Overloud just released TH-U 1.3 featuring a new CAB section.
https://www.overloud.com/news/fluid-con ... n-unveiled
The Alternatives (add any sims I might have missed ):
NeuralDSP
STLTones
Amplitube 5
Guitar Rig 6
Nembrini/Brainworx
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TSE Audio X50 2
Fuse Audio Labs F-59
Sknote TwinR and Deluxe1
Overloud TH-U 1.3 Versus
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- KVRist
- 491 posts since 14 Aug, 2012
I was a big fan of TH-U already (and am sure I will continue to be after this release), but if we're just listing alternatives, there's also Kuassa's terrific suite of products.
Personally speaking, I have and use many of the above, and find they all are enjoyable and usable, depending on my specific mood and purpose. I'm done trying to figure out the "best;" the only solution is to have them all!
Personally speaking, I have and use many of the above, and find they all are enjoyable and usable, depending on my specific mood and purpose. I'm done trying to figure out the "best;" the only solution is to have them all!
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- KVRist
- 113 posts since 22 May, 2020
I just sold TH-U, as I decided to try hardware modelers. Before I did, while still using TH-U, I did a lot of comparisons. I used Ownhammer cabs with TH-U, and did most comparing with the Heavy Hitters, and the rEvolution cabs.
- Amplitube 5 - I felt very disappointed. I couldn't get it to sound good, no matter how hard I tried. I could not get it to channel the feel of playing an amp. It didn't feel right.
- Guitar Rig - it's not really a guitar amp simulator. It's more of an FX rack, and it's dank good at being that. It's a very mediocre guitar amp simulator, though.
- STL AmpHub - very nice amps, good choice of pedals, good amp feel, easy to get good tones. It doesn't offer anything particularly original or extraordinary, but the it's the first time I considered a subscription model, as I was buying a rig or 2 a month from Overloud anyway.
- Brainworx - Engl sims are great, but the Mesas are meh. The Mesa and sound like they had a blanket put around the cab, even with OwnHammer cabs. It just lacked a lot detail in the high end. The Engl Savage 120, however, is a beast. Amazing tones, huge range of sounds, sounds great with no boost, detailed and complex harmonics all over the spectrum, and a pleasant feel. A winner in the Engl tone department for sure.
- Mercuriall - all their stuff is really good. Great amp feel, boost pedals included, ok on-board cabs, overall, a package worth the price tag. However, they do not allow license transfers at all, so I would not buy. Also, CPU load was high for me, which seems to stem from the complex white-box modeling they seem to do.
- Kuassa - Matchlock, Caliburn and Clarent are all amazing. The older ones are ok, but nothing to write home about. There's no real modern high gain options among their products, so they may not be exactly for me, but I ended up buying Matchlock, Caliburn and one I can't remember the name of (the metal one, not my type of tone, but it's ok too). All of their amps have great amp-like feel, but sound rather raw on their own.
- Neural DSP - oh, the hype around their plugins... I was sold on the hype too, and bought Archetype Nolly, and Parallax later. I sold Nolly later on, but use Parallax to this day for bass. Supposedly, their amps sound next-gen, ultra realistic, amazing, etc., people call them best in market, and, I admit, that they're good. However, compare them to any other ampsim using the same IRs, and it becomes evident, that their amp sims are not the secret. It's the IRs. I'd at them to get my hands on those IR files for sure. All in all, very good sims.
- TH-U - so, how does TH-U compare to the others? I decided it sounded best to me. The amp feel was top of the line, and so were the tones I was getting. Some Rig Libraries were worth the price of the whole TH-U. The range of tones is huge, and it's got a lot of features and routing options.
- Vadim Taranov AKA VTarAmps - very cheap in terms of price, but sound as good as it gets. Those, however, are just amp sims, no cab IR loader, no pedals. Just real good ampsims. Check out his Tourmafrost, the Marshalls, RedTone, and the rest. All are too notch.
Honestly, I feel I could record, or play live with any of these ampsims. Of course, TH-U or Amplitube, with their feature sets, midi control, etc., would make better contenders in terms of Live playing, but you can set up any one of these with a good can IR, and sound amazing in stage or in studio.
- Amplitube 5 - I felt very disappointed. I couldn't get it to sound good, no matter how hard I tried. I could not get it to channel the feel of playing an amp. It didn't feel right.
- Guitar Rig - it's not really a guitar amp simulator. It's more of an FX rack, and it's dank good at being that. It's a very mediocre guitar amp simulator, though.
- STL AmpHub - very nice amps, good choice of pedals, good amp feel, easy to get good tones. It doesn't offer anything particularly original or extraordinary, but the it's the first time I considered a subscription model, as I was buying a rig or 2 a month from Overloud anyway.
- Brainworx - Engl sims are great, but the Mesas are meh. The Mesa and sound like they had a blanket put around the cab, even with OwnHammer cabs. It just lacked a lot detail in the high end. The Engl Savage 120, however, is a beast. Amazing tones, huge range of sounds, sounds great with no boost, detailed and complex harmonics all over the spectrum, and a pleasant feel. A winner in the Engl tone department for sure.
- Mercuriall - all their stuff is really good. Great amp feel, boost pedals included, ok on-board cabs, overall, a package worth the price tag. However, they do not allow license transfers at all, so I would not buy. Also, CPU load was high for me, which seems to stem from the complex white-box modeling they seem to do.
- Kuassa - Matchlock, Caliburn and Clarent are all amazing. The older ones are ok, but nothing to write home about. There's no real modern high gain options among their products, so they may not be exactly for me, but I ended up buying Matchlock, Caliburn and one I can't remember the name of (the metal one, not my type of tone, but it's ok too). All of their amps have great amp-like feel, but sound rather raw on their own.
- Neural DSP - oh, the hype around their plugins... I was sold on the hype too, and bought Archetype Nolly, and Parallax later. I sold Nolly later on, but use Parallax to this day for bass. Supposedly, their amps sound next-gen, ultra realistic, amazing, etc., people call them best in market, and, I admit, that they're good. However, compare them to any other ampsim using the same IRs, and it becomes evident, that their amp sims are not the secret. It's the IRs. I'd at them to get my hands on those IR files for sure. All in all, very good sims.
- TH-U - so, how does TH-U compare to the others? I decided it sounded best to me. The amp feel was top of the line, and so were the tones I was getting. Some Rig Libraries were worth the price of the whole TH-U. The range of tones is huge, and it's got a lot of features and routing options.
- Vadim Taranov AKA VTarAmps - very cheap in terms of price, but sound as good as it gets. Those, however, are just amp sims, no cab IR loader, no pedals. Just real good ampsims. Check out his Tourmafrost, the Marshalls, RedTone, and the rest. All are too notch.
Honestly, I feel I could record, or play live with any of these ampsims. Of course, TH-U or Amplitube, with their feature sets, midi control, etc., would make better contenders in terms of Live playing, but you can set up any one of these with a good can IR, and sound amazing in stage or in studio.
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- KVRian
- 901 posts since 29 Jul, 2008
My experiences exactly
I never heard about the VTarAmps, tried the "Mars" and simply amazing!
I tried it with the Nolly cab. sim. -
- KVRist
- 146 posts since 28 Jul, 2020
I can get some great tones out of TH-U out of the box, however, the actual device graphics look slightly blurry and the scale of the devices makes it look cartoonish - for example the large pedals compared to the amps etc. (I prefer the Helix Native UI) There are some great presets and I really haven't explored it as much as I should - mainly due to the option paralysis. To practice and play - I usually end up grabbing Neural plugins for their simplicity.
With regards to Neural DSP - I own their Plini and Cali, I find Plini is good as a standalone due to the included effects, Cali not that much. But both of them sit well in a mix.
I have now switched to a hardware modeler - Hx stomp which is very convenient for me for headphone practice ( no bothering with audio interface, laptop issues, lag / dropouts etc.) and sounds comparable to the software modelers above (to me
).
With regards to Neural DSP - I own their Plini and Cali, I find Plini is good as a standalone due to the included effects, Cali not that much. But both of them sit well in a mix.
I have now switched to a hardware modeler - Hx stomp which is very convenient for me for headphone practice ( no bothering with audio interface, laptop issues, lag / dropouts etc.) and sounds comparable to the software modelers above (to me
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- KVRist
- 33 posts since 6 Sep, 2011
Well, I don't see anything special in that new cab section, it's same IR's, just with smooth transition between differnt IRs.
I think TH-U has some nice things, like great dynamic response, especially on clean and overdrive sounds, but generally quite weak for metal and the Rig Player is a huge disappointment, completely doesn't live up to expectations (and yes, the extra rig libraries are just as bad as the ones in the demo version, so if you don't like the demo, no need to explore it further).
Nowadays I mostly use Archetype Nolly because it's most versatile - the clean, overdrive and metal amps are all excellent and you can configure a separate cab setting for each, so it's easy to switch between sounds. And I disagree with previous comment that the strength is in IRs - actually, in my opinion all stock IRs in all amp sims are pretty mediocre. I always use 3rd party ones.
Mercuriall sims are great too, but I still use Nolly just for convenience of having all the sounds I need in one plugin, without jumping between different plugins.
Most of the other plugins are usually not comparable with NeuralDSP/Mercuriall and even TH-U. Amplitube has a few of really great individual amps (I actually like their Bogner Exctasy in the latest version even better than Mercuriall's), but mostly it's not great. The latest plugin from ML Sound Lab is also good, but so far it's the only one with their new engine.
I think TH-U has some nice things, like great dynamic response, especially on clean and overdrive sounds, but generally quite weak for metal and the Rig Player is a huge disappointment, completely doesn't live up to expectations (and yes, the extra rig libraries are just as bad as the ones in the demo version, so if you don't like the demo, no need to explore it further).
Nowadays I mostly use Archetype Nolly because it's most versatile - the clean, overdrive and metal amps are all excellent and you can configure a separate cab setting for each, so it's easy to switch between sounds. And I disagree with previous comment that the strength is in IRs - actually, in my opinion all stock IRs in all amp sims are pretty mediocre. I always use 3rd party ones.
Mercuriall sims are great too, but I still use Nolly just for convenience of having all the sounds I need in one plugin, without jumping between different plugins.
Most of the other plugins are usually not comparable with NeuralDSP/Mercuriall and even TH-U. Amplitube has a few of really great individual amps (I actually like their Bogner Exctasy in the latest version even better than Mercuriall's), but mostly it's not great. The latest plugin from ML Sound Lab is also good, but so far it's the only one with their new engine.
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Echoes in the Attic Echoes in the Attic https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=180417
- KVRAF
- 11054 posts since 12 May, 2008
I found TH-U to be a little too muddy. It was good with a very bright pre-amp and coils, like the bridge of a strat, but took a lot of tweaking otherwise. I definitely prefer Kuassa and Amplitube. With Amplitube 5 being such a better interface I'm not sure I need Kuassa anymore either. I think Amplitube sounds great. I haven't found much that I prefer.
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- KVRer
- 5 posts since 22 Jun, 2020
I have the previous version of THU which I always liked but I really feel like Neural is on top of the game currently. The downside is everything is individually priced but for me it sits best in the mix. I have Plini, Cory Wong, SLO100, Nolly and Darkglass. Also with the Quad Cortex option, I really feel like its a great option for long term investment. I will have to check TH-U v 1.3
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- KVRist
- 130 posts since 13 Sep, 2005
Prefer TH-U to Neural myself.
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- KVRist
- 146 posts since 28 Jul, 2020
TH-U 1.4 has had a lot of updates recently and has re-kindled my interest in the suite. As a bonus all full users recently got updated to the Premium version with the SuperCabinet. Anyone play with it yet? - Looks very cool!
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- KVRist
- 86 posts since 25 Feb, 2016
just bought Overloud's Super Cabinet.
I like the UI. with the TH-U thing installed, I may check out their stuff piecemeal.
I still swear by their Mark Studio 2 for bass.
Dusted off my Kuassa Caliburn and Matchlock - good GOD these are nice.
I own a LOT of the Neural stuff - i got swept up with the hype early on - a tad overrated IMO.
I really like Amplitube 5 - I can match Neural tone and feel easily.
Another top developer is Nembrini.
Blue Cat Destructor is great too.
I like the UI. with the TH-U thing installed, I may check out their stuff piecemeal.
I still swear by their Mark Studio 2 for bass.
Dusted off my Kuassa Caliburn and Matchlock - good GOD these are nice.
I own a LOT of the Neural stuff - i got swept up with the hype early on - a tad overrated IMO.
I really like Amplitube 5 - I can match Neural tone and feel easily.
Another top developer is Nembrini.
Blue Cat Destructor is great too.
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- KVRist
- 133 posts since 3 Sep, 2005 from Venezuela
The whole Overloud TH series has been one of the best things that has happened to me in my life as a guitarist. From TH-1 to the amazing TH-U the evolution in my sound and tone is absolute.
I am now upgraded to TH-U Premium 1.4.2 with Super Cabinet is like a dream of variations and models with an infinite palette of sonic possibilities. Among the tips I recommend, for example in case of a quick audio work, by simply disabling the amp and speaker simulation you can use TH-U as an effects suite for other instruments and audio sources, with amazing results.
It can also be used to add some drive, saturation and compression effects to analog and digital synth leads, wave tables and samples. It is indescribable the result of cleverly adding a little valve heating directly from a guitar amp.
here's a sweet blues guitar tone that I got from TH-U in the blink of an eye
OVERLOUD TH-U BLUES TONE by CEA
https://bit.ly/2RtGQr3
I am now upgraded to TH-U Premium 1.4.2 with Super Cabinet is like a dream of variations and models with an infinite palette of sonic possibilities. Among the tips I recommend, for example in case of a quick audio work, by simply disabling the amp and speaker simulation you can use TH-U as an effects suite for other instruments and audio sources, with amazing results.
It can also be used to add some drive, saturation and compression effects to analog and digital synth leads, wave tables and samples. It is indescribable the result of cleverly adding a little valve heating directly from a guitar amp.
here's a sweet blues guitar tone that I got from TH-U in the blink of an eye
OVERLOUD TH-U BLUES TONE by CEA
https://bit.ly/2RtGQr3
Last edited by Jazzguitar on Mon Jun 07, 2021 7:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRer
- 4 posts since 7 Jun, 2021
There are a lot of really good pieces of advice in this forum. I'm working on upgrading my sound from using Ableton stock plugins this month.
I have really been enjoying ownhammer IRs but am new to almost all the rest of this besides guitar rig and amplitube which I played with both a long time ago.
I usually felt frustrated at getting good amp sim out of it and have since discovered that a lot of the key to good tone for me is stacking saturators, dynamic tubes, compressors, etc.
I have really been enjoying ownhammer IRs but am new to almost all the rest of this besides guitar rig and amplitube which I played with both a long time ago.
I usually felt frustrated at getting good amp sim out of it and have since discovered that a lot of the key to good tone for me is stacking saturators, dynamic tubes, compressors, etc.
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Danilo Villanova Danilo Villanova https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=418331
- KVRian
- 989 posts since 30 Apr, 2018
An underrated gem: STL Tonality Howard Benson. Sounded better to me than all the others I tried (most of the big ones) and the blend of amps you get is very versatile.
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- KVRAF
- 10360 posts since 3 Feb, 2003 from Finland, Espoo
I find the Overloud website quite confusing when it comes to TH-U. What is the entry level product in this range? What is the least I can pay to get some kind of longer test for the software?
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot
