Swanky Amp (release 1.4.0)

[garrinm]

As far as I can tell, the old presets should be deleted first. The new ones look to be the same except a new one (bright) is in the #2 spot. That's what I did and now I'm numbering my own presets starting with 101.

... and it seems to get renamed to 11.

Thanks for bringing that up pough, that's definitely less than ideal. When I get around to re-visiting presets for the pro version I will try to change this behavior (in the base version as well) so that you can keep the numbering scheme from your directory.

[jbraner]

Hi Garrin,

Good to hear from you again, I had this idea maybe your new computer build had turned out really poorly xD.

Nah - the build went OK, but I also changed everything to UEFI/GPT disks, and that caused a little confusion - then I changed my backup software - just to punish myself a little more.

Hopefully, I can switch off that half of my brain now and just *use* the computer, rather than dorking around with it

I've just had my head down working on a tune - and, like I said, using lots of Swanky Amp instances.


So, re: presets - to recap:
1 - if I have everything set up nicely - I can just leave them
2 - if I copy new files (from downloading or whatever) - I can just make sure the numbers are set up correctly - and I'm good to go? (that's what I did and it seems fine)

some thoughts:
Why do we need the numbers? Is it difficult to just read the file names and sort them alphabetically? (then we can worry about putting a prefix on them to sort them how we want)

These corrections aren't saved, they happen ever time you load a preset made with an older version (don't worry this is extremely fast by CPU standards so it won't affect your loading experience).

Is it worth having a little button to just run through the preset list once and resave them?
Or put some kind of reminder to resave a plugin (created with an older version)?

[jbraner]

Seems the EQing of sounds are more generated toward being brittle and bassy at same time. More in the groove or pocket early on.

That's too bad it didn't evolve in a direction that sounds good to you. I think there's a lot more variety in the EQing now, but as a result it might be harder to find the exact sound you're after. Many things did change in the underlying model so it is possible the overall sound you liked just isn't quite available anymore.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep that in mind moving forward, but the good news for you is the old versions are still available:

https://www.resonantdsp.com/swankyamp/d ... kyAmp.vst3

Garrin

EDIT: if you're after a more mids-heavy sound, you could try the tone stack knob at around 5 and adjust the pre-amp grit and staging low cut to get the right level of bass in the distorted sound. This is a pretty new configuration though so I doubt it'll sound much like 0.8.0.

Why not just use the EQ plugin of your choice before/after or between amp and separate cab sim plugin? That way you should be able to dial in whatever you want.

[acousticglue]

I have played with it more and getting it to breathe life where I was losing it. Seems more difficult I guess. But finding pleasing settings.

[v1o]

This is now my favourite tube distortion plugin. It is just much more alive and nuanced than other plugins I paid big bucks for. It really is a stunning achievement. Especially for a first time developer in a market with many established players that have been at it for decades. I hope to see more plugins from this company in future.

[jbraner]

Here's a short demo, done with my strat.

Code: Select all

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4p3k31edm23l6ku/swanky%20demo.mp3?dl=0

(I can't figure out how to make this work - so just paste the url into your browser)

All the guitar parts are done with Swanky amp, no pedals no other FX.
I did use Torpedo Wall of Sound for a 4x12 speaker cab though.

[garrinm]

Here's a short demo, done with my strat.

Code: Select all

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4p3k31edm23l6ku/swanky%20demo.mp3?dl=0

(I can't figure out how to make this work - so just paste the url into your browser)

All the guitar parts are done with Swanky amp, no pedals no other FX.
I did use Torpedo Wall of Sound for a 4x12 speaker cab though.

That's amazing. The guitars sounds killer, but the tune is also just really good. I love that chromatic line near 1m. And the stereo percussion sounds great.

When I get a chance to work on the website some more I'll put a section to feature songs that use Swanky Amp. Not too sure when I'll get around to that.

Thanks for sharing.

[jbraner]

Hi Garrin,
I'm glad you like it
I'll send you the "finished product" when it's finished - but I wanted to send a demo of just the amp (albeit w/o the cab) with no FX or pedals or anything
(finished song with have the usual eq/comp/saturation/desk emulation blah blah...)
I love the amp - but after this I will start to play around with some pedals etc too

[garrinm]

Quick update from my end of things:

Things have been quiet for a few weeks. I (fingers crossed) take that as a good sign that version 1.4 is working out well and people are able to just enjoy it. There's been no bug reports so far, but if you do encounter an issue please leave a message.

This has given me time to move forward on the pro version. In the coming week or two I'll run a small closed beta, and hopefully will have a wider beta available in January. I'm currently working on pedals, and thought perhaps people around the forum would like to chime in on what they'd like to see. I'm still focused on delivering high quality realistic models, so at first I will have time to build only a handful of pedals.

So far I've worked on over drives: there's a tube screamer style over drive and a DS1 style over drive to cover the soft clipping and hard clipping over drive sounds. I've also got a clean boost with configurable frequency selection (only boost part of the frequencies). I'm considering a more versatile over drive which allows you to blend soft clipping, transistor clipping, hard clipping and cross over distortion. Dimed, this will be a bit like the HM2, but I think there's lots of potentially interesting sounds with some of the controls dialed back.

I'm looking for ideas now for pedals that cover: utilities (gate, comp ...), time effects (echo, delay, reverb ...) and pitch effects (chorus, flanger ...).

Garrin

[jbraner]

Hi Garrin,
Personally, I'd rather use my own plugins for chorus/flanger, delay, reverb etc. Same with compressor (there are so many great compressors to pick from).
For OD - maybe configure your next overdrive more like a Rat, than HM2? Simply because that seems to fit more with the "vibe" of this amp
Anyway, that's just my £0.02 (worth $0.03) - whatever you choose will be fine

[Rockatansky]

One idea under-used in amp sims is the two-stage gate. Detector at the input, before any distortion happens, like in a pedal, and the actual gate VCA acts after the distortion, as if in the FX loop of the amp. If the VCA is applied before the distortion, then there may be swells and fades in and out of the distortion, so the signal would clean up for a moment before the gate is fully closed, which sounds weird. If the detector runs after the distortion, the signal is already highly compressed and polluted with overtones and (in all likeliness) aliasing, which makes it hard to find a gate-worthy section without getting too aggressive. If the VCA is applied after the distortion, the gate could also have a 'range' parameter, as not to completely fade out the hiss during quiet passages, but to merely attenuate it to a certain level, and stop it from becoming too choppy and 'djenty'. (Not that that would be bad, but not everyone wants it all the time.)

[prodigal_sounds]

I'd love to see an emulation of a BOSS CS-2 compressor on the front end going into the amp.

[pough]

1. Octave
2. Fuzz
3. Octave Fuzz

By the way, where will the pedals go in the chain?

[garrinm]

Personally, I'd rather use my own plugins for chorus/flanger, delay, reverb etc. Same with compressor (there are so many great compressors to pick from).
For OD - maybe configure your next overdrive more like a Rat, than HM2? Simply because that seems to fit more with the "vibe" of this amp

Hi John, I never played around with a Rat, but looking online that's quite feasible and sounds good. Thanks for the lead. I think you're right about using dedicated plugins for time effects. I won't focus too much on those, I just want something that sounds solid so that you can quickly think "oh this needs a bit of delay" and slap something on there.

One idea under-used in amp sims is the two-stage gate. Detector at the input, before any distortion happens, like in a pedal, and the actual gate VCA acts after the distortion, as if in the FX loop of the amp. If the VCA is applied before the distortion, then there may be swells and fades in and out of the distortion, so the signal would clean up for a moment before the gate is fully closed, which sounds weird. If the detector runs after the distortion, the signal is already highly compressed and polluted with overtones and (in all likeliness) aliasing, which makes it hard to find a gate-worthy section without getting too aggressive. If the VCA is applied after the distortion, the gate could also have a 'range' parameter, as not to completely fade out the hiss during quiet passages, but to merely attenuate it to a certain level, and stop it from becoming too choppy and 'djenty'. (Not that that would be bad, but not everyone wants it all the time.)

Hi Rockastansky, thanks for chiming in! That sounds like an excellent idea, I've never heard that in practice but I know what you mean about a gate ducking below the distortion level which will make its action very audible. I see this less as a pedal more as a dedicated function in the plug-in. I'll put it on the to-do list.

I'd love to see an emulation of a BOSS CS-2 compressor on the front end going into the amp.

I looked into it a bit, I'll definitely have an analogue-like compressor but I'm not sure how close I'll get to the tone of the CS-2. We'll see, but I will try to work in that direction.

1. Octave
2. Fuzz
3. Octave Fuzz

By the way, where will the pedals go in the chain?

I think I'm starting to get an idea what kind of guitar style you play xD. I want to add at least one good fuzz pedal, any in particular you enjoy? I'll have to look into emulating an octave pedal, I wouldn't want to put something together that sounds overly surgical / digital, but I'm not sure how the analogue circuits function. What I'm saying is I'm not sure how long it'll be before I get an octaver out.

At first the pedals will just act in series in front of the amp. I'm considering adding an fx loop as well. No plans for crazier wiring schemes though.

Thanks for the input
Garrin

[FrettedSynth]

One idea under-used in amp sims is the two-stage gate. Detector at the input, before any distortion happens, like in a pedal, and the actual gate VCA acts after the distortion, as if in the FX loop of the amp. If the VCA is applied before the distortion, then there may be swells and fades in and out of the distortion, so the signal would clean up for a moment before the gate is fully closed, which sounds weird. If the detector runs after the distortion, the signal is already highly compressed and polluted with overtones and (in all likeliness) aliasing, which makes it hard to find a gate-worthy section without getting too aggressive. If the VCA is applied after the distortion, the gate could also have a 'range' parameter, as not to completely fade out the hiss during quiet passages, but to merely attenuate it to a certain level, and stop it from becoming too choppy and 'djenty'. (Not that that would be bad, but not everyone wants it all the time.)

Hi Rockastansky, thanks for chiming in! That sounds like an excellent idea, I've never heard that in practice but I know what you mean about a gate ducking below the distortion level which will make its action very audible. I see this less as a pedal more as a dedicated function in the plug-in. I'll put it on the to-do list.

Freeamp3 had a gate setup like that! used dry input for the gate detection and could place the VCA\Gate either before or after the amp. It really did help for some nice swells placed after.