Cab simulators in the shape of a stompbox aren’t exactly among the most widespread products in the pedal effect realm, but at NAMM 2017 three different companies unveiled such units, adopting three completely different approaches, so we guess there must be a sudden need for them out there!
Clicking on the images will open the pedal’s video.
The Atomic Amps’ Ampli-Firebox is very familiar to us, since it’s a reduced version of Amplifire, the high end, red amp emulator that’s been involved in many of our Stompbox Exhibits. This unit will provide almost all the features of the original (including reverbs and – of course – cab speaker emulations) at about half the cost. It can upload via USB the entire library of models provided by the manufacturer and also third party cabinet simulations through a 1024-point impulse response.
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The Neunaber Iconoclast Speaker Emulator seems like a surprisingly “utilitarian” product from a company that’s been specializing in luscious “wet” effects like reverb and delay. But that’s only the appearance… its three EQ knobs are not exactly what they seem!
- Low adjusts the virtual cabinet type and size
- Mid captures the speaker’s dynamic interaction with the amplifier
- High shifts the frequency cut off, reproducing a wide range of speaker types
A noise gate and headphones volume round up the pedal’s control.
The Iconoclast “dynamically shapes your tone as a speaker cabinet would, yet outputs directly to headphones, powered speakers, a mixer or recording interface.” The signal is split in stereo for a more open sound through a stereo enhancer
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Talking about stereo, that’s what DigiTech’s CabDriVR specializes in, being a Dual Cabinet Simulator. Splitting the guitar signal in two and feeding it to two different amps is an old trick that can always give interesting results (in particular if your amps sound good!!!); this pedal is born to facilitate that, even in an amp-less situation. It features a selection of 14 guitar and bass cab impulse responses, and dual inputs and outputs (you can plug two guitars in it, which can be very useful). One of the inputs has an optional dry path that can run to your own stage amp.
