Simulanalog Guitar Suite VST PC

Fairly new to the recording game. I've been doing it with my Firepod, Sonar 4, and a laptop for about a year. Been playing bass for about 8 years and guitar for about 6.

It took about 3 minutes to get this up and running after having Sonar put it into my VST plugins folder. Only complaints here are that you have have the sound in MONO for the effects to work. Also the interface does not allow me to "dial up" a specific setting, (I want to set the reverb to 5.986753 but it will only let me get within .2 of that number. lol) Aside from that the ony complaint is that the interface is not very aesthically pleasing. But what the heck, what kind of complaints are these anyway? Its like turning down a date with Eva Longoria because you dont like her earings or her eye shadow.

Wow, this is right on. I can really only critically speak to the Fender Twin effect. A friend has a 70's Fender twin and a Boss SD-1 so we miked that (SM57) and compared it to running direct in and using the Boss/Fender plugins. The results? 99.9999% match. This thing is dead on and it sounds fantastic! That Fender tube crunch and warmth is all there right down to the slight hum of the amp on 10.

Although we couldnt run this same test with the JCM 900, the sound is outrageous! That Marshall overdrive that defines so many songs is all there and the ability to toy with the settings after the track is recorded is a dream come true! If I could I would give this a 17 out of 10!

I truly believe that a song is defined by the sound of the guitar and this effect has given me "that sound". My brother, who is a guitar prodigy and very critical ear when it comes to guitar sounds, remaarked that "I didnt even think this sound existed for under $1500!" Well thanks to the good folks at Simulanalog, it does. My kudos go out to the those folks and I think that we all are looking for some more sims in the future.

PS Keep it free!

many time...fruity loops, cubase, ableton,...
flst.6

Using Tracktion + windows XP. I make progressive rock music with the computer, but have a desire to get things to sound as good as they did in the days when they made albums like dark side of the moon.

I am reviewing this program particularly because I own a Marshall JCM900 2x12 open back combo and this is the centrepiece of what this program does.

There is no proper UI, just parameters. Ironically, this is in fact far more intuitive than any kind of UI. Each effect/model is a seperate plugin, and that's a good thing.

RIGHT. I'm using a Fender strat through a Presonus Firepod. I'm listening over Tannoy Reveal Actives (with sub) and I've miked up my amp using an SM58.

I am going to write about the JCM900 model because I own this amp and wanted to see if this was any better.

Firstly, does the JCM900 model sound like a valve guitar amp? Yes it does, this is one of the warmest sounding emulations I have ever heard (in the league, if not beating, those of Amplitube).

The next question, does it sound like a JCM900. Well, yes and no. Each valve amp sounds subtely different anyway, so there's no point picking at minor discrepancies. It definately has the right soul and feel of the amp, that's there and it's quite remarkable. All that's missing is that little bit of fuzzy imperfection which is basically what has always seperated a digital sound from a real sound. It's that little extra 'sweetness' that a real amp provides that is missing. Of course some people, especially non JCM900 owners, will probably not care, and for them this is about as good as simulation gets.

One other note is this. On a real guitar amp (like comparing a real piano with a digital one), the harder you hit the guitar, the more it gives you back. In digi-land, there's usually an upper limit to what you get back with regards to how hard you hit it, and this is true of this program too.

I said before that I wanted to make things sound as 'real' as ever. Will I be replacing my amp? Well, no. But this is a formidable recording companion to make life a lot easier. My amp cost me #350 second hand and I would not sell it for anything. It sounds golden. Of course, guitar suite does not have any valves in it, is not guitar amp, and cannot be expected to sound the same. I rather suspect however this is about as good as its ever going to get, now or a decade into the future so if you don't like it, start saving. Needless to say, a real amp offers the best emulations of a real amp you can find ;-)

washburn wi65, bc rich warlock and a bunch of other stuff...

it hasn't an interface, it uses the one your multitrack program provides, so it changes from program to program, anyway i'ts very simply cause it only recreates the knobs of the real amplifiers. that's exactly what a similiar program should be: few regolations, great tone. the opposite of the others (es.alien connection revalver etc..).

it sounds good. Incredibly good. And i tried everything in software for guitar, believe me. Low noise, creamy tone very realistic and rich of harmonics in recreating especially the jcm800. It blows away in my opinion all the other programs, which are heavier, much harder to set and with a load of useless features (and still after hours it's hard to get a decent tone), i would save just ik multimedia amplitube. I made a lot of recording and this is the only program people asked me if i miked an amp (when i used amplitube they asked me if i used pod, when i used guitar rig, revalver, warp etc they asked me "what's this crap!")

i suggested anyone to try this, in many forums, and i always get a lot of thanks for making discover this work, and everyone guessing how comes that so many programs costs so much and sound so worse than this suite. I just hope the programmers will go on designing, making a simple interface usable stand alone too and some other good emulations as mesa boogie dual rectifier, and i'm gonna build them a statue! PLEASE KEEP IT FREE!

I play guitar for more than 15 years. Mostly more heavy stuff. Like every guitarist I am constantly seeking for the perfect heavy tone.
I am using this plugin with Cubase SX on Windows XP.
This review is about the JCM 900 plugin from the Simulanalog Guitar Suite.

The interface is intuitive enough, because we all know the meaning of those knobs.. I don't care about automation.
Although the plain vanilla interface of this plugin (the default VST interface provided by the host) does not hinder the usability of this plugin, I would give something for a neat little graphical interface.

How does it sound? Enough said, this plugin sounds like a Marshall JCM 900. But as with my own JCM 900, I need some more gain for my kind of sound, so I tried - and advise those who have the same gear to try the same - to put my PODxt in front of it. I just use the "Tube Preamp" model (no cab sim, nothing else except the noise gate) to crunch the signal a bit (set "Drive" and EQ to your taste). This gave me the sound of my dreams. In Cubase (or your favorite seq) add a stereo delay with 40ms on the left and 0ms on the right - no feedback - and you have a wonderful wide heavy tone for some serious shredding.
I only gave it a "9" because I have to put my PODxt in front of it and did not get the same sound with one of the other plugins from the suite put in front of the JCM 900.

It is well worth the price tag and everybody who tries to get heavy guitar tones without miking a full size guitar rig should try this one.

hobby/semipro guitar player started 30yrs ago. Styles are acoustic, blues, classic rock.
15yrs of home-recording, 8 of which with Cubase.
I use GSuite for recording and practicing guitar.
Current System: ASUS CUBX MB, P3-650 CPU, 512MB Ram, M-Audio Delta Audiophile SC with external Mindprint Di-Port ADDA-Converter. WinXP Home. Cubase Score 5.2. Genelec 1029A Monitors.

I found no manual but needed none. The tool is absolutely self-explaining. Installation is putting the DLLs into the right directory (so know problem if you know where to put it, I found it easily in the Cubase Manual). I dont care about automation/MIDI Controlling.
I was surprised not to find the Plugins in any of the Effects Menus. It only showed up in the Audio Track's Inserts Menu. Makes perfect sense but it took me a while to get the point. I consider this a Cubase feature so I dont blame GSuite for that.
JCM900 plugin creates a lovely sound even with default settings.
With the Twin, I had to play with the Inserts order a bit. Once I put it in the order TubeScreamer -> Twin -> any reverb it also sounded great with default settings.

The sound is lovely. No tricks necessary, it gives a great musical feel right away. Good expression. I have not tried the presets, playing with the faders is still too much fun.
No idea about bit-depths or mono/stereo. I believe it is 16bit mono and that is all I need.
Compared with my Line6 POD 1, the sound variety of GSuite is smaller of course. But the sound of GSuite is definitely more "natural". And it tops all my own attempts to mike my old Sundown Amp by far!
A remark about performance. Running nothing but Cubase with and empty Song and the JCM900 "inserted" into an audio track made a CPU Load of ca. 40%. So on any modern Hardware, the thing should run wihtout problems. It added no remarkable latency to my system.

I paid nothing, and it's definitely worth way more than that (dont tell them, please) :-)
It has the best "sound quality per CPU Usage quotient" I encountered with Guitar Amp modelling plugins so far. (I forgot the names of the others I tried but all were freebies, one pushing my CPU load to 100%, the other lacking a Speaker Simulation, etc.). Great musical response. I like especially the JCM900 because it is a complete amp one can use right away without extra effects.
No stability problems.
The only wish I have: Please continue adding new amps (I'd love to have e.g. a Boogie Rectifier of that quality)!

A masterpiece from Amplitude! Use it through an old 375 mhz with 196 ram and a crappy sound blaster 128 (a noise maker) using "asio for all" drivers and this plug ownz!! Also used it on a friend's pc with an audigy 4 and i couldn't describe the magic sound coming to my ears. So clean and quiet becomes a monster when you feed it with input and calms down when you're not. :)

Well these plugins use the interface of your host program so if the gui looks good then you get a good interface. If the gui is rotten just like nero's wave editor (which supports vst omg) you get bad interface. You can get a wide range of sounds with this monster. Just load the device you want and voila pro sound in seconds! For example when I wanna make a nu metal sound i load sd-1 and jcm900 crank up the gains in both of them and for the rest visit www.simulanalog.org.

What can i say... When i loaded the program and heard the sound I searched if some kind of tubes have been magicaly inserted into my motherboard... No such luck :DD Simulanalog with this suit converts your pc into a real amp. The sound is the most versatile i've ever heard. Heavy warbly lows - fat and spongy highs... Best compression! Fits: Rock, Punk, Country, Blues, Metal ! Everything sounds x-tremly real. You can feel the hot sound coming from this cold thing called pc. And omg is free! This masterpiece adds another dimension to your ears. Here listen to this simple riff :) (detuned ibanez rg270 dimarzio, sound blaster 128)

http://users.otenet.gr/~girok/nu-riff.mp3

Well comparing price 0 ? and sound quality it should get an 100/10 rating. Used a lot of plugins guitar rig(demo), revalver (LOL) everything suckz IMO. I use it through "Vst Host" program (that's the name of the prog) to get live sound (through asio) and make chains with the devices

15 years engineering-playing rock.
I run Mac/PC
Many plugs
5 Host recording apps.
Tube pre's
High end tube mics I've collected over the years.

Just like an amp. EASY
This is the best sounding Guitar Amp Modeling Software available today..and whoa...what's this? FREE! So all of you gearing up for Amplicrude2 ( which face it only REALLY has ONE sound )ready to dole out your 100's for the same thing in a different box- you should really check this out and hopefully put that $ to better use people.

Best Marshall sonic emulation so far. How did they do this? Thank you. Finally.
I hope they make more. This sounds so good and it's free, and for those other companies charging all that money ...I don't get it.

I tried al of the Guitar Amp modelling software and maybe it's just me but I can't get real tones from those apps. I mean, I play real tube amps but stuff like Ampliboob & NI Guitar-Wig- uh... what is everyone talking about.? To me that stuff sounds like an AM radio. But hey, they LOOK great, here, take my $500 bucks so you can pay your graphic artist.

I've done recording in my humble homestudio for 10 years. I have quite a bit of experience of guitar amps, though I'm primarily a bass player. My experience of other amp modelers include Steinberg Warp, IK Media Amplitube, Revalver and NI Guitar rig, though I don't have all of them.

Very easy. It's good idea to rely to the GUI of the host software for maximum intutivity. Also the idea of separate plugins for all the effects and amps is great (not complex all-in-one plugin with weird gui, like some commercial counterparts).

Sounds the best amp modeling as yet. Especially the JCM900 is right on. It's shame that it's not the most versatile sound, though. Mesa and/or old plexi Marshall would be great. But hey, it's free and the current models are perfect...

Well, with 2 amp models and 5 stomp boxes included in Guitar Suite, you can get more usable sounds than with the whole 500$ NI Guitar Rig... And this one's free!

I've been recording and playing for 25 years. My music has been on film and MTV and I've been featured in Guitar World, Keyboard, and Recording Magazines. This is the newest version of the plugin since it's FREE anyway. I run it in a VST multitrack recording program on an XP machine, Athlon 2800+ with a GB of ram and DAL Card Deluxes. For monitoring I use Alesis power amps and Monitors and AKG K240DF headphones.

It's a set of simple VST plugins with just the basic VST shell. It's freeware so yo just drop them in your VST plugin folder. No real need for a manual as the controls are like the ones on the modeled devices.

The real question is how does it sound. AMAZING. I've used high end studio mics and expensive tube guitar rigs all my life and without a doubt these are THE most real sounding amp and effects pedal models I have ever heard. I currently use a Line 6 HD147 for live use so I don't have to drag alot of amps with me, which I thought sounded like the real amps to a very good degree but the Simulanalog is so much better at it's quality that it isn't funny that I paid with tax about $1400 for the line6. The Simulanalog models blow it out of the water.

Forget WARP, NI Guitar Suite, and all that other stuff which cost lots of money and doesn't sound real. The commercial companies should be ashamed at temselves for charging lots of money for weak products when there is stuff like this for free. This thing may only model a couple of amps and a few pedals but I have to say not only are these the best modeled guitar amp sounds I've ever heard, they're some of the best recorded guitar sounds I've ever heard. Period.

I'm guitar player , i've been making music since 1978 and presently i'm using a Ibanez Pro Line 1985 Series with Seimour Duncan pickup's .
Guitar Suite is a free vst plugin and i use this in my guitar record sections. Presently i make some kinds music like TV sound tracks and my musical projects .
The computer in my home studio is an AMD Athlon XP 3.0 and the
OS , Windows XP .
My soundcard is a Yamaha DSP Factory , my monitors are Yamaha
NS10

It's just a simply interface , guitar suite will take the appearance of your main software . ex; Cubase , Samplitude , Sonar ,etc.

This is a great amp modeller , the Marshall JCM900 amp is the most accurate I have ever heard. The stomp box section are nice. The negative point is that it don't have noise gate .

You don't need to buy this product , it's FREE , you just need
download the archive in Simulanalog web site and enjoy!!!!
www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm