I wasn't really sure if this is the correct section to post this but I guess it will kinda be a review.

When I first tested a few Audio Assault plug-ins (Hellbeast, Emperor, Dominator) maybe 2 years ago I was not impressed at all. The tones you could get out of them were pretty much unusable. After that I didn't pay them any attention at all until they released their Sigma amp sim plug-in for free. When I downloaded it I was pleasantly surprised that it actually sounded quite decent and had a good amount of features for something I didn't have to pay anything for. I used it mostly as a tracking plug-in as it was very light on CPU usage and easy to set up quickly. The tone wasn't perfect and it did have some bug in the IR loader though.

6 months or so later I received an email with a download link for Sigma v2 and at first I just thought it would be mostly a regular update, but after installing it I was amazed that they had probably scrapped the original plug-in and built a whole new, full fledged amp sim. The amp now had 3 channels (clean, crunch, lead) and a totally different and much better tone, a stomp section with gate, boost and overdrive, dual IR loader and a FX section with EQ, delay and reverb. The GUI is also much improved over v1 and is freely re-sizable without everything looking pixelated (unlike Softube ). Very similar to Neural DSP and ML Sound Lab. It did still have a bug in the IR loader section which caused it to not save the selected IR when saving a preset and the oversampling didn't do anything at all. I wrote to them about this and they thanked me for pointing it out and said that they will fix this in the next update.

After getting the v2 update I also purchased their RVXX amp sim and the aIR impulse loader. I didn't like the tone of RVXX as much as Sigma but it is still a very good metal amp sim for $7! The aIR impulse loader is a very nice tool if you like to edit, blend and create your own IRs.

A few days ago they did update both Sigma and RVXX and I'm glad to say that the IR loader bug is gone and from what I can see with Plugin Doctor the oversampling works as it should now!

I'm a bit amazed over how fast they have improved from the first time I tried the old and awful amp sims to today when I use Sigma just as much as my (legit) Neural DSP plug-ins!

Lastly, if you haven't heard of or tried Sigma and RVXX I definitely recommend you to demo them (which you can do now) and if you like them they are regularly on sale for the insane price of $7. I think Audio Assault has really become a developer that's worth supporting!

Cheers

 

Last edited: Mar 1, 2021

https://www.audio-assault.com/plugins.php

 

Good review. The RVXX is modeled after a REVV amp. The rev Cab IR's I have a phenomenal & I really like Audio Assault's work.

I definitely recommend their plugins, they are dirt cheap but they do NOT sound dirt cheap. They are well worth it. Tones are great for guitar or bass depending on plugin.

 

Great plugins, especially Transient Shapers and D-Rez (Drum Resonance Remover)

 

Never tried D-Rez but the transient shaper is sick. I have a thing for bonking the transients over the head like a whack-a-mole. Truth be told, I reach for transient shapers over compressors in most situations.

That's just me though. Sounds like I need D-Rez, I love my ringy pig snout snares but it would be nice to tame those pig squeals coming off the snare ringing out into goat cheese territory like I make Gore Grind in the meat department of some grocery store.

I still do use compressors the traditional way too for peaking, downwards/upwards, NY... But I really love compressors for the colored character they carry with their weight.

Same for EQ's. I will always use surgical EQ's but then somewhere later in the fx chain I'll chuck in a hardware EQ emulation such as the AudioAssault FreakQ305, SSL or Maag.

I use a lot of Duality Bass, Sigma & RVXX. But also like my Multitransient & Hellbeast too.

 

Thanks, forgot the link as usual!

Been interested in buying the multi-transient and D-rez. Have been demoing multi-transient for a while and it's really handy sometimes, but I already have Boz Digital Transgressor 2 which can do all of that and then some. Might buy it and D-rez just to support them however

 

Newer amps are better. Cool!

 

100 times better. I was completely surprised by their 180 degree turn. Especially on bass.