Old tube amp zealot dragged into the 21st century by circumstance.

[BlackCat]

I love tube amps. Always have. That's what I grew up with. Looked at solid state with derision. Never paid digital any mind.
I'm now living in an urban hive. If I turn on an amp I'll send my neighbors into revolt.

I had to come up with a silent (at least to neighbors) option.

So I tried this BOSS thing and I have to say it sounds pretty good.


I'm still working through the learning curve. I can only imagine the complexity of your Kempers and such.

I expect to get roasted about my settings.

 

[jrockbridge]

The Waza Air is pretty widely regarded as the best sounding headphone option. Some people complain about the comfort of the fit. I did not want to pay the high price for something that I'd only be using occasionally. Also, I worried about investing that much in something dependent on an internal battery that will eventually wear out.

I bought the Boss Katana GO headphone amp instead. It's similar and uses the same software. It was cheaper but I have to provide my own headphones. It was the perfect compromise for me based on bang for the buck. I love the fact that it has external buttons instead of having to control everything from my smart phone. Boss quickly discontinued the Katana Go sighting problems with part supply.

The funny things is that I've misplaced it somewhere. I'm sure it will turn up.

 

[BlackCat]

The Waza Air is pretty widely regarded as the best sounding headphone option. Some people complain about the comfort of the fit.

I'm very sensitive to headphone fit and I don't find these uncomfortable. It could be a old man thing where your earlobes get bigger. I have several pairs of headphones that pinch and are annoying to wear.

These ain't bad

 

[micwalt]

I’m a BOSS modeler/multieffects fanboy. I used a GT-8 live for years. Switched to the GX-100 and have been using that live for the last few years. And I’m planning to purchase a Gen 3 Katana after the holidays for home use. Enjoy!

 

[jrockbridge]

I'm very sensitive to headphone fit and I don't find these uncomfortable. It could be a old man thing where your earlobes get bigger. I have several pairs of headphones that pinch and are annoying to wear.

These ain't bad

Only some people complained about the fit. One size fits all. For example, this girl below said they were uncomfortable for her to wear.

 

[Gorgon90]

@jrockbridge - you checked the woods?

 

[jrockbridge]

@jrockbridge - you checked the woods?

If it were out there, it would be under a layer of snow at this point. No. It's somewhere inside the house. The calls are coming from inside the house!

I wish it would call out once in awhile. At least then, I could know which room to search. I think it must be next to my sock that went missing.

 

[BlackCat]

I've gone down the digital rabbit hole. I decided to hook up some Zoom lessons with Tommy Harkenrider so I'm back to audio interface on PC. I reinstalled Amplitube 5 and tried it a second time. Didn't care for it a second time.
Then tried s-gear. What a difference. Presets all sound great out of the box.
I'm like some kind of digital convert now.

 

[baimun]

The primary reason that this old Tube head finally accepted a Kemper into his rig after pissing on dumpsters full of Line6 and other modelling gear is the workflow.

It's laid out like a regular tube amp with familiar knobs... and even the effect sections are laid out in the before the amp, in the loop, and then cabinet/room sections and have knobs.

The world keeps updating around us old fuckers, so it's just a matter of how much bullshit are we willing to put up with to get the benefits of the lightweight gear that sounds great without making our ears bleed.

 

[baimun]

These controls are very Cave Man friendly. When you press one of the color coded effects slots, the background color of the screen changes along with the title over each of the four knobs. If you need any super detailed fine tuning of an amp or an effect, that's what the "page" buttons are for.

The people who like the touch screens and dragging all the effects chain around on the screens think the Kemper is a dinosaur, but it sounds great and keeps hanging with all of the latest-greatest digital shit-of-the-month that has been coming out since.

If you want to change which effects are used with each amp (like a treble booster with a Vox versus a tube screamer with a Marshall) you press ABC or D, then rotate they "Type" knob 1 then the "Browse" knob 2, select your effect then save it. You can also save if you want the effect already on when you go to an amp or in the chain but off just by choosing all of your effects, then turn on only the settings you want on when the amp is chosen, then save. Pretty simple.

 

[jrockbridge]

I recall the first time I used S-Gear it sounded better through headphones than anything else I had tried. But, my computer and audio interface at the time suffered too much latency.

Now, I have multiple digital rigs that sound good through headphones, Boss Katana Go, Line 6 HX Stomp and Tonex One.

I was too cheap to buy a Kemper but I always liked the concept of capturing an amp adjusted to a sweet spot. Now, the Tonex and ToneX One work the capture concept for less money than a Kemper.

The ToneX One cost me only $180. It sounds killer through headphones and includes effects. The computer integration is less than perfect because it does not yet allow changing the settings through the computer while using the pedal live. But, with the help of a cheat sheet, I’ve gotten used to the pedal.

 

[BlackCat]

I recall the first time I used S-Gear it sounded better through headphones than anything else I had tried. But, my computer and audio interface at the time suffered too much latency.

Now, I have multiple digital rigs that sound good through headphones, Boss Katana Go, Line 6 HX Stomp and Tonex One.

Interesting!

What do you do when you're not going through headphones? PA, full range amp, guitar amp?

 

[jrockbridge]

Interesting!

What do you do when you're not going through headphones? PA, full range amp, guitar amp?

I only use headphones early morning or late at night. I mainly play through one of several tube amps through various guitar speaker cabinets. The closest to boutique I own is a VAC Hayseed 15 head into an oversized, open back 112, loaded with a Celestion Alnico Blue.

I also use my HX Stomp and ToneX One, with their cab sims turned off, fed through a 50 watt Fryette Power Station PS2, wired in self attenuation mode, into various real cabs. The ToneX One works particularly well through the PS2 into cabs. The feel and sound is often close to a full tube amp rig.

The HX Stomp works well if it’s tweaked just right. But, I’ve never been the greatest at tweaking modelers to sound great. That’s what I like about the Tonex One. It’s more like a snapshot. You find one that works and go. Some of the stock profile captures are good and I bought a bunch more from Amalgam. I scroll through a few and find one that inspires, roll back guitar volume to get cleaner, or up to increase gain just like a tube amp. Sometimes, I’ll make slight adjustments to the EQ of a profile capture.

I’m glad you brought up S-Gear because I had forgotten all about it. Maybe, I’ll give it a try on my gaming PC. I haven’t heard anyone mention it in a long time. It’s been years since I used it. I guess I assumed it was no longer a current option.

 

[BlackCat]

I’m glad you brought up S-Gear because I had forgotten all about it. Maybe, I’ll give it a try on my gaming PC. I haven’t heard anyone mention it in a long time. It’s been years since I used it. I guess I assumed it was no longer a current option.

I'm not a big gamer but I do have one old game that I like to play. It definitely started glitching after I installed Amplitube 5. I don't know if S-Gear has the same issue. I'm too busy playing guitar to recheck.


I'm really pleased with S-Gear. They struck the perfect balance between powerful functionality and ease of use.
The presets sound good enough that you can jump right in without tweaking. When you're ready to tweak the interface is intuitive enough to cause minimum frustration. If you need help there's a very complete manual and you can ctrl-f your way to a solution quickly.

I expect it would be a bit of a pain to use outside a home studio environment. You'd have to bring a laptop and audio interface.
I think something in stomp box format would be easier to manage.
I'd like to see S-Gear coupled with a hardware solution. But there doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm for that idea from either the company of the user base.

 

[jrockbridge]

Since we're talking about the digital realm, here is some unsolicited advice...

There is this idea floating around the web that best practice is to set the input gain of your audio interface to 0 dB. That is false. Don't believe it. The correct way has not changed.

Set the input gain of your audio interface as high as possible without clipping that input. Then, adjust the plugin input, amp sim, etc, accordingly to get the sound you want. Why? Because of signal to noise ratio. Each device that accepts an analog guitar signal and converts it to digital is a bit different. 0 dB could very well be the perfect setting for a particular guitar into an audio interface, where the input signal is high enough and just below clipping. However, 0 dB is certainly not going to be a universal "best" setting for every guitar interface.

This holds true for all my digital devices, HX Stomp, Katana GO, ToneX One, old Eleven Rack, ancient Roland PC audio interface. To keep the signal to noise ratio as low as possible, you set the analog input level as high as possible without clipping that input. Then, you adjust things on the digital simulation side of things to get the sound you want. Otherwise, you will often end up with extra noise and hiss.

As one example, here is my process with ToneX One. When setting the input gain of the ToneX One, the pedal has a light that indicates when the input is being clipped. Why would they even bother with that clipping indicator if you could always get perfection at 0 dB? Anyway, each time I plug a guitar into the ToneX One, I set the input gain by playing some chords as aggressively as I plan to play until the light indicates clipping, then I reduce the input gain until it no longer clips. It's the same method for all my analog to digital boxes. I hate unnecessary extra noise.

/rant

 

[BlackCat]

Since we're talking about the digital realm, here is some unsolicited advice...

There is this idea floating around the web that best practice is to set the input gain of your audio interface to 0 dB. That is false. Don't believe it. The correct way has not changed.

Good point. I set the input level when I started but I guess it reverted to zero when I changed presets. I'll need to reset the level and remember to save.

 

[jrockbridge]

Good point. I set the input level when I started but I guess it reverted to zero when I changed presets. I'll need to reset the level and remember to save.

No. I was talking about the guitar input gain on the front of your focusrite, typically controlled by a knob, or knobs. There is a philosophy out there on the web in various places that you should set that input gain at unity, or 0 dB, meaning that the incoming signal would be passed through without amplifying or attenuating the signal. The idea of unity gain is that the input and output are at the same level. Honestly, back when I first got my Eleven Rack, a very long time ago, I believed and espoused this idea of "unity gain." My bad . As a result, my signal chains with 11R had extra noise.

In order to avoid extra noise, the input level on the front of the focusrite interface should be turned up as high as possible without clipping that input. Of course, that level will be different depending on the output of the guitar. So, it's a good idea to check and adjust when switching guitars. Once you've gotten used to where to set input level per guitar, it's a fast adjustment.

This idea applies to digital modelers, profilers, audio interfaces (analog guitar to digital devices). The first step in a good analog guitar to digital signal chain is to turn up the input gain, where the guitar plugs into, as high as possible without clipping that input.

You don't want to overload the guitar input, or it results in bad clipping sound. But, if you under-load the input that will result in added noise floor.

Again, you did not ask for this advice. Feel free to ignore it. I'm trying to help you avoid the years I spent doing it wrong.