Recorded straight into Logic, with nothing else added. First impressions? Impressed!

I don’t really follow many of the technological developments regarding amps.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’m an amp luddite, but it’s pretty hard to argue against a good valve amp… or even an average valve amp.  That is until the (quite recent) advent of Fractal’s AXFX, which I started to hear about around 2012; and the Kemper profiling amp, which over the last two years all my friends have been buying and raving about!

I’ve always felt (and still do) like as long as I have a decent guitar plugged into a decent amp I can cover all bases (with the addition of a few good pedals, natch). However, a few months back I got to use a Kemper on a panto gig and it was a real eye opener!  Not only did it sound every bit as good as a “real” amp but it sounded every bit as good as about 30 different amps…. AND was incredibly easy to use – a patch programmed specifically for each number in the show.  I was converted.

Problem is, that combination of high quality sounds and convenience rarely comes cheap.  So, I was very excited to learn about the Atomic AmpliFIRE, which is works very much like AXFX/Kemper but at a quarter of the price.  It’s actually like a grown-up version of the old Line-6 kidney shaped POD, which itself was a bit of a game changer back in the day.   So I got one!  Only had it a few days but it’s really easy to use and I’m really impressed with the results.  I still have lots of experimenting to do, but like a good amp it sounds great from the off – Now it’s just about the tweaking!  More to follow…