Brian Walton

My favorite IR so far is actually a custom blend that I made using different IRs, putting them in Melda's Convolution plugin, mixing and EQ to taste then exporting that IR. I would post it here, but I think at least one part of the "mix" IR was from a paid pack (will have to double check) I think one IR was from a Martin D28 https://www.acousticir.ovh/rubrique3.html Maybe this free one? Then combined with mixed and edited with an IR from this pack https://worshiptutorials.com/product/tlr-816-acoustic-ir-pack/ Not sure your practical experience with art of matching Acoustic IRs, but my suggestion is to look for an IR made with the same pickup system you have in your guitar as #1. Then #2 is a guitar similar to yours (from maker, shape, wood, etc) and lastly experiment with what you find as the starting point, then explore further. My Taylor has the old Fishman Maxtrix system in it. There are actually some Fishman Aura 814 IRs around (I also have an outboard Fishman Aura - but find I can get even better tone with the right IR). I'm not sure where I got them, but I think they were likely created using the Aura unit itself as they sound very similar to my actual physical unit using the same models. I've never loved the tone of the 814 guitar itself, but the playability is fantastic. The mix of the Martin D28 gives a warmer roundness to the tone, and then the 816 gives some of that Taylor clarity and cut. I do not think the 816 was captured with my same pickup system which is a shame. I would suggest grabbing the WT free pack to see pickup models they use work with your particular guitar: https://worshiptutorials.com/product/acoustic-ir-sample-pack/ Also explore free IRs here: https://www.acousticir.ovh/rubrique3.html 3 Sigma also has some good offerings though I wish they had a free sample to let people get a feel if their "universal pickup support" actually works for you: https://www.3sigmaaudio.com/acoustic-impulses/ I've also tried creating my own IRs using the pickup, guitar and melda plugins but haven't created one that I like on its own yet (always end up mixing it in with another IR - and using that mix to output a new IR.

Wouldn't say I've fully put it through the paces yet (I'm not like the youtubers that spend a hour with something and then create a video on it as though they are an expert), but will share a few of my initial thoughts. Obviously the source matters (the capture, ones guitar, etc so I expect a wide range of experiences using this cab) With the the right capture, I felt I could get really good clean tones both at bedroom and gig volume. As is always the case, really low bedroom volumes you won't feel the dynamics and tone the same way - but if you turn up the volume a bit - the things you hope for and expect are there. Comparing this side by side with a high end tube amp and grail speakers/cab with low/mid gain harmonic content going on. This is where a really high end tube amp is going to be quite a bit richer and more 3D sounding. Part of that has to do with the fact Tonex captures are going through a mic (either in the capture or the IR used), a recorded tone really dumbs down what your ears hear in the room with a wonderful tube amp and effectively that what we get with a TONEX + CAB rig is like that recorded tone. This isn't to say it can't sound quite good - it simply isn't going to sound like the best tube amps on the world playing through the best cab in the world when it comes to glorious harmonic content swirling around the speakers and in the room. I'm also comparing this to arguably the best amp ever made and captures I've done of that same amp. Someone with a normal tube amp is more inclined to say the two are favorable to each other. IR loader means you can use acoustic IRs and amplify your Acoustic. This setup is actually some of the best I've ever gotten my Taylor 814ce (fishman , not ES equipped) guitar to sound direct without a mic. This of course also is very dependent on having the right IR, guitar and pickup system match. The Mic - Live knob really helps push a mic captured IR to be more focused and punchy (in a good way) that tends to get lost in a PA rig. I put a feedback buster in the sound hole and turned it up go solid gig volume and liked what I was getting. Drastically better than the old piezo to PA days, this sounded like a miced guitar (but only using a Piezo and IR) One of my primary uses for this thing, which I've always struggled with, is using an amp for a "live looping" rig. Either electric or acoustic. I put an S-Drum, Jamman, TONEX with various captures in front of it. Putting an S-Drum through an actual guitar amp sounds terrible. of course I can hear the fidelity limitations of the JamMan but this is a solid rig for doing a small gig or just jam and practice at home. I'll eventually setup my real looping rig (using Melda's MLooper with high end fidelity and drum VSTs on top) but this gave me an idea of what an actual portable rig would do, and it met my expectations overall. As an electric guitar rig with TONEX out front without all the other tone sucking pedals it is certainly usable, as it should be given the $800 street price plus $400 TONEX. I think ones perception of it will how close they are hoping it replicates the amp/rig they captured. If someone is a clean player, honeslty I think this is an amazing rig given the size, weight, and over all sound quality. For higher gain stuff, it does allow much more freedom than an non master volume amp does (and all the truly best amps are non-MV due to the fact a MV creates compromises in a circuit. The Mic-Live control does make the whole FRFR capture based rig sound far more like an actual amp - even if it can never fully overcome the harmonics/mic capture limitations I mentioned before. I do wonder what would happen if we get some IRs in the future that can remove the mic coloration and represent what an in the room speaker sounds like and behaves....maybe that plus a direct capture gets us closer to the true live amp representation. The "high end" sound. This is going to depend on the capture, but some amps that can be painful in person with the top end when cranked - I'm pleased to report that with the right capture and IR - you can get a pleasing top end. It is loud enough that you can get ringing in your ears even with those pleasant tones. Noise level seems very low as long as you are giving it a good signal to noise ratio on the input. Because of my combination of needs - Electric guitar amp, Acoustic Guitar Amp, Live Looping - I have yet to play an amp that does all 3 as well as this unit does in a singular portable package. I do find it annoying that they didn't include headphone jack on it, so if you want to run your entire rig through it like I'm doing for live looping, you have to send that DI style output to an interface/mixer when then has headphones. A built in headphone out could have been an easy and not too costly addition. The construction seems adequate. It does not feel like a high end boutique amp build. (everything from the knobs, pots, switch, handle, cab materials and construction. I hope it lasts for decades like I expect an amp to. For people that need to switch amps + speaker types (i.e Fender clean to Marshall crunch to Vox Chime) but only have one single amp/speaker, I've yet to come across anything that can do it better. Those who only want the Marshall sound through a pre-rolla 30 greenback sound - well you might be better off with a power amp and a dedicated cab loaded with a pre-rolla 30 green back and use a real amp (or maybe even a Tonex DI capture). Due to the Tweeter + Woofer setup in this amp - micing it would be a major pain - but the good news is that the DI output can really replace that need.

It was real but as noted above needs full kontakt so there is an investment to even make it work even if the price was $0.

Update, replacement amp arrived today and this one turns on. Won't be able to crank it past low bedroom volume until tomorrow but glad to report that it can get fairly quiet as most reviews kept focusing on how loud it was on "3." Appreciate the help getting this sorted and resolved quickly.

Yes, thank you.

Website to open a ticket seems busted too. I've been a massive proponent of TONEX (own multiple pedals as well as the software). But this was an unbelievable disappointment taking it out of the box and it won't even turn on after waiting well over a month after the initial pre-order was supposed to close.

The free version was just a teaser. The full version was something like $300 at one point and then kept going down in price. Enough modules to be powerful but always felt like a reskinned tracks with reduced control. Rather powerful though but could be CPU hungry depending on modules used.

TONEX with the Mesa Reference collection has a very spot on Enter Sandman patch/tone. (Other option is free TONEX and search Tonenet for something similar. With so many Mesa captures out there for free one has to be fairly close) That said, I'm not sure what vst to drive it with as a guitar player I haven't seen VSTs that seem to translate to what actual guitar playing sounds like. But a simple riff like enter sandman any advanced beginner can pull it off reasonably well with that one preset with Tonex. Lots of metal guitarists can't get anyone to want to hear them play. Honestly you could probably get someone to put down a simple track for you for free or close to it.

The plugins check for updates and display a notification automatically when you actually open and use them. Given some of these "recent" updates were 2 years ago........ (I really like Audiority stuff, though the CPU hit is pretty high for a few of them - they also have this magic analogness to them that I is impressive. (The Echorec one for example I wish it was in a pedal format with that sound and feature set, or even this Tube Modulator would make a good canidate. While there are better sounding vibes (real ones) it is the only one in the box I've thought gets pretty realistic and having a really good tremolo in the same package is unique as a real Vibe circiut is quite different from a trem circuit (thus they don't make it in a dual function pedal outside the digital realm.

They gave this away for free in Oct 2024 - so opportunity to grab it for those that didn't get it before.

I expect you are in for a wait. You missed the pre order price and seems unlikely they would drop to that again in the near term

I think Ringo was a very good drummer and certainly a fit for the Beatles music (though in many ways overshadowed by the talent of the rest of the band) But I don't think he was one of the top all time greats (pretty much any top 5 guitarists list is going to have Gilmour on there) he would be on a broader list of best drummers of all time. Gilmour (one of my personal favorites) wasn't the guitar player on a number of tracks (not just the wall). Animals some of the acoustic tracks as well as Snowy white doing a solo on the 8 track version of Pigs on the Wings. On the wall they hired a studio musician to do the classical guitar track "Is there Anybody Out There"

David Gilmour didn't even play all the guitar parts on the Pink Floyd albums (and unlike someone like Ringo, he is considered by many to be one of the best guitar players of all time). (And David even played some of the Bass parts instead of Roger)

Wes Montgomery was a monster player....but even he had some gigs where he was doing the "air guitar" to a pre-recorded track.

I had some issues with previous v3 but haven't put the new one though the paces yet. That said, this company has updated the product like no other VST maker (ok, maybe Melda can get some credit too), so I trust it will get stable enough if it isn't already. I had a few random freeze and crash on a stable, high power machine using 3rd party stable vsts in it with prior versions.

Anyone else get this? (edit, forgot the ml part at the end, looks like a machine learning report - but makes we wonder if the process needs to be modified in the installers to avoid this)

I was going to post the same. I grabbed it but many of my favorite artists and bands literally have nothing or very little. Bands like Phish and the Dead with insane output there is very little offered. Other bands like Paramore have nothing but I'm betting was pulled because of copyright request as they have some official ones on the market.

The Amalgam REX offers an Amalgam created Marshall pre rolls cab IR at no additional cost. But I also use some Tone Junkie AiIRs including similar Marshalls with PreRolla 30s if I want different mic and tonal options. I have others as well such as the ML sound lab Pre Rolla 30s packs and the 70s Giants pack that can work The Wreck is a Trainwreck NOS JM built one (so it is under licence by Trainwreck using Kennys notes and original era parts. I've played 5 Kenny era Wrecks (all 3 models) and for an Express capture I think it sounds and responds about as good as I'd expect for a digital simulation. This isn't like the Tone Junkie Express 60 which wasn't a core Kenny design. While this Amalgam one wasn't made by Kenny directly, it also isn't some random knock off or from the lower cost modern parts option. The Express is my least favorite Wreck model, but even so it is still special compared to other amps. (I will eventually hep release a Ken Fischer made Rocket pack, captures are done...so I have some experience with how they can sound and feel)

I don't think the police can do anything about Guitar Pro the app itself, but I'm sure that copying official tabs would get pulled. I wonder what this guitar lesson site had to pull from the database. A few tabs I opened certainly were not the My Songbook versions or official ones.

This new Space Blender thing is resizable! (now hoping we get a free update to the others that are not, it is a primary factor as to why I never seem to use them)

Amalgam has 5 for 3 and 10 for 5 bundles. 10 for 5 would be a a bit over $100, so getting 10 capture packs is a lot if you grab the "right" packs. But even 5 selects would cover a ton of ground - Trainwreck Express - ODS 100 (DI) - Marshall REX (DI) -Plus two others depending on taste / needs

If you have Tonex, $100 would be much better spent on some Amalgam Audio captures in my experience. The UAD plugins are ok, but not worth that given TONEX. Amalgam has real captures of these types of amps. Vintage tweed deluxe, ac30, multiple plexi (rex DI is my favorite, super lead, super bass), deluxe reverb, super reverb, etc and plenty of other options to make your own pack instead of being stuck with the UAD choices that are also just simulations. Of course YMMV but also having the option to have Tonex in a pedal format dwarfs the UAD usefulness. In fact, one of my Tonex one purchases wasn't for much more than that $100 price tag.

If you didn't redeem the kits then yes you should be able do. If you added the serial to your account you can see how many selections you have left. I had something similar and it let me select products released after the package was purchased like the vintage dead set.

Interesting they added Signature collections to TS5 (but looks like you need TS5 MAX to get the tier that includes it) (TS5 MAX on the right column)

The update manager updating is annoying but once I've set the install manager to only install VST3 and not the other stuff, I haven't had issues across multiple PCs with the Melda one. And as someone that owns complete, doing individual installs when an update comes out would be an hour+ of my time I couldn't get back each time per machine. So yes, it makes it much easier on us.