I did a bunch of comparisons into the same group of IRs today and ended up picking up Kuassa Lancaster as a great sounding set of Vox models that I didn't have. Lancaster models a 2000s, a 1990s and a 1970s AC-30, each with their own "flavor" of the AC30 sound, each sounding great. I thought maybe the amp had some really over-sensitive gain staging, but it turns out the built in boost was doing what I was worried about, not the amp sim overall. I find Lancaster's built in Treble Boost to be frankly SUPER hot to the point that it can really overload the amp's input and end up with a real odd sound, but if you keep its level in check it's nice to have a different boost option from the typical Tubescreamer-esque ones. That said, I like its sound better disabling the booster and running a good TS pedal emulation up front if going for a boosted sound
Lovely cleans, each model has great ones. Some sick not-so-usual high gain tones available if you hit it up front with a RAT (same with the Nembrini DC-30, which models a quirky 1980s Vox with its own, different sound but it takes a RAT superbly and gets nasty).
I actually found it for sale for $25 but it may have been an error that they nevertheless honored because the same merchant now has it for $35 like everywhere else and Kuassa's own site, and it seems they might have changed the price basically right after they fulfilled my order.
monkeyxx, I am a happy recent participant in the Softube modeling ecosystem as well. I'm just going to get some amps piecemeal if they keep making them affordable sometimes, at this point as much for the cabs as the amps, but the amps sound good to me and have a good playing feel also. I have felt Softube is good at modeling for a while, which I know not everyone agrees with
But they've always seemed to have a knack to me and the newer Amp Room has some very nice stuff in it for that $40-ish price, seems fairly CPU efficient to me as a post-processor for amp sims that don't have the whole kit integrally as well. Good balance of capability and efficiency.
Hm, what else. Oh! I dug into Amplitube 5's X-Gear pedals more, and found the Time and Space pedals to be excellent "quick setup" rack effects that could accomplish certain goals with less fiddling around than previously. Cool. Spent some time playing with and just loved the Bogner model from AT5 today - I was running it into an external cab IR and it was just huge, defined, thick, powerful, without high frequency fizz - truly in no need of a lowpass haircut to cut down on obnoxious frequencies and yet not dark, not missing presence. It models the XTC 3534, a lower wattage Bogner which was said to differ from the 101 sound. Certainly the AT5 model differs from sims that model the 101b, but they also differ from each other - so it goes, yeah? Some users have said the 3534 sounds more like the 20th Anniversary Ecstacy, Bogner says they have their own sound, I can't comment as I haven't used the real 3534 or the 20th Anniversary amp but I sure like this model!
tjm_888, PA's sims were all coded by Igor Nembrini to this point anyway, and I feel they are varyingly alright to excellent depending on which you're talking about (but generally, improving as time goes on, so look at the date the sims were released and maybe track down some demos). They can be sensitive to gain staging, and you might need to actually make use of the lowpass and highpass filters that it includes if you're looking for a band-limited sound, might be bassier than you expect to start depending on what sims you're familiar with and what IRs you're working with. On the whole I prefer my own IRs to the included "recording chains," but that isn't to say there aren't some standouts among the included RCs if you dig through them, and the automatic auditioning thing makes that pretty easy to do without clicking on each one too.
I think I have posted my take on particular stand outs here in this thread but it's long and not easy to find perhaps, so I'll quickly reiterate that I think the Fuchs Train 2 is a special sounding sim with a lot of good range, and one I recommend checking out even if you don't think its for you just to see what it can do (I also got the Fuchs ODS, it sounds dope too). The Chandler is a quirky but capable older one, sensitive to gain staging and you need to get to know its knobs but it can sound really neat. For high gainers, the Friedmans are super hot Plexi or super hot JCM kind of sounds so if you like that check them out (I bought the BE-100, it's fun - but felt the AT5 PT-20 sounds great when I compared, so no personal need for the DS-40). I think the Diezel Herbert captures a lot of what is cool about the amp's character, and their Engl Savage plugin chugs. They have a strong Rockerverb 100W model as well, if you're into the Orange sound and don't have another good option there.
If you need an amp sim but don't know which, the Suhr PT-100 is very versatile and sounds good in different contexts, and it's a Pete Thorn signature which is cool to me.
If you like those, he has done some more recent work than the Brainworx sims through his own Nembrini brand. I think they're on sale right now too, but not as low priced as PA's sims with the voucher. My two favorites are the DC-30 and MRH-159, though his Bogner 101b model is good too IMO (gotta get to know all the switches on it, but once you do it unlocks a lot more versatility).
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