You can't even have one in code because there is no such thing as a generic Ampeg amp or sound. There's not a lot of similarity between the different Ampeg models other than the name. They each had/have their own sound (and circuitry).

As to sound what's modeled is pretty close to their specific model. Keep in mind that Ampeg made changes on the fly depending on what parts they had available just like Marshall did. These companies back in the day were operating on shoestring budgets and couldn't afford to buy parts in bulk because their creditors were afraid to extend the companies credit lines.

The B15 PA models sounds just like a h/w version Heritage amp and different from the earlier B15's.

yup, and add the IK group buy to the same BS. High cost of entry, get lots of plugins. Individual plugins not so cheap though.

Maybe "generic sound" isn't the right way of thinking, maybe more a "base gravy" like Indian cooking, then there's tweak-able flavouring on top which can drastically shape the sound without much more work.

Did you say you had one of them? If they sound like the real deal, then awesome. Guess I need to do a shootout between then, and also against what I currently have (Bassdude), I don't do tonnes of different genres so I'd prefer to just have one bass amp.

Sleezy Rider's recommendation is valid. It's like Ampeg bundle, what's more it's you who choose what should be inside that specific "bundle".

Though I'm afraid PA will not continue promoting that good old "mega sales" with vouchers every month. Subscription thing is probably the new promotion. I am glad I've already got most of what I would want from PA - except maybe Ampeg stuff. For Ampegs, I don't have money these days, but If I had, I would definetely consider Sleezy Riders' recommendation to get all the Ampegs.

Yeah of course if you want everything in the bundle, what's it's not is "Hey guys plugins are still $28 each, what are you complaining about"

My understanding is that probably the whole "mega sales of month" thing was to create monthly income for PA to survive. That subscription thing is probably replacing that business model for better or worse. That would be a bad news for us, obviously. Fortunately I've got what I need from PA's catalog. The only things that excite me are Ampeg stuff, but they are not the necessity for me obviously.

the maag compressor is underrated around here. to my ears its a very good piece of software. easy to use and quick good results.

As to the 'base gravy' idea - as I outlined it won't work for Ampegs. There's no commonality amongst the models.

I had an original B15 and then the follow-on B15N. Both of which sound different than the B15N Heritage PA has put out. And while not owning them I had played through the 2 individual models the Heritage model emulates and it comes close enough for my way of thinking. Also for a short while I had in trade for some work I did a V4B; the sound from the one PA emulates is like one with well-used completely functional valves.

Played a few gigs where bass players in other groups had the 300 watt Ampegs and they WAY overpowered the room to the point of sounding like mud. Maybe that's where I get my non-love for those amps so it's not a totally fair judgement.

since they changed model/ subscription. I dont/cant even go to the site anymore.
I dont want to even think about it, I did my time on the canal street 3 card monty days :-}

I have a handfull of PA I like them, they work and I use them, thank you very much

looks like the the UAD things they did finally expired so they are free to market them themselves. [ my thought/observation only]

But after 20+ years of update/change/wups/ etc etc etc across the decade[s] TDM$$$ not withstanding

I am burnt out
I cannot "comparison" shop this stuff anymore. 29-89$ paid, DL done. otherwise, better be clear and game changing sw.

I mean they're all amps, maybe all of their amps share common code. A Kemper can model lots of different amps (I know it's a different kind of thing) and a Helix too, and PA's rockrack has a bunch of different amps models for one price. If you're a developer, fair enough, but unless you're going to tell me you actually know how to program an amp, there isn't much point in saying how they are or aren't made two amps sounding very different may not mean as much in code.

You might be totally right, but it also looks like PA are milking it.

Edit: I'm a software designer, and I have free reign to do anything I want, yet the developers always seem to be building on top of libraries/frameworks they've made in the past, but the end results can be worlds apart. But I'm in a completely different industry.

Maybe game development is a better analogy than cooking (not that this is my area either), games that are quite different can be programmed on top of a 'base gravy' engine, ignoring that there's tonnes more work to a game than an audio plugin.

Kemper and Helix are modelers with software driving generic dsp. A WAY different animal than trying to do a bunch of different Ampeg amps with one piece of code and a few modifications. I to have written code in another lifetime and while modular code could work you'd still have a bunch of different modules for each amp. The only thing that would be common to each would be calls to and from the main operating system. Otherwise it's different code; to do anything else is a fool's journey.

To make decent s/w you can't cut corners and that's why Cakewalk couldn't deliver a true Mac version of Sonar - they used a code translator to go from Windows code to OSX and they could never really get it past alpha let alone beta. And now the Windows version is free.

lol You're right! This thread is so boring / pointless and yet somehow fun.

Man, you had a spreadsheet going! I really hate getting sucked into demoing stuff under pressure of a sale and trying to a/b it. And I hate having more than a few plugins for the same thing because it feel frustrating trying them each and trying to think which was best. Definitely a time sink, I agree.

Highly doubtful. Programmers don’t work cheap... PA wouldn’t be releasing a consistent barrage of new stuff, (even if developed by a 3rd party), if they were running in the red. If anything they made a killing with the voucher scheme and the subscription is intended to increase profits by a reasonable enough margin where PA can afford to lose the users it alienated.

Also, marketing like PA's doesn't happen in house. This isn't theoretical, this is from someone with way too many friends who operate is this same sphere, doing the same kind of marketing, in some other niche industry... Marketing like PA's is never home brewed.

I have to give PA's marketing force credit... People genuinely believe Dirk runs their social media, and has the time to personally remove posts that don't promote thee brand, etc.. CEO's don't do dirty work. CEOs don't maintain social media presences. Marketing people do... (Again, the many web developers I've known for many years have a dedicated person or team who just handle social media presence. The companies themselves don't even touch their own FB pages, regardless of industry...)

Don't let yourself get swept up by the narrative they've managed to spin, where they're some kind of mom and pop developer just "surviving"...

Have you seen the list of brands listed as partners??? Companies just barely managing to "survive" don't have partnerships with 20+ unique, separate brands.

The thought that it took a team to come up with this does my head in.

Then you're not aware just how much research and money actually goes into online marketing. It's 100 billion dollar industry and growing. Does this thread having tons of people buying stuff on sale after swearing of PA for all eternity two weeks ago do your head in?

Again, I know quite a few people that work at high levels in this sphere. There's way way more strategy involved than you'd ever imagine. And the unfortunate reality is it works on most people.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-a...-idUSKCN1M30XN

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forrest.../#5249d058278b

https://digitaglobal.com/state-us192...sing-industry/

I was joking, Zed, hence the laughing emoji.

Can't say I'm 100% convinced but okay I guess they just really love Ampeg and aren't trying to milk more money out of the good people here.

You own Decapitator or the Culture Vulture? I have both.

If you're talking about the video where it's compared to the Analog Heat, it's not really a realistic comparison of what each one does, overdrive is off on the CV. On low subtle warming settings 1-3 Decapitator sounds pretty identical to most saturators but if it's pushed over 3 it really starts to fall apart, it becomes a fizzy mess with no definition. The Culture Vulture can be maxed out and will still sound defined, huge bass. It's magic on individual tracks, not too sure I'd bother across a mix though, but CV vs Decap on individual tracks they are absolutely nothing alike. Last time I put them head to head it was the only clear "That is the digital one" comparison I've heard, because it was like TV static noise vs thunder.


I'm getting back into hardware too, looking at lunch boxes too! So many great 500 modules that you can grab for sometimes even a TENTH of the price of the rack unit.

Great thing about hardware is that you can sell it, if you buy at the right price you can even make money when you sell it. Doesn't seem like people are having much luck selling PA plugs now.

Been reading your posts with great interests Zed. Strongly suspected that's how the saucisse was made.

Same. Every now and then I stop by and see how the conversations are moving along.

Just received an email from KVR:

"August is Guitar Month at KVR"

Kuassa Caliburn $34
Kuassa Creme $19
Kuassa Matchlock $34
Kuassa Vermilion $19
Kuassa One $24
Kuassa Cerberus Bass $24

All are sub-$50 RRP, FWIMBW. To my little mind, these prices are reasonable and what one would expect in the guitar / bass-amp-sim market.

Hey it's gearslutz. You never can be too sure
Cheers.

Indeed, mate.

The "element of truth" in my joke was of course my implied reference to the cool reception the campaign has received here and elsewhere. On the surface of it it wouldn't seem like something a well-researched team might've come up with.

As you said 'though, one needs to give these things time to take hold. Whether or not the strategy "forces" enough people to switch to the subscription to match the revenue the company received previously when running its frequent sales remains to be seen. I've said all along that I'm sceptical as to whether or not this will serve as an adequate substitution, and I still am.

Gonna hang in here at watch it play out.

"We have released 12 new plugins in the past 6 weeks, more than we ever have in such a short period. Some of these plugins are brand-new, PA-exclusive titles. Others have previously been available for the UAD-2 platform exclusively. We are happy to see Brainworx releasing more of these fantastic tools natively!

As you will know by now, all of these 12 new plugins are included in our MEGA Bundle Subscription, so you can get them ALL for just $24.99/mo or $249.99/yr. That's more than 100 plugins from 25+ brands, and growing.

But... if you prefer to buy a few perpetual licenses once in a while instead of renting the whole bundle, we have something for you today!

We offer all 12 new plugins at the official intro prices (no codes needed), for the next 48 hours. So you can mix and match ALL our plugins and save up to 60% extra, using our New & Improved Dynamic Discounts.

You can combine these intro prices with most of your current vouchers (but not with already expired codes - pls check your past emails for details).

To kick-start you all, we are giving you an additional $25 voucher today which you can use on any purchase ($99 minimum cart value) in the next 48 hours, for all of our older and newer plugins!"

The shape of sales to come?

I use PA since around 9 years now and (over time) "collected" around 30 plugs, which makes sense to me / my work. after buying some of the plugs i got the very most significantly discounted over the years. As more your buy, as more discount you get in sales or if you "Bundle" byself.

PA offers now a subscription model, but this is less interesting for me as i (currently) have what i need and generally prefer life long licenses.

you can't really compare to fabfilter or similiar product lines, because PA offers unique, less "generic" tools and analog emulations from different developers, fitting very different needs / expectations / applications.

i like and use fabfilter and others too. Some of the plugins PA offer are "industry quasi standards" today - i.e. the bx_digital v2/3. selected plugins from PAs analog emulations are available from UAD on their DSP/FPGA platform. I use UAD so i typically have to decide where to buy which tool (from UAD or PA).

from my view, all plugins from PA are top notch in their application or niche. if you look for a tool and PA offer an option you get a high quality solution from them. if they fit your expectations / needs? - demo it...

Was hopeful reading that email this morning, but it's really just a worse version of the intro offer we got the other week.

Dirk said on Facebook that you could use multiple vouchers in the basket, then someone said you can't, Dirk then corrected and confirmed that you couldn't use for monthly loyalty voucher with the additional $25 voucher and that people shouldn't message support because that's our system and no one on support can change it.

I have tested and you can use both vouchers in the same cart

I wonder if the two vouchers deal depends on the order you put them in the cart. With the new $25 voucher (which you can only use on products that are $99 or over) say you want one of the new amp sims which go nominally for $99 on intro. Put it in your cart and add the $25 voucher. After the system comes back and says that voucher has been applied you put in your monthly voucher if you have a $50 or $75. If it's accepted then you'd be paying $24 if you had a $50 monthly or leaving $1 on the table if you had a $75 monthly.

Try flipping the order and it might not work.

Either way I don't like this deal that to use the $25 you have to use it on $99 or more and as someone earlier asked 'is this the new way PA's operating?' Extending this thought out it could end up being having to spend $198 or more to use a $50 monthly and $297 or more if you have a $75 monthly. My numbers might be off but I can see some restrictions like this to happen from now on.

Would have been neat if there was no restriction as I could get Triad for $24 instead of $49.

Nope, I just tried that and no dice... the monthly always overrides the flash one...

It's not the heavy hitter intro prices, so with the $25 the prices aren't as good as the original intro prices.