Guitar Suite

Being a guitarist first and foremost, I was interested to see what this suite of plug-ins has to offer.

So first things first - pull out a popular twin humbucker guitar and head straight for the Marshall. The sound is good, not unlike a lot of the modern solid-state amps you get today, but definately has that Marshall grunt behind it. The reverbs are like the spring units you find in 'real' amps, so it's weird hearing them in a software environment usually populated by TC and Waves. You forget that this is what amp reverbs actually sound like... oh and you really don't need any more controls, since this is what the original has.

Next, it's a strat into the Fender Twin. Great combination, and combine with a tape delay (eg karlette) for some vintage surf. The vibrato stands out as a runaway success on this emulation - a lot better than most plug-ins.

The Boss distortion boxes are all okay, but the TS9 is a lot better for those SRV moments. I'm also loving the Univibe (cue lots of renditions of Little Wing and Shine On...) and the PS-1. Would have preferred an MXR90 or Small Stone, but the sound is far better than a lot of phaser emulations.

No Documentation, but then do you really need it? The lack of GUI isn't a problem either - the sound is what counts. Overall, CPU useage is low and a good zero-latency setup allows for realtime listening, which is great. The sounds available are easy to mix with - no harsh digital-ness or other quirks, so for people wanting a decent guitar sound without the need for Amps, Mics and Mixers, should look no further. Best of all, it's free.Read Review