Fractal Audio just announced it will adding a NAM block to their products… Will TONEX follow and perhaps add a NAM block to their software platform and pedals? Seems like NAM is the next big thing to guitar modeling.
Yes, but Fractal did not have any capture tech so it makes sense for them. IK have invested a lot in developing Tonex which is equally as good (if not better) than NAM so I’d be surprised if they added NAM to Tonex software and pedals… but we will see, the guitar modeller market is a little crazy at the moment!
I hope not, I’d rather IK use their time and money to keep improving their own stuff rather than delaying everything just to add something which basically does exactly what their gear does already just slightly worse.
I see lots of talk about NAM. But can’t tell if its all hype or real. As I recall, the issue with adding NAM to ToneX ecosystem means IKM now have double the support overheard as they have to to support ToneX and NAM captures. And what happens to all the customers who get a NAM capture in the wold and it doesn’t work well and they start to complain that IKM are prioritizing ToneX over NAM captures?
Honestly, even though there are differences between NAM and Tonex captures, when you get a good capture, the difference between the original unit and the capture itself is so negligible that I think these ecosystems need to focus more on adding features than on sound quality these days.
I’m with you Fuzzdog, it’s a big NO, I hope not , and I doubt it from me. I would much prefer TONEX remaining 100% TONEX and doing what TONEX does the best, TONEX.
I think wanting a modern top quality capture based system to support another capture format is a bit pointless anyway, because if somehow there is some rare and unique NAM profile I want to use on my ToneX, I can just, you know, run NAM on my PC and capture the NAM profile with ToneX the same as I’d capture an amp.
It’s actually technically more compatible that way than a lot of “NAM supporting” devices, as some of them internally convert to their own capture format anyway and degrade the sound, whereas ToneX is essentially doing the same thing (albeit with a slightly awkward and longer middle step) but retaining full quality.
Voila, ToneX has NAM support, haha.
I’ve actually done this and A/B’d the results and it’s essentially identical to the original NAM profile, and certainly hugely closer than loading that NAM profile into a couple of the cheaper “NAM supporting” devices that I have laying around. I also did this when I switched from Kemper to ToneX - there were a few profiles I liked on the Kemper which I couldn’t find for ToneX which I had also spent a lot of time tweaking to how I liked them, so I just captured the Kemper. Hell, I have a few ToneX captures of my Helix too, as it’s often simpler to just load that into ToneX rather than patch in another device just for a quick take.
" run NAM on my PC and capture the NAM profile with ToneX"
How would you do this exactly?
I have an interface with lots of physical ins and outs, so I usually (mostly because I am lazy and hate messing around with software routing) just set up whichever plugin I want to capture on separate ins and outs from whatever ToneX is using and then just run cables between the two and treat it as I would making a DI capture of any amp.
There are several ways to do it with software routing if you don’t have enough hardware I/O available, just search for “How to capture plugins with ToneX” on Youtube, etc, there are plenty of guides using various methods of looping the audio back in.
It’s not the simplest procedure, but when you’ve done it once, it makes sense.
Seems like NAM is all hype. It has it’s place on hardware that does not have dedicated capture tech. I have a Headrush Flex Prime and now that it has NAM support, it’s given it new life.
However, looking for good NAM captures is a beast in itself and the quality is all over the place off tone3000. I have invested a ton into IK over the years and it don’t like the idea of paying for twice to get decent NAM captures from providers. It’s cool that IK provides official captures using quality gear for Tonex.
Tonex sounds great and Tonex board is awesome. They dont need NAM.