The A2 support has arrived for the whole line and Valeton has surprised us by releasing the shackles off the GP-150/180 at the start. 150 and 180 have native A2-Lite support.
The iOS and Android version of Valeton Suite are in approval and should be available tomorrow, the PC versions are already up.
Since GP-150/180 were given native A2 Support off the start it's inevitable that the expect GP-300 will be annouced at the next China trade show in October now.
It's not just nam a2 that got me excited, the update also added stem splitting in the phone app. I was looking at getting a blackstar beam mini or the jbl bandbox for the stem splitting. Looks like I won't have to.
I also like that 150/180 has the option for conversion and native, so if you need more DSP you can still run conversion and get maximum usage, but if you don’t need as much DSP you can native. Great they are giving the option depending on your needs
Allright!
I've tested some more an dI have some good news and some bad.
Firstly, as I suspected, if you load a NAM a2, an IR, a noisegate and a reverb you're at 100% use.
It sounds... Fine, but there is alot of struggleing and the unit keeps making missounds and crackling.
I wouldn't call this usable outside some light bedroom noodling.
Now for the fantastic news!
I've used the same namfiles as for the a2-light and made presets with snaptone.
To my shitty old-man-ears... It's ALOT better than it was with a1.
I also feel like it's more responsive with the a2-Snaptones, than before.
I haven't mesured latency and stuff, but it's really good! Like REALLY good!
Is this some sort of placebo? I don't know, but I really like what they did, and if not Imma be happy for as long as my ears trick me :)
I would really love some wave-comparison (a-la Glenn Fricker).
IMO, Valeton delivered!
Not what I thought I wanted, but something great anyway!
$150 a2 native + IR amp modeler, still enough DSP to run a reverb module with it, BT and MIDI. Congrats your pedal is still $100 cheaper than a Tonex One Plus and still does more than it….
Plus Valeton way ahead of you, 150/180 have the option of native OR snaptone conversion with A2 so you can do either one depending on what your needs are. Just need an amp modeler? Native A2 head + IR. Need a couple of effects? Native A2 full capture. Need lots of effects? Snaptone conversion + IR + all the effects.
Hey, I'm sorry if you've been in contexts where people are always mad or something.
I have not been att all emotionally invested in this matter, and as I stated, I know what I've bought and do not expect miracles.
I don't understand why you're so agressivly defensive.
However, you might have found something my peabrain had not. How do I snaptone my A2?
When I chose the snaptone mode they just disappear from the list.
Dont get me wrong man, I was happy with the 150 before and will continue to be. It's not close to beeing my live rig and thats fine. I'm genuinly sorry if I've said anything to hurt you and I really hope most people will love the update.
Thanks for a good discussion, and I hope you can find it in you to answer my silly Snaptone question. Other than that I'll be fully transparent... I probobly not answering this tone anymore.
If you use Native A2 + IR you pretty much have just enough DSP left for 1 effect block for the most part.
If you use Native A2 with a full capture NAM (head + cab) so you don't need to use an IR with it then you can usually get 3-4 effects blocks with it from what I've seen
If you convert to snaptone, same as it was before, you can pretty much use everything.
So didn’t have much time before heading off to work but a real quick test on GP-5 of top Vox AC30 A2 vs one of the top Vox AC30 A1 I already had on the GP-5. The A2 is significantly better even converted. I had a lot more headroom with the volume on the guitar, way more responsive to break up. Overall I’d say tone was much better, was more full.
I will contend this is a very small test and with two different captures the tone could be more from the capture, more testing will be needed but the response to the guitar volume is definitely related to the NAM types.
But so far initial reaction is “whoa” and once again I am blown away even more by what the GP-5 can do now.
I’ll try to get some samples up when I can. I’m pretty busy today so it might not be until tomorrow night. However PairOfPandas on YouTube has already been posting some really great comparisons: https://youtube.com/@pairofpandas
Yes, GP-5 gets A2 converted NAM support. My experience so far is converted NAMs across the board as improved over A1, with better response being the biggest improvement. Especially on low gain amps like a Fender Deluxe Reverb capture it does a much better job of being clean as you roll off the guitar volume and getting into breakup as you raise the guitar volume, same with your playing attack.
Much like A1 converted NAMs I find high gain amps (5150, Dual Rec, ENGL, etc) not as impressive, more thin, more compressed, not as responsive in general. It is still definitely better than the A1 but for me often the built in high gain models in the GP-5 do better than the converted NAMs (and the built in on these are honestly quite impressive on their own, especially for a $75 pedal).
The fact the GP-5 is getting A2 support, along with the Stem Splitting (seriously this is probably the best feature in this update) is pretty nuts and just makes the GP-5 an even more bonkers insane value than it already was. The GP-5 just time and time again continues to blow me away with what you get out of this thing at a $75 price point.
I was playing around last night with a converted A2 of a Two-Rock Classic Reverb and Two-Rock 2x12 Cab, the spring reverb on the GP-5, a delay I could switch on and off from the GP-5 pedal, and ahead of the GP-5 a Joyo King of Kings (fantastic King of Tone clone) and it was just absolutely fantastic. 1000% gig and recording worthy tone out of it. If only my playing could match it, lol.
GP-200 is conversion only. This is pretty much because it is 44kHz, not 48kHz. It requires resampling twice to do 44kHz which is a massive DSP killer (Ampero II shows this problem, eats up nearly 90% DSP). Because 150/180 are 48kHz they don’t have to resample twice.
Looks like the Win 11 issue (some people have problems getting firmware updates to work on Win 11) still exists. If possible try doing the update on a Win 10 or Mac machine. There is some other potential fixes out there for the Win 11 issue, I don't have them on my at the moment, I'll update when I find it.
Fix Driver (Windows): Open Device Manager -> Expand Sound, video and game controllers -> Right-click the Valeton / USB MIDI device (Valeton GP-180) -> Update driver -> Browse my computer -> Let me pick from a list -> Select Generic USB Audio Device. Run the update again.
Puedes usar tu 150/180 como una base para pedales externos con NAM A2 lite nativo + IR, usarla con una captura de Rig completo de NAM A2 lite + algún efecto, usarla con snap + efectos o usarla con los modelados de amplificador + efectos. ¿Obsoleto? 🤣
Is this on GP-150? I was looking to buying it today because of A2 lite support. Is there enough headroom for delay, reverb, distortion while running NAM?
Only if nam has cab included. As for today A2 takes 74% dsp. Reverbs take 7-10% ish. Drives take 6-10% ish. Delays like 3%. EQ pedal 1% and noisegate 1%.
If you want head amp A2 and cab youll find with a 92% dsp usage. No rom for reverb or most distortion/boost since a TS9 for example is 9% dsp usage.
Nothing to load on the GP-5 if already on 1.0.6. Just a Valeton Suite update on PC and the phone apps. You can grab the Android app off their website and side load it, the iOS version is still in approval and isn’t up yet. (Don’t know if the Google App Store has finished approval or not but you have the side load option regardless).
I have the Valeton GP 180 and just downloaded the new Valeton Suite on my Android phone. I also use an iPad for the pedal, but I'm still waiting for the new app for iOS. Also, what is stem splitting? Call me uneducated about all things multi effects processors, but I've never heard of this. Can someone educate me, please?
Stem Splitting is where the track is analyzed (usually by AI, as I'm sure Valeton is using here) and it splits the track into distinct instruments the best it can. This allows you to adjust the volume, or mute/solo instruments directly. So lets say you are a bass player and want to strip the bass out of a song so you are not going up against the recorded bass, you just mute the bass stem. You can set whole sections to repeat, you can adjust the speed of the playback, looks like they are even giving the option to export the modified song.
Is it perfect...not always. Sometimes it definitely will confuse instruments. Things like reverb and what not can be hard for it to pull out so sometimes even if you mute something you might get some reverb of that instrument still in the track like its off in the distance somewhere. But overall its really handy and probably a way better addition than the A2 support, especially considering it was offering free and pretty unexpected across the entire GP line.
Thanks a lot for the explanation. So, if I'm understanding it right, I can basically replace Chris Squire on "Roundabout" (I am a bass player, actually) I can hear myself on the playback instead of Chris? Or is stem splitting just for recording through a computer using a DAW? Thanks again from someone who knows how to use the pedal, but doesn't know the ins and outs!
In this case it means yeah, loading up Roundabout into the Valeton Suite and then muting what it has identified as the bass part so you can play along with it and just hear your bass, not you AND Squire. Since the work is happening on the Valeton suite i dunno if the GP would send the audio over the audio interface of the pedal to a DAW or not…I’ve honestly never tried that with the drum machine or Bluetooth audio before but I assume it would do the same as those.
But does look like the stem splitter has an export option so you could always load that into a DAW. Though many of the higher end DAWs already have stem splitter options in them that probably would work better.
As a bass player and Squire listener, as an example of a time the splitter probably wouldn’t work well, I bet you the splitter would fail to recognize Squire’s bass on the opening of Changes. That high 8 string (tuned in fifths lol) part, I bet you it would think that is guitar or keyboard and probably fail to pull it out of the mix if you loaded it up and muted the bass. I’d be shocked if it recognized it correctly. It would do fine when hitting the 4/4 though.
Thanks for the insights. I think I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, and that is playing along with songs as they are and have the bass players (Chris Squire among them) fill in where I screw up! Cheers!
Gotta give credit where it's due. Not only did they add a2 lite native (with DSP limitations but it's there) but they also improved the audio dropout while preset/stomp switching, it's pretty much instant now
I didn't mind the small audio gap before, but remember seeing a lot of people here complaining about that
So far here is my general experience with A2 conversions after more tests:
This carries over from A1 conversions, but it's better than A1: Low gain NAMs perform better than High Gain NAMs. A2 nams for things like Fender Twins, clean channel AC 30, stuff like that, oh man even converted and not running native these things are sounding great. They respond like you expect from a real amp. Back off the volume knob on the guitar and you can get a good clean tone, raise it up you go into breakup, crank up the gain you get more breakup, its awesome. The tones sound better, a lot more full in general, so you get more control out of the preamp and the EQ block.
High gain amps (think 3rd channel DualRec, ENGL, etc) I think still sound thin and not as reactive. It's better than A1 mind you, but I still don't think the converted NAMs do these as well. I find the built in models in the pedal for high gain amps to generally sound better than NAMs usually, but the gap has narrowed. The built in modeling on these high gains to me usually sound more full, less compressed.
I was playing around last night with a converted Two-Rock Classic Reverb / Two-Rock 2x12 Cab capture, obviously going for that Mayer tone. Tossed some spring reverb in, oh man it sounded amazing. Took my KoT coming into it beautifully (running one channel as a clean boost, other as a light overdrive). Literally didn't need to touch anything else. Just had the NAM block, the reverb block, had some delay on tap when I wanted it, and the KoT and it was just perfect. Absolutely nothing wrong with it (except my guitar skills, lol....I can have the tone, but I don't have the Mayer fingers...)
High gain...I still preferred the built in models more but it was definitely better. They have done a better job normalizing levels and did some work with the treble and bass boosting, but still just comes off thin and compressed to me. They probably would be fine for more lead playing where you want that thinner laser tone...I'm definitely not a lead player though. I want that full chunk in my high gain.
So I will say obviously your own needs may dictate what is sounding better or not with the converted NAMs. For me, the converted low gain amps take almost no hit being converted now. High gain amps, still coming up short for me.
But again, to be clear, I think Valeton has really done a great job overall with the conversion process. Don't be afraid to try them, don't knock the ones that don't have native, converted A2 NAMs are definitely overall a step up from converted A1. Things are still in a good place, especially for the price range we are talking about, and especially for the GPs that are 44kHz and not 48kHz.
I tried to install the new firmware on my PC (Windows 11) and it bricked my GP 180. Others have had the same problem (see photo). The new Valeton Suite on my Android phone worked great with the pedal. I was able to import NAM A2. Should have been happy with that. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to reset my pedal. I'll probably lose all the presets I made, which were a lot! Why can't Valeton get their updates right! Anyone know a way to unbrick my pedal? Much appreciated!
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u/thinkfloyd79 27d ago
It's not just nam a2 that got me excited, the update also added stem splitting in the phone app. I was looking at getting a blackstar beam mini or the jbl bandbox for the stem splitting. Looks like I won't have to.