Practice amp with AI tone capture

Blackstar has not only crammed a guitar amp into a little box the size of a Bluetooth speaker, but also packed it with high-tech features to get a vast array of tones out of it to practice any style of playing, anywhere they’ll tolerate you.

The British outfit announced the Beam Mini back in January, with a bunch of familiar capabilities and a couple of standout features that separate this from other desktop amps. It’s got a load of built-in amp models and configurable effects like you’d expect, but the big draw that’s got a gear nerd like me excited is Neural Amp Modeler (NAM) compatibility.

NAM is a piece of open-source tech that lets anyone capture the characteristics of audio gear including amps, cabinets, and pedals, train a neural network with signals from that gear, and create a profile that you can dial in to record and perform with. It works surprisingly well, and some say it’s just as good as sophisticated capturing hardware that costs upwards of a thousand dollars. It’s even more remarkable when you recall that NAM is completely free.

For example, if you’ve got a lovely old amp and your favorite distortion pedal lying around, you can go through a few simple steps to capture a profile of that combination using NAM, and then use it on your computer like you would with a patch on a multi-effects processor. You can also share it with the world via the Tone3000 community (and any other way you can reach people), and also grab profiles from other creators and start playing.

So, NAM compatibility – which is slated to become available on the Mini shortly – means your little practice amp can sound like virtually any gear you can capture, or find a profile of. You can also mix and match amps and cabs and effects, so the possibilities are truly endless. That’s nuts for something so small, and fairly affordable.

Okay, on to the rest. The Mini comes with two 60-mm full-range drivers, and two 55-mm bass radiators that promise 18-W output across all kinds of tones. There are 17 amp models and over 35 effects on board, along with a cab simulator that has a number of cab-and-mic combos, and supports impulse responses from your own collection.

You’ll likely want to configure patches on the flexible mobile app, but you can also tweak parameters without firing that up by simply twisting the knobs at the top of the speaker. Handily, you can even save your changes using these physical controls too.

Blackstar Amplification

The Mini doubles as a recording interface, which means you can plug it into your computer and record multichannel audio straight to your DAW (digital audio workstation); Blackstar says it’s got a quality preamp inside for the job. This even supports a headset with mic input via a 3.5-mm jack, so songwriters can record demos of themselves singing and playing at the same time.

Blackstar Amplification

This model also features a built-in tuner, gets an IP66 rating for water and dust resistance, and boasts 18 hours of streaming audio playback from a full charge over USB-C. At just over 26 oz (750 g), it’s packing way more functionality than its size would suggest.

Blackstar Amplification

The Beam Mini costs US$229.99, and is available to pre-order from authorized Blackstar dealers and retailers like Sweetwater now. It’s expected to ship later this month. This is the sort of thing I wish I had when I started plugging my axe into a bellowing locally-made amp decades ago – and I reckon my neighbors would’ve appreciated its quieter nature too.

Product page: Blackstar Beam Mini