Hello and welcome to this week's article! Today we're going to review an amp sim from Audio Assault that is currently free if you are member of the AA mailing list: the BlackSun!
The BlackSun is an emulation of a Blackstar head, probably an HT Club 50 (even if it's not explicitly stated), which is a 2 channel tube head with EL34 tubes. Among the other features, this plugin has a preset manager with several presets ranging from clean to hi gain, a "double track sim" which emulates recording 2 layers of the same riff, the "my amp" function which generates some slight hardware variation unique for every registered plugin, and it has a knob that is typical for Blackstar amps, (in the original amps is called ISF, in this plugin it's called Mode), which lets you choose between a "Marshall" and a "Mesa Boogie" voicing and all the gradients in between; a "Marshall" voicing will mean a tone with more pronounced upper mid range, slightly more nasal and twangy, while a "Mesa Boogie" one will be a with a stronger low-end and more scooped mids, that lets out more high end than upper mids.
As per the other recent Audio Assault amp sims, also this one features a very nice, resizable GUI, 3 stompboxes (Gate, Booster and Tube Screamer), an FX Rack in the loop with Graphic EQ, Delay, Reverb and Chorus, a Dual Cab Loader which lets you also move around the microphones with any ir (thanks to a system of eq and envelope filters I imagine), and many other features.
How does it sound? It sounds very well, in my opinion, especially with the "mode" knob in the "Marshall" side, because a problem that I have found in some Audio Assault amp sim is the fact that they are all very "American sounding", for modern metal, while this one can replicate very well a British tone that is also hi-gain, tight and defined, and that it has that nice clear upper midrange.
This makes Blacksun one of the most versatile Audio Assault amp simulators, because the original head itself is extremely versatile, it has a lot of gain and tonal possibilities and I think anyone should definitely try it, also because they just released a pack with '80s style presets which adds a lot of fun to this amp.
The Bulldog is the amp sim of a VHT Pitbull, a 3 channel hi-gain tube head famous for being very tight and aggressive (and also very expensive).
This virtual amp is quite a faithful representation of the original one and offers several solutions to make it a very flexible suite: a tuner, 3 stompboxes (gate, booster and a Tube Screamer emulation), a rack with 3 effects (a graphic eq, a delay and a reverb), a preset manager, the function "my amp" which modifies slightly the tone in a way that is unique for every purchase (like it happens with real amps, which usually never sounds exactly the same among them) and a handful of IRs made just for this amp. The fact that there are few IRs compared to other Audio Assault amp sims can be due to the fact the one I'm trying it's a beta version, but if it's not, I consider this a good thing anyway, since they clearly took time to pick the IRs that sounds the best with this amp rather than put hundreds of them and forcing the player to navigate for hours between them before finding one that suits the head.
Among the other features it's worth to mention the resizable UI and the double track emulation, which doubles the track you are recording in order to make it sound like there is a second layer, and it can be a good songwriting tool, to put down ideas faster and that already have that "wall of sound" feeling.
How does it sound?
This is clearly one of the best and most usable Audio Assault amps, they have improved constantly through time and in this specific one I must say (also thanks to a good choice of impulses) the low end is very present and in focus (which is something not very common in amp sims, realistic low mids that doesn't sound muddy) and the highs are very clear and defined, making this a very usable amp simulator.
This plugin is good not only for high-gain metal tones (in terms of pure metal sound Sigma is still superior), but also for clean and crunchy ones, which sound very warm and credible, and I can only suggest anyone interested to check it out.
Klunk is the simulation of a preamp pedal that looks very simlar to some of the Darkglass ones: it features 3 levels of eq (one with knobs and two graphic ones, one of which in the rack after the preamp), 2 types of distortion, 2 shaping flavors (vintage and modern), compressor, noise gate, tuner and a dual IR loader with many bass IRs by Seacow Cabs. One thing to notice about the ir loader is also the fact that you can move freely the virtual microphone on the speaker not only with the bundled irs but with any ir!
This simulator is the third one for bass, after Bassgrinder and Duality Bass Studio, and it's the first one to emulate a pedal preamp, and it's the most advanced of the 3, it has also a very nice resizable UI.
How does it sound? It's sounds quite good, as you can hear from the sample, but it sounds also very versatile, thanks to all the IRs and the eq capabilities, which makes this plugin very versatile in terms of tone shaping.
What would I improve in the future? Here's my suggestions to Audio Assault: I would ship the plugin (not only this but all of them, since it's a problem that I'm encountering often) with a leaflet in pdf that explains exactly what each knob and switch do, because without it we might be lacking or misunderstanding some function; I would also add some graphic representation of the compression (be it a vu meter with the needle, or with the '80s leds, or in any other form), because it would help when doing some fine tuning and would spare us the need of an external compressor.
All in all, when looking for a very quick metal tone I still prefer Bassgrinder, for its capability of separating the distorted part and the clean part and because it features a limiter, but if you're looking for versatility and tone shaping capabilities you can't go wrong with Klank!
Hello everyone and welcome to this week's article!
Today we're going to talk about another interesting plugin, this time free, the almighty Nembrini Audio Crunck v2!
Crunck v2 is the second version of Crunck, the first plugin designed by Igor Nembrini in the beginning of his career in DSP development more than ten years ago. It's a virtual amplifier with a very clean and simple layout, which features all the classic controls of a real amp (gain, master, presence and eq section), and which has a bypassable cabinet section with a V30 speaker impulse response.
This virtual amplifier, which is one of the few ones available also for Iphone and Ipad through the App Store (free as well), is quite versatile and provides a very warm tone, with a gain knob that allows to dial a huge amount of gain, and lets you achieve quite a wide range of tones.
How does it sound? I'd say it sounds quite well, but it's more geared towards the rock and hard rock tones than the metal ones, since it has a lot of energy in the low mids that is not easy to get rid of (in the sample I have used an overdrive in front), so if you are looking for a creamy bluesy tone, or a fusion lead tone, this it's probably the plugin for you.
Anyway since it's free I suggest everyone to go check it out in the Nembrini website, a website that offers also other free plugins, along with paid ones.
Thumbs up!
Specs:
- 3 bands EQ
- bypassable cabinet simulator with built-in IR
- Gain, Master and presence knob
- available in all plugin formats and as Apple store app
Today we're going to review the version 2.0 of another Audio Assault virtual amplifier: the Hellbeast v2!
The Hellbeast is probably the heaviest and most extreme virtual amp ever made by Audio Assault, and it's modeled on the Randall Satan amp, an amp now discontinued (but that due to some licensing change has later been produced by Fortin under the name Fortin Natas).
This amp has the particularity of having a master gain knob and 2 other gain knobs which lets you dial separately the gain in the lows and the highs, which is a great thing if you want a tight low end, because you can keep the gain lower in the lows (so the lows are clean and fast) and raise the gain more in the high end to make the sound more aggressive and modern.
On the other hand, if you prefer a more vintage type of distortion you can raise the gain in the lows, and you will have a tone more similar to an Orange amp, which will be good for stoner, doom, or '70s hard rock.
As in all the v2 amps from the producer, also Hellbeast has all the extra features that were lacking in the first version: a completely redesigned, resizable UI, 3 channels, stompbox, rack and cab sections completely redesigned with all new IRs made by Seacow Cabs, a preset manager and (exclusive to this one) a double tracking simulator, which basically takes your playing in real time and make it sound like it's 2 layers of guitars, which is good to create some wall of sound especially during songwriting, if you don't want to spend time double-tracking everything.
All in all this is yet another good simulator that got further improved, I can't say it's my favourite from Audio Assault, it's a bit too extreme for my taste, but it actually gives you some extra flexibility compared to the others, allows you to obtain tones to a level of fine-tuning that many other sims cannot produce, and the new features are absolutely worth the upgrade.
Thumbs up!
Specs:
- 3 channels
- 3 stompboxes: Gate, Boost and Drive
- Rack Fx: 9 band equalizer, Delay, Reverb
- Dual cab IR loader with dozens of Seacow Cabs IRs
The Rvxx is the Audio Assault take on the Revv G20, the 20w amp by Revv, a small but very angry tube head, and this new version has received the same treatment received by Sigma 2.0: they have added 3 stompboxes, 3 rack effects, a dual cab ir loader with many good impulses by Seacow Cabs and a preset manager with several presets.
On top of that, the interface has been completely redesigned and now it is fully resizable, making it very versatile.
How does it sound? Better than the original, because the stompboxes now are more, so you have more versatility, and the cab section has definitely seen an improvement. Compared to the Sigma 2.0, you can still tell that this unit has less watt, because it's a bit more upper-mid rangey and with less low end, but with the right impulse to counterbalance it, this characteristics are tamed, and you can enjoy the strong presence and bite without that thin and boxy vibe that sometimes comes with low wattage amps.
All in all this is a very usable amp simulator, oriented for metal, with a very good quality to price ratio, and I really suggest everyone to try it, it could make a good addition to your collection.
Thumbs up!
Specs:
- 2 channels
- 3 stompboxes: Gate, Boost and Drive
- Rack Fx: 9 band equalizer, Delay, Reverb
- Dual cab IR loader with dozens of Seacow Cabs IRs
Sigma is a plugin which is a bit special in the Audio Assault lineup, I think it started a new course in terms of interface, features and overall sound quality, and this version 2.0 adds a new interface, more channels (now they are 3), 2 more knobs (2 independent gain controls for low and high frequencies), a booster, more impulse responses by Seacow Cabs, a Delay and a Reverb.
The amp structure is basically the same, but these extra features allows you to fine tune your tone much more, adding a lot of versatility, especially in the low gain territories.
The new impulses are also quite usable, as you can hear from the sample (I have used the Sigma 4x12 one), and all in all I think it's a great upgrade which makes it, in its price range, one of the best virtual amps on the market.
Now Sigma comes also with an array of presets which have the function of showcasing the amp's versatility, although I would have preferred to have them called with a name that describes them, instead of a number.
My only suggestion is to add a tuner and to optimize a bit the stereo version: usually one puts the stereo version of a guitar plugin in the guitars stereo buss to save some cpu, but in the case of this plugin it's less cpu hungry if used in 2 mono instances, in the individual guitar tracks.
This is a really good plugin, especially for metal tones but also for clean ones, and I suggest everyone to download the demo version and try it out!
Thumbs up!
Specs:
- 3 channels: Clean, Crunch and Lead
- 3 stompboxes: Gate, Boost and Drive
- Rack Fx: 9 band equalizer, Delay, Reverb
- Dual cab IR loader with dozens of Seacow Cabs IRs
Today we're going to review a new amp simulator which emulates the most famous metal amplifier in the world: the EVH 5150, both in 6L6 and EL34 version: the Audio Assault AHM 5050!
This amp sim enters a very crowded arena, since this is the most used amp for many genres of metal (from thrash to the most extreme ones), and there are already many contenders to the throne of the best 5150 simulator, like the STL Andy James, the Peavey Revalver, the TSE X50 and the Neural DSP Nolly (although I think this one emulates a customized version).
This Audio Assault take on the legendary 5150 has some ace up its sleeve: it lets you blend between the 6L6 and el34 power tubes seamlessly with the turn of a knob, which is a very cool idea and recreates well the character of the two versions (and all the shades in between), it comes loaded with a wealthy amount of presets and impulse responses, which lets you have fun right away, it has several effects, booster, drive, gate, delay, reverb and so on, and basically the only thing missing to make it a real Swiss army knife is a chorus (in the rack section).
Tone-wise it has its own character (to be noted that you can also switch between the standard version and the "My Amp" one, which alterates some value, because every amp sounds a little different since all electronic components have a certain tolerance), and the "my amp" function slightly alterates randomly some value, different for each version, to make each instance of the plugin unique.
How does it sound? This is one of the best sounding Audio Assault amps, because, besides the fact that the original hardware is one of the most balanced, tight and ductile amps in the world, the plugin manages to recreate that midrange, that can go easily from honky to scooped but never muddy, that tightness in the low end and the clear attack which are the trademarks of the EVH 5150. The only thing I would still work on are the impulse responses, which sometimes sound a bit boxy and too mid rangey (in this video sample I'm using an external IR). Impulse responses are today the single most important thing in an virtual amplifier, they can make or break a tone, and in this the competitors (especially STL Tones and Neural Dsp) are a bit forward. Nevertheless this plugin is one of the best bang for the buck around and will give you a tons of fun, and good tones in the studio!
Thumbs up!
Specs:
- 3 channels: Clean, Crunch and Lead
- Balance Knob: it lets you dial precisely the tone between the 6L6 and the EL34 version
This amp sim is a new version of MegaFuzzieMKIV by Vadim Taranov, a virtual version of the overdrive channel of a Mesa Boogie Mark IV and it adds many new functions to the original one.
The interface looks like the one of a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier, but the tone is the one of a Mark IV, and the amp offers, besides the usual gain knob, also two separate controls to dial the gain for the low and the high frequencies, plus the two sections (preamp and power amp) are bypassable individually.
On the top of the amp there is also the fuzziness control, which lets you add fuzz to the tone and to control the fuzz character, from dark to bright; there is also a fizz control, which sets the "acidness" of the amp. All these functions give the Proto an impressive versatility: the amp allows you to achieve a very wide range of tones, from crunch to any type of fuzz, up to the extreme metal without problems, also because an eq section with a very wide excursion: with the mid knob it's possible to obtain a very scooped sound already at 11'.
The amp sim sounds very well, as you can hear from the sample: the interface is cool and pretty intuitive, and it's easy to achieve a good tone: the only thing I can do is to suggest you to download it and try it for yourself!
To be noted also that I see in the interface (and the manual) also the Ugritone logo, which is the evolution of a software house we used to know (and review) under the name "It Might Get Loud": I suspect something is cooking, can't wait to see how this collaboration will pan out!
Today we're going to revierw an interesting new Free Vst amp simulator: the Audiority L12X!
The L12X is a simulation of the Marshall Lead 12, a 12w solid state amplifier produced in the late '80s, and it represents quite a simple and complete solution if you're looking for a free Vst amp simulator: it features an interface which is a modded version of the original amp (it has, besides the original controls, also a contour knob to make the sound more scooped and a boost switch to add more gain), and a cabinet section with a Marshall impulse provided by SeaCow Cabs, with Celestion Vintage 30 speakers.
In our sample I have boosted the amp with the Audiority Dr.Drive and I have used the bundled Cab Simulator, and the tone as you can heas is unmistakably Marshall, with its prominent mid range.
On its own, without a booster, the plugin sounds already quite good, but obviously it doesn't let you reach high gain levels: if the gain is pushed and the boost is on it can get a bit muddy, but for genres up to the hard rock there is more than enough distortion and clarity, and it's also possible to obtain the typical Marshall ringy clean; the only annoying thing I had to deal with was some harsh resonance in the 4k area.
It has also been a wise choice to use the impulse taken from a 4x12 since the original Lead 12 was a 1x10 inches combo, which would have sounded much thinner.
In conclusion I suggest you all to check out the Audiority website, which features also some other very interesting freebie: it's a good producer and we'll surely be talking about them again.
Hello everyone and welcome to this week's article!
Today we are reviewing the most ambitious amp sim ever created by Audio Assault: Reamp Studio!
Reamp studio is a collection of 103 amp heads (actually they are more 103 presets, since for some amp they count the single channel of an amp as a separate preset, so the total amount of different amps is a bit less), 36 stompboxes and 100 cab IRs, all meticulously modeled in 10 months of research, in which the company recreated a virtual version of every amp component, from the different types of tube to all the rest.
The interface is similar to the one of the latest amp modelers of the company: a clean, simple recreation in 3d of the various amp heads and stompboxes, plus a post-amp rack section to fine tune our sound and a cabinet section which brings the experience of aIR impulse rack and Grindmachine 2, in facts it feature both the "Impact" control of GM2 (which recreates the movement of the speaker, adding thump and low end), and the "Focus" one of aIR impulse rack (which is a sort of eq boost in a single knob, which adds high end), and these are the two real game changers here, since together they can drastically impact on the final tone of the impulse.
It is worth also mentioning that the cabinet section features, among the many normal IRs produced in collaboration with SeaCow labs, also some in which you can move freely the virtual microphone in front of the speaker, adding flexibility to our quest for the perfect tone.
How does it sound? It sounds good as you can hear from my video, in line with the recent Audio Assault amp modelers, but adding quite a lot of flexibility, given the huge amount of flavours that we can choose from, both in terms of amps, effects and especially in terms of cabinets, resulting in the most extensive collection available from the producer.
It's possible to find tones for every taste, from clean to extreme metal (there are even bass presets!), although I had some problem with the noise, since the included noise gate sometimes struggles a bit in eliminating the hum when we're using a high gain head boosted with a tube screamer.
What would I work on? Here's a small list of suggestions, which can be used in the future for the next versions of this suite:
1) work on the presets trying to show the best starting sound possible for every amp, every stompbox, every cab etc: the first impression is fundamental and not everyone is capable/willing to fiddle through all the controls when starting with all the knobs at noon, Every preset should start at its best, and they should be done as a combination of them (for example, lead with delay, clean with chorus, etc...).
2) the noise gate can still be optimized a bit, to get to a point in which it can eliminate the hum even at the highest gain settings without touching the guitar tone
3) please create some quick manual or tooltips on top of each function, because it's been honestly quite hard for me to understand exactly what each function does (among those without a clear name, like for example impact, focus, and so on) because online it's impossible to find any info.
4) the plugin is a bit heavier on the cpu than the other Audio Assault amp sims, especially when working on a stereo track (processing both the left and right guitar tracks in the same session of the plugin).
Besides these small things to fine-tune, I think this suite will satisfy all the guitar players which are looking for a complete, extensive suite, at a price which is definitely better than any other comparable competitor.
Thumbs up!
Specs:
- 103 Amp Heads
- 100 Cab IRs and 35 "FLEX" Cabs with movable mic position
- Dual IR Loader with IMPACT control to enhance realism
- Cabinet Loader: Freely position the mic using FLEX Cabs, with Impact and Focus controls
- Mix and match your favourite IRs with the dual cab loader.
This free plugin seems to be the emulation of the boutique amp Omega Ampworks Obsidian, and boy it sounds good!
The Raven Volcanic plugin is a 2.5 channels head, which means 3 channels with the rhythm and lead channel that share the same eq (the clean one has a separate eq section), and which offers also a power amp section with the equivalent of the usual Depth and Resonance controls present in, for example, the Peavey 5150.
The 2 overdrive channels also share 2 vocing switches, one for the voicing of the mid frequencies, one for the voicing of the high ones, allowing us to fine tune our tone by making it more or less scooped.
In the video sample I have used this amp sim both for the rhythm guitars and for the lead one (obviously the lead one had different settings), and I must say the amp responds very well, it has an enormous amount of gain and it doesn't need a booster even to go into death metal territories, if the guitar pickups have a decent output.
All in all, in the recent years free plugin creators seems really to have taken a quality leap, between Vadim Taranov, NaLex and Ignite amps, allowing really anyone to have fun playing and recording with the computer, and I can only suggest you to try out this amazing piece of software and pair it with some quality impulse response, it will grant you hours of killer chugs.
Today we're going to review a new free guitar and bass amp simulator which is produced by NaLex and which incorporates the models of their other single VST plugins in one: the Amplex!
This plugin is defined by the producer as "guitar tube multiamp", and it recreates a head composed by a preamp section, with gain and eq, and a power amp section, with "power amp" (which is the power amp level control, and even if increased mantains the output volume constant), presence and resonance.
Besides these basic controls the particularity of this plugin is the fact that it can load presets (and comes with many presets bundled), each one of which corresponds to a particular guitar amp (for example the rhythm channel of a 5150, the clean channel of a Fender Twin, or the overdrive channel of an Ampeg bass amp).
Here is the list of the amps simulated, and for each one of them there are usually two or more presets, each one recreating a channel (for example clean and overdrive):
2120 is Peavey 5150 style Barbarian is Engl Savage style Bass is Ampeg SVT style Citrus CR120 is Orange OR120 style Crunchman is Friedman BE-100 style Firecube is Engl Fireball style Four is Diezel VH4 style Gerbert III is Diezel Herbert CH-3 style Hell is Randall Satan style Hot Dog is BadCat Hot Cat style J800 is Marshall JCM800 style J800 Lead is Marshall JCM800 Lead Series style Ketchup is Tomato style Magic is Crate BV style Pectifier is Mesa Rectifier style Revolt is Krank Revolution style SV is Carvin Legacy style Twin Clean is Fender Twin style Uber is Bogner Ubershall style ZLO is Soldano SLO style
I'm really surprised of how good this amp sim sounds, especially considering that it's free: it is versatile, sounds very realistic, honestly I don't see differences with most of the paid amp simulators on the market (obvioustly excluding the 2 or 3 cutting edge high end ones) and also stable, even if it's not the lightest on the cpu, when loaded on a stereo buss.
I suggest all of you to check it out, it might just be what you were looking for, especially for rock and metal, but there are enough models here to get good tones also for any other genre.
The Duncan Distortion (that you can hear on a Stratocaster in the song linked above) is a High Output humbucker with a large Ceramic magnet, which grants the guitar a high gain tone but with tight and controlled low end (something harder to achieve with an Alnico one, in which the low frequencies are usually less focused with high gain).
This pickup is used/has been used by several famous guitarists, such as Max Cavalera from Sepultura and Soulfly, Wayne Static from Static X, Karl Sanders from Nile, Ola Englund, Phil X from Bon Jovi, Adam Jones from Tool, many other bands as Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit, Dokken and countless other musicians, and it's considered from many a standard for rock and metal, especially for a certain type of '90s distortion.
The pickup is used mostly in the bridge position, but someone uses it also in the neck position to give clarity to the solos, and there is also some guitar that comes straight from the factory with a dual Distortion setup.
My take on this pickup is this: the pickup sounds quite bright, it doesn't have a huge amount of low end and it's quite high-mid focused, which is good, but it's one of those types of pickups that needs to be balanced with a dark sounding guitar, like a Les Paul or some other with a thick mahogany body, because on a light guitar (such as a Stratocaster or a Randy Rhoads) the highs can become "ice picky", meaning that the attack of the distorted tone when using a palm muting sounds very prominent, like an ice-pick.
To solve this is necessary to intervene with the eq, introducing some of low pass filter or using the treble control, but in general it's a positive thing to have a fast, chugging attack, because on the pickups that doesn't have enough of it, it's impossible to introduce it later with the eq.
The conclusion is that this pickup is quite situational: if you're looking for a nice (slightly scooped) mid range, a good (but not super high) output, a raspy attack and a controlled low end to play hard rock, grunge, punk and a lot of '90s metal, this pickup is for you.
If you are instead looking for something beefier, more modern and with more body (or more output), there are also many other pickups to try, even remaining in the Seymour Duncan lineup.
aIr Impulse Rack is a nice little stereo plugin that acts as a Swiss army knife for impulse responses: it lets you load as many IRs as you want and mix them through a mix knob, then modify them through a serie of rack modules (an Equalizer, a High Shelf and a Low Shelf module, a Cab focus unit, a Phase/delay, a Volume/Pan unit, a Frequency analyzer, a Hi/Lo pass filter and a Normalizer).
The amazing thing of this plugin, that sets it aside from all the other similar products, it's the fact that you can create your stereo chain freely, save it in the internal preset manager, and even export your own custom ir with all the processing applied.
This is a feature that almost no other cabinet simulator has and that actually opens to an infinite landscape of possibilities: instead of having to load your favourite IRs and having to mix them, eq them etc, you can export all the chain already processed into a single impulse and save your cpu and time for the following sessions.
I had a lot of fun experimenting with this plugin, and considering also that it comes already with a set of good impulse responses (those present also in other Audio Assault amp simulators), in few minutes I've been able to come up with the tone in the sample you can hear (only using free plugins: NaLex Gerbert and Ignite TSB-1).
Considering the features and the price, which is very good, I can only suggest you to try it out and have some fun.
Today (after years) I have finished the cleanup: I have taken all the audio samples created for old articles of this blog and turned them into Youtube videos, so now there are 2 new video samples for the following articles:
This is a very rich IR pack, the first paid one produced by SeaCow Cabs, which features more than 1500 phase coherent impulses, divided in 13 cabinets, each one with separate impulses for single microphones (the most used in the studios: Shure SM57, Royer R121, Neumann U87, Shure SM7B, Sennheiser MD421) and combined ones, both in Wave file and Line6 Helix format.
The cabinets are divided by artist, meaning that they are those used by famous rock and metal artists (in my sample I compare 5 ot the 13: those used by Kirk Hammet of Metallica, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold, Misha Mansoor of Periphery and Jim Root of Slipknot), but the thing that I have appreciated the most is the fact that for once, the way these impulses were captured and named is tidy and intuitive:
each cabinet has a folder for each microphone, and within each folder there are some irs, each one corresponding to a different position in the speaker, from closest to the farthest from the dustcap.
This intuitive approach, which should be the normality but anyone that has tried different impulse packs knows that usually it's quite the opposite, led me to choose the microphones and the positionings the same way I would do in a real studio, fot example combining an SM57 at the edge of the dustcap with a Royer, or with the MD421, and the result was like I was expecting, sign that these impulses are very realistic and well captured.
What else to say? This is a very complete pack which will provide every rock/metal fan all the tools to dominate the amp simulator world for years, offering a canvas of tonal capabilities which covers all the most common studio microphones and positionings, and at its price range it's probably one of the best if not the best ir pack on the market today.
Hello and welcome to this article!
Today we're going to review a new guitar amp simulator from Audio Assault: the RVXX!
The RVXX is an amp simulator based on "an extremely aggressive high gain lunchbox amp with a very big bite"; even if it's not expressely said, I imagine that we are talking about the Revv G20, a 20w all tube little amp, which has a lot of gain and it is indeed extremely aggressive.
Right after you load the plugin you will find yourself in front of the typical Audio Assault interface, which is basically the same seen in the Sigma amp sim: a nice 3d render of the head, a simple one-knob noisegate, a one-switch booster, an IR loader with 12 custom SeaCow cab impulses, and the amp controls.
This head has two channels (clean and distorted) with common eq section, presence, depth, master (which adds also saturation) and two extra switch: aggression and wide, as in the original REVV head.
The wide switch adds bottom end (and some high end in the clean channel), while the aggression one adds some gain and changes a bit the frequency response, basically creating a different sounding channel.
How does it sound? Well, it sounds very good! Compared to the Sigma you can tell this one is modeled on a lower wattage amp: it's more high-mids oriented, which makes it a perfect djent amp (that's why for the sample I have been inspired in making some djent-ish riff), and the gain and attack are really great for modern metal, I would even dare to say that this is probably the best sounding modern metal/djent amp simulator I've ever played, even if it's good also at lower gain settings, being capable of pulling out also credible warm overdriven tones.
Plus, and this is the same also for Sigma, I must say that involving SeaCow Cabs has been a good choice: the impulse choice on these 2 amp simulators is better than ever, probably better than any previous Audio Assault product so far (even if I'm still particularly in love with one of their first ones, the Bulldozer).
Hello and welcome to this week's article!
Today we're reviewing a new guitar amp simulator from Audio Assault, which has been released for free for a limited time to the subscribers of the mailing list, and now it's available for everyone (but it's paid now): the Sigma!
Sigma is a simulator of a modern high gain boutique head (judging by the name and the look I guess we're talking about one of the 2 Omega heads, the brand used by one of the Slipknot guitarists), a single channel head in which the gain knob goes literally from clean to very high gain, there is a 3 band eq section, presence (which regulates the high frequencies between 4000 and 7000hz), focus (which emphasizes low and high end), depth (which controls the low end resonance of the power amp section) and master.
In addition to that there is a boost function which adds a fixed setting tube screamer in front of the amp, a noise gate (with pre and post amp knobs) and an IR loader.
Aesthetically the plugin looks very nice, with a clean and minimal interface as I like, with the right amount of scheumorphism that doesn't get too much in the way of functionality (for example I have really enjoyed the fact that the booster is just a switch instead of dialing always the same setting in the stompbox interface), or the way the noisegate works: just one knob to choose the threshold for the the input and one for the "loop" of the amp.
How does it sound?
It sounds very good! A modern, american metal tone which has a lot of beef but also clarity, tightness and note definition, and it sounds so aggressive that is perfect for death metal and similar tones, but also for fat overdriven cleans, At The Gates style.
Also, SeaCow cabs did a great job offering a set 12 of cool, usable IRs which goes very well with this amp simulator and lets you achieve many different types of tone, but if you have some specific Impulse you use often, the IR loader of Sigma allows you to create a "list of favorite impulses" which lets you recall them quickly, instead of having to browse through thousands of folders, and I think this is a genius idea, and it's absurd that noone has ever thought about it until now.
Hello and welcome to this week's article!
Today we are reviewing the Ltd MH-1007 ET, which is a more premium version of a guitar I used to own for about 6 years and loved: the Ltd MH-417.
During these last 6 years the MH-417 has been my main 7 strings guitar, I have gotten acquainted to its neck (which is slightly thicker than an Ibanez but thinner than a Gibson or Fender) and I have used it to play live and record in studio, even if I had to change the pickups with others which would enhance the top end, because the overall tone with the Emg-707 was a bit dark, probably also because of the wood and the coating.
During these years as I said I have learned to love this guitar shape and playability, but then recently I wanted to try an Evertune bridge (Click here for a dedicated article), therefore after having tried other brands, I have decided to stay with this model and buy the 1007 ET version.
The Ltd MH-1007 is a made in Korea set through guitar, meaning that the neck is glued to the body but somewhere in the middle, making it a halfway between a set neck and a neck through body; the wood is mahogany with maple cap (therefore a bit brighter than a mahogany-only body), and it features an ebony fingerboard (Macassar Ebony, which is the Indonesian variety).
Size and shape are the same of the other versions of the MH line, so 25.5 inches scale, same radius, nut width etc, but the tuners here are Grover, there are Emg 81-7H and 85-7H pickups, 24 extra Jumbo frets, and binding both in the body and in the fretboard.
About the Evertune, it is really magical: it takes some time to set it up properly, let's say if to make a complete setup of fixed bridge guitar takes around 30 minutes, with the Evertune bridge it takes about twice as much if you want to fine tune perfectly the intonation, but once it's done it's really done, and it doesn't need any mantainance, even if you change the strings (as long as they are the same gauge, obviously).
The Evertune gives its best in studio, when also a note that is slightly flat or sharp by few decimals of tone can have a big impact in the final song, and even if I admit that it makes the guitar a bit heavier and has an impact on the bendings (after all there is always a spring pulling against your strenght), the upside in terms of tuning precision and stability outshines any minor setback, so I really suggest anyone to give it a chance.
In terms of tone it is very balanced, the 2 Emg 81 and 85 -7H (H stands for Hum Cap, which is the classic, not-soapbar shape) are basically the same of the regular 81 and 85, although the eq on paper is slightly different:
81-7
Resonant Frequency (KHz) 1.45
Output Voltage (String) 2.00
Output Voltage (Strum) 4.50
Output Noise (60 Hz) -106
81-7H
Resonant Frequency (KHz) 1.63
Output Voltage (String) 3.00
Output Voltage (Strum) 4.50
Output Noise (60 Hz) -100
The tone is very aggressive and classically metal, the Emg 81 doesn't really need introductions, but in general this is a full featured professional guitar, one of the best I have ever owned, and I suggest anyone to check it out.
