Guitar Amp 3 support

[acg]

So few downloaded my vst (based on the box.net account status), I figured it did not need any support, but here it goes anyway. One person made a comment that they could not get a "sonically pleasing sound and it did not gel with them". Thank you for the feedback. It helped me focus on ways to try and improve upon the amp. After additional testing, addition of wave shaper and EQ would tend to cut the high ends and soften/warm the sounds. I am not sure if I would be allowed to make those kinds of changes, so I may have to reserve it for future versions.

To understand how the Guitar Amp Sim 3 works and was created the concept or schematic starts with a mono signal input (could be a wave or audio file or actual guitar). The signal passes thru a frequency splitter to break up the frequency domain into ranges and each frequency range is feed into a compressor module to both amplify and even out the sounds. These are the treble, mid, and bass controls. The signal is then passed thru a filter with just a cutoff adjustment to help shape the signal. The signal then goes thru an overdrive. The "Presence" control is just a FIR filter. The signal then goes thru an allpass filter into the "Brightness" control which is simply a parametric EQ with specific frequencies selected to enhance those for a lead guitar and those for a bass guitar (based on internet documents). The signal then goes into the distortion control, reverb, tremelo, and then a stereo amp. The mono signal is converted to stereo at the reverb section.

I hope this description will be useful to others who are more familar with guitar amps and maybe they can provide suggestions and improvements.

Thank you to all who have tried out the amp.

[Genetic_Junk]

Thanks for the explanation and the plugin. Unless this amp is only meant to create distorted sounds, the biggest problem is I can't get a clean sound out of it.

Other than that, the controls all appear to work. But the first time I loaded it, it put out an sin wave. I clicked around (sorry I don't remember exactly what I did) and eventually it sounded the way (I believe) it was intended.

Thanks again, I've got some interesting distorted sounds out it by running it in series with the reverb on the the first in the series.

[acg]

[quote]Gentic_Junk wrote:"But the first time I loaded it, it put out an sin wave". [/quote]

The sine wave is a 50 Hz sine wave that should come on only monentary and then shut off when turned on. It was an attempt to mimic the hum when an amplifier is first turned on. I think the out signal sounds need to be warmer and less distorted as you have pointed out and I can do that with a EQ or wave shaper added. Also, the compressor modules (tone controls - treble, mid, bass) after the frequency splitter probably need some work since the settings are static other than the gain control.

Thanks for giving it a try out. I will continue to work on it for a future release.

[Genetic_Junk]

This is probably a bug:

When I turn it on I hear the sin wave, but then nothing else is output. I have to switch to one of the other ten presets to get output or processing. After the switch, everything appears to work.

[acg]

Sorry Genetic-Junk, I miss understood what you were saying about the sine wave sound. As I have tried it out extensively in Sony Music Studio 7 and have not had that problem and have had only two other beta testers use it in other DAWs with no problems, can you tell me your set up? What DAW, audio input, etc.? This would be useful in tracking down the bug.

Thanks.

[Genetic_Junk]

Sorry Genetic-Junk, I miss understood what you were saying about the sine wave sound. As I have tried it out extensively in Sony Music Studio 7 and have not had that problem and have had only two other beta testers use it in other DAWs with no problems, can you tell me your set up? What DAW, audio input, etc.? This would be useful in tracking down the bug.

Thanks.

No worries. It was actually a user error on my part.

[harryupbabble]

Hello acg. I like your plugin. Do you mind if I make a video of it and upload it to YouTube?

[acg]

harryupbabble wrote:

Hello acg. I like your plugin. Do you mind if I make a video of it and upload it to YouTube?

That sounds cool, feel free. Any feedback from your use of it?

[harryupbabble]

Any feedback from your use of it?

Hi again acg. Oh yes, lots of feedback if plugging guitar directly. But with existing wave files, no problem at all. Works for me. Thanks very much.

[acg]

harryupbabble wrote:[quote]Oh yes, lots of feedback if plugging guitar directly.[/quote]

Sorry harryupbabble, I meant feedback as in suggestions, problems, improvements. Guess I need to be more careful in using the word "feedback" when referenceing the guitar amp. lol. :wink:

[harryupbabble]

I meant feedback as in suggestions, problems, improvements. Guess I need to be more careful in using the word "feedback" when referenceing the guitar amp. lol.

Hahaha. Oh that feedback. Okay, it would be nice to have less feedback. How is feedback possible anyways? Virtual amps producing virtual feedbacks?

[acg]

I know that when the reverb is set too high on certain presets or configurations, that can lead to audio feedback of the amp sim. Also, because the brightness control is an EQ that boosts certain frequencies, high level settings could lead to feedback as well. I will probably need to look at adding limiters and logrithmic scaling of some of the control settings in future releases.

Thanks again harryupbabble for trying it out and providing valuable information on the Guitar Amp Sim 3 performamce.

[harryupbabble]

I know that when the reverb is set too high on certain presets or configurations, that can lead to audio feedback of the amp sim. Also, because the brightness control is an EQ that boosts certain frequencies, high level settings could lead to feedback as well. I will probably need to look at adding limiters and logrithmic scaling of some of the control settings in future releases.

Hi acg. I am now almost sure that what I experienced was NOT really feedback. I am new to Windows 7 and I think my microphone volume was just set too high. I don't usually plug my guitar directly into the microphone jack and Windows 7 is kind of different from Windows XP in terms of audio and where everything used to be. As a VST user, it kind of sucks that I or us nontech types have to learn all these new OS things when all I want to do is use technology and make silly songs. Sorry for my babbling, I am just killing time waiting for Ableton Live demo to finish downloading. It's huge, 1.3 GB. Anyways, thanks.

[acg]

Harryupbabble - thanks for your very well done youtube video of my Guitar Amp 3 plugin in use. I also noticed you did several videos for others as well. Thanks for taking the time and effort to do these.

-acg2010 aka Ph D(J)

[harryupbabble]

Harryupbabble - thanks for your very well done youtube video of my Guitar Amp 3 plugin in use. I also noticed you did several videos for others as well. Thanks for taking the time and effort to do these.

-acg2010 aka Ph D(J)

Oh hey you are welcome acg2010. Just my way of showing appreciation to something I might use anyways. I like your blues preset. It made me wonder how you did that because I have a cheap electric guitar and a cheap amplifier and I couldn't create a blues preset if I wanted to. I would probably need better guitar and better amplifier and pedal effects and I would probably need some kind of hardware or detector to adjust and match my amplifier sound perfectly to a famous blues guitar sound. Or could it all be done by ear alone? It's amazing.