Swanky Amp (release 1.4.0)

[filo01]

I have tried it and my first impression after 30 minutes is ... wow, that's better than I expected! Thank you!

[garrinm]

I have tried it and my first impression after 30 minutes is ... wow, that's better than I expected! Thank you!

You're welcome, and welcome to the thread.

[garrinm]

A quick update on near-term plans. I'd like to get out another update in coming days with the following change, and I'm wondering what are the opinions around here:

I'd like to add boost toggles to the pre amp and power amp sections. By default, they would be turned off, and as a result the drive knob ranges would be more limited than they are right now. When turning them on, the knobs would re-gain the full range they currently have. Given that Swanky Amp is released now, I will do this in a way that doesn't impact your presets (if you were using a large drive the preset will include the toggle set to boost).

The reasons I want to do this is are two-fold:

1) currently I suspect many users will crank the drive knob and hear an unexpected amount of distortion. This is especially problematic in the power amp stage where huge distortion will "brown out" the sound when playing chords. The current ranges are so large to allow for a wide range of tones, but as a result they exceed what I would consider the realm of realistic tube distortion.

2) I find the "sweet spot" edge of breakup is very hard to hit since it's a narrow range somewhere around 4 (depending on your gain staging)

The main drawback would be that the interface is a bit less seamless. Also I'd have to make sure I really can support previous presets.

Thanks,
Garrin

[prodigal_sounds]

Re: adding Boost Toggle controls

Although I see where you're coming from, in general I really don't like the idea of extra controls to complicate the UI more than it already is. I suspect you are trying to compensate for a limitation in the User Experience.

One possible solution is to have the scale around the drive knob indicate in an obvious way that if the user is hearing unexpected or unwelcome levels of distortion, they should turn the drive knob back down. For example, make the scale go from GREEN (low) to BROWN (high).

I acknowledge that, depending on input signal level and other factors, the change from "hey this is pleasant" to "OMG what is wrong" is at a different point in each possible patch - hence the smooth change across the whole of the knob's travel, rather than a "RED ZONE from 7 to 10" kind of thing.

- Colin

[guitarzan]

I find the "sweet spot" edge of breakup is very hard to hit since it's a narrow range somewhere around 4 (depending on your gain staging)

Sag is harder to tweak now too — I need to step away from this for a short while to come back with fresh ears to get me out of "tester" mode and into "end user" mode, but it seems to me like you might be overly concerned with preserving presets at such an early point in development — everything still seems a bit up in the air with all the recent changes. Maybe let things settle and shake out for a while…maybe refining control ranges or the taper, or some other solution might present itself.

currently I suspect many users will crank the drive knob and hear an unexpected amount of distortion. This is especially problematic in the power amp stage where huge distortion will "brown out" the sound when playing chords. The current ranges are so large to allow for a wide range of tones, but as a result they exceed what I would consider the realm of realistic tube distortion

For this maybe just be clear in the description that this is not a curated "no bad settings" type of plugin — the range intensionally allows for anything from tame and mild to the raw extreme, and, yes, with that freedom there comes the potential for "unpleasantness". Refining taper and range might help the power amp controls too.

Couldn't you have any kind of custom varying taper you wanted for digital controls? IOW, couldn't you decide where settings are more crowded together or spaced apart at different areas on the dial by varying the taper of the control at different points along the range? I don't mean the displayed numbers change behavior, just sweeping through some ranges on the dial would change the parameter at a different rate than others.
2¢

[jbraner]

I have mixed feelings.
I think it's a good idea - to give more control to the drive settings, but I worry about keeping the presets compatable.
On the other hand - it *is* only ver 1.1 - and it's not unknown for updates to not be preset compatable. You just don't want to keep doing it - or we'll never be able to load up old projects and recreate to original settings.

For now, I'd say go for it (the change).

[DaveClark]

Hi all,

I made a somewhat raw demo of Swanky Amp to demonstrate it's dirtier side:

https://soundcloud.com/exe-consulting/b ... y-amp-v110

As noted in the description there, there is just a touch of reverb. The tracks are RealTracks from BIAB, guitars are all DI recordings into Swanky Amp with different settings with cab turned off in order to use cab IRs. The aim was to show what Swanky Amp does with no effects (other than the cab IRs), i.e. a "rough mix." Bass and drums are purposefully kept low with guitars brought up, especially lead.

Regards,
Dave Clark

Edit to add second demo:

https://soundcloud.com/exe-consulting/t ... swanky-amp

This one has Swanky Amps with some convolution spring reverbs. Drums have a little plate; both drums and bass are brought up a little bit more than with the previous demo.

[jbraner]

Hi all,
I'm finally back in action
(had a PC upgrade w/various housekeeping etc and consolidated a few disks on to one big SSD)

I'm just playing around with ver 1.1 - and I absolutely love this amp!
I don't know how to describe it in words - but it just feels like a gnarly little bastard with real attitude! (and I mean that in the best possible way)

I can't say I'm a big fan of the Marshall tone stack - but that's just me
The Fender one suits me fine!

I look forward to the next tweaks - as that should give us a little more room to play around with the "cleanish" (a little less gnarly?) sounds.
Two Notes came out with some Victory cabs (I'm using 4x12 ones) and they sound ace with this amp!

[garrinm]

Announcing 1.2.0. Main features: re-worked drive ranges, visual indication of ungainly drive settings, re-worked sag (somewhat), and small layout changes.

As usual you can find the downloads here:

https://resonantdsp.com/swankyamp/



They layout changes are really just for aesthetics. The UI looks a bit more balanced now, and I do feel that the new grouping actually is sensible and helps understand the workflow. But opinions here will vary I'm sure.

I've gone through a lot of effort to try to help preserve previous presets as much as possible. But with the changes I introduced, the old presets can't map 1:1 to the new update (and the overall loudness might have changed by a couple of dB). For the most part they should sound virtually identical but you might want to re-visit them and tweak as necessary.

I've also changed the windows installer to use MSI instead of the previous framework (inno setup) which used to generate an EXE. You should now be able to use the installer without Windows getting nervous about the situation. But copying the VST3 file directly is still an equally valid way to install the plugin.

Happy Friday,
Garrin

[prodigal_sounds]

Very Nice. I haven't noticed anything that a slight tweak to my test patches won't fix. "Adjust for taste" kind of stuff. I like the UI change.

[jbraner]

I'm looking forward to playing with it...

[guitarzan]

Hopefully I will be able to check out 1.2.0 this weekend.

On the screenshot of the Pro version on your site, what is the o-scope looking thing in the center? Is that functional? "The all seeing eye of sag & bloom" type thing? Cool.

[garrinm]

Hopefully I will be able to check out 1.2.0 this weekend.

On the screenshot of the Pro version on your site, what is the o-scope looking thing in the center? Is that functional? "The all seeing eye of sag & bloom" type thing? Cool.

I hope you find the sag a bit easier to work with. It's not changed too much but I found it easier to get a good value dialed in. Keep in mind that at high pre-amp gain the signal is very compressed and won't be dynamic enough to go far into the power amp's sag range.

As for the scope: that's right it's functional and very Sauron-esq. It shows the original signal and the output signal which gives you a great visual cue for when you're getting compression, sag etc. I find it really fun to play with.

[garrinm]

One possible solution is to have the scale around the drive knob indicate in an obvious way that if the user is hearing unexpected or unwelcome levels of distortion, they should turn the drive knob back down. For example, make the scale go from GREEN (low) to BROWN (high).

- Colin

I didn't do *exactly* what you said, but close enough. I really appreciate the feedback (also from guitarzan and jbraner) on this one. I'm much happier with what I did in 1.2 than what I'd proposed. The switch would've been easier to implement but I agree it would be too much visual noise and hinder finding good tones. This took a bit more work but hopefully it pays off.

[prodigal_sounds]

I didn't do *exactly* what you said, but close enough.

I think you met the spirit of the suggestion, which obviously makes me happy. Thanks for putting in the extra work to implement. I really think the end result is better than yet another control.