Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

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ladron
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Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by ladron »

Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) is an open source machine learning framework for amplifier simulation. It works very well, and has been getting a lot of traction recently with people sharing some great-sounding models.

I've put together a bare-bones LV2 plugin for playing NAM models. You can find it here:

https://github.com/mikeoliphant/neural-amp-modeler-lv2

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by finotti »

Thanks for that! I had just heard about it and was considering trying with Wine.

I could compile it and load it in Carla, but I see no way to load a profile...

In Ardour, opening the plugin asks to load a file, but when trying it, Ardour crashed, although I am not sure if I am doing something wrong.

I got profiles here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1syEk2w ... yb1O4/view. But trying to load either the JSON or the .npy for a model (which one should it be?), Ardour crashed.

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by finotti »

Of course, user error!

The actual profiles are .nam files. The files I had were not, so it would just crash. Maybe it would be nice if the plugin could prevent the crash and just issue a warning.

In Carla it can be loaded by clicking on the gear icon, and in Ardour by opening the plugin.

Thanks for the plugin! I tested it only briefly, but it seems to be working and sounds really good!

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by ladron »

finotti wrote: Sun Mar 12, 2023 6:34 pm

The actual profiles are .nam files. The files I had were not, so it would just crash. Maybe it would be nice if the plugin could prevent the crash and just issue a warning.

Yeah, the plugin is pretty rough and ready right now. I plan to keep it very basic, but some better error handling would be good. Given that I don't have UI, I can't issue a warning - but it could at least not crash... :-)

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by finotti »

After some more testing and playing around with some profiles from the Facebook NAM Discussion Group, I am really impressed with the results. Although it is too early to say for sure, it might become might default guitar amp simulation software.

Thanks for the plugin (and saving me from having to use Wine for it)!

By the way, about the wrong format files from my first post, there is a conversion tool to create .nam files from the JSON and .npy files. Some of those are really quite good.

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by ladron »

finotti wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 2:49 pm

After some more testing and playing around with some profiles from the Facebook NAM Discussion Group, I am really impressed with the results. Although it is too early to say for sure, it might become might default guitar amp simulation software.

Yes - it really does work very well. I'm pretty convinced that this kind of approach is going to be the path forward.

Right now, the main downside is that it is significantly more expensive than other approaches to amplifier simulation. I'm hoping, though, that as the model architecture gets tweaked and the playback code gets optimized that the performance gap will narrow.

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by finotti »

ladron wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 3:26 pm

Yes - it really does work very well. I'm pretty convinced that this kind of approach is going to be the path forward.

Right now, the main downside is that it is significantly more expensive than other approaches to amplifier simulation. I'm hoping, though, that as the model architecture gets tweaked and the playback code gets optimized that the performance gap will narrow.

Interesting. I haven't played around enough to see how DSP intensive it is... But, at the worst case, one can track with a lighter simulation and then "reamp" with it. It's less than ideal, as often the tone inspires the performance, but it is still a way to get a good tone in recordings.

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by ladron »

finotti wrote: Mon Mar 13, 2023 4:23 pm

Interesting. I haven't played around enough to see how DSP intensive it is... But, at the worst case, one can track with a lighter simulation and then "reamp" with it.

It isn't really a problem on modern desktop computers. The issue comes in when trying to run it on less powerful CPUs - like an SBC or microcontroller.

I've got it running on my Raspberry Pi 4 pedalboard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I_bxxzQs2s

but currently it can only just barely manage the lightest NAM models (trained with the "feather" architecture).

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by amgermogu »

Hi there can u help me to build it under Ubuntu studio ? i try to follow the github commands list but they dont work for me

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by ladron »

amgermogu wrote: Thu Mar 16, 2023 5:59 am

Hi there can u help me to build it under Ubuntu studio ? i try to follow the github commands list but they dont work for me

Hard to help without knowing what errors you are getting. Do you have the proper build tools (including CMake) installed?

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by amgermogu »

HI i try this time on garuda with cmake installed end i manage to build it thanks for the reply !

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by funkmuscle »

On that Facebook group, I was led to this amp modeler that apparently is open source and it has controls on it.
https://youtu.be/-IueZlwzrvQ

Is it possible to merge or fork or whatever you guys do your amp modeler with this one? I could load yours in Reaper but I have no way of loading the profiles but with this if it's possible to get it running on Linux, it should run on every DAW.

Please forgive me if this was mentioned anywhere else in this thread already. I'm just in a hurry and I saw this video as I was getting ready and I figured share it.

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by ladron »

funkmuscle wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:42 pm

I could load yours in Reaper but I have no way of loading the profiles but with this if it's possible to get it running on Linux, it should run on every DAW.

Reaper has no support for LV2 path parameters. That is a Reaper issue:

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?p=2505988

The plugin you saw in that video is the Windows VST.

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by funkmuscle »

ladron wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 3:19 pm
funkmuscle wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 1:42 pm

I could load yours in Reaper but I have no way of loading the profiles but with this if it's possible to get it running on Linux, it should run on every DAW.

Reaper has no support for LV2 path parameters. That is a Reaper issue:

https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?p=2505988

The plugin you saw in that video is the Windows VST.

Yep it is a Windows VST but it said open source. Disclaimer I know absolutely nothing about programming or anything like that but if Windows devs can port lv2 plugins to VST, can that be reversed and done the other way or even make a native VST

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Re: Neural Amp Modeler LV2 plugin

Post by funkmuscle »

It builds and runs well on arch in Ardour.
But just like ML Proteus, eventually the plugin will need to have some control knobs because we all have different guitars and we all have different playing styles so a generic capture may work great for someone but for someone else it could have too much bottom end or so on which means that that point you got to load more plugins and that just makes more resources being used up. One of the main reasons why I use hardware with IR files built into it for my recording.

Don't get me wrong I am not in no way putting this down in fact I'm just hoping that my two cents will help by suggesting having a gain knob and the usual EQ and so on. I reached out to Buddy that created the VST and he said his Linux box is not running that's why he has not attempted a Linux version.

Maybe again that's if this is your intention to reach out to him and see if it could be forked on maybe use it as a VST because a lot of people use DAWs that only uses VST like a Reaper and bitwig for example.

Again I don't know what your end goal is so I'm just pointing it out. I'm putting this disclaimer in there as I do almost every time I post is to avoid somebody trying to chop my head off because I'm not criticizing I'm trying to put in my two cents and take it as a buffet. You take what you want and you skip past the rest.

Keep up the great work though man and thank you so much for that work.

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