New NeuralDSP plugin teaser [Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ suite]
- Thread starter Lysander
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They probably have to sell around 5 or 6 to 1 to generate the same revenue for themselves, and will likely cut similarly into other more expensive solutions in addition to just the QC.
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HAhahahah well, that DOES speak to the accuracy of the model they made. My first experience with a Mark IV started with “There’s no f*cking way Petrucci uses this amp” and it’s currently my favorite amp I’ve ever owned.
Lysander
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In NDSP's defense, that line of Mesa Boogie amps are notoriously hard to dial in real life too. More often than not you end up with too fizzy of a distortion, which was never my cup of tea.
Elric
Roadie
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Yep. If it sounded awesome with everything at noon it would be a sucky, inaccurate model of the amp. It should be able to sound bad when the amp sounds bad if it's accurate. IMHO.
The FAS models are like that too. I went on YT and looked up Mesa Mark tutorials to get started with them. Thankfully, the FAS models are accurate enough that it worked great. I'd assume this plug is the same way: real Mark settings sound good on the plug.
laxu
Rock Star
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Definitely.
I think these days a lot of amp manufacturers dial their amps so they sound good at noon because for weird psychological reasons a lot of us are unwilling to use the min/max settings to get to a tone we love. We feel if we need to max a control we are doing something "wrong", despite knowing that they are meant to be adjustable and any knob position that sounds right is the right sound. I don't know why but I have falled to this same trap myself.
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Agree. I learned this with my Fireball amp. You have to really crank the mids and treble on it, which I reflexively considered wrong at first, but then landed on “This sounds great” and got over it. This, I think, feeds into a perception that it’s a “scooped” amp, which is only the case if you dial the amp to be scooped, which is anything below say 2:00 on the dial.
norminal
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It’s not. It was a marketing move.
mavrick102000
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Just buy ToneX, learn how to capture, then capture while under the NDSP 14 day free trial then uninstall it. Fuck 'em and sink their ass financially.
Someone else will take the top slot in the next modeling iteration and build upon what NDSP and other's have done.
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MirrorProfiles
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Liking the IIC+ more with the master volumes dropped fairly considerably and then boosting back up by about 10dB.
Presumably the real amp would be ferociously loud which is never going to quite come across in a plugin. Would recommend dropping the masters way down and increasing gradually until the frequency balance feels right to you. The presence control is almost like a global NFB where the midrange and tightness changes considerably. Lowering the master helps give a bit more bite
Presumably the real amp would be ferociously loud which is never going to quite come across in a plugin. Would recommend dropping the masters way down and increasing gradually until the frequency balance feels right to you. The presence control is almost like a global NFB where the midrange and tightness changes considerably. Lowering the master helps give a bit more bite
paisleywookiee
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That's assuming the NDSP plugin sounds good, which so far it doesn't sound like it. Good idea though!
James Freeman
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It is.
Presence = 250k NFB pot on all Marks II-V.
The equivalent "Marshall" presence cap is there but it's fixed.
mavrick102000
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Well yeah there's that, but generally they do a pretty good job with the plugins.
Reading a work e-mail early started my day off in a bad mood, so I sort of went into full blown jackass mode....LOL
I'm not replying to any work email for a least a few hours - I can feel a potential HR moment lurking just around the corner.
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Well yeah there's that, but generally they do a pretty good job with the plugins.
Reading a work e-mail early started my day off in a bad mood, so I sort of went into full blown jackass mode....LOL
I'm not replying to any work email for a least a few hours - I can feel a potential HR moment lurking just around the corner.
Timely.
I woke up this morning and realized I didn’t have my work phone after making a trip to the property I run last night. I can’t really qualify how important this phone is as 90% of my work day is spent on it with an average of 75 calls and 100 texts a day. I went into automatic panic mode and stayed there for 3 hours until one of our cleaners walked into my office with it.
Now I get to go home to a trashed apartment I tore apart looking for it, after I clean my car that I also trashed looking for it.
TheTrueZoltan!
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MirrorProfiles
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4 files. One is a real Mark III, one is Neural IIC++, one is Helix MKIV, one is AT5 Mark III. I'm pretty sure the AT5 Mark III is a different revision to my one, curious how much people think this matters in context.
we.tl
added a youtube video to make it easier.
looking forward to all the responses saying the tone sounds like shit so it doesn't matter.
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added a youtube video to make it easier.
looking forward to all the responses saying the tone sounds like shit so it doesn't matter.
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TSJMajesty
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I grabbed the trial a couple days ago, but I doubt I'll buy it. But I'm digging it!
I have no idea how to dial in a tone on this amp, especially with all these Pull-knobs. Heck, a Mark in general is tricky. But since the plugin has tons of presets, I've found many, many killer tones in this thing!
And I don't find it to be similar enough to the JP one, to not get it, if you already have the Archetype. The Mk IIC+ is way less of a refined tone overall, imo. It's got a real raunchy/hairy..., like, rough-around-the-edges, kind of feel to it. But there's a few presets that I've been living on the past couple days.
I like that the EQ is 9-band Graphic, instead of the 4-band Parametric in the Petrucci, which I have a harder time dialing in. But the effects in the JP give you more options. There's no Flanger or Phaser, and there's only a 'pre' amp Chorus. I really like having a stereo chorus available after the amp.
Overall, it's a different beast. (Those are the only 2 NDSP plugins I've tried.) It's got a wider array of tones on tap than what I would've expected.
And call me crazy, but for what I do, which is 98% just practicing my chops learning songs/riffs thru headphones..., I've been sitting here thinking- What do I need all this other gear for?
I have no idea how to dial in a tone on this amp, especially with all these Pull-knobs. Heck, a Mark in general is tricky. But since the plugin has tons of presets, I've found many, many killer tones in this thing!
And I don't find it to be similar enough to the JP one, to not get it, if you already have the Archetype. The Mk IIC+ is way less of a refined tone overall, imo. It's got a real raunchy/hairy..., like, rough-around-the-edges, kind of feel to it. But there's a few presets that I've been living on the past couple days.
I like that the EQ is 9-band Graphic, instead of the 4-band Parametric in the Petrucci, which I have a harder time dialing in. But the effects in the JP give you more options. There's no Flanger or Phaser, and there's only a 'pre' amp Chorus. I really like having a stereo chorus available after the amp.
Overall, it's a different beast. (Those are the only 2 NDSP plugins I've tried.) It's got a wider array of tones on tap than what I would've expected.
And call me crazy, but for what I do, which is 98% just practicing my chops learning songs/riffs thru headphones..., I've been sitting here thinking- What do I need all this other gear for?
James Freeman
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Talking about saturation character, not frequency response;
A - Sounds the best to me, most natural saturation, real amp?
B - Shrill / Hissy like broken glass, but still passes as tube-like.
C - Spitty with unnatural saturation, almost painful to listen to, digital artifacts?
D - My second favorite, with more tweaking it can also pass as a real tube amp to my ear.
I accept the consequence of being totally wrong and mercilessly ridiculed forever.
MirrorProfiles
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why take that option, when you could wait for the results and claim that you could easily tell all of them?I accept the consequence of being totally wrong and mercilessly ridiculed forever.
Nice one for taking part and always interesting to hear descriptions for each one. Genuinely curious if people will persist with particular Mark amps being categorically better sounding than others still. I don’t think I’d kick any of them out of bed, although some feature sets/layouts appeal to my taste more than others.
The biggest takeaway for me was (as usual), dialling the real thing in is just a different experience. I don’t think I’d land on the same tone starting with a plugin. Not a better or worse tone in the end, but I think when it’s tactile it just leads you to some other places. It’s especially true for synths and even mixing with faders IMO.
