Brian Walton

I don't use real distortion all that often, but I also didn't understand the hype around it - everything I used it on sounded worse. For people that really use heavy distortion in the box maybe it works for that kind of harsh digital distortion thing which I'm not interested in. I use distorted guitars of course but I'm not adding ITB plugins to make it happen.

Yep, I've owned a number of originals (and still have a few boutique versions - which I like better - such as options to remove the tone stack which makes them much more open sounding). And the plugins I've tried lack the harmonic complexity of the real deal. TONEX is at least very close to the tonal range.

Yeah, I have lots of their stuff and like the authorization system. I ran a demo before and it didn't match my real world captures I did with TONEX (which I can use in a pedal as well as ITB), so easy pass at $20 for me.

Yep, with multiple variants of the circuit style. Honestly can't image it is better than some of my TONEX grabs of a Triangle and RAMS head variants. Though you do have to grab on Advanced settings to get the grain structure accurate. Haven't compared but Nembrini also makes a free one: https://www.nembriniaudio.com/collections/free/products/big-stuff-harmonic-distortion-sustain I can't imagine paying $19 for an in the box emulation of a fuzz pedal that can't be used as an actual pedal, but that is just me.

I love the "flat theme" idea, but I do think the color options available need work. Hopefully we see more updates on this front or the ability to modify. My theme in CbB is a whole lot easier on my eyes (which is a flat theme also) then these color scheme in the new Sonar box. The base of the Light Grey theme is fine, but the bright orange for text and buttons, etc plus almost matching gray faders just isn't ideal.

I thought I was done with impulse purchases...until I used this yesterday.

I've been using the apps weekly for 7 years now. Hard to believe V2 came out in Nov 2022. I bought it early on hoping to see some big updates. Honestly not sure anything updated since v1 has been important to me (other than I've used the B&W LUT pack a number of times - but since I plan to continue to use it figure they need some development money. I do have some concern they haven't done any real AI dev work. The reality is something like AI select tools can be a huge productivity booster that has nothing to do with "artistic" control.

Win7 was only decommed 3 years ago (and 2 months).

There is no deal here, so why the 1 year thread bump? (and yes, I already own v7)

Ironically I just purchased the new Three-Body Technology Cenozoix Compressor as it was the only plugin released in almost a year that caught my attention as a valuable addition. (granted I didn't pay close to retail thanks to a forever 29 I'd been sitting on something worthwhile to use for)

It is a mystery as it is clearly working for some companies. (per my Drum Core 4 example above, unfortunately some plugins with ilok don't have a full blown offline installer one can backup)

I've been working in the DAW world for a couple decades now, and as someone who didn't adopt WAVES early on, honestly I don't ever remember my tools being stuck to one authorization. The only ones I've had that do this are somewhat recent (Exponential audio- which is also ilok). And honestly when I started, one authorization at a time wouldn't have been a total deal breaker, as most people didn't own multiple machines.

I'll add that I have Drum Core 4, not a cheap VSTi by any stretch. Got the ilok authorizations but there is no longer any way to install it, so it becomes worthless once you upgrade a computer.

I have a couple iloks, but there are plenty of reasons why I sympathize with the haters. Honestly the only system I like is the one that treats the user as a law abiding citizen and doesn't have some sort of authorization method. But 100% off line with license files and no limited authorizations is also acceptable. Ilok doesn't meet those specifications. I'm sure you have heard the anti ilok rants, you either get it or you don't. It is helpful for reinstalls compared to other similar limited authorization methods.

We also are in a post pandemic world where we all bought far more than we needed and the companies were overvalued because of it. And when you sell to PE, they want more profit and growth and anyone actually in the industry should have known the down hill decline was coming.

They will certainly try to upsell us on something that costs more than $10, like the bundle. If you are not in the ecosystem yet, even a $10-15 isn't a no brainer for everyone as it is iLok based and they use a ecosystem installer. Compressors are a dime a dozen. And while this one might be pretty good, I won't pretend like it is a $150 value. Even at $10 I would have passed. At free I'll at least grab it.

The install size for the version is that large but I think we need to be clear that the Installer itself that you download - is not the entire installer: Thus to the point - NO, they do not give us a full off-line installer type of situation, but they do give you a program to run that then goes out to the internet to install from a server that may or may not exist in 10 years. (just like the authorization server might not either)

Well the installers in the humble bundle are the kind that are small and then go grab the actually install info from servers from what I recall. I haven't run into issues yet with them (started buying ~2019) but who knows if they will eventually break the process even with your "off-line" installer that isn't really off-line. I personally would not be at all worried about a future build (assuming you do it in a year or so), but if you are thinking 10 years down the road, might be a pause for thought.

U-He even on sale isn't exactly in this inexpensive category. I've never bought anything from D16 but have a couple of them, while I'm not a used plugin shopper - this one is new to me that there is actually a market for them.

I can't think of any plugin that actually has resale value that is affordable. All the usual suspects have transfer fees, or big enough sales that someone else isn't going to pay real money for them. Anything in this price range is basically a sunk cost, in my experience. I'm avoiding because I certainly don't need another plugin.

Yes, but you need the latest version of Tonex installed. search for "JS" Then right click on his picture:

You might be aware but grab these on ToneNet for free to see if the character works for you:

Have both the DI Carr pack and the "cab baked in" one for the core tones. It is one of the only amps where the clean, mid, and higher gain feel like they are on equal footing. Other amps might be better at one particular area, but quite rare to find an amp that does all 3 as well.

Yes, depends on the amp type and style you are looking for. Amalgam Audio is consistently excellent. Not many others are going to offer one of the grail Marshall JTM50s for example, and they are the only place so far that has a Komet, and the Bartel Roseland is quite responsive. Has some different Two-Rocks, Marshall standards with the SuperBass and SuperLead. The real key is he gets good amps and really knows how to make a high quality capture and I swear he is getting even better at it. Matt Fig has the best Gilmour clean HiWatt platform I've heard ToneJunkie - get on the mailing list ot get the Free vintage AC30 and 65 Deluxe Reverb for free, and then if you time his sales right - it is cheapest place to pickup packs (the Bad Cat 30R, Marshal Astra are my two faves there, but they also have the only commercially available Trainwreck option - though it isn't a Ken Fischer one, and honestly isn't in the same playing field as others I've tried) Jason Sadites makes good captures (his Two-Rock capture is a nice platform as an example) The Studio Rats - I like some of the captures though I wish they offered more "without pedals" in the packs and I like to get the full range of the amp. The Chandler GAC19T is a bit unique - but also one I really wish they dialed in a bunch of AMP only tones instead of adding some "cheap" pedals to the chain. Choptones makes some good captures but I'm not really a fan of how they are organized and they tend not to do the full range of one amp. Worship Tutorials - sometimes the packs are smaller (and darker sounding) than one might expect, but with EQ some can be rather good and surprising. I'm not usually a Bogner fan, but the Goldfinger Superlead is pretty cool. (Gab the AC30 which is free). They run periodic 30% or even 50% off sales, so I wait for that. Some of the packs only have 4 captures in there. Going direct to these retailers frequently has more packs than though the market place. My method is #1 - see if Amalgam has a capture of an amp I want, #2 Look at others to fill in gaps All of these have free tone models (many times from the bigger pack) on ToneNet, so I suggest downloading those - see which ones work for your style and then buy the larger pack that give you a better range of that amp.

While I have been known to also criticize some IKM practices (they listened and no longer have the added DL later charges). $299 for this pedal and software package is 100% worth it no matter how you want to look at it. The thing is also made in Italy unlike what seems like every other digital pedal. If you could use JamPoints that would put the pedal at $210 ish and that is well under what they sell for used.