Vandal perfection through simplicity

[eduardo_b]

I used to do big comparisons of the amp modelers, where I'd try and shoot for the same kind of sound out of all of them, but it ended up basically becoming an unsustainable combinatorial explosion of effort, and completely burned me out of talking about them all for awhile. There are a TON of modelers out there right now, it's (in my opinion) an unsustainable situation. The market just can't be that big, something's got to give.

It depends. For one thing, it's not as if it's only one amp sim per person. My impression from the posts I've seen is that people will buy several different ones. I don't know if they just like the variety or are not completely satisfied with any one. In addition, those with direct experience with hardware seem the least pleased with amp sims in general and most likely to try many in their quest for the one they believe is most authentic.

[TreyM]

So... if I posted this right now (considering my low post count and all...)

"+1000 I love Vandal too!"

Would you guys flame me too? Here's a real concept! Maybe some people LIKE Vandal! Wow! Imagine that...

For the record, I don't own Vandal. Never tried it.

[shogger]

What's wrong with liking vandal? If someone is excited about it, good for them!

Absolutely. Though I wouldn't mind a little noodling to show off the new toy. Especially when taking big guys names for sound examples into ones mouth. (Come on, press record, upload and post it. It doesn't hurt.)

Shogger

[Hink]

The weird thing is, that none of the 'lovers of Vandalism' have posted a single clip here, nothing but lots of elephant talk about how great it is.....

I don't generally post such clips intentionally, nor do I listen to them often because they can't tell me what I want to know and unfortunately on the other side of the coin often it's hard for me to put into words what it is I like or what it is I'm listening for. An example is the subtleties of pinch squeals, I have a mental road map my right hand follows. Pinches come off different at different places you pinch, my right hand may move horizontally along the string as much as 6" between notes just for the difference in tone. (I also spent a lot of time in my youth learning to pinch without a pick)

It's kind of like the idea behind limiting (sort of but not totally, if I get one harmonic I lose another with amps I veto), when I would go amp shopping I would first check the spectrum of squeals as I use them, more time than not part of that spectrum was there but not the whole spectrum. The same holds true with normal harmonics, besides the usual spots there are lots of harmonics between the obvious. In standard tuning (which I rarely use now) on the G string just below the 3rd fret (about 1/8 the way towards the marker dot) is a very high harmonic (equal to or higher than the highest notes you typically get from a whammy pedal), some amps swallow that up with noise. Some amps and sims cannot hold onto the note long enough to get the entire desired tone.

Also I'm notoriously slow at getting things finished because I have no goals, after all these years writing songs is more about the enjoyment along the way than anything else. Perhaps I should do clips just to combat that issue though, I wish I could explain my "feel" so I could teach...but I can't.

I do think the "spam" notion is way off the mark, look at how many threads for other sims there are. (I have most of those too) Vandal is different than all the rest, but I think it deserves the same respect as all of them. I do not understand where this concept of spam is coming from. FWIW no sim is my favorite.

[Hink]

I'm so suspicious of Magix Vandal. This KVR member has 4 posts. The others basically praise Samplitude which Vandal was originally offered with. Now this post for Vandal. Many of us are already familiar with another similar thread. I noticed another KVR member who joined on the same date as his post, just to praise Vandal. There also seem to be regular KVR members that genuinely like Vandal and that's fine, but I think there's some shennanigans going on here.

+1 The Vandal spamming is getting old.

Conspiracy time again?
Come on guys, please give some evidence, this is just too ridiculous.

I stated in another thread that we don't do these things, nor do we hire people for such. Especially not on kvr.
This place is simply not on the radar of 'decision-makers', as far as I see it ('k-v-what?'). When colleagues and me go here, we do it privately.
[And I can assure, I'd not let it happen otherwise, simply I can't stand such behaviour when having worked my ass of for 2 years for a product which now shall get dubious marketing. People at Magix were confident about Vandal long before I was, and now all say the product speaks for itself.]

After 9 years, I'm seriusly considering leaving this place as it's turned more and more into a kind of of Kindergarten (or am I getting old?). People complain when not the 'regulars' utter stuff, giving no chance to people who just signed up or were just monitoring this place for years without being active themselves. How many users has kvr? Take a look...

I never even noticed you've been here 9 years I just respect you and your contribution.

[Aloysius]

After 9 years, I'm seriusly considering leaving this place as it's turned more and more into a kind of of Kindergarten (or am I getting old?).

KvR is what it is. Your human needs are not being met here right now. That's all!

This place is simply not on the radar of 'decision-makers', as far as I see it ('k-v-what?').

KvR has no significance? I beg to differ and I will add a little 'proof' as an example of how well regarded KvR is to the music community in general.

This month alone, two people have won significant prizes at KvR.

Eric won Big Fish Audio's Vir2 Instruments MOJO: Horn Section, the flexible and innovative approach to pop, funk, jazz, and big band horns in a Kontakt-powered virtual instrument. A $499.95 value! Thanks to Big Fish Audio for this prize.

Ruslan won this month's Ohm Force ALL-Live bundle. This fantastic downloadable plug-in bundle includes Quad Frohmage Filter Bank, Ohmicide:Melohman Distortion and Symptohm:Melohman Synth. Thanks to Ohm Force for donating this superb bundle every month - a €199 value.

having worked my ass of for 2 years for a product . . .

I've 'worked my ass off' and had no real result to show for it in other areas of my life. You're not the only person in the world who has put in a few hours.

I'll finish by saying that I like you. You are the 'only' real asset at MAGIX as far as I can tell. I too hope you'll stick around.

That guy who is 58 and thinks he's old. Well, I wonder what emotional age he is!!! Sounds a bit immature to me!!!

[rauchen]

I'm so suspicious of Magix Vandal. This KVR member has 4 posts. The others basically praise Samplitude which Vandal was originally offered with. Now this post for Vandal. Many of us are already familiar with another similar thread. I noticed another KVR member who joined on the same date as his post, just to praise Vandal. There also seem to be regular KVR members that genuinely like Vandal and that's fine, but I think there's some shennanigans going on here.

+1 The Vandal spamming is getting old.

Conspiracy time again?
Come on guys, please give some evidence, this is just too ridiculous.

I stated in another thread that we don't do these things, nor do we hire people for such. Especially not on kvr.
This place is simply not on the radar of 'decision-makers', as far as I see it ('k-v-what?'). When colleagues and me go here, we do it privately.
[And I can assure, I'd not let it happen otherwise, simply I can't stand such behaviour when having worked my ass of for 2 years for a product which now shall get dubious marketing. People at Magix were confident about Vandal long before I was, and now all say the product speaks for itself.]

After 9 years, I'm seriusly considering leaving this place as it's turned more and more into a kind of of Kindergarten (or am I getting old?). People complain when not the 'regulars' utter stuff, giving no chance to people who just signed up or were just monitoring this place for years without being active themselves. How many users has kvr? Take a look...

I think this is just hilarious. I post about how I enjoy Vandal, and all of a sudden out come the conspiracy theorists. As to owning Samplitude, everyone just assumed I had samplitude 11 pro or something. I have Samplitude music studio 15, it doesn't have vandal, and I think Samplitude 11 only has a lite version of Vandal. Now as far as Revalver goes, I have MKII Live that means it is a stand alone version which supports outside vst's. So any 3rd party vst I wanna use, I can. I don't chain anything else with Vandal, I just just use Revalver as a host when I wanna just jam. Now as far as samples from all of us who like Vandal and won't show proof, here goes. An audio sample ain't gonna prove anything. You can dress up or down an audio sample all you want with effects. Unless you are hearing Vandal live or playing it youself, you can't appeciate the quality, IMO. But if you must hear what I have done with it than here is a link. http://www.myspace.com/rauchenretroactive The first song on the playlist "Gotta be Free" all guitar parts were done with Vandal.If you like skip forward to the lead break. That way you can just hear the guitars.

[Seaside Music]

I've worked on Samplitude Pro for over 10 years, and just last week I did the V11 upgrade. I like Vandal and am happy to have it included. I'm a guitar player with nice vintage Marshall, Fender, and Bogner amps at my disposal, but I may use Vandal over them. I'm supplementing some guitar tracks on a record for a band in about 2 weeks and will simply record some takes with the real amps, and try Vandal to compare. Most likely the real amps will make the final cut, at least for the primary tracks, but I'm guessing Vandal will be great to add layers, or maybe even stand on its own. These are mostly hard rock guitar parts ala' Van Halen, Dokken, etc. In either event, I'm looking forward to finding out how Vandal hangs with the big boys.

[rauchen]

[shogger]

An audio sample ain't gonna prove anything. But if you must hear what I have done with it than here is a link. http://www.myspace.com/rauchenretroactive

Thanx for that.

Shogger

[Hink]

An audio sample ain't gonna prove anything. But if you must hear what I have done with it than here is a link. http://www.myspace.com/rauchenretroactive

Thanx for that.

Shogger

I'm liking your sig

[sascha]

This place is simply not on the radar of 'decision-makers', as far as I see it ('k-v-what?').

KvR has no significance? I beg to differ and I will add a little 'proof' as an example of how well regarded KvR is to the music community in general.

You got me wrong. kvr indeed plays a big role in the world-wide plugin scene, at least it's more important the smaller a company is. But at Magix, pro audio adds up to a revenue of only a few percent here, and my plugin sandbox is just a negligible fraction of that. So while individual employees are actually active here, you can imagine this place probably not being monitored that much officially.

[Aloysius]

Thanks sascha for explaining in more detail.

[Dean Aka Nekro]

--In closing I will say the only other amp sim I have is Revlaver MKII Live, which is a great host for Vandal.--

How does revalver host Vandal?

I'd thought Vandal was a VST; and that Revalver was also a VST. Is Revalver a sometime VST host?

If I recall correctly Revalver allows you to open vsts in it.

Yeah that is correct Hink mate - it seems to work better in standalone mode doing this than inside a host acting as VST itself for some reason i find (with ReValver Mk II anyway)

A VST Inside A VST Host Inside A VST Inside A VST Sub-Host > confusing for sure/head spinner

Simplicitiy for me is My Marshall DSL 50, Blackstar HT-5 And Ampeg BR-1E (amongst others)

Dean/Nekro

[rauchen]

An audio sample ain't gonna prove anything. But if you must hear what I have done with it than here is a link. http://www.myspace.com/rauchenretroactive

Thanx for that.

Shogger

I'm liking your sig

Cool