Mooer Preamp Model X2

Il Mooer x2 è un pre amplificatore nonché un ‘player’ di amplificatori catturati, è in sostanza un prodotto analogo ai vari Kemper/Tonex ma ad in prezzo decisamente più accessibile. Le emulazioni in dotazione sono valide ma i cabinet secondo me lasciano a desiderare, meglio abbinarci delle buone IR, in questo modo il suono che si ottiene è convincente e, soprattutto, c’è buona dinamica sotto le dita. Ho acquistato l’x2 dopo aver sperimentato con l’app GE LABS la possibilità di clonare un amplificatore reale ( funzione totalmente GRATUITA); seguendo la procedura si genera un file che può essere utilizzato dalla app o dall’x2 per l’appunto, il risultato mi è sembrato sorprendente, ora posso limitarmi ad utilizzare l’x2 per avere praticamente ovunque il mio suono. L’unica cosa da considerare è che il suono clonato non può essere modificato con i controlli presenti sul pedale e sperare di ottenere lo stesso comportamento che si ha agendo sull’ampli originale, avrete una ‘foto’ del vostro suono in sostanza. Manca un riverbero secondo me, sarebbe stato decisamente comodo e il pedale non funge da scheda audio, altra pecca non trascurabile in fase di acquisto.

The idea is that amps are heavy and cannot be carried around, so these pedals exist.
So I chose this pedal because I wanted to make my pedalboard capable of playing ampless for the usual situations (no amp available, or can't use one because it's too loud at that time etc) without abbandoning the rest of my analog pedals.
I simply remove the channel footswitch for amps that i keep on my board and put this on. I ve tried other preamps before they were fine except for the cabinet simulation, the reason I chose this one is that it comes with (and can load) impulse responses so I don't need a second pedal for it.
As with most digital amp emulations, the distorted sounds can be very acceptable, the cleans are not as good as an amplifier (quite compressed but with not much more sustain). The actual sounds are nice, but the differences between the models are mostly around the eq, you can easily match the sounds between them with adjusting the pedal.

Mooer mnrs:
It has the ability to "capture" an amp , but nothing like a kemper, : you need to use the ge labs app that is only available for ios. I used an old iphone to do that (with a cable that costs 50 euros extra ) and I would say it does capture the essence but only the instant that the amp is set up at that time , meaning if you capture it with everything at 12 (or the settings you choose) it ll sound very close to that, but if you increase the gain on the pedal, or the mids or any eq then it adds it's own, and the result is that all the amp models do not sound that much different after all. It has some eq adjustment while the profiling is being captured but it's not very easy to match. It can capture the preamp only or the whole amp (with the cabinet- if you use a microphone as well),
So all in all, it has capabilites unlike any other on this category, and it's a great backup to have. If you re used to tube amps like me, then no way this or any pedal like this can ever replace one, but if you want the occasional portability a multieffect unit offers but hate the multieffect menus, well, this probably is the one to put on your pedalboard

EDIT: Just a heads up, once the cabinet simulation is on, the volume rises a few db and may clip pedals after it if they can't support line level. This includes the ir's that come with also the majority of 3d party IRs. The solution for this is to edit an IR by lowering around 12-15db.
I use cubase, simply load the IR in wav format as audio, lower the output volume by 15db and export it and then load it to the pedal