Guitarplayers ! Revalver...

[CapnLockheed]

Currently just serial# but I believe the final release will
tied to machine id.

Already is I think; I messed mine up by trying to authorise it from the net-boot rather than the music-boot and the authorisation wasn't transferable at all.

That said, it was extremely easy to authorise it from a non-net-connected boot, so no need for concern relating to this stuff.

I realized my error right after I posted...but you beat me to it!!

Look ma we're chatting!!

Cheers.....CL

[Cap'n Spanky]

I'm very, very enthused about RII. The pre-beta versions that I've had the privilege of testing keep getting better and better.

I can't speak for AT2, since even the demo requires a dongle, but the pre-releases of RII tower above the other products I've used in terms of tone, responsiveness and tweakability.

What other products have you compared RII to?

Thanks!

Like Chris I can't compare it AT2...cuz no one's gonna insert
their dongle in my port!! But I have A/B'd it against Guitar Rig, Freeamp2, Simulanalog, Boogex, Green MachineII, Warp and Trash.

ReValver was always king in terms of flexibility, but now it
not only sounds better than all of the above it "feels" better
too thanks largely to the fact that the dev is modeling individual components. Of course that's just my opinion.
What consitutes good tone is highly subjective, but ReValver
has so many options to tweak I find it highly unlikely that
anyone would not be able to dial in tones to their liking.

Cheers....CL

Thanks, from one Capn to another!

I'm have dongle problems right now trying to demo AT2. I've been screwing with it for several days.

If RII with no dongle sounds as good (or better) than AT2 with a dongle... I will defintely go with RII.

And one more thing.... dongles and invasive copy protection schemes SUCK!

[punkrockdude]

There are a couple of audio samples on the Revalver site that I just love. If it really sounds this good, then I donät know what to do... Ok, buy it of course, but man, that blues sample and one of the rectifier samples.

[CapnLockheed]

Thanks, from one Capn to another! dongles and invasive copy protection schemes SUCK!

Arrh, yer welcome matey!! And yes...dongles SUCK!!

If it really sounds this good

It does.

Cheers.....CL

[chrishurley]

I should curb my enthusiasm, I guess. Admittedly, I've not been able to achieve a complete mastery of every product out there-particularly as my experience with most is confined to their demo versions.

Some products beckon you to dig deeper because they show promise. Other products leave you so cold that you don't want to bother.

RII was initially promising to me when I heard that it was being based in some form or another on actual circuit components. The tweak panels expose these paramters which may be daunting to a lot of people, but are interesting to me as an amp builder.

Without trying to do full reviews of them all, I'll mention a couple:

I thought Trash was interesting, and I believe that it could be used to great effect. I had zero confidence that I could figure out how to subdivide the audio spectrum and apply different distortions to each band and get something good out of it. I like some of the box models, but ultimately, I was sure I couldn't justify the price.

The GR2 demo looked nice, but I don't think there was anything in there that really jumped out at me as sounding great. There were a few presets that sounded out-of-this-world, in terms of being not from this planet, not using a guitar amp, maybe being made by machines or something...and so they were amusing from that standpoint, but the actual amp models themselves when you turn off all the syrupy effects didn't seem to get there for me. There was something overly harsh or fatiguing that I couldn't get past. I wanted to like it, despite it being rather expensive.

FreeAmp2 is a great freeware sim, but it doesn't sound like an amp to me. It sounds like a multi-fx unit. It is astoundingly kind of any developer who makes something like this available, but for real sounds, I never got hooked.

The Sansamp hardware devices really are a mixed bag. They do some sounds pretty well, especially if you ignore the rubbish about them not needing a speaker simulator and apply one anyway. They do great fendery sounds, but there are no modern heavy sounds to be had. Sure, you can add a ton of gain and scoop the mids, but thats not all there is to it. Of course, this isn't a plugin.

Amplitube 1 is something that seemed really cool at the time and it may be because it was one of the first plugins that I saw that actually got in the ballpark. I've never gotten a workable dirty track out of it, though I don't own it, so my use has been limited to what I could squeeze in before we actually had to start recording real amps on someone else's DAW. I periodically spend a little time with Amplitube Uno and I like it on some occasions and not others. It has an odd character to it that I don't like and it bothers me more sometimes than others.

Midiwork's Xmastube was very promising and I suspect if he had released a version with the controls on it that were hidden for the free release, he'd have had the best product available at that time. I still use it for a few things here and there.

Line 6- I own a bunch of the model packs and there are a few good sounds in there, but I can't justify another $200 for the VST version of the sounds I already own. Its also sort of limiting in that you can't rearrange the effects, and you certainly can't change the tubes that are being modelled. The responsiveness isn't realistic at all, though the recorded results are often tolerable. Its not hard for Line 6 stuff to sound washed out, by the time you manage to get the harshness out of them, but then this is one of "the big problems" that all such simulations suffer. Its a fine line between ear-shredding and burlap-bag-dull sounding.

GreenMachine II- I liked this, despite not caring for the speaker simulator. The advent of impulses make this mostly a non-issue. I'd have bought this if I hadn't seen their forum which appears to be dead, as is the product. (evidently). I still think its not a bad sim, especially for the money, but who wants to buy a dead product?

Simulanalog- as everyone always says- great for what it costs. Not a lot of sounds, or a lot of room for adjustment, but you can do a lot worse.

Juicy 77- pretty good sounding, again better with more impulses. High CPU utilization, and limited tweaking but belongs in anyone's toolbox (if they can run it). I played this through a poweramp and a real cabinet and it surely wasn't bad as a real amp.

There are others, of course, but I'm pushing my luck with this long message already.

[Cap'n Spanky]

Its not hard for Line 6 stuff to sound washed out, by the time you manage to get the harshness out of them, but then this is one of "the big problems" that all such simulations suffer. Its a fine line between ear-shredding and burlap-bag-dull sounding.

Thanks for the reviews! So, in your opinion, does RII suffer from "the big problem" too?

[chrishurley]

Thanks for the reviews! So, in your opinion, does RII suffer from "the big problem" too?

I listen in headphones a good bit and thats a pretty harsh environment for amp sims. You don't listen to a real amp that way most of the time, so an amp sim has an unfair disadvantage.

In headphones or studio monitors, RII seems to sound plenty bright without being harsh. You can make it dull if you want, but it doesn't seem predisposed towards that.

When playing through a poweramp and a real cabinet, it doesn't seem to quite have that live sparkle that a good tube amp has. On the other hand, a lot of amps (tube or otherwise) don't have it either.

[grandaddy]

I thought I'd share a quick comparison of my marshall studio 15 valve combo with revalver II. The first half is the amp. Bear in mind this was only a quick try.

http://mule.my-bulldog.com/pages/mule_m ... alver3.mp3

[chrishurley]

Pretty cool stuff.

[Cap'n Spanky]

I thought I'd share a quick comparison of my marshall studio 15 valve combo with revalver II. The first half is the amp. Bear in mind this was only a quick try.

http://mule.my-bulldog.com/pages/mule_m ... alver3.mp3

Thanks for posting that! I know this wasn't a scientific test or anything, but I think I preferred the real amp. Seemed to have a smoother (less harsh) break up. I should note that my listening environment is not the best here at work. $25 Sony headphones plugged into the computer's on board sound card.

On a side note, I've been demo-ing AT2 for the past several days. I have to say I'm fairly impressed and probably going to buy it. I've been comparing it to GR2 and my PODxt Pro. It definitely seems better than my Pod and is somewhat better than GR2. Unfortunately, I don't have a nice tube amp to compare it to.

The sound is warm, pleasing, and very fun to play.

[chrishurley]

Mistake #1- you identified that (a) there was a real amp and (b) which part it was.

When confronted with this information, any true-blue tube amp lover will identify the real amp as their favorite, or at the least try to guess which one is the tube amp and claim that is their favorite.

We just can't help it. :)

[Cap'n Spanky]

Mistake #1- you identified that (a) there was a real amp and (b) which part it was.

When confronted with this information, any true-blue tube amp lover will identify the real amp as their favorite, or at the least try to guess which one is the tube amp and claim that is their favorite.

We just can't help it.

Yeah. But actually in my case, I was hoping the amp sim would sound better

[AndrewSimon]

The amp had more gain/sustain then the sim.
Give the sim more gain and lets compare them again.
And yeah, don't tell us the order.

[Amberience]

Glad to see they changed the wording on the licensing section.

[chrishurley]

It sounds like he wants to keep the protection from being a nuisance.