Just a heads up for those that may not have heard about it (like me until a month ago) about a somewhat-recent stomp FX for simulated guitar amp feedback.
Provided you want that sort of thing, the [edit] not EH, but Digitech [/edit] FreqOut is actually pretty good when used properly. Definitely worth an audition if you could benefit from those sounds at moderate levels and/or thru amp sims.
It can be thought of as being to real amp/guitar feedback what the nicer Hammond/Leslie sims are to the real thing…never as good, but way more practical and close enough when used properly…
[edit] Forgot to add, is anyone aware of a plugin that does this?
Blue Cat’s AcouFiend is an acoustic feedback simulator plug-in that can make your guitars scream, growl, or sing, even at low volume or through headphones, and it gives you total control over it!
I’ll definitely give it a whirl too. LOL, as a non keys person I’ll budget line the Hammond side of things with the thought if I ever do another band, that is someone else’s responsibility. All I need is “good enough” to sequence into a sketch. But not so for guitar…I’ll keep the Digitech if it wins or use whichever plug I like best and sell the Digi…
Based on the demo clips I would agree. In fact I’ll try it first. It sounds a lot like my FreqOut, but based on the video clip I think the FreqOut is probably better. We’ll see… If they’re really close I’d probably opt for the plugin since I’m migrating as much as I can for guitar FX into Cantabile even when using real amps with load box and IR (still a cut above even the best amp sims imo). FWIW there are a few stomps I can’t seem to replace adequately with plugins or sims (but at least I can count them on one hand, lol).
It has a lot to do with how they chain in the analog domain as opposed to A/Bing individual effects.
That said, Marshall ED → TS808 is something no sim can nail imo. Closest I’ve found is Neural DSP’s Cory Wong.
Similar for whatever chain → BudWah (or any GCB-95/derivative). What they do when you overdrive their inputs is something I’ve not heard a decent sim of. Nor of placing them in an amp FX loop.
As for individual pedal, definitely the Kay Fuzztone (aka U2’s Elevation). Nothing in the sim world comes close.
That said, I’m not anti plugin, in fact quite the opposite. I’m coming up with all sorts of sounds that “don’t sound exactly like X” but are none the less top shelf quality imo. And at this point I’m more interested in sounding like me than [fill in the blank].
Like Corky, I’ve been using the Blue cat plugin for quite a while…love it. Paired with TH-U, my favorite amp sim, it’s pretty amazing. My only complaint is that when using an expression pedal to fade the effect in/out, it’s not as smooth/slow as I’d like… there’s a perceptible “jump”. Not a big deal but when I get time Im going try either a different filter curve on the pedal, or better yet, just routing it in parallel so the pedal fades the plugin’s volume in the rack. I love the drive you get when it’s just on the edge of feeding back…sounds great!
Haven’t had a chance to try out the Blue Cat yet, but I suppose your mention of expression pedal is one aspect in favor of the Digitech. The Digi works somewhat akin to a sustain pedal on a piano. It uses a momentary stomp button to activate knob-set rise time for the feedback and feedback vol. Just lift off the button to end it. It also has two modes where it will choose the harmonic as opposed to user pre-defining it, which can also be done.
Haven’t tried the digitech but on blue cat all the parameters are midi controllable via exp pedal, switch, etc. But it also has a rise time you set or control via pedal. I’d imagine that with either unit, it’s best to use an exp pedal to fade the feedback in/out, making the rise time somewhat irrelevant. Happy Feedback!
Tom
The Digitech doesn’t use an expression pedal. Just set the rise time and vol and stomp to engage, lift to disengage. It actually works well and gives a convincing effect.
I should have time to try the Blue Cat tomorrow and will post findings as compared to the Digitech. Hopefully it’s about the same and I can migrate to a plugin…
So finally got the chance to demo Blue Cat and it is very, very, very (did I say very) similar to the Digitech pedal.
And since it offers the option to easily create a portable VSTForx rack where I can run multiple instances and do some other stuff to just the feedback, I will be migrating to it and selling the hardware pedal since getting off of hardware pedals where possible and into Cantabile for FX is the ongoing goal, even when using real amps.
The one thing it doesn’t do (yet) that the pedal does is a mode where it will select its own harmonic, but I’m not completely sold on that anyway.
Thanks for the heads up on this one Corky, great find!
My initial impression of Blue Cat is I’m able to get what are for me, very nice threshold and ramp using their knobs and just using a momentary to activate/deactivate. I did notice the usable portion for fade-in time, for me anyway, was the final (slowest) 30% or so of the range. But no problem, it works.
