Review: Audio Assault Reamp Studio (with video sample)

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are reviewing the most ambitious amp sim ever created by Audio Assault: Reamp Studio!

Reamp studio is a collection of 103 amp heads (actually they are more 103 presets, since for some amp they count the single channel of an amp as a separate preset, so the total amount of different amps is a bit less), 36 stompboxes and 100 cab IRs, all meticulously modeled in 10 months of research, in which the company recreated a virtual version of every amp component, from the different types of tube to all the rest.

The interface is similar to the one of the latest amp modelers of the company: a clean, simple recreation in 3d of the various amp heads and stompboxes, plus a post-amp rack section to fine tune our sound and a cabinet section which brings the experience of aIR impulse rack and Grindmachine 2, in facts it feature both the "Impact" control of GM2 (which recreates the movement of the speaker, adding thump and low end), and the "Focus" one of aIR impulse rack (which is a sort of eq boost in a single knob, which adds high end), and these are the two real game changers here, since together they can drastically impact on the final tone of the impulse.

It is worth also mentioning that the cabinet section features, among the many normal IRs produced in collaboration with SeaCow labs, also some in which you can move freely the virtual microphone in front of the speaker, adding flexibility to our quest for the perfect tone.

How does it sound? It sounds good as you can hear from my video, in line with the recent Audio Assault amp modelers, but adding quite a lot of flexibility, given the huge amount of flavours that we can choose from, both in terms of amps, effects and especially in terms of cabinets, resulting in the most extensive collection available from the producer.

It's possible to find tones for every taste, from clean to extreme metal (there are even bass presets!), although I had some problem with the noise, since the included noise gate sometimes struggles a bit in eliminating the hum when we're using a high gain head boosted with a tube screamer.

What would I work on? Here's a small list of suggestions, which can be used in the future for the next versions of this suite: 

1) work on the presets trying to show the best starting sound possible for every amp, every stompbox, every cab etc: the first impression is fundamental and not everyone is capable/willing to fiddle through all the controls when starting with all the knobs at noon, Every preset should start at its best, and they should be done as a combination of them (for example, lead with delay, clean with chorus, etc...).

2) the noise gate can still be optimized a bit, to get to a point in which it can eliminate the hum even at the highest gain settings without touching the guitar tone 

3) please create some quick manual or tooltips on top of each function, because it's been honestly quite hard for me to understand exactly what each function does (among those without a clear name, like for example impact, focus, and so on) because online it's impossible to find any info.

4) the plugin is a bit heavier on the cpu than the other Audio Assault amp sims, especially when working on a stereo track (processing both the left and right guitar tracks in the same session of the plugin).

Besides these small things to fine-tune, I think this suite will satisfy all the guitar players which are looking for a complete, extensive suite, at a price which is definitely better than any other comparable competitor.

Thumbs up!

Specs:

- 103 Amp Heads

- 100 Cab IRs and 35 "FLEX" Cabs with movable mic position

- Dual IR Loader with IMPACT control to enhance realism

- Cabinet Loader: Freely position the mic using FLEX Cabs, with Impact and Focus controls

- Mix and match your favourite IRs with the dual cab loader.

- 36 Stomp Boxes featuring: Time Effects, EQ, Distortions, Overdrives, Boosters, Compressors, Tremolo.

- FX Rack: EQ, Delay, Reverb, Chorus, Compressor.


Amp Model List:


Blockstar HT50 Clean Voice
Blockstar HT50 Clean
Buguera 1990 Clean
Cieratone Jazz
Cieratone Rock
EHV 5051 III Clean
Fester Deluxe Verb
Highwatt 100 Bright
Highwatt 100
Meisa Fimore Clean
Morgen SWR22
Orenge MacroDark Clean
Paevy Bulbking Crunch
Paevy Stereo
Ronald J102
Vaux AC30
Carving X60 Lead
Carving X60 RTM
Danlectro Twin CH2
Danlectro Twin CH3
Fredman BE100 Crunch
Orenge MacroDark
Paevy Pento Bull
Paevy Pento Cactus
Paevy Pento Star
Paevy Pento Tree
Vaux AC30 HOT
Audio Assault Badix
Audio Assault Crack
Audio Assault Fox
Audio Assault Germinator
Audio Assault Slasher
Audio Assault Smoker Brite
Audio Assault Smoker
Audio Assault Wyld
Audio Assault XBottom
Blockstar HT50 Lead
Blockstar S100
Buguera 333 Rythm
Carving LegaC Bright
Carving LegaC
EGNL Infermo
EGNL Inferno Fat
Fredman Baterslax CH2
Fredman Baterslax
Fredman BE100
Meisa Fimore Drive
Meisa Fimore Hi
Meisa MKII
Meisa MKIV
Meisa TC50
Orenge AD30 Tight
Orenge AD30
Paevy Bulbking
Blockstar HT50 Lead Voice
Bonger Ubershall
Buguera 333
Buguera 6262 Lead
Deizel V4
Deizel VH2
EGNL Evader Tight
EGNL Evader
EGNL Firebol
EHV 5051 III Lead
EHV 5051 III RTM
Frameus Kobra
Krunk Krunkenstein
Meisa Recto CH2 V
Meisa Recto CH3 M
Meisa RevF Orange
Meisa RevF Red
Meisa TC50 Tight
Paevy 5150 Combo
Paevy 5435+
Paevy 6505+
Paevy Triplex Tight
Paevy Triplex
PSR Arkon
Randoll Santa Grind
Randoll Santa
Rev G120
Rev Gen20
Sodano SL100
VTH Pitbul
Buguera 1990 Lead
Buguera 1990 Rythm
Fester Delux Verb Fire
Marshell AFM100 Bright
Marshell AFM100
Marshell JMC800
Marshell JMC900
Marshell JMC2000
Marshell JMV420 JS
Marshell Plexi Bright
Marshell Plexi
Lien6 Spidy Inane
Marshell Bulbstate
Randoll Century Tight
Randoll Century
Randoll RGP1000
Randoll RH200 Rythm
Randoll RH200

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How to mix a doubled vocal recording

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we're going to talk about a common practice when recording vocals: if we want to put emphasis for example on a chrorus or on a verse part but we don't want to make it stand out too much using some vocal harmony, we can simply record twice the same vocal part (from the same singer) and play the 2 tracks together.

When is this used? It's a technique used to thicken the vocal part, raising it in volume and giving it a "Chorus-like" effect  but more realistic, less cold than a chorus, and it's very popular especially in genres like rap or death metal.

This technique is used also for another purpose: to hide the imprecisions, in facts usually for example when singing a melody, if one of the 2 vocal tracks is slightly out of tune it's likely that the other one is better, and in the mix of the 2, the perception is that the good one prevails.

Talking about tuning, we can use this technique instead of autotuning our vocal track, but if we really need to autotune it, it's better to do it only on the worst of the 2 tracks, because if we would do it on both the result would sound a bit too "robotic" and noticeable.

When mixing these 2 vocals I suggest to route them in a single vocal buss and treat them as they were one single voice, so they should share eq and compression, but the level of the individual tracks may vary according to your taste (just consider that if one of the 2 is too low compared to the other one, though, the comp woud probably not affect it).

At the end of the chain then we can put a Limiter with as ceiling the maximum level reachable from the main vocal track, so that the final result will be a thicker vocal line but the volume will remain consistent, considering that otherwise the volume might double in some parts since the gain would build up in some frequency area.

I hope this was helpful!

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Review: Vadim Taranov Raven Volcanic (with video sample and free VST download)

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's article!

Today we're going to review a new VST amp simulator from the producer Vadim Taranov: Raven Volcanic!

This free plugin seems to be the emulation of the boutique amp Omega Ampworks Obsidian, and boy it sounds good!

The Raven Volcanic plugin is a 2.5 channels head, which means 3 channels with the rhythm and lead channel that share the same eq (the clean one has a separate eq section), and which offers also a power amp section with the equivalent of the usual Depth and Resonance controls present in, for example, the Peavey 5150.

The 2 overdrive channels also share 2 vocing switches, one for the voicing of the mid frequencies, one for the voicing of the high ones, allowing us to fine tune our tone by making it more or less scooped.

In the video sample I have used this amp sim both for the rhythm guitars and for the lead one (obviously the lead one had different settings), and I must say the amp responds very well, it has an enormous amount of gain and it doesn't need a booster even to go into death metal territories, if the guitar pickups have a decent output.

All in all, in the recent years free plugin creators seems really to have taken a quality leap, between Vadim Taranov, NaLex and Ignite amps, allowing really anyone to have fun playing and recording with the computer, and I can only suggest you to try out this amazing piece of software and pair it with some quality impulse response, it will grant you hours of killer chugs.

Thumbs up!

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How to use Ping Pong delay to give a sense of depth to a sound

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we're going to talk about an interesting, creative use of delay (click here for a dedicated article): the ping pong effect, in a particular way used by some producer to add a nice sense of depth to a tone, especially vocals, but it can also be used on guitars (for example a clean arpeggio or a solo).

Let's start with the definition: a Ping Pong delay is a type of delay that sends the repetitions of a signal on the right and left side alternatively, like it's a ping pong ball.

In order to do this we are going to need a stereo delay plugin (often there is one also bundled directly in our DAW), and usually the interface of this type of plugin features controls to dial specific settings for each channel. 

Instead of using it as a normal stereo delay with ping pong effect (the same type of delay that bounces from left to right), we can add a more 3d effect by using a different time signature between the left and right channel, so that the sound does not bounce back and forth evenly (this is a technique used for example by The Edge, the guitarist of U2):

- we can try to set the repetitions of our vocal track in triplets on one side and in quadruplets on the other, using the same tempo.

- we can try to offset the repetitions by setting for example the time signature in 3/16th of note on one side and 1/8th of note on the other.

- we can try (but this is slightly more risky in terms of result) to detach the sync with the project tempo and set the 2 sides at 2 different bpm.

Any solution we choose, since the result can be easily messy/overwhelming, it's a good practice to filter out some low end, maybe to effect only the tone from 800hz/1khz up, and to not overdo with the mix knob: just a little amount goes a long way, we want to add a 3d effect, not to overshadow the main vocal track.

I hope this was helpful!

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NaLex Ampex review (free VST plugin with video sample)

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we're going to review a new free guitar and bass amp simulator which is produced by NaLex and which incorporates the models of their other single VST plugins in one: the Amplex!

This plugin is defined by the producer as "guitar tube multiamp", and it recreates a head composed by a preamp section, with gain and eq, and a power amp section, with "power amp" (which is the power amp level control, and even if increased mantains the output volume constant), presence and resonance.

Besides these basic controls the particularity of this plugin is the fact that it can load presets (and comes with many presets bundled), each one of which corresponds to a particular guitar amp (for example the rhythm channel of a 5150, the clean channel of a Fender Twin, or the overdrive channel of an Ampeg bass amp).

Here is the list of the amps simulated, and for each one of them there are usually two or more presets, each one recreating a channel (for example clean and overdrive):

2120 is Peavey 5150 style
Barbarian is Engl Savage style
Bass is Ampeg SVT style
Citrus CR120 is Orange OR120 style
Crunchman is Friedman BE-100 style
Firecube is Engl Fireball style
Four is Diezel VH4 style
Gerbert III is Diezel Herbert CH-3 style
Hell is Randall Satan style
Hot Dog is BadCat Hot Cat style
J800 is Marshall JCM800 style
J800 Lead is Marshall JCM800 Lead Series style
Ketchup is Tomato style
Magic is Crate BV style
Pectifier is Mesa Rectifier style
Revolt is Krank Revolution style
SV is Carvin Legacy style
Twin Clean is Fender Twin style
Uber is Bogner Ubershall style
ZLO is Soldano SLO style

I'm really surprised of how good this amp sim sounds, especially considering that it's free: it is versatile, sounds very realistic, honestly I don't see differences with most of the paid amp simulators on the market (obvioustly excluding the 2 or 3 cutting edge high end ones) and also stable, even if it's not the lightest on the cpu, when loaded on a stereo buss.

I suggest all of you to check it out, it might just be what you were looking for, especially for rock and metal, but there are enough models here to get good tones also for any other genre.

Thumbs up!

Specs taken from the website:


- Controls:

- Gain - input level knob

- Bass - tone knob

- Middle - tone knob

- Treble - tone knob

- Power Amp - power amp level knob (level stabilized input/output)

- Low End - tone knob (resonance)

- Presence - tone knob

- Volume - output level knob

- Stereo - mono or stereo switch

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