Swanky Amp (release 1.4.0)

[RafaelMorgan]

I will be trying this out tonight - although I'm a tad apprehensive after reading pough's post as I'm mainly using FL and StudioOne.

Working fine here on Studio One 4.6.latest , Windows 10, 64 bit...It didn't scan properly until I placed it on the standard VST3 plugin folder, through.

[garrinm]

there's one thing that no amp sim can replicate well (I've tried ALL of them, literally), which is "note-blooming"

Yea, that's a tough one to crack. I suspect part of it is real feedback from the amp to the guitar body and strings which I suppose you could try to to mimic in a plugin but it would depend on so many things, not least of which is the geometry of the guitar in question, so unfortunately this might be out of the purview of amp sims. I'll keep digging around my models though.

Thanks for all that feedback, I agree the tone stack seems lackluster. I'm looking into some ways to improve that and I will also add a presence control.

[garrinm]

!!! Test 1 failed: No types found
FAILED!! 1 test failed, out of a total of 1

I'm sorry you're having problems. It's still early days and unfortunately I've not had the chance to test this in too many different environments. This is the first I hear of pluginval, I'll take a closer look. I did try installing flstudio on my system and got it to load the plugin. I wonder if there is some configuration on your system I'm not supporting correctly. Unfortunately I'm not sure what steps I can take at the moment, but I'll start by trying to follow the pluginval lead.

Thanks for the feedback and trying some diagnosis.

[garrinm]

Thanks everyone for putting some time into trying this out and especially the feedback. I'll drop a line here when I address the issues coming up and release an update.

[DaveClark]

Hi all,

I've gotten it to successfully load and play an audio clip in

Samplitude Pro X5 Suite
Reaper 5
FL Studio 20.6 (1458)
Waveform 10
Sound Forge Pro 13.

I've played guitar real-time through Samplitude Pro X5 Suite.

In Cubase 10.5 Elements and Waveform 10 Elements, SwankyAmp was processing only the left channel, but Garrin is aware of this and may have already fixed it.

Regards,
Dave Clark

[pough]

I'm sorry you're having problems. It's still early days and unfortunately I've not had the chance to test this in too many different environments. This is the first I hear of pluginval, I'll take a closer look. I did try installing flstudio on my system and got it to load the plugin. I wonder if there is some configuration on your system I'm not supporting correctly. Unfortunately I'm not sure what steps I can take at the moment, but I'll start by trying to follow the pluginval lead.

Thanks for the feedback and trying some diagnosis.

Pre-alpha's pre-alpha. I'll keep trying future releases.

[RafaelMorgan]

there's one thing that no amp sim can replicate well (I've tried ALL of them, literally), which is "note-blooming"

Yea, that's a tough one to crack. I suspect part of it is real feedback from the amp to the guitar body and strings which I suppose you could try to to mimic in a plugin but it would depend on so many things, not least of which is the geometry of the guitar in question, so unfortunately this might be out of the purview of amp sims. I'll keep digging around my models though.

Thanks for all that feedback, I agree the tone stack seems lackluster. I'm looking into some ways to improve that and I will also add a presence control.

Hey man,

I believe note blooming is not that elusive.

Someone who really knows this stuff said to me it's about the compression characteristics in the power amp caused by screen grid voltage sag and cathode bias bounce that react to the plate currents...It's like compression in the power amp.

I believe it's possible to achieve this if a simulation is finely tuned.

Cheers,

R.

[BlitBit]

Due to the many positive post I wanted to check out the amp as well but unfortunately it does not work in my machine due to the missing DLL "VCRUNTIME140_1.DLL".

Is it possible to link the runtime statically? I guess this might also be the reason why it's not working for other people here, either.

Nevertheless, thanks for spending your free time to provide us with a great amp!

[garrinm]

screen grid voltage sag and cathode bias bounce that react to the plate currents...It's like compression in the power amp.

That's a great insight. In the power amp stage I focused on the bias drift mainly in so far as it affects the cross over distortion, and I kind of simplified what happens at the top part (depending which way you want to look at it) of the wave form. I'll go back and try to isolate those effects and model them a bit better, maybe that'll bring out some of that bloom.

That's the interesting stuff to work on, but unfortunately it'll probably have to wait until I fix some of the more pressing issues haha.

Thanks again,
Garrin

[garrinm]

Is it possible to link the runtime statically?

Thanks for giving it a shot and reporting the error. I looked into this a bit and I think static linkage should be fine. I'll give it a shot this week and drop a line here when it's done.

[Jafo]

I like it, especially how you can overdrive the front and rear sections independently. Shows great potential. When you can get the power amp sag fully worked out, you'll have one of the best feeling emulations out there. Live Rust is a possibility!

[guitarzan]

Live Rust is a possibility!

OK, now I have to pay attention. I have recently acquired a Windows 10 laptop and installed Cakewalk and ASIO4ALL, but I still haven't really messed with it — seems clunky after 10 years away from PC. If this is still available when it is a little closer to beta I will definitely check it out, I'm not ready for alpha testing since I'm basically back to being a PC newbie. The sag will need to have a certain amount of "slip", it will require tuning by ear, it doesn't operate just like a compressor, the envelopes are much cruder.

EDIT: Here is some good info relating to amp sag and compression:

https://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/show ... -Amp-Myths

[BlitBit]

Is it possible to link the runtime statically?

Thanks for giving it a shot and reporting the error. I looked into this a bit and I think static linkage should be fine. I'll give it a shot this week and drop a line here when it's done.

Thanks! That sounds great!

[garrinm]

Hi,

Let me start by saying that I'm very grateful for everyone who took time to try out the plugin and drop some feedback.

This week I focused on technical issues and stability. There's still some ways to go but hopefully this resolves some of the issues that have been coming up.

If you're waiting for improvements to the model, you can safely skip this update. With some luck I will drop that update on Tuesday. But if you're interested to see progress, or if you had technical issues with the plugin last week, I'll be very appreciative of any feedback on this latest version.

Quick update:

• I've put together a new version of the amp plugin, you can find the installer here (the installer simply copies the VST3 into the appropriate directory, with user confirmation, and also asks you to accept the GNU license):
  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aOKUJy ... sp=sharing

• The plugin is now on github, you can find the code here, documentation will follow shortly:
  https://github.com/resonantdsp/ResonantAmp

• Yes, there was a rebrand. I went for a more ... neutral name than swanky. I'm thinking I might venture into other plugins as well so I've decided to use a more generic name. Swanky Amp is now Resonant Amp.

Changes:

• Proper stereo handling: the plugin should now work correctly in stereo tracks. It will process the right and left channels separately if the input is stereo.

• Static linkage: the plugin should now work on versions of windows below 10.

• I've added an input level meter, it has two markings "S" and "H". "S" is where a typical single coil pickup guitar should peak for lightly strummed chords. "H" is where a typical humbucker pickup should peak. This is a rough guideline to help you gain stage, but of course you can feel free experiment with different input levels.

• Minor stability improvements.

Road map:

I know the UI is a hot mess right now.

• The first priority has been and remains to address technical issues.

• The next priority is to work on model improvements. I will spend the next few days re-working the power amp stage. Time allowing I will also make minor improvements to the tone stack. I'd like to get a new version out on Tuesday with these changes.

• The next priority after that will be to revamp the UI and create documentation.

Thanks,
Garrin

[pough]

I don't know what the problem was with my particular system, but it's working fine now.