UAFX Native Lion, Ruby and Dream

Just tried the Softube Murder one plugin, as I haven't tried this one yet.

First thing to do is to disable that cab simulation. Their IRs are terrible. At least to my ears, I can confidently say that I'll never use that. Really bad.

But after disabling it and trying an IR that I like, I could match Lion in a surprisingly way. I mean, they were not identical, but kind of equally as good. Like two different Marshalls in a studio.

But, Softube's Murder One is a lot harder to set, and it can sound harsh or have too much bass very quickly. Lion, on the other hand, is a breezy to work with, even when not using UA's cabs.

Also, I like having the Superlead, Superbass and Variac Marshalls with one click, I'm still having a lot fun playing with it.

So, I take back that Softube's amps are horrible. I was probably fooled by their cabs (why Softube? you're scaring customers with this crap engaged). But I'm pretty sure that I still prefer Lion.

Yeah. Even Helix stuff sounds good enough with the right IR. I’m 2024, a good enough player could get by with any number of these sims.
It’s the nonlinearities in the UA stuff that I like. The ghost notes in the Super Lead, the nearly uncontrollable top end of the Vox, the low end of the Deluxe.

So, there is a ua connect update and the new native plugs are all identified,it didb’t load the new pedal plugs, so am now updating ua connect with new download from site.
Nada, pita.

So, none of the pedals have installed or loaded and now ua site says I have used my demo. I preferred the good old before ua connect days: shit worked, first time.

I’m going to definitely check these out down the road, just not at the $150 price tag.

I saw some posts mentioning the Softube Marshalls. I’ve come across information indicating that those plugins are expecting a lot more level, similar to Amplitube and Scuffham S-Gear. If you add a trim plugin and boost the Softube Marshalls by 12dB more than you would with the UAD, it may be closer. From UA’s website, setting an Apollo/Volt instrument channel gain at minimum would match the hardware pedal.

Another thing was with the Murder One. That’s a Superbass sim. An apples to apples comparison would be with the Superbass mode on the Lion. Typical guitar tones would be run fairly low, like completely off. Even then, it’s an amp for more mid-60s tones (Duane Altman, Free, Cream, etc.).

Just noticed that the price of the plug with discount is still pretty close to where you can pick up a second hand uadfx pedal. Does the plug offer something beyond the pedal that would speak for the plug instead?

I don’t remember getting as good a tone with the pedals. I wonder if I’m hitting the front end with more gain? Seems like I remember them saying the HiZ on the front is plus 10db even at zero? Am I making that up?

Marshalls are easy to make sound bad. Softube and Line 6 component model and don’t generally have a canned sound.

The post UAD Softube are better. Last UAD Softube is the Eden bass amp and that’s the best one that was on the platform and really good.

The newer Softube Marshalls are the Lemmy Murder One Superbass and the Kerry King 2203KK modded to push the output tubes and with a built in eq/boost. And they have the Engl Savage II which is great but if someone is frustrated setting up a Marshall tone, they will just kill themselves with an amp like that even if it has a wider variety of tones that don’t suck.

The Lemmy is a super bass from the 70s. The power supply is cleaned up compared to the crazy 60s stuff. The cabs are Lemmy’s ridiculous 4x 15” and a Marshall bass cab 4x 12”. They are bass cabs. So Lemmy for the huge one and then AC/DC, Tool, Beherit, tons of British metal bands. You can put a normal Marshall cab on it and roll the bass off. The IRs are from Cameron Webb who recorded the last few Motörhead records pretty cleanly.

The Kerry King is ridiculous because it’s either a JCM800 on crack that can be pushed harder than anything else itb or it’s some jangly 60s or British jangle pop box. It’s very schizophrenic and controversial but is a good plug. You’re not going to get a death metal tone out of it unless the band sounds like Slayer tone wise. The IRs are from Terry Date and interesting. The amp sim itself is better than the old Softube plexi and jcm800.

The difference versus canned sound like Neural DSP is huge. NeuralDSP is the worst offender but the ToneX and TH-U captures are also pretty canned. UADfx and Mercuriall seem semi canned especially when you try to get weirder tones and it just doesn’t work. Mercuriall especially. I had issues getting anything other than a late 80s white snake era John Sykes tone out of their Jose modded Marshall model. Spark is close to the UADFX plexi but I compared the super bass in it to the Lemmy and it’s like a neuraldsp one. Less scuzz and stoner fuzz. Like some franken Marshall thing that kinda sounds like other Marshalls versus getting exactly what you want like shoving a Guvnor in front of another amp with eq pedals and boosts and trying to get that 90s sound.

For the Softube, the post UAD stuff is better but it’s not like UAD is going to emulate some muddy little combo or big huge muddy stack like Softube did. UAD has always been about that canned distortion and sheen and warmth since UAD2 came out. Like a cartoon.

There’s other stuff that’s totally not itb at all really like getting a really good 5150 or the valvestate 8100, which was a very unique amp. The audiority is it and kinda breaks up in a digital way. There’s also a huge era of peavy tones and people trying to get heavy tones out of not heavy amps tones going back to Hendrix and none of it is itb at all really because those sims aren’t hype and modeled pedals pretty much suck except for cytomic the scream and the fuse ones that aren’t as good as cytomic. There’s a lot of crazy stuff out there and just using other plugs can help too like decapitator or vintage warmer or various tube plugs.

Oh, makes sense, the Murder One is for bass. That's why the cabs sucks with guitars and it overall has so much bass in it.

And I don't know about it being canned or not. I want a Marshall sound, like my real Plexi, but ITB. I don't want weird mods, owned by whatever they are, on crack or not. Give me a normal Fender, Vox, Marshall ITB and I'll be happy.

From everything I've tried, all the usual suspects, from Fractal, Helix, to Nembrini, Softube, the UAFX are the ones to beat.

Aah ok, yeah I haven't followed the price development on the used market that carefully then. Have just come across a couple of Dreams locally under 200, but that might be exceptional then. Yeah, then there are some difference in price though.

The pedals will though have a second hand value and they have of course an appeal in their usage form. 

I've sat and wasted an entire day playing these. Mostly Ruby and Lion. They're phenomenal. Dream is probably my least favorite...