The many colors of an Amp

TonsOfTones · October 2006

What do you want first, the Good news or the not so good news ?

OK the Good news,
The programmers from whom we licenced our MEGS software have started work on a module to output our Amplifier models in GNX4 format.

Now for the first time, a third party Amplifier model will sound very similar on a GNX3000 or a GNX4 except for slight unavoidable hardware differences.

( We would appreciate it if some of you could volunteer to test out the first files output with the MEGS software for GNX4, please PM us)

And the not so good news :

We have been having a great time in the last month checking out some famous amplifiers and comparing their tone with our MEGS models.

While our existing Amplifier models are very close indeed to the real thing, our engineers noticed a startling point :

FACT 1: An Amplifier has tone controls. There are some tube stages after the tone stack and then there are the power tubes.

FACT 2: The tubes after the tone stack also create distortion, especially when run hard.

FACT 3: so the tone control is a post-distortion equaliser when the amp is run at low volumes and the tubes after the stack are not producing much distortion.

FACT 4: But the Tone control becomes a pre-distortion equaliser when the power tubes are run hard.

All this leads to the undeniable truth that it is impossible to totally model an Amplifier without modelling the Tone stack at the right place in the chain.

Indeed some Fender and Line6 products rearrange the position of the tone stack depending upon which Amp model they are trying to emulate.

However when studying the GNX4 and GNX3000 architecture, we realised that there is only one major distortion stage that creates 95% or more of the distortion. It is not possible to model some distortion before the tone stack and some after it.

Here comes the bad news. We realised that existing Patch designers who offer us one patch file per Amp model for GNX4/GNX3000 are only modelling one particular setting of the Amp's tone controls and volume level.

Our advanced MEGS software allows us keep the distortion characteristics of an Amp model intact and play around with the tone modeller. Unlike warp, MEGS sees the Tube Preamp as totally separate from the Power tubes !!!

Given that the GNX4 and GNX3000 have no user settable pre-distortion tone knobs, we will need many different patch files to capture the many different settings of tone controls and drive levels of the same Amp.

Or is this actually good news ? Each guitarist has his own favourite setting for Tone controls and his own \"sweet spot\" on the drive. While one guitarist using a particular Amp with his settings will sound vaguely similar to another guitarist playing the same amp at different settings, the changes are quite substantial and identifiable. Not all artists using Marshalls sound exactly the same.

If you had many patch files that emulate the same amp at different tone control settings and drive levels, you can choose your personal favourite spot for that particular Amp !!!

In keeping with our idea of offering the most advanced Amplifier models on the market, we have decided to capture atleast 30 settings for each Amplifier Model that we offer for GNX4/GNX3000. The guitarist can then choose the setting that he likes best.

Our forthcoming models for those harware that model pre-tone stack and post-tone stack distortion will not need so many files.

We are studying a hypothetical Amplifier Model with high gain. We have taken bits of circuits from various popular amps and put them together using SPICE and MEGS.

We have christened this hypothetical Amp as \"GOLD\" as it would be suitable for Metal and High Gain rock. These FREE models should be on our web site within a week. We will use the GNX3000 Archive format so that you can easily test out all 30 flavours with one easy download.

Enjoy !!

Sunil

partch · October 2006

I only saw GNX3000 stuff, not GNX4. How about some GNX4 patches out there??

God Bless!!
Partch

ne1roc · October 2006

\partch\ wrote:

I only saw GNX3000 stuff, not GNX4. How about some GNX4 patches out there??

God Bless!!
Partch

I don't think they have been successful in pirating the MFX series for the GNX4 yet? :shock:

partch · October 2006

\ne1roc\ wrote:

\partch\ wrote:

I only saw GNX3000 stuff, not GNX4. How about some GNX4 patches out there??

God Bless!!
Partch

I don't think they have been successful in pirating the MFX series for the GNX4 yet? :shock:

That's why I was kinda interested. I have MFX Supermodels & love them!! AS far as I'm concearned they are the Gold Standard!! I was Interested to compare some of there freebies which I did not see for the 4 Against the Gold Standard for kicks!! Hey I mean he said that they were free? I certainly would not be into buying anything when I have not even come close to exausting an AWSOME!!! product MFX Supermodels.

God Bless!!
Partch

TonsOfTones · October 2006

\ne1roc\ wrote:

I don't think they have been successful in pirating the MFX series for the GNX4 yet? :shock:

Patches generated by MEGS software are original works.

A) We were aware that there would be a need to prove our claim that MEGS software allows us to alter the pre-equalisers and post-equalisers inside patches to make unique Amplifier Models.

So I got my programmers thinking on how could they make a unique patch where it would be immediately obvious to all that it was not created by warping or by pirating from other sources.

They come up with a fun idea. If we set all the equalisers to only pass 440 Hz and kill all other frequencies, then the GNX3000 will only play an \"A\" irrespective of which note was played on the Guitar.

If this patch will satisfy you, we will put up this file on our site.

Conversely we are aware of the need to prove that a particular patch did or did not originate from us or was made / not made by warping with one of our Amplifier models.

Our future patches will have a digital signature imbedded in them.

philflood · October 2006

I visited the site, but I didn't see any GNX4 patches. I'd love to check them out. I would like to see someone model my Rivera Sedona at 30 different settings, so I could just haul my GNX4 and the PA to gigs. That would be cool!

ne1roc · October 2006

\TonsOfTones\ wrote:

\ne1roc\ wrote:

I don't think they have been successful in pirating the MFX series for the GNX4 yet? :shock:

Patches generated by MEGS software are original works.

A) We were aware that there would be a need to prove our claim that MEGS software allows us to alter the pre-equalisers and post-equalisers inside patches to make unique Amplifier Models.

So I got my programmers thinking on how could they make a unique patch where it would be immediately obvious to all that it was not created by warping or by pirating from other sources.

They come up with a fun idea. If we set all the equalisers to only pass 440 Hz and kill all other frequencies, then the GNX3000 will only play an \"A\" irrespective of which note was played on the Guitar.

If this patch will satisfy you, we will put up this file on our site.

Conversely we are aware of the need to prove that a particular patch did or did not originate from us or was made / not made by warping with one of our Amplifier models.

Our future patches will have a digital signature imbedded in them.

I don't care about your technical mumbo jumbo you fuck heads. Just make it sound good.

TonsOfTones · October 2006

We posted a page about the importance of Tone control placement in an actual amp ( or a model of one)

http://tons-of-tone.tripod.com/tone1.html

In a nutshell :

If a particular Amp has tone controls after the distortion, we can model that effectively on a GNX4/GNX3000 by assuming that the user will set the externally available post-distortion equaliser as per his tone control settings.

But if a particular Amp has tone controls before the distortion, you need many patch files to capture the many colors of the Amp. This is because the GNX4/GNX3000 does not have user definable pre-distortion tone controls.

But in reality, there is distortion both before and after the Tone stack. Only select few MFX units model a distributed distortion. Most normally use \"Lumped Distortion models\"

For Philflood :

Suppose a given modelling hardware captures 70% of the tone of a real Amp.

Suppose we make 30 patch files for one amp. Each captures 70% of the Amp's response but at a different tone setting.

30 patch files NOT equal to 100% of the Amps tone.

We feel that one of the best ways to model distributed distortion is via Analog Tube to FET equivalence conversion. Please see --

http://www.runoffgroove.com/fetzervalve.html
http://www.runoffgroove.com/englishchannel.html
http://www.runoffgroove.com/matchbox.html

You can hear clips of these distributed distortion boxes at

http://www.runoffgroove.com/salvo.html

Enjoy !!

Sunil

iliace · October 2006

\TonsOfTones\ wrote:

by assuming that the user will set the externally available post-distortion equaliser as per his tone control settings.

The most you can assume is that the user will know how to turn on his GNX. And even there, you can't always count on it 100%.

ne1roc · October 2006

\iliace\ wrote:

The most you can assume is that the user will know how to turn on his GNX. And even there, you can't always count on it 100%.

Hey, thats only happened once.........I swear!

TonsOfTones · October 2006

\iliace\ wrote:

The most you can assume is that the user will know how to turn on his GNX. And even there, you can't always count on it 100%.

From that, we understand that simplicity is key !!

If we have 30-60 snapshots of one type of Amp in one Archive file, the user can download them easily in one shot,

spend a few moments on each patch

Decide which one or two sounds he likes best

get rid of the rest

( very similar to the way an end user dials in his desired tone with a real amp, he just twiddles two or three tone controls to his liking and goes with what he is happy with. No need to play with 14 different parametric equaliser parameters !)

( The Archive method of distributing multiple patches is very convenient indeed. We hope that others also start using this method of easily puting 65 patches at a time into the user's MFX for quick trials)

Dobb · October 2006

I visited the site, but I didn't see any GNX4 patches

TonsofTones;

Can you please answer this question...where are the GNX4 patches?

Dobb.

TonsOfTones · October 2006

The programmers from whom we licenced our MEGS software have started work on a module to output our Amplifier models in GNX4 format.

Right now we only have about 16 test patches. These are test patches where our programmers are trying out the various functions of MEGS. They have taken some stock patches from the forum, run it through the analysis module. Then altered the equalisers and the pick dynamics and written it out again in GNX4 format.

( We would appreciate it if some of you could volunteer to test out the first files output with the MEGS software for GNX4, Please PM us for the files)

The many colors of an Amp

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