Anybody tried the Line 6 Pod Express ?
Yes, I have one. Had the Helix LT before.
I use it mostly for headphones jamming or practice at home. Havenāt recorded it yet. It works well for what it is
I would say it has similar tonality overall to the Helix. So good tone for cheap.
That said, I just saw the Poly Ampleā¦which is similar.
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I donāt have solidified thoughts on either the Press or the Clean other than that they both seem really cool. There are so many great comps out there though. I guess the question for you is, what do you want a compressor for? They can serve a number of purposes and different types tend to excel at different tasks. Do you want it to color your tone or be more transparent? Is it mostly for dynamic control? Do you care how it distorts? Pumps? Just want more sustain? You get the idea.
Not to try to dissuade you from either of those excellent seeming pedals but if budget is a concern there are plenty of used options that can commonly be had for a fraction of the price.
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Ample update:
Iāve had over 48 hours with ye olde Ample now and Iām feeling very level headed about it.
I absolutely love it. Iām happy to sell off all the UA amp pedals and I think Iāll likely sell off the UA Ox Stomp as well, although maybe Iāll keep it to do OxBox like duties with the amps I ownā¦ Itās definitely the only UA box Iām not sure about. The others can go away instantly. They wonāt be missed.
To answer my earliest question: Yes, the Ample does amazing cleans. Not only that, but youāve got a ton of flavors of clean. Tons of headroom to play around with, different clean colors, super clean cleans, slightly gritty cleans, AC30/EL84-ish cleans, Marshall cleansā¦thereās just a ton of options to play with. With some compression before the Ample you can get REM/Marr jangle cleans for days. This morning I tried out the JC120 for the first time and itāll do just fine. No more needing to think about some random JC120 pedal. This just payed for itself just for that.
Sidenote: The new CB Clean compressor is much more attractive to me now that Iāve got something to pair it with that allows for such a range of cleans. Yum.
For me, Ample is a game changer. My home studioās power could be cleaner, so while my amps often sound great in the room and could be micād up, on some random days thereās parasitic clicking and garbage coming through them and if I was just using those amps for recording Iād be screwed, hence my interest and deep dive into amp in a boxes. The UAās got the job done for a while but with constant headscratching about massaging input gain to avoid digital nastiness. Also, theyāre approach to things is very clear. Dribble out individual amps in the same UI for the same cost, rinse and repeat. Thatās great for some folks, but I really do love different flavors of amps and I really love weird amps (Watkins Dominator/Silvertone 1484) that arenāt the usual fare. Itās always fun to have variety and the Ample kills at this. But, if you just want to not touch it and use a single amp, thatās fine as well.
Based on the experiences of the last few days, Iād say Ample is much better at dealing with input gain and Iām able to manage any crackles from hot signals by bringing the āVolumeā slider down a dot or 2. It feels much less mysterious than the UA boxes in terms of managing headroom. It will clip if you change the signal hitting it radically higher, but you can anticipate this and then the remedy is fast and easy to do.
So far Iāve used tele single coils, gold foils, humbuckers and hot P90ās with it and also my Hofner Club. Depending on the amp and the way youāve setup the presets, you may have to massage levels to work with specific guitars, but youād have to do the same with the real amp in front of you. Same principals. Consistent, predictable results. The interface is fast enough that itās not a big deal.
Caveat: Iād caution anyone thinking the reverb side of thing will be sufficient for replacing a dedicated reverb pedal. Itās a nice sounding room verb, but itās good enough for what itās doing, but not purpose-made for each preset. If thatās a big deal, just be aware of it before hand.
The bass amps are going to be great for me. Iām going to keep the SVT BassRig pedal Iāve got because it makes for a fast, clean bass pedalboard that I find works for 99% of what I do, but the Bassrig 65 for Bassman sounds can be sold because the Ample covers those sounds just fine and I need them far less often. The other bass options also sound really cool, so now Iāve got far more options than Iāve ever had access toā¦
The interface has been very easy to get fluid and fast on. I wasnāt sure about how the whole slider thing would work for me, but after a few minutes with it, itās easy to get around. I had some questions about the lifespan of the touchpad system since itās so proprietary and I can imagine a time where Poly doesnāt exist and if things break, youāre SOL. I ask Loki about that on the TGP and his response knocked out that concern entirely:
āThe life cycle of the faders is probably measured in 100 or 1000 of years. They have no moving parts, no electrolytic capacitors in that section to dry out and generate minimal heat. I guess eventually youāll wear through the acrylic if youāre very enthusiastic but itāll take exceptionally longer compared to a knob base pedal. They are much less fragile than knobs or physical motorised faders. Thereās a video of me playing a melody on our older touch tech with a hammer. The foot switches are a wear item, but the are the best switches easily available for purchase as most brands use (SCI, basically the same switches everyone uses) weāre planning to make our own footswitches in house in the future though. The flash memory (like all flash memory) is a wear item, but itās easily replacable, and running a file system designed to give very long life. This was an issue with much earlier designs of mine where the flash memory would start to currupt after 3-5 years.ā
Thereās a bass guy on YT who just did a demo of the bass amps. I think they sound great in the my room so far.
This guyās demos simultameously bug the hell out of me, but also provide a lot of good sounds and information once I get past his, imho overly dramatic, presentation style.
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Thanks for this!
Iāve already decided to sell my UAFX Dream to help fund purchasing an Ample. However, Iāll hold on to my Ruby for now; I think Iād miss some of the Vox flavours it offers.
Iām glad you reminded me of Ampleās bass options. Another box ticked.
All in all, the Ample should simplify my practice/recording life. Hopefully Its ease-of use and sound quality will allow me to stop exploring amp sims for a few years.
Cheers!
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Yeah, definitely a lot of great options out there. Iāve held off on getting a decent compressor pedal till now because I was fine with multi effects for basic stuff and while I havenāt recorded much guitar for a long time when I do Iāve been using UAD plugins which do a great job.
I think another big reason was that I tended to think - probably wrongly - of compression for guitar as a utilitarian rather than creative tool, so putting all that together Iāve had a compressor pedal on my list for years but have never bought one.
I suppose my parameters are: a good quality compressor, that will also handle synths and drum machines if needed, ideally with a few more unusual / creative features over and above being a competent compressor, and stereo as a cherry on top.
Clean really caught my attention because it seems to have a lot in all of those columns, but then I figured Iād better look at alternatives before paying the Chase Bliss premium ā¦ again. Press seemed to be one of the other interesting options, but I honestly donāt know that much about it really. Will probably end up just going with my instincts and getting Clean anyway, but kinda want to check what else is out there that Iām not really aware of before committing.
Awesome update @infiniteposse !
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Maybe you already know this site, but may be useful. All Reviews | Compressor Pedal Reviews
Lots of compressor reviews by a user from talkbass forum. So they are quite bass centric, but very informative. Good thing is they are written by one player, so the terminology and points of view are cohesive.
I ended up with one character compressor at the beginning of the signal chain and one more utility/technical at the end. (for bass)
If you want stereo compressor there really are not that much optionsā¦ I bought my second compressor week before Clean announcement, so not really in mood to buy another right now. But will probably get it some time in the future for synths and experimentationā¦ I like Chase Bliss as a company, but not really interested in those glitchy/microloop/ambient pedals they put out in last years. But this one is brilliant idea. Really looking forward to having it one day.
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Well they can really be either of course but that was the same thought that kept me from getting one for those early years of playing. I didnāt know enough to realize that a lot of the reason I liked distortion was because of the compression it inherently causes and that it could be had without the clipping.
Like @QBass said, the options are drastically reduced if you want stereo (if you need to stay in pedal format, the world is clogged with rack comps). If you can handle the hefty price tag I canāt imagine not liking the Clean, itās the first chase bliss pedal Iāve ever actually wanted. Their stuff is always cool but Iāve never been attracted to it, even if it wasnāt so outrageously expensive.
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Iāve just ordered a FRFR speaker to go with my helix - which sounds great into my Marshallās effect return but I canāt use the cab models that way, and it sounds great through my monitors but the sound is a bit too directional using those, doesnāt have the amp in a room feel.
I must say Iām still 100% sold on the helix.
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Was thinking further about stereo compressors in pedal format. There are two other options I recalled. One is quite cheap - the Electro Harmonix Platform.
The second is Atlas by Source Audio, if you donĀ“t mind it being digital. Didnāt have either, but I had different pedal by Source Audio (Nemesis delay) and it was really cool unit. Their boxes have very deep software editors and can go in unconventional directions. Similarly Atlas is capable to simulate different classic models, offset L and R, use additional EQ, route two channels in different ways, and so onā¦ And still cheaper than Clean. But digitalā¦
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So anyone have any experience with Sansamp Para Driver?
Sounds great but itās noisy when recording directly to the 404. The hiss is awful!
Is anybody running a guitar through a raspberry pi? I just spent an afternoon trying to get NeuralPi working, but ran into the thing I run into sometimes where Iāve been using Linux for a long time and can make it do stuff but Iām not a programmer so I can only go so deep into troubleshooting mismatched versions and connecting dots in minimal documentation. So I gave up.
So now Iāve got a pi 4 with a hifiberry DAC+ ADC on it and I want to run a guitar into it, then out to a bastl bestie. I think next up Iām going to try MODEP on Patchbox OS. Stoked to add some sludge doom noise stuff to my barely competent electronic music 
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I bought the Pisound board from Blokas and set up a Pi4 with MODEP and it worked pretty well. I am not an expert but the Blokas site is a resource.
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Cool, yeah, I messed with the setup a little last night but I havenāt quite got sound yet. Gonna keep tinkering with it. I did Linux native only stuff on Ardour for a long time and recognize a lot of the effects (and there are a lot!) I think itās just a matter of getting the DAC to play nice since I didnāt go with the pisound board.
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this is for some kinda doom-folk trio.
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Haha! I just watched a vid of an earlier model schecter 12 string and it really seems like an octave or synth pedal covers the same ground. But it still looks like a creative tool for someone!
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Or Lightning Bolt.
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