I set up Nolly on my laptop a few months ago when I've jammed with a guitarist on visit from Germany and it worked fine. I sent the signal straight to PA but there shouldn't be any difference sending it to a power amp+FRFR cab. I used the standalone version also but Gig Performer should work just as well

 

...and on that exact moment the BIAS FX made an entrance with the Guitar Match!

Spoiler: Tips

I don't like BIAS Amp & FX, but the guitar match is FUN!

 

I wasn't too impressed by Parallax (turns bass into bass synths) and the metal af plugs weren't for me, but there were a lot of lovely surprises. One of their plugs (Nolly) I expected to be uninteresting, but had a load of lovely, dreamy, wide-ranging presets; was prolly my fave. Got zero idea from description and name. I liked all the Archetype stuff. I was expecting the Cali tones to be my fave, but I prefered Cory Wong; they were more like what I expected from the Cali thingy. It was still fine, tho, and needs more time to mess around with. Weird that nDSP uses names that are unrelated to anything, esp to someone who knows zero guitarists or anything about guitars or cabs or amps!

All in all, it was just great fun playing around with nDSP; even with just a virtual guitar. Very easy to just get lost and mess around. Also, Helix rly does suuuuck going from the presets; there's literally one half-decent one. It feels almost deliberate!

Spoiler

I've only used nDSP on laptop (speakers) so my opinions are prolly wrong af.

 

Last edited: Jan 5, 2021

Actually if one owns an affordable soundcard (like most of us), the quality of the di signal can be questionable. I'm so done with pedals, processors etc. though been playing guitar since 90's for the last few years did everything with software. I think after business gets back after covid the first thing I'll save money for would be a high-end di-box.

 

Yep, Helix presets are a disguising trip to fizzyland. Horrible stuff. It's mind boggling.

Do yourself a favor and get a used BOSS eq pedal to place before your audio interface. The buffer itself already makes a difference, and the EQ takes care of the rest. Cheaper and more versatile than a "fancy" DI box.

 

Can highly recommend any of the Radial DI boxes, the sound and quality is superb.

 

I see no reason why that shouldn't work. If you don't need to change patches during the song, it'd be even easier for you as then you won't be needing a footswitch.
One thing you do need to look out for is the latency of the whole setup. Whether it bothers you or not is something you'd have to find for yourself.

 

I'm curious. How much of a difference do DI boxes actually make? I've never used any DI boxes so far.

 

I actually do have a boss for that reason but its kind of on the bright-side (mine is old though, boss updated buffes quite a bit in their history probably newer ones are better). I have ik's z-tone di in mind but we'll see what I'll go for when the time comes.

I'm also waiting for this plug-in the be cracked; https://unitedplugins.com/DIFIX/ really liked it with THU, with neural I didn't feel a need for it which might explain what differentiates their engine compared to others.

 

Last edited: Jan 5, 2021

A high-end di-box is sort of like a preamp without gain, so depending on its color it influences your di-tone. Our affordable soundcard's di quality isn't really that bad but if one is serious for what they do (unless they get an extremely expensive soundcard or maybe rack channelstrip) a better di-box to me seems to be the best option for the budget.

With a tighter di-tone the responsiveness of the plug-in feels better, and your tone while playing reflects to the audience clear-er. It's really something you have to try, don't expect mountains of difference at first but once you get used to it hard to do without it. You can also download the demo of difix to get some-what of an idea.

 

I use a Radial JDI they have a Jensen transformer in them and built like a tank! You can really notice the difference in quality when using in line with my focusrite 2i2. The sound is so much clearer and full. Thats on Bass guitar by the way.

 

I bought on black friday a ik multimedia z-tone di .

Best buy I made in years! This thing is crazy good for the price. Super clean d.i. or JFET d.i. Active and passive d.i. in 1 Box. And impedance change. A lot of possibilities and good build quality. Replaced my radial JDI and J48.

A good d.i. is the icing on the cake. You notice a difference but it is not a game-changer.

 

Last edited: Jan 5, 2021

Thats looks good for the price, half the price of a JDI.
My JDI is mainly used for live work. As you'll know there built like tanks, so perfect for onstage.

 

Wow, very quality techie stuff. No wonder everybody now is losing their ass trying to model distortion effects using WaveNet deep learning.
Some post here or in AZ free plugins section was about a guy developing an ampsim using this.
The guys at Acustica Audio must be scared shitless. If this tech can be applied to other kind of effects they're f*ked.

 

That kind of comments doesn't build much confidence, all the opposite. Can't some people just say "I think this is a bit better than that" for once?

 

Maybe if you've both and have tried it out then you won't be saying the rubbish you're saying now. I'm not trying to build confidence, I just stated a fact. Also don't tell me what to say and how to say it.

 

Yes, it seems to be the way the amp sim industry is heading! There is a github project called SmartGuitarAmp and SmartGuitarPedal that also uses WaveNet modeling. A bit to heavy cpu-wise still but interesting project to follow! Jatin Chowdhury's ChowCentaur also uses neural network modeling, at least partly, but I think he used a RNN for that. Sounds great though

 

Stated a fact? Wow, you must be smoking something. Your opinion on how something compares soundwise to something else is not a fact. That's a fact!

 

Yes, I think this is the future of plugins, not only amp sims, but everything else...Soon enough Neural DSP and many others will be releasing all sorts of machine learning based gear. Just a matter of time.

 

Never got into the Acustica Audio fanboys club. I have a bunch of their free stuff and whenever I try to use them, I end up replacing them with other plugins that get me 98% there at a much lower CPU cost.