Headrush Gigboard
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Once you have played through a lot of nice amps for the particular style of music you are into, only then will you know what sounds good and what does not.
The tone tube snobs like myself have been searching for simple solutions, but at an affordable price. Yeah you get a lot of amp sims for your money now, but over 50% are really useless and other manufactures over 80% useless.
I have tried a lot of rack gear as well, with tubes pres and without, but to find a simple solution that does not give you GAS all the time is hard to find.
If you are happy with your tone, then stick to it, the only people who chase tone are the ones who want the latest and greatest gadgets, except for the select few working musicians. For home use, you can get almost any app to work and sound decent, but for the price and sound, PG is way up there. You would have to spend lots of money and time to get the tones you would get with PG, and even then you probably would not be happy.
I have an 11R, a digitech 1101, ADA and other preamps, and what I found was getting the 2 favourite preamps you like and pair them up, to have a dual amp tone. one can be a little heavier and the other more bright or what have you. Many huge bands have this sort of setup with a great outcome.
But the latest and greatest IRs in the mix now, and it changes things, even though I can get awesome tones from the 11R no matter what anyone says, and it does not have IRs. So yes I GAS for the latest IR unit or amp matching, or cloning, in a simple format.
Yes the Helix, Headrush and others seem pretty impressive for what you get, and loaded with goodies. So you have to decide on the tone you really want, and pick the unit that suits that tone the best and what venues you think you will use it in.
The Bias rack into a tube amp is incredible, the 11R into an amp is also awesome. So have to decide what you are going to do with these units. Working musician, then yeah one avenue, at home then software is all you need, and there are a few solutions, but i find I always come back to the PG software.
Really, in a mix, anyone of of those devices out there will do a good job if you understand how the chain works in real time, and what a real amp should sound like, then you are set. Straight to front of house is difficult, because to react like a tube amp, you need to understand how the sag, pre amp stage and tube stages work. So to get a realistic tone and something that feels like a real amp and reacts like a real amp is difficult.
I would stop the GAS is PG incorporated the BIAS FX into the rack and head units, it would kill most of the units on the market. It is impressive as it stands, but many are still going to compare it to other units that are loaded with features, which seems to be the norm now.
In reality, you are only going to have a handful of tones you are going to use, and then branch out a little from there. Many in cover bands are fooling themselves if they think they are going to have different patches for all the songs they cover, and one of these units will be ideal for them. They find out real quick it is a pain in the ass changing patches, fiddling around to dial in a tone for each song as close to the original as possible, and then having less equipment to do it with, like straight to FOH, many give up and stick to a few patches.
Anyway, PG stop my GAS and integrate Bias FX into the rack and head units...lol
Cheers
Mike
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Just waiting for a unit like the Headrush Gigboard but from PG!!!