Modeler News
Firmware updates, gear announcements, industry trends, and the practical bits that change how a modeler player actually works.
Blackstar's $130 Beam Solo Now Runs NAM Natively — the First Headphone Amp to Do It
A free firmware update, built with TONE3000, gives the $129.99 Blackstar Beam Solo native NAM A2 capture playback — Blackstar calls it the first headphone amp in the world to run NAM on-device. You browse the TONE3000 library in the Beam app and load captures straight onto the unit, no computer, no proprietary conversion. Five weeks after A2 launched with Blackstar on the partner list, the promise is already shipping hardware.
FM9 Firmware 12.00 Goes Final And FM3 13.0 Hits Beta — Both Now Carry The Axe-Fx III 32.06 Amps
On July 7 Fractal shipped FM9 firmware 12.00 as a final release and posted FM3 firmware 13.0 Beta 2. Both bring their platform up to Axe-Fx III 32.06 — which means the Brit JVM Crunch trio and the PVH 6160 Block Clean, plus the reworked power amp model from 32.04, are no longer III-only. If you own an FM9 or FM3 and skipped the Axe-Fx coverage because you don't own the flagship, everything in those three F&K breakdowns now applies to your unit.
Strymon's TimeLine MX Runs Two Delay Machines at Once for $679 — Here's What Your Helix Can and Can't Do About It
Strymon announced the TimeLine MX on July 7 — a $679 successor to the delay that has anchored worship pedalboards for over a decade. It runs any two of twelve machines simultaneously with series, parallel, or split routing and per-engine panning, and adds four new engines: Spectral granular, a per-tap MultiTap, Oil Can, and Drum. The original TimeLine stays in the lineup at $449. If yours lives in a Helix effects loop, here's the honest math.
Axe-Fx III Firmware 32.06 Adds Three Brit JVM Crunch Models And Changes Plex Block Behavior
Fractal released Axe-Fx III firmware 32.06 on June 25, 2026, with Axe-Edit III 1.14.34 shipping the same day. The headline is three new amp models — Brit JVM Crunch Green, Orange, and Red — captured from the Crunch channel of a Marshall JVM410. There is also a quieter but consequential change to the Plex block: Master Pitch now controls pitch only, and detune is handled separately. No modeling code changed, so existing presets are untouched.
Darkglass Brings the Anagram to Guitar: The Essentials Edition Is a $1,300 NAM-Native Modeler
Darkglass announced a Guitar Essentials Edition of its Anagram workstation on June 29 — a Sweetwater-exclusive build at $1,299.99 that adds 11 guitar amp models and three effects to the bass-first platform. The headline for guitarists isn't the amp count. It's that the Anagram loads NAM and AIDA-X captures natively, no proprietary conversion, three profiles at once.
Neural DSP's John Mayer X 1.1.0 Just Documented 14 Signal Chains — and Added Room-Size Cabs Worth Stealing
Neural DSP shipped Archetype: John Mayer X 1.1.0 on June 24 with 14 song-specific presets — Slow Dancing in a Burning Room, Perfectly Lonely, Vultures, Wild Blue — plus selectable Small/Medium/Large room sizes on every cab. The presets are a free signal-chain reference for one of the most-requested clean tones in guitar, and the room-size control is a tone-design idea you can replicate on a Helix or HX Stomp today. Here's how to read both.
Two Notes Genome 2.0 Adds a Free Parametric Capture Engine — And It Quietly Fixes the One Thing Static Captures Always Got Wrong
Genome 2.0 landed with iOS support, seven new amps, and a free capture studio. The headline everyone's running is 'all-in-one modeling suite.' The part that actually matters: PARADEX captures how an amp responds across its whole control range — so a captured amp finally cleans up when you roll your volume knob back, the way a static NAM or TONEX snapshot never did. Here's what that changes, and what a Helix or HX Stomp player should take from it.
EHX Ships the Pico Shimmer Cosmic Reverb at $149 — And Most of It Already Lives in Your Modeler
Electro-Harmonix put three shimmer worlds — Intergalactic, Off-World, and Etherdust — into a $149 sub-compact pedal that's available now. If you run a Helix or HX Stomp, two of those three sounds are already a parallel pitch-into-reverb path away from free. Here's how to recreate them, and the one scene that's genuinely worth $149.
Mooer's GE100 Pro Puts NAM, MNRS 2.0, and AI Tone-From-Text in a $96 Modeler
Mooer's new GE100 Pro is a sub-$100 floor modeler that loads NAM captures, runs MNRS 2.0 profiling, and generates tone settings from a text prompt. The battery-equipped Li version is $116. At this price the spec sheet reads like a typo — the real question is whether the modeling holds up.
Eventide Puts the Full H90 Library Into the H9 Footprint — the H9 Harmonizer Gen 2 Is $599, Ships June 24
Eventide announced the H9 Harmonizer Gen 2 this week: the iconic small-footprint multi-FX gets the complete 74-algorithm library from the flagship H90, a real screen, three Quick Knobs, stereo I/O, USB-C, and MIDI. It runs one algorithm at a time — it's half an H90, not a whole one — and it's $599, shipping globally June 24. Here's what actually changed, and why the workflow story matters more than the algorithm count.
TONE3000 Releases NAM Architecture 2 — Free, Open-Source, and It Beat Neural DSP and Line 6 in Blind Tests
On June 2, TONE3000 and NAM creator Steve Atkinson released Architecture 2 — a ground-up rebuild of the free Neural Amp Modeler engine. It runs better than Quad Cortex's capture engine at 50% CPU on a $3 chip, it's fully open source, and in a 1,000-person blind test it out-scored Neural DSP, IK ToneX, and Line 6 Proxy. The whole thing costs nothing.
Fender Tone Master Pro Firmware 1.8.45 Adds EVH 5150 III Amps, 8 New Cabs, and 15 Effects
Fender's biggest Tone Master Pro update yet lands eight new amps — including three EVH 5150 III 50-watt models that finally give the platform real high-gain credibility — plus eight matched cabs, 15 effects, and a second page of footswitch assignments. Released June 3.
Positive Grid's REACTOR Builds a Tone From a Text Prompt, a Recording, or a Photo — and It's $349
Positive Grid announced REACTOR on June 2 — a 1x12 combo (50W/$349, 100W/$449) with an 'Amp Intelligence' engine that generates a full signal chain from a typed description, an uploaded recording, or an image. It's the first time the company's AI tone engine has lived in hardware instead of the Spark app. Here's what's actually interesting about it if you think about tone as a system, and where the marketing gets ahead of the physics.
IK Multimedia Captures Three Museum-Grade '60s Marshall 45s for TONEX — Royal 45 Legends
IK's new Royal 45 Legends Signature Collection puts 50 Tone Models of three mid-'60s British 45-watt amps into TONEX — two captured from the Capitol Records vault, one from a European vintage collection, all run through V2 AI Machine Modeling. It's $99.99 ($79.99 intro), free for TONEX ONE+ owners, and it's the closest most of us will ever get to plugging into a 60-year-old amp that lives behind glass.
Axe-Fx III Firmware 32.05 Adds PVH 6160 Block Clean And Deluxe Tweed Normal
Fractal released Axe-Fx III firmware 32.05 on Thursday May 22, 2026 — four weeks after 32.04 — and the headline is two new amp models: PVH 6160 Block Clean and Deluxe Tweed Normal. Axe-Edit III 1.14.33 shipped the day before to support the new models. Smaller release than 32.04, but the PVH 6160 Block Clean fills a hole in the 5150 lineage that has been sitting open for a long time.
FM9 Firmware 12.00 Hits Public Beta — Catches Up To Axe-Fx III 32.04
Fractal pushed FM9 firmware 12.00 to public beta on May 4 and followed with Beta 3 about ten days later. The headline is parity with Axe-Fx III 32.04 — the reworked power amp model and the catalog re-analysis are now on the FM9. New DRIVE block additions include a 'Swedish Metal' layout and an Oversampling control. DynaCabs jumps to 1.09.
TONEX ONE+ Adds Bluetooth App Control and MIDI to IK's Pocket Modeler at $249.99
IK Multimedia launched the TONEX ONE+ on May 7. It is the same 48 mm wide aluminum brick as the original TONEX ONE, but with Bluetooth editing through the TONEX Control app, full TRS and USB MIDI, and 20 preset slots addressable from a switcher. Same $249.99 price. Same machine-learning amp models. The interesting question is what this changes for the backpack rig.
Chase Bliss Ships the Big Time at $999 — A Six-Year Stereo Delay Built Around '80s Rack DNA
Chase Bliss has officially launched the Big Time, a $999 hybrid digital/analog stereo delay built in collaboration with John Snyder of Electronic Audio Experiments. It is the most expensive pedal Chase Bliss has ever shipped, and it is a deliberate attempt to recreate the specific sonic fingerprint of early-'80s rack delays like the Lexicon PCM 70 and the Korg SDD-3000.
MXR Ships the EVH Modern High Gain — A Pedal Built Around 5150 III Channel 3, Not the Brown Sound
MXR's new $269.99 EVH Modern High Gain pedal started shipping April 28. It is not another brown-sound box — it is the 5150 III's third channel (the modern high-gain lead channel) compressed into a stompbox, with a 55Hz/80Hz bass shift switch, onboard noise gate, and a boost. For anyone running a Helix, Quad Cortex, or Kemper that already models the 5150 III, this is a useful reference point in the other direction.
Axe-Fx III Firmware 32.04 Reworks Power Amp Modeling — FM9 In Private Beta, FM3 To Follow
Fractal pushed Axe-Fx III firmware 32.04 on Friday April 24. The headline change is improved power amp modeling and a fresh round of amp model updates based on new analysis methods. There is also a real bug fix in the Chorus block that was costing depth on Auto-Depth presets, and a Multiplexer USB routing fix. FM9 is already in private beta. FM3 is next.
Neural DSP Announces CorOS 4.1.0, Darkglass Ultimate, and a US Price Increase on May 7
CorOS 4.1.0 is the biggest PCOM update Neural DSP has shipped — five Archetype X plugins coming to the Quad Cortex at once. Darkglass Ultimate ships imminently as a free update for existing Darkglass Ultra users. And the Quad Cortex MAP in the US goes from $1,699 to $1,799 on May 7 due to new tariffs.
Keeley RK2000 Funk Siren Delay Ships at $369, Reviving the Ibanez DM2000 Trey Anastasio Has Used for Decades
After weeks of teasing, Keeley has shipped the RK2000 Funk Siren Delay — a $369 floor pedal built around the character of the vintage Ibanez DM2000 rackmount that Trey Anastasio has used for most of his career. It does ping-pong pitch-shifted delays, LFO modulation, and stores presets with full MIDI.
NUX MG-50Li Ships April 20 With Three-DSP Modeling, DeepImage Profiling, and 5-Hour Battery
NUX confirms April 20 ship date for the MG-50Li at $499. It runs TS/AC-4K physical modeling across three dedicated DSPs, includes built-in DeepImage profiling, and has a five-hour rechargeable battery. This is the most capable battery-powered modeler shipping this month.
Fractal AM4 Is Finally In Stock — And V2.00 Firmware Makes It Worth the Wait
Fractal's most accessible modeler just got a major firmware update on the same week it finally hit open stock. V2.00 brings the AM4 fully in line with Axe-Fx III firmware 32.02, adds a new HM-2-based drive model, and improves the gate block in ways that matter for tight, low-tuned playing.
Kemper OS 14.0 Leaves Beta — Profiling 2.0 Is Now Live for All MK2 and Player Owners
After a six-week public beta, Kemper's OS 14.0 reached stable release on March 31. Profiling 2.0's 100,000-point frequency analysis is now in the hands of anyone who paid for a MK2 or Player — including the Player's long-awaited ability to create profiles, not just play them.
Valeton's New GP-150 and GP-180 Put NAM Support Under $200
Valeton's two new floorboard modelers ship with SnapTone NAM file support, 12-module parallel routing, and built-in battery — the GP-150 at $169.99 with an onboard expression pedal. For the budget modeler audience, this is the most interesting sub-$200 release since the Donner Arena 2000.
Goodbye, Old Friend: Line 6 Monkey and License Manager Are Gone
Today Line 6 officially shut down the servers behind Monkey and License Manager — two pieces of software that were, for a lot of us, the gateway into the modern era of digital guitar.
TONEX 1.11.0 Adds Full Preset Sharing to ToneNET — Free for Everyone
IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update goes beyond individual Tone Models with community preset sharing, direct hardware transfers, and a redesigned signal chain UI. The update is free for all users, including the free TONEX CS tier.
Helix Stadium Firmware 1.10 Drops With 8 New Amp Models and Proxy Cloning Improvements
Line 6 delivers the first major update to Helix Stadium's Agoura engine with eight new amp models, improved Proxy cloning accuracy, and a redesigned cab engine that makes dual-cab routing easier than ever.
Quad Cortex Mini Starts Shipping to Pre-Order Customers
Neural DSP's compact flagship is finally landing on doorsteps. The Quad Cortex Mini packs the full CorOS experience into a smaller enclosure at EUR 1,299, and first impressions from early adopters are overwhelmingly positive.
5 Studio Compression Tricks That Will Transform Your Modeler Patches
Most modeler players underuse compression or skip it entirely. These five techniques, borrowed from studio mixing engineers, will add polish, sustain, and clarity to your patches on any platform.
It's Official: Digital Modelers Outsold Tube Amps on Reverb in 2025
Reverb's annual market report confirms what many suspected: digital modelers and profilers accounted for more transactions than traditional tube amplifiers for the first time in the platform's history.
Kemper OS 14.0 Public Beta Brings Profiling 2.0 With 100K+ Frequency Analysis
Kemper's biggest software update in years overhauls the profiling engine with dramatically higher resolution analysis. Early testers say the difference is audible, especially on high-gain amps with complex EQ curves.