Atomic Amplifier 12....anyone using one?

JonHosker

Thanks jon

Fortheloveofguitar

Brett Kingman has posted an in depth video. Worth a look

gearaddict

Interesting. I quite like the old school display. The whole touch screen iPad style interface leaves me cold. Sounds nice on that demo anyway. 760 quid...

rocktrout

It looks very easy to use I seen the boys from andertons have a demo up too and it sounds great on the clip . The price seems to be good too for what your getting 

Voxman

Yup,  it does sound stellar, but whilst at first glance £795 may seem a reasonable price point, for gigging players I have some concerns (I'm disregarding the very nice looking on-line edit program as few players would use this live):

1. You'd probably need to factor in the cost of at least one external expression pedal for volume/wah, or two pedals if you want eg a dedicated volume pedal and a dedicated effects expression controller.  Aside from adding cost, it's more awkward to carry round separate units.  Personally, I'd like to have seen one expression pedal built in with the option to plug in another if needed - and perhaps we'll see that in the next version.  
2. My other main concern is the small display that might not be easy to see at a gig when you're standing over the unit, and having looked at the manual, you have to awkwardly set it to wrap-around text because its so small. 
3. Although you have knobs to tweak amp/EQ paramaters on stage, as far as I can see you have to go into menus to tweak the effects, and my comments above re screen size and needing to 'wrap around' text to see all the options, refers.

Quality of build and tones seem excellent, and the Amplifire 12 certainly has better utility than the original 3-footswitch version. But whilst it seems to have been designed with gigging players in mind, I'm afraid that for me the Amplifire falls seriously short from a gigging perspective and seems to be a half-way house with too much missing.  

I understand what the designers were trying to do, ie give more - but I think they looked at it from the perspective of just 'adding stuff' instead of really thinking about how such a unit would be used on stage.  Essentially, a unit like this needs to be sufficiently self-contained so that it can satisfy the needs of the majority of players for whom, for the most part, this will be their 'single' piece of gear.  The Amplifire 12 simply doesn't meet this creterion. 

Provided that tonal quality is comparable, I suspect the Headrush FX pedal at £899 might be a better option for those that can't stretch to a Helix, but need more flexibility for gigging.  

John_P

Unless I'm mistaken it is the same as the smaller one but more foot switches.  I really like the previous model so it should sound great.   But I'd get a midi board to control it rather than pay the extra.     I was hoping the new one would have a better display and more intuitive direct editing - then I'd have been tempted to upgrade.    

Voxman

John_P said:

Unless I'm mistaken it is the same as the smaller one but more foot switches.  I really like the previous model so it should sound great.   But I'd get a midi board to control it rather than pay the extra.     I was hoping the new one would have a better display and more intuitive direct editing - then I'd have been tempted to upgrade.    

Yup, I think you're right John - I've just looked at both manuals and it's just more footswitches. In which case, I think you're spot on re adding a MIDI board (something like the Behringer FCB1010 is only around £120) - so with the £539 for the original unit plus the FCB1010 (that has 2 expression pedals) you've got more utility and saving yourself around £135 to boot.  

In which case, this reinforces my concern that the Amplifire 12 at £795 isn't actually very good value at all.  

rocktrout

Fair points . Thanks for the info . 

John_A

Voxman said:

John_P said:

Unless I'm mistaken it is the same as the smaller one but more foot switches.  I really like the previous model so it should sound great.   But I'd get a midi board to control it rather than pay the extra.     I was hoping the new one would have a better display and more intuitive direct editing - then I'd have been tempted to upgrade.    

Yup, I think you're right John - I've just looked at both manuals and it's just more footswitches. In which case, I think you're spot on re adding a MIDI board (something like the Behringer FCB1010 is only around £120) - so with the £539 for the original unit plus the FCB1010 (that has 2 expression pedals) you've got more utility and saving yourself around £135 to boot.  

In which case, this reinforces my concern that the Amplifire 12 at £795 isn't actually very good value at all.  

I would rather have a great looking self contained unit designed to work properly than a few odd bits thrown together to save £135

gearaddict

John_A said:

Voxman said:

John_P said:

Unless I'm mistaken it is the same as the smaller one but more foot switches.  I really like the previous model so it should sound great.   But I'd get a midi board to control it rather than pay the extra.     I was hoping the new one would have a better display and more intuitive direct editing - then I'd have been tempted to upgrade.    

Yup, I think you're right John - I've just looked at both manuals and it's just more footswitches. In which case, I think you're spot on re adding a MIDI board (something like the Behringer FCB1010 is only around £120) - so with the £539 for the original unit plus the FCB1010 (that has 2 expression pedals) you've got more utility and saving yourself around £135 to boot.  

In which case, this reinforces my concern that the Amplifire 12 at £795 isn't actually very good value at all.  

I would rather have a great looking self contained unit designed to work properly than a few odd bits thrown together to save £135

Yeah, I'd probably rather get the bigger one and just use a separate Wah. For me personally. I would probably stick with my switchless wah anyway and I already have an expression pedal so wouldn't have to buy one. But for someone wanting to buy an all-in-one unit, the Helix is probably a better bet. I quite like that the Amplifire is focused on providing a powerful, good sounding unit at a good price, rather than any bells and whistles.

I find it impossible to tweak anything other than a single knob in a gig situation anyway, so I don't think a touch screen would help me much. 

digitalscream

I think I must be hearing something different to everybody else on the planet. To me, the Amplifire modelling sounds weak, un-dynamic and there's a layer of fizz over all the gain-y stuff that I just can't get past (it seems to be there on every clip I've heard).

With that said, expanding it to have more footswitches solves the obvious flaw with the original, so if you like the sound then it's actually properly giggable now.

gearaddict

Hard to judge from YT vids really. I've not heard any of these units apart from the Axe in real life. I saw one vid where the guy had owned both the Axe and the Amplifire and ended up keeping the Amplifire and selling the Axe...so I can't imagine the Amplifire can be that bad. Probably more a matter of taste. When I listen to these comparison vids it always seems to me that the Kemper is the only one that stands out as sounding like a real valve amp. The others sound good, but kind of flatter, without so much depth and character. Although, on the higher gain settings they all sound good to me. Probably feel different though.

John_A

The Amlifire is a much simpler unit than the Axe fx, or Helix, so will suit some people more than others, all depends what you want.  As for sounding like a real amp the a Helix certainly does that at all gain settings with bags of character too.  

My Helix probably does far more than I'll ever use, but it's so easy to use and sounds so good, for me it's a keeper

mrkb

gearaddict said:

Hard to judge from YT vids really. I've not heard any of these units apart from the Axe in real life. I saw one vid where the guy had owned both the Axe and the Amplifire and ended up keeping the Amplifire and selling the Axe...so I can't imagine the Amplifire can be that bad. Probably more a matter of taste. When I listen to these comparison vids it always seems to me that the Kemper is the only one that stands out as sounding like a real valve amp. The others sound good, but kind of flatter, without so much depth and character. Although, on the higher gain settings they all sound good to me. Probably feel different though.

If that guy was Kley from YouTube, he's now gone back to fractal with an AX8.

Fortheloveofguitar

I would have to agree with @digitalscream  that it actually doesn't sound very good for so much cash. 

Could be that its stock presets are poor much like the Kemper and that purchasing third party presets may be better 

simonbeckwith

Ive not tried an Axr or Kemper but was very impressed with the original Amplifire and am considering getting another shortly - i dont need all the extra buttons that the 12 gives. As with any modeller, youre best building your own presets - the AF stock presets are ok at best, as soon as you drop in a decent IR cab and start building your own presets, you get much better results. I imagine this to be the case with all the big name modellers too? For £500 ish you cant go wrong with the AF. Whether the 12 is worth the extra is a different matter altogether, as said above, a midi controller and standard AF is cheaper