Atomic AMPLI-FIRE Box

Started by Elantric, August 24, 2017, 07:54:15 AM

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Elantric



Now includes an Amp Channel switcher
http://atomicamps.com/forum/index.php?threads/atomic-update-amplifire-ampli-firebox.764/


vtgearhead

They are now taking orders for the AFB!  I have one on the way.

admin


Elantric

#3
At last weekend's LA Amps Show, Many folks were very impressed with the Ampli- FIRE Box.

My only complaint is no MIDI I/O to control it  -



although they do have a simple Win/Mac Atomic AMPLI-FIRE Box Editor that uses a USB connection to edit and create user defaults for the three available Amp types and three available Amp channels that are active and available for live gig use.

My gut thinks a hacker might be able to create the missing MIDI control I/O  using similar strategy as the third party Zoom MS70-CDR or Boss MS-3 USB to MIDI adapters     
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=9179.msg157736#msg157736

IMHO - they could have far more sales if only they incorporated mini MIDI I/O via 3.5mm TRS adapters - like may units employ these days


Pete1959

Had mine for 3 weeks now.
Loving it and its simplicity. I find myself just using the "Enable" button to switch between clean (Fender) and high gain amp (Friedman). By default, the Enable button is simply a bypass however, if you hold it down for a few seconds, the LEDs flashes and allows to select between 2 amps.

Boost button is set up to add about 4db for each but still tweaking and playing with it. Great pedal and using it with the H9 and sending out in stereo into Monoprice DI boxes.

Work in progress but enjoying it.

lespauled

I had an Amplifire, and for me, this seems like a step backward.  Yes, it's a cut down version, but the lack of keeping settings in switchable presets makes no sense to me.

vtgearhead

Quote from: Elantric on October 02, 2017, 04:44:00 PM
At last weekend's LA Amps Show, Many folks were very impressed with the Ampli- FIRE Box.

My only complaint is no MIDI I/O to control it  -

My gut thinks a hacker might be able to create the missing MIDI control I/O  using similar strategy as the third party Zoom MS70-CDR or Boss MS-3 USB to MIDI adapters     

IMHO - they could have far more sales if only they incorporated mini MIDI I/O via 3.5mm TRS adapters - like may units employ these days

Sniffing communication between Amplifirebox and the PC editor is on my to-do list, but not a high priority since I am not using the device for playing out.  My sense is that Atomic was pinching pennies on this unit and couldn't rationalize anything that would increase production costs. 

Elantric

#7
QuoteMy sense is that Atomic was pinching pennies on this unit and couldn't rationalize anything that would increase production costs. 

Essentially same thing I was told by Tom King -@  Atomic Amps

No MIDI control is like a boat without a paddle

Regarding sounds, there is nothing new in AMPLI-FIRE Box pedal that cant already be accomplished with the original model AMPLI-FIRE (which does have MIDI Control) - and many gently used examples can be had for not much more $


https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=13567.0

Elantric

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/atomic-ampli-fire-box.1784131/page-114#post-24979350

The new echo feature has now arrived on the AFB &..............it sounds awesome...awesome...awesome...awesome!!!!!!!! :cool:

Coming soon (aka This October) to a Firmware update near you!!! :D

There's a great video on the Atomic Facebook page from the amp show, but I can't get the link to post & play. :(

Here's a quick pic from the LA amp show.

Elantric

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?posts/25387123/
Ucnick wrote>
I have had both the FR5 Cali and the AFB. Just returned the AFB and am going back to the FR5 Cali.

The AFB has some really good tones, some markedly better than the FR5, IMHO (although not in Fractal or Kemper territory). I had actually initially purchased it t take it with me to the Robben Ford camp next summer, seemed ideal. However, it turned out that it has two issues and one in particular that was a deal breaker for me:

1. The supplied switching supply is pretty noisy, when I first was playing it and was using the supplied PSU I would get a huge amount of noise with my fingers off the strings. I adjusted the noise gate to get rid of most of it but lost sustain. It then occurred to me it might be the PSU. When I switched to a Volto, all the noise went away. Since I like to run pedals from a battery, this was a fairly easy fix. This wasn't the deal breaker, though.

2. The unit has what is, at least to to me, a flawed "feature" in it's operating firmware.

Real quickly, it has two modes: (1) enable/bypass, which is the mode in which you can select one of the nine presets using the switches and enable or bypass using one of the switches, and (2) A/B mode, which lets you program two different presets into each location and allows you to switch between them by pressing the switch.

I found that, when I switched modes (fortunately I discovered this in a rehearsal), from en/byp to A/B, the pedal would overwrite whatever preset I had in B with whatever happened to be selected on the switches in en/byp mode. This was odd. Actually, was a bit of a "WTF?" moment for me.

It also happened in reverse, that is when you go from A/B to en/byp it would overwrite whatever the switch preset was at the time with whatever was in the B preset. This meant that you could not preset, say, a Deluxe in A, a Dumble in B, and leave the switches for en/byp mode at a Plexi setting. I had that exact scenario set up and discovered that when I switched from the Plexi preset in en/byp to A/B mode, and expected to find my Dumble preset in B, the Plexi was in there.

This was the deal breaker for me. I did not imagine it. I took it home from rehearsal and I played with it until I determined the pattern and then I reported it to their customer service and it was verified (I can provide the actual email exchange about this if there is any doubt), furthermore I was told that it was normal behavior and would not be changed anytime in the near future. o_O I was a bit confounded by this. It seemed to me that, unless the user wanted to do so, the settings in the one mode should not affect the settings in the other. Usually it seems to me the GUI editor or device itself has a "write" option or capability somewhere so that you have to actually initiate a write to change it, which would prevent this. Anyway, I could foresee that managing that odd "feature" would cause me a LOT of heartburn in a live situation. :FM Reminded me of what is called "self-modifying" code in software. Potentially dangerous. So back it went. I was sorry to see it go, but it was not usable for me. But others may be perfectly fine with it, and more power to them!

The FR5, although perhaps not as toneful as all of the AFB presets, still sounds really good, has cab emulation (although it is not defeatable, which is a bit of a drag) and in addition the modifiable boost and delay characteristics are easily adjustable in real time without an editor, unlike the AFB. If AA ever fixes that "feature" (all they have to do is give the user the option to put the unit into auto-save or a manual save mode, like push both buttons at the same time to save it) I may go back. It is a very good product for the $$, and has a lot of really cool features, and some may be just fine with it's various "features", and one in particular. And that is fine. GP Magazine loved it and gave it an Editor's Choice award. But it's just not me.:rolleyes:

One other drag with the FR5 is that it requires 12V to power it, whereas the AFB uses 9V. I like my little boards to run from battery power, so I use a little cell phone USB charger (5 A-h is plenty!) and buy a USB 5V to 12V converter and a polarity reversing cable from eBay or Amazon and power it from that, and use a Volto to power the 9V units. It all fits on a Pedaltrain Metro 16 (or maybe 20, I forget which it is right now) pedalboard.

Anyway, my $0.02. Hopefully some may find the info useful.

sixeight

Quote from: snhirsch on August 25, 2017, 02:15:48 PM
They are now taking orders for the AFB!  I have one on the way.

I have been looking at one of these, but the AFB is only interesting for me, if i can control it from the VController. Any chance you can discover what protocol the software of the AFB is using for making settings? Does the AFB appear as a MIDI device?

Elantric

#11
Quote from: sixeight on December 08, 2017, 11:12:41 AM
I have been looking at one of these, but the AFB is only interesting for me, if i can control it from the VController. Any chance you can discover what protocol the software of the AFB is using for making settings? Does the AFB appear as a MIDI device?

According to Tom King at Atomic Amps - AMPLI-FIRE Box has Zero chance of remote MIDI over USB Control( but I suspect our crack team could use a USB data sniffer and reveal the NRPN SYSex   /  serial data communication method the the AMPLI-FIRE Box employs for use with the AMPLI-FIRE Box Mac Editor shown below

Last October I spent a lot of time with the AMpliFire-Box at LA Amp Show  - sounds great , but the MIDI I/O omission was a deal breaker for me

Remember  - the compact AMPLI-FIRE Box offers nothing new vs the original Red AmpliFIRE 3
And today you can locate a gently used original Red AmpliFIRE 3, which  does have full MIDI I/O for remote control


https://reverb.com/p/atomic-amplifire



sixeight

#12
QuoteRemember  - the compact AMPLI-FIRE Box offers nothing new vs the original Red AmpliFIRE 3
And today you can locate a gently used original Red AmpliFIRE 3, which  does have full MIDI I/O for remote control

I am on the lookout for one. But not many are offered in the Netherlands. And there is one person who keeps offering them under different names on the most popular classifieds site here, but then then his account is taken offline. Not a real seller, but just somebody who is after easy money.

And I may try the Helix.

vtgearhead

Quote from: Elantric on October 02, 2017, 04:44:00 PM
At last weekend's LA Amps Show, Many folks were very impressed with the Ampli- FIRE Box.

My only complaint is no MIDI I/O to control it  -

although they do have a simple Win/Mac Atomic AMPLI-FIRE Box Editor that uses a USB connection to edit and create user defaults for the three available Amp types and three available Amp channels that are active and available for live gig use.

My gut thinks a hacker might be able to create the missing MIDI control I/O  using similar strategy as the third party Zoom MS70-CDR or Boss MS-3 USB to MIDI adapters     

I've started looking into the communication API between Firebox editor and pedal with an eye towards doing just that.  It is a proprietary scheme (not MIDI) and is quite "chatty".  Will take a while to make some sense of.

truth57

Quote from: vtgearhead on December 09, 2017, 06:15:20 AM
I've started looking into the communication API between Firebox editor and pedal with an eye towards doing just that.  It is a proprietary scheme (not MIDI) and is quite "chatty".  Will take a while to make some sense of.

Hi there, as this was some time ago, I wondered whether you had made any progress with this? It sounds really interesting!

vtgearhead

Quote from: truth57 on April 23, 2018, 12:09:00 PM
Hi there, as this was some time ago, I wondered whether you had made any progress with this? It sounds really interesting!

No, I ran out of time and interest.  Some of the controls could have been reverse-engineered without too much trouble (front panel knobs), but preset switching was a torrent of data that I couldn't begin to make sense of.  If I really need an Atomic modeler with MIDI, I'll pickup an AF6.