KVR Audio

jips123 · Post by **jips123** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:15 am

First of all I think IK deserves praise for its courage to show these riffs "naked".

Secondly, I think these riffs sound rather good, unprocessed as these are. Don't forget you can "oomph" them up in a track. A comparison with PODxt/Tonelab like devices is unfair since these devices give processed sounds right out the box. But you cannot "unprocess" these devices.

I look forward to AT2's release autumn 2006.....

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:26 am

Of course you can "unprocess" PODXT and ToneLab tones.

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:35 am

Er.. the Pod 2.0 tones are definitely not processed a great deal. You have the basic tone controls for bass, mid, and treble, you get a basic reverb, and you can compress the signal.

But you do not get any further EQing and the compression can be beaten by many VST plugins (the GCO-1 Golden Compressor for example)

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 7:03 am

As said in the other thread, I don't miss any "oomph", but I seriously miss the kind of nastyness you get from miced amps.
Seems as if people doing amp sims are making them sound "nice" (which the AT2 demos are). But "nice" isn't what you'll be getting from a properly miced Plexi. You'll rather be getting a harsh sound in most cases. But it'll cut through a mix brilliantly and things also won't get all wishy-washy when you doubletrack.

kilroy · Post by **kilroy** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 7:33 am

Amen Sacha.

I miss the sounds of pain and destuction...the general sound of things being wrecked. It's just soooo good that way...

putte · Post by **putte** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 11:00 am

jips123 wrote:I look forward to AT2's release autumn 2006.....

.. don´t hold your breath, mate ..

championrabbit · Post by **championrabbit** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 1:38 pm

Completely agree with several of you about the sludginess of the overdriven clips; how you'd get these to cut through a mix other than by turning your drums into tin-pots and your bass into an rubber band, I have no idea!

There's no 'brittle' quality to the sounds; no upper-mids. Plenty of cymbal-wrecking fizz though, and loads of pointless 'chunk' that'll only have to be high-passed out...

To me it sounds exactly like what a teenager dials-in (me included) when they first start playing (maybe with a band) and before learning that actually guitars are all about mid-frequencies, and not in fact about fizz and chunk.

AT2 sounds like it was inspired by the mix of 'And Justice For All' in fact! Maybe they've designed it for people who don't like bass-players!!

I've heard the JCM sounds on GR2, and that has far more to offer in terms of mid to high-mid character.

I think it'd be a real challenge to make a success of a rock-mix using those sounds as the basic guitar sounds.

championrabbit · Post by **championrabbit** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 1:53 pm

OK, I've been looking at some of these clips on a spectrum analyser, and playing around with EQing to see what's there.

1. As I thought, there's a LOAD of pointless low-end energy, as illustrated below:

2. Have a sweep around with a fairly narrow-band in the 3kHz area (where clarity and bite lives for overdriven guitars) on the overdriven clips and you'll find hardly anything there!!

3. Try a high-pass filter at 100Hz and check-out how much signal you lose!

Poor.

Very Poor.

grandaddy · Post by **grandaddy** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 2:43 pm

But if the demo riffs had been posted without any low or high end people would state they sound thin.

It would be useful though to hear AT2 in the context of a mix though

putte · Post by **putte** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 2:54 pm

.. i certainly cant "judge" these sounds like some other folks here, but after i listened to them now on my stereo i´m neither impressed nor dissapointed.
and that means that i´ll stick to GR2 and won´t buy AT2 ..

putte

Midiworks · Post by **Midiworks** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 2:54 pm

AT2 would and will kill any mix like this...
Poor work, sorry.

Glad to see some kind of sense comming back to people here.

and...

you will still get some cash back if you sell your POD.
and save a FEW 100 $$$ when you buy it and you will get a better amp sim.

Improv · Post by **Improv** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 5:26 pm

putte wrote:i´m neither impressed nor dissapointed.
putte

And in a way, that is far telling than someone who has strong reactions either way. When I listened to the mp3's, my first reaction was "OK...", not "this stinks" or "this is great"

Guess it boils down to "ho-hum"

The triumph of mediocrity. (sp?)

championrabbit · Post by **championrabbit** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 6:33 pm

What those (overdriven) clips DON'T sound like is,

1. a well miked example of a classic/high quality/benchmark guitar amp.

2. a clever shortcut to a mix-friendly sound (a la Line 6).

Line 6 (I don't currently own anything made by 'em, so I'm hardly being a fan-boy) have a clever habit of modelling guitar sounds as they sound on your favourite record, rather than as you imagine they'd sound if you were in the studio when your favourite record was being recorded...

Line 6's stuff often seems to have been pre-EQed to fit into mixes with the minimum of effort. Personally I think this is a wise route, since 'purists' are hardly likely to be using this kit anyway, and (unlike drums) the mixed sound isn't usually hugely different from the source other than some hi-passing and some subtle EQing.

I would say therefore that AT appears aimed at the bedroom guitarist, rather than the bedroom recordist since (assuming those clips are representative) the tones seem to be designed to appeal in isolation, rather than in a mix.

Vervil · Post by **Vervil** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 7:11 pm

Line 6 (I don't currently own anything made by 'em, so I'm hardly being a fan-boy) have a clever habit of modelling guitar sounds as they sound on your favourite record, rather than as you imagine they'd sound if you were in the studio when your favourite record was being recorded...

Line 6's stuff often seems to have been pre-EQed to fit into mixes with the minimum of effort. Personally I think this is a wise route, since 'purists' are hardly likely to be using this kit anyway, and (unlike drums) the mixed sound isn't usually hugely different from the source other than some hi-passing and some subtle EQing.

Definitely true. One of the reasons I tend to use it when I need quick results, and some tracks even ended on records.

I would say therefore that AT appears aimed at the bedroom guitarist, rather than the bedroom recordist since (assuming those clips are representative) the tones seem to be designed to appeal in isolation, rather than in a mix.

Now when you have mentioned that, demos does sound much more like it is a good guitar processor with some amp modelling possibilities, that someone would try in store at low volume and buy to play at home. Maybe it can also work well for playing live directly to P.A. for some people, who knows. I would not use any of those gain sounds for recording, that is for sure.

agentdark1 · Post by **agentdark1** » Mon Dec 26, 2005 7:16 pm

Bollocks i just wished they had some br00tal metal clips or something on there. SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE A DEIZEL VH4, 5150 OR ENGL POWERBALL AMP SIM!

dammit guys when will people realise we want a seriously high gain sim! - Dimitar is going the right way!

Amplitube 2 Jimi Hendrix RELEASED this month!!!