smrybacki
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Everything posted by smrybacki
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But to be fair, so are regular amps, effects and guitars subject to the same stuff. I cannot tell you how many times I have shut down my gear, totally happy with my sound only to come back the very next day turn it on exactly the same and think it's total gah....
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Crimony, it's a perfect storm of ambiguity!
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maybe I'm just a dumb lollipop and everyone else already thought of this, but still... So, I'm watching this video in which they are demoing how the Kemper profiling amp works and it hit me why modelling is so hit and miss. You only get the sound the from the place it is miced up and with the guitar you are playing through. Now, I really don't know how Line6 or anyone else (other than this Kemper deal) does things, but if they are all basically the same -- that's what's wrong. I know my amp sounds different from wherever I am standing and even more so depending on what guitars are running through them. So unless they have some sort of method where they mic from multiple places with an omniscient guitar and can somehow sum them into one cohessive package, it's gonna sound different to different people stranding in different places with different guitars. Where's the Tylenol.... -
What is this "bong" you speak of? Oh snap, that wasn't me...carry on.
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Oh heck, just go with it. It's been a good discussion anyway.
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Well stated, all around my friend. People absolutely do need to be the masters of their own ships. There is to me a simple rule of usefullness in digital (or really anything in life, extended out) devices, no matter they be a POD HD or a smartphone. That is simply to ask yourself "is this helping me attain my goals?". IF it is, great. If it isn't, well then you have to evaluate why you're still doing it, right? That right there could fill a library of psych books, as in "if people know smoking is bad for them, why then do they persist doing it?" So back to my original post...I have decided that the cost-benefit of keeping myself on the "digital guitar" teat is about negative past my current placement in it. I have a POD HD500 and a JTV59 that I will keep as they are fun and useful in moderation (for me). Line6 has been bought out and yeah their overall radio silence act bugs me as a consumer, but overall it may be a great thing personally as it has forced me to think about my goals in guitar playing. When I started playing at age 8, I wasn't think to myself "gee, I want to be able to make great patches some day"...I was thinking "I want to play my guitar as good as Jimmy and Ritchie and become eff'ing awesome at playing it in general". I'm better served studying music theory then fiddling with knobs and parameters. make sense? As an aside, I also have a DROID RAZR smartphone that I will likely replace at contract rebnewal time with a "feature" phone that does text and calls because I want to unplug myself from it more and more. In other words, no social crap...no email...just a phone for MY convenience and the ability to send a quick note if needs be.
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Not seeing where he called them "junk". Toys, yes. Junk, nyet. By way of a little humor to "lighten things up", in the bad old days before smart (or cell) phones even existed I: - had a watch to tell me the time - checked the weather by looking at the sky or watching the morning news. - watched the evening news for important updates for 30 minutes a day. - used a map and common sense to locate someplace. I never once followed my map and common sense onto an active runway. - called and talked to someone instead of emailing them. Not surprisingly, someone actually answered -- even at a business when I'd call! - I took my camera out and took pictures and enjoyed the moment. No selfies.... Now I am NOT saying smartphones are terrible things, but we did manage to survive without them not that all long ago. Also, we paid a lot more attention to someone when they were speaking to us because we weren't buried in our smartphones while engaged in actual face to face time like seems to be A-OK today. In fact, that is very rude. So while these devices may not be a toy, they are not the Golden Road to uncomplicated life either.
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With all due respect to everyone here, I feel that technology is MAKING music into rocket science at times. It kind of has too, because today's kids are growing up with technology like smartphones, tablets and xBoxes. Those of us old enough to remember things like pay phones, rabbit ears that got you MAYBE 3 channels and playing war with real BB guns (admittedly stupid, but yeah) with our friends know how different our kids and grandkids are growing up than we did. It was always a struggle to get my son to go outside and play, and he is 31 now and a very avid gamer. He still hates to go outside and do things. I took him hiking in Yosemite when he was 10, and he still cites that as bad parenting on my part because he hated the goat trails we hit to see Rainbow Falls. But I digress. The thing is, today's guitar player demands the rocket science. I wore out several albums and a turntable or two slowing down and replaying Led Zeppelin passages trying to cop Jimmy Page's chops. Today, the plop it into something like RIffStation, and it can even tell them what chords are being played. Rocket science. And digital modellers are at the heart of it now for so many kids coming up.
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Many may disagree with me here, but this is how I see it. Digital guitar modellers of any variety of course offer their users an astounding and seemingly never ending array of choices to create new sounds. That's a good thing, right? For many it may be. At times, it is for me as well. But what I have noticed now 10 years into my experimentation with them is that like a smartphone, I tend to do nothing really useful because I get so easily distracted by all the choices. My inner perfectionist kicks in and I fiddle with this or that, play a few bars to see how that works then repeat with something else. Before I know it, two hours has gone by and whatever I came down to play has not been mastered but I have today's perfectly tweeked patch. The point I am making is that my focus on the music and playing it properly, or just creating a new song or even a good riff often get's lost in the shuffle. So I would argue that a mind numbing array of choices CAN be counter productive to creativity. I know it can be for me. But to be fair, there are other times when I fiddle about and get a tasty new sound that sparks a thought, that leads to some chords that lead to a great riff that gets into a looper that I can stretch out and play a Mixolydian improv over for a while. In the end, I feel that most technology is a double edged sword.
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That was one of the best explanations of how I see the difference between digital modelers and their analog predecessors. When you really think about it, there is a reason that some amplifier and effects designs are always modeled. They sound great! Someone earlier said that they and many players could never afford the amps and effects they get for a reasonable layout of cash and therein lies Line6's avantage. I believe most people WOULD acquire all of the apps and effects they want separately IF they could afford it AND they didn't have to carry it all all to a gig. In other words, aside from price, convenience is also in Line6 favor. All of that makes a lot of folks (but not all) overlook the sonic differences. Actually, my younger brother (a child of the Glam Rock Era) really prefers the digital sound because it fits his style of play.
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I do plan to keep my HD500 and my JTV59 Variax, and as long as they don't fail I see no reason not too. I will use them for recording and if I go back to playing Worship services, they would be used there too. I just don't see myself ever buying any more digital gear because it just doesn't have the staying power of my other gear. I basically play 1950s, 60s and 70s classic rock and surf sounds and so my needs are met with a few great pedals and a Fender tube amp, plus a nice Strat or Tele. The great thing about the digital gear I have is that you can experiment with other things easily and recording is great too. I get that part just fine, and there is nothing wrong with the Line6 gear I have. I have been playing a really long time too, since 1967 in fact. Not that I am great by any stretch, but I do fine and I truly enjoy it. But a good part of my life was spent pre-digital and although society tells us we need the latest and greatest everything, for me the simple fact is that the things I had before all of this were fine by me. Choice is a great thing, but if you spend all of your time making choices you don't get to enjoy playing either. I feel very comfortable straddling both sides of the analog-digital divide, and I find time for both. But when I want to just play and hear the music, I head for the analog gear. When I want to try something new and different, I head downstairs to my studio where digital gear rules. I doubt I'm the only one who does this. We all have things in common. I too have a Vox Tonelab which I think still sounds great. In 1999 after retiring from the Air Force, I lived on Bedford Street in Carlisle while searching for a home to buy here. I also played on a worship team at a church in Carlisle for some time and may be going back to that again soon too! Small world man...
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Since Line6 has gone completely incommunicado and support is reduced to nil as evidenced by the fact they won't even fix the CustomTone site they themselves broke (in order to funnel more eyes to the AmpliFi product methinks?) -- Satan himself will have icicles in his beard before I ever purchase another Line6 product again. Done with digital unless something changes very fast. Ironically, the problem isn't the tone, unless the corporate tone set by Line6 since this buyout counts. That tone clearly sucks. :angry:
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The CustomTone web site is clearly broken, and has been since the new site redesign was launched. Trying to edit my own tones (I am logged in) or see details on any other tones by clicking on the tone name USED to take you to an edit or view screen, but now always takes me to the Line6 homepage with the new AmpliFi system on full display. Coincidence? I think not. As a web programmer, I know how bone simple a fix this is, and furthermore that there was no real reason for it to be broken to begin with. I have opened a support ticket on this (and I'm not the only one) but I expect like most other issues at this point and given the recent and ongoing Yamaha buyout, this will be summarily ignored. The times they are a changing boys and girls.
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@10 per page...5300ish
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Totally agree with this. Modeling is fun to play with, and in a cover band situation or whoever you want a ton of different sounds available instantly they are great. I get that. But I have some of the amps that are modeled in my HD500 and they sound nothing alike. The best I could say is that capture the spirit of the amp at times. The same goes for the Variax models. I have quality USA made Strats and Teles and again, no comparison. I talked at some length with John McFee of the Doobie Brothers about his use of a Variax 700 and a POD X3, and he said he uses it due to the sheer number of sounds he had to cover for their catalog. The man plays every damn instrument you can think of, largely electric, acoustic, slide, pedal steel and fiddle and he had it all happening through the POD, he said "so the bus could actually hold the band" lol. Cool guy all around, but it demonstrates the pragmatic approach he has given his world. I'm betting he has some primo gear back at the ranch in California, but I didn't ask. Should have lol...
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Gratzi...
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Those links currently route you to Line6's home page, which is presently adorned with the AmpliFi. Get the feeling that CustomTone is going away?
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Are you suing a USB 2.0 port?
