So I played with AT5 today and I am loving it!
If you take out the calculator, AT5 Max definitely makes more sense. But then because I wasn't able to purchase from IK Store and JRR website had that written as AT5 Max Crossgrade instead of Upgrade, I couldn't help but think what if something goes wrong and IK is like you got the Crossgrade and not Upgrade.
Since I am a student and earning from working Independently, I took the safer option and went with AT5 Upgrade from JRR.
Also I had this feeling that alright, if you're spending might as well get Max, but then there was gonna be a lot of gear that I'd probably never use.
Like you said Zo, sometimes the lack of excessive variety is better and I am loving what's in AT5.
Love the German 34, VHandcraft 4, Metal Lead V/W, MH-500, American Lead MK3, Red Pig, Miniplex, Brit Valve Pre, Brit Blue Tube 30TB.
Got some nice tones straight without even tweaking the Cab section, can't wait to fine tune my own presets now.
I think I've got a nice playground now and got my favorites for the tone I want to get the job done and not endlessly dragging and dropping.
Coupled with the Fender and Ampeg collections that I already have, there's only little stuff I am missing from Max.
In the future as I get good with AT, DAW and Guitar playing, I'll get max or ENGL, Soldano or Mesa collections but AT5 is still really amazing!
About AT5, there are a few bugs/crashes I experienced and also some gear missing the Green Check Mark in the CS.
But it'll get sorted in the next patch.
Overall, I am really loving this software for what it does/what it costs. (Neural etc are too expensive for me).
I feel really confident that I have one ecosystem for my Guitar tones and don't have to fiddle with 10 different things.
Feeling positive about Cakewalk + AT5 as permanent members in my pipeline and learning some skills to create some nice music now.