mjc02865 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 I saw a review somewhere that claims 6000 AMPLIFI tones were available at the time it went to market... Does anyone know if there's a way to view these tones--and ratings--online somewhere? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandman27959 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Currently there is no way to view all of the tones. I posted a request on their IdeaScale site requesting this very thing though. I'd love the ability to browse tones online - perhaps even with samples. Clearly this is not a fully developed product, but I was aware of it's shortcomings and bought it as a practice amp. I'm hoping they'll add more features as it evolves. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColonelForbin Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Here is an interesting take on this. And up front I will say I have no way to verify - pure speculation. So, this tone matching - how does that work? Here is a test for you: rip a CD to iTunes, and make sure the titles are something generic, like 'track 1'. Then make sure no metadata is included, meaning - no song title, no album info, no artist name. Then put that file on your device, and try to get the Amplifi to tone match. Here is my take on what will happen: nothing. I think Amplifi uses iTunes metadata to match tones to song names and artists. More to the point - I think Amplifi uses that data to match to CUSTOMTONE patches which may have been created by users, others by L6 - but basically, tones created for the XT and the X3 series, maybe PodFarm, I dunno. The fine print at the bottom of the CustomTone page actually gives ownership to the patch/tone author: "Tones contributed by users to the Public Tone Exchange are made by individual users, who are in no way affiliated with Line 6. Any product name or trademarks used by the users to describe their Tones are the sole property of their respective owners. Any use of these product names or trademarks of other manufacturers should not be construed as an endorsement, association or affiliation with Line 6." Correct me if I am way off base, anyone who actually knows the answer. Just a hunch, but it makes sense. There is a huge archive of user and L6 created tones from the XT and X3 era, and lots and lots of them are song and artist specific. So, iTunes tells the Amplifi app that you want to tone match to a "Guns 'n Roses" song, and it's from "Welcome to the Jungle". This thing isn't doing anything magic - it's not listening to your song choice, and deciding you need a Plexi amp with a tube screamer and delay - it's looking at metadata that says "Artist: Guns n Roses", "Song: Paradise City". Then it goes and finds patches, either user created or other - and probably looks at the user ranking, and the # of times downloaded over the tone's history, and does a simple sort function. Again, just guesswork here. And I am not critizing!! it's actually - if this concept is at all accurate - a pretty good idea. They own a lot of patches they have created, and they have access to the patches users have created. It's a really cool way to take a piece of gear, and give you a new way to access this huge -FREE- rather cool database of tone. SO for that, kudos Line6. You have my attention! Now, let's see this thing Amplifi tech come out in a "Pro" version, more like the StageScape mixer series, and the DT amp series. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil_m Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 So, this tone matching - how does that work? Here is a test for you: rip a CD to iTunes, and make sure the titles are something generic, like 'track 1'. Then make sure no metadata is included, meaning - no song title, no album info, no artist name. Then put that file on your device, and try to get the Amplifi to tone match. Here is my take on what will happen: nothing. I think Amplifi uses iTunes metadata to match tones to song names and artists. Well, yeah, that is how it works. It's not a secret. The app searches the tone database based on title, artist, and genre and gives you back possible tones that might work. As far as where the tones came from, I'd say it's probably a combination of tones Line 6 had as factory settings from the Spider IV and X3 products as well as existing CustomTone patches. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColonelForbin Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Well, yeah, that is how it works. It's not a secret. The app searches the tone database based on title, artist, and genre and gives you back possible tones that might work. As far as where the tones came from, I'd say it's probably a combination of tones Line 6 had as factory settings from the Spider IV and X3 products as well as existing CustomTone patches. Yeah, and as ideas go - that's not a bad one! I think my initial negative reaction came from the poor marketing angle. I definitely want to check one out, though as a non IOS user, it's a steep investment beyond just the cost of the amp itself. Again - marketing fail, this is what they describe the tone match as: "And revolutionary tone matching technology automatically serves up tones that match tracks in your music library." It's this idea that it must be "revolutionary" and "reinvented" that make me go, ummm no... But it's still cool, regardless of the overzealous marketing team! It's like, a stealth amp that you can sneak into the living room, and wifey won't really notice it, and/or won't immediately identify it as an expensive piece of music equipment, and ask how much it cost! "That? Honey, no, that's nothing, it's just the speaker thingy I got at Best Buy when it was on sale, it only cost '....mumble mumble, mumble', hey look what the cats are doing! isn't that cute?" :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndrewH13 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Colonel, its not iTunes metadata it uses, but any standard metadata. I use dbpoweramp to convert CDs and embed artwork. MP3tag is a free way of doing it. I don't like iTunes method of having separate attached files, with cover art missing if you use the track elsewhere. Just as well its not iTunes related, otherwise Android Users (if it gets released) would struggle! Of course, you don't even need metadata of the track on your device, you can just search for tracks as I found out from here earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjc02865 Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 Does anyone know which tones from which model POD correlates best to AMPLIFI's tones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AParedes Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 Well, yeah, that is how it works. It's not a secret. The app searches the tone database based on title, artist, and genre and gives you back possible tones that might work. As far as where the tones came from, I'd say it's probably a combination of tones Line 6 had as factory settings from the Spider IV and X3 products as well as existing CustomTone patches. Does anyone know which tones from which model POD correlates best to AMPLIFI's tones? +1 to Phil - this is accurate. To elaborate: the AMPLIFi model set is the same guitar model set from the POD Farm Platinum series, which could also include PODxt, Flextone III, Guitarport Online, and POD X3 (single amp) tones taken from customtone and reformatted to fit the AMPLIFi architecture. There is currently no way to "publicly" translate tones, but something that could go into ideascale for future consideration. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlyg Posted February 9, 2014 Share Posted February 9, 2014 It seems to me, it doesn't matter where or how we get the tone ideas, what matters is we get them....and when we play along with the tune, we are close to the original. If it were done the way that some want, it would be a profiler, not a "matcher". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkcloud1 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I get a lot of the same tones for everything and every genre! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjc02865 Posted February 11, 2014 Author Share Posted February 11, 2014 I have to say I've been pleasantly surprised at some of clean tones I've been able to coax out of AMPLIFI. One of my greatest reservations about getting this amp in the first place was that all the Line 6 demos I've seen/heard on Youtube, etc. are of people wailing away using high-gain tones. So far, I'm really digging this amp (even with the app and firmware quirks and bugs). I'm really hoping Line 6 will stay committed to refining the app and amp's firmware (which I'd put at 85% developed, at best). I'm hoping for app and firmware updates every few weeks for the first few months here. So far so good though--nice amp (for my purposes anyways). Btw: I hope the USB port is for future DAW connection ... I would really like to be able to plug this amp into my Mac for digital stereo recording purposes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlyg Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 I'd probably faint it I heard a demo with NO HIGH GAIN bombing...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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