It’s good to be back for 2023 and heading into 2024!
I had suspended updates to this review blog while I was committed to writing for the online publication SoundBytes Magazine. However, that publication has ended its 10-year run. I am grateful and honored to have been a part of its conclusion, and enjoyed very much working with my colleagues during my run with the magazine – I’ll miss it!
That having come to an end does mean, however, that I’ve got the time and will to commit to working on my independent content. I’ll be putting up some reviews and other mentions to get back into the groove, and I’m hoping to have some cool stuff to share soon.
‘Til then, stay tuned, and thanks for visiting!
Agreed's Gear Reviews & Music 
Nice reviews! If I may make one suggestion, check out the Ronald Passion Ampsims:
http://www.guitarampmodeling.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=4680
Checking them out, thanks for the heads-up. I post over there, too 🙂
Congrats Agreed . . . nice site . . It will take me a while to digest it all . . . lots of hard work on your part . . . Thanks.
I noticed that your home page link to Peavey is broken. Might want to check it out as I really like what Peavey is doing.
Blessings, Bo
Thanks for the heads-up, Bo, I had a quotation mark in there for some reason. It’s fixed now, and I checked to make sure the other links work, they do 🙂 Take your time, the site sure isn’t going anywhere, and there’ll be more stuff added all the time.
Thank`s a great review, I have GTR3,Guitar Rig 3,Amplitube 2,Metal,Hendrix,X-Gear,Revalver MKII,III and Demo of overloud TH1, `thank`s for the tweak tips on Rev MKIII,I myself think that MKIII is the best out there if you looking for a good tube sound,the other`s is also good a very easy to use with MKIII you have to tweak(but what a sound you can get out of it)
thank`s again an keep it up
Thanks for the complement, and I will 🙂 Trust me, there’s some cool stuff coming up. Busy month, but I should be able to get in at least one good update before the end of it – then I’ll have a LOT more time.
Hey buddy, get to work on the FrugalGuitarist.com reviews! J/K
Such a taskmaster 😦
I’m workin’, I’m workin’… Haha
Hi agreed,
have a review to my vst plugin to your web bro…
DO IT LIKE MACHINE, hehehe…. (joke)
Best regards, ronaldpassion!
I will definitely do some stuff with them for the next freeware roundup. I’m hoping by then you’ve had a chance to revisit the amp sim. I’m going to post in the KVR thread now with a question/suggestion, see you momentarily!
Also check out emusician’s amp sim shoot-out – http://emusician.com/web_clips/listening_test/ – interesting reading.
Ooops – this URL will take you to the actual emusician experiment: http://emusician.com/tutorials/showdown-clubhouse-amp-software/
I’m familiar with that link, I really love it because it’s a great demonstration of a few things. First, not every amp sim is equal – some of those clips really do sound like garbage, and it’s not necessarily a brand thing either, because the company with a mediocre Fender might have a pretty good Marshall, etc… Second, without eyes one’s supposed intuitions about tone aren’t all that useful. Some would say that’s just a problem with blind tests, something was wrong with the recording, yadda yadda – to me it’s a good indicator that we aren’t as clever as we think, sometimes 🙂
Hello!
Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource!
PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language 😉
See you!
Your, Raiul Baztepo
Hello !!! ^_^
I am Piter Kokoniz. oOnly want to tell, that your posts are really interesting
And want to ask you: what was the reasson for you to start this blog?
Sorry for my bad english:)
Thank you:)
Your Piter
Ey Man,
Stumbled upon your blog and it seems very interesting. I was googling because i wanted to know on which amps the guitar rig 3 models are based (about some of them im not sure). Your blog is helpful in my quest. Also i have a pod xt and im very curious to know how it compares with the latest generation of pod and with software like guitar rig, amplitube and revalver purely soundwise in terms of moddeling quality. Maybe you can do a post about that? Do I receive a mail when you post about this? Also if you want to reply to me by email or add my msn i’d appreciate that very much. Keep up the good work
Karst
Hey, glad to hear I’ve got a new reader 🙂 You’ve found it at a pretty good time, we’re going to be settling in to the new place soon and I’ll have a lot of time on my hands to fill; I’m planning on devoting a lot of that time to working with my blog and doing even more stuff for FrugalGuitarist.
I have actually already done a post on software vs. hardware modelers – search it using the search widget up at the top for now. I got a great suggestion when I was asking my readers to give me some ideas for the blog. People have had trouble locating my older stuff, so I’ll be making a new, personally formatted and kept up to date table of contents for the blog. It’ll be a new page up at the top, alongside Home and Articles, and it will make everything much easier to access.
If you have any other ideas or requests please don’t hesitate to speak up, I love getting feedback from my readers!
Excellent Reviews. I am a new reader and look forward to seeing your Fender Part II review.
Question, do you notice additional noise in the higer gain sounds of Amplitube 2?
Best Regards! Keep up the great work!
Hey, Doug, sorry for the delay getting back to you. I have noticed that some of the higher gain sims in Amplitube 2 are prone to noise, but not more than I get from Guitar Rig 3, ReValver, TH1, etc.; however that isn’t the case across the board, so it’s probably some quirk of the modeling process as it was at the time, and the amps in question. High gain amps are noisy, noisy things, so a correct emulation (taken here to mean having as close as possible to a 1:1 relationship between input and output of a given signal to the real hardware) is going to be noisy too. Amplification by factors in excess of ten thousand will do that!
Pod Farm’s models of a given amp seem to me to have more noise than other programs when the same amp is modeled, but they also seem to have a lot more gain than that amp on other programs except at those other programs’ extreme settings, so that could account for it.
Hi,
Thanks for the sterling silver comment on my blog 🙂
Dont worry you havent caused any household strife haha!
Lynsey
I’m a regular. Thanks!
Are there any freeware recording suites that you would recommend?
Could you explain a bit what you mean by a freeware recording suite? A DAW, like ProTools?
I’ve had mixed results from free DAWs. There are two very popular free recording softwares – Audacity and Wavosaur. Wavosaur comes the closest to competing with at least the work-flow features of commercial DAWs, and it is indeed a very powerful program with some great deep WAV editing functions. But both of those are competition more for programs like Soundforge, WAV editors intended for sound design… They have multi-track recording functionality and it works, both can use plugins (Wavosaur natively, Audacity in a limited way with a VST bridge), but there are some missing features.
I use Reaper for all of my recording. It’s currently in version 3.12, and they have just added an amazingly effective bridge that allows me to use Reaper 64-bit on my 64-bit computer and OS (which lets me use the full 8GB of RAM that I put in this computer for working with large projects, samplers, etc.), but still use virtually all of my 32-bit plugins. Most plugins are still 32-bit, so this added functionality is really a must-have. It’s totally seamless and I have been extremely impressed with how well it works. They have also focused extensively on improving their MIDI functionality to the point that it now can be considered truly competitive (this was one of the bigger complaints in version 2.0, that it had relatively basic MIDI capabilities). It treats MIDI and audio seamlessly, unlike many DAWs where there are special MIDI tracks and audio tracks and they can only interact in certain ways. Anyway, I’m going on and on here – the overall point I’m trying to make is that Reaper will do what you’re looking for and it is by far the most affordable DAW around.
A personal license for Reaper costs $60, and it’s well worth it. I should note that the demo period is 30 days, and after that every 24 hours there is a 5-second nag screen that pops up to remind you that you should purchase the software, but it remains 100% functional in every way. I guess they figure if you get so much use out of it, when you can afford to buy it you will. So while it is definitely not free, if you’re in a tight spot and you need a powerful, professional recording program with full DAW functionality and some very keen features, I can recommend Reaper. It’s served me very well.
Yes, I’m looking for a free solution along the lines of a ProTools. I’m just learning the ropes right now and don’t want to make a huge investment just to try something out. I’ll give these a try.
Thanks!
Hopefully that helps, mate. Reaper has a very comprehensive user manual written by someone affiliated with but not identical to the programmers, as well as some great third-party documentation if you ever want to get really deep into it. However when I first started using it I never cracked the book and was recording and mixing very quickly. Later I dug into the manual and realized how much power under the hood I wasn’t using, I suggest that you do give it a good read and keep it open so you can browse to the relevant info when you need to.
That’s assuming you go with Reaper, anyway. Great DAW, but I shouldn’t assume you’ll pick it just ’cause I like it. 🙂
Hi,
Have you tried Db Audio’s Flying Haggis?
Funny you should mention that, I just bought it last night and I’m about to do a small write-up on it and post some clips later today. It’s awesome.
Don’t forget the awesome Magix Vandal! It is seriously the best guitar effects suite in existence. Beta test it right away and let us know what you think!
I have heard very good things about Magix Vandal, but I have been unsuccessful in contacting the developer so far to actually give it a try. He kept a WordPress blog during the development, and I posted on it several times, but never had any luck with a response. So while I don’t doubt that it’s a quality work, I have been unable to move toward evaluating or reviewing it myself, regrettably. Thank you for offering your opinion, though, I have heard many others praise the product as well.
Hi
Does rig kontrol 3 can be used for th2 or revalver? As a midi foot control and audio interface at the same time?
Is there a perceivable latency on your guitar playing and audio output?
Thanks
Rig Kontrol 3 makes an excellent interface for any software, and as a bonus, for Windows users, it can be used as a general purpose high-quality stereo audio interface thanks to robust WDM driver support. And if your processor is up to it, you will experience no perceived latency thanks to extremely high quality ASIO support. It also functions as a general MIDI controller for other software. Native Instruments did a great job with it for sure!
Edit: Retrospective from 2017, well, it worked great in 2012. Compatibility fell off somewhat and my own unit actually broke down electronically over time and started losing its clock really badly. Eventually couldn’t record with it any longer. Rest in peace, Rig Kontrol 3: 2008-2014. Now using: IKMM StompIO, which is kinda funny as it has been discontinued a long time. But the drivers still talk to Windows 10 for ASIO, and that’s all I use it for – it no longer integrates or has any MIDI functionality with the software.
I need a new audio interface soon, but it’s a conundrum ’cause the StompIO has a wicked good preamp that sounds fantastic with modelers and I’d need to get something at least as low latency – so no more than about 8ms round trip. Any suggestions readers?
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