Black Rooster Audio releases FREE AMP PLUG-IN Cypress TT-15

[Autobot]

Sorry, will not create an account just for downloading.

Oh, you would have created an account to get a plug-in for free and you would have supported a new company and you would have provided statistical information that would have helped to make even better plug-ins that fulfill the wishes of many users. Not necessarily fair - but ok. Thanks for your interest.

How do I support a company by creating an account? Which statistical information do you try to gather via an account? Also I think many people do not give their real data via registration process.

[...] For anyone who doesn't want to spend a couple of minutes registering to get this plugin... your loss!

It's not only about the registration it' also about the messy installer. The installer spits files everywhere. I'm glad I was sandboxing the install process. All in all very bad implementation.

[zeep]

I registered back when i wanted to demo the la3a. Though i agree many users would prefer not to register, you can get by inputting minimal information if you wish. All in all it just takes a minute or two, the same time as doing a quick post in this thread i guess.

About messy installers, i believe Melda holds that title .
Most times i use an exe extractor and then drag the files to the correct folders.

[martinjuenke]

I became curious as I read that the download and installation process shall be a messy one.
So I did the whole process by myself right now.
Oh wonder! Everything went smoothly.

Can not understand why some people here are trolling around.
They should bring their computer system into an orderly state and not pointing at certain devs with their greasy fingers!

It's okay to be critical, but before attacking others they should do their homework...

[BlackRooster]

Sorry, will not create an account just for downloading.

Oh, you would have created an account to get a plug-in for free and you would have supported a new company and you would have provided statistical information that would have helped to make even better plug-ins that fulfill the wishes of many users. Not necessarily fair - but ok. Thanks for your interest.

How do I support a company by creating an account? Which statistical information do you try to gather via an account? Also I think many people do not give their real data via registration process.

[...] For anyone who doesn't want to spend a couple of minutes registering to get this plugin... your loss!

It's not only about the registration it' also about the messy installer. The installer spits files everywhere. I'm glad I was sandboxing the install process. All in all very bad implementation.

Oh really?

We're placing our manuals, base plug-in library and our uninstaller in /Applications/Black Rooster Audio on Mac and C:\Program Files\Black Rooster Audio on Windows while the plug-in shells are placed in the respective plug-in folders. I don't see what's so uncommon about that or how "our installer spits files everywhere". Please please please, get your facts straight.

Everyone who doesn't like our stuff can run the uninstaller and it will clean-up everything that has been copied during the installation process.

[martinjuenke]

Everyone who doesn't like our stuff can run the uninstaller and it will clean-up everything that has been copied during the installation process.

To include an installer is an honest move which not many plugin developers do.
Respect for treating your customers fairly.

[AegisPrime]

We're placing our manuals, base plug-in library and our uninstaller in /Applications/Black Rooster Audio on Mac and C:\Program Files\Black Rooster Audio on Windows while the plug-in shells are placed in the respective plug-in folders. I don't see what's so uncommon about that or how "our installer spits files everywhere". Please please please, get your facts straight.

Alternatively (on Windows) if you don't like using installers for plugins (I don't) you can use Innounp to extract the files and place them manually (Cypress TT-15.dll in your plugins folder and Black Rooster Audio/Black Rooster Audio.dll in the same folder).

[Detch]

you became far more confident then people who actually used or currently using this amp in real life.

Who in this train-wreck of a thread said he/she is actually using one? Care to come up with an actual quote?

If I can be actually bothered to do so and find the time for it I'll try one in a local store.

Me. I used to have this amp in my studio practice room. It has not enough head room to consider for cleans. It's getting too quiet for gigs or rehearsals when you turn down the gain knob to make it sound clean. So it's better to use guitar volume knob, or volume pedal in front of it. Reat TT is one of the last amps I'll choose for clean tones in real life.
Cypress has quite similar behavior, nothing wrong with it.

[AC222]

Same experience here from using the real Tiny Terror. You can't get a clean sound with humbuckers unless they have like no output. Still difficult to get anything clean out of it with single coils. Really would have to roll back on the volume knob. I wonder how many quotes it would take to convince someone that has never played the real thing that the behavior is similar lol.

[Compyfox]

Maybe this video will help though, AC222:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wNOK-JoXHc

Granted, not the "Anniversary" version, but it clearly shows how a HB would respond compared to a SC. Time-Frame from 1:57 to 5:33 is the TT-15.





I just installed this thing myself, and man... where to start.

Sound wise, I have barely any complaints ("clean" to "slightly crunch" range is indeed a bit small - but oh well - never played the hardware, but I do understand the limitations of such devices). Other than that, the 2x12 cabinet sounding a bit too thin thin to be honest, also with very accented mids.

I don't know what you used as source (please add that to the manual) - but honestly, I ultimately plugged Two Notes Torpedo WoS-III after the amp, selected one of the many Celestions ?x12's (V30s, Greenbacks or Alnico Blue ones) and then messed with the "Overload" feature to get more lowend and less... "quack" (realized, the best combo with this particular amp is a slightly/30% overloaded Suhr Badger 2x12” OB Warehouse Veteran30 cabinet, called "Ferret" in WoS-III).

And did you really model the power amp? Although the TT-15 Anniversary uses EL84's - which does take a while until you overload them and things start to sag. But even in "Hi" mode (well, 15W), it's not really apparent? (sorry, can't describe it any better)



But that aside... I have more issues with the installation in general.

I don't mind creating a user account (unless I get spammed with mails I don't want), however...

• so not digging the "download one installer, get all plugins" route. I already dislike this with IKMultimedia, Softube, Slate Digital, what-have-you. Though granted, we're currently only talking 70MB for Windows, but still... can't I just download what I want?
• this then goes on with the installer - it does NOT indicate me, that it will create a subfolder called "Black Rooster Audio" on top of the folder you select. So I have two subfolders for your plugins now (in fact, Cubase lists: Black Rooster Audio > Stereo > Plugins - even on Mono Channels!)
• doesn't end there... the only plugin in this subfolder is a "Wrapper" - that calls "what else is on the HDD". Now while this is definitely a more cleaned up plugin folder, I hate wrappers with a passion (Waves, anyone?!). Why can't I just have one DLL per tool?
• speaking of which... I deselected 32bit versions - why are they still installed on to my HDD?!

The Call & Response (C/R) copy protection is a matter of debate. I'm the most worried about the company going belly up, or me reinstalling the rig and then the C/R engine messaging "nope, can't address you a license - since you've already installed this on another 'device', etc". This then means: contact the company, wait for a response, get this fixed, yadda yadda. To me, C/R is the MOST INTRUSIVE and annoying engine out there. At least there is an offline installation scheme for "offline rigs" (yes, they still exist!).

I understand the problem with warez, but it's not like your system is save (just hit google with the company name and one additional keyword!). So "trust in our users" good and fine, but... yeah. At least the activation was fairly hassle free (although I had to do this for each plugin individually).


Another thing that kind of annoys me, is the slightly sluggish UI behavior. Don't know where this is coming from though: even though I'm using a 1st Gen i7, it's still a bit "slow". SSE issues maybe? (Cubase 7.5.40 x64)

Also... the UI design, while beautiful to look at... don't know if there needs to be such a big border (Canary especially).




Summary:
Definitely a nice freebie, will add to my "tone collection" with all the other virtual amps I currently have on my HDD. But the turn off (for me) is the installation and C/R.

[AC222]

Maybe this video will help though, AC222:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wNOK-JoXHc

Granted, not the "Anniversary" version, but it clearly shows how a HB would respond compared to a SC. Time-Frame from 1:57 to 5:33 is the TT-15.





I just installed this thing myself, and man... where to start.

Sound wise, I have barely any complaints ("clean" to "slightly crunch" range is indeed a bit small - but oh well - never played the hardware, but I do understand the limitations of such devices). Other than that, the 2x12 cabinet sounding a bit too thin thin to be honest, also with very accented mids.

I don't know what you used as source (please add that to the manual) - but honestly, I ultimately plugged Two Notes Torpedo WoS-III after the amp, selected one of the many Celestions ?x12's (V30s, Greenbacks or Alnico Blue ones) and then messed with the "Overload" feature to get more lowend and less... "quack" (realized, the best combo with this particular amp is a slightly/30% overloaded Suhr Badger 2x12” OB Warehouse Veteran30 cabinet, called "Ferret" in WoS-III).

And did you really model the power amp? Although the TT-15 Anniversary uses EL84's - which does take a while until you overload them and things start to sag. But even in "Hi" mode (well, 15W), it's not really apparent? (sorry, can't describe it any better)



But that aside... I have more issues with the installation in general.

I don't mind creating a user account (unless I get spammed with mails I don't want), however...

• so not digging the "download one installer, get all plugins" route. I already dislike this with IKMultimedia, Softube, Slate Digital, what-have-you. Though granted, we're currently only talking 70MB for Windows, but still... can't I just download what I want?
• this then goes on with the installer - it does NOT indicate me, that it will create a subfolder called "Black Rooster Audio" on top of the folder you select. So I have two subfolders for your plugins now (in fact, Cubase lists: Black Rooster Audio > Stereo > Plugins - even on Mono Channels!)
• doesn't end there... the only plugin in this subfolder is a "Wrapper" - that calls "what else is on the HDD". Now while this is definitely a more cleaned up plugin folder, I hate wrappers with a passion (Waves, anyone?!). Why can't I just have one DLL per tool?
• speaking of which... I deselected 32bit versions - why are they still installed on to my HDD?!

The Call & Response (C/R) copy protection is a matter of debate. I'm the most worried about the company going belly up, or me reinstalling the rig and then the C/R engine messaging "nope, can't address you a license - since you've already installed this on another 'device', etc". This then means: contact the company, wait for a response, get this fixed, yadda yadda. To me, C/R is the MOST INTRUSIVE and annoying engine out there. At least there is an offline installation scheme for "offline rigs" (yes, they still exist!).

I understand the problem with warez, but it's not like your system is save (just hit google with the company name and one additional keyword!). So "trust in our users" good and fine, but... yeah. At least the activation was fairly hassle free (although I had to do this for each plugin individually).


Another thing that kind of annoys me, is the slightly sluggish UI behavior. Don't know where this is coming from though: even though I'm using a 1st Gen i7, it's still a bit "slow". SSE issues maybe? (Cubase 7.5.40 x64)

Also... the UI design, while beautiful to look at... don't know if there needs to be such a big border (Canary especially).




Summary:
Definitely a nice freebie, will add to my "tone collection" with all the other virtual amps I currently have on my HDD. But the turn off (for me) is the installation and C/R.

Thanks Compyfox. I like your posts but I'm not hearing anything in there that I would want to use for clean. It all sounds "slightly broken up at best". When I think of clean, I am thinking something with more headroom. Rivera amps like the K Tre and KR7 have glorious cleans. So do many Fender models. The Roland Jazz Chorus is very clean. Every VHT/Fryette model has very clean cleans even if slightly clinical sounding. I guess I'm just a picky bastard when it comes to guitar tones.

[BlackRooster]

Sound wise, I have barely any complaints ("clean" to "slightly crunch" range is indeed a bit small - but oh well - never played the hardware, but I do understand the limitations of such devices). Other than that, the 2x12 cabinet sounding a bit too thin thin to be honest, also with very accented mids.

I don't know what you used as source (please add that to the manual) - but honestly, I ultimately plugged Two Notes Torpedo WoS-III after the amp, selected one of the many Celestions ?x12's (V30s, Greenbacks or Alnico Blue ones) and then messed with the "Overload" feature to get more lowend and less... "quack" (realized, the best combo with this particular amp is a slightly/30% overloaded Suhr Badger 2x12” OB Warehouse Veteran30 cabinet, called "Ferret" in WoS-III).

And did you really model the power amp? Although the TT-15 Anniversary uses EL84's - which does take a while until you overload them and things start to sag. But even in "Hi" mode (well, 15W), it's not really apparent? (sorry, can't describe it any better)



But that aside... I have more issues with the installation in general.

I don't mind creating a user account (unless I get spammed with mails I don't want), however...

• so not digging the "download one installer, get all plugins" route. I already dislike this with IKMultimedia, Softube, Slate Digital, what-have-you. Though granted, we're currently only talking 70MB for Windows, but still... can't I just download what I want?
• this then goes on with the installer - it does NOT indicate me, that it will create a subfolder called "Black Rooster Audio" on top of the folder you select. So I have two subfolders for your plugins now (in fact, Cubase lists: Black Rooster Audio > Stereo > Plugins - even on Mono Channels!)
• doesn't end there... the only plugin in this subfolder is a "Wrapper" - that calls "what else is on the HDD". Now while this is definitely a more cleaned up plugin folder, I hate wrappers with a passion (Waves, anyone?!). Why can't I just have one DLL per tool?
• speaking of which... I deselected 32bit versions - why are they still installed on to my HDD?!

The Call & Response (C/R) copy protection is a matter of debate. I'm the most worried about the company going belly up, or me reinstalling the rig and then the C/R engine messaging "nope, can't address you a license - since you've already installed this on another 'device', etc". This then means: contact the company, wait for a response, get this fixed, yadda yadda. To me, C/R is the MOST INTRUSIVE and annoying engine out there. At least there is an offline installation scheme for "offline rigs" (yes, they still exist!).

I understand the problem with warez, but it's not like your system is save (just hit google with the company name and one additional keyword!). So "trust in our users" good and fine, but... yeah. At least the activation was fairly hassle free (although I had to do this for each plugin individually).


Another thing that kind of annoys me, is the slightly sluggish UI behavior. Don't know where this is coming from though: even though I'm using a 1st Gen i7, it's still a bit "slow". SSE issues maybe? (Cubase 7.5.40 x64)

Also... the UI design, while beautiful to look at... don't know if there needs to be such a big border (Canary especially).


Summary:
Definitely a nice freebie, will add to my "tone collection" with all the other virtual amps I currently have on my HDD. But the turn off (for me) is the installation and C/R.

Hi Compyfox,

thanks for the very detailed and factual reply. We'll address some of your points and we think that your post contains plenty of good customer feedback.

On the sound of the built-in cabinet: You have to go for something and I guess you see why we can't provide a whole library of different cabinets in a free plug-in. So we went for something that's usable over a wide variety of styles (hopefully) and that cuts through in the mix. Tonal aspects are always a matter of taste so we can't serve everyone, especially with a freebie.

If you hate wrappers with a passion: Simply check the "Legacy VST support" option on the installer's customize page and it will install the individual dlls in your VST folder instead of the wrapper. More details can be read on our FAQ page: https://blackroosteraudio.com/faq.html under "Your plug-ins don't show up in my plug-in folder, why is that?".
We're working on at least improving the documentation and wording so the installation process becomes a little more transparent, but we simply won't agree on false and blunt statements like "Your installer spits files everywhere".

The reason for choosing a shell based system has to do with maintainability considerations and also with the fact that we don't want our installer to blow up with every plug-in we add (given that we'd have to store every plug-in in multiple different formats). The reason for still installing the 32-bit base plug-in dlls even though you deselected 32-bit VST support: Someone could wish to install only 64-bit VST while he's also working in ProTools 10, so he would also select 32-bit AAX support. In this case the base plug-ins that are wrapped into different formats would have to be provided in both bitnesses so they can be loaded into 32-bit Pro Tools and 64-bit Cubase, kind of technical, but I think you get the point.
We discussed that topic with our beta testers as they also brought it up and I agree the logic could be improved here, so 32-bits is only installed when really necessarry. Providing split installers could also be an option. At least the wrapper itself will only be installed in 32-bits / 64-bits however, depending on your selection. It's on the list and we plan to improve that in the future.

We accept your criticism on the C/R protocol: It's never an easy decision for a new company which road to take in terms of copy protection, with all the involved aspects (cost, how much will cracks hurt your company's development, how will it affect user experience... etc.). What you see is simply the product of our considerations on what works best for us and the vast majority of our customers at this moment. Of course, we're always striving to improve our activation system including the documentation that goes along with it. We recommend to activate a USB key if you're working on offline rig and fear the loss of licenses.

Again, thanks for your feedback!

[Eleventh]

How do I support a company by creating an account? Which statistical information do you try to gather via an account? Also I think many people do not give their real data via registration process.

I believe the information gathering is done at the C/R stage, where in order to recieve the response code, you send them a hash that likely contains detailed information about your system.

[rasmusklump]

I have not found a way to authorize an USB Stick on the Q&A Page

[Lesha]

I have not found a way to authorize an USB Stick on the Q&A Page

There are 2 offline authorization methods:

@ 3:17 Offline - C/R
@ 5:08 Offline - My account

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8Q5W4saOSY

[Lesha]

I have not found a way to authorize an USB Stick on the Q&A Page

There is also an offline authorization explained on their FAQ page.
https://blackroosteraudio.com/faq.html