired.

 

[aamefford]

I Don't Drink So I Was Painting With A Broad Brush. Sounds Fancy Enough To Me To Be Private Stock Or Hand Wired.

A splurge for me for sure. Definitely S2 or used core level though. Which is where I fall in with most hobbies. I start at used squire, and by the time I buy something it lands at SE or S2 level.

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

Eh, solid midrange. All that, and an americano tastes as good as a cup from my $40 AeroPress.

That's a nice machine. Your typo threw me though.

I have narrowly avoided the espresso trap. I have about everything else, Aeropress's, V60s, Espro presses, moca pots, etc. And I roast all my own beans, and have a couple Baratza grinders, but nothing for espresso.

I have a killer iced coffee recipe with the Aeropress if you want it. I've tried about everything and it's my favorite for iced coffee, whose time is coming very soon now.

 

[aamefford]

That's a nice machine. Your typo threw me though.

I have narrowly avoided the espresso trap. I have about everything else, Aeropress's, V60s, Espro presses, moca pots, etc. And I roast all my own beans, and have a couple Baratza grinders, but nothing for espresso.

I have a killer iced coffee recipe with the Aeropress if you want it. I've tried about everything and it's my favorite for iced coffee, whose time is coming very soon now.

Absolutely for the iced coffee recipe. AeroPress is a really cool thing. It helped postpone the espresso machine for most of a year.

 

[aamefford]

I'm back to Tonex with the "Mesa/Boogie Reference" and "ODS Legends" signature collections. $99 each certainly seems like too much $$$ but these collections sound awesome and meet most of my needs along with my own captures of a couple Marshalls.

I also have some NAM captures that sound great. NAM's batch processing is something I wish IK would add to Tonex.

You’re pretty much set with Tonex then. You can pick up at least a couple Tonex’ for the price of anything close in capability I think.

 

[aamefford]

I decided to split the coffee stuff out, on the off chance there are other coffee nerds here. The only threads I found with coffee in the title died out 5 or 10 years ago. Here it is, in case anyone here is interested:

Coffee Stuff

I just picked up a new espresso machine. I thought I'd fire up a coffee thread, because the newest one I see is from 2013. We had some discussion here: https://forums.prsguitars.com/threads/new-amp-or-midpriced-modelers-or-is-anyone-here-still-playing-a-tonex.56609/page-15#post-867278 But I...

forums.prsguitars.com

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Oh man for sure!!! I gotta find one. For those who have never seen it in total, the poster says something to the effect of

“How about a nice hot cup of shut the f*** up?”

“Loose lips sink ships”

That’s been my avatar everywhere for probably 20 years.

 

[Bogner]

Ha! ^^^

 

[László]

ToneX, Pod Go and Helix were all nice but I went back to my UAFX pedals after long. I have too many modelers/profilers.

(Ruby, Dream and Lion - One for each board - all different boards, has been my go-to. Couldn't be happier with Universal Audio's stuff)

UA's software amp models for their UAD platform are very good, particularly the '57 Tweed Deluxe that they created in-house (most UAD amp models are from third party vendors like Softube and Brainworx). It's pretty well-known here that I think modelers mostly fail; but when UA puts their minds to something, they do it really well.

I use that particular model as a scratch pad for most of the things I write if I'm working at a late hour. I'll replay it through a real amp the next day (I don't re-amp, though, because I find a player needs to work with the feel of the amp). But the UA Deluxe is a winner.

So I'm not surprised you like the UAFX pedals.

I did an A/B comparison of my 1073 mic preamp with the UA model of the 1073 through my Apollo. There was a bit of a difference in the transients - the model kind of rounded them off a tiny bit - but I doubt anyone would notice it in a multi-instrument mix. A solo recording would make me feel differently, but their mic preamp models (I love their API models in particular) are very good, and again, were done in-house.

Of course, their OX box is now a studio staple (one day I'll get one, but I still like miking up amps).

Anyway, my two cents. Those pedals sound pretty darn good for modelers.

 

[SteveGlitch]

UA's software amp models for their UAD platform are very good, particularly the '57 Tweed Deluxe that they created in-house (most UAD amp models are from third party vendors like Softube and Brainworx). It's pretty well-known here that I think modelers mostly fail; but when UA puts their minds to something, they do it really well.

I use that particular model as a scratch pad for most of the things I write if I'm working at a late hour. I'll replay it through a real amp the next day (I don't re-amp, though, because I find a player needs to work with the feel of the amp). But the UA Deluxe is a winner.

So I'm not surprised you like the UAFX pedals.

I did an A/B comparison of my 1073 mic preamp with the UA model of the 1073 through my Apollo. There was a bit of a difference in the transients - the model kind of rounded them off a tiny bit - but I doubt anyone would notice it in a multi-instrument mix. A solo recording would make me feel differently, but their mic preamp models (I love their API models in particular) are very good, and again, were done in-house.

Of course, their OX box is now a studio staple (one day I'll get one, but I still like miking up amps).

Anyway, my two cents. Those pedals sound pretty darn good for modelers.

The UAFX pedals definitely get it right!

I haven't tried their compressor or other effects pedals from them, I just know their amp models are a good margin above any profiler/modeler on the market.

They seem to be the only amp models that interact realistically with effects chains, and speaker behavior. You can even hear the speaker crumble whem going direct. Nothing else comes close!

 

[Prina]

I just know their amp models are a good margin above any profiler/modeler on the market.

Most of my experience is with Fractal and some great sounds can come out of it but there's a major learning curve. The UA models just sound great 'out of the box' and the interface is easier.

 

[László]

The UAFX pedals definitely get it right!

I haven't tried their compressor or other effects pedals from them, I just know their amp models are a good margin above any profiler/modeler on the market.

They seem to be the only amp models that interact realistically with effects chains, and speaker behavior. You can even hear the speaker crumble whem going direct. Nothing else comes close!

I don't know if this is still the case, but one of the engineers designing models for them is a prof at either Cal Berkeley or Stanford who specializes in creating software like the stuff these models use.

Whoever he is, he sure does a bang-up job, because the stuff is extremely good.

I don't know if you've tried Luna, the DAW that's Apollo-specific, but for it they've modeled Neve and API summing amplifiers for the buses. I've used both in hardware, and have owned the Neve hardware summing bus. The models sound close enough that I bought them for the sole purpose of running stems created in Logic through these buses for non-classical tracks.

My son and I checked their Moog minimoog model against the hardware in an A/B comparison, same levels, same knob settings, the whole deal. As a Moog endorser for several years, he's very familiar with the hardware.

The UA model sounded exactly the same, except at the very extreme settings of a couple of controls. We both expected the hardware to slay the software, but it didn't happen. Instead, we were very surprised.

Granted, designing software modeling a synthetic instrument, or hardware you hear only subtly in recording (unlike the way you hear a guitar amplifier), is probably not as formidable a task. But still. They know what they're doing at UA.