Walrus Audio: ACS1 Amplifier and Cabinet Simulator
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ม.ค. 2021
- www.walrusaudio.com
Take three classic amp types - 'Fullerton', 'Dartford' and 'London'. Grace them with six high quality IR's that you can mix and match. The ability to load your own in would be cool too. Make it true stereo and give it a great 'Room' control for ambience. How about a different amp/cab combo for either side of the stereo field? Yeah. Oh, we might need a Boost... a separate one for each amp. OK. And MIDI control ...full MIDI control. Right. Actually, a high quality headphone output would be nice too. OK. And, say, three onboard presets expandable to 128 with MIDI. Yessirree. That folks, pretty much sums up the new ACS1, part of the Mako Series, from Walrus Audio. It's a pedal and very handy utility you may find hard to ignore.
Signal path:
Guitar to Axe-FX III Input 1; Axe-FX III Input 1 to Axe-FX III Output 3; Axe-FX III Output 3 to ACS1 Mono Input (Axe-FX III Output 3 echos Input 1's signal); ACS1 Stereo Outputs to Axe-FX III Stereo Input 3 (this gives me an unadulterated stereo FX loop with no extra amp, cab or effects blocks engaged); Axe-FX III Stereo Input 3 to Axe-FX III Stereo Output 1; Axe-FX III Stereo Output 1 to Logic Pro X via USB. Logic Limiter with minimal slam over output to keep levels in check. Mastered in Final Cut Pro X.
Today's tools:
Guitar: 2020 Fender 70th Anniversary Broadcaster. Stock
Amps: Walrus Audio ACS1 models/cab sims
Cables: Providence and Boss
Extra utilities: Morningstar MC8 Midi Controller
Power Supply: Eventide PowerMax by Cioks
Mic: Samson Airline77 (me)
Camera: iPhone 11 Pro and Canon D60
Soundcard: PreSonus Quantum & Fractal Audio Systems Axe-FX III
Monitors: Blue Sky Media Desk 2.1
Computer: 2017 Apple iMac Pro, 2.5 GHz 14-Core Intel Xeon W, 64 GB 2666 MHz DDR4, Radeon Pro Vega 64X 16 GB
Software: Logic Pro X, Apple Final Cut Pro X, Compressor. - เพลง
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Brilliantly done!
Thanks, Henning. I'll be watching yours when I get a moment later today. Hope you're well.
Brett, your vids are among the best product reviews on YT: killer tones, smart commentary and straight to the point! Love it.
Easily the best demo of this I've seen. Well done!
agreed
This sound insanely good! Walrus Audio did it again, love their stuff. Also, great demo Brett, keep up the good work!
Got mine and love it! I haven’t tried it stereo yet but I’m using the Fullerton so far.
I think this is quite nice, function wise and tonally. I love that it's stereo.
Sounds spectacular and crazy versatile for such a small enclosure. These are gonna sell by the bucket-load.
It does sound really good... but at $400US I'm not sure they'll be flying off the shelf. The MIDI functionality might help, though... that was a great addition to this pedal.
Loving all this compact great sounding tech.
Thanks a lot for the fresh test, Brett. Sounds very impressive - but you also got this great guitar and playing skills. Seems that I have bought the wronp pedal one year ago with the Iridium Strymon? I was never satisfied with Deluxe sound in the Iridium - but this ACS1 does it very well (and the other sounds).
This gear, all that’s involved is really amazing. I don’t think I am going to need a semester to learn to use it!
I meant I DO need a whole semester
There is nothing in this price range that does the dual amp setup. I’m in love 🥰 with the sound of that pedal and it does midi. I don’t see many people buying a Iridium over this. I have been really wonting to buy an amp/cab unit. This is it!!!!! Now.......what can I sell?
Wow that sounds really really good.
Great demo - thanks
Hey man. Im a fan of your work. Would love to see a tutorial on how you record these guitar videos. They sound really good!
Well this is 2 years old but it still convinced me to jump on the ACS1, particularly with a $50 price drop. Of course Walrus might just be about to release the ACS2.😅 Love your reviews Brett. It's been a while, but I'll have to come back more often.
Sounds nice
Thanks mate, most informative.
Wow. Literally just days after I bought a second Atomic Firebox just so I could get stereo. This is what I wanted.
I happened upon your interview with the Guitar Colonel last night. It was interesting to hear about your professional experience. Being a distant American, I only know of you from your TH-cam channel although I've gathered you were a proplayer.
Yeah, not much pro-playing going on at the moment, though. Cheers, Tom.
Love your shirt!
This is all direct to your mixer? amazing!
Need to A, B errr C this against the iridium and simplifier...
It having a Bluesbreaker model alone makes it better than the Strymon Iridium.
Hi, Brett!
Asking out of my ignorance: Did you use the Axe FX solely as an audio interface, or as an amp simulation too?
I mean, how much is the original tone already "affected" by the Axe FX?
Greetings from Mexico!
I like to hear my amps in the room but would also like cab sim to desk. Ideally 2 more(stereo) outs post EQ and gain but pre cab sim
Thanks for the excellent review. Can you give your two cents on the ACS1 versus the Flamma FS06? Specifically how they compare as clean pedal platforms using the Fender and Vox models.
Hello, which you like the most or which one sounds better for you this walrus or simplifier? Thanks
Have one on order.... now they need to release an ACBS-1 for bass guitar.
try the fender channel with the IR turned off. makes for a great DI sound for bass.
This demo is what sold it.
Great demo as always. Hard to tell but is the preset switching gapless? No interruption of sound. Seems like it.
Yeah, little gap to speak of. I certainly didn't notice any.
Great review man! Which of the following pedals do you think is more realistic and true to the real amp? Walrus' ACS1, Strymon's IRIDIUM or Boss's IR200? THANKS!!!!!
Do I need a DI box to get the full frequency response from this pedal?
Question... I usually play on the clean channel of my amp. If I were to replace my amp with this, how much would the gain nob affect my tone? Should I treat it as an effects loop and place the ACS1 after my drives and then plug it into my modulation/time effects? Can I still plug into a Direct Box after that? Would it sound weird? Or should I just place the simulator at the end and risk distorting my reverbs, delays, and other modulation effects?
Just like with an amp, the gain nob affects your tone. Depending on the amp model(s) you're using, the gain has variable change.
You can run your wet effects before or after the ACS1.
You can obviously use a splitter and run wet/dry if you prefer.
Instead of a DI box (two DIs if you're running stereo or wet/dry), you should consider a dual line isolator to run into the board (see options like the Pinstripe Pedals DISO+)
Do a comparison with Tech21 Blonde/Liverpool!
At 1:22 there's a Front Cabs and Back Cabs, but it's different from my manual.
My manual it's:
Front Cabs - A: Fender® Deluxe Replication, B: Two Rock® Creamback Replication, C: Vox® Blue Back Replication
Back Cabs - A: Fender® Super Reverb Replication, B: Marshall® 4x12 Replication, C: Vox® Green Back Replication
Marshall and Vox Cabs are different. Has Walrus changed?
Im using my ACS1 and following along with your video and your pedal has MUCH more gain than mine does. What firmware version were you running? OR was there anything in your chain before the ACS1?
Great vid, as always. Can we turn off the cab simulator and go in front of an amp?
I don't believe you can at the moment, but that may be something WA could implement in future firmware updates. I need to defer that question to them.
Is this good for a backup rig?
Hey Brett great demo…do u need a power amp to run this into a FOH speaker or mixer?
Thank you. No, if the speaker is powered, no power amp needed. If you're going to direct to FOH, they have amps to drive the speakers too. All good.
In a gig, could it go into a PA system? (Using a DI box, I guess?).
Check out the DISO+ by pinstripe pedals
Better than Simplifier?
Hey Brett, what is the Process for Saving a specific preset to the ACS1 to the midi recall spots, so that I can recall a specific preset that is not one of the Green, Blue, Red presets - I'm also using a Morningstar midi Device
I'll be looking to know that answer in a couple of days when my ACS1 arrives. It's not mentioned in the PDF. I would think you would just use your MIDI controller to advance to that program number and then use the same method to save as you would on the pedal.
Awesome demo! But not sure what firmware you are running at the time of recording this video. I just bought an ACS1, and even at max gain, it barely breaks up at all. Understand it's designed to be used with other pedals, hence the low gain, but I can't even get edge of break up. Very disappointed.
What is the signal chain on this? How are you running it in stereo?
You can now find this info in the description block but I will repeat it here: Guitar to Axe-FX III Input 1; Axe-FX III Input 1 to Axe-FX III Output 3; Axe-FX III Output 3 to ACS1 Mono Input (Axe-FX III Output 3 echos Input 1's signal); ACS1 Stereo Outputs to Axe-FX III Stereo Input 3 (this gives me an unadulterated stereo FX loop with no extra amp, cab or effects blocks engaged); Axe-FX III Stereo Input 3 to Axe-FX III Stereo Output 1; Axe-FX III Stereo Output 1 to Logic Pro X via USB. Logic Limiter with minimal slam over output to keep levels in check; Mastered in Final Cut Pro X. So the Axe-FX III has no influence or addition to the signal. It is being used purely as a very handy routing device for stereo input to Logic.
Wow, that sounds really good, warm yet open. How do the models feel under the fingers? Is there much compression?
So an alternative and direct competitor to the Strymon Iridium?
Yeah. You can feel real amp compression, especially with combos like the AC30 and the Deluxe with the Super Reverb IR. I was pleasantly surprised actually. Hope you're well, FB!
Am I being dense, but how would you hear the sound? Say I have a pedal board, is there an effects loop for this to run my pedals through? And then where does the sound come out? Do I run this through a cab? That seems weird. Can I run it to my audio interface?
You would run it through headphones or into an audio interface.
Compressors, drives, wah, phaser (usually) ... to the ACS1 input. Reverbs, delays, etc., into the output if you want them clean or they too can go to the input if you want the amp and cab sims to influence them. If the former, the desk gets the time-based effects' output/s which have already seen a cab sim. If the latter the desk gets the ACS1 output/s. The headphone output could be used too. There is no way (at the moment, that I know of) to defeat the cab sims.
@@BrettKingman So the Ages overdrive is going into the front of the ACS1? Great demo by the way 👌
i see it has USB , does that mean i could be used as an audio interface ? and if i understood correctly you mentioned that while saving the presets is possible to save the preamp parameters?
I think the USB is for IR loading.
@@chrisj1602 ok that makes sense
@@chrisj1602 is it possible for you to make an audio comparison between this pedal and the iridium by strymon?
@@mougabo I don’t have either! I was considering the Strymon but now possibly more interested in the Walrus Audio.
I know nothing about this stuff, can you put it in the front end of an actual amp or only an interface?
There are no rules. You can, but amp simulators are designed to go direct into the mixing board and play live ampless. 👌
@@wabisabi6802 thanks. I saw it and wondered if it could be used like a foundation overdrive such as Catalinbread make. But maybe better. I understand now though thanks!
🤘👍🏿
Customer request for Walrus Audio: Make this identical pedal substituting 3 flavors of Marshall, in lieu of the Fender/Vox/Bluesbreaker and I'll buy it.! Yes you could approximate Marshall drive characters with other pedals, but so much better if the the power amp sections are modelled.
It's ok, but it doesn't make me want to change my Iridium one bit. There will be a lot of Iridium copy cats to come, so hang on to your lug nuts.
THIS OR IRIDIUM? WIll be pairing it with my HX Stomp and OD200. Help me decide. Will be using my stomp purely as FX.
Seems like an odd redundancy to pair with the stomp. Better to pair with the HX effects. Either way, this has better stereo capabilities so I'd probably take this one.
I prefer S-gear
I don't like the idea of buying gear that comes with a built in expiration date.
I'm not comfortable with gear that relies on a USB cable or an internet website to access some features.
Because at some point, that USB cable will become obsolete, the company may fold along with the website, and suddenly you're left with a piece of kit that isn't supported any longer and your once amazing pedal with massive options...becomes a curious object gathering dust on a shelf.
Just ask any Commodore computer owner what that feels like.
In my opinion, two things need to be added:
1. Ability to add our own IRs
2. Ability to switch on/off the cab simulation
You can add your own IRs
The sans amp character series sounds much better in my opinion
Try both together, you will change your mind.
I’m satisfied with what I have thanks