KVR Audio

guitarzan · Post by **guitarzan** » Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:55 pm

So far so good for v0.6.1 — I went through all the stuff that was most reliably crashing RA in both Cakewalk and Cantible Lite and everything seems fine so far. It was never 100% repeatable though, so I'll keep stress testing over the weekend.

Presets seem to have better top end for some reason (just based on memory) — the lack of top end was one of the main reasons I was thinking there was insufficient headroom and perhaps over compression, but now seems improved? Is that possible, or are the presets / processing unchanged?

It does remind me that I've been meaning to suggest a noise gate of some kind for the higher drive settings. There are free ones available, so probably not essential for the open source version, but might be a nice addition for a future paid version.

I also just tried some of the amp models included with Cakewalk (TH3) and they seem pretty dead dynamics-wise by comparison, but they sound OK and are very quiet. I notice a speaker rattle-like sound in most Resonant Amp overdriven tones that I don't remember hearing anywhere else before - it seems to just bloom and follow along. Is everyone getting that? If that's the price to pay for a dynamic amp sim then it's well worth it, but if it's something in my setup or something that can be fixed without a dynamics penalty then it should probably be addressed at some point.

acousticglue · Post by **acousticglue** » Fri Jun 26, 2020 10:02 pm

I hate gates

guitarzan · Post by **guitarzan** » Fri Jun 26, 2020 10:26 pm

I've never been a huge fan of gates myself, but I don't like a noise either (especially in headphones). Floorfish by digitalfishphones was a free one that could be set to be pretty transparent and that was 15 years ago, so there should be some even better ones by now.

Maybe there is some other method of noise reduction that could be used — bottom line is that Resonant Amp is quite noisy compared to TH3 (and other current amp sims I assume), but if that's the tradeoff for a having a dynamic amp sim then I'll gladly deal with the noise. Dealing with the noise isn't limited to just leaving it be though. It is no noisier than a mic'ed amp, so it's not a deal breaker at all for me, plus I'm still testing with the inbuilt cab sim only for now.

Tesing side-by-side reveals that Resonant Amp really is far more dynamic than a standard amp sim, so noise be damned if that's the way it has to be (though I am sure it can be mitigated). Standard amp sims are dead and unplayable to me, where Resonant Amp is very lively and extremely playable, so there really is no choice for me.

jbraner · Post by **jbraner** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 8:58 am

Here's a discussion about noise suppressors
https://www.scuffhamamps.com/forum/6-ge ... er?start=0
I tried this free one - and it works pretty well
http://pvamps.blogspot.com/2015/05/pvnonoise.html
My strats can be noisy with some gain settings (in pedals or amp sims) turned up.

I notice a speaker rattle-like sound in most Resonant Amp overdriven tones that I don't remember hearing anywhere else before

I don't know if we're talking about the same thing - but this is something that makes a *good* amp sim for me

I hear it in the Mercuriall amps and now the Neural DSP ones (I'm pretty new to Neural DSP) - and now Resonant Amp.

guitarzan · Post by **guitarzan** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 9:28 am

jbraner wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 8:58 am
I notice a speaker rattle-like sound in most Resonant Amp overdriven tones that I don't remember hearing anywhere else before
I don't know if we're talking about the same thing - but this is something that makes a *good* amp sim for me
I hear it in the Mercuriall amps and now the Neural DSP ones (I'm pretty new to Neural DSP) - and now Resonant Amp.

Yeah, I bet it does sound pretty good (lively, dynamic…) with cab IRs or more detailed cab modeling. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just me having something set wrong. I'll check out that noise suppression info later, thanks!

jbraner · Post by **jbraner** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 10:34 am

(assuming we're talking about the same thing) I think of it as the difference between sims that sound like a mic'd up guitar amp coming through monitors - and sims that sound like a "real" amp.
You still can't "feel" it, and it doesn't make your guitar strings vibrate - but at least they sound like the real thing.

guitarzan · Post by **guitarzan** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 11:35 am

I think we are talking about the same thing — the speaker buzz/rattle-like artifacts that seem to be part of the overdrive. A gate wouldn't touch that I don't think (too integral, actually seems to trail the attack). The noise suppression would be more for the regular buzz and hum (I use mostly single coils too — DeArmonds right now)

jbraner · Post by **jbraner** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 12:32 pm

Yeah the noise suppression is for the horrible buzz, where you have to turn which way you're facing - and contort to hit the "record" button

Jafo · Post by **Jafo** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 9:57 pm

Embarrassingly n00b question, but where are vst3 presets stored? Apparently +"vst3 preset location" is too common a search to be sought...

funky lime · Post by **funky lime** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 10:30 pm

jbraner wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 12:32 pm Yeah the noise suppression is for the horrible buzz, where you have to turn which way you're facing - and contort to hit the "record" button

I used to think all amp sims were hopelessly noisy... until I spent $12 on some copper tape and shielded my cavity. No more contortion required.

funky lime · Post by **funky lime** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 10:38 pm

Jafo wrote: Sat Jun 27, 2020 9:57 pm Embarrassingly n00b question, but where are vst3 presets stored? Apparently +"vst3 preset location" is too common a search to be sought...

User presets on windows are in

c:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Resonant DSP\Resonant Amp\

Factory presets appear to be hard coded into the plugin, I guess?

Some other plugins put them in a subfolder in the \Users\username\Documents\ area. Others in \Users\username\AppData\Local.

acousticglue · Post by **acousticglue** » Sat Jun 27, 2020 11:02 pm

When recording you will hear sounds that an amp would not produce

guitarzan · Post by **guitarzan** » Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:37 am

It turns out Boogex has a pretty good gate in it, as well as being a cab IR loader, amp sim in it's own right, eq, spectrum analyzer, reverb etc.

Can't really say I prefered any of the included IRs over Resonant Amp's plain but funtional cab sim, but I never really did like playing through most IRs much. The Dynamic cab thing seemed like overkill with Resonant Amp too, but I really need to spend more time with the Resonant Amp/Boogex combo to see if it works for me. The spectrum analyzer in Boogex shows Resonant Amp is really quite mid scooped.

No new crashes, but I didn't do a lot with presets — I'll give that a go later.

Yeah, still not finding a good balance of drive, drive, grit, tight, tight, sag, etc — but with seemingly infinate and interactive combinations I'm sure there must be some magic settings right for me. It still seems like I was able to get instant satisfaction out of v0.5.0 — but I'll have to try to figure out which download that was (no version number on GUI yet then either) and reinstall it to know for sure.

prodigal_sounds · Post by **prodigal_sounds** » Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:56 am

guitarzan wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:37 am It turns out Boogex has a pretty good gate in it, as well as being a cab IR loader, amp sim in it's own right, eq, spectrum analyzer, reverb etc.
..
It still seems like I was able to get instant satisfaction out of v0.5.0 — but I'll have to try to figure out which download that was (no version number on GUI yet then either) and reinstall it to know for sure.

I've got (almost) all versions backed up, I can send you 0.5.0 if you want.
I'm with you on Boogex - your appraisal of it matches mine.

Resonant amp just SINGS with a single coil guitar. I can't see myself using anything else for a bit. However, for that HB in the Bridge position axe, my Line 6 POD 2.0 still has the edge.

guitarzan · Post by **guitarzan** » Sun Jun 28, 2020 5:43 am

prodigal_sounds wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2020 2:56 am I've got (almost) all versions backed up, I can send you 0.5.0 if you want.

Thanks for the offer! But I'm pretty sure I found the right one in my Download folder based on the last modified date and time — I can't figure out how to install both versions at once though. Even trying to overwrite 0.6.1 didn't seem to work. I had to delete one then install the other, otherwise it still said 0.6.1 in the corner.

I don't know, 0.5.0 wasn't all that different — I think what's bothering me is that any setting above 3 on power-amp drive seems to brown out the sound too much, even with sag all the way down, and that just doesn't seem right to me. Also, those speaker rattle sounding artifacts — they don't sound better to me through cab IRs like I thought they would.

If I just don't go over 3 on power-amp drive and work on dialing out those artifacts I should be able to find a nice sweet spot again — I'll never be happy with an amp sim that doesn't model sag behavior the way Resonant Amp does ever again (never really was).

Swanky Amp (release 1.4.0)