If you were going to purchase a Kemper, AXEFX, or Synergy gear…

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dimebag11
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Probably synergy...right now my go to is a brahma module in my old lynch box / rm 100. Consistently great JMP sound and I use it over my 800's. It just does what I want. I'd like to see them come out with a few more lower gain like supra.
 
I’m the odd ball out here I guess.
I’ve been messing with a fm9 into a power stage into a 4x12 for 5 or 6 weeks now. And for me ,the kemper with my direct profiles blows it away.
It’s not like I’m not trying to dial the fm9 in. It sounds good.the fx can water your tone in a hurry though.
I can get it to sound like any amp on any recording but, not like an amp in the corner I’m plugged into.
 

Let me send you 10 WAV files, 5 from analog, 5 from digital, using the same DI loop.

Using all your evidence and knowledge above, put your dogma to practice and prove us all wrong?

I've had enough of folks pointing at graphs and diagrams trying to tell me what I'm hearing. If it sounds good, it does.
 
Banned by IK Multmedia said:
Oh Axe FX is great at what it is supposed to do but i would go analog any time i can. Between your options JMP-1 any day, by the way i wish Marshall reissued the JMP-1, the ADA MP-1 was also great. Digital is just not "earphonic", it is not a natural sound wave as found in nature. You may not perceive difference but the brain does and gets tired. That is why virtually no one records with digital amps, listeners would get tired sooner than they would if it was analog.
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You are such a fucking idiot.
 
MatrixClaw said:
I've had all 3 - Kemper, AxeFX Ultra | II | II XL | FM-3 and just recently sold my SYN-1 and half my modules to a member here.

The Kemper was cool but I don't really get using it if you're not profiling your own amps. There are some good profiles available out there, but they are dialed in on other people's rigs and never really sounded right to me.

Fractal is great, if you need all the options and effects. Their modeling is great and I sold two amps because it nailed them (EVH 50w and a Tremoverb). However, I just don't find using them to be fun. Even though the current gen is really convincing and sounds great, I just don't like that you have to press buttons and dig through menus to change simple settings. It's not as tactile as having the amp with all the EQ knobs in front of you. The effects are amazing though and worth the cost of admission alone if that's your thing - I don't really use effects.

The Synergy stuff is really good. I bought it because the thought of replacing my Mark IV with the IICP module for a lot less sounded great, plus I really wanted to try the Savage module because that's been a bucket list amp for me for years, but current prices are bonkers in the US. I had the Deliverance, VH4, Savage, BE, IICP, SLO, Ultra Lead and Uberschall.

My favorite, by far, is the Uberschall - I had a Rev Blue and a Twin Jet - the module sounds better. That said, I can get pretty close with my Bogner 101b. The Deliverance I was pretty disappointed with, it sounded similar to my SigX, but the mids were totally wrong and it lacked the hifi sound of the real thing. The Ultra Lead nailed it and I sold the SigX because it was close enough, minus the great clean channel. The IICP definitely sounds like a Mark, but it's not as aggressive as the IV. The clean on that module is, quite possibly, the best clean I've ever heard out of an amp. The VH4 I was pleasantly surprised with, it sounds way better than I remember the amp being. The BE was okay, I was hoping it'd get heavier, but I wasn't super excited about it. The SLO sounds like an SLO. Would be better if it had separate EQ controls so you could dial in two different tones. The Savage was a huge disappointment, it sounded anemic, lacked low end and wasn't as aggressive as I expected it to be.

Since I ended up liking the Uberschall the most and can get really close with the Bogner I already have, I decided to sell it. Before I did, I profiled it in ToneX, though, and it's equally as awesome.
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This is hugely helpful. I have an actual vh4 and the module gets very, very close. However, I find the UL module not to sound like what I remember a UL being? It didn’t have that dry Fryette grind that I’m used to from my pitbull CL or even my Sig. Didn’t seem like anything I did with the eq knobs changed that. The VH4 module actually got tighter IMO.
 
midgod07 said:
This is hugely helpful. I have an actual vh4 and the module gets very, very close. However, I find the UL module not to sound like what I remember a UL being? It didn’t have that dry Fryette grind that I’m used to from my pitbull CL or even my Sig. Didn’t seem like anything I did with the eq knobs changed that. The VH4 module actually got tighter IMO.
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What power amp were you using it through? The UL module was the closest to the real thing of all the modules I tried. Mine definitely had the dry sound, the Deliverance didn't. The main thing with that module is that the presence knob doesn't really do anything until like 2 o'clock, you've gotta crank it to get the bite.
 
i debated the OPs question a lot,

i opted for synergy, not out of loyalty to tubes or anything, but because of its interfaces SIMPLICITY.
no menus, no hooking up to pc. no endless tweaking. just plug n play. - and the tones deliver! i currently use my fryette powerstation as my power amp.

i got addicted to buying and selling the modules and have owned nearly all of them at this point. While i think the modules COULD be $50 cheaper msrp, primarily to drive more entry interest, most of them sounded great. i have hopes that they discontinue all the original shared eq modules and concentrate production on newer modules.
 
MatrixClaw said:
What power amp were you using it through? The UL module was the closest to the real thing of all the modules I tried. Mine definitely had the dry sound, the Deliverance didn't. The main thing with that module is that the presence knob doesn't really do anything until like 2 o'clock, you've gotta crank it to get the biwh
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What power amp do you use? mind sending a pic of your settings?
 
midgod07 said:
What power amp do you use? mind sending a pic of your settings?
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The Fryette PS-1 mostly. I don't have the Synergy setup anymore. I captured all my favorite settings on the modules and moved to a ToneX pedal :p
 
MatrixClaw said:
The Fryette PS-1 mostly. I don't have the Synergy setup anymore. I captured all my favorite settings on the modules and moved to a ToneX pedal :p
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How do you like it? Was it difficult to profile your rigs?

Was reading about this yesterday and can’t imagine not grabbing one. Watching YT vids on it last night—this guy seems to worship MBritt…is it necessary to buy outside 3rd party profiles to get optimal results?

 
tallcoolone said:
How do you like it? Was it difficult to profile your rigs?

Was reading about this yesterday and can’t imagine not grabbing one. Watching YT vids on it last night—this guy seems to worship MBritt…is it necessary to buy outside 3rd party profiles to get optimal results?

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Very easy to profile my gear, but I also already own all the necessary pieces, so it depends on how you plan to do it. You really just need an interface and a reamp box and you're good to go. I used a DI in reverse. I owned the Kemper when it originally came out and it sounded great but it was expensive and I really only found it useful in a recording setup. Everyone was profiling full rigs and to use it live, you were playing through an FRFR setup and I've still yet to be happy with FRFR, it just doesn't sound like a real amp.

With ToneX, I've found profiling the amp with a load box and using an external IR for recording works best as it sounds identical to the real amp live if done this way - you just feed it through a transparent power amp and into a cab and you're done. My problem with all the modelers has never been getting a good sound, they all sound good, Kemper included, but none of them FEEL the same. It shouldn't really matter, since ultimately, the sound is was matters, but even a good modeler through the same power amp and cab setup didn't respond the same for me. The ToneX profiles are just fun to use, it's like the real amp is right there in the room with me, just a much smaller package.

Also - I really like that you can profile a lower gain amp and then crank the gain on the profile higher than the actual amp can. You can always boost an amp, but I've always found them to change the tone and responsiveness of them significantly enough that it's not really the same thing. I profiled my Ampeg B25 the other day and then cranked the gain up higher and it's awesome. It's exactly what I feel like the amp would sound like if it just had an extra gain stage, whereas every boost I've put through it just mangled the tone. Of course, this isn't exclusive to ToneX, you can do it on the Kemper and, I assume, the QC as well.

As far as 3rd party profiles - I have no idea. I haven't really played around with other people's profiles much. I briefly downloaded some in ToneNet and was impressed with quite a few of them, others not so much. I mostly bought it so I can profile amps I own or friend's amps. I might venture into premium profiles but I've never really understood the point of them - when you use someone else's profile, they are dialing their amp in with a different guitar, speaker and settings than you may like if you had the amp in the room with you. You still might get some great sounds, but it wouldn't be the same and using the EQ on the profiles doesn't react the same way as the actual amp would.
 
MatrixClaw said:
Very easy to profile my gear, but I also already own all the necessary pieces, so it depends on how you plan to do it. You really just need an interface and a reamp box and you're good to go. I used a DI in reverse. I owned the Kemper when it originally came out and it sounded great but it was expensive and I really only found it useful in a recording setup. Everyone was profiling full rigs and to use it live, you were playing through an FRFR setup and I've still yet to be happy with FRFR, it just doesn't sound like a real amp.

With ToneX, I've found profiling the amp with a load box and using an external IR for recording works best as it sounds identical to the real amp live if done this way - you just feed it through a transparent power amp and into a cab and you're done. My problem with all the modelers has never been getting a good sound, they all sound good, Kemper included, but none of them FEEL the same. It shouldn't really matter, since ultimately, the sound is was matters, but even a good modeler through the same power amp and cab setup didn't respond the same for me. The ToneX profiles are just fun to use, it's like the real amp is right there in the room with me, just a much smaller package.

Also - I really like that you can profile a lower gain amp and then crank the gain on the profile higher than the actual amp can. You can always boost an amp, but I've always found them to change the tone and responsiveness of them significantly enough that it's not really the same thing. I profiled my Ampeg B25 the other day and then cranked the gain up higher and it's awesome. It's exactly what I feel like the amp would sound like if it just had an extra gain stage, whereas every boost I've put through it just mangled the tone. Of course, this isn't exclusive to ToneX, you can do it on the Kemper and, I assume, the QC as well.

As far as 3rd party profiles - I have no idea. I haven't really played around with other people's profiles much. I briefly downloaded some in ToneNet and was impressed with quite a few of them, others not so much. I mostly bought it so I can profile amps I own or friend's amps. I might venture into premium profiles but I've never really understood the point of them - when you use someone else's profile, they are dialing their amp in with a different guitar, speaker and settings than you may like if you had the amp in the room with you. You still might get some great sounds, but it wouldn't be the same and using the EQ on the profiles doesn't react the same way as the actual amp would.
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Thanks man, good to hear. I think this would make a killer backup option, although if it does sound as good as the Helix/AXEII I’ll def gig with it. I’ve got some great gear and to be able to call up even decent facsimiles would be badass. I have a Waza TAE, would that suffice?

I used to say the same about the feel but I got trapped in an apt/low volume situation for a while and you just get used to it. After a few months of playing daily through studio monitors it was no prob going direct on stage and working off a decent full range monitor. But yeah, it does take some getting used to.
 
tallcoolone said:
How do you like it? Was it difficult to profile your rigs?

Was reading about this yesterday and can’t imagine not grabbing one. Watching YT vids on it last night—this guy seems to worship MBritt…is it necessary to buy outside 3rd party profiles to get optimal results?

Click to expand...



A lot of points he makes are not subjective in any way, worth watchig
 
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