Why Valvex
A tube amp, two 4x12 cabinets, 28 pedals and your captures on a Windows laptop. What used to weigh over fifty kilos (110 lb) and reach the desk differently in every room now fits in a backpack and reaches it the same way everywhere.
1 · Portable
Your laptop, an audio interface and your MIDI foot controller. No head, no 4x12, no pedal power supply and no tangle of cables: it fits in your carry-on, on the bus or in anyone's car.
And on the road there are no tubes to break with a knock, and no amp that can't take another country's mains voltage: almost any laptop charger takes 100 to 240 V.
2 · Always the same
The signal leaves with its amp, its cabinet and its microphone already in it, and goes straight to the mixing desk. It doesn't depend on how they mic your cab, which microphone is around that night or whether your amp on stage muddies the mix.
With your interface and your settings, what reaches the desk is exactly the sound you dialed in at home, in a bar, a church or a festival.
3 · No pedals to buy
The amp's two channels, LEAD and CLEAN; your NAM captures of any amps you like; up to ten pedals at once, five before and five after the amp, picked from 28 and in any order; two 4x12 cabinets with three microphones and your own impulses. Changing a pedal doesn't mean buying one or rewiring anything.
With Live, 25 complete sounds in five banks, switched with your foot without cutting off the note you're playing.
4 · Automatic
If you play to a click or backing tracks, your DAW changes the sound on the exact bar while you just play and sing: by automating any knob or pedal, and with Live, by calling up whole sounds over MIDI. The delay and the tremolo can lock to the session tempo.
With Live, any knob or pedal is tied to your controller with a right-click and a stomp: the wah to your expression pedal, the solo to one switch, the tuner to another.
5 · Silent
Without an amp booming on stage, the stage volume drops at once. The engineer builds a clear mix for your in-ears, the vocal mics don't fill up with guitar and there's less risk of feedback.
And your ears thank you after every show.
6 · With a backup
The license goes with you, not with the computer: install it on your laptop and on a backup one, and copy your sounds to both. If something fails before the show, you swap computers and keep sounding the same.
No account and no internet: it works in the bar basement where there's no signal.
Where it helps
And it's nearly always the same one: the gear is heavy, the room calls the shots and the volume gets in the way. This is what changes in each place you play.
On tour and traveling
Paying excess baggage, crossing your fingers that the head arrives in one piece and making do with whatever there is in each city.
Your whole rig travels with you in the backpack, with a backup laptop if you like, and sounds the same on the first date as on the last.
Free · better with LiveBars and small venues
Little room on stage, an owner asking for low volume and a drive sound that only works with the amp cranked.
The desk sets the volume, not your amp: the drive sounds just as fat at any level. And you set up in minutes by plugging the interface into the console.
Free · better with LiveChurches and worship
A stage kept at moderate volume, everyone on in-ears and a different person at the desk every Sunday.
A silent stage, a signal that reaches the desk ready to go with nothing to mic, and the same sound every service. With Live, the service's sounds on your foot controller, laid out in banks, and you switch with your foot.
Free · better with LiveWeddings, events and covers
A long setlist that jumps from a ballad's clean to a rock classic's drive, and little time to load in and out.
25 complete sounds a stomp away, usually enough for the whole setlist because songs share cleans, crunch and lead sounds. You switch mid-song without a gap.
LiveFestivals and shared backline
Little time to set up, a borrowed amp you don't know and an engineer miking in a hurry.
There's no cab to mic: it goes straight into the DI box. And if the backline has a cab and a power amp, or an amp with an effects return, Live's no-cab output uses them without changing what reaches the desk.
Free · better with LiveRehearsals
The tired combo in the rehearsal room, which sounds nothing like you do at the show.
You bring your real sound to rehearsal. And if the band rehearses silently on headphones, the guitar goes into the mix like any other instrument.
Free · better with LiveAt home, any time
A tube amp only sounds good loud, and loud in an apartment at eleven at night isn't an option.
On headphones you play with a concert sound without anyone noticing, and you practice with the same rig you'll take on stage.
FreeRecording
With an amp, the sound is printed forever: if it doesn't fit the mix, you track it again or reamp it.
Record the guitar clean and choose the amp, the cabinet and the pedals afterwards, right up to mix day. The same sound on the record and live, royalty-free.
FreeStreaming and content
Changing sounds mid-stream by reaching for the mouse, with a dropout everyone hears.
You switch with your foot, without a dropout, and the sound reaches your streaming software clean, with no mic in a bedroom.
LiveHead to head
It's not that the amp sounds bad: it's everything it takes to make it sound good every night.
| Amp and pedals | Valvex | |
|---|---|---|
| What you carry | Head, cab, pedalboard, power supply and cables: easily over 50 kg (110 lb) | A laptop, an interface and your MIDI foot controller |
| Setting up | Wiring the board, placing the cab and waiting for it to be miked | The interface into the mixing desk |
| From room to room | Changes with the mic, where it's placed and the stage volume | Reaches the desk exactly as you rehearsed it |
| How many sounds | As many as fit on the board | As many as you dial in, and 25 saved a stomp away with Live |
| Stage volume | Loud, or the drive doesn't happen | Silent, and it sounds the same |
| On a trip | Fragile tubes, weight and different mains voltages | Goes in your carry-on |
| If something fails | A second amp | A second laptop, with the same license |
| What it costs | An amp, a cab and a pedalboard | Free, and Live for $29 once, with the laptop and interface you already have |
IMPRINT
Is there a pedal you'd never trade, or a capture of one you love? IMPRINT loads its NAM capture and turns it into one more pedal, with its own Drive, Tone and Level. It sounds right in front of the amp, which is where a drive goes, with the rest of the board before it.
Made in Colombia
Valvex is a pioneer: it was designed and programmed by a Colombian guitarist, for guitarists who play in front of people. As far as we could find, there is no other commercial amp simulator made in Colombia.
Every sound change was approved guitar in hand, compared at matched volume, and undone when it didn't convince. The ear decides, not a sheet of measurements.
Its own two-channel amp, two exclusive 4x12 cabinets and 28 pedals with their own names and designs.
The website and the license in English, Spanish and Portuguese: for Latin America, Brazil and the rest of the world.
Before you leave the amp
Said plainly, so nobody gets a surprise at soundcheck.
Try it where you play
Download the free version, build your sounds and take it to rehearsal. When you step on stage, Live unlocks inside the same program.
Valvex runs as a standalone app, with ASIO® for low-latency playing, and as a VST3 plugin inside your DAW. ASIO is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.
