Tuesday-evening April 12th

Special Line 6 User Group Meeting; Vetta

 

Go to page 11; Page 12 from several pages.

 

Line 6 Amp Workbench perhaps?

Q: Now you have different parts that you put together which brings the mojo back. Also Line 6 is doing Workbench so.. it would be a logical thing to do with something like an Workbench for amps.

Darrell: It would absolutely be logical to do that, unfortunately…
The components interact so much that it’s difficult to discretely chop them up. So the Tone control interacts with the drive and we have to create all these crazy modulation paths and tables. So yes, theoretically, we could give you an Amp Workbench.

But it would be so complicated to make it all function, as you would aspect, that we refrained from doing it thus far, although as we talk about a next generation product. Again it’s going to be very much in mind. And we are keeping it in mind as we architect it, to be sure that we can do it. Workbench has a kind of a future date…

Steve: To give you an analog example of that. If you were to take the front end from a Fender DeLuxe. And then you want to have that pre-amp with the power amp of the JCM 800. In the analog world well, the impedances and the electronic components aren’t matched. So when you put them together it isn’t going to sound like what you would think it would sound like. Then you would have to things the circuitry to get them to behave. And then you no longer have what you thought you had.

It’s a similar thing in the digital domain too. The front end of our DeLuxe and the back end of out 800 if you put them together, they don’t fit. For the same reasons because it translates pretty well. So that is why a kind off an universal tool, like a Workbench for Amps, is an obvious and desirable thing to imagine. But it’s a difficult thing to execute. This is not because you can’t get them lined up, but when you should do that you no longer have the two things that you started with.

Darrell: Many of our amp models have multiple tubes - In order to make it modular we would need to sound design in a certain way. So right now when we jump in on an amp. We just guerilla, just get the sound right. Just use the tools, sometimes in very broken ways to get there. So we have to be a lot more ‘clean’ about how we approach it. This is why, if this is something really desirable, we would jump in and do that work again. So that it would transfer better.

 

 

The modeling proces, piece by piece or block by block

Q: So you probably looked in to Hugher & Kettner’s kitchen, so how do they do that?

Darrell: In general; everyone has their own unique process. Basically. Mmh… Has anyone ever messed around with building distortion pedals? That kind of thing, I mean distortion pedals are pretty simple. But obviously there are 800 varieties of TS9. And everyone is different, right?

The reality is that in a simplistic way, you can do a lot to the tonality of distortion, just by tweaking the pre and post filtering. There are even some applications like amplitude that allow you to have some rough filtering. In a very rough way lets it use you this capability. So many other companies like Amplitude, Hughes & Kettner are doing that in a simplified way. Hughes & Kettner has vintage 30’s in and that makes Hughes & Kettner sound like it does. It’s due to the fact of the really brilliant speakers and the pretty use of their power amp.

Maybe some of you have got a background of having a POD 2.0. with a Mesa Boogie 20/20 power amp into vintage 30’s. Even something simple as that kind of modeling can actually sound pretty decent if the rest of the system is well put together. So a kind of an indirect answer, but it’s all to say that there are different ways to skin the cat.

We choose to really look at it at a block level. Because after experimenting with a bunch of things, and our background with the POD 2.0, we felt that we could get the most character out of everything, the most uniqueness with our current approach.

If you think about it, there are more than 70 amp sounds in the Vetta, and somehow they all sound different. (On a Valvetronix there’s maybe not as much differentiation.) the Valvetronix still a cracking sounding amp. But as you slide between some of the models it’s like a little more subtle actually. You can hear the difference, because some of those guys are using a simpler modeling process, but maybe some other tricks.

 

The same type of amp, but it sounds different

Q: Could you explain why the Mesa Boogie Mark II amp sounds good on the POD 2.0 and it’s completely different in Vetta?

Darrell: We modeled a different Mark II for Vetta. So the first one was probably really close to the Mark II that you heard.

 

Q: Are you going to change it?

Darrell: We can’t find the original because it’s gone. Do you want to send us yours? I’ll send it back in a couple of months, I promise. (laughter). I would love to model a different one if there was a better one out there. More recently we taken it to own the amps we model. With some amp models in Vetta we beg, borrowed, stole or manufacturers sent us a model.

Now that we’re sort of gearing up to potentially go back and we look at some of those models we wished we owned them. The Mark II’s that we have now are clearly different from the first one. In our opinion they don’t sound bad, but I respect your opinion as well.

 

"A hell of an evening last week!"

"..For thise, like me, visiting really outstanding. The demos and all else that was offered was very interesting. The talks between the visitors also added to my knowledge. Thank you and hopefully we'll meet again shortly"

"I wanna thank you for the educational and inspiring evening. Ron Huisen shared his knowledge in a humoristic way and he also helped me out on a problem that I had for a while..."

"...These kinda things are very valueble. Thanks to your commitment for the Vettaville site and these User Group meetings the contact between the amature and the real professionals is made. It speaks for itself when you find yourself, on an ordanairy tuesdaynight, in the company of Line 6 experts and one of Hollands best guitarist ever. I'd like to thank you for your efforts to make these things happen. If you'd like me to help you on another occasion, or you'd like to have an oppinion I'll be more than happy to help out..."

I had a nice chat with Jan Akkerman on the Line 6 gear. I liked the presentation of the Line 6 gear and he's a very good guitarplayer.."