This tiny amp library is massive! Super tactile with zero menus, screens, software, apps, or IRs needed. Use it instead of your amp, or plug it into your amp for gain stacking.

You can use it in mono or stereo. It can be mono in/out, stereo in/out, or mono in / stereo out. For stereo use, you can run one amp model in stereo, or you can engage Ample's split mode, so that you can run different amps on each channel.

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Links: BUY Ample from Poly Effects: https://www.polyeffects.com/polyeffects/p/ample

BUY Ample from one of Poly's dealers: https://www.polyeffects.com/dealers

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Time Stamps:
00:00 Coming Up...
00:30 Introduction
01:02 What Does It Do?
01:50 With Or Without Cab
02:10 Why Is Ample Different?
03:17 Simplicity Equals Freedom
04:02 What Does It Sound Like?
04:12 Demo: Clean - Dr. Z, Zinky, Magnatone
06:59 Demo: Crunch - Fuchs, Bad Cat, Swart
10:33 Demo: Destroy - SUNN, ENGL,
14:16 Demo: Classic USA - Fender, Music Man
16:29 Demo: Classic UK - Watkins, Hiwatt, Orange
19:23 Demo: Gen X - Soldano, ADA, Matchless
23:29 Demo: Bass - Fender Bassman, Orange AD200BF
25:07 How Tweakable Is It Really?
26:07 Who Is This For?
27:11 Getting Started
27:54 Powering Up
28:23 Cabling for Mono, Stereo, or MISO
29:02 Navigating Presets
30:10 Set List Mode

NOTE: Set List Mode lets you choose the default preset that will be active when you engage each category. It’s not required in order to save a preset (or anything else) —see 32:48 for preset-saving instructions.

30:54 Touch Controls: Primary vs. Secondary Controls
32:11 Fine Control Mode
32:48 Saving a Preset
33:00 Split Mode for Using Two Different Amp Models Simultaneously
33:51 Enabling and Disabling the Matched Virtual Cabinet
34:08 MIDI Capability Overview & Examples
35:33 Fun Facts!
37:10 Opportunities & Feedback
37:44 Release Date
37:50 Where can you buy it
38:08 Conclusion

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Corrections:

1. There was a misprint in the manual; you can set the MIDI channel anywhere from 1-8, not 1-6. Whilst there are 16 channels in the MIDI standard, there are eight preset buttons on the device with which to set the channel.

2. Set List mode can be used to specify any pairings you want. And you can still use footswitch B to go to the next preset on the device (not just in the set list).

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Transcript:

Hello and welcome to The Pedal Nerd. I'm Timothy and I've got a launch day device for you today. It's the brand  new Ample from Poly Effects, the Australian pedal company responsible for the Poly Beebo and Poly Verbs. The Ample officially launches today and Loki from Poly Effects was kind enough to send me one ahead of launch day. So, thank you very much! And also a big shout out for the sustainable packaging efforts, we really like to see that.

All right so let's dive right in. If you're familiar with the Poly Verbs then this touchscreen form factor will be familiar. The  Ample lets you explore real amplifiers the way that Verbs explores real spaces. There are 56 different amp models on board grouped into seven different categories and the audio fidelity is pretty impressive. The amps are grouped into categories of: Classic USA, Classic UK, Clean, Crunch, Destroy, Gen X, and even Bass amps. 

Each category has eight different models and the selection strikes a nice balance between "things you'd expect to find" like the Fender Twin Reverb, Marshall JCM800, Vox AC30... and "things you'll have fun discovering" like the Watkins Dominator, Zinky Supro Tremolectric Thunderbolt, or the Dumble-inspired Fuchs ODS 100.

These models were all captured in recording studios using Poly's own proprietary training process. They captured each amp with and without a cabinet, allowing you to either fully replace your amplifier with Ample, or, you can disable Ample's virtual cab and still use a real speaker cabinet, essentially treating this as a pedal for some gain stacking.

Okay, so why is this one different? What makes this different from other amp sim pedals? Well the biggest difference between Ample and other ones is its versatility. Most other amp pedals, they focus on providing just a few classic amps; they don't encourage you to discover new ones that you might not have heard of before. Or if you have a more complex modeler like the Quad Cortex, then you likely have a long list of available amp models and you'll probably gravitate to the amps that you already know. Poly included a lot of classic amps, but they've also put in some pretty amazing, rare boutique and lesser-known amps too. 

Ample is all about exploration, finding unexpected new favourites. It's obvious that they focused on low and medium gain amps, which are great for using the Ample as a pedal platform but there's chuggy High Gain amps in the Destroy category and they're pretty darn good too.

So whether you use Ample to replace your amp or to stack different gain tones into your existing amp there's a lot to discover and enjoy without getting bogged down by editing or programming.   

Ample can easily be controlled and tweaked on the fly without any menu diving, without screens, without any apps, no heavy configuration or files to load, it's just plug and play. It's meant to be immediate and easy to use. But you can also choose to go deep and leverage its MIDI capabilities by sending messages from a MIDI controller like the ones made by Morningstar or Pirate MIDI.

Now, the most obvious visual difference is the user interface, the touchscreen with its icons and sliders. The simplicity here is great. Most icons have multiple functions, so it's not a cluttered interface. The touch sliders are really fun and I think it's cool that Poly manufactures their own touchscreen technology instead of outsourcing.

Alright so this is the fun part. Let's hear what it  sounds like. I've got the pedal set up as mono in, stereo out, and we're not going to be able to run through all 56 amps but I'll show you my favourites, and let's just start with some clean tones

Alright now let's push it into Crunch territory with some modern amps.

I was deeply curious about what this would actually sound like. If you're looking for something heavier, something High Gain, here's what the high gain Destroy category sounds like.

Alright, now I always heard that you know Fender Twin Reverb is the best Pedal platform because it's got all that clean headroom available so let's explore the Classic USA category and see what these sound like.

Okay so I was a teenager in the 90s, I loved the Vox AC30 with a bunch of different indie rock bands, so I'm excited to take you through the Classic UK category, so let's give it a listen.

Alright, so next up is the Gen X category. I think there's some really cool stuff in here, so let's have a listen.

Alright, lastly, let's check out some bass amps. Let's try the Fender Bassman.

Now, if you're thinking "There are only seven LEDs on those sliders, how tweakable can they actually be?" Well, despite the display showing stepped feedback each LED slider actually has 4,096 steps (or positions), making them super tweakable and really accurate. Imagine a knob on one of your pedals having over 4,000 different positions. It's a lot, and it's enough. Plus, you have the added benefit of being able to see what your settings are when you recall a preset, which non-motorized knobs and faders can't do, and there are very few pedals out there with motorized controls.

While there's something of a learning curve to using the sliders I got used to it pretty quickly.

You can slide into a position that sounds good to you and then hold the Poly logo to enter Fine Mode which increases the slider's resolution so you can get really precisely dialled in.

So, who is this thing for? Well it's pretty versatile so it can be used instead of your amp, going direct out to a PA or a mixing console, a recording interface, or even headphones. So if you want an amp to use as a pedal platform, one that fits on your pedal board or if you want to play silently through headphones so your favorite cranked sounds won't disturb your housemates or your neighbors. If you want the ability to make excellent sounding recordings without having to worry about room tone or mic placement or even owning any microphones. If you want a grab and  go rig to travel light, saving your spine from extra lugging and giving you a consistent and predictable guitar tone everywhere you go, or if you want the ability to scroll handsfree through different amp presets so you've got 56 killer amplifiers with you for gigs or rehearsals or recording sessions... and then if you add MIDI control to that, then you can even swap amps between songs, or even in real-time during a song. Look, if any of those sound like you then Ample might be for you.

So, how easy is it to use? Well, it's pretty darn easy! Right out of the box everything sounds pretty great but then it's really easy to tweak the presets and save over them with your own settings, You'll have full control over everything: gain, volume, boost level, bass, mids, treble, and even built-in room reverb which is actually sampled from the O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire in London. You've even got control over the luminance (or brightness) of Ample LEDs.  

So, you can run one amp model in Stereo, or you can run separate amps on the left and right channels to get really creative. Alright enough talking, let's show you how to use this thing, so first up you've got to plug it in. For power it needs the standard 9V DC centre-negative power supply that most pedals use and it consumes 500 mA. The standard rule of thumb for all pedals is that you can provide more milliamps (mA) than the pedal requires but you should never provide less milliamps than what's specified on the device's requirements. Also, for Ample, do not use more than 9V DC! While some pedals actually thrive when given higher voltage, this is NOT one of them. So if you're just running Ample as mono in mono out, then just use any ordinary instrument cable which is called a TS cable, and use that for both input and output. TS cables have one ring on the plug. But if you're running Ample as stereo in stereo out, then you'll need to use TRS cables for both input and output, and TRS cables have two rings on the plug.

Now, if you want to run Ample as mono in and stereo out which is what I'm doing today then use a TS cable for input and a TRS cable for output (the one with 2 rings) and you have to engage "mono in/stereo out" mode by triple-tapping the Crunch icon which will toggle on mono summing.

Now the first thing that you'll likely do on day  

one is audition your way through the different 

categories and presets. There's a default preset  

for each amplifier model that you can overwrite 

with your own settings, like for EQ and gain and  

stuff, and once you tweak it to your liking (and 

I'll show you how to tweak and store presets  

in just a minute) you can then save one preset 

per amplifier model. And there are three ways to  

recall the presets that you've stored so you can:

1. Recall call them by touch control

2. Recall them by foot switch control, or you can

3. Recall them with MIDI control

so to recall a preset by touch simply tap the icon

for that category and then tap the preset number.

To recall the preset using the foot switches, hold

foot switch a on the left to go through the amp categories

and then hold foot switch B on the right to go to

the next preset in that category.

You press and hold to trigger the preset and category

navigation because those are secondary functions of these switches

so you hold it down right because if you just tap the

switch with a short press then you're going to engage

the Boost or the bypass instead.

So additionally, there's a "Set List" feature that

enables you to choose your favourite preset within each category

and set that as the (default) startup preset for that category.

Now, calling it "set list" is maybe a little bit 

confusing. I'm not sure why it's not just like a

favourites list, but it's a cool option to have

so that every time you navigate into a category

you'll start on your most used, most loved preset.

And out of the box the default favourite

is set as the first preset in each category. Now,

if you want to change this, check the manual, as it

requires loading a text file into ample using a USB flash drive / thumb drive / jump drive / whatever you call it

But please make sure that you do not connect an external hard drive, okay? That's very important.

Each amp model is fully tweakable. So you've got gain and volume; gain pushes you into

overdrive, and volume is your overall loudness like a master volume knob. you've got three

bands of EQ, those being bass mids and treble. There's excellent room reverb and finally there's

the level of the Boost switch which controls how much the Boost boosts when it boosts! And then

there's the ability to even control how bright ample LEDs are displaying via the luminance setting.

But there are only four sliders on the face of the Ample, so each one has a secondary function.

The primary functions of gain, volume, bass, and treble can be controlled just by touching and sliding

your finger up and down whereas the secondary functions of luminance, boost level, mids, and room

reverb are available via the secondary controls, and to reach those you just tap the currently active preset

number and then a blue light appears near the logo and the sliders will also be multicoloured letting you

know that you're now controlling secondary functions. Now, make changes via the sliders just

like you do with the primary controls and then tap the preset number again to exit the secondary

functions and go back to the primary controls of gain, volume, bass, and treble, and you'll see that

those ones haven't changed. So if you then find that you want to fine-tune any of the sliders you can enter

Fine Mode by pressing and holding the Ample logo. So imagine that in normal mode you're moving in

increments of centimetres and then in fine mode you're moving in increments of millimetres and

that's just an example that's not to scale 

or anything. You'll know that you're in fine mode

because the centre LED on all the sliders will 

be lit up and now you can touch and slide your finger

up and down to fine-tune the slider value 

around the current setting and to exit fine mode just

press any icon. If you'd like to keep your 

current setting by saving over the existing preset for

that amp model then just press and hold the 

currently-lit preset number and your new settings will

be saved over the preset slot. And if you'd 

like to play around with having different amps on the

left and the right output channels then triple-tap the Ample logo the sliders are going to turn orange

to show that channel splitting is engaged 

and that you're on the Left Channel. Tap the

Ample logo again to toggle between the left and the right channels when you're on the right channel

the sliders will be pink. Whatever channel you're 

on, all of the settings including amp category and

preset will now only affect your selected 

channel. To return to normal stereo mode where

both channels are linked together, triple-tap the 

Ample logo again. When you're in channel splitting

mode the amp selected for the left channel will 

be orange and the right channel's amp will be pink,

and if by chance you've set the same amp for both channels then it'll be blue. So, by default each

amp model on ample has a matched cabinet enabled. If you want to disable the cab, triple-tap the

Destroy icon. This is useful if you want to still use a real speaker cabinet, essentially treating Ample as a

pedal for some gain stacking (which I mentioned earlier). Ample can receive MIDI

messages via a TRS type "A" cable, this little guy. There are lots of MIDI details in the manual and I'm

not going to go full MIDI Nerd in this video but please let me know in the comments if you want me

to do another video that just focuses on using MIDI with Ample. Now, Ample can only receive MIDI

messages on channels 1 through 6 and I'm not really sure why, but that might be an issue for some folks.

You can send Ample program change (or PC) messages to change presets.

I'll put the PC message values up here on the screen but just as an example:

If you have the Ample on MIDI Channel 1 and you want to recall preset 1 in the Classic USA category

then you would send a MIDI PC message to channel 1 with a PC value of 24.

Now you can also send Ample control 

change (or CC) messages to tweak individual

controls, and I'll put the CC message values up here on the screen but just as an example:

If you have the Ample on MIDI Channel 6 and you want to change just the gain control of your active \preset then you would send midi CC messages to channel 6 cc14 

for the left side and cc34 for the right side with values between 0 and 127 to represent the slider's 

top and bottom values or bottom and top values  

preset then you would send MIDI CC messages to channel 6 ... CC14 for the left side and CC34 for the right side,

with values between 0 and 127 to represent the slider's top and bottom values (or bottom and top values actually).

Alright so if you're like me there's no such thing as too many specifications. So, audio latency is 1.9 milliseconds.

To put that into perspective, that's the same amount of latency that you would experience if you put your

head 65 cm (or 2 ft) away from your amp, which, you know... nobody does. Unless maybe you're doing a

mic placement and you're sweeping for the sweet spot... so if you normally stand maybe 2 m (or 6 ft)

away from your amp and now you're using Ample and you've got headphones on then you'll experience

less latency with Ample than you do with your real amplifier and cabinet. Poly Effects has their

own capturing process which was designed to give dynamic range from normal pickups to gain pedals

including circuit modeling of the amp's tone stack. Basically they would mic up the amp, change the

knobs, and play audio test files through the amps (and that's referred to as a training file) so Poly

uses a 3 minute-long training file but what sets their process apart isn't the training file it's

the processor that they use for training. So, they train on a modern Nvidia GPU for 40 minutes

per model and that allows the Poly Ample to capture more calculations resulting in very high audio

fidelity for their models. If you compare that to the Kemper Profiler, which trains on an old DSP from

the 1990s with limited computing power, then the Poly Ample has just trillions more calculations.

Poly Effects also reckons that Ample has a more powerful internal processor than any other pedal or

floor unit on the market to date. Okay, so... Opportunities: Do I have any feedback about gaps

that stood out to me or things that I think could be better? Well... it takes a long time to boot up.

It can only receive MIDI messages on channels 1-6, and you can't load captures or IRs into Ample.

Which doesn't matter to me but it might matter to you, although I don't really think that Ample

is aimed at people who want to have that level of input, and honestly... that's it, there's very

few noticeable gaps I have very few complaints or suggestions or anything. It's a very well-rounded device.

So, when is this coming out?Well that's easy it was released today, and I already said 

that so...

Where can you buy this thing? If you're looking to buy the Ample it's retailing for $399 USD and you can

buy it direct from Poly Effects or from select retailers globally which are listed on the Poly Effects

website and I'll drop some links in the description for that.

So look, final thoughts: Honestly I think this thing represents huge value for money at $399 USD

(which is $619 AUD for my Australians), um, look it isn't super cheap but when you compare

the feature set against its closest competitors this really is a no-brainer for me. I'm happy

to have this at hand and I bet you'll see this pop up in some of my videos in the future.

So that's it for today's demo of the brand new Poly Effects Ample. What did you think of it?

Let me know in the comments and I hope this walkthrough has given you a good idea of what it can do and piqued your interest.

If you liked the video, please consider subscribing to The Pedal Nerd for more 

demos and tutorials, and thanks for hanging out.

I'll see you in the next video, just give me Ample 

time to get another one done... cheers, thank you. Bye!