Episode 13: Amp Modelers Are Dead, Long Live Amp Modelers

What we cover

• Framework's refreshed 12-inch laptop, its aggressive $699 entry price, the RAM/storage tradeoffs, and Framework's surprisingly transparent Linux compatibility push.
• How to stay sane while working from home, including balancing the day job with passion projects when your office is also your house.
• Free and open-source guitar amp modeling software (Neural Amp Modeler) killing off expensive hardware modelers, plus a shoutout to the open-source Pi Pedal project.

First up, Adam walks us through Framework's refreshed Laptop 12, which swaps the old 13th-gen Raptor Lake chips for Intel's efficiency-focused Core Series 3 Wildcat Lake processors. The entry-level prebuilt lands at an aggressive $699 with a Core 3, 8GB of RAM, and a 512GB NVMe. The bigger story might be the connectivity upgrade, with two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back and two USB 3.2 on the front and the fact that 80% of first-gen Framework 12 buyers surveyed are running Linux. Stephen also talks about his experiences with the new Intel chips in a ThinkPad X1 Gen 14.

Next, prompted by a question on our Discord, the trio gets into the real talk about work-from-home life and how to keep passion projects alive when your day job already lives in your spare room. Alex traces his own journey from a corner-of-the-bonus-room setup to a full attic studio, Stephen talks through sharing his garage office with his wife's embroidery business, and the group riffs on Adam's theory about the "death of the third space" and how COVID reshaped where and how we socialize.

Finally, Alex and Stephen nerd out on guitar gear, specifically how free software like Neural Amp Modeler has effectively killed the need for thousand-dollar amp modeling hardware. We talk through impulse responses, why nobody can tell a modeled amp from the real thing in blind tests anymore, and Alex flags an open-source Raspberry Pi guitar pedal project called Pi Pedal for anyone wanting to build their own modeler rig without vendor lock-in.

Tags: framework, framework-12, intel-core-series-3, wildcat-lake, linux-laptop, work-from-home, remote-work, third-spaces, neural-amp-modeler, nam, amp-modeling, guitar, pipedal, open-source-hardware, thinkpad, lenovo

Links

• Framework Laptop 12:
  • Framework Blog: Laptop 12 with Core Series 3
  • Framework Laptop 12 Product Page
  • Fedora KDE on Framework 12 Pre-builts (GamingOnLinux)
• Neural Amp Modeler & Guitar:
  • KTZ Blog: Amp Modelers Are Dead
  • Neural Amp Modeler v2 Release
  • Tone3000 — Free Amp Captures
  • Pi Pedal — Open Source Guitar Pedal
  • Linus Torvalds Guitar Pedal