Have any of you done a comparison between the UAD Amp Sims for Fuchs, Friedman and Diezel and the Native versions from PA? I haven't gone down the UAD road and was considering it at least.

Also if any of you have checked out the Joe Satriani add on for Amplitube first impressions or just thoughts on it.

thanks!
JCF

 

My absolute favorites are Positive Grid Bias and FX2 amp sims you should be able to get just about any sound you are after, add in the ERS DimensionD plugin to thicken and expand the sound and you will be very surprised.

 

Last edited: Jul 13, 2020

Thank you for the suggestion. I will dive a bit deeper into the Positive Grid sims. I got them when they were released but was plagued with crashes on FX2. It seems to be fixed from the last update I did, but my interest in it had faded over the period of time when i experienced the crashes. I'm not familiar with ERS DimensionD, but will check it out. Thanks again for the reply!

 

I wouldnt recommend BIAS even to my worst enemy xD
the sims from UAD and PA are the EXACT SAME code. Both are developed by brainworx.
The only difference are that the uad versions are dsp based for their cards/interfaces and the PA ones are native so anyone can use them with any interface.
Both are 100% equal sound and code wise

 

My favs are Amplitube and Guitar Rig. I can get any sound I want. I tired them all. To me my favs are the best.
I have tried Positive Grid some say it sounds good to me it's ok.

 

Could be interesting to see the CPU hit on a decent native processor vs the SHARC chip on a UAD card. Not that we need any more proof UAD2 is ancient.

To OP - if you are after hi-gain don't overlook the old free sims by Poulin and Mercuriall. They're still some of the best. I use them with a set of cabinet impulses called Messiah.

 

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hi Jeff I see that there are some that don't like Positive grid FX2 or Bias amp I know the earlier versions were 'nt as good as the recent versions but it may be that those who don't like it didn't to try setting it up to get the sounds they want, I play acoustic & electric guitars with it and music from soft melodic to 60's phychedelic to heavy classic rock to heavy blues and even classical and Jazz. never let me down once and many who have heard me at jam sessions asked what I was using. ERS Dimension D (Empty Room Systems DimD) is on the sister site or you can use Microshift from Soundtoys it is just as good. The only type of music I don't play is the (in my opinion crap) death metal and such. I am a guitarist not a construction worker using a jackhammer breaking up concrete, perhaps I'm a purist in this but that is who I am others may have their own opinions. All of the jam session clubs I know and go to stipulate at their entrances real music only. At jams my guitar is plugged into a Steinberg CI-1, into an old Samsung laptop with Positive grid Bias FX2 into a DI box,then plugged into the clubs PA system. The only person you have to please is yourself, no-one else's opinion matters,If your sound pleases you then others will like it also. I've owned and played with almost every major amplifier since the 60's and in my opinion BIAS FX2 sounds as good as my 70's Hiwatt Bulldog 50 and 60's Fender Super Reverb both of which I still have.

 

Thank you! I was really tempted to travel the UAD road. Good to know there's no difference between the two. UAD seems like a pretty heavy investment and I was primarily eyeballing all their amp sims anyway. I've really taken a liking to all the Brainworx amp sims. I'm not terribly crazy about the way PA does the presets, but it's not enough to keep me from using them as my first choice lately. Especially the Fuchs ODS and Train II. I'd hate to ever figure out how much $ I've spent on amp sims in the past 5 or so years. I got the trial license for the new Softube Marshalls and their new Amp Room plugin. The Amp Room seems to be a CPU hog and of the Marshalls, the 2550 Silver Jubilee is the best in my opinion. Not diggin' enough to buy after the trial ends. Maybe another week playing with them and I'll find some sort of justification to spend more cash. I appreciate the info and reply!

 

I bought Mercuriall Spark a few years ago and they had a super cheap deal for the SS-11x that i couldn't pass up. Just recently tried their version of the Bogner Ecstasy and really happy with the tones with minimal tweaking required.

 

I did finally find ERS Dimension D. Thank you for the suggestion! Back in the 90's I stepped away from playing for a few years and I"m so pissed at myself now, but I had a 1979 Marshall JMP 100 with a 4x12 slant cab that had original Celestion Green Backs in it. The dude I sold it to ended up getting the guitar gig with Cypress Hill and a side project that SenDog did called SX10. It was very much like RATM but with the "insane in the brain" Cypress Hill dude on vocals. Sorry for the long story, just want that Marshall back and especially the cab! Sellers remorse 24 years and counting! Do you ever upload your FX2 presets to the Positive Grid cloud? If so, let me know how I can find you in the cloud search. Thanks again for the info!!

 

Do you guys know any presets for amplitube 4? Maybe something more Blues and jazzy? I have a Fender so the only sounds I usually get are Metal, which doesn't go along with my flavors.

 

Last edited: Aug 27, 2020

I'm a non-extremist metal-head and there's quite truth in that, though I like some death metal sounds