I never thought using stereo on stage made sense until I saw Dominic Miller play with Sting years ago. He had a pair of 2x12 speakers spread about 8 feet apart behind him and the FOH must have been panning the micād up cabs. His chorus and delays sounded great.
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Pretty soon, Kemper will be Native like UAD. In 2007 I started with the UAD hardware and kept updating to the Octo/Quad PCIe hardware accelerators till about 2015. I guess thatās the evolution of the business: The specialty hardware will be worthless.
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Hereās news from Tonocracy by Atomic Amps - they have now made their software completely free - the free version used to be really crippled, but now all models are freely available. The latest version also seems to play nice at 44.1 kHz, which the earlier versions were sabotaging heavilyā¦
Tonocracyās engine is an interesting mix of modeling (mix of component and AI) amps and a capturing capability (they call this āSnapsā). It also allows you to use NAM models directly in your setups.
It sounds like Atomic are currently preparing to launch a hardware platform that will run the same presets as the Tonocracy software, so it looks like a pretty well integrated ecosystem. And Atomic have a record of demonstrating that they know their stuffā¦
Tonocracy currently offers a pretty decent bread-and-butter offering of modeled amps (Fender cleans, Vox, Plexi, Friedman, Dumble, 5150, Rectifier), plus a bunch of captures. Guess there will be a platform to share and probably also to sell captures going forward.
Effects are limited in range, but that offering may grow over time. Currently just offering the basics - good enough to get a nice tone, but missing some of the more exotic tone-shaping capabilities other plugins offer.
Cabs are a selection from ML Tonelabs - pretty nice and mix-ready, but just one version per cabinet. Guess theyād like people to buy the full range of IRs from ML once youāve identified the model you like. Iāve imported my two default IRs, and they work nicely in Tonocracy.
CPU-load is pretty hefty, but manageable on my setup. Sound-wise pretty nice, easy to get to an enjoyable sound very quickly.
Overall: pretty impressed, given the fact that itās free!
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I donāt know if plugins are allowed here
If not, Iāll delete my post
Well, a Les Paul was one of my dreams, together with the Moog and the Hammond 
, but I had never the money
I also tried to build one axe, but the board was impossible to do for me due to the super-thin saw needed
Here is the Les of a friend (dx) and my unfinished axe (sx)
Now that I moved to plugins (way cheaper and no fingertips killing 
), I use UJAM guitars for accompaniment and AAS Strum-GS guitars for solos
For the amp I use S-Gear with AAS Strum-GS plain (without embedded effects) and for my basic needs itās more than enough
I take advantage to ask if a working Larsen effect exists
I tried the only 2 I know, but no one worked with my plugins
If you are looking for a plugin that simulates acoustic feedback, then take a look here: Blue Cat's AcouFiend - Creative Acoustic Feedback Simulator Plug-in (VST, VST3, AAX and Audio Unit)
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Thanks
I tried it to no avail 
the one included in AIR Xpand! 2 is amazing, but AIR Xpand! is not a plugin unlessā¦
Do you think that AIR Xpand! 2 can be use in Cantabile?
Air Xpand! 2 is definitely a plugin - Iāve been running it in my Cantabile setup for years. What gave you the impression that Xpand is not a plugin or that it canāt be run in Cantabile?
But AIR isnāt a guitar amp sim plugin, so probably best to discuss elsewhere and not drift too much off-topicā¦
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Yes, maybe I confounded it with AIR Ignite 
Well, today Iāll reinstall AIR Xpand! 2 and so I can use that guitar
Hi everyone!
Just a heads-up for a new (I believe) and relatively cheap amp VST, PRIMO by apfxaudio.
I stumbled on PRIMO because youtube suggested me a review video about it. It also happens to be from an Italian firm, so let me just be a little bit patriotic on this one. 
Anyway, I liked what I heard in the video and, after ātrying the trialā, I bought it yesterday (29.90 euro). It doesnāt simulate any particular amp brand, it just sounds good (at least to me). After a few minutes trying the different sounds, I found some kind of hard rock rhythm&lead soundā¦I selected a heavy metal groove on MODO Drums and spent the next 20 minutes strumming and headbanging (like Europe in the 80ies, just with much less hair! 
). Great fun!
Gabriel
P.S. I own many other amp sims (brainworks, nembrini, etc.) but I am not a seasoned electric guitar player. I have just started on electric guitar a few months ago after playing only keyboards for many years (though I started on classical and acoustic guitar when I was a kid).
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Thanks for the heads up. I will check this one out!
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Iām in the same boat; piano lessons for seven years and a bit classic guitar in the early days but mainly a keys player.
I often used stomp boxes with my hardware keys. Thats why Iām always interested in guitar amps/cabs/fx too.
Primo has a very nice workflow from my short test today.
The best result I got recently with a combination of ToneX amps/cabs with KUASSA stompboxes. For standalone use I used DDMF Metaplugin hosted in Savihost vst3 and my FCB1010.
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Another very interesting AmpSim+ plugin first shown at NAMM: Genome byTwoNotes.
Pretty similar to Tonocracy in that it combines captures and models. Genome allows you to use captures for NAM, GuitarML (Proteus) and AIDA-X, so the most popular open formates are covered. Compared to Tonocracy, Genome is a bit more polished, mature and offers a somewhat broader range of effects - still nothing to get excited about, but good enough for most typical band sounds. Just a few more options re drive pedals, also delay, chorus etc can be synced to the host tempo, something I really think Tonocracy should deliver ASAP.
Some very nice polishing options, like the enhancer section of the capture player or a separate exciter plugin to add oomph and sparkle - nice!
The amp models have standardized controls that donāt reflect the original controls, so take a bit of getting used to. Preamp stage just has drive, bass, mid, treble; poweramp section has depth (low-range boost) and a contour control. The contour is pretty drastic - turn it to the left and it goes towards a bandpass filter type sound, so it focuses on the midrange. Turn it right and it will do the opposite and create a scooped kind ot heavy sound. Unlike anything Iāve seen on a real amp, but actually quite useful for changing the character of a sound if youāre careful with it.
The biggest plus is that Genome gives you access to the whole spectrum of the TwoNotes DynIR library - thereās a few cab models that come with the plugin, but the rest youāll have to buy separately. But it also has an IR loader so if you prefer your own IRs (like I do with my favorite Greenback mis), youāre also set.
Price is OK for whatās offered - weāre talking 79 ā¬ (and I assume $ as well), so for anyone happy with NAM captures and wanting to build a complete guitar effects chain on top of these captures, this is a very strong platform. Think Tonex on steroids, just for NAM capturesā¦
Definitely made its way into my setup!
Cheers,
Torsten
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You might like this Torsten for IRās, Cab Lab 4, itās free from from Fractal
Itās my latest rabbit hole
Will
TBH, Iām more than covered in the IR department - beside a broad collection of Ownhammer and Celestion IRs, I have Mikko 2 and TH-U Supercabinet, which allow you to āprintā your own IRs from a configuration of impulses. So definitely not entering another ecosystem of proprietary formatsā¦
The plugin is free, but the DynaCab packs arenātā¦
It will load singles of 3rd Party IRs, I have no DynaCabs packs. It surprised me how in-depth it is for free. It can adjust the IR time phases to match each other better.
Will
Hmmm, Genome has quickly moved up the ranks to be my #1 go-to amp-sim.
It is just extremely quick and easy to get to a decent guitar sound, whether I need a Marshall ābarkā or a heavy Boogie chunk, or maybe just a lovely clean.
And my favorite: the Exciter is just the little bit of āshineā on top when you need a sound to cut through a bit better - super-easy to dial in.
Plus, the overall layout (just a simple single-line chain with split options) is soo straightforwardā¦
Definitely an option to look at!
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Iāve been using amp sims for years, always looking for āTHE TONEā.A lot of time has passed, and AI neural networks changed everything. Still, there were problems using sims at a live gig. I would get good tones at home, but after setting up at a gig, those tones would turn into a distorted muddy mess, with less volume. I started gathering as much info as I could find, which was little, and tested my own ideas.
After weeks of testing, my son and I came to a conclusion. ALL amp sim developers suggest setting audio interface gain just below clipping, which is what I was doing. We discovered that the interface gain acted as a preamp. When we set interface at nearly zero, it was lightly clean, and could now adjust the sim to act normally. I was using a Softtube Marshall and it was beautiful!
I tried the same with STL tones, and it needed a very little push from the front. So, we concluded every sim needed a small bit or a lessor bit of interface gain. THEN, this appeared:
This has really changed everything for me. The sims have become fun again!
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Hi Corky,
I had noticed something similar, namely that often I had to act either on the volume knob on the guitar or on the input gain to make it sound ārightā, especially if I wanted a clean sound.
I am trying to understand how to apply this info in my case. I use input 2 of my Steinberg UR22mkII, set to high-Z (1 MOhm).
From the interface specs, the gain should go from -0.7dB to +53.3 dB and the max input signal should be +8.5 dBV (corresponding to 10.71 dBu). So I set the gain to minimum (which is not 0 dB, but close).
Unfortunately, most of my amp sims are not from the brands listed in the above spreadsheet. I have at least one VST from Nembrini, though. If I understand correctly, for a Nembrini plugin the gain must be set at (max_input - 12.2 dB), i.e. in my case 10.7-12.2=-1.5 dB. Is this correct? I guess all this applies if I send the audio from the interface directly to the pluginā¦what if I have many other VST in between (pedal simulators, modulations effects)? Should I be careful in keeping the sound level the same all along the chain up to the amp sim?
What do you think?
Cheers,
Gabriel
Absolutely!
The best way is to test interface gain from near zero, and test vst input as well. The biggest problem is using several sims. You have to test them all if not on the list, but you can look at developer specs, if available, and see what maximum levels are. There are more lists coming out. I will share when available.
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This very interesting. I havenāt had my coffee yet so I think i"m missing somethingā¦ how are you testing the input level? With the guitar at 10 and maximum volume/strumming? A 1K reference tone going into the interface? And are you using Cantabileās input meter to determine dB input level, or something else? Iām also not sure what the spreadsheet means by setting it to ānear 0āā¦? I donāt think Iād get any signal near 0.
My case is further compounded with my Presonus Quantum 2626, max input level +18 dBu. My current level is not anywhere near clipping, probably about 75%. But I donāt know how to measure it exactly other than Cantabileās input level or a standalone meter plugin.
A while back when I started t get different sims I noticed how different sims sounded better at different input levels. But I had to settle on 1 setting in between since I wasnāt going to be changing levels at a gig. But I just used my ears. I think itās set so itās roughly halfway between.
Thanks Corky, this is really eye opening!
Tom