DOES IT SUCK?! #01 - Audio Assault Blacksun (Review)

[@MykeOwns]

Agreed (again) Tried this out after the hype all over the place and wasn't impressed. Even switching to better IRs it wasn't much help, the amp just produces too much fizz

[@jeffbridges6110]

I got this awhile back. I'm like you as in I mostly use the stock Blacksun IR or 3rd party ones. But from like 2.5-4k I have to clean things out. It's good in a mix , and for rythm guitars. But as said before , you have to clean things up a bit. But hey , it's free.

[@lariat02642]

I’d rather fork over the 60 bucks for the kazrog ampcraft 1992 block letter. That amp sounds huge in all the demos I’ve heard. I wonder if Scott has check out that one yet?

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Haven't checked it out and not too interested if I'm being honest

[@Ronny1031]

I wanted to like this plugin, but I'll be honest, I feel like Audio Assault plugins are the encapsulation of the phrase "you get what you pay for". Sure, they're affordable, but I always feel like I could have spent more and ended up with a product I'm far happier with. Audiority and ML Sound Labs are good examples of plugins where I spend $50 or $60, but I'm rarely, if ever disappointed with their products. I mean, the Solidus VS 8100 and the Amped Ark are two of my absolute favorite plugins. Speaking of ML Sound Labs, I'd love to see you do a "does it suck?" on some of their stuff

[@AlexeySolovievMusic]

Awesome review and demo Scott! This plugin sounds great in your hands lol

[@plaguesofwrath]

I picked this up last night and was playing around with it. Didn’t hate it, but I didn’t use the stock irs. Also, the way I use amp sims, it doesn’t have to be perfect, because it’s never going on a final recording.

[@explosivemonkeypunch]

You should do a revisit of the Hellbeast after AA updates it with their new modeling tech they used for the Bulldog Sim. They are at least hyping it up a lot. Their weakest point is the cabs. They have Seacow doing their IRs and while I appreciate all the free ones they've done, not great for a paid sim.

[@ricardogil363]

I was checking the EVH yesterday and it has the same problem, maybe you dont get it at the bigining but we play with HM-2, and when you load it it become just white noise, you have to work it a lot

[@bungwung4797]

your demo is pretty good!!! hope i was good like you some day to create drum track like that !!!

[@needsLITHIUM]

Darker speakers tend to work better. I've tried this with that free IR pack that has a bunch of e609 and SM57 sounds of Marshall VS412 (G12L something or other) and 1960A (G12T-75) cabs, as well as Harley Benton G212V (Vintage 30) and what not. The Marshall cabs sounded fine; the Vintage 30 loaded Harley Benton IR sounded like fucking garbage (it honestly only works on dark AMPs or as a pair). I also tried running the output of my interface into an ART SLA100 and into a Seismic Audio SA-412 slant cab (Seismic Audio Quake12) and that worked well as a reamp solution until my power amp and windows tablet both broke (both instances were feline related, though not the same cat, and happened a year apart). I plan to get another power amp or a PA head style powered mixer. Mainly because it sounded awesome through the Seismic speakers, which are rather dark, and rated at 150 W per speaker. Tbh that's my main rig, anyway, and I tend to like riding the presence and mid controls pretty high, as well, myself.

[@rossbalch]

I guess my biggest question is... who is asking for this? Don't get me wrong, I have a 5w Blackstar head, and it sounds decent, in fact it's quite versatile. But it's not really a sound I crave and was clamoring for a recreation of.

[@rossbalch]

Although I must say, I do appreciate that they code their plugins for Linux. I wish more developers would do that.

[@WOLF870506]

Hi, nice video, are you planing to review bulldog amp sim from Audio Assault ?

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Not sure, got a bunch of projects running right now, been a struggle to get the YT videos up!

[@Shalloworldmx]

Well… you’re right, now I can’t unheard it.

[@Axxon_N]

They are giving this away for free right now so I snagged it For free I'm pretty stoked in it just to have it, tho I'll be mostly using Emissary still

[@jacksmith4460]

I have this, and its decent but ML Sound Labs Stevie T and Roots are better , also free, and pretty much the same Stomp options (although the IR loader is very basic) both better than this. I think this Blacksun is worth getting because there are good sounds in it, and it's free, but if I had paid for it I would be annoyed at the white noise

[@diegocruz1136]

ToneLib or Audio Assault? It’s my question… 😅

[@animaalien]

Interesting that it sounds so different in the recording!

[@heavyvibrationstudiopl3256]

But BlackStar real amp has the same problem.Plugin sounds better than real thing.

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Real thing must be atrocious then , dang

[@Scarleaver]

Yeah this Noise-stuff is hideous. I think I got better at detecting it, becausee I really had to train my ears for that. Never detected it really, but then someone told me to pull out some stuff and when I A-Bd that....you absolutely CANNOT unhear it until it's gone. So now I usually go into the guitars, try to find these frequencies and pull them out of the mix, then A B.

[@ManuSDP]

No it doesn’t suck, BUT I’ve never used their IRs cause they’ve always been not good enough. With Audio Assault the problem is they’re being overhyped by their fans like every other company, but they don’t stack up to the Big companies imho.

[@jacksmith4460]

Their saturation plugins paid and free are great, I also have a reverb paid plugin from them that sounds brilliant (but takes hella CPU) Headcrusher free is brilliant I actually prefer it to the paid plug in on a master bus. The paid version is good but better at subtle settings, the free one fattens up a mix and injects power just by being on and in the chain. Blacksun is probably at the lower quality end of what I have tried

[@ManuSDP]

@@jacksmith4460 yeah I agree but they don’t do mixing plugins anymore, they just focus on amp sims and IRs…which in my opinion they shouldn’t.

[@cmd_f5]

@@ManuSDP I think overall AA has stepped up quite a bit, but their IR's are not that great. They're not utter shit but do take some dialing in. Once 3rd party IR's are in the equation their modern sims are solid. Still, JMO.

[@Lasernotes]

Cmon man this reviews doesn't make any sense, tone is in purpose of the genre you are playing, Malmsteen for example made out a career of playing with a super harsh cold tones, sometimes a non perfect tone is much better. Plus Audio assault sounds muche better then other plugins in terms of dynamics: for example if i alternate pick i get the best resoults with aa plugins, they stand out with a very creamy punchy midrange. Tone has a lot of different aspects to look for!

[@ChernobylAudio666]

Completely disagree

[@cmd_f5]

I dig this one for free but the stock IR's are not good IMO. Lots of 4k fizz (like a real blackstar) that I'm not digging. At least the drive pedal is not a Tubescreamer thing again. Ended up uninstalling it. Don't like Blackstars in real life, don't care for this much either.

[@grapefruitsimmons]

All AA stuff sucks. Especially when you cant select between input 1 and 2, ive got a brick vst. These mfs basically stole my money

[@scottelliott3802]

Nibble

[@stacy_greyko]

What? 😂

[@scottelliott3802]

@@stacy_greyko nimmmmble i meant F in americans eh?