KVR Audio

imrae · Post by **imrae** » Fri Feb 27, 2026 8:35 pm

I've been enjoying some of the Bogren AmpKnob plugins lately. The gain control is cleverly parametrised to do useful things across the whole sweep. They save a bunch of analysis paralysis by giving a decent sound immediately and then I run into MCabinet for a quick workflow of cabinet tweaking and EQ.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Fri Feb 27, 2026 8:43 pm

Ironically, I just sold my first amp sim, a Korg A3 that I've owned since the 80s.

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Fri Feb 27, 2026 8:57 pm

Uncle E wrote: Fri Feb 27, 2026 7:40 pm Genome sounds great and they keep giving us new stuff for free. The only problem is it takes longer to load than any other plugin I have.

Amplitube sometimes take so long to load that Bitwig puts up a message suggesting something might be wrong.

jules99 · Post by **jules99** » Sat Feb 28, 2026 10:45 am

John Mayer's Neural DSP plugin is pretty hard to beat for vibey clean tones.

As is ToneX when you get the Max edition. Some of these react much, much more natural than anything Amplitube has.

Of course, you can always try the free NAM player, go to Tone3000 and find the perfect NAM profile.

rasmusklump · Post by **rasmusklump** » Sat Feb 28, 2026 11:46 am

Kuassa all the way here.
The matchlock amps are great for clean sounds.

thievedletter · Post by **thievedletter** » Sun Mar 01, 2026 1:01 am

Uncle E wrote: Fri Feb 27, 2026 8:43 pm Ironically, I just sold my first amp sim, a Korg A3 that I've owned since the 80s.

New JHS pedal incoming!

Faland · Post by **Faland** » Sun Mar 01, 2026 1:48 pm

I have almost ALL the amp sims and I've tried the (few) rest intensely.
If you're looking for fenderish tones, there's absolutely no-one at the level of the new Fractal Icons. I can't even think to play again with others sims.
It costs a lot, true, but you get almost all the Fender amps ever created, a LOT of tweaking available and some very good effects.
More amps are coming, they say...

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sun Mar 01, 2026 4:23 pm

Nice! Are they better than Universal Audio Woodrow and Showtime?

Burillo · Post by **Burillo** » Sun Mar 01, 2026 4:50 pm

over time I've landed on three favorites:

1) Kuassa

Something about how they model the amps make me like them and "get" them. They're predictable. Like, if I'm missing something, I know which knob to turn where. own the entire thing, although admittedly I mostly use Caliburn.

2) (and I'm really surprised to say this) Audio Assault

Their amps feel like captures - either you like the amp with all knobs on 12 or you don't, and if you don't just skip it, but when it lands, it lands - don't have to do anything. It helps that they have a boatload of amps modeled (and I suspect they do "capture" them, not model).

3) Genome

The Albion Astria (Marshall Astoria) is hands down my favorite amplifier in the suite, but while a lot of the amps sound... odd and not at all how i'm used to, there's some great models in there as well.

Faland · Post by **Faland** » Tue Mar 03, 2026 9:00 pm

Uncle E wrote: Sun Mar 01, 2026 4:23 pm Nice! Are they better than Universal Audio Woodrow and Showtime?

I don't like the UAD amps too much, so definitely yes. Fractal is really CPU heavy though.
The only other amp sim I really like is NeuralDSP John Mayer, CPU heavy too but less than the Fractal. Both are great sims. I love and play clean and low gain amps. No high gain, please keep this in mind.
Cheers

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Wed Mar 04, 2026 6:21 am

Good to know. I'm not crazy about the Dream but the Woodrow and Showtime are excellent, IMO. I'll give the Fractal's a try.

Faland · Post by **Faland** » Wed Mar 04, 2026 3:07 pm

Uncle E wrote: Wed Mar 04, 2026 6:21 am Good to know. I'm not crazy about the Dream but the Woodrow and Showtime are excellent, IMO. I'll give the Fractal's a try.

Don't forget to calibrate the input. Presets are just meh... do it by yourself.

Cuauhtli · Post by **Cuauhtli** » Wed Mar 04, 2026 4:24 pm

Whatever became of Revalver (Peavey)? It showed promise when it first came out.

Genetic_Junk · Post by **Genetic_Junk** » Thu Mar 05, 2026 8:12 pm

zerocrossing wrote: Fri Feb 27, 2026 5:56 pm DiBiQuadro

Meh. It seemed fine, though higher gain stuff showed a noticeable amount of aliasing. Maybe they fixed this, but I’ve never been back back.

I'm usually pretty sensitive to aliasing and haven't notice any with the DiBiQuadro plugins. The aliasing in the Mesa IIC model in Amplitube is pretty bad.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Thu Mar 05, 2026 10:29 pm

Genetic_Junk wrote: Thu Mar 05, 2026 8:12 pm I'm usually pretty sensitive to aliasing and haven't notice any with the DiBiQuadro plugins. The aliasing in the Mesa IIC model in Amplitube is pretty bad.

Their first amp had problems, especially the tremolo. It sounds like they've improved things since then.

zerocrossing also talks about the aliasing in some AmpliTube models. Apparently it's only in a few of them but the ones that have it are bad.

Comparison of guitar ampsims and effects SW