In search for a windows standalone amp solution with user friendly UI and Clean and OD

I LOVE the Emissary

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Sooo... a few days have passed and I tried just a few plugins. Time is fucked at the moment. Much of the stuff you guys mentioned I had no chance to try bc either it was a) a hassle to find/do a trial or b) I just forgot/did not have the time.

- Neural Gojira: I was amazed to finally play a NDSP plugin. It was okay, but not my cup of tea. Many praised the artist presets, but most of them I either did not know the artist at all or the sound did not fit my playing. Also it just has too much for me. I don't need all the pitch shifting stuff. If I was playing more progressive stuff I would maybe think different, but I suck at guitar.

- Neural Petrucci: Tried it at a friend's house. He is amazeballs about it. I don't dislike Petrucci/Dream Theater, but same as Gojira it is TOO much for my "play 20 minutes while the lil' one sleeps".

- Line 6 Metallurgy: Sounds were okay, I mean, like the Helix, but I did not like the UI. And it did not look good, too, IMO. Looked... dated? Not my cup of tea. "You eat with your eyes, too" we say in Germany.

- Line 6 Helix Native: Yeah, I read your comments. Tried a few different hosts. All free. Cantabile free is still the best. Yup it's just a... Helix. I like it. Just as I like my Helix. Still I don't like the "non-standalone".
Sliders...
the fairy oddparents GIF


- ML Sound Lab ICON: Nice, but... not my sound. Especially on the clean

- ML Sound Lab Triple Rev G: Rectifiers are just not my cup of tea.

- ML Sound Lab ML5: Now this came out of the left field. I don't know about other Europeans in this forum, but in my experience Mesas are not that common here. Even less the Mark amps (you sometimes see a Recto on classifieds). It has 9 different amps (bc of the modes) from super sparkly clean to chugga chugga, a cool UI, that resembles the amp and was just a lot of fun. FX were few, but usable (Noise Gate, Comp, Drive, Chorus, Delay, Reverb). I liked the presets quite a lot as I could just click on "Ambient Clean" and it was just that. I can't say if the sounds are anything real or authentic, but it was just fun. So at the moment I would strongly tend to this one.
 
The ML Sound Lab ML5 is a nice, good sounding plugin for sure.

I did have a bit of a chuckle with you complaining about the other plugins being too much then one that models a very complicated Mesa amp being to your liking.
 
The ML Sound Lab ML5 is a nice, good sounding plugin for sure.

I did have a bit of a chuckle with you complaining about the other plugins being too much then one that models a very complicated Mesa amp being to your liking.
Oh yeah, @laxu , when writing I thought ABSOLUTELY the same. "This is RIDICULOUS". But, to me, it kinda makes sense. I never had much trouble navigating "extensive" amps like a JVM or something in that vein.

Some things just click with you - some don't.
 
Reporting back to give this thread some closure...

In the end (today) I bought
Metallurgy Thrash

Why? Good question. Yesterday I had 2 things: A gig with my Helix and some time to think about stuff and read emails bc inbetween soundcheck and gig I had 6 hours to kill time in the venue. The first part of this just cemented further: I like to gig with my Helix. I like the sounds and the UI of the unit itself (Not HX Edit, that's another thing!). The latter part showed me an Email from Line 6, that Metallurgy was on sale. A few days ago I spent some time with Modern and a brief time with Thrash. Modern just didn't vibe with me. That's where I did not give Thrash a fair chance. I guess? I mean, the UI still looks kinda dated (as I said before). And as I said I kept an eye on the ML5. But... as @laxu said it is a quite complicated amp. Sure, I'd get it, but I would most likely only use the premade presets. No offense in that, but... well.

I sat down this morning to give Metallurgy Thrash its fair shot. And here's where it shined for me:

(no particular order)
+ It is basically Helix tech. I guess? If not: I don't care. Feels like it. Feels familiar.
+ It has a super clean Jazz Chorus. 'Nuff said.
+ It has a Mark IV, which I find veeeeery interesting after trying ML5 (although that was a Mark 5). Mesas were the "Rectos" until now for me and those were never my cup of tea. Marks are interesting. I might use this in the Helix if I get to know more of it.
++ It has the Placater, which is just one of my main go-to-amps in the Helix. And the Placater will just about do anything from jangly Rock to... well... Thrash.
o Don't really care for the Diezel atm, but as it is a German amp... I'll find a use.
+ Metallurgy has pretty much the same cabs/mics, that I use in the Helix. I know what works here.
+ Just a few FX but usable ones. Don't really need much more for my butt-rock. More would still be more of course.
+ It has the Poly Capo for quick pitch shifting (I know the Gojira one would have had this too)
+ The presets sound awesome (Although it feels easy enough to do my own and not only rely on them) and it even has "mix-ready" ones. Could not try out the later. We'll see how they work in a mix.

What I don't like:
- The standalone windows in Windows 11 could be bigger. Much bigger. Is there an option? Why so little? Let me go fullscreen, even if I had just 50% of Metallurgy background image on the screen. I don't care, but let me change that size on my own.
- Still looks dated in comparison to super trendy and clean plugins like Gojira, Petrucci and Co.

/Thread
 
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