Tested Bias Amp 2 (elite) Options

[Mertay]

Friend of mine bought it, I helped him a little with the details and during the process had a good listen and play.

https://www.positivegrid.com/bias-amp/?gcli...ASAAEgKNGvD_BwE

If you're an active youtuber guitarist follower (specially the high-gain guys), the tones immediately reminded me of their demo sounds. The ready amps inside it combined with the celestion cab.s gets you the sound needed for recording, I didn't feel a need to eq anything (just amp eq or change cab.s) I've had the chance to try. This might be the highest praise from me possible

At first the amps came to me a bit compressed but realized they're doing a good job on mimicking a loud amp. I didn't get to surf in the tonecloud much, but the few user created ones didn't do it for me.

Downside is the cpu usage, needs a rather new machine if you're going to use vsti plugs with it (drum, bass etc...). Also the price on the elite is on the expensive side and I suspect the lower priced options experience may not be worth it compared to other sim.s.

Finally, if you're a tweaker you're in trouble would be fun to create a personal sound but the amount of things that can be tweaked is insane so I suggest not diving too deep in the controls (can rob you of your play time too much) cause the included amps already sounded amazing to me.

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[Todd Simpson]

Yup!! Many fans of BIAS insist that it can do most of what a KEMPER can do and do it for FAR less money. ( TO WHICH, MOST KEMPER OWNERS CRY FOUL!!!) I. I"m guessing one will cry foul before the thread runs it's course was on the BETA Test team as you guys know and I was really impressed with it. I have NEVER tried a kemper so I can't honestly compare them. STill, it's great to see a software bit that does so much detail on building an amp and lets you get so granular on your decisions.

For the price, it's certainly hard to be for sure imho.

our own BEN uses BIAS to great effect and gets some killer tones. FAAARRR better than I ever did.

I'll be trying the MOBILE Version of BIAS 2 of course WIth the new ORANGE TELEPORT That I just got from Alex @ Orange. For the price, the mobile app is truly impossible to beat.


Looking forward to the BIAS 2 comparison vids!

One spiff thing in BIAS 2 is the new CAB MODULE that lets you use multiple mics and move them around and mix them together which is a wonderful thing



Todd

Friend of mine bought it, I helped him a little with the details and during the process had a good listen and play.

https://www.positivegrid.com/bias-amp/?gcli...ASAAEgKNGvD_BwE

If you're an active youtuber guitarist follower (specially the high-gain guys), the tones immediately reminded me of their demo sounds. The ready amps inside it combined with the celestion cab.s gets you the sound needed for recording, I didn't feel a need to eq anything (just amp eq or change cab.s) I've had the chance to try. This might be the highest praise from me possible

At first the amps came to me a bit compressed but realized they're doing a good job on mimicking a loud amp. I didn't get to surf in the tonecloud much, but the few user created ones didn't do it for me.

Downside is the cpu usage, needs a rather new machine if you're going to use vsti plugs with it (drum, bass etc...). Also the price on the elite is on the expensive side and I suspect the lower priced options experience may not be worth it compared to other sim.s.

Finally, if you're a tweaker you're in trouble would be fun to create a personal sound but the amount of things that can be tweaked is insane so I suggest not diving too deep in the controls (can rob you of your play time too much) cause the included amps already sounded amazing to me.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

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This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Jun 14 2018, 07:05 AM

[Mertay]

My friend used guitar rig for a very long time and got sick waiting for a new version, he had helix in mind but preferred to get the hardware and still saving for it (then the software helix gets a huge discount).

When I suggested bias, he wasn't thrilled. Like me, when demoed bias 1 sometime ago when was new the software had compatibility problems that took too long to sort out and even pass that the overall sound simply didn't speak to him or me either.

Gotta say the celestion cab.s made a huge difference, we did try some of the bias cab.s but they stood no chance. The 100 dolar extra actually isn't too bad when compared buying them individually from celestion. The modules can be bypassed to used the cab.s only if needed. Unlike the amp modules, the cab. section isn't complicated or too crowded.

He now inserts bias then opens guitar rig for fx, the guitar rig fx aren't too bad but works better for creative sound fx. They also made a good job on the included reverb, simple to use but good sounding. I can say they did their homework well on considering user reports.

For the past 1-2 years finally to my ears guitar software is properly emulating the power section. Mercuriall was the first to my ears and now bias got it right too. Sure not perfect in every aspect but the dimension and boldness of the sounds finally started to remind me of real mic.ed amps in studio.

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[Todd Simpson]

I tried the demo and was impressed! They have clearly done their homework. I was glad to see they added so much in terms of mics/cabs. That was one spot that sorta lacked in the last version. I wish they would just include BIAS AMP as part of BIAS FX instead of making them two things to buy! I like how they have dual signal paths. OVERLOUD TH3 has the same thing. Although TH3 does NOT go as deep in to amp design as bias, I honestly found that I don't need to go that deep in general. I like many of the amps in overloud just as they are as they sound like the amps they are supposed to be. E.G. Mesa Mark IIC+, the RANDALL T2 (which I just adore!!) and BOGNER XTC. I don't need to change the guts of those amps, just tweaking the knobs is plenty. But I get the attraction of BIAS for folks that really wanna build their own amp from the tubes up!

I'm glad to see bias add some of the cab stuff that overloud has had for several years now. That's one of the things I like most about overloud is how flexible it is on letting you load cab IRs, use multiple mics, mix mics, and stack multiple cabs in a chain. I was a big fan of GUITAR RIG but that product is a dead end IMHO. overloud is still my fave of all of the plugins and I've tried every single one.




Todd

My friend used guitar rig for a very long time and got sick waiting for a new version, he had helix in mind but preferred to get the hardware and still saving for it (then the software helix gets a huge discount).

When I suggested bias, he wasn't thrilled. Like me, when demoed bias 1 sometime ago when was new the software had compatibility problems that took too long to sort out and even pass that the overall sound simply didn't speak to him or me either.

Gotta say the celestion cab.s made a huge difference, we did try some of the bias cab.s but they stood no chance. The 100 dolar extra actually isn't too bad when compared buying them individually from celestion. The modules can be bypassed to used the cab.s only if needed. Unlike the amp modules, the cab. section isn't complicated or too crowded.

He now inserts bias then opens guitar rig for fx, the guitar rig fx aren't too bad but works better for creative sound fx. They also made a good job on the included reverb, simple to use but good sounding. I can say they did their homework well on considering user reports.

For the past 1-2 years finally to my ears guitar software is properly emulating the power section. Mercuriall was the first to my ears and now bias got it right too. Sure not perfect in every aspect but the dimension and boldness of the sounds finally started to remind me of real mic.ed amps in studio.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

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This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Jun 20 2018, 03:19 AM

[Mertay]

The bias 2 does the powerchord thing well compared to what I tried till now and that was what my friend was mainly after. Not that other software are bad but this one is default tuned better for that. If any member here has problems in that department (getting powerchords to sound like newer albums) and ready to spend 300 bucks this is it. Not for learner GMC'ers but ones who want to release an album.

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[Todd Simpson]

WELL SAID!! The problem most folks face with BIAS is that it really does respond like a high gain tube amp and as such, the lower freqency information (bass) tends to "bunch up" under high gain and not sound "tight" but instead lean toward "muddy". Which is why folks do things in real life like adding a tube screamer before a high gain head as the tube screamer acts like a "HIGH PASS FILTER" (let's the high frequencies/treble "pass" through) and trims off some bass so that the sound is more "tight" and less loose/flabby/muddy.
There are ways of doing this sort of thing inside bias, but it's not always apparent. You get the option to EQ the signal on input to the amp section with a section for cutting bass before it gets distorted. This will help. It's not always enough though so one may still need to either add an EQ block in the daw (to trim bass out before bias) or use an actual stomp box like a screamer before going in to the audio interface, etc.

There is PLENTY of gain in BIAS but since the FX section is a different app entirely, it's often tough to make it sound tight enough by ltself.

Hate to keep going back to it, but OVERLOUD lets you put a nice Parametric EQ as the first thing in your chain (which I do for every single patch I make) and lets you carve some bass out before it ever reaching the main gain stage. Which is why it's so easy to dial in Djenty tones on overloud.

Many folks on BIAS and BIAS FX make the mistake of just turning up the gain and then turning up the treble. This results in a very boomy/muddy tone with lots of fizz. It's just a lack of experience mostly.
I use a parametric, but many guitar folks are not comfy with parametric EQ, so a graphic eq would work fine too. Just something to trim bass somewhere below 300 hz (i'm trimming about 155 here)

*Also using four Mics and Two guitar cabs.

Todd

The bias 2 does the powerchord thing well compared to what I tried till now and that was what my friend was mainly after. Not that other software are bad but this one is default tuned better for that. If any member here has problems in that department (getting powerchords to sound like newer albums) and ready to spend 300 bucks this is it. Not for learner GMC'ers but ones who want to release an album.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by Todd Simpson: Jun 20 2018, 10:11 PM

[Mertay]

WELL SAID!! The problem most folks face with BIAS is that it really does respond like a high gain tube amp and as such, the lower freqency information (bass) tends to "bunch up" under high gain and not sound "tight" but instead lean toward "muddy". Which is why folks do things in real life like adding a tube screamer before a high gain head as the tube screamer acts like a "HIGH PASS FILTER" (let's the high frequencies/treble "pass" through) and trims off some bass so that the sound is more "tight" and less loose/flabby/muddy.
There are ways of doing this sort of thing inside bias, but it's not always apparent. You get the option to EQ the signal on input to the amp section with a section for cutting bass before it gets distorted. This will help. It's not always enough though so one may still need to either add an EQ block in the daw (to trim bass out before bias) or use an actual stomp box like a screamer before going in to the audio interface, etc.

There is PLENTY of gain in BIAS but since the FX section is a different app entirely, it's often tough to make it sound tight enough by ltself.

Hate to keep going back to it, but OVERLOUD lets you put a nice Parametric EQ as the first thing in your chain (which I do for every single patch I make) and lets you carve some bass out before it ever reaching the main gain stage. Which is why it's so easy to dial in Djenty tones on overloud.

Many folks on BIAS and BIAS FX make the mistake of just turning up the gain and then turning up the treble. This results in a very boomy/muddy tone with lots of fizz. It's just a lack of experience mostly.
I use a parametric, but many guitar folks are not comfy with parametric EQ, so a graphic eq would work fine too. Just something to trim bass somewhere below 300 hz (i'm trimming about 155 here)

*Also using four Mics and Two guitar cabs.

Todd

If I remember correct, the default amps on the elite had a low-cut set ready (can't remember if pre or post, but there are eq's ready on both sides).

On one side its neat that they thought about this (plus the reverb) but the downside is since there are no pedal emu.'s then things can get pretty expensive by adding bias fx...I didn't hang around to try analog pedals with it, maybe next week I'll visit my friend again to see what he came up with.

Layering guitars is really hard for beginners. When I was a beginner it took me around 2 years to start considering recording (bought my 4 track) but today record/mixing is almost combined with the guitar learning process. GMC does have video's and the forum is full of needed info but as the site is slowly but steadily getting updates a separate educational recording series will be needed.

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[Todd Simpson]

Very true on all accounts! There are built in EQs going in and out of the BIAS amps. I do sorta not like how you gotta buy bias fx just to complete the signal chain. It adds up when you buy the nice versions of the BIAS plugins for sure.

I've tried it with actual pedals going in to the audio interface before BIAS and it behaved quite a bit like a real amp. Which is nice But yeah, those two things would make a great single product imho, (bias fx and bias amp) and let the user decide if they want to tweak amps, just use patches, or tweak amps and patches. Honestly I think even BIAS PEDAL would be a nice inclusion. The entire thing should be about $350 to be price competitive, but that's probably why they broke it up. So they could charge for each chunk.
I also agree all the way that one sorta has to learn recording/information technology/guitar playing all at the same time these days. The good news is that there have never been more and better tools available for good prices than we have right now. Most of which is software based, so that anyone with a laptop and an audio interface can watch some youtube vids and get going.

there was a time long long ago when getting started in home recording was a HUGE investment in time/gear/etc. But this was before the software revolution democratized the recording and video editing processes. But back then, most folks went to a pay by the hour studio just to record a demo and it was a "Demo Tape"! Ouch.

If I remember correct, the default amps on the elite had a low-cut set ready (can't remember if pre or post, but there are eq's ready on both sides).

On one side its neat that they thought about this (plus the reverb) but the downside is since there are no pedal emu.'s then things can get pretty expensive by adding bias fx...I didn't hang around to try analog pedals with it, maybe next week I'll visit my friend again to see what he came up with.

Layering guitars is really hard for beginners. When I was a beginner it took me around 2 years to start considering recording (bought my 4 track) but today record/mixing is almost combined with the guitar learning process. GMC does have video's and the forum is full of needed info but as the site is slowly but steadily getting updates a separate educational recording series will be needed.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!