Is NAM the ToneX Killer?! (Neural Amp Modeler)

[@TaylorDanley]

Hey all, I just want to say a couple things, especially for those that missed them in the video. 1. I think NAM is great. I also think if you use it, you should support Steve and the community either with donations or helping test and debug the program 2. I’m very excited to see where this goes, and I’m sure I will check in on it again. 3. I don’t care if you use ToneX, or anything else for that matter, I just want you to be happy 🥳 4. Steve didn’t block me, it was a joke (as far as I know).

[@CarcPazu]

Sir, you are a better man than me. While I totally respect the initial idea behind the open source community, I also think it's full of pretentious snowflakes. I dabbled in that realm for a short while a good 15 years ago with Ubuntu and whatnot. That world is like communism, on paper it sounds fair and nice but in reality, it's just a nasty, corrupted and petulant community, polluted by elitists who think they're superior to anyone who doesn't understands words like github, repository and other cryptic crap related to an open source product. Until they figure out how to package their stuff as good as VLC Player, the average joe should not care about their nerdy world. Me too I'm done with this bullshit. I don't have time to put on a pocket protector and play the introvert nerd. Fuck that shit lol

[@morellasgeorgios8449]

tonex is based on pretty much the same tech. It can run on hardware to take with you and has a marginally better ui but nam actually gives better results from either tonex or kemper and this is by analysis not something subjective. Most users now are comparing waveforms and nam gets down to 0,001. The other two don't nail bass and treble kemper is the worst by a bit. But all are workable and in the mix very close.

[@roundabout2926]

Or.... and hear me out..... You could take your own advice and help the community support/develop NAM, instead of patting people on the head and saying "I might check it out when you get it better". Little hypocritical. Get involved or stop making content about it.

[@sverrekolman4841]

I find NAM to be a lot more useful and stable when using it in a DAW, Logic Pro in my case. Allows you to use boost plugins aswell!

[@TaylorDanley]

Good to know! I usually use these type of plug-ins in stand alone mode, but good to hear it’s more stable in Vst (or Au) format

[@hannibalbarkas1350]

@@TaylorDanley Can confirm, the plugin version is really solid. I made the switch from NeuralDSP to NAM and the only downside so far is that NAM uses a bit more CPU.

[@mikehunt576]

@@hannibalbarkas1350 same her with ligic on m1 mac, there is alsi a ipad beta

[@LegendLength]

You can also use a separate IR plugin the NAM one is just there in the UI for convenience

[@MannyDemaga]

Damn I guess I'm a lucky bastard cause I didn't have any issues setting NAM up and just having a blast with it. Good video.

[@cybrhckr]

couple problems were because of the Mac's uninuitive design problems.

[@adrianiosif3133]

Open source software like NAM raises the bar on what to expect from paid solutions like Tonex, and even just for that it’s awesome. The fact that NAM gets an objectively better result on null tests than Tonex raises some valid questions on how much IK Multimedia values amp capture fidelity, which is the heart of the product, versus the other features. For me personally this stopped me from purchasing Tonex atm - if I pay for amp emulation, I want it better than what I can get for free.

[@zerorossing207]

I saw one video where NAM ended up being very slightly more accurate (based on the volume of a null test) and frankly I'd challenge anyone to tell the difference. Here's the real difference, though. Tonex has a lot of great captures of very high quality. NAM? Not so much. I actually spent some time this weekend listening to everything that was currently on Tonehunt... well not everything, because I got tired of how for every good capture, there seemed to be a dozen terrible ones. I'm not even talking about settings that I didn't like, just ones that sounded bad. A fair amount of the seemed to add latency (not reported to my DAW) too, which is unfortunate. So, if you're capturing your own amps so you can practice with headphones or at low volumes, and know what you're doing, I think NAM can be great. The problem is that when you're relying on random people to supply your content, a lot of it is going to suck. This is the way.

[@sonicgems]

@@zerorossing207 At some point talented capturers from Tonex comunity might start contributing to NAM and the general quality may improve. Until then I'll stick to TONEX.

[@zerocrossing]

@@sonicgems In all honesty, when the capture is good, they both seem great to me. I think the difference is that Tonex has way better consistency and variety, which makes sense, considering it’s a commercial product.

[@milankotevski1663]

​​@@zerorossing207 nonsense. It's the other wsy around. Tonex captures are mostly crap. The NAM ones are great. It's not even a comparison. Not to mention, you have too look really hard to find an actual amp on Tonenet. It's mostly modelers and other nonsense.

[@zerorossing207]

@@milankotevski1663 Tell yourself whatever you need to so you feel better about it. I guess if you like a lot of aliasing, NAM’s for you. Enjoy!

[@JayOneAlumni]

in a null test it out preformed everything on the market in terms of how accurate it is and when using it as a vst their is no problems so to me all of the problems and complaints are user error

[@TaylorDanley]

You're probably referring to Leo Gibsons null test, which was somewhere in the range of 1% more accurate than ToneX. So, about 3% more accurate, to me, does not justify the extra effort to use. 🤷‍♂️

[@JayOneAlumni]

@@TaylorDanley I could care less about the percent I care how good it sounds and it sounds and sits in mixes way better then all of them ( granted I don’t have a kemper) using it is easy. You have to set up your tone anyways and that takes just as much time.

[@notasilicaanimus]

@@JayOneAlumni so you bring up the null test but then say that you don't care about the results 😂

[@JayOneAlumni]

@@notasilicaanimus twisting words. I said percent numbers. Not the whole data that was presented but nice try

[@notasilicaanimus]

@@JayOneAlumni that's the whole point of the test dumbski, to make it scientific and quantitative, rather than just someone saying 'I think it sounds better'. Why did you bother bringing it up if ultimately you were just going to base your argument on your subjective opinion?

[@G3kk0852xbox]

I should just say that since this is open source, I'd recommend looking back at this program every now and then to see the progress people put into it. So far, I'm pretty impressed with it. I just wish that it currently had things like effects prepackaged, but that may come in a short time. Tonehunt is your best friend for this plugin.

[@roryt1985]

Bottom line, if captures are what you are solely after, NAM has been proven to be more accurate than QC, Tonex and Kemper. No hate, each of those other units has their pluses in what they offer , but if it’s purely looking through phase analysis which of these products presents a more accurate capture NAM is the way to go.

[@TaylorDanley]

Yes totally agreed. I'm stoked that people like NAM, even though they are mad at me that I don't think it's the best thing ever.

[@roryt1985]

@@TaylorDanley selfishly I hope this results in Neural either dropping the price of the QC or getting out of cruise control and producing a desktop editor and plugin portability. At the end of the day us as consumers are winners from this competition.

[@TaylorDanley]

@@roryt1985 I don’t think that’s selfish, I think those are pretty reasonable asks!

[@Mendelian]

Love the vid! Do note that ToneX CS is free as well and you can import third party/friends presets as well. However you can’t capture with the free TONEX.

[@TaylorDanley]

That is a good point!

[@jamesfindice2871]

I just downloaded Tonex CS and i don’t think there is a way to use a boost in here either? In standalone mode that is…correct me if I’m wrong!

[@Mendelian]

@@jamesfindice2871 No, you basically use Amplitude 5 for that where you can load up your TONEX model and put an OD in front of it.

[@jamesfindice2871]

@@Mendelian alright, cheers mate!

[@justsomerandomguyman]

Another point: ToneX and ToneNet have awful UX too.

[@RobCowie]

Nah...I like my money, and I especially like keeping it. Nice try getting me to buy into ToneX, though.

[@TaylorDanley]

I'm not trying to get you to buy into anything. These opinions are my own, and you are entitled to yours as well! 🥳

[@LochNessAnthony]

@@TaylorDanley nah. Nice try tho.

[@PippPriss]

NAM indeed is better because of the flexibility it offers the capture creator. You can choose the number of epochs, while with ToneX you only have three tiers. Also, ToneX does not get the job 100% accurate, while NAM delivers consistently perfect results (when ReAmped right). But I do see the convenience factor of other solutions out there over NAM, and if you are a person satisfied with getting "nearly perfect results" and then tweaking your way to 100% from there onward, then ToneX will serve our better on that front. I am indeed a bit disappointed because I hoped for you contributing cool models to the community. Is there a possibility to reach out to you having some files ReAmped to still have these models available at the newly launched platform ToneHunt?

[@PippPriss]

I just wanted to write this second comment to commend the effort placed into the intro - that was absolute gold. 😀

[@huntertyler7405]

This video lowered my iq

[@Alex-dr6or]

But how is it complicated? It's literally just like an IR loader for your DAW for amp profiles. Its very simolistic and has a clean UI.

[@danjohncool2]

i have no idea I downloaded it today and when i went to play an amp realized you have to download em, and googled it and immediately got a website with a bunch of amps and irs, downloaded like 5 of them and they all sounded great in 5 minutes. if i could i would probably return tonex

[@Neightlive]

IF you want to boost the NAM amp you have loaded you run another copy of the NAM plugin with a boost installed..... its like you never uses a DAW before.

[@SteepRZ]

Alguien aquí está claramente financiado para influir en las decisiones de compra de potenciales usuarios. Es una muy buena señal de que hay lágrimas debajo de la cama y eso nos debe alegrar 😅

[@Metaldad87]

Valid criticisms, i saw the new verson has improved UI and a community member actually made a site to store models on which makes it alot easier to find and download models

[@djabthrash]

Do you have the link to that site ? I'd love to see the list of models available.

[@suffersystemstudios]

While I do quite enjoy NAM at the moment, seeing where it will be a year from now is very exciting.

[@TaylorDanley]

I agree!

[@K707OR30]

Guess I’m just old now and I often forget that, but I still just like my real amps. And the super easy plugins. I agree with you, I’m willing to pay for convenience in a way that I wasn’t when I was younger. I hope this gets better but in its current state I’m not interested. Also I’m in the “paid for reaper” club for exactly the reasons you mention. Sure it’s free but Cockos has done a killer job with that DAW free or not, so I’m willing to pay a one time 60 bucks to support them. It’s worth far more than that honestly.

[@TaylorDanley]

Paid for reaper club! 🥳 I think there might be something to this here as well, as you get older and realize your days are in fact numbered, you start being a little more critical of how you spend your time... I'm not sure if that's a factor here in the NAM hype, but for me it's certainly true.

[@gerrykavanagh]

Fair comments, Tayloe... and I say this as a huge Open Source advocate and fan of NAM. For some, the tradeoff in time invested is not worth it, and that's perfectly fine. I'd be really curious on your views on where the proejct is now, in particular its integraiton into things like Two Notes Genome and Toneocracy and pedals like MOD Audio Dwarf, Poly Beebo and the new NAM Player.

[@XCenturionX]

The modeler itself is pretty a awesome idea, however, once you put the power into people's hands who have no idea what they're doing to do the capturing, that's where the problem begins. I tried the plug-in, downloaded a bunch of captures, and most of them sounded...well...like garbage for lack of a better word

[@jcugnoni]

Great intro. Really cool acting. I am pretty sure that you will find next versions of NAM much easier to use.. In two weeks the number of models available in ToneHunt has exploded and I am pretty sure that it will get integrated in the plugin directly.

[@TaylorDanley]

I’m sure I will. Actually truth be told it was hard to make this video because of how rapidly it’s changing. It’s likely any bugs I experienced are ironed out now.

[@ThatMFShawnzy]

I’m gonna have to agree with you. With other sims, I can get a useable sound Im seconds…Im absolutely lost as fuck with NAM, even with all the online support. Like you said- I don’t have time for all this shit. Also- the CPU usage is insane. Even my MacBook m1 has an issue with it.

[@TaylorDanley]

Hey dude, nice to see you here! Yeah, I'm really glad that other people do have time for it, and I commend them for their effort!

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

I run it on 2019 MacBook and haven’t had any issues, the cpu usage is the same as any other amp sim for me, and with a good capture you don’t even have to tweak anything on the plugin meaning you get the sound even faster, seems weird to me you’re having these issues.

[@Shinigami11111]

Bro!! Never mind NAM, where did you get that evil dead t-shirt ? It's awesome and I need one

[@TaylorDanley]

HAHA thank you. I got it from Horrormerch.com If you're into evil dead, check out the second channel... first videos go live in about an hour! @nightcircleshorror

[@Shinigami11111]

@@TaylorDanley ha, awesome news on all fronts!

[@eDrumsInANutshell]

Hi guys, I didn't go through all comments, so maybe this has been mentioned already: For me, as drummer with DONNER guitars (sorry dudes) I also bought AmpliTube 5 because I like see these beautiful graphics and I like to turn theses knobs and try out different effects and - you know. There is a difference between simulation and modeling, and I like the sim because of these tuning possibilities. I also like BiasFX and the free stuff by ML Soundlab. :-)

[@sillyness3456]

I tried NAM, haven't tried TONEX, but whatever I touch in terms of plugins, nothing comes anywhere close to the Otto Audio amp sim.

[@TaylorDanley]

Excellent plugin, quite a bit different than those two in terms of what it does though. However, 💪

[@steve_video]

so the simulation is better than the original :)

[@Neightlive]

That I agree with

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

I never heard of it until I saw your comment, went to check out that Otto audio amp sim and to me it sounds like any other amp sim out there to be honest.

[@sillyness3456]

@@GreatBurningNullifier It’s obviously a matter of personal taste.

[@DrBP34]

I bought bias fx recently and thinking of returning it and buying toneX. Can I get your opinion please ?

[@fenderberg]

Love the NAM software. I get the UX thing, but i mainly use NAM to capture my band rig for home.

[@tonygonzalez958]

great point seems like a lot of screwing around for tones I already have with helix native and neural dsp plugs. but I do see the potential.

[@munkywrench00]

whats the lil controller by your left hand?

[@TaylorDanley]

Teleprompter or light remote. Not sure which.

[@yunamadsimackomen881]

I agree with Taylor’s point. The NAM interface is simply not ready to compete with paid softwares that do the same thing (ex. Amplitube, Tonex, Neural DSP, etc.), and the installation process is not exactly user-friendly for folks who are not well-versed in coding. For this matter, Steve could not possibly charge for NAM. However, once you get into it, NAM not only gives you the most options when it comes to modeling your gear, but the models that it creates have impressive realistic “feel” to them. I primarily use Amplitube to record guitar, and to be quite honest, cannot say the same about it. Another great thing about the NAM modeling code is that it is not fussy with audio. It will even take noise-gated signal chains and make them sound decent (whereas the Quad Cortex, for example, cannot do that). So with NAM, it is not the interface, but the modeling ability and it’s tweakability that beats its “price”.

[@szveszs]

Honestly, this feels kinda a weird long video for ME, and reminds me a bit the the "cords of orion" video about the Zoom MS50G, and this isn't a good thing. I like your videos, but this one, feels a bit "too much" for "nothing".

[@TaylorDanley]

Well, sorry you didn't like it. I've been getting a ton of comments on NAM, so I made a video about it. I tried it, realized it wasn't for me, wanted to explain why to people and also try to make something entertaining. 🤷‍♂️

[@szveszs]

@@TaylorDanley yeah I understand. Don't take it personal, I like your content I just don't want to feel as I like your content to start to not trust anymore on your work just for the sake of the entertainment. Anyway, your content is good and helps alot. Thanks.

[@gibson2623]

Guitar plugins have been around for like 20 years.....What s the Hype with this? They ve had some VST plugins for some years.

[@markswarbrick999]

The standalone version has no sound. The VST version crashes my DAW. This might be a good idea but it's not user friendly and it's very complicated to get to work, as it stands, i can't get it to work.

[@matthijshebly]

Use the plugin inside a DAW, instead of the standalone...

[@matthijshebly]

Judging it by its somewhat crappy standalone player is just silliness. As a plugin inside the DAW, with your favourite IR loader and effects added is where it shines!

[@TaylorDanley]

Is it though? Because when I use a plugin like this, that's what I want to use. I don't want to load up my DAW just to jam and tinker with some tones. Same goes for plugins that don't have a stand alone mode, I tend to not use them at all.

[@matthijshebly]

@@TaylorDanley Oh well, to each their own... Reaper starts in less than a second and has all the facilities needed...

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

@@TaylorDanley what’s the difference between opening the standalone or opening a daw? I’d literally the same, I’ve never used the standalone version of any plug in my life. 😂

[@joelortiz2281]

Hey Taylor…. Can the Mooer Preamp Model X be used to play NAM captures?

[@TaylorDanley]

No idea, I doubt it though. I believe the Mooer preamp pedal uses MNRS files.

[@joelortiz2281]

@@TaylorDanley thanks

[@hannibalbarkas1350]

Nah but you can DIY some sort of DSP solution in a pedal that runs the NAM code, if you are tech savvy enough.

[@mr-iz8cx]

Super useful video, thanks man. I don't have an amp yet. Just a guitar, pc and ancient interface and have wondered which direction to go taking into account my budget. Electric is new to me and buying an amp and then wishing I'd bought a different amp isn't a place I want to be just yet haha.

[@rossbalch]

As someone who bought ToneX day one I do think NAM sounds better. You can prove it scientifically too. But all the criticisms you bought up are valid. Such is the nature of open source tech, compared to companies who can afford the dev time for a great user experience. I wish the community were a little less zealous, it's definitely getting a cult like reputation. Hopefully great developers aren't put off by that and some useful contributions make it a truly competitive option for non nerds.

[@TaylorDanley]

Yeah if I had to compare the sounds, I’d agree. It’s not a massive margin, but a little. But yes, there’s so much more (to me) that I need for something to fit in my workflow than just sounding slightly better. Thanks for the comment! 🙏

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

You guys don’t get it. It’s a free alternative that sounds better than anything out there on the market, yes, it has its drawbacks but the benefit/cost relationship is nuts, again, for us people who don’t live in a first world country and will never be able to get our hands on the real high end gear, this thing is just crazy. And the cult thing is a total deflection guys, you get people like that in every community, it just happens that many in the NAM community have spent thousands of dollars on amp sims and not being totally satisfied with those amp sims tones, suddenly we get a free plugin which can load captures of amps that sound near identical to their physical counterparts, you’ve gotta understand the hype.

[@justsomerandomguyman]

@@TaylorDanley How can you even talk about a comparison when you are comparing 2 random profiles and not 2 profiles you created yourself of the same amp? It's sort of a useless comparison. By the way, I own Tonex Ultimate and the ToneX pedal and also a Kemper for the last 10 years, as well as a bunch of real amps. So, not a NAM fanboy. But it is what it is.

[@tylorkenniston1192]

Your critiques are valid and I’m appreciate you at least gave it a shot 🤷🏻‍♂️ I will have to try exporting in FCP to see if I have any issues, since that would be a major drawback. However I will say it would have been cool to see you try out the capture process, and maybe load the thing up in a daw for a full mix. Either way, keep doin your thing man! 🤘🏼

[@TaylorDanley]

In fairness, I was able to get it to work the second time around with FCP, but I know in general FCP has weird issues with some plugins... see also UA plugins 😂 I will probably do the capture process down the road because I fully anticipate it being flushed out and easier to do, since it's a key feature.

[@tylorkenniston1192]

@@TaylorDanley even a caveman like me was able to make a couple captures this morning just trying the thing out, just had to make sure to follow the instructions carefully.

[@TaylorDanley]

@@tylorkenniston1192 you are smarter than you give yourself credit for! I’m sure I could figure it out, but I’m also sure if I wait a bit, there will be improvements that make it more straight forward

[@JustinTutor]

As someone who put out a video on NAM, this is the best NAM video. This intro slays.

[@TaylorDanley]

Thanks dude 🙏

[@NewDawnCircle]

I dunno, to each his own. I found it so funny you brought up Reaper, because I was having no problem finding decent tones the first hour I tried NAM, but after 4 hours of struggling with Reaper I still couldn't do the most basic stuff I was used to. Went back to Cakewalk, which is also finny enough, free.

[@audioengineer86]

I think NAM is a really cool idea, but it's just not there yet. The idea of sharing amps freely is really cool

[@UltimateEngineering]

Oh it is imo. It free, tons of really good captures, easy to use and capture. Best free amp plug in right now. Because of the community and tons of captures, its way better than the products out there.

[@miked5487]

is now

[@thomasloveday1617]

It’s pretty easy now someone has set up ToneHive. Basically on par with Tone X, but I prefer the NAM models.

[@milankotevski1663]

God forbid a commercial KZbin channel supports a freeware.

[@TaylorDanley]

To be clear, I DO support this. I also think if you use the software, you should support it, but either helping out the community or donating.

[@barryprosser1370]

Apparently he can't have his own opinion... Either way he made a video bringing more attention to it... just didn't vibe with it. People need to just chill out. If he doesn't vibe with it that's okay you still can. Would you rather he lie about it?

[@RX120D]

@@TaylorDanley Don't worry man. Your video was clear. This dude is just butthurt for no reason. NAM is super cool, but I didn't vibe with it either. Needing to rely on others to properly capture their amps (let alone be capturing a good tone to begin with) is no bueno for me. There's so many shitty captures that navigating the massive amount of them to find the diamond in the rough is a huuuuge waste of time. To me this is a tool for engineers; to capture snapshots of real amp tones during the tracking process to gain the ability to recall them in the future if necessary. That's where it's strength lies, not in being a replacement for any other amp modeler on the market.

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

@@RX120D Yes, if you can’t make captures yourself you rely on others, but if you have just a tad of social skills, you can simply befriend someone in the group who can make captures, like I did, and ask nicely for certain amps with certain settings and getting them for free while also helping him test his captures, seriously all that nit-picking about a free plug in just reeks of buyer’s insecurity.

[@RX120D]

@@GreatBurningNullifier Buyer's insecurity? That's a strawman response if you ask me. Also, incredibly presumptuous.

[@Steadybeheady]

NAM needs more searing death metal jamming tones, less “everything at noon, just enough gain”. That’s my only real complaint so far, but I do understand some of yours for sure.

[@TaylorDanley]

Maybe us Death Metal dudes lack the IQ to capture our high gain amps? 😂 I'm sure this isn't the last time I'll visit this plugin!

[@Steadybeheady]

@@TaylorDanley could be, all the caveman style DM of late rotting the brain 😅

[@TaylorDanley]

@@Steadybeheady caveman DM = the best DM 🤣

[@mattlennon7628]

A bit biased set of opinions. You say one thing and then throw almost an exact opposite to be able to playball on arguments. You keep repeating that NAM advantage is being free. Well, event the fact that in its main purpose its not only equivalent but better is way more simple. Let me ask you...can you categorize the captures in TONEX ? Simple explorer folders allow that in NAM. Windows Explorer search is at least as simple as the one inside in TONEX which interface actually pretty much sucks and I'm for sure not the only one saying that. Simplicity you say ? Wanna talk about simplicity of installation or updating process IK Multimedia is well known off ? You really missed a few things here.

[@UNIRockLIVE]

I don't watch this guy regularly but in his defense you can tell he was joking on a lot of the complaints you just made about him

[@BeerandGuitars]

All of this stuff is subjective. Something like this was always going to happen and I love it.

[@needsLITHIUM]

In all fairness, Mac OS is not friendly with unsigned software in general. Anything open source basically has to be compiled on the machine or installed via homebrew if Mac OS's security settings don't recognize it. Now, admittedly this is a great feature for people who are only tech literate as an end user... But nerds, geeks, and IT pro people tend to hate Mac OS for this "locked down" experience of being kept in a "walled garden" (in quotes because EVERYONE who doesn't like Mac or is critical of the ecosystem uses those terms - I don't hate Mac, I just think it has its best use cases, and also it's caveats and weaknesses, same as any other operating system). Mac is not designed for power users. It's designed for people who need big brother to proverbially change their oil filter for them because they don't know how, whether due to lack of time, ignorance, or just not being able to comprehend. Just like how not everyone can replace individual parts in their car or do advanced car maintenance, or not everyone can fix their own kitchen appliances, obviously not everyone can be super tech wizards. If you use a Mac, there is a 90% chance that you're a savvy end user, or worst case, barely tech literate, and know nothing about tweaking or hardware specs or coding software, and things like the command line are like Mordor - one does not simply enter the command line. That's the place where scary things you don't understand live, and messing with them will anger the computer gods (aka break stuff like you're Fred Durst, motha fucka). Tbh, that is perfectly fine.

[@TaylorDanley]

Totally, and I am the the type that just wants my computer to do what I bought it for and not mess up if I change my settings... At the end of the day, streamlining and productivity are my goals I suppose.

[@seenproveseven]

Thank you Taylor for validating my lack of time!

[@TaylorDanley]

No dude, thank you! 💪

[@seenproveseven]

@@TaylorDanley Time is precious but there's this cool new channel called Night Circles. You should totally check it out, bruh! ... Just don't tell NAM. ;P

[@TaylorDanley]

@@seenproveseven omg Night Circles is a super time suck for me 🤣 but thank you so much man, I really appreciate it!!! 🙏

[@Cpmnk]

Seems like a problem only for mac users. Im using a cheap umc22 interface and a budget pc and it works and sounds great

[@CrushingAxes]

AOL Messenger was really cool! Scott is so funny! I tried Nam, but had a few problems, it sounds really cool!

[@TaylorDanley]

Glad you liked it. Yes, Scott is a really cool guy and was nice enough to send me that clip!

[@ariskoskinas]

Why not liking something that comes closer that any other thing to the real deal 🤷‍♂️

[@TaylorDanley]

I mean, I explained that... I thought pretty thoroughly.

[@TheRealStevenWard]

😂😂😂 Great video! It seems like a great plugin for someone who already does engineering and knows the ins and outs of IR's and captures/profiling like Kemper or QC. Probably not for someone just getting into the guitar plugin game. Especially since it's just the capture and IR without any sort of available signal chain to add fx pre or post amp which ends up making DAW usage a necessity. I'll be really interested to see how development goes though. If this could become something modular in the future, allowing users to add fx where they want, that could be really interesting. 🤔

[@TaylorDanley]

Hey dude, thanks for dropping in! I agree, and I’m very excited to see where it goes!

[@ramspencer5492]

NAM does have insane potential to be a really good alternative at some point. 10X more data capture potential. Some people are reporting getting an extra 3-5a% in sound quality over Tonex and are actual picking NAM over Tonex in blind AB tests.

[@cyborgchimpy]

how do you measure 3-5% better sound quality?

[@justsomerandomguyman]

@@cyborgchimpyPretty easy actually. Null tests against the original source!

[@cyborgchimpy]

@@justsomerandomguyman "sound quality" as people use it is very vague and subjective. some remade tracks with "objectively" better quality will sound worse to many people. quite literally distortion comes from oversaturation and clipping which at some point in time people would say is objectively BAD quality. so how you do you quantify sound quality in this case? why does capturing 10x more data equal better? specifically "3-5%"better. if its capturing data from below 20 hz or above 20k hz then its useless data to capture and adds near to nothing audible. I could agree with that people are picking one over the other in blindtests, but that doesnt objectively quantify its quality.

[@jcalzada74]

ilock amps sims are a kill switch for me

[@TaylorDanley]

LOL

[@elguitarTom]

NAM sounds as good as the Kemper. I own the Kemper, NAM and tried Tonex. Tonex is a sluggish program

[@withinthrall1445]

I personally hate most built in effects like delays and such most other options have to offer. Could never get good uses for them but that’s just me. But biggest thing is at the need of the day, I can’t really afford to spend money on the tonex or quad cortex. So nam perfect for me. And if my payment is giving tips to make it better than honesty even better. I just think it’s a shame you have to make a video even explaining why you don’t like something. If it’s not for you then it’s not. I don’t get why people can’t handle that you just might not vibe with something. Much better to be honest than force yourself to use or enjoy something.

[@spyware1100]

Nam, kemper, tonex, quad cortex was measured with null test and nam won the accurancy test. For free.

[@TheRealChetManley]

Leo Fender tested them all, NAM was the closest to source.

[@tyrannosaurusriffs]

This is a nightmare. I have been trying to get this done for over an hour. I remember you having this video. I sure wish I would have watched this before wasting my time.

[@TaylorDanley]

Shh don't tell anyone, they all think I'm just a shill because I'd rather pay to use a service that's user friendly.

[@tyrannosaurusriffs]

@@TaylorDanley I'm in the process of deciding if I want to keep my amp collection. I've never tried modelers or anything of the sort. I remember Ola having his Satan on here for free. I wasted to much time on it. It's to difficult to work with. Like you said in the video..........efficiency is key. I don't have time for this. It sounded good when you had it working, but..........time.

[@vilerite]

@@TaylorDanley It has nothing to do with you being a shill or wanting to use a more user friendly UI. It has to do with you just not knowing how to set up the software and blaming the software. Complaining about the settings menu while it's your computers fault and again, blaming the software. This isn't hard to set up, there's plenty of videos on it, it's free, and it sounds great for being free. And within your ignorance, it just makes you seem to be more you want to shit on the software instead of giving it a chance. It's been a year and you still don't understand that is kind of amazing.

[@arthurpizza]

NAM has one feature that ToneX will never have: Linux support.

[@pramkriuk]

I have listened to Dimehead NAM Player and Tonex vids, I think Dimehead sounds better than Tonex. But Dimehead offers far less features with higher price than Tonex.

[@josefdepovic8495]

ffs it's not that complicated.

[@imcrazedandconfused]

Hey, that's funny, and I totally get your point. Soundwise, hands down, the null-tests don't lie. NAM beat's all commercial competitors in the field right now. Does it use more CPU for that? Sure. But hey, as if sound fetishists care about that. Oh, well, you are on Mac OS. OK, things are different there. I see. And this is also part of the experience you had. Seriously, developing for the Mac is an awkward experience for every developer. And it is part of the concept. Apple is not a big supporter of the open source or freeware concept. It does not fit their image. So they make it fairly hard to produce software for their platforms. And before others chime in, how great developing for Mac is: YMMV, okay? I totally get, what is so appealing about Tonex. I was hyped when I tried it. And the hype went down, when I had to deal with very mediocre models in hundreds, with bloated GUIs, and when I saw, how people did their first own models, I was pretty underwhelmed by the process. Yes, you get all guidance, no, it was not fun. If it is the sound that counts, given, Tonex is pretty good and beats QuadC and Kemper for a much lower price. And NAM is free and beats them all. In the end it is what people want personally. Convenience, guidance and no need to figure out some things, (like how to avoid clipping, ;-) ) or like how to find models on the internet? Well, there are sites launching for very convenient download and sharing of NAM models now. But I get it. You want that experience of Tonex, you get a fairly good value for what you pay. For sure. You want the best quality possible and flexibility, capturing not only amps and pedals, but maybe also vst's, analog signal chains, whatever you can think of makes sense to capture (maybe the analog hardware that you borrowed or had in another studio for a track, and you want to remix?) - then NAM is the go-to, because the commercial competitors are not providing these possibilities easily. And yes, the best quality because null-tests don't lie. But we get it. There are people actively working on making the NAM system a more complete and more user-friendly thing, including GUIs, and I can totally imagine, that you come back to NAM at a later point in time. Criticism is always a good thing. No matter, if you got some negative comments, the NAM community is generally a bunch of helpful and listening enthusiasts, and will probably make things more enjoyable for everyone. Thanks for this honest video, very appreciated!

[@fastboy_guitars]

Yep. This is a great video. NAM is awesome but making software easy to use is a really hard job and it’s important to critique that aspect of it. It’s also beneficial for NAM because heaps of hype is not sustainable. I think the best thing about nam is it will push the industry along. There is now a really good example of how to do accurate capturing with a Nueral network. Every company who doesn’t yet have capturing tech now does. The question going forward is who can execute it the best?

[@TaylorDanley]

Well said! I would be surprised if the bigger companies don't already have the tech in development, but if they don't.. now they really have no excuse.

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

You guys don’t understand the hype, it isn’t even about the capture process, you’re only able to capture if you have all the gear, but for us who don’t have access to high end gear is a game changer. For people like me who live in a third world country is almost impossible to get a tube head even less all the gear required to capture it, but we do have access to captures that if made really well, (like many that are available on tonehunt) gives you straight away a better sound than all of the options on the market (NDSP,tonex, keeper, tonehub, amplitube and all other amps sims and whatnot) oh and it’s free.

[@fastboy_guitars]

@@GreatBurningNullifier no. I really do understand. I’ve actually made some (very) minor contributions to the project. I think it’s a really good thing. However the ‘hype’ specifically is around it being “some product killer”. It’s not, because usability is hard and a big deal. I understand why it’s exciting, but it also needs to be tempered by reality. If you want a good tone cheap, there are options which don’t require investment in a computer. If you want to record there are a number of free amp plugins which are easier to use and will get you to a tone faster and easier. NAM is more accurate to the source amp. That’s a great achievement… doesn’t mean it sounds better though. That’s subjective. If that’s important to you and your willing to deal with the quirks then great. If youre super excited I suggest helping with finding and logging bugs, or contributing to documentation. You don’t need to be an engineer to do that.

[@DudeMcGuybro]

BRO YOU GOTTA TRY IT BROOOOOOOOOOOO member here. That being said, I had none of the issues you had with clipping, make sure you keep the trainer updated, and yeah it's probably pretty smart to have antivirus anyways. It seems like you don't want to participate because there's no way to monetize your captures yet. That's fine, I get it you're a busy guy, but just say that part too. There's no financial incentive like there is for ToneX for example. They charge for it, yet gave it to you for free. That's incentive to show it off because they did something for you. I just hate to be that guy, but it just seems like because it can't do anything financially beneficial for you, you don't want to check it out. You keep saying "It's not worth my time", yet if ToneX didn't give you the program for free, I feel like you'd say the same thing about that. Am I wrong to assume that about ToneX? If you'd see how it comes off from the viewers POV, I think you'd change some of the delivery. Just do one capture with it, or one demo of it, satisfy the people that like it, and keep the negativity out of it until the very end. People obviously like it, and it's a great utility for people who don't have money to afford a program like ToneX. If you don't like it, or don't use it, you can say that at the end and move on, but it's not hard to show off the features and tones you're capable of getting without the negativity throughout. To each their own, I just think encouraging more people to use it would help iron out a lot of the problems. It's open source, so anyone can suggest fixes to Steve to help the problems be fixed. The more eyes it has on it, the faster it can improve to a state you might be happy with it yourself. I'm not saying you have to kiss the programs ass, or strictly say nice things about it, I'm saying it's fine to dislike a product or program, but if the audience really wants it, show it off, and make your feelings known toward the end that maybe this program isn't for you. Sometimes you have to invest your time into things that "aren't worth it" because the popularity of that thing that "isn't worth your time" might become worth your time, and had you invested earlier it would be generating tons more revenue. I don't want to compare it to bitcoin, but I mean, look where that went. You didn't need to make a massive investment to see a relatively nice payoff. Yeah, it might not be worth it upfront, but in the long run it might be worth doing something with.

[@TaylorDanley]

Thanks for being that member! I don't want to participate for the reasons I already mentioned. If monetizing my NAM models was my motivation, I absolutely could do that now. I feel like you didn't listen to what I said in the video, I kind of explained all of this already. I did encourage people to use it, and especially to participate in the community!

[@ChiAeNima]

Awesome video bro. Funny and sincere. My 👍🏻

[@TaylorDanley]

Thanks! 💪

[@rathertragik]

love the video! agree 100% NAM will get better with time, but Tonex is ready "now" i want to jam a ENGL savage capture in seconds, not search for one and hope it's good. Tonex is also very light on CPU. i got it running smooth even with the buffer set to 68 samples, whereas NAM on standalone stutters for me, no matter what i do. i also ran Tonex through my interface out to our P.A. speakers and it sounded killer cranked up, so i imagine the Tonex pedal being even better.

[@TaylorDanley]

Glad you enjoyed it! I agree with you. As much as people don't want to hear this, mostly because they are aligning their ideology with NAM being "free", if it was streamlined and easier to use (i.e. training from the plugin, searchable models, etc.) I'd be happy to pay for it.

[@InTheSh8]

The 0.7.2v is pretty close to being a killer for everything that exists out there! Much better performance. Apps like Ampknob for example take more cpu at this point! The installation? Just double-click the .exe!

[@gunslingersymphony5015]

I respect being at a point in life when you'd rather pay for something than wait, and for some things I certainly agree. I can't justify spending that money on creative software (be it visual or audial) when there are so many who truly believe in creating and maintaining OS software like this. Don't get me wrong: I believe in capitalism, and I believe in artists getting paid for their work. With well-developed, OS software more talented people can get their art out there. The software can't be well-developed without users and their feedback, therefore it's imperative that people use and promote it, rather than just preferring to spend money to save time. Second point: when users are actively involved in this process they learn more about what goes into-and therefore what comes out of-their software and equipment. It's literally free education for which people pay tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, if you pay attention. All this rambling to say that I understand this video is a simple explanation of why YOU prefer x over y, and not why we should. If one already has enough of the aforementioned education/experience (preferably both) to just spend money and save time, go with x. If one desires to be a part of the OS revolution that has the potential to put these corporate scalpers in their place, go with y. Simple. 😆 Edit: I forgot to mention that I'm interested to see what you think now, a year later, as that's the timeline you mentioned. I'll have to take quick peek at your recent videos.

[@klydethombaugh1863]

Have you ever used a computer and a DAW?

[@kjetilalexandersaltnes8643]

I........ believe i stick to Mbritt and Tonejunkie for a while...

[@hannesganahl6384]

Nice to hear somebody explains his opinion, which is not what all others are saying. I think about tonex and nam exactly like you!

[@michaellankton2771]

NAM is the future. 10 yrs from now Tonex and Quad Cortex will be KZbin nostalgia videos. IMO. NAM is in its infancy and is already this good, it's going nowhere but up. Look at what basically three guys have done with the Dimehead NAM Player, then you tell me what NAM hardware situation is going to be two years from now. It's going to boom like a m***erf*cker.

[@JeffreyRutland]

clever video. you’re clearly not into NAM, so why not just leave it alone? I forgot, the internet. good job!

[@tusharjamwal]

This is really hype, not because of what it does. But because you can customize what it does to your needs. Thing is I have problems and pet peeves with other amp plugins and the companies behind them but I can't do anything about it. But I can about this!!! That's why it's hype, the promise of a software you can tailor to yourself.

[@TaylorDanley]

Do you mean customize, as in code? Yeah, I have 0 interest in learning to do that. I'd much rather just pay for a fully flushed out product that does what I need it to.

[@thethings4708]

I like NAM... BUT don' t get it when peoples take someone else opinion so PERSONAL... For myself Very GOOD video, because in most of peoples TIME are are VALUABLE... espacially when you have Familly Or get older... Believe me : time at 50 years old NOT the same as 20 years old... So THANKS and VERY good video : since i go BACK TO BASIC : more time playing MUSIC ... Less time "TWEAKING" amps... 😎

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

🤣🤣🤣 The only thing I see over here is people trying to justify their purchases, NAM slays I now the truth often hurts but come one guys NAM is a game changer and one of the best things to happen to the guitar community in a loooong time.

[@buhimoth]

Hopefully It’ll live up to the hype one day. Right now it does not.

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

It sounds better than any modeler/capturer available on the market right now.

[@buhimoth]

@@GreatBurningNullifier maybe, but it’s not particularly useable. I’m waiting until I can actually use it before I pass judgement on it.

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

@@buhimoth Seriously, I don’t understand where this “not usable” thing comes from. It’s very much usable as any other plugin, I run it on Logic Pro x with out any issues whatsoever, no heavy cpu usage, and just a couple of minor crashes in over two months, as a matter of fact I remixed a 10 song album with NAM and it is as stable as it gets, I don’t even need to freeze the tracks or consolidate them, I just have it running on real time on full mixes without any issues, I know I will sound like a douche, but for you and the people complaining about it not being usable maybe you just need to upgrade your computer, because for me it’s the same as running tonehub or any other amp sim.

[@buhimoth]

@@GreatBurningNullifier it comes from not being particularly useable lol. No AAX version, you have to use 48k, standalone won’t let me select the input with my DI box connected. In the time it would take me to mess around and try and figure it out/overhaul my workflow to try and use it, I could fire up my 5153, put a 57 in front of a cab, and start playing. I don’t need to upgrade my computer, it will run, it’s just a total dumpster fire to try and use. My mac mini can easily run a drum library and 12 instances of bogren AmpKnob and a submission audio library haha. I look forward to when the beta is finished and Steve has it developed enough for me to try it. If you like it, fine! Use it! Just don’t make me try and join your cult 😂 A good product to should be adapted to the user, not expect the user to adapt their setup to it.

[@IbanezNinja]

people might not like your opinions on nam, but seeing that you are using a mac I'd guess convenience/it just works/reliability factor is huge for you and technically tweaking is a turn off so something like nam will probably never fit your needs. people need to chill and let people have preferences lol

[@TaylorDanley]

HUGE. You are very astute. The whole reason I use Max is because I was tired of buggy drivers and constant crashes when video editing. Not like my Mac doesn’t crash, but it happens FAR less. And it definitely cost a ton to be in the ecosystem, but it’s definitely a trade off.

[@Saeedhashemi1994]

just open it in Daw duh ,

[@agentviktor3297]

Bro! Have you heard about NAM???

[@ramspencer5492]

Had to be tech savvy to use P2P to "share your Metallica albums"! Good one! Deep cut.....i remember Metallica's outrage..... The "plumber" quote.....

[@JC-fj7oo]

I Think the problem for me is that there is too much good stuff for free already, and it actually works out of the box. ML roots/stevie sound awesome and have 3d mic sims and easy access to swap custom IRs... And there's lots of places to pick up good free IRs. If you play any sort of rock, that's 90% of your tones covered right there. Tonex and IK have some free models that are good too. Ignite has some nice amp sims. And frankly the list is really long, but there is something for everyone and most of them are from legit sites and not some random dude's porn folder. This just reminds me too much of linux. It's a great idea, and it's free, but it always has some insurmountable technical issue that makes me end up back on windows.

[@hodshonf]

i own ToneX MAX and NEVER bonded with it i JUST installed NAM - looking primarily for bass amp models captured by other folk. not a huge offering, yet - but i was up and running in minutes with TWO great AMPEG and BASSMAN captures that blow away ToneX and BworX. i find ToneX (and Amplitube 5 MAX - which i own as well) painful to use and far more of a time waster than NAM has been. and candidly, i think A5 and ToneX are weak for bass. hell, my NUX MG-30 is more useful to me than IK.

[@DirtyDemos]

I'm normally down to spend some time to learn how to use my gear, but this is too much for me in it's current iteration. Hard pass for now.

[@TaylorDanley]

Same, and I think it's a fair reason!

[@devingrubbs]

Love the intro sketch 😂

[@Heaven-dy9lj]

Here Tonex sounded better, more low end, richer top end. NAM sounded more trebly, not as full. NAM is totally excellent, with the right captures and IR's.

[@Dreamdancer11]

Imagine someone transported you through time from the era of only having just a crappy practice amp to practice to getting near perfect sounds from emulating expensive boutique tube amps played at bedroom levels, spending zero dollars in the process and needing about 30 min to one hour to set everything up(and i mean everything) and you see someone still finding ways to bitch about it.... I especially call bullshit to the whole "my time is more valuable blah blah blah"..if that is REALLY the case and you want to produce rather than meander through options you would get a couple of versions of the best amps ever(in your opinion) lets say for most folks some fenders,voxes or marshalls or some 5150s and Rectifiers or Soldanos coupled with quality IRs for all of them and you are DONE cause you are supposedly there to produce and not waste time.....🙄🙄🙄 So taking all that to account the process of downloading and installing the app..finding the captures from the amps i wanted(around 10) and made from the best capturers took me 30 to 40 minutes(on a mac)....all the above by the way,neatly placed in their own folders(inside the main NAM folder) and coupled with extra IRs(if needed) from my collection so i dont have to jump around folders to find stuff in the future....so if someone really means business and wants to practice/play/produce in literally less than an hour has a complete quality rig consisting of the best amps(for him anyway)costing absolutely nothing....correct me if iam wrong but if that isnt the epitome of value for money PLUS efficiency i dont know what is....

[@lavor_xiii]

wow. beautiful wallpaper, man.

[@MetalheadOv666]

Exactly the reason I can’t use something like NAM is time it takes to get a tone. Big reason why I love Otto II II cuz u can get sooooo many different tones from it in a few minutes! I play in drop A and lower so it’s great for that and the mono/stereo mode is hard to beat when just jamming out!

[@gnoogie]

literally load up a preset and you have a tone. idk man if you download a bunch of captures you'll find something that sounds good rather quickly imo

[@mrcoatsworth429]

I downloaded a Rockerverb capture and used my go-to IR and it was literally one of my favorite tones I ever got with a plugin. It was, like, 2 minutes. But I understand that not everybody's experience can be as smooth as mine was.

[@GreatBurningNullifier]

That otto amp sim sounds just like any other amp sim out there.

[@milankotevski1663]

If it takes you more than a couple of minutes to get good tone with NAM, you should seriously consider another hobby.

[@bouzoukiman5000]

Seems cool but i think i'll wait a while

[@TheMetaldudeX]

Taylor’s complaints are valid. But he misses how far open source projects like this can really go.

[@DroctorKloebner]

I think the main plus is that you can capture YOUR sound for free. So if you like a boosted amp, capture your amp with a boost infront and you're good. I mean that's the whole point, right? also why the fuck would I download someone elses shitty dialed in rig anyway?

[@georgezorbas9036]

It's not better because it's free. It's an opinion that's not based in the data that people use in this community. They say it's better because they use a "graphic type eq" that shows that NAM gets maybe all the "spots" of the EQ curve that any real amp has, after profiling it. Also the other very important reason it's called "better" than maybe Tonex by some guys, is that has fuller low end and pick attack. Many of us that have tested NAM we have also found a better low end than Tonex. For me , I like the Tonex high end better than any other hardware/plugin, but for usability nothing comes close to Neural Dsp and also has the most beautiful delay / reverb I have ever used. The last lines are my humble opinion.. and I wish Tonex would reach the usability Neural Dsp provides me. Anyway...just opinions!

[@justsomerandomguyman]

If you want the best effects you're going to be using 3rd party libraries for delay, reverb, etc. anyway. (Eventide and SoundToys, mostly)

[@mityaIvanov2023]

no no no, Amperium NNM is the tonex and NAM killer !!!

[@TaylorDanley]

You know, I looked into this and messaged them, but haven't heard back. I would definitely like to check this out.

[@SlowDeath1993]

If you think you are funny well.. you aren't.

[@BrainDeadTX]

Love the intro! 😂

[@_vez]

The skit was very interesting. I feel like it has alot of potential but it needs some tweaking

[@TaylorDanley]

I'm sure it will continue to improve, it's already had a lot of upgrades since I initially made the video.

[@pageluvva]

Great, honest review. Much appreciated.

[@zThisPlay]

10:40 EMOTIONAL DAMAGE

[@mrthefloof]

This is pretty much the entire opensource experience unfortunately. There's a reason everyone hasn't switched to Linux instead of shilling out for windows/mac bloatware. Hopefully one day it gets to that point but it'll be a while.

[@TaylorDanley]

That's a good point. In the original iteration of this video, I actually deep dived into NAM reminding me of Linux and the early days of file sharing, and comparing ToneX to Spotify.

[@justsomerandomguyman]

The vast majority of the web runs on Linux though.

[@KeizerSinbad]

As a computer scientist this was hilarious. The amount of fear it seems the public has of downloading from random sites is amazing to me. Other than that you made good points. The user interface for training is non existent which makes it very difficult for non programmers to use.