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Amps In The Future
- Thread starter Acoop
- Start date
"Yeah but the overdrive sound I have on my Galaxy makes your distortion sound hollow and artificial"My Galaxy sounds much grittier than your apple.
i think we're forgetting that this kind of technology is why nobody has any gigs anymore (talking pre corona...)
the DJ and then the mp3 player.. who need musicians? who needs a sound person? lighting tech??? bah.. theres an AI for that. why don't we just automate audiences while were at it? it would be a whole lot easier to play to automatons who have no criticism and clap in time, cheer only when we want them to. i love gadgets as much as the next guy but music is all about people getting together and overcoming the difficulties inherent to coaxing sounds out of wood, and metal ( and glass
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the future will be an iPhone playing automated music to a virtual room of other iPhones. yay
the DJ and then the mp3 player.. who need musicians? who needs a sound person? lighting tech??? bah.. theres an AI for that. why don't we just automate audiences while were at it? it would be a whole lot easier to play to automatons who have no criticism and clap in time, cheer only when we want them to. i love gadgets as much as the next guy but music is all about people getting together and overcoming the difficulties inherent to coaxing sounds out of wood, and metal ( and glass
)the future will be an iPhone playing automated music to a virtual room of other iPhones. yay
Hey, what happened to my virtual bass? The sensor in my Android phone can sense where my hands are.
And anyway, why go to a gig? We're playing in a virtual space that people pay to log into and watch our avatars perform.
Like I said, they're not there yet. In some respects they probably never will be. But analogue amp modelling is the holy grail of that industry. Also many things musical have been modelled to within the variation between individual units. So there's a decreasing number of things to work on.
And even if never does achieve the perfect Eden, as more players adopt the technology, the sounds it does make will become default standards.
Edit. My own biggest regret with the eventual passing of physical amps will be when I can no longer use my joke about politicians playing their dog whistle through a Marshall stack.
You'll pry my Fender 400 PS out of my dead hands but I could see us moving toward talking rings:
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I used to have a Fender 400 PS. Unbelievably heavy, but wow, what great tone. The story of its demise is too heartbreaking to tell. With a pair of 215's connected, I was able to keep up with an incredibly loud band with my volume on 2-1/2.
What if your PA isn't made for bass amplifying? How will people hear your bass? Are they going to be able to stick a 500w power amp in an iPhone? Doubtful. Will it sound as good as an amp full of glowing glass and fat transformers? Highly doubtful. This scenario could happen, and people are working on making it happen, but fortunately, when it happens on a wide scale, I'll likely be dead. And I'll still greatly prefer my tube amps from the grave.
I wondered where my old cab went! Any idea where the other three are?
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"I start my car with my phone"
"I open my garage door with my phone"
"My phone is my alarm clock"
"My phone is my remote control"
"I do all of my banking and bill paying with my phone"
"My phone is my bass preamp"
"My phone is my camera"
"My phone reminds me of birthdays "
"I have a zillion of my favorite song saved on my phone"
"I have utoob, my phone tells me how to do everything"
"My phone has GPS, I can find any address in the world"
Batteries die, phones get lost and stolen, cell service fails. You have lost the ability to do all of the above at the same time. Congratulations, you asked for it.
"I open my garage door with my phone"
"My phone is my alarm clock"
"My phone is my remote control"
"I do all of my banking and bill paying with my phone"
"My phone is my bass preamp"
"My phone is my camera"
"My phone reminds me of birthdays "
"I have a zillion of my favorite song saved on my phone"
"I have utoob, my phone tells me how to do everything"
"My phone has GPS, I can find any address in the world"
Batteries die, phones get lost and stolen, cell service fails. You have lost the ability to do all of the above at the same time. Congratulations, you asked for it.
The fact that you can't stick a 500 watt amplifier into an iPhone doesn't seem to be stopping people from using them, or iPads... My keyboard player, in one of my bands, has nearly all his sounds loaded and running from his iPad. Ultimately, the demise of tube amps will largely depend on how many companies decide to keep making tubes. Power amplifier tubes are not as ubiquitous as preamp tubes even now. TC is certainly giving it a fighting chance, and Roland has been tackling tube emulation in DSP for over 30 years.
But that's no reason to ever give up what you have. You love what you have, so you should never feel like you have to abandon it. Remember when McIntosh Tube amp users all decided they wanted to upgrade to the newest McIntosh solid-state amps - their advertising was that good? Lots of new audiophiles got great deals on McIntosh tube amps when that happened.
This thread seems to have gone beyond "amps in the future" and is talking about what you can do with your phone, etc. While your phone could theoretically use an app to do sound modelling, you still need an amp with enough watts, and some speakers to move enough air, to fill a venue. Your phone isn't doing that any time soon.
My simple wish for amps in the "near" future is that my Ampeg SCR-DI will actually replace my PF-500 head. That little box, small enough to fit inside my bass guitar case/gig bag/jacket pocket, can not only DI my Ampeg sound to the venue's PA, but actually power my 4x10 at rehearsal and venues who son't have FOH sound. Mini amps like the Trace Elliot Elf are almost there now.
But in the slightly further future, as well a being the amp, the pedal should be my effects chain. There are already floor boxes on the market that do amp modelling, e.g. SansAmp, as well as multi effect pedals like those from Boss and Zoom. I want my mini-amp box to also be infinitely programmable with the patches I want. Instead of buying a PF-500, or Aguilar Tone Hammer, or GK MB500, etc., the manufacturer sells me a patch of that amp. The same for effects. I build up a library of all the "original" amp and pedal sounds I want - not those SansAmp or Zoom decided to emulate. I tweak the amp and effects settings and build signal chains using the app on my phone or laptop. I turn up at the venue with just my bass, a couple of cables, and that one small box. If the venue doesn't have decent FOH sound, I also bring my 4X10.
My simple wish for amps in the "near" future is that my Ampeg SCR-DI will actually replace my PF-500 head. That little box, small enough to fit inside my bass guitar case/gig bag/jacket pocket, can not only DI my Ampeg sound to the venue's PA, but actually power my 4x10 at rehearsal and venues who son't have FOH sound. Mini amps like the Trace Elliot Elf are almost there now.
But in the slightly further future, as well a being the amp, the pedal should be my effects chain. There are already floor boxes on the market that do amp modelling, e.g. SansAmp, as well as multi effect pedals like those from Boss and Zoom. I want my mini-amp box to also be infinitely programmable with the patches I want. Instead of buying a PF-500, or Aguilar Tone Hammer, or GK MB500, etc., the manufacturer sells me a patch of that amp. The same for effects. I build up a library of all the "original" amp and pedal sounds I want - not those SansAmp or Zoom decided to emulate. I tweak the amp and effects settings and build signal chains using the app on my phone or laptop. I turn up at the venue with just my bass, a couple of cables, and that one small box. If the venue doesn't have decent FOH sound, I also bring my 4X10.
That's step 1, sure. Step 2 the AI will decide what it thinks the listener wants to hear and will play that instead - at least if your in a cover band. If your in an originals band it will interpret your kazoo line, use it as inspiration for a new song it composes which gets piped, announces it was by The Beatles, call it "She loves you" goes into the digisphere, deletes all known existing copies of The Beatles "She loves you", files for copyright infringement against you and makes a fortune which it spends on digital sprites and trying to digitally synthesise magic mushrooms.
First entirely digitally recorded album (all guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard performances captured as MIDI. Vocals recorded direct to disc), back in 1992 :
Perverse (album) - Wikipedia
I think with regards to subsequent live performance, MIDI pickups were incorporated to trigger samples, but for the most part was a conventional live band setup, of guitars / amps etc.
I'm perfectly fine with technology as long as I'm the one in charge telling it what I want and not the other way around. Microchips dont get the blues if ya know what I mean.
