Nice guys thanks for the input!!

And yes friend Cory have a Dumble in real life

 

In my opinion, TH-U sounds great in a mix, but I never liked how it feels...It doesn't feel at all like a real amp.

 

Yes, the best plugin for processor audio, incrible

 

TH-U is excellent and was my go to prior to this release. Each one of these NDSP releases have some presets that are amazing! Definitely new power for the arsenal. Thankful to try

 

I dont know i demo Plini some moths ago but i found that STL Andy james sounded better to my ears also Helix sounded equally good as Plini i even made a head to head comaprison and it was dead close
People dont understand how to dial in tones on Helix and also which IR they need to make it sound awesome.
I guess it is the presets they compare with other ampsim and those really stink in Helix as they use their own cab sim instead of real IR's

 

It takes some time to get used to how Cali works but the tones you can get out of it are amazing! For heavy rhythm tones just set thump, hair and violence to the left and bright to the right, master volume at between 4-5 and both gain knobs at around 6-7!

Some good things to know is:
- Hair switch is for negative feedback power amp control of high frequency interaction between power amp and speaker (their words ), right=smooth modern high gain type, middle=raw vintage british type, left=something inbetween. Hair is affected by master volume knob.
- Thump selects the low resonant peak of the power amp, right=lowest frequency, middle=highest (mid boost), left=something inbetween. Also affected by the master volume.
- Violence is just an extra gain stage I think, so to the left=more gain
- Bright switch is like a high frequency saturation switch and is affected by the gain 2 knob. The more you turn gain 2 the less the bright switch will matter.

Have fun!

 

Last edited: Jan 4, 2021

I keep saying that, I just do not get WHY L6 have such shocking presets. I have used most of their flagship range and live they are amazing, but they need to move air, either through an amp or PA, for the presets to sound anywhere decent. Dialling in tones is so hit and miss until you get into the nitty gritty, then it’s boom, excellent, but I completely see why a lot of people are put off. You shouldn’t have to bang in 3rd party IRs or spend days to get a great tone. The presets should get you close if you are new to it, then you can tweak and then build your own.

with the Neural stuff, I just went through a few presets and was blown away.

 

I’m torn on things like that, because on the one hand I want things clear, but also, who DOESN’T want an amp with a “hair” or “violence” setting on it

 

Here is a paper they have written on how they model the amps with deep learning neural networks https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/10/3/766/htm#B24-applsci-10-00766

Very interesting to read! The amps in the paper is not the exact ones used in the plug-ins but the method is probably the same.

 

Hmmm, little light reading before bedtime...

I’m a guitarist, I’m not trained to handle that kind of thinking

 

After i tried NDSP ampsims ... i just cant go back in to any other virtual amp... I really had a great relationship with TH-U but i ve never heard anything in plugin form as good as NDSP. I though i would not hear a big difference compared to other ampsims but i was wrong. The difference was huge. I m not a fanboy or something, i 'm just really impressed and happy with the way these things sound. I 'm a bassist and i play guitar mostly for production purposes and i 've never enjoyed playing the guitar as much as i do through NDSP plugins.

 

Had a quick fiddle with the Darkglass ultra one earlier, (P bass with EMG Geezer Butler pickups), Sounds GOOD.

 

That would be very interesting.

 

What I think makes the test between Helix and others difficult is the Helix GUI, it’s laid out completely differently and relating the two is bloody hard unless you are intimately familiar with the amp and the way Helix operates. It’s a weird design choice when you look at every other ampsim, but the Helix Native was obviously driven by the need for it being like for like in a floor / rack unit. I do find it interesting though that the Quad Cortex has basically ripped off the Helix floor / rack GUI. Loads of people pointed that out on the Helix forum, and their unofficial response was they can’t complain really when their entire product line is about “ripping” off other people’s gear

 

Great, I was thinking of starting a thread like this.
First question for me: Granophyre beats the Fortin Nameless for brutal high gain? I haven't tried the two versatile (Nolly and Cory) but just a quick test (with an Ample Sound VSTi!) with the Nameless impressed me. And no, not placebo effect.

I was also interested in these ones. Any more input?

 

Last edited: Jan 4, 2021

This is actually something that works better for a non guitarist like me. It's not only minimalistic, but in a single screen you can set up dual chains with feedback. I've learned quite a bit about guitar FX chains just by browsing presets on Helix.
Of course, for a hardware guy/guitarist it must be weird. And only like 70MB of RAM used, btw.

It's just like you say, for a limited screen in a hardware unit is just the best choice.

 

Really, I may not have given it a proper chance, the reviews have been excellent, but loading it up, giving it a rip through some presets, trying to tweak, it just didn’t grab me. But that said, I know Helix isn’t for everyone, so I wouldn’t take my word for it at all at this point. It’s definitely got pedigree from the BX plug-ins, so as the UK is entering a new lockdown, I will have chance to put the time in and see what they can do.

 

The thing is those are the first ones cr*cked that include the big guns. I tried the PA Brainworx Engl ones and for their resource usage and features are quite good. It wouldn't be fair to directly compare them to NeuralDsp, or STL Tones.
But I don't know if the Nembrini are the same style.

It is for me
Helix isn't indeed for everyone but has received some unfair criticism. Those famous "there's fisss noise on many presets" when they were designed to have that fiss like in real rigs in the first place.

Edited: I forgot, it's true Helix sucks a bit with the cab/IR management. especially with complex/dual presets

 

Last edited: Jan 5, 2021

All I would say is that with so many options out there, quite good isn’t enough. If you have seen any of my other comments, I LOVE my Helix, best tone ever for
Me playing live, but it’s flawed in the interface compared to most other amp sims which I feel are just more intuitive as a guitarist. But that through a big PA and what I can coax out when I record is what I, in my very limited and humble opinion, compare to. If I want to just pull a preset and play, it’s AmpliTube so far, but the Neural stuff for the first load was like wow, and I just didn’t get that with the Nembrini.

Just please bear in mind that I’m not a pro, not playing sessions, I gig (well, gigged!) with my cover band a few times a month and the Helix suits my style in terms of what I want to achieve in having my own tone rather than copying styles, relative ease of use etc... I’m sure someone far more capable or with a different style / approach can make those plugins absolutely sing. Experiment and let me know, I could be missing out on the best!

 

stl tonehup and amphub are great also