NAM A2 Is Here: What It Means for Your Tone

The Biggest NAM Update Since Launch Just Dropped

If you've been paying attention to the open-source guitar tone world (and if you're reading this blog, you probably have), you already know that Neural Amp Modeler has quietly become one of the most exciting things to happen to guitar in the last decade. A free, open-source platform for capturing amp tones with studio-grade accuracy? It sounded too good to be true when it first appeared. Then people started actually using it, and suddenly every forum, subreddit, and YouTube channel was buzzing about what NAM could do.

Now, the team behind NAM, led by creator Steve Atkinson and the folks at TONE3000, is rolling out something that could change the game all over again. It's called A2, and it's the most significant architectural overhaul NAM has ever seen.

Here's what you need to know, why it matters, and how it's going to affect the NAM captures, Kemper profiles, and every other format you rely on every day.

What Exactly Is A2?

Let's back up for a second. Every NAM capture runs on a neural network. It's a piece of software trained to replicate how a specific amp responds to a guitar signal. The original architecture (now called A1) used a WaveNet-based design that was genuinely impressive. It delivered detailed, dynamic captures that held their own against commercial solutions costing hundreds of dollars.

But A1 had limitations. The standard model required around 13,800 parameters, which meant it was computationally hungry. Running NAM on a laptop DAW was no problem, but loading it onto embedded hardware (the kind you'd find in a guitar pedal or a compact floor unit) a different story. You had to choose between accuracy and performance, and that trade-off got old fast.

A2 is a ground-up redesign of that neural network. Same goal: capture amp tones with terrifying accuracy. But with a smarter, leaner architecture that delivers better results with fewer resources. Think of it like upgrading from a carbureted engine to fuel injection. Same power, better efficiency, smoother everywhere.

Better Sound, Lower CPU: The Core Promise

A2 tackles the two things that mattered most to the NAM community.

First, capture accuracy gets a serious upgrade. A2 improves how NAM represents dynamics, gain structure, frequency behavior, and transient handling. In plain English: captures will feel more alive. The way an amp responds when you dig in with your pick, the way it cleans up when you roll back your volume knob, the subtle compression that happens when you push the preamp. A2 captures all of that with greater fidelity than A1 ever could.

For players who've been chasing that elusive "feel" that separates a great capture from a good one, this is exactly the kind of improvement that matters. It's not about making things louder or adding more features. It's about closing the gap between the digital capture and the real amp sitting in front of a mic.

Second, CPU requirements drop significantly. A2 delivers comparable or better accuracy while being more efficient to run. That means smoother performance in your DAW, less strain on your computer when you're stacking multiple instances, and, and crucially, better performance on hardware devices. The floor units, pedals, and embedded platforms that struggled with A1's processing demands can now run NAM captures without breaking a sweat.

Slimmable Models: One Capture, Every Device

This might be the most exciting part of A2, and it's the feature that has the biggest implications for how we all use captures going forward.

A2 introduces slimmable neural models: a single NAM capture that automatically adjusts its processing requirements based on the device it's running on. Load it into your DAW on a desktop machine, and it runs at full resolution with maximum accuracy. Transfer that same capture to a hardware pedal or a phone app, and it scales itself down to match the available processing power. No separate "lite" version required.

This is a genuine breakthrough. Right now, if you want a NAM capture to work across different platforms, you often need different versions optimized for different hardware. A2 eliminates that headache entirely. One capture, everywhere, automatically optimized. Your tone travels with you from the studio to the stage to the practice room without compromise.

For those of us who bounce between a DAW at home and hardware on stage, this is the kind of quality-of-life improvement that changes your entire workflow.

What Happens to Your Existing Captures?

Here's the good news: nothing breaks. A1 captures (the standard, lite, feather, and nano variants) will continue to work exactly as they do now. Your DAW projects stay intact. Your hardware keeps running your current models. Backward compatibility is fully preserved.

But here's where it gets really interesting. TONE3000 has announced that hundreds of thousands of existing tones in their library will be retrained using the A2 architecture on launch day. That means the captures you already know and love will get an automatic quality upgrade. Better accuracy, better dynamics, lower CPU usage. All without you having to do anything.

And because A2 is entirely open source. Architecture, training code, DSP tools, evaluation datasets, all of it. The community can start building on top of it immediately. If the A1 era proved anything, it's that this community moves fast. Expect an explosion of A2-optimized captures, tools, and hardware integrations in the weeks and months ahead.

Why This Matters for Your Rig

Let's get practical about what A2 means for the way you actually play and record.

If you're a bedroom recorder: Better captures mean better raw tracks. The dynamics and feel improvements in A2 translate directly to more expressive recordings. When you're tracking at low volume through an interface, every bit of dynamic nuance matters, and A2 delivers more of it. Our NAM captures are about to sound even more like the real amps they were captured from.

If you're running NAM on hardware: The lower CPU requirements and slimmable models mean you can run higher-quality captures on the same device, or run more captures simultaneously without dropouts. If you've been limited by your hardware's processing ceiling, A2 just raised that ceiling considerably.

If you're a tone explorer: The expanded gear type support (A2 can capture compressors and other dynamics processors, not just amps) opens up entirely new territory. Imagine capturing the exact compression character of a vintage LA-2A or a Cali76 alongside your amp tone. The possibilities for realistic signal chain recreation are massive.

If you play live: Slimmable models mean your studio-quality captures translate directly to stage-ready performance without a quality penalty. Load up, sound check, and know that what you dialed in at home is exactly what the audience hears. Whether you're running NAM captures, Kemper profiles, or HeadRush clones, A2 is raising the bar for what you should expect from any platform.

What This Means Across Platforms

A2 is a NAM-specific upgrade, but its impact ripples across the entire tone capture ecosystem. If you're someone who runs captures and profiles across multiple platforms (and let's be honest, a lot of us do), here's the bigger picture.

The accuracy bar just got raised. When NAM captures start delivering A2-level fidelity at a fraction of the CPU cost, it puts pressure on every other platform to keep pace. That's great for everyone. Competition makes Tonex captures better. It makes Kemper profiles better. It pushes NeuralDSP captures and HeadRush clones forward too.

At Six String Lab, we build our tone packs across all of these platforms because we know players don't live in one ecosystem. You might run NAM captures in your DAW, Kemper profiles for live gigs, and Tonex captures on your practice rig. A2 makes the NAM side of that equation dramatically better, and we're here for all of it.

What We're Doing at Six String Lab

We've been watching the A2 development closely, and we're genuinely excited about what it means for our NAM capture library. Our captures are already made from carefully dialed-in real amps. We spend hours finding the sweet spots before we ever run a capture algorithm. A2's improved accuracy means those painstakingly crafted tones will translate even more faithfully into your rig.

We're already planning to retrain our existing NAM packs using A2 once the architecture is fully released, and every new pack going forward will include A2-optimized captures. Same obsessive attention to detail in the source tones, now with the best capture technology available.

If you haven't explored our catalog yet, this is a great time to start. We've got NAM captures, Tonex captures, Kemper profiles, HeadRush clones, and NeuralDSP captures, all from the same meticulously profiled source amps. Grab one of our free packs and hear what happens when great source amps meet great capture technology. With A2, it's only going to get better.

The Open-Source Tone Revolution Keeps Rolling

What makes NAM special isn't just the technology. It's the philosophy. In a market dominated by proprietary ecosystems and closed platforms, NAM and A2 remain entirely open source. Anyone can use it, build on it, or improve it. The architecture, training code, DSP tools, and evaluation datasets are all freely available.

That openness is why NAM went from an obscure GitHub project to a genuine industry force in just a few years. It's why hardware manufacturers are building NAM support into their products. It's why platforms like TONE3000 have amassed libraries of hundreds of thousands of captures. And it's why A2 has the potential to push the entire tone capture space forward. Not just for NAM users, but for everyone.

A2 is launching this month. Whether you're a NAM veteran or you've been waiting for the right moment to jump in, this is it. The future of guitar tone just got a major upgrade, and it didn't cost anyone a dime.

Check out our full collection of NAM captures at sixstringlab.com, or browse all of our amp packs across every platform. And if you want to test the waters first, our free packs are waiting for you.