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That interface is amazing. The ability to adjust the amp settings by twisting the switches, the colorful touch screen showing the chain, everything. If they can fix that digital sound this would be a winner.
Live or in studio? I've heard that everything sounds great in the studio, but it just gets really fizzy and tinny live. It has to be seriously EQ'd live (dropping all the high end).
Looks like you installed the v1.1.100 firmware, but you didn't do a factory reset which would have given you the latest factory presets that are all optimized and volume normalized.
Rhett, when the helix came out we had a million channels telling us what to do because the amp models wasn’t great. Move the mic, change the mic, roll off the top end. It went on and on. The fender comes out and the first stock preset gets ripped! Something’s going on here. I hear a very good sound and you say “meh”. Just what I’m perceiving. You’re a great player man but I think you had your mind made up before you took it out the box. I haven’t heard better presets sounds on any other modeler. I think fender has a winner.
Compared to the countless great demos of QCs, FM9s, Helixes etc, nothing here in this video sounded impressive imo. Especially for $1700. It very well could be user error, as I've at least heard some solid clean tones out of the TMP. But the dirty stuff leaves ALOT to be desired compared to its competition.
@@trevor4533 Fair enough. But I’ve heard it on other channels and it sounded awesome to me. Sounded great on this channel as well but the difference in the user is what makes me wonder. I try and be as unbiased as I can. I own a hx effect unit and absolutely love it! These reviewers owe that to us. Fender not going to send me one to try out. If it’s crap, fine. If it’s good that’s fine too. Let’s not forget it did just come out like 3 seconds ago.
@@jeffmaestroI agree. This thing sounds better than any other modeler I’ve heard in a video. I think some reviewers don’t want this to be successful because fender has already stated that you can’t sell presets for it. That’s why they like the helix better. I own a helix and it sounds ok after lots of tweaking and third party irs. But it has never sounded anywhere near this good from a stock preset or simple amp +cab setup.
@@blakeabernathy4051 Thank you for that insight. I didn’t know about the restrictions on the presets. Not saying Rhett has that on his mind but he just seem to undersell this unit I’ve heard other reviewers say it’s great and the FRFR sounds killer too. If it’s good let’s give them credit for the hard work. Thanks again.
Same with Helix and Boss.Building a preset from scratch is what it is about. The UI on here looks great. I usually lo-cut from 80 to 108 and hi-cut anything from 4.5kHz to 5-8kHz. It is entirely dependent on song.
Well done Rhett ! Finally someone speaks (focus on) about the sounds of this unit rather than "friendly user interface", "processing power", etc (or the most I heard was "sounds good..." ?!!!). Excellent review ! Regarding the price, I find it excessively expensive if you look at it as a most probably arm based micro computer. May be it's due to high quality components inside (as Fender's people said), the market, whatever. Again, chapeau for this one !
6:00 I saw another review on this unit where they split the chain, chose a bright cab on one side and deep cab on the other. then when the signal comes back together it automatically gives you a little mixer that lets you really balance your sound without having to eq much. I was amazed how much the sound improved. seemed like it took all the digital harshness away.
I know right! The price on this modeler stuff is getting out of range for a lot of people. They are pushing more and more people to the Neural Amp Modeler which is free and sounds pretty good in a DAW.
I just watched a John Nathan Cordy video comparing the Tone Master to the Helix, and he gets the same sound out of both modelers. I mean, the guy is a tone master himself (bad pun) but given the price difference, I'm happy to see I could get top level sounds out of a helix..
Thanks for being so honest about the sound because it's nice to hear that a pro like yourself isn't crazy about it , especially because I feel the same way after hearing so many video demos. I've joined the digital realm however, I think that it is quite possible that many of us (me included) have forgotten what a real tube amp sounds like. lol. it's nice to see your selection of amps behind you. I'm in the market for a tube amp that has high headroom . if anyone has any suggestions let me know.- please no Mesa Boogie suggestions. Keep up the great work!!!
All the other demos I have heard have this issue. It is more pronounced with Rhett’s set up though. Make sure you are listening with good headphones. Just a hunch but I am thinking this might be designed very much to work with the FRFR cabs. Many of the other demos appear to be using the new FRFR cabs
With fender I always worry about longevity of support. The upper management at fender doesnt have my confidence to support things, especially software for an extended amount of time.
100% Fender support on their DSP products is deplorable. They roll-out new hardware rather than update existing. Their last floor modeler was abandoned in a year! They have been through four iterations of Mustang amps, abandoned the Fender FUSE software needed for the first two iterations, and they haven't updated the latest GTX version, which they still sell new, in almost 2 years!
I would say yes valid concern but fender being the huge company that they are knowing they were going to enter into such a tough segment of the market know that if they don't support it like the other big names they'll easily lose a sale so I am pretty sure they will invest in supporting the tone master. IMO
@@joelanderson6777 Fender was smart to abandon the earlier efforts. They realized they had to compete with the big guys. When they came out with the Tone Master amps I realized they were on the right track. All that processing power for just one amp sound appealed to me. They took it to the next step with the TMP.
Hi, With other modelers, you have to tweak the low cut to 80 hz and the hi cut to 8 Khz. That removes that hi noise on the mics or amps/cabs. (now I see you did that later in the video :D)
I saw another review on this unit where they split the chain, chose a bright cab on one side and deep cab on the other. then when the signal comes back together it automatically gives you a little mixer that lets you really balance your sound without having to eq much. I was amazed how much the sound improved. took all the digital harshnss away.
I think Fender should send one of those units with the FRFR Cab to me too. What the heck why not, every kid and his pet monkey globally is getting one. LOL
yeah i love that "I dont get anything from them" everyone says. No. Just a 1700 Dollar plus Box thingy you can sell afterwards XD. And even then all say "Too expensive"
I just “bought” one, and I am blown away, as I should be with a premium unit! I am at a point where I have to buy the best of these guitar boxes, as I’ve tried and own all the lesser costly ones. I don’t really hear this “digital harshness” he talks about. This thing is a tweakers dream!
If you're going to come in late to the game with a copycat that sounds more digital and inferior to what is on the market today, and you damn well better price it accordingly. This product, while it appears to be built solid, otherwise just doesn't match up with the competition. If they came in at the $600 point, holy shit everyone would buy one. To sell at the same premium that Helix and Kemper do? You better be able to match their tone, and this just doesn't.
I've heard that type of fizz in every modeler I've tried. That in itself isn't a dealbreaker in most cases. It needs to be dealt with in the cab/IR blocks with mic, placement and LP filtering - like you did with the Deluxe. I haven't had good results with global EQ. I think it lies in the fact that in creating IRs, the "standard" is to use an ultra- clean amp that doesn't necessarily have the high end limited on the amp side in the same way a medium gain guitar amp does. In general, amps (real ones) are designed with a certain speaker in mind to compensate for the resonant/impedance bumps that every speaker will impart on the amp, and also shape the high freq response to work with the natural high roll-off of each speaker. You don't have those interactions taken into account in the modeling world. A second point is that when played isolated (not in a mix), modelers (before going through a backline or FRFR speaker) put us in a virtual listening position that a lot of players have never experienced before - your ear is now (virtually) positioned an inch from the speaker. Stuff can sound pretty gnarly there even when you put a real 57 on a real speaker. All that said, I'm still not a big fan of this unit, at least at this price. I'll stick with my Helix. I've learned how to deal with the fizzies on it. And yes, I've heard the same high artifacts on every review of this unit - although on the paid reviews, they don't talk about it much.
Mynoersonal experience with modellers take time to dial in to your specific needs and ears including your output set up . For the listeners/audience it all sounds just fine.
I go way back with the Modelers and have owned Digi Design 11 box, actually bought it twice as I could not believe how bad it was the first time. They are close to or have arrived in this technology. I owned Helix Rack, Kemper Power rack and just bought the Fender, I think they are getting better and better along with all the different software. Its a beautiful World
Frankly the best modeled amp sound I"ve heard , thanks to you Rhett , is the Neural DSP Imperial MK II plugin. So if you don't GIg and have a descent PC or Mac and a good interface , best headphone solution for sure
Good points and video. The fizz you talk about is present in all these devices. Some are more successful as having a nice top end but you still have to tame them. As for the highs I think the high cut at 11k is not enough. First of all it is far above the frequency range of the guitar to be able to do anything. I tend to favor cutting between 5k down to 3.15k depending on how much of that fizz is present. I prefer to do this by assigning a parametric eq after the preamp where I would also tame down the highs. This can be done in the global eq but I like working on each specific amp as there are some nuances that require specific attention.
The “digital fizz” is called aliasing. All digital saturation fx have aliasing aka foldback distortion. The only way to get rid of it is to hard cut the high end or run the audio at 192khz to push the nyquist frequency out of the audible range which takes a lot more cpu power.
To me the crucial thing with amp modelers is the cab. In my experience any kind of harshness/digital sound usually comes from a "bad" cab-sim. A real cab does something to the sound after all the shaping and amplification of the amp/effects that only a cab can do. And digital cabs usually don't have that dialed in out of the box. I use a dedicated cab-sim unit (with IR) and using the lowpass filter there instead of directly in the signal chain for example is a big difference. But amp sims sounds best if they are played into a real cab and I feel that's how most people use it anyway...
What I like about modeling is that every day is like entering an amp and pedal store and choosing a different one and spending hours playing, it's fun. It's like going to Disneyland every day hahaha. But when things get serious and you have concerts coming up, you have to work on the sounds, shape them and get what you need, and modeling is perfect for that. Modeling is another world, we are used to turning on an amp and having it sound with little effort but modeling is another concept, you can do many more things and it is lighter but it forces you to understand how sound works and not everyone is suitable for it.
I like your thoughts on the whole modelling thing. It's fun because it gives you instant access to dozens or hundreds of amps and effects. It's good to have choices like one day, I want a boogie tone, the next day I want a friedman, or a vox, etc. Flexibility is king for me. And I totally agree that it forces the user to understand how the unit works. It's cool if I can own 50+ amps. What's not cool is bringing them all to a gig with my humble hatchback 😅
Don’t have time to watch the whole thing, but should be way more aggressive on the EQ to see if anything you do helps. No dainty moves and sitting there shrugging - crank some knobs quickly to extremes, find the harshness quickly. If no extreme moves at any freq bands help, need something else. My guess is it’s aliasing distortion and you need to put high cuts in before drive is applied.
heres a tip any digital /daw derived preset look at the output level its often plus 7 and more db . set it to 0 and then play with the settings on the amp
I became an Amp modeler guy 20 years ago and haven't looked back. I'm so impressed with how close these Amp modeling units imitate the real sound of the amps. Many gearheads can't tell the difference in blind sound tests. I have found for myself the best unit for myself for the money...The Line 6 POD HD500X ($400 brand new) but shamefully these units are no longer made because the more expensive Helix units are the rave. For me, I can get the sounds of thousands of dollars of amps and effects for a fraction of the price with Amp modelers plus taking up a fraction of the space needed on stage, transporting and storage. It's a win win for me!!
@@billybobhouse9559 great choice! Another benefit I forgot to mention is I believe that Line 6 still has additional amp model package downloads available on their website for really cheap. Maybe some of these used units for sale may already have additional amp models added? The advanced user manual and pilot manual are available online as free PDF files as well!
I’ve watched you for years and learned you are a traditionalist. Stomp boxes and tube amps. To me, you came predisposed to not liking it from the outset and that never seemed to wane.
For 400$ less you get a headrush pedal board with a bigger screen, bigger unit, wah pedal, reamp built in ect. As far as sound quality goes it sounds just as good as Kemper, helix ect imo.
Not sure if I have posted this before (apologies if I have), but the Mission SP1-TMP (co branded and custom paint) unlocks things like volume control, wah and a lot of cool creativity/control. Fender also made it reeeeally easy to set up the expression and the toe switch. Control up to 5 parameters at once and use the toe switch to turn off one or all effects. Be great to see a video covering this :-)
I generally find that on the Kemper, Helix, AX8 and others that the high cut in the speaker or output needs to be down around 6.5 khz to get rid of that fizz. All of the ones you looked at had full 20 khz high cut. That might work well for the new FRFR Fender cabs but I think you may have better results dropping the high cut way down. Most speakers aren't giving you anything above that range anyway.
Agreed. I drop the default Speaker Cab High Cut on my HX Stomp to about 5KHz, which is the Frequency Response of most real Speakers. This fixes a multitude of problems, and makes dialing in simpler, faster, and with better results. 😎
@@picksalot1 It's worth noting that the LPF on the Cab block in Line6 stuff is a different curve to the EQ block. It's much gentler, like a 6dB/Ocv. So 5kHz still lets some of the 8-10k stuff through. It just brings it under control.
@@NedJeffery Yes, I'm aware of that, and it makes EQing the Speaker much more natural. More Line 6 Helix Modeler users should take advantage of this powerful setting when they run into harsh, fizzy highs in their Presets.
I agree that there may be some fizz when Kemper profiles are tweaked, but when I A/B the recording of a real amp with a Kemper profile just made using the same signal-chain there is virtually no audible difference. It works the same whether is is a low or high gain signal. My hope is that the recently released liquid algorithms for modelling the behaviour of front-panel controls may improve things, but I haven't yet tested enough to judge.
42:00 The problem with what Rhett is saying is that taking a deep dive into the tones by changing the global EQ, tweaking the effects and placement and types of microphones etc. on the TMP is very simple and takes little effort or time whereas taking a deep dive into the Fractal or other modelers takes a lot of time and is confusing. In my opinion, Rhett has not given the Fender TMP a fair shake. The TMP is a fantastic piece of gear.
This makes me think of the Boss literature. Boss explains the presets are built based on using a guitar amp speaker. If you use the Boss gear on studio monitors or FR/FR, they recommend high cut at 6k to get guitar amp sounds out of a monitor or FR/FR and kill the annoying highs that a guitar amp speaker doesn’t reproduce well.
@@bmoneybbypeople have crapped all over the Fractal, Kemper, Line6 and QC as well in different channels. Some "pro" players won't touch modelers unless they're just screwing around, but will absolutely only use analog gear to record. Same old story... can you tell the difference in a mix? And if you can, does it necessarily means one is better than the other? The facsimile that these are producing is without argument, just incredible. For anybody over 35, you have a grand appreciation for what these modelers can do having gone through the days of yore when just buying a good amp and cab would break the bank. Now everything is just right there! Amazing tech. Nit picking the first firmware release is kinda lame. I have no doubt that they'll up their game as time goes along. Amp, effects and functionality drops will happen. It seems to me that they're taking this pretty seriously by spitting out so many of these to influencers. Guaranteed they're watching feedback and putting a game plan together. I have faith in them. It just feels like they're going to follow through where some others just appear to be satisfied with their current market positions.
From what I can see the build of it is excellent as is the size of the display to do and see your edits. It think it’s very new and updates will bring it up to speed. It’s funny because I just sold my QC last month because I still use my Kemper Stage far more. QC still not having the desktop editor was also a big reason I sold (and yes I know it's suppose to be out this month) and it’s really good and smart Fender came out with the editor right away with the product. For me unless something really blows away the Kemper (or ToneX as I have that as well) I’m just good where I am. QC was smart to drop the price asap once this was released. QC sounds excellent but Fender has a lot of money to throw at development so it will be interesting to see where it’s at 6 months to a year from now. Appreciate your honest review and look forward to you doing a follow up when you have more time to mess with it. 👍🏻
@@joelanderson6777 Yeah (didn't see that) that wouldn't cut it. I feel they need to get things ramped up and make sure all is well and anything that needs to be addressed would need to be asap especially within the first 6 months. I could see when things are good doing small bug fixes or other every 6 months after the fact.
You know I bought a boss gt1 about 2 years ago and I use it going straight into a pa. Once I started to accept that it’s not an amp and really worked on developing the sound of the pre-amps in the unit, I really came to appreciate what the unit can do. The gt1 continues to serve me well. I think the secret to these units is to accept them for what they are and to spend time perfecting what they can do.
Thanks RS. I found exact or similar “top end” issues with mustang gtx amp which has close to the same interface but way less features. It’s ALWAYS the high end of frequency spectrum I struggle with on almost all digital stuff.
After owning a plethora of these modelers since the DigiTech 21 legend pro rack mount system. Ive owned line 6 Helix floor the Kemper profiler amp several fractal units and this one is by far my favorite as a modeler. If you're somebody with a wall of boutique amps then this is probably not the unit for you. But if you're a gigging musician and you just want something that's easy to adjust on the fly and it sounds pretty damn good this is definitely the unit.
I got one of these and I feel like we are the beta testers... Devices like this seem to follow the live service model which some people might really dislike, mixed feelings myself as I appreciate being able to get hands on and see the differences after the first firmware update which was very well implemented. I think it will be interesting to see where Fender is in one year with this product, once they have a few solid firmware updates I feel it will be a much better apples vs. apples comparison to other units such as the QC / HELIX / FM / HEADRUSH etc. but they all do something a little bit different so one you argue that its never a "fair" comparison and perhaps it comes down to the player themselves, like....what can you as a player get from these type of units that you might not get from an actual amp? For me testing this next to the real amps has been interesting, they are very close in terms of just the amps but the default mic choices for the cabinets were picked from a guy / gal who REALLY likes the Sm7 lol....
That digital sound you are hearing is Aliasing. Honestly the only way to get around that is to have modellers running at very high sample rates. I've had surprisingly good results using things like Amplitube 5 but running at 192k.
most people struggle with it because they either cannot get the get the cabinet VIR to work in either favour or they run it at lower sample rates and deal with aliasing. Personally had amazing result using 3rd party IRs and just upping the sample rate @@69ssrscamaro4
I'm considering a Tone Master and FR10 cab. I like the layout and relatively intuitive controls and touch screen. I'm old, I need simple to use. Hard to buy in on the first-generation run with most technology for me. I appreciate the review and insights. Thanks, Rhett
@@scottkidwell3601 I am too and I love mine .. it makes me focus on playing rather than trying to dial in sounds .. I just wanna jam not program a modeler and this does that. Can’t wait for all the future updates can’t wait to see what they add.
@@msvapehead they certainly need to add something because it doesn't have shit compared to other modelers in the same price bracket (especially in the tone department)
What you are hearing is called "aliasing" and is caused by floating point rounding errors in series being compounded. It is hard to EQ out. It 100% can be fixed with a firmware update to fix the mixing with some smoothing before mixing in the next effect. It is like pixelization in an image, which is visual aliasing. Once it is there it just gets worse the more of it that is mixed together. That is why just amp and one effect sounds ok, but the more effects make it worse and worse. More bits in the sampling fixes this as well. Fuzz is basically analogue aliasing on purpose, it makes the implicit aliasing in the system even more pronounced.
Aliasing is not created by rounding errors but by introducing frequencies above nyquist, which is exactly what happens when you model distortion (adding harmonics). The only real solution to this is to use oversampling, which costs a lot of DSP power. Cliff Chase from Fractal Audio wrote much about this. The reason their units have little to no digital sizzle is because they allocate so much of their DSP to the amp blocks oversampling. Besides, aliasing is a problem strictly relegated to the digital domain. There is no analog counterpart. Fuzz is just jargon for a certain type of analog distortion.
I heard the main designer of the Helix jumped ship and designed this unit for Fender. I like the interface and it seems a little more professional (road worthy). It has a normal power cord because the unit has the power supply internal, not some cheap or bulky power adapter like some other units have. Sounds pretty awesome to me. I wish fractal would make a interface like this, But hopefully Fender will support this unit like the other modeling companies do their products. I still prefer my tube amps for the best tone (I own modelers for their convenience). My new Bad Cat amps sound killer.
Thanks for that info, I know this is a bit unrelated, but would you have heard where the designers from Digitech might have went after the company was sold. I’ve had an Rp355 for years, but now I’m looking for something similar in sound quality
From what little I have heard from the Fender Tonemaster video's till now, Amps don't sound distantly different, they just some like it's one sound with different EQ's, whereas on something like the Helix the Amps sound distantly different , Helix also sounds more organic, for me Helix beats this for now.
I picked one of these up on launch day. Some of the factory presets sound great but I haven’t been able to dial out the harsh frequencies. Using third party IRs helped, but I’m on the verge of returning it. They have a long way to go to catch up with the other units. I had an Axe FX 3 and the Fender is not even in the same league but costs almost as much.
The only thing I see going for this is the build quality and touch screen. Otherwise it is a knock-off helix with inferior tone. I'd return it. Maybe one day, some of these problems will get fixed with the firmware update. I don't want to hold my breath to find out though.
27:48 fixes it by dialing in a high cut, says "that's better", immediately exits without saving and it reverts to the 15khz high cut and undoes the fix.
Glad that you highlighted the issues with the driven sounds. Most other demos have not addressed that but I think most of the stock overdriven sounds are kinda awful. I have to wonder if custom IRS would help
Don't know what's going on, but I've watched every English speaking YT video on the FTMP and hate to say it, but the tones you were getting were the worst by a large margin. Got one of these a few days ago and I'm running it into the amp in on the back of two Boss Katana MKII 100 watt 2/12 and it sounds great. I've got a QC, Helix, HeadRush Prime/Core to compare........Fender did a good job on these and in future updates will only get better. The QC with the boxes with squiggly lines in them or circles or squares. I can't remember which squiggly line was what......a tube screamer or a DS-1 or a Klon.......and the footswitches don't line up with what's going on up on the screen.
I'm waiting for a good non-biased A/B between TMP and Headrush Prime/Core because Prime/Core just does so much more and they are $400 and $700 less expensive respectively! It certainly seems TMP largely copied HR UI. And I have noticed NONE of these reviewers acknowledge that... they act like the TMP UI has never been done before!
I'm a big fan of the HeadRush Prime/Core. Would like to see the FTMP include a routing option similar to HR where you can see your entire effects chain without having to scroll left or right.
The global volumen is at 100 % that's why you have that harsh digital sound. Also, maybe the ground of the electrical system is not good and filter that digital noise.
Hello from Spain. In particular, I think that all these effect modelers have the same problem, some are more noticeable than others. For me, the best is Fractal because it is like a sound laboratory and you can make sounds that you couldn't make with an amplifier and 2000 euros in effects pedals, but still, the sound has to be worked on and these devices force you to understand things about which, the guitarists of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s did not have to understand, what frequency cuts are like, how a speaker works and anything that a Fractal menu may have. Specifically, this Tone Master seems like another device to me, very visually attractive but the sound seems rough to me and the problem is that the sound has to be worked on but that digital roughness is like a fingerprint that is difficult to erase, it may sound higher or lower but it's there. In a band context, no one is going to say that your band sucks because there is a subtle digital harshness in the sound, that only affects the musician and usually not, because you are focused on the performance. In conclusion, I believe that the world of amplification is making its way towards digital, forcing large traditional brands to create shapers to have their share of the market. Personally I have a 20w plexi and with that, the rock has been made for 50 years and it is still being made, I don't see why it should be different now.
Im halfway through and what I’m taking away is that there’s a quite a bit of EQ and other tweaking required to get a good initial tone. I suggest manufacturers start with a “guitar amp” global EQ default setting and allow the user to adjust to full frequency if desired. At $1700 this should sound great out of the box.
It does sound great out of the box. I adjust pretty much all the parameters for headphones, guitar amp or FRFR. The 4 years of R&D, taking the pioneers from Line 6 Helix and have them work at Fender for the Tone Master Pro cost money, the updates are coming at Xmas.
Hey Rhett, great review. But what I would like to see is a blindfold comparison whether you can hear the difference between the real amps and the fender tone master pro.
I'd like to see A/B/C between a TMP Fender amp and the Tonemaster version of same amp and the actual original tube version. I expect TMP will be distant 3rd place.
It's refreshing to see that not everyone is buying the hype. Need to see a lot more testing first. Btw, don't forget the Kemper among alternatives. It may be old, but it is still getting new features implemented. Fender tend to abandon stuff and I doubt there will be functional upgrades to the TMP arriving more than 10 years from now. Liquid profiling, Kempers take on modelling, was just released and if it works out it may remove some of the option-paralysis wrt the endless choice of profiles available. Maybe a handful good profiles combined with the liquid algorithms finally can provide a decent set of tones for a gigging musician.
This is a different beast. There is a micro sd card for further update. I doubt they will drop that. There is even deal being made with official fender artist for tone etc. The unit us powerfull enought that we can even see thing like a multitrack update, wich i suspect why there is a miro sd. So far there us already a nice update.
dude ive been gigging with fender gtx 100. the fender tone app is SSOOOOO easy to use. This one is similar, and it's even better. If you think it's too expensive, dude, i can't recommend going with gtx 50/100 with the app first. It's pretty awesome. This tonemaster pro requires me to get a loan to get it and it better be worth it.
I have been running 4CM with my AXEFX3 for years now thinking the FX were just as good as pedals. I introducted dirt pedals recenlty and couldnt believe how much better it sounded. Then, I added reverb and delay. Game over. Getting rid of my AXEFX as soon as I get my pedalboard up and running soon.
For a fraction of the price you can plug into a Blues Junior- with a couple of pedals ( wampler pinnacle and boss delay in my case) and achieve some very good tones without all the faff or digital harshness.
Agreed, but that is not a realistic comparison. I am not an advocate for the tones that I am hearing out of this, but if we expand our comparison to modelers that get it right (Kemper and Helix) then there is no comparison at all. While you can get good tones out of either, the digital options offer a ton of extra value. They are more portable, have a wider flexibility in tone, make recording much easier, make live performances far more reproducible and reliable, and in the long run will save you money over massive pedal boards. It's just kind of silly to compare an analog amp to a good digital solution.
Sorry- but having used the blues jr with 2 pedals ( including a tuner) for many function band gigs I fail to see how a digital solution for a problem I don’t have being better. Also, my rig is way more portable than I think k you realise- the blues jr being a small combo amp dies not require a second cab for monitoring, making it just a compact as anything else. Moreover the amp sounds a lot nicer to my ear- I expect in part because it’s not trying to be something else- it just is. Not being silly, just honest about what I can hear.
@@richyoung7345 No doubt you can make it work, and 90% of the time, you probably don't need the diversity of a large pedalboard or a range of presets. I will say that it is nice to be able to plug in direct to a PA or mixer. It's a godsend for recording, and it just simplifies everything. However, if you are playing small gigs and just need the sound, the Blues Jr. can deliver. There's no denying it's a great amp at a great price point, and a really convenient size. One complaint I've had is that it doesn't filter dirty power in any way, so you can pick up buzz pretty easy with it. But yeah... And while I do think tubes aren't as unreliable as some people think, it's true that you have a higher chance of a failure in that domain. It doesn't sound like a modeler is for you. You are happy with your sound, and you aren't looking for much beyond that sound. (Which is perfectly fine!) I like a diversity of music, and so when I'm at home, I found my self switching between my Princeton, AC30, DSL30C and my 6505MH. I also have a pedalboard which is way too complicated and too large to take with me. That entire pile of gear has literally collected dust for the past 5 years since I got a Kemper. I get all of that and more in a piece of kit that weighs 10 pounds. /shrug
The digital fizz thing has been there since the start. It was the same discussions in the old Pod 2.0 chats nearly 20 years ago. I remember talking to Neil Diamond’s guitarist, Hadley Hockensmith, and he developed a passive filter box called a “Harmonic Converger” that basically lessened the troubled areas. He needed a modeler as ND demanded a quiet stage. He ended up becoming a Fractal endorsee. But yeah, it was literally the exact same conversation.
I have the same problem with my Spider V Mark II 60 practice amp. Hate all the effects, but there are some really good amp models. I just wish it had an effects loop. The Deluxe Reverb is usable, JTM45 very nice, the Roland JC 120 sounds exactly like the one I had, and the Matchless 30 is what sold me on it at the store. Good enough for a practice amp. But nothing beats my Fender Twin 65 reissue.
About time someone has the balls to be honest and upfront. In Anderton's review trashed the Helix with zero attempt to dial it in and proverbially sucked off Fender the whole time lol
Any chance you'd be up for a follow up Quad Cortex video showing some of your presets? I agree the stock ones are a bit meh...but I get option paralysis when dialing in my own
"Digital harshness" is exactly what I have been hearing in this Fender unit, in all of the videos that I have seen. I love my Quad Cortex, but Line 6 has always been a pioneer. Everyone should know that they are eventually going to drop a bomb on the industry with a new device...the limited DSP of the Helix can only go so far, and a high-res touchscreen is pretty much expected now for prosumer-level modelers.
I wonder if they will bring a light version out for that money am buying an amp or a guitar lol .look forward to what you and Zak have got to say about it on dipped. Cheers man
You should check with Pete Thorn to see if he knows anything about that harshness problem. I've had similar problems with my Two Notes. I narrowed it down to the cab IRs, and Pete's cab IRs don't seem to have that problem. If anything, upload one of his IRs into the Tone Master Pro and see if that harshness goes away. I have a hunch there's something up with the presence frequencies, like you mentioned -- it seems to be inaudible in a live setting.
33:03 Fender could totally do captures. I’ve chatted to some people who have been working on modding the quad cortex and the captures are surprising simple (although training them is a bit tricky)
With 4 loops there are more than enough converters to implement capture. The question is if there are DSP-circuits inside that are optimised for the capture process or if the CPU is powerful enough to do it without.
I'm enjoying mine so far, but I've yet to justify the price tag. I do feel like the clean amps sound much better than my HX Stomp, but I haven't been able to dial in a good lead tone quite yet.
X vs Y axis mnemonic device: the Y axis has a single "tail" that points down as the graph Y axis runs up & down / north & south. The "X" axis has two tails on each side as the X axis runs right to left/ east to west.
I listened but wasn’t watching. Did you try lowering the input gain? Are you possibly clipping the input stage slightly? Also could your headphones be giving you a hyped top end that the audience won’t hear through a PA in a busy mix? Last Q: could that sizzle be solved by plugging into the FRFR? Thx
I had a similar issue with distorting . I reinstalled the firmware and didn’t factory reset after. It sounds great now. Sadly I contacted fender support and will have to apologise when they get back to me.
Next update for Tone Master Pro: Please include a Ducking Delay as on the Boss DD-200. It's my favorite delay. You can do it. Supersonic 22 amp head is great too. Also the '64 Custom Deluxe Reverb. MTG: LA Tube Distortion. '57 Custom Champ. Champ 25SE. Mesa Boogie Triple Crown Head. Roland Blues Cube Hot and Roland Blues Cube Hot British EL84 Modified. Mesa Boogie Fillmore 50. Boss Nextone Special. Try 10 minutes of two track like RC-500 Looper. Boss OC-5. Boss OD-200 Metal preset.
Rhett, I really would have liked to see your opinion of this going into Fender’s new FRFR 1x12 cab with an SM57 set up in your usual way. I really wonder how that lack of a real speaker is impacting the impression here. That said I can understand your apples to apples comparison with other modelers directly into the interface. I just wonder how it’d sound to you in the room, vs. the other Fender digital amps that you said you’ve liked.
I feel the QC suffers that same harsh distortion on top of the distortion. But in other demo / reviews of the tone master pro that ive seen i didnt think it was as big of an issue as it seem to be in your demo? I wonder if the pickups in the guitar are a little hot and if there is a trim / pad / meter on the tone master input to tell if its getting pushed a bit too much? There is in the QC
I had this issue with my eclipse and there is a -6 db pad option that works wonders! (There is no meter to tell you if you are clipping BUT your ears will do a good job of hearing when its not)
On every review I’ve watched about this thing, no one has addressed the digital sounding nature of it. Thank you for being honest! This thing LOOKS awesome, love the interface, but it sounds like the OG Pods back in the day… not good. I’m still team QC. (Just wish it had USB-C.) All in good time. Good review, Rhett!
Also, would love to see this toe-to-toe with the QC. Like AC v. AC, Plexi v Plexi, etc. (Those EVH tones are awful to me too. Maybe something comparable on a head to head.) Just a thought. 🤷♂️
Andertons did this. But I think there approach was not great. All of the modeler units don’t sound too great out of the box. They really should have spent some time dialing in great sounds on each unit and then compare. I think all of them can sound pretty great when dialed in properly (jury’s still out on tone master driven tone though) @@JoshFryer
@@otfan522botjournalismisdea2 that Anderton’s video is in my watch later cuz it’s long AF, but I want a deep dive of just the two. No offense to the others in their video, but they’re too much for me. I’m a guitar player, not a rocket surgeon! 🤣
I'd really love to hear you play around with S-Gear. For my main two sounds of blackface and tweed fender I generally prefer it to the modelers I've owned.
I think Rhett is looking at this only in a preset mode way. I understand presets are important but TRUST me you are going to build your own. And they sound amazing
I love that digital amps are getting hard to tell apart, but this old simpleton prefers a good tube amp with knobs and a few pedals. I don't want to have to take night classes to figure out how to use my amp. Seems like every 5 to 10 years the digital technology stops having technical support. Looking at you Fender G-DEC...
Hello First of all, thank you for another excellent review. I am interested in the following. Since I have a Mustang GTX 100 and am a studio producer, is it worth buying Tone Master Pro just for sounds? Does Tone master really have that much better presets and sounds if I record directly in DAW from XLR or USB? Thank you.
Im so glad you were honest about this unit, as it is. The basic ground work is IN PLACE..the OS, the visibilty of sounds (very WYSIWYG)...but certain things..quite far from ready. I hope Fender gets to work on an upgrade.
I totally agree with how every modeller has way too much high end information by default. I usually shelf the IR at least at 9k. Some amp models I take all the way down to 6k. Just so many unnecessary frequencies and live it just sounds harsh.
I find that presets are mainly just a starting point and people usually do not find presets "perfect" and need to make adjustments. The great thing is, the Tone Master Pro seems to have all the tools to tweak your way towards the heavily sound you seek. Then it's packaged in such a great form factor and the UI is far better than anything I've seen so far. The best part is Fender clearly isn't done with the firmware either. With that said, I don't find leveling negativity on a "preset" exactly a fair way to judge a modeller. You can't please everyone with a preset. That's more like judging a book by it's cover rather than the story written on the pages.
I have one of the newer Fender modeling amps and the presets were pretty awful. I was able to play around and in a very short time dial up some excellent sounds that I’m very happy with. I would happily do small gigs with it. It’s light as hell and I don’t have to worry about a power amp tube puking on me in the first set. I’m really considering this Tone Master Pro as well.
You guys are very fortunate in the USA , the fender unit is 2350 in Australia and the FM9 and QC are 3200-3300 with zero availability If either of those units were in the same ball park in price here I’d jump on it In fact the tone master pro is 500 less than a helix floor
Hiss is usually poor ground or input too high. Considering your using a separate audio interface, I would say it may be the input set too high somewhere along the line. Can just roll back to 9 or so and stop it usually if input level is the issue.
I hear the harshness as well, and noticed it on other guitar DI amp sims I've tried. I wonder if its more of a cab sim/IR issue, as in the speaker sim isnt rolling off or rounding out the clipping the way a real speaker would. When I run my DSM SImplifier (which can have a bit of that harshness) into an amp cabinet it definitely sounds better. Maybe a similar thing here?
Try to cut 1.4k. I like this thing a lot. This thing is the solution for the Home studio Amp shelf. I dont know live, but in the studio is perfect for the majority of the earthlings...
If you can’t get great tones with this. It’s you. Best by far of the offerings
That interface is amazing. The ability to adjust the amp settings by twisting the switches, the colorful touch screen showing the chain, everything. If they can fix that digital sound this would be a winner.
I run mine through a tweed champ and it smooths out everything. Desk top toy…it’s getting me to play more and that’s what gear is all about.
I have it and love it. I don’t have that harsh fuzzy issue. Mine sounds really good
Same here mine sounds fantastic
No issue with me also..it might be simply the mic choice/position....
@@algorithm007ifyIt also might be bias. It seems like he went into this video with his mind already made up.
Live or in studio? I've heard that everything sounds great in the studio, but it just gets really fizzy and tinny live. It has to be seriously EQ'd live (dropping all the high end).
@@davelanciani-dimaensionx I used mine live last night and it sounded great. No harsh sounds
Looks like you installed the v1.1.100 firmware, but you didn't do a factory reset which would have given you the latest factory presets that are all optimized and volume normalized.
Rhett, when the helix came out we had a million channels telling us what to do because the amp models wasn’t great.
Move the mic, change the mic, roll off the top end. It went on and on.
The fender comes out and the first stock preset gets ripped! Something’s going on here.
I hear a very good sound and you say “meh”. Just what I’m perceiving. You’re a great player man but I think you had your mind made up before you took it out the box.
I haven’t heard better presets sounds on any other modeler. I think fender has a winner.
Compared to the countless great demos of QCs, FM9s, Helixes etc, nothing here in this video sounded impressive imo. Especially for $1700.
It very well could be user error, as I've at least heard some solid clean tones out of the TMP. But the dirty stuff leaves ALOT to be desired compared to its competition.
@@trevor4533 Fair enough. But I’ve heard it on other channels and it sounded awesome to me. Sounded great on this channel as well but the difference in the user is what makes me wonder.
I try and be as unbiased as I can. I own a hx effect unit and absolutely love it! These reviewers owe that to us. Fender not going to send me one to try out. If it’s crap, fine. If it’s good that’s fine too.
Let’s not forget it did just come out like 3 seconds ago.
@@jeffmaestroI agree. This thing sounds better than any other modeler I’ve heard in a video. I think some reviewers don’t want this to be successful because fender has already stated that you can’t sell presets for it. That’s why they like the helix better. I own a helix and it sounds ok after lots of tweaking and third party irs. But it has never sounded anywhere near this good from a stock preset or simple amp +cab setup.
@@blakeabernathy4051 Thank you for that insight. I didn’t know about the restrictions on the presets. Not saying Rhett has that on his mind but he just seem to undersell this unit
I’ve heard other reviewers say it’s great and the FRFR sounds killer too. If it’s good let’s give them credit for the hard work. Thanks again.
The other channels had the same issue. Just not as pronounced as in Rhett’s set up. @@jeffmaestro
Same with Helix and Boss.Building a preset from scratch is what it is about.
The UI on here looks great.
I usually lo-cut from 80 to 108 and hi-cut anything from 4.5kHz to 5-8kHz. It is entirely dependent on song.
Well done Rhett ! Finally someone speaks (focus on) about the sounds of this unit rather than "friendly user interface", "processing power", etc (or the most I heard was "sounds good..." ?!!!). Excellent review ! Regarding the price, I find it excessively expensive if you look at it as a most probably arm based micro computer. May be it's due to high quality components inside (as Fender's people said), the market, whatever. Again, chapeau for this one !
6:00 I saw another review on this unit where they split the chain, chose a bright cab on one side and deep cab on the other. then when the signal comes back together it automatically gives you a little mixer that lets you really balance your sound without having to eq much. I was amazed how much the sound improved. seemed like it took all the digital harshness away.
Thank you for your honesty and your integrity Rhett
Thank you! You are the first reviewer to mention the digital artifacts ai heard right away on every preset
Aw, I liked the shimmer 🙂 Great video, Rhett, hours of fun and inspiration could be had playing with that gear 👍🎸🔊🎵🎶
Good point on the Hi Cut , the first thing I do with my multi effects units is turn the Hi Cut and Lo Cut off . It greatly improves the tone .
A $200 strat is $2000, so a $300 modeler is $1700. Sounds about right. You go get'em Fender!!!! Can't wait for the Squier version ;)
I know right! The price on this modeler stuff is getting out of range for a lot of people. They are pushing more and more people to the Neural Amp Modeler which is free and sounds pretty good in a DAW.
I just watched a John Nathan Cordy video comparing the Tone Master to the Helix, and he gets the same sound out of both modelers.
I mean, the guy is a tone master himself (bad pun) but given the price difference, I'm happy to see I could get top level sounds out of a helix..
Thanks for being so honest about the sound because it's nice to hear that a pro like yourself isn't crazy about it , especially because I feel the same way after hearing so many video demos. I've joined the digital realm however, I think that it is quite possible that many of us (me included) have forgotten what a real tube amp sounds like. lol. it's nice to see your selection of amps behind you. I'm in the market for a tube amp that has high headroom . if anyone has any suggestions let me know.- please no Mesa Boogie suggestions. Keep up the great work!!!
Bugera v22 or v55 . Fantastic good sounding amps and cheap too.
Ive watched multiple people review this and none of them had this harshness issue. Ill be buying one soon.
Cain't hide money...
I am loving it you will like it
All the other demos I have heard have this issue. It is more pronounced with Rhett’s set up though. Make sure you are listening with good headphones.
Just a hunch but I am thinking this might be designed very much to work with the FRFR cabs. Many of the other demos appear to be using the new FRFR cabs
Go for it I love mine as well .. if its good enough for EVH its good enough for me 🤘
@@msvapehead- EVH… huh?
With fender I always worry about longevity of support. The upper management at fender doesnt have my confidence to support things, especially software for an extended amount of time.
100% Fender support on their DSP products is deplorable. They roll-out new hardware rather than update existing. Their last floor modeler was abandoned in a year! They have been through four iterations of Mustang amps, abandoned the Fender FUSE software needed for the first two iterations, and they haven't updated the latest GTX version, which they still sell new, in almost 2 years!
I would say yes valid concern but fender being the huge company that they are knowing they were going to enter into such a tough segment of the market know that if they don't support it like the other big names they'll easily lose a sale so I am pretty sure they will invest in supporting the tone master. IMO
@@joelanderson6777 Fender was smart to abandon the earlier efforts. They realized they had to compete with the big guys. When they came out with the Tone Master amps I realized they were on the right track. All that processing power for just one amp sound appealed to me. They took it to the next step with the TMP.
Hi, With other modelers, you have to tweak the low cut to 80 hz and the hi cut to 8 Khz. That removes that hi noise on the mics or amps/cabs. (now I see you did that later in the video :D)
I saw another review on this unit where they split the chain, chose a bright cab on one side and deep cab on the other. then when the signal comes back together it automatically gives you a little mixer that lets you really balance your sound without having to eq much. I was amazed how much the sound improved. took all the digital harshnss away.
Very true this in the Helix
I think Fender should send one of those units with the FRFR Cab to me too. What the heck why not, every kid and his pet monkey globally is getting one. LOL
Their marketing does seem a bit desperate and from what I can tell so far they'll have a hard time justifying the price tag.
yeah i love that "I dont get anything from them" everyone says. No. Just a 1700 Dollar plus Box thingy you can sell afterwards XD. And even then all say "Too expensive"
I just “bought” one, and I am blown away, as I should be with a premium unit! I am at a point where I have to buy the best of these guitar boxes, as I’ve tried and own all the lesser costly ones. I don’t really hear this “digital harshness” he talks about. This thing is a tweakers dream!
The victory has defeated You... Fender destroy himself, they don't put love in their products :/... it's a shame
If you're going to come in late to the game with a copycat that sounds more digital and inferior to what is on the market today, and you damn well better price it accordingly. This product, while it appears to be built solid, otherwise just doesn't match up with the competition. If they came in at the $600 point, holy shit everyone would buy one. To sell at the same premium that Helix and Kemper do? You better be able to match their tone, and this just doesn't.
I've heard that type of fizz in every modeler I've tried. That in itself isn't a dealbreaker in most cases. It needs to be dealt with in the cab/IR blocks with mic, placement and LP filtering - like you did with the Deluxe. I haven't had good results with global EQ. I think it lies in the fact that in creating IRs, the "standard" is to use an ultra- clean amp that doesn't necessarily have the high end limited on the amp side in the same way a medium gain guitar amp does. In general, amps (real ones) are designed with a certain speaker in mind to compensate for the resonant/impedance bumps that every speaker will impart on the amp, and also shape the high freq response to work with the natural high roll-off of each speaker. You don't have those interactions taken into account in the modeling world.
A second point is that when played isolated (not in a mix), modelers (before going through a backline or FRFR speaker) put us in a virtual listening position that a lot of players have never experienced before - your ear is now (virtually) positioned an inch from the speaker. Stuff can sound pretty gnarly there even when you put a real 57 on a real speaker. All that said, I'm still not a big fan of this unit, at least at this price. I'll stick with my Helix. I've learned how to deal with the fizzies on it. And yes, I've heard the same high artifacts on every review of this unit - although on the paid reviews, they don't talk about it much.
You are the first one that mentioned the top end harshness. Yes!!!
it's just cab/mic selection. it's not rocket science..Some amps actually sound harsh with the SM57!
Mynoersonal experience with modellers take time to dial in to your specific needs and ears including your output set up . For the listeners/audience it all sounds just fine.
I go way back with the Modelers and have owned Digi Design 11 box, actually bought it twice as I could not believe how bad it was the first time. They are close to or have arrived in this technology. I owned Helix Rack, Kemper Power rack and just bought the Fender, I think they are getting better and better along with all the different software. Its a beautiful World
Frankly the best modeled amp sound I"ve heard , thanks to you Rhett , is the Neural DSP Imperial MK II plugin. So if you don't GIg and have a descent PC or Mac and a good interface , best headphone solution for sure
+1 on this, it’s fantastic
Good points and video. The fizz you talk about is present in all these devices. Some are more successful as having a nice top end but you still have to tame them.
As for the highs I think the high cut at 11k is not enough. First of all it is far above the frequency range of the guitar to be able to do anything.
I tend to favor cutting between 5k down to 3.15k depending on how much of that fizz is present. I prefer to do this by assigning a parametric eq after the preamp where I would also tame down the highs. This can be done in the global eq but I like working on each specific amp as there are some nuances that require specific attention.
The “digital fizz” is called aliasing. All digital saturation fx have aliasing aka foldback distortion. The only way to get rid of it is to hard cut the high end or run the audio at 192khz to push the nyquist frequency out of the audible range which takes a lot more cpu power.
To me the crucial thing with amp modelers is the cab. In my experience any kind of harshness/digital sound usually comes from a "bad" cab-sim. A real cab does something to the sound after all the shaping and amplification of the amp/effects that only a cab can do. And digital cabs usually don't have that dialed in out of the box. I use a dedicated cab-sim unit (with IR) and using the lowpass filter there instead of directly in the signal chain for example is a big difference.
But amp sims sounds best if they are played into a real cab and I feel that's how most people use it anyway...
Appreciate the sincere review.
What I like about modeling is that every day is like entering an amp and pedal store and choosing a different one and spending hours playing, it's fun.
It's like going to Disneyland every day hahaha.
But when things get serious and you have concerts coming up, you have to work on the sounds, shape them and get what you need, and modeling is perfect for that. Modeling is another world, we are used to turning on an amp and having it sound with little effort but modeling is another concept, you can do many more things and it is lighter but it forces you to understand how sound works and not everyone is suitable for it.
I like your thoughts on the whole modelling thing. It's fun because it gives you instant access to dozens or hundreds of amps and effects. It's good to have choices like one day, I want a boogie tone, the next day I want a friedman, or a vox, etc. Flexibility is king for me. And I totally agree that it forces the user to understand how the unit works. It's cool if I can own 50+ amps. What's not cool is bringing them all to a gig with my humble hatchback 😅
Don’t have time to watch the whole thing, but should be way more aggressive on the EQ to see if anything you do helps. No dainty moves and sitting there shrugging - crank some knobs quickly to extremes, find the harshness quickly. If no extreme moves at any freq bands help, need something else.
My guess is it’s aliasing distortion and you need to put high cuts in before drive is applied.
heres a tip any digital /daw derived preset look at the output level its often plus 7 and more db . set it to 0 and then play with the settings on the amp
Gain staging (in and out) and EQ are critical for modelers. Not sure why he didn't throw a 10 band eq at the end of the chain and fiddle around a bit.
@@56breverhe did. There's a global output EQ he twiddled somewhere.
I became an Amp modeler guy 20 years ago and haven't looked back. I'm so impressed with how close these Amp modeling units imitate the real sound of the amps. Many gearheads can't tell the difference in blind sound tests. I have found for myself the best unit for myself for the money...The Line 6 POD HD500X ($400 brand new) but shamefully these units are no longer made because the more expensive Helix units are the rave. For me, I can get the sounds of thousands of dollars of amps and effects for a fraction of the price with Amp modelers plus taking up a fraction of the space needed on stage, transporting and storage. It's a win win for me!!
I've got a dt25 amp. I'm thinking of picking up a used pod hd500x to use with it.
@@billybobhouse9559 great choice! Another benefit I forgot to mention is I believe that Line 6 still has additional amp model package downloads available on their website for really cheap. Maybe some of these used units for sale may already have additional amp models added? The advanced user manual and pilot manual are available online as free PDF files as well!
I’ve watched you for years and learned you are a traditionalist. Stomp boxes and tube amps. To me, you came predisposed to not liking it from the outset and that never seemed to wane.
As always you make it sound good- better than some of the other testers
For 400$ less you get a headrush pedal board with a bigger screen, bigger unit, wah pedal, reamp built in ect. As far as sound quality goes it sounds just as good as Kemper, helix ect imo.
At 13:11, I believe you need to activate the outputs on the global eq (bottom right). Your adjustment was not coming through the audio.
Not sure if I have posted this before (apologies if I have), but the Mission SP1-TMP (co branded and custom paint) unlocks things like volume control, wah and a lot of cool creativity/control. Fender also made it reeeeally easy to set up the expression and the toe switch. Control up to 5 parameters at once and use the toe switch to turn off one or all effects. Be great to see a video covering this :-)
At $175, it better play the guitar for me. That price is ridiculous
I generally find that on the Kemper, Helix, AX8 and others that the high cut in the speaker or output needs to be down around 6.5 khz to get rid of that fizz. All of the ones you looked at had full 20 khz high cut. That might work well for the new FRFR Fender cabs but I think you may have better results dropping the high cut way down. Most speakers aren't giving you anything above that range anyway.
Agreed. I drop the default Speaker Cab High Cut on my HX Stomp to about 5KHz, which is the Frequency Response of most real Speakers. This fixes a multitude of problems, and makes dialing in simpler, faster, and with better results. 😎
@@picksalot1 It's worth noting that the LPF on the Cab block in Line6 stuff is a different curve to the EQ block. It's much gentler, like a 6dB/Ocv. So 5kHz still lets some of the 8-10k stuff through. It just brings it under control.
@@NedJeffery Yes, I'm aware of that, and it makes EQing the Speaker much more natural. More Line 6 Helix Modeler users should take advantage of this powerful setting when they run into harsh, fizzy highs in their Presets.
I agree that there may be some fizz when Kemper profiles are tweaked, but when I A/B the recording of a real amp with a Kemper profile just made using the same signal-chain there is virtually no audible difference. It works the same whether is is a low or high gain signal. My hope is that the recently released liquid algorithms for modelling the behaviour of front-panel controls may improve things, but I haven't yet tested enough to judge.
42:00 The problem with what Rhett is saying is that taking a deep dive into the tones by changing the global EQ, tweaking the effects and placement and types of microphones etc. on the TMP is very simple and takes little effort or time whereas taking a deep dive into the Fractal or other modelers takes a lot of time and is confusing. In my opinion, Rhett has not given the Fender TMP a fair shake. The TMP is a fantastic piece of gear.
This makes me think of the Boss literature. Boss explains the presets are built based on using a guitar amp speaker. If you use the Boss gear on studio monitors or FR/FR, they recommend high cut at 6k to get guitar amp sounds out of a monitor or FR/FR and kill the annoying highs that a guitar amp speaker doesn’t reproduce well.
Ya, not a good start. They sent this unit to all these people who aren't very good at using it haha. It's coming across like it sounds shetty.
@@bmoneybbypeople have crapped all over the Fractal, Kemper, Line6 and QC as well in different channels. Some "pro" players won't touch modelers unless they're just screwing around, but will absolutely only use analog gear to record. Same old story... can you tell the difference in a mix? And if you can, does it necessarily means one is better than the other?
The facsimile that these are producing is without argument, just incredible.
For anybody over 35, you have a grand appreciation for what these modelers can do having gone through the days of yore when just buying a good amp and cab would break the bank. Now everything is just right there! Amazing tech. Nit picking the first firmware release is kinda lame. I have no doubt that they'll up their game as time goes along. Amp, effects and functionality drops will happen. It seems to me that they're taking this pretty seriously by spitting out so many of these to influencers. Guaranteed they're watching feedback and putting a game plan together. I have faith in them. It just feels like they're going to follow through where some others just appear to be satisfied with their current market positions.
I appreciate your honest opinion on this!!!
From what I can see the build of it is excellent as is the size of the display to do and see your edits. It think it’s very new and updates will bring it up to speed. It’s funny because I just sold my QC last month because I still use my Kemper Stage far more. QC still not having the desktop editor was also a big reason I sold (and yes I know it's suppose to be out this month) and it’s really good and smart Fender came out with the editor right away with the product. For me unless something really blows away the Kemper (or ToneX as I have that as well) I’m just good where I am. QC was smart to drop the price asap once this was released. QC sounds excellent but Fender has a lot of money to throw at development so it will be interesting to see where it’s at 6 months to a year from now. Appreciate your honest review and look forward to you doing a follow up when you have more time to mess with it. 👍🏻
Fender anticipates firmware updates "every six months." That's not going to cut it! And they haven't updated their Mustang GTX in almost 2 years!
@@joelanderson6777 Yeah (didn't see that) that wouldn't cut it. I feel they need to get things ramped up and make sure all is well and anything that needs to be addressed would need to be asap especially within the first 6 months. I could see when things are good doing small bug fixes or other every 6 months after the fact.
You know I bought a boss gt1 about 2 years ago and I use it going straight into a pa. Once I started to accept that it’s not an amp and really worked on developing the sound of the pre-amps in the unit, I really came to appreciate what the unit can do. The gt1 continues to serve me well. I think the secret to these units is to accept them for what they are and to spend time perfecting what they can do.
Bingo!
Thanks RS. I found exact or similar “top end” issues with mustang gtx amp which has close to the same interface but way less features. It’s ALWAYS the high end of frequency spectrum I struggle with on almost all digital stuff.
After owning a plethora of these modelers since the DigiTech 21 legend pro rack mount system. Ive owned line 6 Helix floor the Kemper profiler amp several fractal units and this one is by far my favorite as a modeler. If you're somebody with a wall of boutique amps then this is probably not the unit for you. But if you're a gigging musician and you just want something that's easy to adjust on the fly and it sounds pretty damn good this is definitely the unit.
I been LOVING the TMP.
I got one of these and I feel like we are the beta testers... Devices like this seem to follow the live service model which some people might really dislike, mixed feelings myself as I appreciate being able to get hands on and see the differences after the first firmware update which was very well implemented. I think it will be interesting to see where Fender is in one year with this product, once they have a few solid firmware updates I feel it will be a much better apples vs. apples comparison to other units such as the QC / HELIX / FM / HEADRUSH etc. but they all do something a little bit different so one you argue that its never a "fair" comparison and perhaps it comes down to the player themselves, like....what can you as a player get from these type of units that you might not get from an actual amp? For me testing this next to the real amps has been interesting, they are very close in terms of just the amps but the default mic choices for the cabinets were picked from a guy / gal who REALLY likes the Sm7 lol....
I like the Fender Tone Master Pro and the HX Stomp. I hooked the Ibanez QX527PB to TMP I forgot all about single coil noise.
Nice! Thanks, brother. Been wondering about this one after abandoning an old Boss ME50 😂❤💯
That digital sound you are hearing is Aliasing. Honestly the only way to get around that is to have modellers running at very high sample rates. I've had surprisingly good results using things like Amplitube 5 but running at 192k.
I have Amplitude 5 as well and the Fender licensed amps sound really good.
most people struggle with it because they either cannot get the get the cabinet VIR to work in either favour or they run it at lower sample rates and deal with aliasing. Personally had amazing result using 3rd party IRs and just upping the sample rate
@@69ssrscamaro4
I ran my AxeFx ii through an old analog mixer and it makes a hell lot of difference.
I'm considering a Tone Master and FR10 cab. I like the layout and relatively intuitive controls and touch screen. I'm old, I need simple to use.
Hard to buy in on the first-generation run with most technology for me.
I appreciate the review and insights.
Thanks, Rhett
I've been saying since the day it was leaked that it's a modeler aimed straight at boomers...
...Voila.
@@judaspriestly88i think you mean Gen X we are the kids from the 80’s Van Halen was in their prime.
@msvapehead - thanks... yeah, I'm GenX.
@@scottkidwell3601 I am too and I love mine .. it makes me focus on playing rather than trying to dial in sounds .. I just wanna jam not program a modeler and this does that. Can’t wait for all the future updates can’t wait to see what they add.
@@msvapehead they certainly need to add something because it doesn't have shit compared to other modelers in the same price bracket (especially in the tone department)
What you are hearing is called "aliasing" and is caused by floating point rounding errors in series being compounded. It is hard to EQ out. It 100% can be fixed with a firmware update to fix the mixing with some smoothing before mixing in the next effect. It is like pixelization in an image, which is visual aliasing. Once it is there it just gets worse the more of it that is mixed together. That is why just amp and one effect sounds ok, but the more effects make it worse and worse. More bits in the sampling fixes this as well. Fuzz is basically analogue aliasing on purpose, it makes the implicit aliasing in the system even more pronounced.
Aliasing is not created by rounding errors but by introducing frequencies above nyquist, which is exactly what happens when you model distortion (adding harmonics). The only real solution to this is to use oversampling, which costs a lot of DSP power. Cliff Chase from Fractal Audio wrote much about this. The reason their units have little to no digital sizzle is because they allocate so much of their DSP to the amp blocks oversampling.
Besides, aliasing is a problem strictly relegated to the digital domain. There is no analog counterpart. Fuzz is just jargon for a certain type of analog distortion.
I heard the main designer of the Helix jumped ship and designed this unit for Fender. I like the interface and it seems a little more professional (road worthy). It has a normal power cord because the unit has the power supply internal, not some cheap or bulky power adapter like some other units have. Sounds pretty awesome to me. I wish fractal would make a interface like this, But hopefully Fender will support this unit like the other modeling companies do their products. I still prefer my tube amps for the best tone (I own modelers for their convenience). My new Bad Cat amps sound killer.
Thanks for that info, I know this is a bit unrelated, but would you have heard where the designers from Digitech might have went after the company was sold. I’ve had an Rp355 for years, but now I’m looking for something similar in sound quality
I think I had heard at one point a couple of the guys went to work at Line6(Yamaha). Don't take this info as 100% correct. @@HenryMusic255
From what little I have heard from the Fender Tonemaster video's till now, Amps don't sound distantly different, they just some like it's one sound with different EQ's, whereas on something like the Helix the Amps sound distantly different , Helix also sounds more organic, for me Helix beats this for now.
Keep in mind this is fenders first firmware version of this unit, as the other top modelers have several updated firmware versions.
I picked one of these up on launch day. Some of the factory presets sound great but I haven’t been able to dial out the harsh frequencies. Using third party IRs helped, but I’m on the verge of returning it. They have a long way to go to catch up with the other units. I had an Axe FX 3 and the Fender is not even in the same league but costs almost as much.
The only thing I see going for this is the build quality and touch screen. Otherwise it is a knock-off helix with inferior tone. I'd return it. Maybe one day, some of these problems will get fixed with the firmware update. I don't want to hold my breath to find out though.
@@Dartheomusthe TMP blew the Helix away in another video. Helix is old and in serious need of a refresh.
@@70mcnevin I'm still a Kemper user. It's arguably older yet, but still damned good.
@@70mcnevinwhich vid? The Anderton’s one where they slapped a mono effect on the end of the signal chain and complained it sounded 2 dimensional?
27:48 fixes it by dialing in a high cut, says "that's better", immediately exits without saving and it reverts to the 15khz high cut and undoes the fix.
Glad that you highlighted the issues with the driven sounds. Most other demos have not addressed that but I think most of the stock overdriven sounds are kinda awful. I have to wonder if custom IRS would help
On most of the stock presets Fender used the same mic on all the cabs, it is not typical of what most people would use.
Don't know what's going on, but I've watched every English speaking YT video on the FTMP and hate to say it, but the tones you were getting were the worst by a large margin. Got one of these a few days ago and I'm running it into the amp in on the back of two Boss Katana MKII 100 watt 2/12 and it sounds great. I've got a QC, Helix, HeadRush Prime/Core to compare........Fender did a good job on these and in future updates will only get better. The QC with the boxes with squiggly lines in them or circles or squares. I can't remember which squiggly line was what......a tube screamer or a DS-1 or a Klon.......and the footswitches don't line up with what's going on up on the screen.
I'm waiting for a good non-biased A/B between TMP and Headrush Prime/Core because Prime/Core just does so much more and they are $400 and $700 less expensive respectively! It certainly seems TMP largely copied HR UI. And I have noticed NONE of these reviewers acknowledge that... they act like the TMP UI has never been done before!
I'm a big fan of the HeadRush Prime/Core. Would like to see the FTMP include a routing option similar to HR where you can see your entire effects chain without having to scroll left or right.
The global volumen is at 100 % that's why you have that harsh digital sound. Also, maybe the ground of the electrical system is not good and filter that digital noise.
Hello from Spain. In particular, I think that all these effect modelers have the same problem, some are more noticeable than others. For me, the best is Fractal because it is like a sound laboratory and you can make sounds that you couldn't make with an amplifier and 2000 euros in effects pedals, but still, the sound has to be worked on and these devices force you to understand things about which, the guitarists of the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s did not have to understand, what frequency cuts are like, how a speaker works and anything that a Fractal menu may have.
Specifically, this Tone Master seems like another device to me, very visually attractive but the sound seems rough to me and the problem is that the sound has to be worked on but that digital roughness is like a fingerprint that is difficult to erase, it may sound higher or lower but it's there. In a band context, no one is going to say that your band sucks because there is a subtle digital harshness in the sound, that only affects the musician and usually not, because you are focused on the performance. In conclusion, I believe that the world of amplification is making its way towards digital, forcing large traditional brands to create shapers to have their share of the market. Personally I have a 20w plexi and with that, the rock has been made for 50 years and it is still being made, I don't see why it should be different now.
Im halfway through and what I’m taking away is that there’s a quite a bit of EQ and other tweaking required to get a good initial tone. I suggest manufacturers start with a “guitar amp” global EQ default setting and allow the user to adjust to full frequency if desired. At $1700 this should sound great out of the box.
It does sound great out of the box. I adjust pretty much all the parameters for headphones, guitar amp or FRFR. The 4 years of R&D, taking the pioneers from Line 6 Helix and have them work at Fender for the Tone Master Pro cost money, the updates are coming at Xmas.
yes you got it Rhett, x is horizontal, y is vertical 👍
Hey Rhett, great review. But what I would like to see is a blindfold comparison whether you can hear the difference between the real amps and the fender tone master pro.
I'd like to see A/B/C between a TMP Fender amp and the Tonemaster version of same amp and the actual original tube version. I expect TMP will be distant 3rd place.
it was not a great review....Others did way better in terms of going in depth..and got much better sounds.
Yes but run the Sun studios program ( Excelsior amp) into your favorite tube amps and speakers and it's amazing
It's refreshing to see that not everyone is buying the hype. Need to see a lot more testing first. Btw, don't forget the Kemper among alternatives. It may be old, but it is still getting new features implemented. Fender tend to abandon stuff and I doubt there will be functional upgrades to the TMP arriving more than 10 years from now. Liquid profiling, Kempers take on modelling, was just released and if it works out it may remove some of the option-paralysis wrt the endless choice of profiles available. Maybe a handful good profiles combined with the liquid algorithms finally can provide a decent set of tones for a gigging musician.
This is a different beast.
There is a micro sd card for further update.
I doubt they will drop that.
There is even deal being made with official fender artist for tone etc.
The unit us powerfull enought that we can even see thing like a multitrack update, wich i suspect why there is a miro sd.
So far there us already a nice update.
dude ive been gigging with fender gtx 100. the fender tone app is SSOOOOO easy to use. This one is similar, and it's even better. If you think it's too expensive, dude, i can't recommend going with gtx 50/100 with the app first. It's pretty awesome. This tonemaster pro requires me to get a loan to get it and it better be worth it.
I have been running 4CM with my AXEFX3 for years now thinking the FX were just as good as pedals. I introducted dirt pedals recenlty and couldnt believe how much better it sounded. Then, I added reverb and delay. Game over. Getting rid of my AXEFX as soon as I get my pedalboard up and running soon.
For a fraction of the price you can plug into a Blues Junior- with a couple of pedals ( wampler pinnacle and boss delay in my case) and achieve some very good tones without all the faff or digital harshness.
Agreed, but that is not a realistic comparison. I am not an advocate for the tones that I am hearing out of this, but if we expand our comparison to modelers that get it right (Kemper and Helix) then there is no comparison at all. While you can get good tones out of either, the digital options offer a ton of extra value. They are more portable, have a wider flexibility in tone, make recording much easier, make live performances far more reproducible and reliable, and in the long run will save you money over massive pedal boards. It's just kind of silly to compare an analog amp to a good digital solution.
Sorry- but having used the blues jr with 2 pedals ( including a tuner) for many function band gigs I fail to see how a digital solution for a problem I don’t have being better. Also, my rig is way more portable than I think k you realise- the blues jr being a small combo amp dies not require a second cab for monitoring, making it just a compact as anything else. Moreover the amp sounds a lot nicer to my ear- I expect in part because it’s not trying to be something else- it just is. Not being silly, just honest about what I can hear.
@@richyoung7345 No doubt you can make it work, and 90% of the time, you probably don't need the diversity of a large pedalboard or a range of presets.
I will say that it is nice to be able to plug in direct to a PA or mixer. It's a godsend for recording, and it just simplifies everything.
However, if you are playing small gigs and just need the sound, the Blues Jr. can deliver. There's no denying it's a great amp at a great price point, and a really convenient size. One complaint I've had is that it doesn't filter dirty power in any way, so you can pick up buzz pretty easy with it. But yeah... And while I do think tubes aren't as unreliable as some people think, it's true that you have a higher chance of a failure in that domain.
It doesn't sound like a modeler is for you. You are happy with your sound, and you aren't looking for much beyond that sound. (Which is perfectly fine!) I like a diversity of music, and so when I'm at home, I found my self switching between my Princeton, AC30, DSL30C and my 6505MH. I also have a pedalboard which is way too complicated and too large to take with me. That entire pile of gear has literally collected dust for the past 5 years since I got a Kemper. I get all of that and more in a piece of kit that weighs 10 pounds. /shrug
The digital fizz thing has been there since the start. It was the same discussions in the old Pod 2.0 chats nearly 20 years ago. I remember talking to Neil Diamond’s guitarist, Hadley Hockensmith, and he developed a passive filter box called a “Harmonic Converger” that basically lessened the troubled areas. He needed a modeler as ND demanded a quiet stage. He ended up becoming a Fractal endorsee.
But yeah, it was literally the exact same conversation.
I have the same problem with my Spider V Mark II 60 practice amp.
Hate all the effects, but there are some really good amp models. I just wish it had an effects loop. The Deluxe Reverb is usable, JTM45 very nice, the Roland JC 120 sounds exactly like the one I had, and the Matchless 30 is what sold me on it at the store. Good enough for a practice amp.
But nothing beats my Fender Twin 65 reissue.
About time someone has the balls to be honest and upfront. In Anderton's review trashed the Helix with zero attempt to dial it in and proverbially sucked off Fender the whole time lol
I’ve had every modeller on the market but the Blackstar Amp2 is the best and most versatile device I’ve owned.
Any chance you'd be up for a follow up Quad Cortex video showing some of your presets? I agree the stock ones are a bit meh...but I get option paralysis when dialing in my own
Fender is sending it to you at no cost and is sending us the bill... What a world !
yes, and Rhett can't even dial a preset or has a crappy setup with his interface...all others made this thing sound superb.
"Digital harshness" is exactly what I have been hearing in this Fender unit, in all of the videos that I have seen. I love my Quad Cortex, but Line 6 has always been a pioneer. Everyone should know that they are eventually going to drop a bomb on the industry with a new device...the limited DSP of the Helix can only go so far, and a high-res touchscreen is pretty much expected now for prosumer-level modelers.
The main "pioneer" that worked at Line 6 now works at Fender.
I wonder if they will bring a light version out for that money am buying an amp or a guitar lol .look forward to what you and Zak have got to say about it on dipped. Cheers man
You should check with Pete Thorn to see if he knows anything about that harshness problem. I've had similar problems with my Two Notes. I narrowed it down to the cab IRs, and Pete's cab IRs don't seem to have that problem. If anything, upload one of his IRs into the Tone Master Pro and see if that harshness goes away. I have a hunch there's something up with the presence frequencies, like you mentioned -- it seems to be inaudible in a live setting.
33:03 Fender could totally do captures. I’ve chatted to some people who have been working on modding the quad cortex and the captures are surprising simple (although training them is a bit tricky)
With 4 loops there are more than enough converters to implement capture. The question is if there are DSP-circuits inside that are optimised for the capture process or if the CPU is powerful enough to do it without.
I'm enjoying mine so far, but I've yet to justify the price tag. I do feel like the clean amps sound much better than my HX Stomp, but I haven't been able to dial in a good lead tone quite yet.
X vs Y axis mnemonic device: the Y axis has a single "tail" that points down as the graph Y axis runs up & down / north & south. The "X" axis has two tails on each side as the X axis runs right to left/ east to west.
I listened but wasn’t watching. Did you try lowering the input gain? Are you possibly clipping the input stage slightly? Also could your headphones be giving you a hyped top end that the audience won’t hear through a PA in a busy mix? Last Q: could that sizzle be solved by plugging into the FRFR? Thx
I had a similar issue with distorting . I reinstalled the firmware and didn’t factory reset after. It sounds great now. Sadly I contacted fender support and will have to apologise when they get back to me.
Next update for Tone Master Pro: Please include a Ducking Delay as on the Boss DD-200. It's my favorite delay. You can do it. Supersonic 22 amp head is great too. Also the '64 Custom Deluxe Reverb. MTG: LA Tube Distortion. '57 Custom Champ. Champ 25SE. Mesa Boogie Triple Crown Head. Roland Blues Cube Hot and Roland Blues Cube Hot British EL84 Modified. Mesa Boogie Fillmore 50. Boss Nextone Special. Try 10 minutes of two track like RC-500 Looper. Boss OC-5. Boss OD-200 Metal preset.
Rhett, I really would have liked to see your opinion of this going into Fender’s new FRFR 1x12 cab with an SM57 set up in your usual way. I really wonder how that lack of a real speaker is impacting the impression here. That said I can understand your apples to apples comparison with other modelers directly into the interface. I just wonder how it’d sound to you in the room, vs. the other Fender digital amps that you said you’ve liked.
I feel the QC suffers that same harsh distortion on top of the distortion. But in other demo / reviews of the tone master pro that ive seen i didnt think it was as big of an issue as it seem to be in your demo? I wonder if the pickups in the guitar are a little hot and if there is a trim / pad / meter on the tone master input to tell if its getting pushed a bit too much? There is in the QC
I had this issue with my eclipse and there is a -6 db pad option that works wonders! (There is no meter to tell you if you are clipping BUT your ears will do a good job of hearing when its not)
I wonder if just getting a higher end frfr is a better option and using the modelers you already have.
On every review I’ve watched about this thing, no one has addressed the digital sounding nature of it. Thank you for being honest! This thing LOOKS awesome, love the interface, but it sounds like the OG Pods back in the day… not good. I’m still team QC. (Just wish it had USB-C.) All in good time. Good review, Rhett!
Also, would love to see this toe-to-toe with the QC. Like AC v. AC, Plexi v Plexi, etc. (Those EVH tones are awful to me too. Maybe something comparable on a head to head.) Just a thought. 🤷♂️
Andertons did this. But I think there approach was not great. All of the modeler units don’t sound too great out of the box. They really should have spent some time dialing in great sounds on each unit and then compare. I think all of them can sound pretty great when dialed in properly (jury’s still out on tone master driven tone though) @@JoshFryer
@@otfan522botjournalismisdea2 that Anderton’s video is in my watch later cuz it’s long AF, but I want a deep dive of just the two. No offense to the others in their video, but they’re too much for me. I’m a guitar player, not a rocket surgeon! 🤣
I'd really love to hear you play around with S-Gear. For my main two sounds of blackface and tweed fender I generally prefer it to the modelers I've owned.
I really like the User Interface.. thats really important for me
Capture ? "just grab a sound and go" that's the ticket
I think Rhett is looking at this only in a preset mode way. I understand presets are important but TRUST me you are going to build your own. And they sound amazing
I love that digital amps are getting hard to tell apart, but this old simpleton prefers a good tube amp with knobs and a few pedals. I don't want to have to take night classes to figure out how to use my amp. Seems like every 5 to 10 years the digital technology stops having technical support. Looking at you Fender G-DEC...
Hello
First of all, thank you for another excellent review.
I am interested in the following. Since I have a Mustang GTX 100 and am a studio producer, is it worth buying Tone Master Pro just for sounds? Does Tone master really have that much better presets and sounds if I record directly in DAW from XLR or USB?
Thank you.
Im so glad you were honest about this unit, as it is. The basic ground work is IN PLACE..the OS, the visibilty of sounds (very WYSIWYG)...but certain things..quite far from ready. I hope Fender gets to work on an upgrade.
I totally agree with how every modeller has way too much high end information by default. I usually shelf the IR at least at 9k. Some amp models I take all the way down to 6k. Just so many unnecessary frequencies and live it just sounds harsh.
I find that presets are mainly just a starting point and people usually do not find presets "perfect" and need to make adjustments. The great thing is, the Tone Master Pro seems to have all the tools to tweak your way towards the heavily sound you seek. Then it's packaged in such a great form factor and the UI is far better than anything I've seen so far. The best part is Fender clearly isn't done with the firmware either.
With that said, I don't find leveling negativity on a "preset" exactly a fair way to judge a modeller. You can't please everyone with a preset. That's more like judging a book by it's cover rather than the story written on the pages.
I have one of the newer Fender modeling amps and the presets were pretty awful. I was able to play around and in a very short time dial up some excellent sounds that I’m very happy with. I would happily do small gigs with it. It’s light as hell and I don’t have to worry about a power amp tube puking on me in the first set. I’m really considering this Tone Master Pro as well.
You guys are very fortunate in the USA , the fender unit is 2350 in Australia and the FM9 and QC are 3200-3300 with zero availability
If either of those units were in the same ball park in price here I’d jump on it
In fact the tone master pro is 500 less than a helix floor
Hiss is usually poor ground or input too high. Considering your using a separate audio interface, I would say it may be the input set too high somewhere along the line. Can just roll back to 9 or so and stop it usually if input level is the issue.
I hear the harshness as well, and noticed it on other guitar DI amp sims I've tried. I wonder if its more of a cab sim/IR issue, as in the speaker sim isnt rolling off or rounding out the clipping the way a real speaker would. When I run my DSM SImplifier (which can have a bit of that harshness) into an amp cabinet it definitely sounds better. Maybe a similar thing here?
Try to cut 1.4k. I like this thing a lot. This thing is the solution for the Home studio Amp shelf. I dont know live, but in the studio is perfect for the majority of the earthlings...
If you press the footswitches doesn't it cause the volume level to move since the switches are also knobs?