Softubes Vintage Amp room
Contents |
General Information
Original Author: Staffay
Weapon: Computer Guitar Amp Simulator
Make: Softubes
Model: Vintage Amp Room
Price: Native: $329, TDM/VENUE/Native: $499 (excl VAT)
Introduction
Softubes is a small Swedish company that makes high-end plug-ins for DAWs. They don't have a broad range of products and they seem to focus on quality rather than quantity. In their range they have some compressors, a bass amp and another amp simulator entitled "Metal Room". (which I'm not the right one to test) They also have some emulators that simulate spring reverb, tube delay and acoustic feedback(!). Since I dont have a high-end system such as the Digidesign Venue, it's hard to tell how this plug-in sounds there. The version I tested runs on my Powercore module (this is a standalone effects-processor, that can be used in conjunction with the DAW to save processor-load) as native, and the core VST/RTAS plugin may sound exactly the same.
Product description
Vintage amp room is a simple product that contains three different guitar amplifiers called "White", "Green" and "Brown". Looking at the interface, it's pretty easy to understand that they are supposed to emulate an old Marshall, a Fender blackface and a VOX. The interface is very, very simply since there's nothing else in the software than the amps with its respective controls. E.g there are no outboard effects, no signal processing other than in the amps. There's not even trim-pots for the in-signal or out-signal. The interface actually models a real room where the three amps are placed in a row, and when You drag the screen You switch amp - easy as a pie! The most interesting thing here though, is that there are a microphone in front of every amp, which can be controlled by the mouse, changing distance and angles. This function has a large impact on the sound, even though in my opinion there should be some other microphones modelled as well as the possibility to use more than one mic. The intention with this software is to emulate the "core" amps - not to build a sound ready to record, unless one is a fan of AC/DC -type, dry sounds or equivivalents.
Sound
This plug doesn't make me wanna jump and shout, the only amp that I think sounds fairly good is the Marshall one. But even here, a opportunity to add some extra gain is missing. (although there is both master and gain) The clean sounds doesn't sparkle and the VOX emulation is not even close, in my opinion. The dynamic response is OK, but not more, and I would definitely not use it for jazz/clean sounding sounds. But since we all have different taste, will I list the pro's and con's instead of trying to judge.
Pro's:
-Easy interface
-Focus on core sounds instead of a lot of cosmetics.
-Microphone function very useful, although it works more like an EQ to me.
Con's:
-Way faaar too expensive, compared to SimulAnalogs Suite (which is FREE, and I bet You can get the same result from that one) it does offer LESS.....
-No trimpots for in/out
-Lack of core functions, eg. a master EQ, a master reverb or some more flexibility would have been nice....
Overall Impression
This product doesn't impress me at all, even though the sound samples on their site sounds good. It feels like this product was made like some 7-8 years ago, and You dont get much for the money. For 329$ (excl. VAT) You can get a real amp instead that sounds far better. Thumbs down....
Alternative Weapon
Instead of recommending alternative weapons here, I decided to move this section to the master page for Computer Guitar Amp Simulators.
Manufactorers Specifications
Features
•Three great-sounding vintage amp models that handle like real amps
•Raw & authentic sound
•Flexible & continuous click-and-drag mic positioning
•Fully automatable parameters
•3-D rendered photo-realistic user interface
•Compatible with all effects that work with real amps
Platforms
•Native, includes VST/AU/RTAS
•TDM (requires Pro Tools HD|Accel), also includes VENUE support and native versions for VST/AU/RTAS
•PowerCore (requires PowerCore hardware), compatible with VST/AU
System Requirements
TDM Version:
•Pro Tools | HD Accel with Pro Tools 7.0 or higherv
•System must meet requirements for Pro Tools HD from Digidesign
•Mac OS X (10.4 or higher) or Windows XP (or higher)
•iLok USB key and the latest Pace Interlok drivers
Vintage Amp Room uses less than 62 percent of an Accel processor.
PowerCore version:
•Any VST or AudioUnits compatible host application
•Windows XP or Mac OS X 10.4 (or higher)
•PowerCore software 2.2 (or higher) and compatible hardware
•Vintage Amp Room PowerCore is compatible with PowerCore PCI mkII, Express, Unplugged, Compact and FireWire. Vintage Amp Room PowerCore is not compatible with PowerCore Element and PCI.
•System must meet requirements of the host application and PowerCore software
Vintage Amp Room uses less than 76 percent of a PowerCore processor.
Native version:
•Mac OS X (10.4 or higher), Windows XP or higher
•Mac: Intel or PowerPC processor (G3 or higher), Windows: PIII or higher
•512 MB RAM
•Any VST, AudioUnits or RTAS compatible host application
•iLok USB key and the latest Pace Interlok drivers
Known Issues
Vintage Amp Room VST crashes on Cubase SX3 when used after a VST-instrument with multiple outputs.
