40% off Bias FX 2, Bundles and more!

[Tezza]

What is it (guitar VST):

https://www.positivegrid.com/bias-fx/

Online store 40% off promotion:

https://www.positivegrid.com/promo/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0p6NrsDC6gIVhjUrCh0SdQkeEAAYASAAEgLHTfD_BwE

Strengths

Enormous library of faithful models of classic amps, effects, cabs, mics and guitars

Easy to dial in tones everywhere from clean to molten metal

Different editions to fit in every budget

Shortfalls

Heavier on CPU use, especially when multi-tracked

Decent review:

https://homestudiotoday.com/positive-grid-bias-fx-2-review/

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by Tezza

[John Bradley]

Sorry to sperg on your deal thread, but if I can save someone the other 60% of the price... ?

---

I spent around $500 over the years on Positive Grid things (BIAS FX, BIAS FX2, BIAS AMP,  BIAS PEDAL, the metal/bass/acoustic expansions, and god knows what else).  Was happy with it at the the time. Obviously; I kept throwing more and more money at them.

Felt they dropped the ball on BIAS FX2. Bought it on day 1, and a year later they'd addressed none of the problems with it. Got tired of the slow-as-molasses UI, the whole "this was designed for an iPad, yet you're charging premium prices for the PC version" thing, and the constant "we just introduced a new thing so you don't have it 'all' unless you buy it, and until you do the ToneCloud is going to taunt you with patches you can't use" money-grabbling.

Blue Cat Audio's Axiom crushes it in every way that matters, at least to my mind. It's fast, designed for people with lots of screen real-estate that want to see all the controls simultaneously, and powerful. (You can insert arbitrary VSTs -- including another instance of itself! -- anywhere you'd like in the signal chain.)  

[Tezza]

That's ok, all opinions welcome. I have not used it, so don't know what it's like in real world use. The "heavy CPU use" turns me off a bit. Don't know if I will try the demo. Put it here to let others know. People have different requirements for what they want out of an amp sim. Some people like fiddling with the BIAS amp.

I use S-Gear now, almost exclusively and all for the opposite of the reasons you've stated above. I don't want complexity or large GUI's. Small GUI, with just amp controls and small box underneath for mic placement, cab etc. I can have 4 instances of it on the screen at once if I want and of course no crippled presets or internet connection nagging. Great sound, has a sheen to it that I don't find on others but it is not for heavy metal. There are others better at that. The amp controls respond in a nice way, as you would expect rather than making massive or ugly changes in tone or doing nothing.

It's great for my midi guitars as well. Fits into the mix with other instruments really well right out of the box. I can run it raw, with no reverb or effects and it sounds fine, easy to make midi note adjustments when you can hear it that way. Then I always know I am just a tweak away from getting it to sit right. Add effects later.

Edited July 10, 2020 by Tezza

[Marshall]

I appreciate some folk will like Bias FX2, and it is all so subjective. I agree with @John Bradley about the slowness and the constant taunts to buy more, but even more, having bought the Elite version last year I struggle to get tones I really like from it. I just don’t use it any more. Their marketing and the UI are second to none, and I am afraid I was seduced by it. 

[Piotr]

2 hours ago, John Bradley said:

Bought it on day 1, and a year later they'd addressed none of the problems with it.

I feel the same about their support... I bought AMP2... While their support is fast and helpful with very trivial things with anything more complicated and annoying they behave like ignoring customer... 

I wrote I have the same issue on my few comps with different OSes but he was keeping to push me reinstall and wasting my time just to mark progress of ticket... And finally he paused with responding for very long time to apologize me and then never answer again...

So after all such annoyance and time waste I stopped to believe in any help and in fact nearly stopped to use it... So many good amp sims around...  Only it's pity so much money wasted...

[Kal S]

I've only tried the Bias FX and Bias Amp LE versions and was very happy with the tones that both churned out. But as others have mentioned the GUI is very sluggish and I avoid using it for that very reason. Never upgraded to the full versions because of that. Maybe the version 2 is better. 

 

[RSMcGuitar]

3 hours ago, Marshall said:

I appreciate some folk will like Bias FX2, and it is all so subjective. I agree with @John Bradley about the slowness and the constant taunts to buy more, but even more, having bought the Elite version last year I struggle to get tones I really like from it. I just don’t use it any more. Their marketing and the UI are second to none, and I am afraid I was seduced by it. 

I feel the same way. Positive grid is 90% marketing. They basically ignore users after purchase. Wish I never bought in.

[ensconced]

I totally agree on one thing, the Company, as a Company is total shit. They don't seem to listen much (they do sometimes when it suits them) or care, and the software is certainly not without it's various issues. They should have ditched that Web Browser like GUI long ago, one of the PG Dudes even admitted it was a mistake way back in the Amp 1 years, but they never changed it and just kept charging on, although they did manage to speed it up somewhat (see next paragraph)

I own everything they got for PC starting back with Amp 1. I personally don't find the GUI slow as molasses, it use to be way back, but that was dealt with, yes there is moments of spinning circles when changing/adding things, but that's nothing compared to what it use to be I assure you ?

I have learned over the years how to get sounds out of any of them Amp1/2 FX1/2 that I am very happy with, and don't seem to suffer from some of the issues others report, why? no idea, but I'm not going to argue with that ?

Would I purchase AMP 3 or FX 3 or whatever the next product is?, if I am still above ground, most certainly, on release day. ?

I own, have owned pretty much everything Amp Sim wise in the Software domain (with the exception of Helix Native), lately, in the last 6 months or so  I have started to demo before I purchase, I use to just purchase straight out before even trying (it was a costly adventure). Pretty much all I use now is a mixture of the new Softube Marshalls (excellent), Softube Amp Room series, Kuassa stuff, Amplitube, BIAS Amp1/2, FX1/2 and some ReValver 4 ACT Amp Clones.

I gave away all my PA Amp Sims, Sold all the TH2/TH3/TH-U Stuff, gave away the Nembrini stuff I purchased for the cost of iLok transfer. I never use S-Gear 2, never liked it much, think it's hugely over rated, Kazrog Thermionik never gets used, there is a lot of stuff there I can't even recall because it never gets used.  I demo everything that gets released, but I haven't found anything that appeals to me or gets me a better sound than I already have for a long time (except the Softube Marshalls, Excellent) The last Neural DSP thing came close. but no cigar.

[Edit] I forgot, the thing that pisses me off the most is the installation time, and it goes for all there products, just to differing degrees, I can literally double click the install file, walk away and make a cup of tea, come back and it still hasn't finished, it can take up to 6 or 7 minutes to complete, some people report 15/ 20 minutes, this doesn't affect everyone it seems, but it affects many people. It only happens with PG products ?

Edited July 10, 2020 by ensconced

[antler]

14 hours ago, ensconced said:

I own everything they got for PC starting back with Amp 1.

Not directly guitar amp related, but any opinions on their Pro Series Compressor/EQ?

[Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann]

20 hours ago, ensconced said:

I own, have owned pretty much everything Amp Sim wise in the Software domain (with the exception of Helix Native), lately, in the last 6 months or so  I have started to demo before I purchase, I use to just purchase straight out before even trying (it was a costly adventure).

Sounds like quite an experience, with probably very interesting info for the rest of the community. Have you considered sharing it on YouTube? (or, if it's there already, can we have a link?)

[ensconced]

11 hours ago, antler said:

Not directly guitar amp related, but any opinions on their Pro Series Compressor/EQ?

 

They are all pretty good, they seem to be at home with guitars, some have a little extra tweakability, I think the Tube EQ, Tube Comp and optical Comp come with stuff like tweaking Tubes, capacitors, Transformer, Light source that give much more tone variation options. I wouldn't say they are better or worse than what you likely already have, but they do the job and they do it well.

They are not without issues, not to bad, could be DAW related I don't know, I only use Studio One since 2015, can't recall if it use to happen with SONAR Platinum or not, but from time to time switching to the Passive EQ (If you don't know Studio One, FX/Plugins on a given track are usually displayed in a tabbed window) well the Passive EQ can show up Blacked out, easy to fix, just open again from FX bin, a pain in the ***** none the less, it may happen with others, but far less frequently, Passive is the main offender.

If it is a problem with the plugins themselves it will never be fixed, as they haven't been touched for a long time and I doubt they ever will be again, apart from that and the slightly longer than usual loading times there is no other issues really.

Would I recommend them to anyone?, I'd tell them what I think and to be sure to demo them before purchasing, what I think could be completely opposite of what they will think. Personally if I had my time over knowing what I know now, I'd still purchase them again, even though PG have shown themselves to be a shit company time and time again, I can still get good things out of their products, and the issues aren't that bad that it becomes a deal breaker.

They are by no means my go to EQ's or Comps, but they do get used quite a bit especially on guitar tracks.

Edited July 12, 2020 by ensconced

[ensconced]

6 hours ago, Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann said:

Have you considered sharing it on YouTube?

No ?