Thoughts on Amp Modeling & Neural Captures

[santellavision]

My Thoughts on Amp Modeling and Neural Captures

A kinda’ long read as I have way too much time now that I’m retired and am lucky to have some extra cash to try all this new stuff. 😉
And, most know me, I have absolutely no affiliation with any of these companies, I have no dog in this. I just love the thrill of trying new gear.

Love to hear your thoughts on the whole recent Modeling/NAM capture thing. I know it's skyrocketed the last couple of years.
First off, please don’t flame me for my personal experiences. (Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong on anything, I probably will be – thx)
Some of my experiences certainly might just be my error, but, this is what I’ve heard and felt. I am sure many of you probably will have differing results depending on how you are using it or the environment your using it in.

Here we go...
I've been chasing home recording amp simulators since they came out. Remember Rockman, Pod, Tech21 Sansamp, Digitech, Voodoo Valve, Atomic AmpliFire, Art Power Plant etc. I pretty much tried any box that had a 'Cab simulated' output jack. Most early units were all analog. I used my Art Power Plant for years on a lot of recordings. It has great, realistic crunchy Marshall tones, a one trick pony for sure. I also have my Digitech 2101 studio tube processor. I still play it and it makes me smile even today. I used it on my last album for some parts. There is crazy magic in that box. I had a buddy over last week and played it for him and he was floored by how great it sounded, especially compared to the new digital stuff. Huge, warm, fat tones that no modeler matches. 




I started down this new, digital rabbit hole almost 20 years ago now! I got my first Fractal Axe-Fx when they came out in 2006. Can you believe that was 20 years ago! The Fractal uses proprietary modeling and not actual amp captures. Yes, they do have a ‘Tone Match’ feature that can do something similar. I thought it might be just the thing for recording as it’s so much easier than mic’ing a cab and blasting away at at home and way easier on my poor wife, who works from home and doesn’t want to hear me recording the same damn guitar riff over-and-over, rattling pictures off the wall and driving the pooch crazy - haha. One cool thing was, it was fast saving patches vs remembering analog knobs for matching sounds when re-doing parts.

Let’s start with early recording. When I got the first Fractal, it’s was a freakin’ blast. So many patches that are fun to play and yeah, I could sound like EVH or Gilmore or Jimi. Jamming’ at home with albums was fun, especially sounding just like those LP tones. But, after close scrutiny, they really didn’t sound that great. I just wasn’t getting tones that sounded better than my live amps mic’d. 

I tried using the Fractal live, but, using it was a challenge. I ran it through two, Atomic Reactor FR, Full-range 50 watt 6L6 tube-powered cabs which at the time were the best sounding full-range FRFR cabs available. I do have to say, it was damn cool hearing everything in stereo through two big-ass cabinets! Delays, Chorus, Rotary etc was mind-blowing. Programming the Fractal wasn’t too hard, I figured it out pretty quick, even without using the manual.

My biggest complaint was getting all the patches’ volume to be consistent. I know that sounds easy, and should have been, but damn, I had the hardest time programming them to all match in a live setting. I would do my best programming at home but, at the gig, all went to hell. The band and the FOH sound guys hated me for a while as I would be tweaking the levels all night. Not fun. Thinking back now, I probably should have maybe added an Expression pedal block for overall volume to make it easy to adjust on-the-fly. I ditched that rig live and just kept the Axe-Fx at home.



Then, the Kemper Profiler came out. This was before they had a floor version. It was either a rack unit or the toaster oven-size thingie. It came with or without a built-in power amp, which was easier to incorporate into a live rig. But, OMG, I hated it, hated it! I still have freakin’ nightmares about it. For the life of me, I could not figure out how to create what I wanted. Must have been me or the way my brain works, but programming it made absolutely no sense to me. Forgetaboutit trying to use it for live work. Plus, I didn’t think it sounded any better than the Axe-Fx for recording. I still see a lot of bands on Premiere Guitar 'Rig Rundowns' using them live. I gave it a shot and finally passed it along to someone who was smarter than me - haha.



So, after not rocking my world, I gave up on this digital modeling/capture stuff. Yeah, this was all early tech and still growing for sure.

Stay tuned, more to come…

I just went back and rocked my old amps. Lots of cool tube stuff: Matchless, Bogner, Carr, Amplified Nation, Headstrong. Recording wise, I am also totally into the Synergy inter-changeable module gear. All tube, all analog and records amazing. I used it on 90% of last album and the sounds I recorded were as good as mic'ing my cranked amps. And, way more dog/wife-friendly too.



After my so-so intro to modeling, fast forward to now. Like many any of ya’ll, I read about 3-4 guitar mags a month and follow a bunch of YouTuber sites. The whole digital technology has evolved crazy fast lately, even in just the last year. There are so many new units from old standards: Fractal, Fender, Line6 Helix etc. And, newcomers: Headrush, Lava, IK Multimedia ToneX, Dark Glass Anagram, Neural Quad Cortex, plus a bunch of new companies too.

I bought the latest Fractal AM4 Amp/EFX floor modeler. I read it has the same amp sounds as the Fractal's big brother - Axe-Fx III , but only 4 programming blocks. So, you can’t create big complex patches. Probably fine for most peeps. I thought the sound quality was far better than the first Axe-Fx based from my memory, but I wasn’t floored. It did ‘feel’ good, probably the best of all the units I tried. It reacted the best to volume control and picking dynamics, which was nice. But, no touchscreen!! WTH? Everyone else has a touchscreen LCD. That bugged me. I kept trying to touch it, but I would forget that it didn't have that feature. I messed with it for a week and ending up returning it to Fractal as I was still in search of finding the holy grail of matching an analog amp.

Next, I read a ton about the Neural Quad Cortex as being the new hot shit. So, I bought one and right out-of-the-box, the amp tones were very good. I thought maybe even a little better than the Fractal. The QC uses actual amp captures vs. modeling. You can use the QC box hardware to capture your own stuff (or download them from 3^rd party sites) The QC doesn’t use generic NAM which the world seems to be moving toward. (Neural Amp Models - I know that is confusing terminology)  Who know, maybe with a Firmware update, they could accept NAM captures.

I liked the QC. It had some really nice sounding factory patches to show off the box. (One of my pet peeves, why do companies include preset patches that SUCK. Drenched with reverb or totally over the top with effects. How about just show us a basic amp and maybe a little room ambience. Everything doesn’t have to have crazy ping pong delay! Sorry, I digress) It wasn’t the easiest to program.

Downside, I found it hard to download new captures and more so, how to find them once you downloaded them! Some downloads come with or without IR cabs baked in, which is also a bit confusing. The unit is not very intuitive for programming, lots of sub-menus to do stuff. I had to search YouTube videos to figure it out. It should have been much easier. Maybe someday with new firmware. It has MIDI control for adding additional foot-switch controllers for live use. From a sheer tone and EFX standpoint, I can certainly see why it has rocked the gigging world. Overall, it was still slightly digital sounding when critically recording to my old-school, analog ears. And, I've read there has been some reliability issues with bands using them on the road. 




The search continued.

I bought the new Dark Glass Anagram w/Guitar Essentials. This unit uses open format NAM capture files. And, it uses both regular NAM files as well as the newest NAM A2 captures. (OMG, my brain is starting to hurt again). This new NAM A2 thing, seems to be where the capture world is going. There are a lot of 3^rd party programmers selling NAM A2 captures of amazing boutique amps. Plus, there is a cool site called Tone3000 where you can download and share free Amp, EFX, IR NAM captures, which is amazing and will keep the Anagram fresh. Plus, you can purchase some new amps and EFX off the Dark Glass site too. The Anagram doesn’t have internal hardware to capture your own gear like the Quad Cortex, so, that might be a downside. 

I did find it super easy to download stuff from Tone3000. The Anagram has the most programming power of any unit yet. Funny, even being the smallest size of all the pedal units, it has by far the most processing power, 6 cores for pretty much any complicated patch you could ever come up with. Programming the Anagram was a a no-brainer. Super simple to program without having to open the manual. Amazing graphic representations of each amp, EFX etc. LOVE THAT! Check out the cool, touchscreen graphics!



Sound-wise, I thought it was even a another notch up from the Quad Cortex which doesn’t use A2. When you get into using amp captures, of course, a lot rides on the quality of those Captures and cab IRs. The sonic quality behind the latest high quality A2 amp models are the best yet. 

I didn’t mention this yet, but a lot of these digital units tend to have a slight bit of latency on pick attack to sound output. The Anagram felt great with virtually no latency. The Anagram doesn’t come loaded with a ton of amp captures, but the ones it does include are the bread and butter stuff and all sound killer. It does have a few cool ones that the others don’t have, like Hiwatt, Victory and Matchless amps. And with the Tone3000, you can find just about anything you crave. Live, this unit would be nice... The smallest footprint for a pedalboard, great sounds, easy programming for patches, scenes and EFX modes. It only has 3 foot-switch buttons, less than the other units, but does have MIDI so, you would probably need an external controller to access everything live. I’ve seen a few users that have them setup with a small external controller that lets you have discrete buttons for song change, scene change inside that patch and also can also turn on/off EFX. OK, I feel this is the nicest unit yet.

These are only a few of the current crop of digital amp options. I haven’t tried a Headrush, Fender ToneMaster and Helix which seem to have a big following and most accept NAM A2 now. Plus, a bunch of Chinese units that pop-up day-by-day and also use NAM A2. Who knows, there might be a sub-$100 stomp with NAM A2, it's still early this morning.

But wait, I have to add one more cool option to share...

I recently tried the latest Two Notes ‘Genome 2' software simulator. (They just released v2.1 as I posted this) It’s available in a Free ‘Intro’ version with just a few amps and effects. But, I was BLOWN AWAY by it. So, much so, I bought the full Suite Version (FYI: If you download the free Intro version first, you can upgrade to the full suite at a huge discount over buying the big suite first!)  I know it’s not practical for live work, but I have to say, the recording tones are stunning and 1ms latency which is virtually nothing. You do have to use some sort of Interface I/O box (I have a Scarlet Solo) Sure, you have to have a computer to use it which is not as easy as a floor stompbox.



Genome uses both their own TSM-AI captures but can also use NAM A2 captures. The full ‘Suite’ comes with a ton of great amps, cabs and EFX supplied. And, with NAM A2 import, it’ll stay fresh. I can honestly say, the Genome sounds the best I have used yet. It might also have to do with the Two Notes DynIRs cabs. They are big on their cab IR capture technology which can make or break the overall tone. Simple block programming too. For home use, the Genome is perfect for recording. Trust me, try the Free Intro version and you will be amazed.

ernie

Edited September 8 by santellavision

[mathman]

I've been using computer based amp modeling programs since Amplitude came out in 2002. I've since upgraded the program and also added their Tonex version.  I've also used Guitar Rig, Positive Grid Bias, and a few others.  At the time I started my only "real" amp was a Peavy bass amp with a huge Peavey 18-10 bass cabinet.   Not conducive to bedroom playing which is mainly what I was doing those days.  I since gone back to "real" amps and pedals but still use the computer based stuff for recording.  I bought a used Tech 21 amp from submariner (thanks again) and it covers so much ground that I mainly enjoy playing it these days.  

Will check out the Genome and see.

Thanks.

Edited September 9 by mathman

[Saul Goodman]

I thought I could go digital and sold all my amps a few years ago and bought a Line 6 Power Cab Plus. It holds a lot of IRs and I thought it was the way to go. I discovered I like twisting real knobs and the sound of real amps in the room. But, I still use digital to record. And am planning to use my Tone King Imperial Tri Tuby Doobie for recording soon.

[jwhitcomb3]

I've been using modeling amps for many years. I've tried a some with NAM captures, but the latency that technology introduces makes me feel disconnected from my guitar. I've been enjoying the Boss GT-1000 and more recently the Boss VG-800 that introduce less than 1 ms of latency, and the amp models (typically a Fender Deluxe Reverb or Twin) sound great to me. I really like the effects in those units too. I have two fine amps, but they don't get much play these days. And the new Boss GX-1 sounds amazing for $230 new. 

[Biz Prof]

22 hours ago, jwhitcomb3 said:

I've been using modeling amps for many years. I've tried a some with NAM captures, but the latency that technology introduces makes me feel disconnected from my guitar. I've been enjoying the Boss GT-1000 and more recently the Boss VG-800 that introduce less than 1 ms of latency, and the amp models (typically a Fender Deluxe Reverb or Twin) sound great to me. I really like the effects in those units too. I have two fine amps, but they don't get much play these days. And the new Boss GX-1 sounds amazing for $230 new. 

Any good advice on using the GT-1000 in a live setting?

[The Shark]

I use the Kemper Stage Profiler.  The liquid profiles are great.  I don't notice any latency problems, but that might just be my old ears.  I used profiles from Mike Britt of Lonestar for the most part.  A few from Top Jimi and some other profile guys.  I use Line 6 Powercab, but not the ones with the tweeter.  The IR's help me adjust the cabs to the venue.  That way, I don't have to muck with the Profiler.  I use a volume pedal to mitigate any volume probs between profiles.  Greg Platzer has been great helping me to fine tune things.  He sold me the Stage Profiler years ago.  

I've tried all of the latest and greatest Helix units.  I've tried the Fractal stuff.  I've tried the Quad Cortex twice.  I've always come back to the Kemper.

I tell people that I was around, as a salesman, for the first "sampling" keyboards.  Kawai made a great one early on.  I sold dozens of them in the Orlando area.  "Sampling" became a dirty word.  I think "Profiling" is the same thing, but the technology is far better at fooling the human ear. 

Here's the dirty little secret.  None of the "fake" amps sound like a tube amp live or recorded.  But I guarantee, in my experience, you can't really tell the difference if you have a drummer, a bass player, another guitarist and a keyboard guy playing around you live.  That's the beauty of it.  And no "sampler" will ever replace the real thing. 

I'm 64 years old.  My hearing is failing.  My Kemper rig sounds killer with the boys.  When my band of 48 years finally calls it quits, the Kemper will go.  Real amps will follow me to the grave.  I don't record.  I don't write original music.  I just play covers live with my buddies. 

Ernie's CD is killer.  I really respect him.  But I rarely practice, am not interested in improving my "craft" and am totally good with the Kemper.  I'm a really good golfer.  But I don't practice that either.  Call me stupid or just call me content. 

[jwhitcomb3]

7 hours ago, Biz Prof said:

Any good advice on using the GT-1000 in a live setting?

I performed with the GT-1000CORE on a very compact board (Voodoo Labs Dingbat Tiny) with just a Boss FS-7 dual foot switch and an Xotic RC Boost V2 front end, going straight to the mixing board, monitored with a QSC CP8. I used the BandHelper app to select songs and pre-configure the GT-1000CORE for each song with MIDI PC and CC messages and used the FS-7 for in-song adjustments (mostly solo and effect switching). Using as few presets as possible helped balance volume across my set - 90% of songs share the same 5 base presets, the rest having song-specific presets. So during performance I tap my iPad to select a song from the BandHelper playlist and then use the FS-7 switches in-song so I can concentrate on performance rather than tap-dancing. Great effort to set up, minimal effort to use. And I could run it on a battery. 

The GT1000CORE is now backup to my VG-800 based rig. 

In general: for live use mono is your friend, and less distortion/bass/reverb/delay results in a cleaner band mix.

[ArnieZ]

I have been using a Fractal FM3 since it came out.I don't play live and have no advice Re set up other than you'll need extra switching wich is available for that unit. It sounds great to me. Does it sound exactly like the amps it models? I don't know, there are so many I haven't heard most of them😀, either live or in the unit! There are many vendors for amp tweaks like Austin Buddy and they do have something to offer. Fractal has done a great job updating the unit and I think it is generally agreed that their effects are the best. I still have my Mesa Boggie Fillmore, which I love, but dont remembere the last time I fired it up. I have no complaints with "feel " or latency. Even the Capo(pitch cahnge) works pretty well. MInd you the FM3 is one of the most basic models and those with more horsepower do offer more. I am not a tweaker so most of what I use are models and scenes pre-programmed. They have done much to improve the live use of their units but I have not even bothered. I have owned some pretty good amps and like to think I have a good ear for tone. Regardless of what might come out, I doubt I'll move on.

arniez

[scottcald]

I've used a lot of amp sim/modeling units over the years starting back with the Zoom 3030, Boss GT-10, GT-100, GT-1000, Atomic Amplifire, Helix/HX, Fractal, Tonex One and Headrush Core.  You can really get good sounds from anything these days.  

I feel like the NAM stuff is the newest/latest/greatest fad that the social media folk are hyping.  A few years back, IRs were the magic elixir and then only certain ones from certain companies or using your own.  Now it's NAM captures and in another year or so, it'll be something else that's the pixie dust for modelers.  

Most folks use 1 to 3 basic live sounds with effects on top of those sounds, so it really shouldn't be difficult to get a good tone with anything that's out.  

 

[Whoismarykelly]

My experience with modelers and similar devices is purely as a headphone demo rig for trade shows and pedal demo events we exhibit at around the country. If Im at home, working on pedal designs, playing in a band, etc... Im always going to be using a 'real' amp into a cab at high volume. For me the thing that has finally come around to being close to playing a real amp is the right hand feel of some devices. We used a Strymon Iridium and a Two Notes Cab M as headphone solutions for a long time but neither really felt very good while playing. There isn't a ton of dynamic range in a 5V DSP system and I think the way a lot of devices manage it is to just shelve a ton of signal level before the A/D conversion and then the device feels lifeless. The Neural DSP Nano is what we use now and we moved over to it after playing one and seeing that it really felt like playing a real amp. Demoing stuff in headphones in a room full of people is already weird but I think the Nano does a really nice job of feeling as natural as possible and removing that weird feel friction from the experience.

[velorush]

Watched this last night. He rambles a good bit, but the overall takeaway I got mirrored what @scottcald was just saying: most users gravitate toward a very few amp simulation settings with a few pedal sounds and they're set. For this reason people seem to be opting for the less expensive systems because they can provide that as well as do the $2,000 systems. 

I've yet to take the plunge due to paralysis by analysis, but so far, my $100 Tech21 Screaming Blonde is completely sufficient. As we get to sub-$1,000 options I could be tempted to grab something just to simplify even more. 

[Whoismarykelly]

I could probably get through a show with my Nano Cortex into a Quilter as a power amp. It wouldn't be fun but it would sound decent.

[diablo175]

I managed to move from analog tube and solid state amps to Fractal but I have somehow avoided going down the rabbit hole of all the various new iterations of modelers for the same reason I avoided running down the perfect tone in a traditional amp: Too much work, $$ and really cornfusing. I would rather spend my time becoming a little less awful at guitar. Besides, in addition to the drain on my sanity and bank account, there's the consideration of putting pearls on a swine. A really kickass sounding modeler or amp is still not gonna make my playing sound kickass.  

[velorush]

15 minutes ago, diablo175 said:

A really kickass sounding modeler or amp is still not gonna make my playing sound kickass.  

I for one always enjoy your videos - definitely kickass. There's a reason you've never seen a video posted by me! It's all relative. 😉

[diablo175]

3 minutes ago, velorush said:

I for one always enjoy your videos - definitely kickass. There's a reason you've never seen a video posted by me! It's all relative. 😉

Very kind of you, sir!

And yes, it's all relative. Relatively speaking, based on the amount of time I've spent trying to become more kickass on guitar, I should be less awful.  But I suppose we're all our own harshest critics. So we perhaps should endeavor to move the goal posts, shift our paradigm and aim for having fun instead.  

[santellavision]

[scottcald]

4 hours ago, velorush said:

Watched this last night. He rambles a good bit, but the overall takeaway I got mirrored what @scottcald was just saying: most users gravitate toward a very few amp simulation settings with a few pedal sounds and they're set. For this reason people seem to be opting for the less expensive systems because they can provide that as well as do the $2,000 systems. 

I've yet to take the plunge due to paralysis by analysis, but so far, my $100 Tech21 Screaming Blonde is completely sufficient. As we get to sub-$1,000 options I could be tempted to grab something just to simplify even more. 

Honestly, if you only need a few, Tonex One with the Mvave chocolate plus 4 button MIDI switch is a good, inexpensive combo.  Hell, if you only need 2 sounds, the original Tonex One used and just put the two sounds on it and switch between them.   One driven but can clean up with volume roll down and a lead.

[scottcald]

On 9/8/2026 at 10:20 AM, santellavision said:

I bought the latest Fractal AM4 Amp/EFX floor modeler. I read it has the same amp sounds as the Fractal's big brother - Axe-Fx III , but only 4 programming blocks. So, you can’t create big complex patches. Probably fine for most peeps. I thought the sound quality was far better than the first Axe-Fx based from my memory, but I wasn’t floored. It did ‘feel’ good, probably the best of all the units I tried. It reacted the best to volume control and picking dynamics, which was nice. But, no touchscreen!! WTH? Everyone else has a touchscreen LCD. That bugged me. I kept trying to touch it, but I would forget that it didn't have that feature. I messed with it for a week and ending up returning it to Fractal as I was still in search of finding the holy grail of matching an analog amp.

The thing about the AM4 was that it was just odd.  Four blocks, but then tons of videos about how to basically work around that it's 4 blocks. They said it has about half the power of the AxeFX III, but then only 4 blocks?  To me, it was just confusing.  I never liked their interface on device or the editor. 

[murkat]

Vox gave me my valvetronix in 2001 (?), i even brought it along to a Chicago Hamer gathering. Still have it, still sounds great. 
i do have and use mostly now a quad cortex. Very satisfying through a nice set of studio monitors and or ev pdx monitors. 

[HamerHokie]

On 9/14/2026 at 2:24 AM, scottcald said:

Most folks use 1 to 3 basic live sounds with effects on top of those sounds, so it really shouldn't be difficult to get a good tone with anything that's out.  

 

This is exactly why I have been using pedal preamps instead of modelers.  A good tube based pedal preamp, plus different voiced overdrives, gives me everything I need.  I will probably never find my 'ideal' setup but the Tubesteader Roy preamp (Vox AC30) plus the Kaluna Drive (Plexi) and a transparent OD (currently the EH Soul Food) does the job.

[RobB]

27 minutes ago, HamerHokie said:

This is exactly why I have been using pedal preamps instead of modelers. 

I like this idea. God knows I have plenty of dirt/mod/delay pedals to cover the bases. I’m going to sell my IR-X soon and give the SimplifierX a whirl. The dual fx loops sold me, even though it doesn’t have tubes. I’d like to try my Menatone TBIAC for clean/od and Mad Prof 1 for distortion. I can’t imagine needing anything more for my purposes. 

[Teh]

Line 6 Helix pulled me into the digital world around 2017.  Didn't care for the 'POD' before then, although I never had a problem with digital effects.  Tried to embrace the Power Cab to fully enter the L6 ecosphere, but just didn't get along with it - Never sounded right or had enough oomph.  After two tries, gave up and went back to my Deluxe Reverb or Twin.  

To be honest, I seemed to spend more time screwing around with tone of the Helix.  No matter what I did, it seemed to be okay but not nailing the sound in my head.  I finally stopped chasing it last year, and ended up trading in the Helix for the Fender Tone Master Pro.  I have no use for capture, and my tone revolves around Fender amps, so it seemed to be a good fit.  After running the unit through the paces, I found it to check all the boxes and sounds outstanding.  so much so, in fact, I sold off the amps and picked up the FR-12 amp/speaker.  It has more than enough juice (1000W class D) to handle anything I throw at it, and the tone controls on top allow you adjust just like you would a regular amp.

I am a tech nerd of the highest order.  I work in electronic test & measurement, have been a Ham radio operator for over 30 years, and build my own computers.  The digital world is where I live and breathe.  Like several here, I'm also an occasional weekend warrior.  Being in my mid 60's like a lot of guys here, I want a light, low hassle rig setup that sounds good live and can also be used to record.  The TMP and FR-12 fit that bill.

Whatever your position is on the boneheaded moves of their CEO, the Fender gear works well at a reasonable price.  I fully expect this rig to take me to the end of the line.

[jwhitcomb3]

16 hours ago, Teh said:

I have no use for capture, and my tone revolves around Fender amps, ... 

Same here, even though I haven't used a Fender amp for years.

My son (a composer and bassist in a regularly gigging local band) laughs at me when I get a new guitar rig (amp based, stomps, plugins, whatever) and spend hours and hours recreating my same old favorite tones.

[jisham]

Since I only play at home now, I too have been down the modeler rabbit hole having owned most every one, and some more than once. I finally realized I only need a few amp sounds and a few effects so I’m sticking with 20 watt amps. At least for now. 

[santellavision]

Brand new Anderton's video on Modeling. Interesting.