5 ms·

Is there an explanation of what this is, what problems it solves, etc?

by notfed 4y ago

JKCalhoun 4y ago
My understanding is that this is software using neural networks that can be trained to emulate any kind of guitar amplifier. For a few decades now it has become popular to use software or electronics to emulate classic guitar amplifiers rather than having to own all the various large and expensive (and generally tube-based) guitar amplifiers of yore. I believe this YouTube video is showing you how to use it: https://www.youtube.com/live/KHIORngbzJE?feature=share&t=673 https://www.youtube.com/live/KHIORngbzJE?feature=share&t=673 Another: https://youtu.be/PjgrYB-EPbE https://youtu.be/PjgrYB-EPbE This guy compares an actual amp with ToneX (a commercial amp modeler) and NAM: https://youtu.be/aXSnQzF-liE?t=802 https://youtu.be/aXSnQzF-liE?t=802
- monero-xmr 4y ago
  This is phenomenal. Thank you for the links with time stamps.
klipklop 4y ago
NAM lets you essentially copy the sound/tone of a guitar pedal (no time based effects like reverb) or guitar amplifier. This means I can share a copy of my $3500 amp to people for free. Before this and a paid product called Tonex came out, it cost $1500+ to “profile”/copy digitally a guitar amp. The price floor for this stuff just became $0-400 depending on what solution you go with and what gear you have. This will be highly disruptive to the market. People can also clone paid plugins with this software and share it on Facebook. This is like when mp3s came out, but for guitar gear.
- TomWhitwell 4y ago
  Is it fair to say this clones a device with one specific set of knob positions? So if I want to clone a 5 knob fuzz pedal in every possible setting, that’s a lot of cloning to do? I may have misunderstood.
  - ofalkaed 4y ago
    You understand correctly. All of the amp modeling and virtual analog stuff is still fairly limited and they largely focus on getting the stereotypical sounds of the source, not the full range. Modeling things more fully is not difficult but it is very processor intensive, many spice programs can do it quite well but are far from real time. So simple analog amp modelers like the sans-amp offerings still out perform the digital emulations in some ways, they might not be as accurate but they tend to be more versatile, which is best depends on what you are after. I have been on again off again doing a fairly intensive write up on this topic going into all the technical details (primarily the hardware side) complete with a fairly full featured/accurate digital recreation of the original MiniMoog VCF in PureData but it is not exactly a priority and progress on that is rather slow. Edit: I should mention that despite the models not providing the full range of the source they still do provide a full range of their own. You still have your volume and tone controls but they operate on the model, they are not part of the model. They have gotten fairly good at faking things and the tone controls do not sound so much like post recording EQ like they did in the early modeling amps but they also do not interact with the sound like they do in the real amps where changing the bass level does not only change the bass but also affects the gain/distortion/frequency characteristics of the tubes on either side of it as well.
    - Archit3ch 4y ago
      > I have been on again off again doing a fairly intensive write up on this topic going into all the technical details (primarily the hardware side) complete with a fairly full featured/accurate digital recreation of the original MiniMoog VCF in PureData but it is not exactly a priority and progress on that is rather slow. I'd be very interested to see your approach. So far, the most promising (non-NN) technique I've seen requires taking a symbolic inverse of a sparse matrix, which is just barely possible for a simplified pedal model.
      - ofalkaed 4y ago
        I am doing things in just about the most idiotic and inefficient way, break the circuit down into easy to emulate blocks then emulating how they interact by adding in stuff which mimics that interaction. Essentially I break down the circuit into a series of blocks which are easy to model in isolation and then show how the interactions between these blocks are very complex and difficult to model. The starting point is essentially the classic simple moog model with some extra stuff and I add in bits between those blocks to mimic the interactions while comparing it to various digital models of the filter, spice simulations and the real deal. So I slowly make up a big massive mess of a patch in PureData that eats my entire CPU but does a fairly solid job of the emulation then try and simplify things down to show how each part affects the whole.

Is there an explanation of what this is, what problems it solves, etc?

by notfed 4y ago

Is there an explanation of what this is, what problems it solves, etc?

My understanding is that this is software using neural networks that can be trained to emulate any kind of guitar amplifier. For a few decades now it has become popular to use software or electronics to emulate classic guitar amplifiers rather than having to own all the various large and expensive (and generally tube-based) guitar amplifiers of yore. I believe this YouTube video is showing you how to use it: https://www.youtube.com/live/KHIORngbzJE?feature=share&t=673 https://www.youtube.com/live/KHIORngbzJE?feature=share&t=673 Another: https://youtu.be/PjgrYB-EPbE https://youtu.be/PjgrYB-EPbE This guy compares an actual amp with ToneX (a commercial amp modeler) and NAM: https://youtu.be/aXSnQzF-liE?t=802 https://youtu.be/aXSnQzF-liE?t=802

monero-xmr 4y ago
This is phenomenal. Thank you for the links with time stamps.

klipklop 4y ago

NAM lets you essentially copy the sound/tone of a guitar pedal (no time based effects like reverb) or guitar amplifier. This means I can share a copy of my $3500 amp to people for free. Before this and a paid product called Tonex came out, it cost $1500+ to “profile”/copy digitally a guitar amp. The price floor for this stuff just became $0-400 depending on what solution you go with and what gear you have. This will be highly disruptive to the market. People can also clone paid plugins with this software and share it on Facebook. This is like when mp3s came out, but for guitar gear.

TomWhitwell 4y ago
Is it fair to say this clones a device with one specific set of knob positions? So if I want to clone a 5 knob fuzz pedal in every possible setting, that’s a lot of cloning to do? I may have misunderstood.
- ofalkaed 4y ago
  You understand correctly. All of the amp modeling and virtual analog stuff is still fairly limited and they largely focus on getting the stereotypical sounds of the source, not the full range. Modeling things more fully is not difficult but it is very processor intensive, many spice programs can do it quite well but are far from real time. So simple analog amp modelers like the sans-amp offerings still out perform the digital emulations in some ways, they might not be as accurate but they tend to be more versatile, which is best depends on what you are after. I have been on again off again doing a fairly intensive write up on this topic going into all the technical details (primarily the hardware side) complete with a fairly full featured/accurate digital recreation of the original MiniMoog VCF in PureData but it is not exactly a priority and progress on that is rather slow. Edit: I should mention that despite the models not providing the full range of the source they still do provide a full range of their own. You still have your volume and tone controls but they operate on the model, they are not part of the model. They have gotten fairly good at faking things and the tone controls do not sound so much like post recording EQ like they did in the early modeling amps but they also do not interact with the sound like they do in the real amps where changing the bass level does not only change the bass but also affects the gain/distortion/frequency characteristics of the tubes on either side of it as well.
  - Archit3ch 4y ago
    > I have been on again off again doing a fairly intensive write up on this topic going into all the technical details (primarily the hardware side) complete with a fairly full featured/accurate digital recreation of the original MiniMoog VCF in PureData but it is not exactly a priority and progress on that is rather slow. I'd be very interested to see your approach. So far, the most promising (non-NN) technique I've seen requires taking a symbolic inverse of a sparse matrix, which is just barely possible for a simplified pedal model.
    - ofalkaed 4y ago
      I am doing things in just about the most idiotic and inefficient way, break the circuit down into easy to emulate blocks then emulating how they interact by adding in stuff which mimics that interaction. Essentially I break down the circuit into a series of blocks which are easy to model in isolation and then show how the interactions between these blocks are very complex and difficult to model. The starting point is essentially the classic simple moog model with some extra stuff and I add in bits between those blocks to mimic the interactions while comparing it to various digital models of the filter, spice simulations and the real deal. So I slowly make up a big massive mess of a patch in PureData that eats my entire CPU but does a fairly solid job of the emulation then try and simplify things down to show how each part affects the whole.