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Nano Cortex Review (another try at digital)
Unimprobable
Frets: 58
So, even though not gigging yet, dragging my combo and trying to keep track of pedal settings in band rehearsals isn't working for me, so I've ordered a nano cortex, fr12, and a mic. I'll profile my marshall sv20 and maybe even a katana clean sound I like, stick a bd or halycon gold in the front see If I can get on with the onboard effects .If that doesn't work I might give up on digital untill 2030. To be fair, I haven't had a pa or frfr to truly test this stuff, so trying that this time. but yes, pod go went back, tone master pro went back - just too much hassle Vs plug into valve amp and go. hoping 3rd time lucky. I do quite like some amplitude sounds I get in logic pro through headphones so not without hope digital, albeit profiling will work for me. If anyone's interested I'll let you know how I get on...
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My trouble is I'm lazy and can't be bothered tweaking gear. If it doesn't sound organic and inspiring without a few minutes then I lose interest in it. Because my actual amp does sound organic and inspiring as soon as I turn it on. Those with more patience though will persevere and get a tone that is pretty good though and instantly recallable effects.
A lot of it is also down to how many sounds you need to cover. If it's only a few then an amp and a few pedals is hard to beat for convenience. If it's loads of sounds then a modeller is a lot of work to begin with but then no work at all after .. to a certain extent.
Whatever you choose, enjoy the journey
What amp do you play through Danny?
I use a Fractal FM9 and have been gigging their modelling gear for the best part of a decade. As you rightly say, a lot of effort to begin with, but now it's plug and play unless I need a new specific sound and they're super quick to dial in anyway.
I do still get tempted by the idea of a valve amp, but on balance I don't think it'd be worth the aggro, and nobody other than me would notice the difference in tone, if indeed there was any.
I play with 4 different bands and quite often just jump into an Uber with the HRD, a pedal board and a guitar. I have a little fold up trolley I use if I know the load is a bit grim but other than that its a pretty light setup
Seen the faces in the places misunderstand.
Tonight's is fine but the one tomorrow has an overhanging partial ceiling over the stage then it goes up to a two-storey roof, and there's something about the shape of it which makes every amp sound boxy, even a 100w half stack.
On those occasions I like to have tweakable EQ, so I'll just use my pedal board so I can change things on the fly easily.
Only thing I found was that the sound guy wanted XLR out for DI which the Tonex doesn't have (only jack out) but luckily the FR-10 has one so he used that instead. Not sure how that compares sound wise to a DI straight from the Tonex but we sounded great anyway so all good.
I've gigged them for getting on 30 years and never really had any problems. Actually with the decent stuff (i.e. not made to a price PCB amps), I've had 0 problems.
There is the weight, I think my amp (40W Emprize) weighs about 17kg, my 5E3 around 12kg, so there's not a massive saving going to an FRFR cab, you still have to cart that around.
I suppose if you are lugging a Twin or AC30 around digital would look a lot more attractive.
The aggro wasn't meant in terms of using it, but more the process of having to create new presets etc as I'd want to use it 4CM with the FM9 for effects and for the odd songs would still want the option of modelled amps.
Even that wouldn't be that much of a hardship to be honest....I've come very close to trying a Suhr PT15 IR on several occasions so my aggro sentiment is possibly a way of trying to save myself some money!
I'll crack eventually no doubt
From a sound point of view all you can do is trust your ears. If it sounds good to you and inspires you the that's what matters as that will come through in your playing.
Reliability wise, well I repair electronic equipment professionally and god knows I've put enough repairs on here to illustrate this. Don't be fooled that modern SMPS modellers is modern a leap in reliability, it really isn't and in some cases the cases the SMPS in a modeller will fail before the valves in a well designed valve amp will.
My band, Red For Dissent
At home you have all the time in the world to play with everything and wade through heavily menu driven devices. You can indulge yourself in tweaking all the nuances of amp, cab & mic settings and only minimal floor control is needed.
In a live gigging situation it's completely different. All the nuances about modelling accuracy, IR's, setting tweaks, cab models, mic type & positioning all, for the most part, largely go out the window in a band mix. What you need are some good core tones - a good clean, crunch, & distortion, with a decent reverb, delay, compressor and modulation where needed. All those distortion effects that you think sound so different at home will all begin to sound very samey live, ditto amp models etc. And patches that sound great at home will often sound pants in a live mix because live your tone is in the mids.
What you need on stage is functionality, excellent floor control, a clear display, and a good selection of real knobs/selectors that allow you to select an amp or effect model and tweak in seconds, with fast easy access to a tuner and a volume boost for solo's. There really isn't much around that does this. All the 'big name' MFX such as Helix, Quad Cortex, Boss GT1000/GX100 etc can sound great, but take ages to set-up and aside from a few knobs are 95% menu driven which makes them a potential nightmare on stage.
Out of all the current options out there, for live gigging you really want something like the Boss ME90 because it's laid out like a conventional pedal board with real knobs and selectors, no menu's, and has fast easy to use footswitches. It has a dozen of the AIRD amp/cab models from the GT1000 and a load of quality Boss effects. If it wasn't for one serious shortfall, I'd buy one for gigging myself but that shortfall - lack of patch naming - is a complete killer for me. LED numbers for patches went out with the arc. I play mostly covers and I set up patches in set-list song order where I don't have to tap dance and I can move seamlessly from one patch to another. And if there's a song order change, I can find it easily. In a 32 plus set list I'm probably only using 7 or 8 different patches so many are duplicates, but it's a fast easy approach for gigging. I just can't do that with the ME90, which is a real shame.
I've tried so many different MFX over the years and none of the 'modern' mfx work for me in the way that I want. Whilst my Pod Go is compact, light and can sound great, it's again heavily menu driven and it simply has too many options re amps, cabs, mic types and placement positions. Great fun at home, just no good for me live other than if I'm going through eg a house amp. For this I set it up for use in stomp mode (akin to a traditional pedal board but without fast easy access to real knobs) within a single patch where amp/cab models are turned off and I put the Pod Go through the fx return or through front end, clean channel. In this mode it's great and it's what I take where I need to travel light on tube/train and am using a house amp. Unfortunately the PSU is utter crap & I've replaced the Line 6 unit with something a bit more gig worthy.
The only mfx that works for me on stage are old tech Vox Tonelab SE and LE units that are built like tanks with long, thick gig worthy power cables that have a mid cable on/off switch transformer and a standard 13 amp plug (no ugly, awkward 'wall-wart'). Essentially, all amps & fx and (on the SE) cab models can be selected via real selector knobs and there are real knobs to tweak everything quickly on the fly. No IR capability, limited amp/cab/fx options, and you can't play them through a computer without a separate audio interface, but they still sound excellent on stage and the clever use of a 12AX7 valve as a power valve makes them sound & feel surprisingly valve-like. I either put these through FOH or through FRFR powered speakers.
There have been some other MFX that caught on to the 'real knobs' concept including the Zoom G11 (which once you get past the Fischer Price look and ignore what are probably the worst factory pre-sets ever created) is actually a pretty good gigging MFX. Where Zoom went wrong was its ridiculous pricing that killed it. Another surprisingly good mfx is the Valeton GP200 that has (similar to the Zoom G11) dedicated amp controls. But it's still too heavily menu driven and whilst it has patch naming, the fooswitches can't be named. This means that in stomp mode they are labelled ABCD and you have no idea of what you've programmed them to kick in unless you have an incredible memory or put labels on! And even then the same footswitch would have to do the same thing in every patch. Hardly flexible, wholly unintuitive and again (for me) useless on stage.
So, yes, going digital for gigging has advantages but also a lot of disadvantages and disappointments if you don't do your research properly to ensure the mfx unit you buy will do what you want, in the way that you want, live. And whatever you buy, be prepared for compromises. Manufacturers are wonderful at cramming tons in and telling you what it can do, but it's what these can't do that you need to get your head around too.
1.) The Learning Curve - I found myself having to learn a completely new ‘language’, understand frequencies more, understand multiplE outputs etc ectc.
2.) This is the BIG one for me - the modeller is only as good as what you are playing it through. I personally think direct into a PA is never as good, anD that you still need decent foldback.
- DXR10s sound good clean, but more digital when the profilE is driven.
- Red Sound were easily thE most natural’ I tried.
- My Zilla cab (with an amp before it, naturally) worked VERY well, esp with the Kemper.
3.) Out of all of them, i actually preferred the Kemp (with built in amp) for sound, although the Fractal won for fx, and Helix for ease of use.
4.) All this means, and especially point 2 above, that modelling live for me actually meant;
a. More stuff to carry live
b. More stuff to learn anD more complex
c. Hence, more expense
So roughly on price, Kemper Power plus footswitch and Red Sound speaker at the time = around £2500.
There’s a lot of great sounding amps outthere for that kinda money.
YMMV.