Magix Vandal amp sim = Winner in terms of sound quality so far

[Hink]

One favor sascha, I love the presence idea and this should be on the "front panel".

It's actually behind the 'wrench' button, next to the sag control. I didn't put it on the front plate because it would sit there meaningless when you have class-A operation selected.

[dhalfen]

One favor sascha, I love the presence idea and this should be on the "front panel".

It's actually behind the 'wrench' button, next to the sag control. I didn't put it on the front plate because it would sit there meaningless when you have class-A operation selected.

Yes, BUT (not to throw a wrench into the works, har-de-har-har-CHOKEGASPCOUGHWHEEZE), but - ideally - that "presence" should magically pop onto the front plate when "Class A" is selected. IMHumO, you really don't want to hide it behind something.

But that's just my idea of a perfect world. I'll go to bed now.

[Steviebone]

@Sascha

just curious... has the MIDI fix been released for non samp users yet? Anxious to spend money

[sascha]

@Sascha

just curious... has the MIDI fix been released for non samp users yet? Anxious to spend money

Yes, definetly.

[morelia]

Hi Sascha, did you get my PM?

[sascha]

Hi Sascha, did you get my PM?

Sorry, that one just slipped through here.
You got mail

[Benutzername]

Just curious: Has anybody tried to use Vandal under Linux with Wine? Is it possible at all?

[Peevy2000]

Hi sascha

I haven't got round to checking out vandal yet but I'm hearing great things about it. I'm in the process of going all out 64bit so I don't want to buy anymore plugins unless they're also 64bit. Do you have any plans to go 64bit anytime soon with Vandal?

[sascha]

Do you have any plans to go 64bit anytime soon with Vandal?

On the mac, it's already 32 & 64. The PC version is currently 32 bits. I plan to set up a 64-bits dev system later this year.

[Peevy2000]

On the mac, it's already 32 & 64. The PC version is currently 32 bits. I plan to set up a 64-bits dev system later this year.

Thats good to know. I'm gonna test run Vandal shortly & see what I make of it. I'll get back with some feedback later.

[Peevy2000]

So I finally got round to giving Vandal a good old test run & even had a bit of a comparison/shootout between Vandal, Amplitube Metal (which I own) & Studio Devils AMP.

I'll start by saying even though I really do enjoy using Ampt Metal I was never completely happy with the tone I was getting. That is until I recently started experimenting with bypassing Metals cabs & using other cab impulses which made the world of difference. So Amplitube Metals Cab sounds aren't that good then.

I have Studio Devils VBA which I think for such a small plugin does absolute wonders for bass. So I just had to give Studio Devils AMP a go, & it doesn't disappoint at all. You can get very realistic tones & amp sounds from this pretty cool plugin & even though the UI is a bit on the small side, its very easy to find your way around. The FX are pretty good & the ability to load your own cab impulses is a big plus.

So on to Vandal which seems to be getting a lot of praise lately & what can I say.....that praise is definitely deserved. Right form the moment I loaded Vandal I was getting great sounds out of it. Not only does Vandal sound great it also looks great too, with a very user friendly & easy on the eyes GUI. Even when driven quite hard I was able to get a nice controlled tone with just the right amount of bite out of Vandal. This is where for me, Studio Devils AMP loses the battle a bit. I found it a good bit more fiddly than Vandal & Amplitube Metal to get the desired sound from. Its like a wild animal, very hard to tame & there's a few to many knobs, sliders, brightness, boost buttons etc. to tweak before you get to that killer sound its capable of.

Vandal just about takes the lead here but not by a whole lot over Studio Devils AMP. I think AMP might just be a tad better in the clean department but overall I think Vandal takes the trophy.

So does this mean I'll be buying Vandal? Sadly no.....its just a bit too pricey at the moment for me & now that I've discovered Cab Impulses I'm a lot happier with Amplitube Metal than I was.

sascha, any chance of a summer sale coming up anytime soon?

By the way I read your interview/article in the August issue of Computer Music. Some very interesting info in there. Oh & I cant resist......any chance of Universal binaries for your digitalfishphones plugins ??

The T-shirt's in the post

[zerocrossing]

...until I recently started experimenting with bypassing Metals cabs & using other cab impulses which made the world of difference. So Amplitube Metals Cab sounds aren't that good then.

Have you tried AmpliTube 3? (it's absorbed all the models from Metal) It's new cab models sound so sweet(though I don't care much for that condenser 412 mic) and with the mic positioning and ambiance mics you may find yourself not going to your impulses much.

[Peevy2000]

Have you tried AmpliTube 3? (it's absorbed all the models from Metal) It's new cab models sound so sweet(though I don't care much for that condenser 412 mic) and with the mic positioning and ambiance mics you may find yourself not going to your impulses much.

No I haven't tried it yet. But I've heard it can be a bit of a CPU & RAM hog. I know Metal can be a bit power hungry especially since I have all oversampling enabled (another thing that made a big difference in sound quality for Metal)

I like that Vandal is pretty light on the CPU compared to Amplitube. Plus I don't like IK Multimedias lack of interest in making they're plugins 64bit native. sascha has said he intends to go 64bit for windows later this year. Even Studio Devil are gonna go 64bit, no idea when though. I know about 32-bit bridging & its pretty stable in Reaper but I prefer not to use it because its not always 100% stable.

I'm happy with Metal for now but I might as well give Amplitube 3 a go & see what I'm missing.

[jkleban]

I would suggest to ZEROC that if he doesn't use this IRs often and like AT3 cabinets, then ZERO, get some new IRs.... the ones from RED CABINET are amazing. In fact, so much so, I have BYPASSED the cabinets in AT3 forever.

The AT ones aren't bad it's just that the IRs are that good. Check out the FANES from Redwire (pretty new) and you will hear what I mean.

Jim

PS - and as a VANDAL user, we need more effects pedals emulating vintage pedals.

[zerocrossing]

I would suggest to ZEROC that if he doesn't use this IRs often and like AT3 cabinets, then ZERO, get some new IRs.... the ones from RED CABINET are amazing. In fact, so much so, I have BYPASSED the cabinets in AT3 forever.

The AT ones aren't bad it's just that the IRs are that good. Check out the FANES from Redwire (pretty new) and you will hear what I mean.

Jim

PS - and as a VANDAL user, we need more effects pedals emulating vintage pedals.

Maybe it's that I've never used the right impulse, but I honestly have never found one that seemed markedly better than what I can get from Amplitube. They sound kind of static to me as opposed to the kind of cabinet modeling AT3 is doing where it's emulating how a load interacts with an amplifier. An impulse simply doesn't do that. I did try Audio Ease's Cabinet once and I thought it was good but everything seemed to need some eq to tone down the brightness... and then I didn't notice that it was an improvment to what I already had.

I know a lot of guys swear by impulses, but I don't think they're for me. I do like a one stop solution and having to launch a second plug for the cabinet is awkward... especially when I'm not even feeling unhappy with the tone I have in the first place. Then again, I'm also someone who spent a few hours of time trying to find something to like about Vandal, and never did. Then the demo was over. Odd they made it so short. Why not just do what Poly-ana does? Full demo for a period and then go to adding noise every 20 seconds or something.