Marc Cormier

Nothing here. Spent more in ‘20 than previous years, too.

Picked up the Brainworx Friedman BE100 $19 at the bell. Holy cows, does it sound good. Their amp sims have gotten better over time but still some silly UX improvements desperately needed like a workable delay (if they still insist on including one) and rebuilding their signal chain browse that currently makes AT4's look like a walk in the park. At least with the Friedman, you can disable the signal chain in lieu of outside IRs with one click.

It's a huge leap between V2 and 5.X - that seems like a crazy good deal to me if you have an older version. I'm sticking with 4.6 but you've got a TON more to gain with that updated, Husker.

Just worked for me - ENGL Savage 120 for $14.99.

I ran into a huge spot of good luck scoring K12 Select upgrade to K12U CE for $320 USD this fall and it updated to K13U CE for free!!!! That price alone is most of the "why" but in reality, I was just shopping for Kontakt 6 and couldn't justify NOT pouncing on the listing when it showed up while browsing KVR. Came with original receipt AND the gentleman shipped me the hard drive. That was the best...until Amplitube 5, which I will surely use more often than the 5.5% of what I'll use that comes in K13U CE.

You know, I TOTALLY overlooked that, having so much fun with VIR. Could sound even better! Thanks for the reminder!

Aside from last year's IK Group Buy (the buy one, get over dozen free software maelstrom) I would have to agree with you!

We're neighbors! I'm in Livonia! Somehow the rest of the Forum triangulated our locations so I could send in the SWAT team when you went dark in the summer. Actually, it was kind of nice during those weeks to not make up stories for why I needed plugins I clearly had no long-term plans to use. As soon as you came back, though, I immediately set out to buy more hard drives. Merry Christmas, Larry!

Best wishes to all from the Detroit. It's been a thud of a year but I know so many folks that lost much more than most. Grateful for this awesome forum, the helpful and humorous, and the engine behind the spending, King Larry.

Sorry if you tried this already, Soundwise, but I've run into the same problem Larry (and maybe others do) where you have to actually click in the output field in settings, as if you're going to change your selection, and then it magically starts to work.

It's a GREAT update, Mesh, and for someone who didn't use AT4 much to start, AT5 is all I want to reach for right now and nears the top of the heap for me both in terms of flexibility AND sound. You should read the thread when you have some time to hear how so many different tastes have found something to like or really love about the platform. I was (and still am) a THU and Neural devotee, but AT5 has so much flexibility, so many varieties for crafting tones, that I don't see myself spending much time anywhere else TBH. I'm floored at how good it is and floored at how floored I am. Floored, I say.

2.4 Gb...that's quite an update. Looks like most - if not all - of my First-World complaints are addressed here.

L.O.L.

Here's the detail about versions that carry VIR tech, Zo - CS doesn't, but SE and above does. This brings up a good point about what are the default cabs/IRs in CS??

Yeah, some of the preset levels are still wonky!!! Be careful!

I don't think it's optional, Zo - its part of the cab section now. When you turn off the internal cab feature, there's no discernible reduction in CPU load for the couple of patches I've tried this evening.

No problems in terms of tonal variety, but I have yet to see where or how this impacts where an amp sits in the mix. Probably won't get to that part of the fun until the weekend, Zo. Without the added interplay with other speakers or the floor, the more traditional mic placements sound pretty darn good. If you're a fan of the Orange amps, I would update for those on their own.

The amp is the same, Zo, but with VIR/cab section you get the benefit of the new IRs, the positioning options (dual speaker and floor resonance), and the new 3D mic placement. It's the 3 Gb download doing its job. I remember there were some similar options in AT4 but all the new IRs and being able to capture the resonance of speakers next to the one you micing are new, I think. I didn't use AT4 very much before.

I love the new amps, Zo. Whether they're "accurate" or not will be someone else's opinion but they all have distinct tone and character and respond VERY differently to the same pedal configurations I would normally slap across different amps in something like THU. It's really cool how different the gain processing can sound between one set of pedals and totally different amps. I completely agree about Orange amps - they cover 90% of anything I might consider using an amp sim for and sound AT LEAST as good as they did in AT4; they were pretty much the only thing I used if I went to AT4. The VIR stuff is definitely missing from your demo and probably one of the biggest impact items in the update. Between the IR options and swapping individual speakers, I have YET to feel like I have to load a 3rd party IR, although that's something I'll get to for A/B comparisons. The workflow? Yeah there's part that annoy me but not nearly as much as I found AT4 to be cumbersome. It's probably also why I'm warming to it quicker; less time spent in AT4 to begin with. My biggest gripe? NO UNIVERSAL GATE...gotta search for the pedal.

Some initial hobbyist reactions: Workflow requires a ton of clicks but in a different way than AT4. There are so many options, but I'm getting used to looking for parts of the tone puzzle as I play. I hear the sonic changes, no question. I also sense more responsiveness in high gain amps and a smoother pick response. It's not Neural, but it's not AT4, either. I didn't play with AT4 very much but I definitely don't mind the stock IK amp options in AT5 at all. I love the TRackS reverbs and compressors in place; there's a ton more choice now, and good ones at that. New amps sound GREAT which is mainly why I went for AT5 over SE; nice variety of high gain and again, more responsiveness than I had anticipated. Slow UI and preset loading. What the he** were they thinking with the tiny print on the rack gear??? EQ-81 is like your worst eye exam, ever. Similar CPU load to AT4 Studio One 4.6: @9-10% Is that a lot higher than other S1 users? (i7 4770, 32Gb RAM) Routing is simple and easy to understand; FX loop is excellent graphical addition. Still early so much more to learn. I'm a bit of a THU fanboi and will remain so, mostly for the variety/difference of options and low CPU usage compared to just about anything but sonically speaking, I can see myself using AT5 more often, at least for printing. It is that good, and I've not spent that much time with it. Pleasantly surprised and probably spending way too much time tweaking, but this interface makes it interesting and fun to try new options. Just the VIR option creates a ton of sonic variety. This was totally worth the wait and breathes new life into a platform I had little interest in using.

The chat over at Gearslutz is on fire. Peter is there but but not sure if they know what's going on.

I have the same question, ZT. Bigger question is why the system says it doesn't recognize my serial number. WTF. Going back to bed.

Won't authorize. Bummer. Got AT5SE AND AT5 in my account, which was unexpected, but I can 't authorize either of them in the Product Manager.

Woohoo! WIFI, don't fail me now.

INSTALLING.