I saw a post about this form a few hours ago, and it was closed. However, I feel this absolutely warrants further discussion. The way combo amps are labeled right now is simply not clear. Unless I am missing something (happy to be proven wrong), there is only one label for both DI combo amps and combo amps with a speaker. We need a fourth label to differentiate the two, because although the Neural presets seem to all be DI captured combo amps, that is not necessarily going to be the case for the capture on the cortex cloud. not exactly sure how to differentiate the icons for combo amps, but someone more creative than me can figure it out, I’m sure. The labels should be as following:
Amp Head & Cab
Amp Head (direct)
Combo Amp with speaker
Combo Amp (direct)
Realistically, the differentiation between amp head and combo amps is unnecessary. What do I care if the digitally captured amplifier WAS a combo amp or an amp head? Honestly, I don’t… and if I need that information, I can research the amp online. In the less common situation where an amp has both a combo/head version, we can just note “Amp X Combo” or “Amp X Head.” Therefore the best solution to this issue is to simply have 2 labels: (1) capture with speaker, and (2) direct capture… but given the time investment Neural has already made in the icons, it would be easiest to just add a fourth to differentiate the combo amps… plus the additional info isn’t hurting anyone
I think the 2 combo amps captured on the QC are just a case of mistaken labels. I assume they labelled them as combos because that’s what they are in the real world, but it sure seems like the captured them without cabinets somehow.
What we have as icons and labels presently should work fine, I think they just made a mistake labeling those particular captures in the Factory bank.
What are they supposed to be labeled as then? Why would they not be combo amps on the QC? These amps are not amp heads, they’re combo amps. More specifically, they are DI captured Combo Amps, for which there is no distinct label.
The fact that you say they are mislabeled only supports the idea that they need another label
As much as I like your naming conventions, not everyone is going to use you method of differentiation, and unless Neural comes up with one that they force us to use, everyone will always disagree what the best method is
Also, if “Combo” simply mean and Amp combined with a speaker… then why is there a combo icon AND an icon with an amp head + speaker cab? Those would effectively be the same thing.
This is why the best fix would be scrapping the icons altogether and just having two icons: (1) Amp w speaker, and (2) Amp w/o speaker
Kemper has been doing this for over a decade with zero problems
Well, the obvious. COMBO, as it is amp with speaker (one physical device). Stack (half/full) is the amp HEAD with CABINET (two physically separated devices). There is that difference between speaker and cabinet.
Thus: combo, head, cabinet. Combo is amp combined with speaker, head is only amp, cabinet contains only speakers, without amp), stack - set of head+cabinet.
All the above in terms of guitar amps. Obviously some people can discuss the existence of headphone amps, powered speakers and steamboats, but those (hopefully) are beyond the traditional guitar combo/head/stack nomenclature.
well, we can discuss the nomenclatures all day, but at the end of the day, I see a combo amp icon on the QC, and Neural has given us no indication of whether we can expect that capture to include a speaker or not… and that needs to be fixed.
When the notion of captures widened to the ability to capture pedals and amps without necessitating a miked up cab, the terrain shifted permanently. I appreciate you shining a spotlight on the larger conversation about how to indicate to the user, whether or not their capture is DI or mike & cab. I know it is obvious, but for most circumstances, although not always, users are going to want a factory cab, IR, or a capture that includes a cab, somewhere in their signal chain, if the capture(s) they are using don’t include one.
Relying on capture creators to accurately indicate what their capture includes is somewhat of a hit or miss proposition although having the meta information be contained in compulsory user populated fields before allowing posting of a capture improves the process enormously.
Neural’s continuing efforts to improve on the methods provided (icons, text) for capture creators to indicate meta information is a wonderful thing; along with the ability for users to search and sort on it. Ultimately though, I would love to see the modeler, NOT the preset creator, able to differentiate and then indicate this detail of the capture (DI or mike & cab).
Might be a pipe dream as I can see this as a difficult technical proposition but to me it would be ideal. We are already seeing some promising developments towards automated extraction and indication of capture meta-data with the recent addition of the “Gain” field on captures. Where it is the Neural software providing the meta-data rather than the user. Perhaps this could be extended to some other areas as well, e.g. is a miked cab included in the capture, or is it DI.
I would like there to be a label applied either during the capture process, but maybe more importantly when uploading to share there be a mandatory label to select if the capture is from a DI or a cab/IR
That would resolve relying on the captor to title the capture accordingly.