Plugin Alliance - Black Box Analog Design HG-2

[jens]

... the hetereogenous quality of the product-portfolio...

What are (besides Black Box) your highlights in their portfolio?
Really interested in your opinion on that topic...

I'll have to answer that one later - will take a moment longer for me to give a potentially relevant answer...

[jens]

'kay:

I think the amps are mostly excellent because Igor Nembrini really knows a thing or two about amp-emulations and I think they mostly make good and interesting choices on what to go for - of those I have, I prefer the Bassdude (absolutely great for both guitar and bass-guitar), the Chandler one and the Fuchs Overdrive (which I just purchased the other week - I decided to go with this one, but I bet the other one is great too)

The ADA Flanger is certainly terrific. Everyone should have it.

I also think the ACME Opticom is great - especially since Ray also did the graphics here. It's easy to overdrive it though. I'd normally suggest to pull the input, unless you send a really low signal in. It's also rewarding to know which of the three modes to use for what. I usually prefer the slow one.

The Steromaker can be a useful utility plugin.

The Lindell TE-100 is probably nice, but with an interface like that (or perhaps I am just too stupid for it)... I mean, at least it's not tiny - and it has proper in/out controls. (Dirk doesn't seem to care one bit about such details either way - PA is really NOT a brand.)

And as I mentioned before in this thread, I think the VSM-3 is great, crappy GUI aside.

[leeleema]

This is a great thread to see how PA's pricing and sales policy has progressed over the last 3+ years from 2017. From page 6 onwards. Some people paid a pretty penny for HG-2 really not long ago

[cprompt]

I think the amps are mostly excellent because Igor Nembrini really knows a thing or two about amp-emulations

Agreed. The Chandler, Fuchs Overdrive and the Engl 120 Savage, all of which I paid peanuts for over the last week, are excellent. I have most of the older ampsims too, but the IRs on those aren't great, but the newer ones are much better. Bassdude is pretty cool too.

The ADA Flanger is certainly terrific. Everyone should have it.

I do, and it is excellent!

The Steromaker can be a useful utility plugin.

It works really well but I also end up double-tracking my guitars. Partly because it sounds better and partly because the mistakes and crappy playing cancel each other out!

The Lindell TE-100 is probably nice

Awkward to use but sounds lovely when you dial it in. Looks nice too.

I would add the GreenScreamer, again by Mr Nembrini, is really good, one of the best actually. And the NEOLD thing is really nice, and part coded by Ray of Fuse. Between Ray and Igor those two really develop some great stuff.

[jens]

You should really give the Opticom a(nother?) chance too - the most important thing to get about it imo is to not overdrive it - double-clicking the input will lower it by 15dB - while it can be used as such, I don't normally like using it as a distortion box...

[machinated]

I've never understood why the brainworx impulses are so bad; theres very rarely common micing setups. There are way too many presets with too many mics+EQ and just sound weird and phasey. On plugins like theirs, I'd much prefer the impulses to be like how Neural DSP or Amplitube or Nembrini do it; where you can move one or 2 mics across the width of the speaker and treat it like you would if you were micing it up yourself.

What would be even more great is if they could change the power amp behaviour to match the cabinet being used.

[jens]

Yeah, they are certainly hit and miss... I tend to use the same three or four that work for me over and over again, so it's not that much of an issue for me...

[martinjuenke]

'kay:

Thanks, I'll check the ADA and Fuchs stuff when my voucher has been reloaded (used this month's one for paying transfer fees for A LOT of second hand plugins). Hope that the Elysia things will get a scalable GUI soon... A bit fiddly currently.

[cprompt]

You should really give the Opticom a(nother?) chance too

I'm on a compressor moratorium at the moment as I have waaaaaaaaaaaaaay to many and use but a small fraction of what I've got

I've never understood why the brainworx impulses are so bad

The ones in the older ampsims are pretty ropey - MegaSingle MegaDual and the two Engls are almost unusable - my default preset is to bypass the cabinets! The Chandler ones are ok, usable for sure.

The ones in the new ampsims, the Diezels, Fuchs and the Savage are actually pretty good, certainly good enough to flick through the presets and get a tone that usable before tweaking anything. I just wish they'd dump the crappy menu, having to scroll through 100 cabs is painful. At least they have a dedicated cab bypass button now (it's like they knew their cabs are mostly crap!).

[legendCNCD]

Yeah I made a MS rack in Ableton Live, using Voxengo MSED for splitting the signal in two. Then add HG-2 or whatever you want on both chains separately and make the sound sing

Couldn't you just use Utility to split it?

Yes now its on utility splitted rack.

[4damind]

HG2-MS has been released, an enhanced M/S version. The crossgrade offer is around $69 and there are some special offers if you already own one of the Tone/Character plugins...

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... g-2ms.html

[dangayle]

Why does PA get a stiffy for M/S processing? I can't think of any other company that throws so much marketing verbiage so such a utilitarian feature.

The HG-2MS certainly looks nice, but I have so many questions. Who did the work? Where does the filter modeling come from? Does it change the character of what is already one of my favorite saturation/distortion devices? Does this replace the normal HG-2, e.g., is it "better" or just different.

Also, you're a fool if you upgrade at $69 dollars.

[pixel85]

Why does PA get a stiffy for M/S processing? I can't think of any other company that throws so much marketing verbiage so such a utilitarian feature.

The HG-2MS certainly looks nice, but I have so many questions. Who did the work? Where does the filter modeling come from? Does it change the character of what is already one of my favorite saturation/distortion devices? Does this replace the normal HG-2, e.g., is it "better" or just different.

Also, you're a fool if you upgrade at $69 dollars.

Apparently it's Ray (Fuse Audio) behind it. The same guy who created original BB. So you nothing to worry about in matter of quality.
The original BB is exactly the same. Only filters were added which can be very useful. M/S too and fortunately everything else can be totally ignored (TMT, Stereo Control, Low end monoizer).

Also apparently it's not an upgrade but totally new plugin (yes, I read that on their "happy FB group").

At some point it will be available for $29 for anyone so this upgrade offer is simply a joke.

[dblock]

Demo'd Black Box2 and had the same problem I did with Shadow Hills Class A Red where I would resize the gui to say, 100% but after I close it and open it again it defaults back to 75% which is too small to see the controls well enough to be functional. That's a no go.

[4damind]

The original BB is exactly the same. Only filters were added which can be very useful. M/S too and fortunately everything else can be totally ignored (TMT, Stereo Control, Low end monoizer).

Especially for effect plug-ins that add something to the signal, I find M/S very interesting. People who prefer the Blackbox HG2 for mastering or on groups will certainly like this extended functionality. Basically, the Monomaker and other functions of the Brainworx Toolbar are also very interesting there.
Whether the crossgrade is worth the $69 is of course another question. If you wait long enough, you can get it without the crossgrade for $49 or less (as is usual with PA)