Brian Walton

I dropped Apple after my Apple IIc computer and haven't looked back. I don't base my computer purchasing decisions around some poorly coded plugin I got for free. ? Seriously though, I can't mentally or financially deal with a company that basically requires you to buy new software and hardware each time you want to upgrade your computer. I have really old Windows machines that are running the latest version of Win 10 and using hardware and drivers that haven't needed an update in over 8 years.

I'm not seeing anything. And the min system requirements on the website are surprisingly low based on the performance I'm seeing.

That was taken on an old Windows 10 dual core machine with 16 gigs for ram and a dedicated GPU machine. That said, in my vast collection of plugins, that is the highest number I've ever seen. PA Amek 9099 console runs at 3 percent with all the modules activated for perspective, and while that doesn't hold a candle to my AA or IKM stuff, that is a whole lot of audio manipulation tools in 3% compared to this 2 band EQ with a drive section running at about 40% I also ran it on a 5 year old i5 laptop with 16 gigs of ram and it was moving between 50-60% CPU usage. While I'm not using a really powerful machine here I'd tend to call it unacceptable for practical use in the context of a project. And we are talking about a single plugin in the chain (but with latency settings just low enough that I can run a live guitar.

high probability this one is getting banned from my current machine, even though it sounds quite good in a quick test.

Depends on the DAW you use. Cakewalk obviusly hasn't had a random generate a musical idea for you. And outside of plugins that do this, I don't think I've seen it in other DAWs either, but I also haven't kept up with the latest developments across all DAWs.

Very nice!

I tend to doubt it as they want you to keep buying plugins (thus the limit of 1 $30 plugin per month), and the $75 voucher best case is you are only spending $25 again since it has a $99 min spend on them. Also it is always an unknown when the $75 voucher runs out for each person. I've only gotten 2 of them over the course of buying PA plugins every single month for a couple years and they were not even in consecutive months so in theory they dropped me off that list, then put me back on it to presumably then drop off again. As you now have 85 plugins and are pretty well set, I'm curious when your $75 vouchers will dry up if you only buy about 1 $30 plugin per month under the new deal. I'd tend to hope with the new monthly plan they actually would lower the threshold to get to the $75 voucher as it is now suddenly less valuable and based on my spending it took an extrodinary spend to get it previoulsy.

This is certainly an interesting development as it now drops the value of even the top tier plugins on the secondary market to less than $20 (becuase the end user would have to still pay a $20 transfer fee). Should have held off another month to get the Amek Console apparently. But other than that, just about every PA purchase I've ever made has been $30 or less after vouchers.

I've been waiting for them to announce the fixes for the stuff that got broken in the March update related to PA. Console N having upside down meters suggests the dev team didn't really test stuff.

This is a pretty awesome concept and I was surprised with a couple clicks/attempts it output some decent nest egg ideas that I could see someone actually using. It would be great to have a local version of this that then integrates seamlessly with Cakewalk instead of the Web-based version and give it a focus on MIDI output, etc.

All you need is a $50 voucher! (sorry don't have one). Wish this one had auto gain compensation option, and perhaps better placement of the output knob which the user is going to constantly be tweaking. But it really is one of the best ITB saturators I've used. It genuinely imparts some tube-like sound and feel where a number of other alternatives fall a bit short.

Yeah, it isn't that you can't record audio in it. But that certainly isn't the same workflow as playing in the context of a mix without having to bounce from the DAW, etc. close the daw down, reopen GP, then export that audio and re open the daw again. Sure it can be done, but it is also a pain. While my card/drivers can run Cakewalk, Media Player, Youtube audio all at the same time. I find it does not play well if you try to run two "real" audio applications such as GP and Cakewalk at the same time. The 2nd one that opens effectively says the driver is in use. I know there are some routing applications but that isn't ideal for sure.

That tour makes it plainly obvious why they are never the low cost leader on any product they sell.

Thats right everyone, bash this thing upon release so it gets to the $15 tier in no time. ? Seriously though, glad to see PA add another Reverb to the line up, as the previous one certainly isn't up to the typical PA standards.

The $25 vouchers are the same number, so you can't use them twice. And loyalty vouchers don't stack, so you can't use the $25 and $50 in one transaction. Each one usually stacks with individual plugin discount codes though.

Indeed for a now raised to $120 retail, these HD2s feel like a toy. Would be nice if they made these little things more durable as it makes the intended use (such as a live or mobile rig) highly questionable. I got one for $80 during the group buy last year - so had added value on top of it for 24 freebies at the $99 software level. Can't imagine buying one at $120.

Is it resizable though? The BA plugins I have are not, and it is kinda annoying at this point for new releases.

If you are using it live (not needing the ability to record in the same computer) the benefits are basically: Lower Latency - you can certainly run more stuff at a lower latency setting without blowing up the CPU Stability - as long as you are watching the CPU it seems less prone to crash than a DAW is. Front end interface to create your own layout for the knobs that are important to adjust in an performance If you use a midi controller to switch things on/off, etc it might be better in GP depending on your workflow. New Gig Performer version offers a set of global always on set of plugins. This can be helpful if you are switching other things out in the rig but some always stay the same. Possible to do this kind of thing with busses in a DAW but depending on how much stuff you are turning on and off and switching between GP can be a more elegant solution. In my mind the main real setback is that you can save these elaborate rigs, but then can't use them as a VST plugin in the daw you want to record in. You have to either run 2 computers or get into more complex routing. This isn't a program I'd pay retail for personally, but with heavy discounts it beats the free options such as Element for interface and live use.

While that is where I prefer to stay they have a number of things worth more than that. Amek 9099 (lots of wasted $15 purchases once I got this - granted it took a lot of purchases to get a voucher big enough to make that a reality) SSLJ Blackbox HG-2MS Amek 200 And I could make the case for a number of others. It really is a wonderful thing that so many can be picked up for $15 or less with patience and timing though. And I find it a bit relative because of the rest of the market. Am I going to pay more than $15 form another developer for a similar tool? Not unless there is some real value there (unlimited authorizations, fully resizable UI, lower CPU usage, special feature set), as I've come to expect that most PA plugins are going to sound as good or better than most other makers with similar cost so that usually isn't a factor. (other than reverb and delay)

This might be the best ITB guitar tuner I've tried. That said, I think the .01 cent accurancy claim is overstated. I'm not sure how you get latency that low and the readout to display fast enough to get there. That is basically stating it is more accurate than the Turbo Tuner, which frankly seems impossible. It certainly isn't possible on my system at least as the readout from the time you hit a string isn't fast enough. It seems more like a theoretical number that doesn't factor in the latency required to make such a number possible.

From what I remember it is only periodically when they decide to for unknown reasons. I've never done it myself, but I've read that others requested a trial reset after a long period of time to try something out again with positive results.

Even with WUP year after year, that UI still looks like it was made for Windows 3.1.

I think most people think about ODS when they think Dumble and seems generally more popular (Ford, Mayer, Kimock, Santana, Carlton, Bonamassa, Urban) SRV owned a couple SSS and there are a few famous players that have them, but frequenlty don't see much about them and seem far more rare. The main characteristic is just a really high headroom clean tone. I've played through a few original ODS' I've only played through "SSS clones" as they are that hard to find.

Thanks. Now I'll have to decide if it is worth it. Seems like quite a bit of hassle from someone like myself that has a few machines and the long term implications of a company that may nor may not be around for the long haul. It is based on the Six String Singer Dumble amp which I don't think I've seen anyone else try in the VST space. The ODS (different amp) is what the FUCHS Overdrive Supreme is based on. the SSS is a much cleaner amp. The Ethos Overdrive (the clean channel is a bit of a SSS emulation -which the Overdrive chanel is more ODS). The legend came to be related to SRV's use of the SSS. (also note that on a machine where the PA Amp sims use 6-7% CPU usage, this Humble thing uses about 21%. (that is a couple percentage points higher than even AT5 is)