PolyChrome McRocklin Suite (v1.5)

dean701 said:
thoughts on anyone using this in place of other VST plugs...
It doesn't seem to generate a lot of attention here.

www.polychromedsp.com

PolyChrome DSP - Production Ready Guitar Tones

Built from the ground up using the latest technologies for Windows and Mac. PolyChrome DSP plugins are fast, REALLY FAST.
www.polychromedsp.com www.polychromedsp.com
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I don't record with it, but I use it regularly for fun as a standalone program (works great as a plugin as well on my GarageBand or Logic Pro, and I'd be happy not owning anything else. I have loads of great gear though. . The McRocklin sounds great, is easy to use and is fun and dependable. There are loads and loads of presets included, and it's ez as can be to make your own. The Acoustic sounds are as good as I can imagine, the compressor is unreal, the hi-gain is perfect for me, the pedals are perfect, the Reverbs and Delays are absolutely great, The octave/envelope effect is cool.. . I'm not sure what it goes for normally but I got it 1/2 price last year, and again, I'd be happy with just that. . Everyone on these forums tends to just salivate any time anyone releases something new though , and that's the nature of today's digital guitarist. . . I really can't be dissing anyone as I have about 25 tube amps, 25 guitars, loads of effects,etc, but at least I still use my Fractal Ax8 regularly and I've used the McRocklin suite regularly at home nights. I can't compare the APPS I have, and really can't compare most of my real gear, but I can say I'm 100% happy with the McRocklin suite and it blows my mind what's available these days
 
I never demo’d it because I’m way less interested in amp sims without knowing what the amps are based on. I like Luca’s work with Audiority and I’m sure he’s done a great job here.

Any word/guesses on what these amps are based on? Amp tone wise, is there anything unique offered here or is it typical Fender Clean/Marshall gain type tones?
 
MirrorProfiles said:
I never demo’d it because I’m way less interested in amp sims without knowing what the amps are based on. I like Luca’s work with Audiority and I’m sure he’s done a great job here.

Any word/guesses on what these amps are based on? Amp tone wise, is there anything unique offered here or is it typical Fender Clean/Marshall gain type tones?
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I can not even guess. I have so many kinds of tube amps: about 10 Marshalls, some Engls, Demeters, THD, Splawns, Boogie Tremoverb, old Fenders, ORange OR120, Trainwreck/Komet clones, etc,etc and to be honest, the amps in McRocklin's seem like their own thing. The Hi-Gain amp is very adjustable and along the lines of a Cameron/Splawn/Dumbly-Marshall maybe? , the Clean amp is pseudo Fenderish, and the EDGE amp isn't like anything I've used. The Acoustics have 4 variations and all sound incredible. This is a kind of 'Create your own rig' kind of software, in that the Effects are really really good and they match really well with the amps. I haven't even had to touch the IR's /Cab emulations or whatever they are, as literally everything is set up for you to easily produce great sounds. I know what I'm saying really doesn't make much sense, but many of you are very technical, and I don't use this stuff to be technical. I just use it , if it sounds great to me, if it is dependable and intuitive enough, and doesn't waste my time,etc. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the McRocklin's suite to any guitarist who wants a really good sounding all-inclusive standalone program /and/or plugin. If someone just wants updates all the time and more and more amps added, it's not that kind of software, as it pretty much includes everything u need already. . Meanwhile, I can tell from your posts that you are MUCH MORE educated on this stuff than I am and very technical :) I'm merely a guitarist who has lots of great gear and plays in 2 weekend bands, and has played for many years and been a 'gearhead' since I started in the mid 70's!
 
ericbr1 said:
I can not even guess. I have so many kinds of tube amps: about 10 Marshalls, some Engls, Demeters, THD, Splawns, Boogie Tremoverb, old Fenders, ORange OR120, Trainwreck/Komet clones, etc,etc and to be honest, the amps in McRocklin's seem like their own thing. The Hi-Gain amp is very adjustable and along the lines of a Cameron/Splawn/Dumbly-Marshall maybe? , the Clean amp is pseudo Fenderish, and the EDGE amp isn't like anything I've used. The Acoustics have 4 variations and all sound incredible. This is a kind of 'Create your own rig' kind of software, in that the Effects are really really good and they match really well with the amps. I haven't even had to touch the IR's /Cab emulations or whatever they are, as literally everything is set up for you to easily produce great sounds. I know what I'm saying really doesn't make much sense, but many of you are very technical, and I don't use this stuff to be technical. I just use it , if it sounds great to me, if it is dependable and intuitive enough, and doesn't waste my time,etc. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the McRocklin's suite to any guitarist who wants a really good sounding all-inclusive standalone program /and/or plugin. If someone just wants updates all the time and more and more amps added, it's not that kind of software, as it pretty much includes everything u need already. . Meanwhile, I can tell from your posts that you are MUCH MORE educated on this stuff than I am and very technical :) I'm merely a guitarist who has lots of great gear and plays in 2 weekend bands, and has played for many years and been a 'gearhead' since I started in the mid 70's!
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My only sticking point I'm having is the lack of an IR loader and the minimalistic cab choices. Are you able to play the amp with no cab? And use another plugin for IRs?
Thanks.
I originally looked at mcrocklins axefx 3 presets and noticed a small group of die hard fans that now use this. Ola E. also gave it a pretty generous review.
 
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dean701 said:
My only sticking point I'm having is the lack of an IR loader and the minimalistic cab choices. Are you able to play the amp with no cab? And use another plugin for IRs?
Thanks.
I originally looked at mcrocklins axefx 3 presets and noticed a small group of die hard fans that now use this. Ola E. also gave it a pretty generous review.
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Here's a picture of the Speaker cabinet page. It's simplistic. This sounds weird but I've barely experimented with it, as there are so many excellent sounds in here already. They're like 'mastered' sounds, they're not raw. If someone did want to change cabs, there appears to be 7 choices for each amp, and then the 4 controls " lo-cut, hi-cut, air, and resonance". There are no additional mic choices/mic-position choices,etc, as all those are 'built in' already for u. You can turn OFF these cabs if you want and then you'd just use your own IR-loader and your own IR in your own DAW,etc. (I'm not an expert but that would surely make sense to me). BUT, I've never once had the urge to do that with this. . I surely wasted loads of time in the rabbit-hole trying to come up with perfect IR's in my Fractal, Hotone, Tonocracy, Nembrini, or whatever products, but with this, I've just left it alone and played. I'm not familiar with what youi're talking about with the Axefx 3 presets, and with Ola, if anyone reviewed it, for it to mean anything to me it'd have to be an unpaid/unsponsored review, but me as a gearhead weekend guitarist, spent 75.00 on this and it was 1 of the coolest purchases I've ever made and have 'zero' regret. I have to think there's not much info on the net from users due to 1) People might think the name is cheesy 2) it's not a product that gets (or needs) updating monthly 3) it costs money... lol and 4) there are reviews about it having a 'mastered product' sound/feel, not raw/real amps. . Seems lots of guys on these forums really want to digitally have real tube amps. I'm lucky in that I have loads of great tube amps and have had them for quite a few years, so I don't want just copies of what I have.. Always like creating new stuff and new feels/sounds, and yea this is awesome. Someone else might not like it . . that's the way this stuff is.

1706582913397.png
 
OH I see what you mean by the Axe Fx3 presets. I only have an AX8, and tend to be more mainstream sounds but man can he play and these are f'in beautifully done:
 
As I've stumbled across this some times before already, I thought I'd just try it (even if I'd never buy it) - but around ONE GIGABYTE for the installer? I mean, Helix Native is like 176MB and comes with gazillions of embedded IRs and a truckload more of amps, effects and what not. Installed versions are 25 vs. 175 MB for the AU component. Given that there's not much graphic wizardry going on, this is enough to raise some suspicious thoughts. Usually plugins so much larger than the competition aren't worth much (no scientific evidence, just personal observation from checking out tons over the last 2.5 decades).

Ok, sound. My-oh-my. They want 150 bucks for this? Super ridiculous IMO. Four amps (none of them worth writing home about), 2 drive pedals (dito) and a bunch of FX that at best can be called "utilitarian".
Only upside for me would be that you can actually see the drives and amp controls without flipping pages or selecting different blocks. Others than that? No. Uninstalled.
 
Sascha Franck said:
As I've stumbled across this some times before already, I thought I'd just try it (even if I'd never buy it) - but around ONE GIGABYTE for the installer?
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1Gb is pretty ridiculous, i agree - but most guitar plugins hover at 300-500 Mb installed.

The root cause is the amount of high-resolution images and graphical doodads they ship with. The actual code and implementation is minuscule in comparison.
 
And fwiw, seriously, if you have any of the competition's packages, regardless whether it's Amplitube, HXNative, the new Genome or even (*yuck*) Bias FX, this isn't worth bothering at all, let alone spending that much money. Most likely, the more alround-ish offerings of NDSP are a vastly better VFM, too (and I find them to be quite pricey).
Heck, right now, Amplitube 5 Max is €99 - buying this here instead would be completely insane.
 
Sascha Franck said:
And fwiw, seriously, if you have any of the competition's packages, regardless whether it's Amplitube, HXNative, the new Genome or even (*yuck*) Bias FX, this isn't worth bothering at all, let alone spending that much money. Most likely, the more alround-ish offerings of NDSP are a vastly better VFM, too (and I find them to be quite pricey).
Heck, right now, Amplitube 5 Max is €99 - buying this here instead would be completely insane.
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I believe it's 1/2 off regularly and I paid 74.00 plus change. I would very much disagree that it's not worth it. I'm a guitarist and not a software critic, but there are loads of great sounds in it, and it's definitely 1 of my favorites at this point. I don't want to put down other products in comparing though , and also there are reps on these forums from companies and I'd hate to offend anyone. I'm glad it's to each our own with this software and if someone can make great music with this , or ndsp or whatever you use daily , go for it.. I'm going to leave it at that, as there seems to be more guys on here criticizing things than making music with them!
 
ericbr1 said:
but there are loads of great sounds in it
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See, this is where I'd totally disagree. Anything I checked was mediocre and boring. And while Mr. McRocklin certainly can play, his sounds are as mediocre and boring too, in my book at least. I wouldn't even pay 20 bucks for this.
 
Sascha Franck said:
See, this is where I'd totally disagree. Anything I checked was mediocre and boring. And while Mr. McRocklin certainly can play, his sounds are as mediocre and boring too, in my book at least. I wouldn't even pay 20 bucks for this.
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The Sound of Boss; repackaged.
 
norminal said:
What the actual fu**? That’s an enormous file size for a plugin.
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Well, it's for macOS where they need to supply various formats (VST2, VST3, AU, AAX, Clap). Still, the AU component alone is 175MB, which is huge.

dean701 said:
View attachment 18106
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Apparently they managed to share their ressources under Windows between the different plugin formats. I'm absolutely sure there's an additional data folder somewhere (under macOS there isn't, just an additional preset folder). Download is smaller, too (below 500MB).
But as said, the entire HX Native shebang, offering LOADS more of content, is a lot smaller.

Nothing too wrong with that, but excessive file sizes are a good reason to look closer, you often find yourself presented with a load of garbage installed in all kinda weird locations (fortunately, at least that doesn't seem to be true for this thing here).
 
Sascha Franck said:
Well, it's for macOS where they need to supply various formats (VST2, VST3, AU, AAX, Clap). Still, the AU component alone is 175MB, which is huge.
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Does the installer have a “customize install” option to specifically choose which format plugin to install?
 
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