BLACKSTAR DIGITAL

[MirrorProfiles]

St. James Plugin - Blackstar Plugins

blackstarplugins.com

 

[laxu]

I was going to say "nice graphics" but then I saw that equalizer. "How do shadows work?"

In any case, I'll give it a try when I get home.

Maybe this is the future: Amp brands start offering their own plugins as a convenience and "sample", then you might be enticed to buy the hardware too.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I was going to say "nice graphics" but then I saw that equalizer. "How do shadows work?"

In any case, I'll give it a try when I get home.

Maybe this is the future: Amp brands start offering their own plugins as a convenience and "sample", then you might be enticed to buy the hardware too.

Yeah, honestly if they do a solid job I think this is a MUCH better route than some kind of half ass attempt at emulated speaker outputs or crappy reactive loads crammed in. Can have the amp when that suits and the plugin when you want to record.

I guess they can also repackage the code into some kind of HW digital amp too.

Not really a fan of Blackstar amps but I can’t really complain about build quality or design when it’s digital, so in that regard it has more more interested than the actual amps do

 

[Lysander]

$100, eh. Everyone wants a cut of that sweet zero-marginal-cost NDSP revenue.

 

[JiveTurkey]

I think this is pretty cool

 

[BahamaDada]

$100, eh. Everyone wants a cut of that sweet zero-marginal-cost NDSP revenue.

I like the whole concept as I like Blackstar amps, but... yep... 100$/€ is a pretty big chunk of my wallet. 50 would have done it as well IMO. But who am I to say what is enough and how much they need to charge to get their R&D dev costs back in? They just won't get a purchase from me this way

 

[la szum]

The Plug-In only works if you play/pick exclusively with your fingers.

 

[AFKAEjay]

I like Blackstar, own the st James,,pretty cool to offer digital stuff of your iron…,but I don’t think this is gonna fly. They don’t have a strong enough brand to be selling brand specific plugins…not with all the “promise to do it all stuff” on the market

 

[MadMaxG79]

I think the St. James amps are the most interesting thing Blackstar has done in years along with their AMPED pedal lineup.

But a St. James specific plugin at 100$? Not so much... There are just too many existing and "proven", competing products in that price range. I do think it would make sense to offer it free of charge to any Blackstar St. James amp buyers though.

Oh, and no support for 3rd party IRs? Instant turn off.

 

[laxu]

Oh, and no support for 3rd party IRs? Instant turn off.

If you can turn off the cab sim, just use another plugin for cabs. Inconvenience for sure though.

 

[BahamaDada]

I think the St. James amps are the most interesting thing Blackstar has done in years along with their AMPED pedal lineup.

But a St. James specific plugin at 100$? Not so much... There are just too many existing and "proven", competing products in that price range. I do think it would make sense to offer it free of charge to any Blackstar St. James amp buyers though.

Oh, and no support for 3rd party IRs? Instant turn off.

My feelings exactly.

Nice concept as a whole (real life) amp.

But I guess this is only *really* interesting at this price point if a) you already have a physical St James or b) I don't know... you have too much disposable income and you're a completionist/collector of plugins?

Would be really cool though to give St James buyers this thing for free or at a steep discount. Would be another USP (minor or major USP is up to everybody himself) for buying a real amp.

But I guess they calculated it through (I hope so at least) and made the decision to do it this way. Let's see how it works out. I expect a 50% off at Black Friday. Or... I hope for it, then it will be interesting.

Oh... and another "Amp Suite" without 3rd party IR support? Meh. Have none in the Line 6 Metallurgy Thrash, too. No big issue as the built in cabs are modeled good, but holy shit, we have beyond 2020 so show some thought for "What does our average customer need?". And you can't tell me the most averagest (basically me) doesn't have or use IR.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Oh hey look, they're already ahead of NeuralDSP; it runs native on Apple Silicon.

 

[Enchilada Jones]

They are kind of proud of the Cab sim tech they implemented. I guess they want to feature it as an incentive not that they wanted to leave out 3rd party IR's because they don't understand the market. I found them to be good when I had the St James and also have the Amped 1 which uses them. Will the market be drawn to them as a legit alternative speaker sim solution? Who knows. We are a fickle bunch. lol

 

[laxu]

In case you want to try it, here's the links without the required signing on their mailing lists. Boo Blackstar!

Windows: https://blackstarplugins.com/stjames-download-pc
MacOS: https://blackstarplugins.com/stjames-download-mac

It also requires an iLok account FYI.

 

[Whizzinby]

Oh hey look, they're already ahead of NeuralDSP; it runs native on Apple Silicon.

Amazingly Neural finally updated the remaining of their plugs last week.

***insert it took 84 years meme***

 

[Gearzilla]

Amazingly Neural finally updated the remaining of their plugs last week.

***insert it took 84 years meme***

 

[laxu]

Ok, I put this thing through its paces. I tried it with my Fender American Original 60s Jazzmaster and my Heatley Tradition (think Les Paul, but nicer).

The presets could be better. The stock presets seem to work best with humbuckers but qualitywise are all over the place, from ok to just bad. Lack of good categorization (despite seeming to have support for folders) does not help. I'd recommend just dialing your own using the Default preset.

But the good stuff: It sounds good!

I liked the EL34 amp much better than the 6L6 model. I thought the only difference between these amps was styling and power tubes but it seems the 6L6 is a lot higher gain and geared towards hard rock and metal whereas the EL34 is more blues, classic rock etc.

The EL34 seems more flexible and sounds pretty nice whether it's for clean, edge of breakup, crunch or distorted tones. It doesn't have a huge ton of gain on tap, but using the Drive effect pushes it nicely.

The 6L6 did not like my Jazzmaster at all. It just sounded bad with it, no matter how I dialed it. The Heatley fared much better, so maybe the 6L6 is better suited for humbuckers? In any case, this is in a modded Marshall vein and can sound pretty mean. The 3-band EQ seems pretty effective.

The effects sound good. They are not going to blow your socks off or anything, but there is also nothing wrong with them. For reasons unknown, Flanger is in the post-fx section when it could easily be in both pre and post, similarly Chorus could be in post too but is only in Pre-fx.

The cab sim is limited, with a bit cumbersome UI. No adjustable mic position beyond on vs off-axis but you can mix two different cabs together with a different mic on each and pan them.

Low/high cuts being in the EQ department after all the effects is not my preference. I think swapping EQ and Post-Fx placement would work better. Anyway, the EQ block is nice. You can easily select from preset frequency ranges for each of the 4 band graphic EQ which makes it quick to edit. I think this is a really good design.

Despite these limits, the cab sim sounds pretty good. I had no trouble getting some good results quickly. It even has recommended mic type and axis setting for each cabinet and I think following those gets you pretty far.

Some small graphical blunders aside, I think Blackstar has done a good job with the visuals and especially usability here. It's immediately intuitive to figure out the signal flow, switching sections (pre-fx/amp/cab/post-fx/eq) on/off is easy as is navigating and adjusting everything. It even lets you adjust the amp sim when on the cab sim page, which makes complete sense. IK Multimedia should look at this for pointers.

I think this serves its purpose well: It will get people interested in the real amps. If I find a St. James EL34 to try, I'll give it a go. Bundling the plugin with the amp would be a great move for Blackstar to bring added value.

Overall it's good value for money as long as you like how these two amps and the assortment of cabs sound. Certainly no worse than anything NeuralDSP or ML Sound Lab has put out.

 

[AFKAEjay]

thought the only difference between these amps was styling and power tubes

Nope, preamp and reverb are different if I’m correct

If I find a St. James EL34 to try,

I like mine

 

[paisleywookiee]

Amazingly Neural finally updated the remaining of their plugs last week.

***insert it took 84 years meme***

It's about time. I remember emailing them ages ago, asking "are these Apple Silicon native?". Their response was "they'll work, no problem!" But what they apparently meant was it'll work in Rosetta. That ain't the same, douchebags.

 

[V|J]

I was half inclined to try it out but not with the iLok. Good to know that it sounds decent.