 Hi everybody, thank you for joining us for this webcast this evening. My name is Steve, I'm the product trainer here at Blackstar and tonight basically the evening is all about the difference between ID Core, which is our brand new practice amplifier out there in the market now, and our ID range, the original ID range, both digital amplifiers. So in this corner we have our original digital product, this is the ID 15. It's a fantastic bit of kit. Really the groundbreaking thing about this is the TVP section, the true valve power section. We can really get a lot of sound and a lot of volume from this. It's as loud as valve, which is unheard of really for something that isn't a tube amplifier originally. In this corner we have a new, brand new fighter if you like. This is the ID Core range. It's a little different. We've got stereo speakers in here. So the speakers are full range, they sound great for audio, but equally the guitar tones are fantastic also. It gives you a super wide stereo sound. When you're in a small bedroom, maybe practicing or a small studio, it really gives you this immerse surround sound feel, which is an awesome experience as a guitar player. So it's my job really this evening to explain to you the big differences. They both have things going for them and they are both different in ways also and I'll run through those differences this evening. A lot of people will see these two products in a store and they'll notice there's not a lot of difference in price really. So they might look at a digital ID Core product, which is just under the 200-pram price point and then around the 200-pram price point in Britain they'll see the ID 15. So they'll think 15 watts digital, 40 watts digital. Now it's a little difficult to explain this without taking anything away from each product because they're both amazing products. But the real big big difference is that the ID Core was really built for home use. The only chance you'd have gigging with this is to you can probably see we've got a couple of mics in front here capturing the sound of both speakers. We also have a feature on the top here which is an emulated line out which gives you the true sound of maybe an emulation of a cabinet for example. If you took a 3.5mm cable from there to a PA system and if you were savvy enough to have a really powerful PA system and use this ID Core you could probably get away with maybe a small bar or a coffee lounge or something if you were playing live. But really the speakers will be muted if you do that. So you're kind of losing the amplifier as you monitor if you will. That being said it really is, it's just a great practice amplifier and we'll look at some of the features closely in a second. But the ID series over in this corner if you like, it's built like a tank. It's really really solid. It's built for gigging. You know what we're like as musicians with the amps in the back of the car, in the back of the boot or in the van and they take a beat in. It's our tools if you like, like a guitar. But really this TVP section which is Payton's Apply For gives you six different valve choices and it really is a big big difference. So don't buy with your eyes, buy with your ears. That's the thing that I always tell customers that I speak to and guys that come into stores when I'm present for the day. Listen to it, try it, crank it loud because the points of sale on the ID series say loud as valve which is a really bold statement to make and trust me in my travels around the world I've had to put that to the test. Of course when they first come out a couple of years back or a little less than that people were a little bit apprehensive to believe but it really does stand up against another 15 watt valve for example. I mean we won't mention any names of course but I can think of certainly one 15 watt valve combo that has basically two sands, a reverb and it's around about just shy of £500 and for £200 you can get that same kind of tone plus a hell of a lot more. The advantage of programmability, foot switch, tuner. So it really is about the ID series is about building your own amplifier. You can still build your own amplifier and ID core. You get six voices which mirror the same voices as the ID series. So we have two cleans, a clean warm and a clean bright. Clean bright being more of a boutique clean setting if you like. It breaks up earlier and the harder you dig in. We have crunch and super crunch and then we have overdrive one and overdrive two for your really high gain stuff. So that's exactly the same. On ID core we then get a gain stage, a volume stage and black stars ISF, the patent which gives you an American or British style sound. We have those on here as well but we also get access to more EQ hands on. However if you do plug in the ID core to the insider software which we've got running at the moment you'll find that the base middle treble EQ controls reappear again so you can adjust those and store to your presets in that sense. We then get exactly the same effects section. We get a reverb section comprising of four reverbs, a delay section comprising of four delays and four modulations. You can choose one of each so you can have three simultaneous effects and that's exactly the same on both as well. If anyone out there is watching actually owns an ID 15 or an ID 30 it might be a good to let you know and you might not be aware of this but each product will have firmware updates so it's really important to make sure you have the current update or version of the insider software. The reason being for example the last update had a new number of things going on as new things but importantly a big physical change happened to the ID 15 and the ID 30. If you're familiar with the bigger products like the 60 watt combo or the 260 or the 60 head and the 100 head you'll notice on the master section there's a resonance and a presence control and also there's a mid control in the EQ tone stack. On the smaller stuff those would disappear, those went on there but now you can access them by holding the tap function and then you can adjust the bass to look at the resonance of the cab, the treble to look at the presence of the cab and the ISF to control the mids independently of what they're literally there to do. So you might not be aware of that but here at Blackstar we're very very passionate about giving you guys the best experience possible within an amplifier, lots of flavour, lots of tones. The ID series really, it's not just one amp, it's a number of amps. If you know your history and what I recommend you do, if you don't want to get in touch with yourself but I'll give my email at the end of this webcast is just do some research on the valves that are on there, the KT66, the 6V6 valve, the EL84. The obvious choices obviously are on there as well, EL34, 6L6, KT88 as well. But if you look at the history of those valves you can see what they appeared in throughout our lifetime of loving rock and roll music and you can match it with the voicing and adjust the infinite shape feature our patented ISF to match that British or American feel and you can really shape those sounds as well as creating some of your own. For example a really high gain sound with a really quite compressed 6V6 tube which is really something that you can't buy unless it's custom built for you. So this is all about building your own amplifier. Remember Blackstar's motto, the sound in your head, it travels all the way through the pedals, the artisan range, series one venue right up to date with our digital stuff. Now ID Core was really built about the experience that you have as a guitar player when you're at home. So imagine watching your online tutor videos or your playing to songs. If you connect your output of your device whether it be an mp3 player, a tablet, your laptop into the mp3 input. Because the speakers are stereo full range the music sounds very clear, very responsive. Guitar cabs are quite well known to have when music's going through there. It sounds a little bit dim like that kind of feel. And with ID Core it's all about open high fidelity. So that's really there for your experience as a guitar player when you jam in along with tracks, it sounds amazing. Also each product will have USB, easy access USB on there. Here is the USB on the ID and on the top panel we have it on the core. Now this can be used for an audio interface so you can record direct to any recording software as well. And it's almost zero latency, it's very very good for that. So the price point that the ID Core feature at which is three in the range just under that £100 price point you're getting an audio interface and a fantastic new product, a new amplifier out there to enjoy as a guitar player. So I highly recommend if you haven't already tried them get into your local store and try them out. If you're a gigging musician and you're after something small I would definitely point you in the direction of ID. I've had an ID 15 and everything above it against an acoustic drum kit. Now to say that about a 15 watt non-valve amplifier is a big big deal. It's quite well known in the industry and if you work in guitar stores or you've tried the gear that at loud volumes something like that normally would not deliver. So what I try to do since ID came out is when I visit stores and talk to guys around the world and including you guys that buy our equipment, really if you're in a store compare it against an alternative valve amplifier and then you really see your worth, your money's worth. I've just stored four sounds on here just briefly before the webcast started just to show you just how much feel you can get and I know it's very hard for it to transcend over laptop speakers or PC monitors and you really really have to try it to believe it but hopefully you'll get the drift. But I set up basically a warm clean sound American style. On the second channel more of a boutique British 60s thing. Then more of a 70s overdrive on the third channel and then more of a modern high gain on the fourth channel. So I'll just run through those and you can hopefully really feel that that power. On the master volume there we're at probably around about 11 o'clock. Great for that boutique feel. On to a KT66 British 70s kind of vibe. It really feels great for that blues style sound. On to a more modern. Very very cool. Of course you can utilize a lot more effects than that I've just got a little bit of ambient reverb on there for now. But that to go from a really warm style American clean through to a really modern high gain and a bit of boutique in the middle hopefully you can kind of get the drift that if I had my foot switch and this is mic'd up if not mic'd up it would still deliver. It's gigable. It probably weighs around about 15 kg. Nothing. A perfect small amplifier affordable for live players as well as practice. Over to IDCore now. Hopefully you'll feel a little bit of a difference in tone. That's actually a clean bright and this is a clean one with the gain fully up. Of course we can really clean it up by taking that gain stage down. But having said that to have that gain stage drive as much as it does when you really crank it really kind of emulates the sound of a valve whereas this really feels under your fingers like a valve amplifier. If that makes sense. So on here I've just simply got a little bit of a reverb setting. I'm just going to tune my guitar just briefly because it's slightly out. There is a tuner accessible on the top panel by holding the tap function and the manual function simultaneously. It will then mute your sound and also on the software you can access it via a mass. So I'll do it that way first. So I'm a little flat. You probably may not be able to see that screen clearly but it's a very very smooth chromatic tuner. Gain stage up. Natural compression and I've got to say without going into the super wide stereo features just that sound alone is a pleasure to play when you're sitting there in a more confined practice room or music room or office. It's awesome. So we've got basically a couple of tracks up and ready so I'll jam along with something at the end but looking at something like crunch. These are our other voices. It sounds brilliant but when you plug into ID you can still, you start to feel it in the floor. You know what I'm saying? It's really a lot different. So make sure you do compare the two if you're looking and thinking the price isn't that different. What am I looking at here? Super crunch. OD1. I mean without the really wet reverb going on there you can obviously tell that's a more higher gain stage and then OD2 slightly different. Let's add some delay to that. Really quite cool. Of course the OD1 and OD2 come with a built in noise gate as well if I didn't mention that earlier the same as ID. That noise gate has two thresholds a low and a high and you can switch it on and off or choose the choice of gate via the insider software as many other things as well. If you're not familiar with insider if you haven't yet got an ID series amplifier of some sort you can download the insider for free from Mac or PC from Blackstaramps.com and you can use a phrase trainer. If you don't know what that is basically you can import an MP3 file, you can slow it down and it will still remain in the same pitch so it's perfect for practicing, learning riffs solos and you can select a A and B marker and then loop it so it's just concentrating on that one section and then you can just check out the other side of it and hopefully it'll start to make more sense so that's a bit of a freebie from Blackstar if you didn't already know that. So let's just jam along with the track and see what we can get out of it. Some nice blues so this is a track playing through. There you go some nice blues there complete with Gary Moore faces as well make me like that is the Gary Moore. Great experience, audio wise I was really immersed in that as a guitar player and a musician I was into it I was there you know but certainly if you can take this message away from this webinar for live use please check out IDCore it's doing fantastically well around the world but it really needs you that guy that might be sitting there or that lass thinking is it really going to be that good if it's not a valve yes it is check it out affordable powerful lightweight programmability loud as valve IDCore again very very proud of these products both items of one fantastic accolades in the UK if we just take a look at BlackstarAmpz.com for example the ID series we've got a gold award from Guitar World Best Buy Total Guitar guitarist gold guitarist choice on the whole range of the products which is you know we don't take these awards for granted and they're not easy to come by the awards are there for a reason you know let's look at IDCore there we go guitarist choice award there we go guitarist choice award and total guitar best buy if we had physical awards we would have no room for them Blackstar are really proud of what we achieve with amplifiers to give you guitar players out there wonderful amounts of tone but we're very proud to put the certificates up in our reception there so again remember go to your local dealers support local stores buying online is all very well but it's a guitar it's an amplifier listen feel you know if mr. Hendricks was still here I don't think you'd be purchasing an amp online or a guitar it's all about how it feels and how it sounds to you listen so remember to follow us on all the social media avenues of course Instagram Facebook Twitter and just search for Blackstar amplification or Blackstar amps and if you need to know any further details you can send an email direct to us here at info at blackstaramps.com or if you need some personal advice regarding the amplifiers and some training via email please email me at steve.marks at blackstaramps.com and it's been a pleasure to see you thank you for tuning into this webcast and we'll see you very soon cheers