Super Models (plug in)

Professional profile packs with multiple profiles (clean to filthy with/without effects) can range from $15 to $40 or so USD.
I just bought MBritt "Grab and Go" pack for $30 today. It has 92 profiles of 13 different amps. A Marshall pack of his has 36 profiles for $13.
Those are just examples.

That’s not very good money. Seems more like chump change. o_O

The Helix software costs $400. That’s decent money for software!

Then, too, I have friends who score films, who went to Europe and sampled a symphony orchestra on their own nickel. Moreover, it’s not for sale. They’re the only ones who have it, and they want to keep it that way, so they have a unique sound. That’s putting up good money. :)
 
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I demo'd these plugins for a week and they are pretty great (my favorite amp sim hands down); i'd say with the right hands and in a mix, you wouldn't tell these aren't tube. Awesome to noodle with to lay down ideas but no effects (except reverb on dallas) and the stock IRs are good not great... i'm just expecting too much from a $50 plugin!

First Five, to experiment a bit, I put both in a mix, and there is a sonic difference. It’s hard to explain, but they sit in the mix very differently, so yes, you can tell they’re not tube, even with lots of processing. Granted, I’ve spent the last 30 years working in my studio professionally, so I know what to listen for and how to fix problems, but I think most folks could hear the difference.

There’s a certain electric sound a real amp conjures up. It’s so hard to put that sound into words, but of course you probably heard it in the clip. I’ve also found that models kind of collapse the image of the instrument when in a mix.

To make them sound bigger, I’ll use a bit of delay and pan that away from the guitar, and ahead of the delay I’ll use compression and limiting so I can pump the thing up a little bit, and use an EQ I can split into 3 frequency bands, and pan the EQ bands to widen the image and give it movement.

Could the ear be fooled using the techniques I use? Probably, unless the listener hears real vs model back-to-back. Then there’s an “aha moment.”
 
That’s not very good money. Seems more like chump change. o_O

The Helix software costs $400. That’s decent money for software!

Then, too, I have friends who score films, who went to Europe and sampled a symphony orchestra on their own nickel. Moreover, it’s not for sale. They’re the only ones who have it, and they want to keep it that way, so they have a unique sound. That’s putting up good money. :)
Les, I completely understand, expected, and respect your reaction/response.
The idea is to get profiles into the hands of thousands of Kemper users.
You, among many educated and accomplished studio owners/operators are capable of generating proper/professional profiles.
You have the mics, the cabs, the amps, and the know how.
Two weeks into a $1800 investment plus time would result in a possible product. At the very least you'd be able to put out an awesome teaser.
Hmmm... $40 times 500 and more... hmmm...
 
Les, I completely understand, expected, and respect your reaction/response.
The idea is to get profiles into the hands of thousands of Kemper users.
You, among many educated and accomplished studio owners/operators are capable of generating proper/professional profiles.
You have the mics, the cabs, the amps, and the know how.
Two weeks into a $1800 investment plus time would result in a possible product. At the very least you'd be able to put out an awesome teaser.
Hmmm... $40 times 500 and more... hmmm...

Hah! Honestly, I was kidding around, though I really do have a couple of friends who hired out a complete orchestra, and spent a week recording it!

On a more serious note, I can’t credibly say I prefer real amps, and then do a 180 and sell profiles for the Kemper. Just seems wrong.
 
Hah! Honestly, I was kidding around, though I really do have a couple of friends who hired out a complete orchestra, and spent a week recording it!

On a more serious note, I can’t credibly say I prefer real amps, and then do a 180 and sell profiles for the Kemper. Just seems wrong.
Totally cool with that my good man.
Vive la difference! I love real tube as well. I'm just enjoying the heck out of being able to play/try almost any amp on planet earth.
Cheers!
 
Totally cool with that my good man.
Vive la difference! I love real tube as well. I'm just enjoying the heck out of being able to play/try almost any amp on planet earth.
Cheers!

Totally get it!

When they come out with the Kemper 2, I’ll have to try one all over again and see how things work out. I figure they’re always going to keep upping their game.

Meantime, I’m discovering some cool things about this Waves SuperModels plugin set. Once you get into the less obvious feature set, they’re a lot of fun to work with, and pretty cool-sounding. At higher sample rates, they do sound a little smoother as well. 96K definitely makes the overdriven sounds come to life (for me) a little more.

Not perfect tube amps, but fun and cool nonetheless, and for sound quality, these are absolutely the best bang-for-buck in amp plugins out there (excluding the stuff that comes in Logic, which, heck, is free).

I edited some of my earlier posts to reflect the additional time I’ve spent with these models, and the additional things I’ve learned as I’ve gone on.
 
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Having attended Sweetwater's Gear Fest 2018, like I needed to buy more gear, I grabbed the PRS SuperModels pack to round out my order. After a few days thrashing with my new synth stuff, particularly the Moog DFAM - which is my new favorite thing, I finally got around to loading these up.

I've never bought anything from Waves. They have a license management application like most vendors do now days in this space. I grabbed that, got my plugs installed and recognized by Waves to operate on my machine, had to reboot, and then I was off to the races.

For $50 (I paid a bit less after a discount), they are a great buy if you need a suite of amp plugs that could do it all, clean to mean. I really like the input's auto gain feature.

If you prefer PRS stuff, if you want a lot of bang for your buck, if you just want some alternate tones in your plugs library, then I'd say you can't go wrong with these.
 
I'm not going to lie. I had a lot of fun with the Archon plug last night. I think the presets are pretty strong and with minor tweaking I found a number of them that suited my hands and ears. I'm at work today and thinking about making riffing out with it tonight a priority, after s3xting Sergio a bit first, of course.
 
I’ve putzed around with my set more, and for models they’re good. The best feature is the ability to tweak the gain with the boost control, and the amount of sag, speed, and so on at the other end of the amp.

It’s good to be able to load in third party IRs.

I recorded a few more tracks with them, just to experiment, and while they’re a little dull compared to real amps, they’re still useful for a lot of things.

I mean, fifty bucks! Come on, that’s lunch money. Totally worth it, if only for practicing.
 
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I'm with Les, for $50 the feature set is quite good. I riffed out with the Archon last night after spending some more time thrashing with the DFAM.
 
I quite like the V9 quite a bit. Not been able to pull together archon sounds that I love just yet, and the Dallas just doesn’t work at all! Literally. The “power” indicator light goes blue when I switch it on (green should be on, grey, off) and the signal does not get coloured by the plug in.
I emailed Waves. We’ll see what they come back with
 
Sounds good to me!
???
Which bit? The plugin sounds considerably better than my playing, but not ecstatic with it either.
Oh and if you want to make playing be bop seem easier, play Bach on the guitar!!
 
???
Which bit? The plugin sounds considerably better than my playing, but not ecstatic with it either.
Oh and if you want to make playing be bop seem easier, play Bach on the guitar!!

The playing bit. I wasn’t listening for the tone.
 
This video is quite timely BWV; I got an email from Waves the other day with a link special on the Lancaster IRs. So I bought the /13 cab to play around with. Will buy a few more. I also tried with a few IRs from other companies, including Celestion and Ownhammer.

I thought it sounded great, considering it was a modeled amp tone. In fact, I was going to post about these IRs with the models.

One thing I wanted to scream at the screen in the video was, “If you think that’s good sounding, you should really try the real PRS amps!!” LOL.
 
I picked up three cabs from this sale - the Marshall 1960 B, Budda 4x12, and Mesa Boogie 2x12. I kinda wish I'd watched this first - I'd have probably picked up the 1960 Vintage (I debated that one). Going to be fun to play with!
 
I picked up three cabs from this sale - the Marshall 1960 B, Budda 4x12, and Mesa Boogie 2x12. I kinda wish I'd watched this first - I'd have probably picked up the 1960 Vintage (I debated that one). Going to be fun to play with!
All of the Mesa 2 x 12’s are solid gold.
If the Budda has their Phat speakers It will be both different from your others, and very good!
 
All of the Mesa 2 x 12’s are solid gold.
If the Budda has their Phat speakers It will be both different from your others, and very good!

I thought about the Budda SuperDrive, but since I have that in a physical amp, I can get that here. I did really like the Mesa cab. I believe the Budda is the Phat speakers.

And I caved and bought the Marshall Vintage.
 
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