DavLav talks about Amalgam Captures. Are they worth it?

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I’d agree with everything in that vid, pretty much. They are pricey but they represent amps you can’t really get elsewhere. So many of the free caps on the cloud are the same old amps over and over again.

The one thing I’d probably add is that the Full-Rig captures Amalgam offers (and I believe they said they would be transitioning to ONLY full-rigs from here on) are fantastic! I’d definitely recommend trying these to anyone who hasn’t experienced a well-captured full rig before. To me, there’s an extra level of realistic response and tone with those, and they’re easier on DSP/CPU

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Interesting. I’ll give the full rigs more if a try. I guess I’ve been defaulting to using separate blocks as much as possible to get maximum control.

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Hello !

Yeah, I bought yesterday some captures from Amalgam just after having seen the DavLav Youtube video.

I can say that Amalgam captures are not cheap for sure but from my standpoint, quality of these captures are far above anything I got before.
Combinaison of those and IRs provided are just perfect to me, no need to set high cut or anything like this : rendering is super close to a natural one.
Plus you don’t have to modify settings of captures on your QC as on the pack, there are already a lot of captures with all imaginable amp settings.
I don’t regret any Euros spent.

Only downside (if I can call it a downside) : once captures bought, you have to wait for Amalgam to share those through the neural cloud sharing process. But it worth the wait :+1:

By the way, I’d like to take advantage of this post to give kudos to DavLav as what he shares on his Youtube channel and through the Neural Cloud are always nice gems to me :slight_smile:

(sorry for my english and cheers from France ;))

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Glad you found the video useful. Which capture pack(s) did you get?

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I got the Fender BFSR, the Two Rock OD50 and the Tone King Imperial…can’t hide I’m a fenderish, JohnMayerish kind of guy :slight_smile:
The current 3FOR2 code helped a lot.

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How’s the Fender?

To make it simple : I can’t stop playing with the BFSR Vibro channel crunch bright capture with my Silver Sky.
This capture and a slice of spring reverb : the tone is just stellar.

I don’t know how it’s possible but through my (good) headphones, this seems to come from a true tube amp. Nothing digital to my ears…but that’s only my ears.

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I was never into buying captures, but amalgam totally blew me away and from the moment I started using them, everyone seems to compliment my tones. Got the newest Marshall the toneking and ods, as well as the fender Blbm and I love them.
I’ve red that there are bass captures coming, which got me interested, because the qc seems to have a harder time capturing those

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bass amp caps would be amazing! Nobody’s really doing it yet.

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Yup I got the ToneKing, Two Rock and the Carr as per Davlav’s video and I cannot believe how amazing they sound. I have a hard time going back to the built-in amps and captures from the cloud now…Expensive (~$110 CAD) but SO worth it IMO

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I’m starting to seriously consider the Fender BFSR and maybe one of the Marshalls. Maybe I can fit that into next month’s budget…

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the Marshall SB100 is revelatory- SO good.
The Supro is really fun too for low/mid-gains. Very ‘Jimmy Page-y’

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I have the Friedman capture. I run my QC in to a Matrix Gt1000 power amp and a Zilla vertical 2x12 . it sounds absolutely awesome. Ran it at high volume yesterday at band practice and I couldn’t be happier.

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Yes. The’re worth it.

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I can offer you some old SWR and Trace Eliott captures.

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Just did a new video comparing the Amalgam Tone King Imperial with the captures that NDSP includes of the same amp.

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That’s a really helpful video, thank you.

A couple of questions for you on captures;

  1. Regarding Gain within amp captures; given that generally multiple captures are made of each amp at different Gain levels, how effective is the Gain control within a given capture as presented on the QC?

For example, presumably the ability to increase Gain on a capture of an amp at set level of gain is a lot less than the ability to increase Gain with a model of the amp? Does it also follow that increasing Gain in a capture works differently to the way it would within the original amp, and has a more detrimental effect on things like clipping?

  1. Are the basic EQ functions within a capture more in line with the EQ of an original amp than the Gain function?

  2. If these captures are the DI versions, presumably a lot is also riding on what Cab model or IR you pair them with, whether stock QC models or free/paid for IRs? I think Amalgam package some of their captures with the original IRs they used for their demos.

  3. Have you managed to do a comparison of the Amalgam JT45, Fender Blackface or Vox Top Boost by any chance?

Thank you :smiling_face:

  1. and 2. The input gain and EQ controls are not at all like the controls on the amp. I think of them this way: the input gain is like having a clean boost in front of the captured amp or pedal. it’s just increasing the level of the input signal. The EQ function, I’m still not sure if its a pre- or post-EQ, but again is like having an EQ on the signal - nothing like what the low/mid/high on the actual amp would do. So you can use these controls to do slight tweaks to the capture, but its not like having the full control you have on the amp models.
  2. Yes, the IR makes a huge difference. Amalgam does package their IRs with the captures and that’s what I’m using in this video.
  3. I have not had a chance to get my hands on those captures. I doubt I’d but the vox capture (I’m not a huge an of those amps, sorry). But I’m seriously considering the JT45 and the Fender BLBM. I might think of the Blackface, but I think they’ve also done a Two Rock SSS, so I might lean towards that. Decisions, decisions…
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Nice work as usual! I really appreciate you taking the time to teach us a few things here. God bless YOU!

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