Brian Walton

I wouldn't download the Drums unless you have MDrummer. Don't think enough of the presets in SoundFactory use them to make it worthwhile Would install PowerStrings though.

Meldway Grand is no brainer at $10 if you have the drive space, but honestly I'd pay the extra and get LE when on sale which will give you all the instruments.

I've used MLImiterX becase it is CPU efficient, and the clean/punchy can be nice for a quick and easy effect. I wouldn't say it is better than some of the other high end options sonically but I do grab it sometimes. Own but havent' used the other one, as Ultra Maximizing isn't my thing. I want dynamics.

Update, tried it an uninstalled. Had some quirks on my machine that made me pass. If I didn't have some great alternatives it might have stuck around.

Reduced quote to not fill up the forum. But I've criticized some IKM practices, but I was also a Day one adopter of TONEX before everyone came out of the woodwork when the first pedal hit the market (which I ordered immediately). Once I made my own captures, I said it was the best thing on the market. Period. When I captured arguably the best sounding and most responsive amp ever made, I also see the limitations of TONEX. That said, it brought the dream come true experience of getting close to that sound and feel at any volume which other methods never got to. It is close enough to be very happy about especially with the in the box and hardware options to use it. All the amps in MAX, there are some gem captures. But they don't have a single amp on there where I feel they have captured the range of the amp so you can use it in a meaningful "clean, dirty, lead" type of way. Not a single amp do I think they did a great job of this. Way too many eq changes, different mics and cabs used across the same amp with no consistency. I agree that all the major 3rd parties also have some duds in what they released. Recording an amp really well is not easy and the time it takes to profile on an advanced setting compounds the issue. I think it is unfortunate that the MAX tier doesn't include the "better captures" such as the Dumble Legends, MESA, etc that were obviously not done by the internal IKM team. The 53 Bassman is one of the better ones in the MAX collection and they didn't even release it at the beginning despite it being in the showcase videos. They also only have limited captures of it. If you like vintage fender stuff - also check out Amp Gems. I dig their 67 Blackface Super Reverb more than the IKM or Amalgam Captures - https://ampgems.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=60&product_id=56 They only do DI stuff, and have pretty good IRs of the amp that helps make it sound / feel like the real thing. There are also a couple free on ToneNet to try out. Speaking of ToneNet. While I agree that wading through it is annoying - the fact remains (and part of the criticism of the IKM captures) comes from the fact that there are some amp captures on TN that are quite literally better than what IKM, the inventors of the tech came up with.

I didn't see if it if was. Perhaps you were thinking about Shape it by Soundly. Another solid free eq that had some posts here.

While I've got some really powerful EQs, might just have to try this one. I like having the "note" of the frequently so prominent and in an uncluttered way in the UI. Many others the text is really small hidden away having to look somewhere else on the screen.

You get unlimited downloads with the SE package too, not just MAX.

Well I'm not 100% sure that was even for modeling. But yes, under some menus there is some sort of confusing capture tech in a number of melda plugins, but honestly I do have the impression that it is designed to capture everything yet. TONEX capture tech is certainly beyond just an eq curve, etc. There are only a few IKM captures I really like (some of which are Paid like the Dumble Legends stuff). I could easily go with only SE - but would also be buying 3 party packs. Out of 150 presets I've loaded on the pedal, I think 3-4 of them were part of the IKM included packs. The rest are either paid or my own captures. I started with SE, but only went up to MAX because it came with the two TONEX "big" pedals I bought. Also got the ToneX One. Honestly my suggested entry point would be buy the Tonex One on discount as that gives you both the SE software as well as a physical pedal.

My point above is about all other amp sims are now no longer used because I have TONEX. I also have Melda Complete. I messed around with the experimental capture thing and couldn't get anything worthwhile out of it (yet). That said - it is going to take quite a bit for it to compete with TONEX due to the hardware/software integration. The only value of a Melda offering is the added effects in the same UI that are very deep. I do hope they come up with something that captures both accurately and efficiently. TONEX has some challenges with the amount of processing power it takes to grab advanced captures. A high spec GPU equipped machine can still take around an hour for a single capture unless you have a super expensive recent machine.

My personal opinion: TONEX is literally their only must have product. Everything else they make there is at least a good alternative to. Yes, I own virtually all of it - other than a few things they released in the last year (like another reverb, another tape emu, etc). Not that they don't make other good things, but TONEX is the only product they offer that is significantly better than the alternatives. Granted, I also think you have to buy a bunch of 3rd party packs or capture your own favorite gear to get the real value out of it.

If I was in the marketing dept at a company like Melda, I'd certainly have a field day pointing out once again - free updates and support for life as well as the list of actual updates that provide value to the end user.

I think that was also the intent of the other thread. As it is favorite VSTs not just VSTs that happen to be free and may or may not be worth your time

Sometimes you may want want the "center" to be at different frequencies for different sources. Yes, if you want everything above 100Hz to be panned, Mongoose on the master is fine. If you want control over the cross over on different things, then pan knob adds value. It can also change the pan law for each source where on the master you would be stuck with one way. For me the value is being able to have cross over at 100hz for one thing, and then another at 600Hz, etc