SoOoooN! [NDSP Morgan Amps Suite]

[jellodog]

Can't say i disagree It's tragicomic to see this blurb still up on the QC's FAQ page:

View attachment 15937

What's not true about that? The plans did turn out to be very aggressive!

Um... to paying customers.

 

[Lysander]

What's not true about that? The plans did turn out to be very aggressive!

As in, passive-aggressive. The best kind of aggressive

 

[yeky83]

Yeah… I think they are going to milk their cash cow dry pretty quick if they don’t start to innovate again... The Archetype series has gotten fairly lame/repetitive and the individual amp plugs feel overpriced for the plug market and are almost all super high gain metal amps.

Did they ever innovate with their plugins? Other than very pretty graphics and $ marketing, not sure what innovation...

 

[Mongillo19]

Did they ever innovate with their plugins? Other than very pretty graphics and $ marketing, not sure what innovation...

Idk their presets are pretty plug and play (which youd think was the same across all plugins but it's not). I think they did up the game initially

 

[2dor]

Did they ever innovate with their plugins? Other than very pretty graphics and $ marketing, not sure what innovation...

The transpose feature is pretty darn good imho and it's supposed to make its way to all their stuff...when?...that's a whole other thing lol

 

[DrewJD82]

Yeah, the sheer amount of happy NDSP plug-in users points out to them doing something right with ‘em. I tried two and I can definitely see why people dig ‘em. They’ve got ample things to poke fun at, but that’s one area they got right right out of the gate. Hahahah now they’re just going to run it in the ground with over saturation.

 

[Mongillo19]

I think we've all said it before. Generally speaking, NDSP (plugins and hardware) do reach professional quality in terms of tone.

I just don't think they could have done any worse in the PR/support department. If they just wouldn't even had a social media presence I think the company wouldnt be as despised by some. In the end they did it to themselves

 

[GTR37]

Even their own users are annoyed on FB
They are like Archetype YouTuber no one knows

 

[mikah912]

Yeah, the sheer amount of happy NDSP plug-in users points out to them doing something right with ‘em. I tried two and I can definitely see why people dig ‘em. They’ve got ample things to poke fun at, but that’s one area they got right right out of the gate. Hahahah now they’re just going to run it in the ground with over saturation.

I do separate what the plugins are as opposed to how they're marketed/hyped/oversaturated. The former is a pretty combo of good aesthetics and timely, relevant (to the modern guitarist, anyway) brand/artist associations. The latter is offputting, tone-deaf arrogance.

I myself owned a couple of their plugins (Nolly, Fortin Cali), but since the company became increasingly user-hostile and, uh...less than forthright...I had to sell 'em off.

 

[GTR37]

I do separate what the plugins are as opposed to how they're marketed/hyped/oversaturated. The former is a pretty combo of good aesthetics and timely, relevant (to the modern guitarist, anyway) brand/artist associations. The latter is offputting, tone-deaf arrogance.

I myself owned a couple of their plugins (Nolly, Fortin Cali), but since the company became increasingly user-hostile and, uh...less than forthright...I had to sell 'em off.

You know what I will laugh at the most if it’s a Freidman
That would certainly explain his recent love for NDSP wouldn’t it ?

 

[mikah912]

You know what I will laugh at the most if it’s a Freidman
That would certainly explain his recent love for NDSP wouldn’t it ?

His slagging of Fractal is more suspect to me, but I don't ever find myself swayed by "influencers" anyway even if they're quite accomplished in other walks of life.

 

[aerial7]

I do not have a dong in this hunt

A late-breaking entry for 2023's Malapropism of the Year, but the judges are already declaring this the winner!

(And given the way my stoopid brain works, that will permanently displace the original expression.)

 

[2dor]

You know what I will laugh at the most if it’s a Freidman
That would certainly explain his recent love for NDSP wouldn’t it ?

Did he ever say anything about NDSP? Haven't kept up with the last podcasts unfortunately

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Did they ever innovate with their plugins? Other than very pretty graphics and $ marketing, not sure what innovation...

I think their whole concept of machine learning based sims was fairly new when they first released a product. I think they set the standard for that "pre-routed standalone app" format too, a lot of other companies tend to follow that layout. Besides that.... they're amp sim plugins. If they sound and look the part, thats most of the battle done.

Not a huge deal to most people, but its quite interesting that their plugins are either an officially licensed (Mesa/Tone King/Fortin/Soldano/Omega etc) amp OR Archetype of a known guitarist.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

I do not have a dong in this hunt, but every new plug-in being released should be able to be ported over to the QC, IMO!

Edit: Should be Dog, not Dong BTW

When you boil it down to its most basic elements, life is really nothing more than a dong hunt, either as the hunter or the hunted.

No shame in throwing your dong into the ring. Fly that flag(pole) proud, brotha

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

It strikes me as late for a Christmas gift and digital goods are not great gifts anyway. Also it feels too ‘soon’ Relative to their last release.

My feeling in general is that 99% of the "holiday sales" stuff, especially within MI, are just aimed at people (myself included at times) that let money fly out of their wallets this time of year whether its for themselves, gifts for others or whatever. Nothing makes people spend more money than . . . spending money.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

Idk their presets are pretty plug and play (which youd think was the same across all plugins but it's not). I think they did up the game initially

I know I’m weird, but this is actually one of the things that makes them less attractive to me. Too easy for everyone that uses them to sound samey-same because they’re dialed in for a specific sweet spot already.

I guess that’s not a bad thing if you just want an immediate sound to fit an established genre, but man, I miss the days of people having wildly different tones, even if some them did sound a little meh.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

man, I miss the days of people having wildly different tones, even if some them did sound a little meh.

Totally agree, hard to see how someone will come out with a totally distinctive sound these days in the way someone like Dimebag or Randy Rhodes or whoever. I think the problem isn't really related to modelling though, tons of amp guys are generally scared to use something unorthodox, its all very much framed at emulating others.

I also think thats probably nothing new, but now information is so easily accessed and shared that nothing is a secret any more. I suppose Josh Homme has the right idea

 

[DrewJD82]

I know I’m weird, but this is actually one of the things that makes them less attractive to me. Too easy for everyone that uses them to sound samey-same because they’re dialed in for a specific sweet spot already.

I guess that’s not a bad thing if you just want an immediate sound to fit an established genre, but man, I miss the days of people having wildly different tones, even if some them did sound a little meh.

I very, very much agree with this.

To be fair, it’s not like I’m trying to create my own, new tone when I write/record, but as I’ve been playing through that Shiva the last couple days and hearing tones I’ve never gone to but thoroughly enjoy, I can definitely see how someone’s own tone can take shape in that way, just discovering.

It’s definitely going to have an effect on how I dial in models. Previous to getting this amp I’d dial in a model based on how I thought it was supposed to sound, rather than exploring what sounds it were capable of. There’s no forcing a tone to happen when you’ve got a physical amp and one cab, all you can do is see what it offers and I do believe I need to make my preset dialing-in more in line with that.

 

[yeky83]

I think their whole concept of machine learning based sims was fairly new when they first released a product.

I think they started releasing plugins around 2018? Looks like their first mention of machine learning was with Nolly's tape saturation, 2019. Then around 2020 with the QC, they started mentioning machine learning a lot and how it was being incorporated into their plugins. Machine learning stuff wasn't in their first products and wasn't what drew people into their products.

I think they set the standard for that "pre-routed standalone app" format too, a lot of other companies tend to follow that layout.

Studio Devil, S-Gear, etc. had the format already... NDSP put a pretty modern skin on it.

Besides that.... they're amp sim plugins. If they sound and look the part, thats most of the battle done.

Agreed.

Not a huge deal to most people, but its quite interesting that their plugins are either an officially licensed (Mesa/Tone King/Fortin/Soldano/Omega etc) amp OR Archetype of a known guitarist.

Branding.