Product Reviews by KVR Members

I never had been a big fan of the real 2203, no matter if it is named a JMP or JCM, but this one sounds even worse, much too thin, too scratchy, for my ears wrong sounding harmonics and - opposite to the real amp - almost no typical low-end and low-mid punch, which is essential for this type of amp. At least for me.

I also find the G12T-75's not really the best choice, some Blackbacks, G12-65 or Lead 80 would have done a better job, but also a R121 microphone is missing, maybe also a SM57 Fredman microphoning, as much as an option to use external IR's within the channel strip.

Most of all, this plugin meanwhile is very old, had been used as exclusive UAD plugin for years and the conversion to VST obviously did not result in any sonic update or any other improvements, as far as I can hear.

Therefore also the sound, although it may be better than the one of some other Marshall plugins, meanwhile is not really state-of-the-art anymore. Urgently needs a sonic update - especially concerning treble and harmonics - in my opinion, plus some more contemporary features and additions.

This JMP 2203 should be a museum piece, so I have been astonished, that the stock JCM800 within Amp Room sounds much, much better, more naturally, more authentically and organically than this more expensive one. Obviously the guys at Softube can programm an excellent 2203 sound, so the problem must be located somehwere else.

For a Marshall approved amp plugin - whatever that means - it sounds disappointing to me. Some competitors come closer to the real amp, also offer some more features, especially concerning cabinets, speakers, microphones but also the Amp Room JCM is a better choice in my opinion meanwhile.

At least the channel strip allows better adjustment than the one of the Plexi, although I also here prefer the use of external IR's.

I had owned a real Silver Jubilee from 1987 for almost 20 years and had some sort of love-hate relationship with it. Mostly, because it sounded much too scratchy and sharp to me, the clean channel also disappointed me, it was clear that it would not sound like a Fender or Vox, but it also did not sound like a clean Plexi, unfortunately.

The crunch and lead tones sounded ok, if you looked for knife-sharp Metal tones at this time, but this amp was not the best choice, if you looked for typical AC/DC or ZZ Top tones.

The fact, that Slash started to use alnico II pickups with his Silver Jubilee, says all. They can compensate some of the treble overload and also the - in my opinion - more intense mid scoop, which the Silver Jubilee also offers, if compared eg. to a 1959.

Really good it only started to sound at very high Master Volume levels, which means, on a big stage. (Despite of even separate Input Gain, Lead Master plus Output Master controls.).

In comparison the Softube plugin reproduces this typical Silver Jubilee character very well, for my taste it even sounds much better than my own one ever did. This glassy treble scratchyness, which I also never liked on JCM's, is still existing, but at the same time is also has some decent sweetness, which I hardly noticed in reality. Nice programming job, obviously.

The Silver Jubilee never will become one of my favorite Marshalls, but the plugin itself is well made and also in comparison most probably the most authentically sounding Silver Jubilee simulation, which I have heard up to now.

If you like these - sort of hot-rod JCM800 - tones with some additional features, is a personal question.

If you do, this plugin will do the job excellently.

Some professional guitarists always preferred the Super Bass over the Super Lead, I personally did not have much experience with a real Super Bass up to now, but I must admit, the longer I play this plugin, the more I like it (also) for guitar.

It is not a completely different amp if compared with a 1959, but nevertheless the voicing is different. I also find the cabinet combination of a 412 and a 415 excellent, even more as you also have the option to choose guitar compatible mircrophones like eg. the SM57.

With bass it has a nice, dirty, typical Marshall sound, of course, opposite to typical, modern clean bass amps, but also opposite to eg. the typical Portaflex sound. But do not expect a lot of - if any - clean headroom, this amp wants to rock.

For my taste it sounds a little too dirty, some more clean headroom would have sounded better, but I suppose, this is a modification for the Murder One, as I also have heard much cleaner sounding Super Bass amps, but ok, with reduced input and low Volume you can also get some nice clean tones.

I mostly use it routed parallel with the 1959 to get some slightly different sounds with guitar.

Nevertheless an additional, unmodifed stock voicing had increased flexibility in my opinion.

Althogh this plugin meanwhile is quite old, it still is one of the two or three really good and authentically sounding 1959 SLP plugins, which I have heard up to now. I know a lot more, but usually they hardly have much to do with a typical, real Plexi tone, at least not for my eaars, so programming a good Plexi plugin seems to be some sort of "Holy Grail" for programmers, which separates the wheat from the chaff.

The amp section itself still sounds good for my taste and it also enables all possible linking options, which is essential especially for a Plexi, if you want to authentically cover the whole sonic range.

Not so happy I also am with the trashy look, vintage museum piece, ok, but the black knob and the sticker rather disturbs my eyes than it pleases them.

The tall 1960 BHW cabinet with G12H-30 Celestions is in principle a good choice, but I also had liked some alternatives, at least an additional pre-Rola G12M cabinet, maybe also some 75Hz and 55Hz Blackbacks, EVM-12L's or even some V30's or Scumbacks.

But what I dislike most and what is annoying me every time again is the - for me - strange Tony Platt channel strip, especially the microphone section. You have to choose, if you only want to use dynamic, FET or tube microphones but you cannot combine them or adjust position and distance individually, even worse, there is no even a Royer R121 is availabe, which for me, especially if it comes to Marshalls, in most cases is the best choice in combination with a SM57. And also no C414 or SM7B. Ok, these may be Tony Platt's favorites, whyever, but the "industrial standard" is a different one.

Nevertheless you can adjust - even with these strange, predefined limitations - some good, usable cabinet/microphone sounds by yourself or in the worst case you can deactivate the speakers and microphones completely and use some external IR's instead, which I mostly do meanwhile.

Alternatively the additional, but also within Amp Room usable Softube Celestion Speaker Shaper can be a good alternative, as you can widely customize your own cabinets/speakers in it and also have acces to not all, but some typical Celestion speakers, which you individually can modify and customize even more.

As this Plexi plugin itself is not really cheap, I had expected some more flexibility concerning the cabinet/speaker/microphone section, as already mentioned. Some competitors offer different cabinets or also a built-in IR-loader, while Softube's solution is for my taste and for the price a little too limited, if not to say, very modest.

Also another alternative voicing to this museum Plexi would have been a good idea, eg. the one of the newer 1959 SLP HW reissue or maybe the one of a Studio Vintage, to be able to compare the sounds and differences directly, maybe even better the one of an Arredondo modded Plexi.

If Softube anyway has already modelled the basic amp circuit, these different voicings could not have been so much additional work but would have justified the high price much more, I think.

Despite of my complaints for me still (one of) the best sounding Softube amp plugins from the Marshall collection, while some others - like the 2203 - do not really convince me very much.

I would have given five stars for the amp section itself, but due to the GUI and even more the strange, unflexible channel strip one point is deducted.

Another one I should have deducted for the price-performance ratio. For this price I had expected a more flexible, more modern state-of-the-art, more user-friendly channel strip with different cabinet/speaker options and individually adjustable and combinable microphones, not only for levelling but also concerning distance and placement. Plus at least another alternate Plexi voicing. But I do not, as the amp sound itself - despite of my complaints and critics - definitely deserves more than three stars.

The plugin market is overcrowded and meanwhile, also at least some competitive products at the same if not even higher level are available, so at the moment the amp simulation itself still sounds and works good, but some of the other features, like the channel strip are not really anymore state-of-the-art and urgently need some update and modernization in my opinion.

One idea eg. could be, to replace the existing, annoying channel strip with a built-in Celestion Speaker Shaper or at least a limited version of it with eg. only 412 cabinets but all speakers and speaker editing options.

Nevertheless recommended, if you look for convincing Plexi tones, can live with some disadvantages and are willing to accept them at this price. In other words, good programming job, but in certain aspects an unfortunately wrong product management in my opinion.

Not really bad, in principle, but also not really awesome, new, innovative, outstanding or at least better sounding for me.

I already have a much better and more authentically sounding SLO plugin and the Laney is just a cheap transistor amp with alibi tube and so it unfortunately also sounds. I hardly can imagine, that anybody needs a plugin simulation of a transistor amp, at least I do not.

Strange, not very convincing amp combination.

The pedals only sound like some budget copies to me, not my idea of usable, much less top-notch or iconic vintage pedal tones.

The sounds did not convince me enough for a new plugin from 2023, sorry.

Nice, obviously at least visually POG 2 octaver based plugin, but also with additional, rather with a Whammy/ Pitch Fork associated harmonizing features, so it is a quad octaver / quad harmonizer. You can adjust the interval of any of the four sliders individually to every posssible combination. If all posssible options sound good, is another theme, but good, that you have the choice to create also some strange harmonizations.

Another positive aspect is the low latency, processing works more or less in real time, which is not always the case with all octavers / pitch shifters, which I know.

As most harmonizers / pitch shifters / octavers it still sounds a little too synthetic for my taste, but, as the plugin anyway is no 100% copy of the original pedal, I think, it also could have been possible to add some additional sound shaping options for the anyway already synthesized harmonizer/octaver tones. At least an additional HP filter and a ADSR control would have been nice, maybe even more shaping and filtering options.

(One of my favorite real octaver pedals can even sound similar to a Hammond, which is really great and also a lot of fun, if your guitar suddenly sounds like Jon Lord. Unfortunately I did not find any octaver plugin up to now, which gives me comparable tones.).

The synthesization in principle works good, so with some additional features this also could become a nice, even more flexible audio signal triggered guitar/bass synthesizer, I think. (Not everybody has a guitar/bass to MIDI solution or likes to use one, so this could fill a gap in my opinion for guitar/bass players, who look for some different sounds.).

The harmonizations work chromatic, as far as I can see, so adding some key/scale based harmonizing options in a future upgrade could be a good idea, I think, as other harmonizers - like eg. even my favorite freeware pitch-shifter / harmonizer up to now - also offer this option too and this since years. But it unfortunately can only create a single harmonized voice, while the Harmonitron can create up to four, which enables even more complex sounds.

As it is, you nevertheless can get some very good sounding results, especially the Sweep and Detune controls are nice, useful tools. Also the fact, that the plugins works polyphonic is an advantage.

Still could be improved for my taste, but nevertheless a good tool for some more unusual guitar or bass sounds, but the plugin also is nicely usable for eg. keyboards and synthesizers. (I get really awesome sounds eg. with a Taurus or MiniMoog, but not only with them).

Therefore, despite my comments and complaints, five stars.

I bought the reverb because of the really long decay times and also, because some demos sounded nice, this spacey, ethereal sound was still missing in my collection.

I usually do not like modern reverbs a lot, especially not the typical, for my taste too digitally sounding ambient reverbs, therefore I prefer using some - for me - more usable, sonically more vintage vocied spring reverb or plate reverb plugins.

After some first tests I was astonished, how good and also how flexible the Galactic Reverb is. Simple controls, which make sense, nothing unnecessary, but all you really can need.

The long decay sounds are beautiful and due to the modulation and ducking options also sound good and vivid, never boring or synthetic, but also shorter reverbs work very well.

I had planned to mostly use it with keyboards, synthesizers or percussion, but I was astonished, how good these reverb sounds also harmonize with electric guitars. They can, properly adjusted, almost compete with a good spring reverb. They never really sound like one, but they can be a good, more modern voiced alternative with comparable quality and vividness, only with a different character but also much longer decay, if wished or necessary.

This is an aspect, I did not even expect, but which I like a lot. I also have some more expensive reverbs, with more knobs, but this one seems to become one of my favorites in the future.

Also the price is for the quality more than fair.

In principle the only Chorus plugin you ever will need, at least for me. Excellent vintage chorus sounds, sonically comparable with the CE-2 pedal, which always had been the reference for me, but due to the deep editing options and the two different basic voicings much, much more flexible adjustable.

Same great quality as the Martinic/Colorsound Tremolo.

Excellently modelled, beautiful sounds. Highly recommended.

Sounds good, is - due to the three "reverb tanks" - also very flexible and offers all necessary adjustment options for a variety of usable spring reverb sounds.

For the price anyway unbeatable, I've already heard some much more expensive spring reverb plugins, which did not convince me so much.

Nice sounding, maybe a little bit too bright and digital for my taste. I unfortunately am not really a big fan of the real pedal, as little as one of it's bigger brother (POT, KOT), as they sound much too neutral and meaningless to me.

Also the diode switching did not convince me so much. Promises more than it really keeps, similar to a Timmy.

If I use an SD-1, a Zendrive, Klon Centaur, RAT or OCD, I get some very specific sounds, even from a COT50, which I can like or dislike, but they have their own unique character, while this one just sounds, but nothing more.

I had the original pedal for some time, but soon sold it again, because of this completely colorless, much too neutral, if not to say, too boring sound. Also the harmonics reproduction is poor. It also hardly can be used as tube amp replacement, as it does not offer any individual amp character or dynamics.

Nevertheless a good sounding plugin, if you look for a POT simulation. Also the GUI looks nice.

But what I really find annoying is, that a digital plugin clicks even more than the real analog pedal, if you use the three-way switch. This issue any average programmer should be capable of avoiding, even more, if you can also avoid these clicks in reality with some additional resistors easily too.

Could have been five stars, but because of these annoying, but avoidable and unnecessary clicks only four.