Brian Walton

As much as I don't like WAVES this is a unique plugin and getting it free a few times over the past couple years means enough installs to not deal with the usual WAVES cripple hammer. Good deal here.

Good article there overall, but also incorrect and lacking in a number of spots. (I do agree that the Z-wreck shares some in common with the Liverpool, but I mentioned the Rocket becuase frankly the LIverpool had a fair amount of variation from each one that was made - where the Rocket all were built with a pretty strict ethos in mind and there were only 5 of them - but the Z-wreck is a bit more pedal friendly like the Rocket and lower gain (where some liverpools can punch up the gain more than the Z-wreck design) As far as the AT5 Z-Wreck, coupled with the Z-wreck cab I have to say it is my favorite AT5 amp generally speaking. That said, I think the real Z-wreck is also basically one of the best amps IKM has modeled, so even if they didn't nail it the bar for tone and response were already higher than other amps in the stable. It can be setup to be fairly responsive and I think the recorded tone is suprisingly good and a whole lot less fuss than trying to record the real thing. It was THE amp in the AT lineup that made me re-evaluate the idea of plugin based amp simulation. Out of that journey also landed on the Brainworx offerings (UAD and PA - same thing) which offer something special "in the box" as well. But as for within the AT echosystem, I'm of the opinion the Z-wreck is one of the must have amp/cab combos and while I appreciate that it is only at the MAX level (hey it is a premium amp) or ala cart, I tend to wonder how many people miss out on this gem of an amp becuase the masses don't really even know much about it, so it might not be an amp most people would seek out like a JTM45, Bassman, Twin Reverb, Plexi, etc... I know I ran the demo for about 2 minutes before figuring out how to order it through the custom shop (again the matching cab is essential, IMO for getting the right sound out of it)

Z-Wreck is quite a bit different than the Train II Train II is based on an Express model and the Z-Wreck was a design Kenny helped Dr Z with, but is a much lower gain (closer to a Rocket style amp---though certainly NOT a Rocket as someone who has access to a real one)

I'd say it depends on the "intstrument" with the newish UI. Many of the instruments are straightforward and fully-scalable. Honestly I'm having trouble thinking of any actual competetor to this product that is both a sample based player and synth that has a great UI with anywhere close to this kind of featureset in it. I do agree the UI and search function/layout of how to select the instruments could be improved. Haven't done any CPU benchmark tests but I've found other Melda production products to be among the most efficient on the market. Synths and Samplers by nature can tend to tax systems depending on what it is doing. This one also has a more robust effect featureset than anything I could possibly think of. Even the LE verion has effects possibilites other synths/samplers wouldn't even dare touch. The free version is annoying becuase it looks like it has a bunch of stuff but that is all locked until you buy it outside of like one piano and a synth.

There is an option to revert to the standard GUI, so it is the best of both worlds with this update. I bought Msoundfactory LE in the hopes of the eventual expeansion into more non-synth style products such as the excellent free piano. Why the "hate" from your current perspective?

I haven't played a Blackstar amp in likley 15-20 years. So I'm judgeing it mostly on its own merits. The high gain channel is crazy high gain to absurd range, unusable for pretty much anything but metal or similar. Like a swarm of bees. Low gain side has a more usable range but cranking the master introduces unplesant artifcat-like sounds, so keeping that in check and setting the gain and eq right, there is some usable stuff in there. The tone is about what I'd expect outside of the absurd gain on tap, but in terms of feel, dynamics and response, I'd say it isn't up to par with some of the better paid in the box amps out there. If I didn't have an arsenal of paid options, I'd be very grateful to have this for free.

Agree, I don't know exactly how they are counting things but the day counter page seems to change in the morning EST. Which would suggest we have less than a day left.

Are you sure? I haven't done it myself but I thought there were posts about people selling previous products and noting which group buy tier they qualify for. Maybe they purchased but never redeemed them but seems unlikely to me given the lists I saw on KVR.

Cosidering I owned over 15 products before the Group Buy, I think it is fair to assume you purchased quite a few before the event (or bought in at a very high level to get all the T-Racks stuff, All Amplitube packages, All the Sampletank Add-ons, etc. such that those individual products were included in the "Max" type of program. Amplitube alone is 13 different products unless you had Max. And I'd imagine T-Racks is more than double that if you don't buy "max"

Just a push/reminder to everyone that you can buy in multiple times. I did 3 times and even with that won't have everything they make. (and I owned a number of products before the Group Buy started)

The thing is with Scaler, it gives you the theory stuff, but you can also just select things. There are different ways to approach Scaler from a composition perspective, while theory details are present, you don't need to know any of that stuff to use it. You can start off with pre-made "song" style chord selections and change keys of them at the touch of a button as well as swap out chords you want to sound different. Scaler can provide logical choices or you can force it to break the mold, but you don't really need to know theory to do any of it. Scaler is also user friendly in the fact under a scale it will give you a sense of the "mood" of that scale (happy, sad, joyful, thoughtful, etc) you select the scale and it provides the chords of that scale for you, which you can further modify. To me that is the epitomoe of non-theory but gets to the heart of music, the feeling. Without using Chordjam, I'm not sure, but I know the randomness could have "problems' if it isn't following theory in the backend as happy accidents rarely occur outside the realm of fitting an accepted music theory formula of some kind. This is why I think Scaler 2 is so useful, it can feel random but the general selections can feel like happy accidents as you can get pleasing results. My suggestion is get Scaler and then look at Chordjam later if you think you need both. Scaler 2 is pretty intuitive once you watch a couple videos of how to select, bind keys, etc.

Scaler 2 is one of the best products on the market, you don't need to know theory to use it at all. Captain Chords you have to be connected to the internet to actually use it.....basically a treat customers like criminals approach...no thanks. Haven't used Chord Jam, but from what I've seen if it is an either or scenario, I'd go to Scaler 2 first.

Many of these are as low as it gets without a voucher. The sales that "get better" are only when they hand out vouchers on top. (though they do have some of the $40 and $70 tier plugins hit $30 sometimes) If they kept the loyality vouchers active til the end of the month like the initial email stated, this would be a solid sale to pick something up. As it stands, for the long timers, nothing really out of the ordinary here since we dont' have anything to stack with the sale prices.

We are at the next tier, about 1998 to go in less than 4 days.

Yep, that is what shows up in my products as of yesterday

I was in the same boat and the Deluxe Upgrade worked for me. Owned a few of the individual synths but not a paid Syntronik "platform" before.

White 2A does come with the $200 version of AT5 As does VEQ-1A If you bought that to get in the group buy you could also select the Amplitube version of leslie: I bought 200 gear credits for $160 then used that 200 points to get AT5 using all of them. I had JamPoints to use also which brought down the group buy in price at the $200 level to $112, YMMV.

I think there is one under the rack menu (not sure which product I purchased to get it, I have AT5, Orange, Metal, SVX 1+2, and Fender 2 (I also own Mixbox, and The T-Racks module which have white 2, but assume not related)

I signed up for 2 buys for the first time yesterday after intentionally waiting. So some are out there... Thinking about also doing a $200 tier by the end of the promo.

Note they have a $20 per plugin transfer fee on the buyer side, so they can be a tough sell for more than a few bucks for anything but the newest plugins that don't hit massive discounts.

You cannot transfer inactive licenses, or inactive licenses which require a fee to be paid. You cannot transfer subscription bundle licenses! If you have a license for a multiple versions of a plugin (for example, bx_digital V2 and bx_digital V3), then those licenses cannot be transferred separately. After the license has been created in your account, it is blocked for a license transfer for thirty days. (This affects license purchase, license transfer, etc.) FREE Licenses can’t ‌be sold, for example the ones you get when you open a PA account, like bx_cleansweepV2, bx_rockrack Player, bx_solo, bx_subfilter, elysia niveau filter, bx_freeranger, etc. Not sure about deals on the MEGA Subscription as I like to own plugins they sell and since the voucher can only be used in a single shot, there is stress around picking the right time and that likley means you are not realy gettign the best possible deal on owning them as that only happens when you play your cards right over time. ONly the latest PA plugins are "cost prohibitive" to buy where if you want them a Subscription makes sense, IMO.

Most assuredly, the question is who is going to bring up the fact the email when they were sent out said they are good till the end of September, not the 26th? They had quite the backlash last time, would have thought they would be more careful moving forward.

Only becuase it isn't resizable. It is actually one of the most basic/straight forward EQ layouts I can think of that offers a few extra features on it.

You can't load IRs direclty into it, but there are free IR loaders out there and there is a convienient bybass the built in IRs button.

True to my word, a very generious benefactor supplied a $25 voucher and I bought it without any demo whatsoever. I fired it up after the purchase and knew within 2 minutes it was money well spent. The clean channel doesn't stay clean for long but has a good range of chime and grit on tap in the low/mid gain range. Channel 2 provides excellent Plexi tone, I like the clarity and voicing better than say the BE100. The feedback (turned up) is nice for giving a more amp like no hold barred tone. But can be turned down to mellow things out. Crunch, Boost, and Bring add a fair deal of versitility when coubled with the other controls. I appreciate the Depth to allow various levels of "3Dness" when dealing with static IRs. The key to all of it is realism in both tone and response to playing. I'm placing it as standing among some of the better PA Amp sims and a fair amount of versatility too considering you don't expect that out of a "marshall" style amp. (though the clean channel is suposed to be in more the american vein though I'd say you woudl have to turn the input gain quite low to get the clean level of headroom I associate with "clean american" amps) . Primary critique would likley be the noise floor is a little on the high side. Of course you get this in a real recording scenario, but always makes me wonder if it isn't possible to get rid of more of it in the digital realm with these simulations.