Soundwise

11 hours ago, TheSteven said:

Slightly confused by the various feedback.
So what's the bottom line on this amp sim?
Is it, that if you have ToneX not to bother adding it to your collection?

<sigh> Yeah I could demo it & I will try to do that this weekend, but still value the opinion of the other guitar geeks who haunt this forum.

I used to have Laney IRT-Studio. To me this ampsim is a perfect replacement for the actual hardware. I'm not in a rush, though, gonna wait for a discounted price and then get it.

FWIW, the quick and dirty example above was made with 3rd party IRs - Jensen C8R. I used to have two 8" cabinets with these speakers installed. Feeling a bit nostalgic about the gear I had to leave behind. But you certainly can get awesome tones with built-in cabs.

35 minutes ago, ptheisen said:

Softube Tape, which is the only 3rd party plugin supporting the Studio One Mix FX, was(is?) on sale by itself and in a bundle for a good price, and that was also tempting.

It still is, but I get your point.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/81-Bundles/39-Effects-Bundles/11776-Softube-Mix-Foundations-Bundle-Exclusive-

Stop working on something - that's what any true strike is all about.

26 minutes ago, ptheisen said:

I am happy for you!

Bummer for me. I've been watching closely for it to go on sale. When I saw this, I was at first pretty excited, now I'm rather disappointed. Oh well.

If it doesn't have to be this set of consoles and you are open to other options, maybe one of the console emulations from this package is good enough? And it's also cheaper. 😄

https://shop.presonus.com/Retro-Mix-Legends

A few Jensen IRs by Zoom, freely available

https://zoomcorp.com/en/us/multi-effects/guitar-effects/g6/g6-support/

I think, it's awesome.

Dang! I miss my Laney IRT-Studio so much, I might get this. Let's see if Aurora has done a better job for Laney than Softube for Marshall.

4 hours ago, Grem said:

With TH-U it shows in the Banks section which 'collection' you have. Select that and it shows what presets/captures it has. From what I have been able to gather and understand, it's like having the amp sims and the ability to play captures all in one. Similar to Amplitube. 

Sweet! 😄

I'm also done buying profile bundles. Normally, there's only a handful of usable tones, and it's hard to remember which ones to look for when needed. Presets don't help much either for the same reason - there's too many of them. Modelling is so good these days, that it hardly makes any sense to use profiles on desktops. IMO, of course.

4 hours ago, Anxiousmofo said:

But these  freebies are crap! So why strategize?

Thanks for confirming that. I thought it's just me. 😄

On the other hand it means that the generation gap just got bigger. While Xers and Boomers tend to cling on to more traditional, analog-ish stuff, Millennials and Gen Zers are brave enough to explore new ways to process audio. Things that don't work for me, for you or other similar minded folks might work miracles for others.

I thought we were discussing sleeper plugins that are actually worth paying for, especially if you want to get one (or more) of the freebies.

17 minutes ago, MrFigg said:

I really like Audiority stuff. Especially their  Echorec and their Electric Mistress. Was disappointed with the Bluesbreaker pedal in this bundle though. 

That's why it's a good idea to demo stuff first. 😊

FWIW, Marshall Bluesbreaker pedal is the secret sauce in John Mayer's signal chain. Last time I checked, there were not many plugin emulations of this pedal or the entire series, recently re-issued by Marshall.

For those of you who are considering PB freebies, I highly recommend pedals from this bundle (also available individually). These are high quality Marshall pedal emulations.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/81-Bundles/39-Effects-Bundles/7810-The-British-Tanks-Collection

They also stack exceptionally well, which is not always true for real pedals and nearly non-existent in the digital realm.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/articles/1956-Claim-your-FREE-copy-of-Harmonic-Motion-Harmonic-Lite-or-Choric-Quartet

IK Multimedia make excellent software products. They don't force any of us to buy what they have to offer, they constantly run promotions with insane discounts, they give users/buyers JamPoints for further discounts, which can be used towards hardware products. Sometimes they also offer free shipping. And last, but not least - they constantly work on creating new great products and improving the existing ones. Their business model might not please everyone, but as long as it works for them and enables them to deliver goodies - I'm going to support them with my money. 

1 hour ago, Sander Verstraten said:

Is it worth the upgrade from V1? 

 

It's hard to say. Should you try processing any UJAM Guitar instrument with your normal guitar plugins or, God forbid, with your outboard guitar gear, you might find yourself hard pressed to think it bears any resemblance with normal real guitar or a good guitar library. Having said that, I must admit that Sparkle outperforms new NI guitar libraries (Session Guitarist series) in terms of consistency. Don't take my word for it, here's an example of Sparkle 2 VS NI Session Guitarist. The latter sounds like each chord is recorded with a different instrument.

TL;DR

It is worth $19 if you do a lot guitar mockups.

8 hours ago, fpoir said:

Can anyone offer an opinion on this? It looks like a great price, and the ratings at Plugin Boutique are stellar. Thanks.

UAD plugin manager can start updating right in the middle of your session. Also, UAD native plugins occasionally loose connection to iLok Cloud Session, making you go through a bunch of unnecessary hoops to simply open your project. I don't think they do something special that other plugins are not capable of. Yes, the processing results are great, the tone is pleasing, but I'd describe it as marginally better than that of competing products, if at all.  Demo them first.

There is a free ToneX pack with 66 AC30 and 65 Deluxe Reverb captures:

https://tonejunkiestore.com/tone-x-free-pack-sign-up

The only Softube plugin I'm not ready to give up is Celestion Speaker Shaper (granted, room is turned off). Just for the sake of convenience. All other plugins by this company that I own or have tried don't come close to competing products in terms of ... well, every aspect, from tone (aka processing results) to CPU optimization (AS IF!).

Might be useful to watch this video before you buy the plugin.

3 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

While Revalver 5 has a free license, you have to use a physical USB dongle to activate it.

It can be activated to built-in devices. Mine is tied to built-in webcam, and I've been offered to use built-in audio as well. Besides that, now users can easily loose one device and use another.

I don't need another Silk, but Antares Choir freebie looks interesting. Any first hand experience with it? Anyone?

I tried the new version and was shocked by the difference between the older RV4 models vs the newer Headrush ones. The older stuff is so full and detailed in every aspect, I can't believe I'm playing my guitar using virtual gear. The newer amps, however, feel very generic, OKAY at best. Definitely, not what I expected from the product with this kind of pedigree.

2 hours ago, Greg said:

Also no VST3. Hmmm. 

During installation process, I noticed VST3 and AAX versions being installed.