Behringer V-Amp 2

When I went looking for something to replace my Korg AX1000G I didn't look much further than this unit. I didn't like the sound of the DigiTech/Johnson or Zoom units that were available at that time and the better modelers from Boss and Line6, while they sounded good to me, were beyond my budget.

I was particularly attracted to the V-Amp because it sounds a lot like the Line6 POD. It matches that unit very closely sound-for-sound, feature-for-feature. It even has an improvement over the POD user interface design, LED indicators.

The V-Amp 2 has 32 amp models. My favorites are the American Blues, Tweed Combo, Small Combo, British Blues, and Custom Hi Gain. I found the British Class A Vox-ish sounds to be somewhat disappointing though.

There are also 15 speaker simulations. I usually dial in a 2x12 sound. One thing I've noticed is that the unit can really emphasize the bass elements and tweaking the cabinet settings is one way to tame this when recording or playing through certain types of amplification.

Speaking of amplification, I usually play this unit through my Peavey Bandit 65 although I've also tried it through my piecemeal PA system, my Fender Champ and headphones. It works very well as a pre-amp into the Peavey, using the amp's PA-like clean channel as a blank slate for its sounds. It's OK through the PA. The headphone sound quality really depends on the headphones used. I'd recommend mid-priced, full ear, phones as a minimum. Typical cheap 'Walkman' like headphones won't do the unit justice. Through the Champ, the sound simply sucked. The bassy tendencies of the unit overwhelmed the small speaker and the tubes complained bitterly about being pushed around by a computer. Definitely a generational technology clash.

The effects were good for the most part. Like the POD, no effects stood out as great and none were truly awful. The delays have a digital feel to them that I don't particularly like. This shows up even with the analog delay models. There's just that digital feel across the board with the effects. They don't sound bad by any stretch but they just don't sound 'right' to me. This is true for every modeling unit I've tried out or heard. I guess I'll have to wait for the next generation of these computers.

Since they are computers in a sense, a word about their user interface is in order. The V-Amp isn't particularly easy to program by hand. Setting up the models and switching settings is rather tricky. The LED indicators help out a lot when you switch to a different setting/bank. This is a vast improvement over other products. Of course, I don't know why Behringer left this feature out of the master volume knob though. It would have been handy there as well.

To get the most out of the unit, you'll want to hook it up to your computer via MIDI and use software to set up your patches. The original free editor software that you can download wasn't particularly great. It made the common UI mistake of trying to emulate a physical item on the computer screen. The newer version is better designed, although it still uses a physical item representation.

The weak point of the V-Amp is its power cord. The pinned plug is a failure waiting to happen. And, add to this the lack of a power switch on the unit. I keep mine plugged in to a power strip all the time and use the strip to turn it on and off. Also, the unit is plastic and vulnerable to damage from rough handling or accidents. Recently, it took a little spill off of the desk that caused the treble knob to snap off.

Patches

Here are some of my favorite patches in MIDI SYX format. Some are my own creations and others are modifications of the presets or of patches I've downloaded elsewhere.

— Discuss this effect on my blog