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GMC Forum _ GEAR & PRODUCTION _ My Journey Into Plugins: Pt 1 – aka What To Do When Your Neighbours Are Douchebags
Posted by: SixStringSamurai Aug 11 2013, 07:43 PM
Recently I've been having continuing troubles with irksome neighbours and landlords who find my playing guitar at 4.30pm in the afternoon to be extremely inconsiderate and noisy... Wtf. As you can imagine, it's really annoying for someone who needs to record demos and tone clips at a decent volume.
So, while I look for a new home to rent/buy, I'm going to keep it on the down low (just wait until I've handed in notice, you douchebag!) and I thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to explore some plugins.
I asked around on FB and the Six-String Samurai forums, and among the list of usual suspects, Scuffham Amps S-Gear suite came highly recommended for clean/medium gain tones, so I thought I'd start there! Check it out and see what you think 
http://sixstringsamurai.co.nz/2013/08/11/plugins-pt1-scuffham-amps-s-gear/
Posted by: korblitz Aug 11 2013, 08:11 PM
how about reading this forums?
Todd posted an awesome review of the Scuffham Amps S-Gear suite.
Posted by: SixStringSamurai Aug 11 2013, 09:44 PM
That was definitely a contributing factor to my interest! Todd is certainly the master of plugins, but I wanted to get a feel for some myself as well.
Posted by: Gabriel Leopardi Aug 12 2013, 12:00 AM
This is the great advantage that we have compared with drummers and singers, we can practice and record ideas with headphones. Your article is very interesting and I think that the whole journey will be cool to follow. The samples sound very cool, my favorite is the Plexmonster tone.
Posted by: Todd Simpson Aug 13 2013, 08:37 AM
Well thanks And you NAILED it on what the S gear does best. Killer, just Killer, warm tube emulation on CLEAN and Mid Gain tones. I have not seen it's equal as of yet. I'm not sure how they manage it but the algorithms are really good.
It, does do a HIGH GAIN sound as well, which is very spiff and very tubey. But as it's designed to mimic tube response so closely, it does tend to want to give that ORANGE amp bass sometimes that can make a signal "flubby", but you can prevent that of course with a little pre equ in your signal path using a software parametric to trim somewhere between 100-350 Hz depending on taste and it will tighten up the sound to PERIPHERY in nothing flat.
I"ve been in contact with the guy that makes the plugin and he has told me that the new version will be released in a couple of months and I"m going to get my grubby little hands on it for a playthrough and I CAN"T WAIT!!!! He's a really cool guy with some really spiff software.
Also check out OVERLOUD TH2 which the guys who make that tell me that they also are releasing a new version soon. I think they are going to retire TH1 BTW. I ran a TH2 contest quite a bit back and the winner is now an instructor on GMC His solo blew all of the judges including me away. He uses finger picking and some really inventive chordal structures as a solo bit.
Todd
Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 2 2013, 06:24 AM
I have been working with Sgear again recently and plan to try out the new version as well. There is a new amp in the latest build! Here is a demo I did and a patch that will live in my permanent S-Gear Preset Vault on my personal board.
ToddHugeLead_Sgear2.sfx.zip ( 651bytes )
: 155
Here is what it sounds like
https://soundcloud.com/techniqueswithtodd/custom-s-gear-patch-free
Posted by: SixStringSamurai Oct 2 2013, 07:33 AM
Awesome!
I've been playing the new Wayfarer amp a bit recently... it does a decent sounding Mk series tone, but I think it needs better impulses. My mate who tried a different impulse said he found it much more similar to his actual MkV, versus the stock impulse. I haven't experimented much with this yet... but for the moment the S-Gear is still king in medium gain land for me... not so sure about high gain yet!
Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 2 2013, 09:56 AM
I agree 100 % Unbeatable on mid gain stuff. Also very good on clean tones! They are using the RedWirez impulses which is a fine choice Have you set different cabs for right and left channels and set different mics? The Orange 4x12 on the left, and Marshall 4x12 on the right with ribbon mics at the cone worked pretty well
Have you tried swapping out miss/cabs and such on a given preset? may seem a silly question, just curious
Todd
I've been playing the new Wayfarer amp a bit recently... it does a decent sounding Mk series tone, but I think it needs better impulses. My mate who tried a different impulse said he found it much more similar to his actual MkV, versus the stock impulse. I haven't experimented much with this yet... but for the moment the S-Gear is still king in medium gain land for me... not so sure about high gain yet!
Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 21 2013, 05:48 AM
GOOD NEWS!!!
I've been emailing back and forth with Mr. Scuffham himself and he has been working on a METAL amp for SGear!!! I suggested that they add a "pre eq" section ahead of the primary gain stage to tame BOOMYness that is common to tube amps and accurate tube sims and come to find out they are already planning something similar for the Metal amp A series of EQ preset switches that will allow tone shaping before the gain stage!
IMHO this is CRUCIAL!! When I"m working with a high gain tube amp or tube sim, I always try to "pre eq" using either a parametric eq like my PARADRIVER or even using an overdrive pedal (drive to zero tone to max level to taste) to truncate the signal a bit and create a tighter sound.
Of course, some folks despise this type of tone, so this is not for them. But if you are going for a tight/periphery/djentish tone, this trick is par for the course.
I can't wait to see the metal amp!! he is working on it, but it's not going to be done in time for the new version. I hope they share an alpha/beta of the next rev soon!!!
Speaking of the PARADRIVER, here is a quick shot of the settings I use on the paradriver to coax tight gain out of amps/sims and especially out of my DIGITECH GSP1101 which is SOOOOOOOOOO BOOOOOMY I can barely stand it. But with a bit of pre eq it gets nice and tight and chunky 
I've been playing the new Wayfarer amp a bit recently... it does a decent sounding Mk series tone, but I think it needs better impulses. My mate who tried a different impulse said he found it much more similar to his actual MkV, versus the stock impulse. I haven't experimented much with this yet... but for the moment the S-Gear is still king in medium gain land for me... not so sure about high gain yet!
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