As a guitar player, is audio interface your only option?

[anmpr1]

A humorous 'hear for yourself take' on it all.

 

[Multicore]

But sure, the option paralysis that result in modelers having tons of options could be said to be somewhat an attribute of modelers, but in fact, it's not an attribute of the modeler, but of the user.

That's not entirely fair. Option paralysis and getting on with what you know aren't the only two options. In between there's practical people who have no choice but to learn a lot of stuff just to properly use the equipment.

When I started with a modeler in 2019 I was initially frustrated by all the choices I faced. Angry, almost. I didn't want to spend the time dealing with it. But I didn't have much choice. There were 200 ootb preset patches if I didn't want to design my own but even working through those was a daunting task and none of them felt like me. The device models dozens of amps. To get a good sound from any of them you need to play with the knobs. That's easier if you know the amp it's modeling and its nature but I only ever played one of them and didn't recall it very well. And then there's cabs. York Audio alone has a gazillion cab IRs to choose from but I've no idea where to start. None. How to short circuit all this learning about stuff that doesn't really interest me and find the one patch config (or two or three) that works for me?

That's not option paralysis in the sense of me getting distracted by all the options. It's simply a steep early learning curve and it is a feature of the tech.

 

[dominikz]

I find that scrolling hundreds of modelling patches are a waste of time; it's much more efficient to use one and play with confidence and commitment rather than endlessly dialing around for a mythical 'magic' tone.

In my opinion there's no 'magic' to any rig, just what you do with it. Some players sound great with super-simple equipment, and some do with complex routing with tonnes of layered effects. Same is valid for poor-sounding players. There doesn't appear to be a single recipe for success, and various musicians have preferences for all kinds of sounds.

So we're back to square one; chicken or the egg. If your argument is that musicians are more inspired when they're deluded or that they believe in falsehoods... Maybe not false, but as a consumer, and as a self-proclaimed representative of consumers, I would argue that facts/reality should trump delusions and false beliefs.

Again, if $50,000 worth of snake-oil cables doesn't sound any better than $50 worth of wires, you could argue that the delusions increase music enjoyment, but at what cost? What about special magic crystals or bracelets that improve health, what about homeopathy, etc.? It's all the same garbage... Either you're rational and skeptical and are against snake-oil and other BS, or you're with the charlatans and idiots who believe in it!

Really, all about the skeptic philosophy.

To be clear - I'm anti-audiphoolery.

However, I believe people should be free to use super-expensive cables if they can afford them and it makes them happy. I think it's silly and wasteful and I'll perhaps sometimes try to educate such people, but ultimately they are free to believe what they like and I respect their right to choose.

I'm however strongly against allowing audio companies to mislead consumers by e.g claims of superior sound quality of expensive AC cables. That I see as false advertising and fraud.

That being said, I also see an important difference between music creation (art) and music reproduction (technology). Artists can be inspired by all sorts of things, and we all benefit when they are inspired. Even if they were inspired by a feeling that doesn't come from anything actually audible or measurable. In such (rare) cases perceptual bias might even be a good thing!

 

[dominikz]

But I have to admit, the nature of modelers kinda push you into that direction, whereas a simple traditional amp setup does not. Indirectly, people get into it with pedal boards and the such; likely owning more than one guitar, but anyhow! IMHO; it's more like a human flaw than a negative of the gear, even if the gear kinda indirectly pushes that trap..

Indeed - a lot of the 'traditional' players will try/buy dozens of amps/cabs/pedals/whatnot looking for a sound they like. There are guitar players who suffer from FOMO and analysis paralysis in both the 'traditional' and 'modeling' gear camps IME.

I'm not immune to it either - even if I try to be rational and spend the time playing the damn instrument instead! The impulses to try something new are sometimes just too strong and I am only human!