I Can Only Afford One Plugin, Here’s Why I Picked The Soldano

[@juleslacrapule]

your channel is very cool, lots of insitghful stuff and well produced, i wish you lots of views and subs

[@AlexGichevMusic]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Comments like this are such a motivation for me. Thank you once again!

[@josuastangl7140]

Respect for coming clean and going forward with pride and honesty! 2:01 isn’t the Cali capable of good clean tones? 3:39 Bogner Shiva, Marshal JCM 800, Peavy 5150, Victory V30 Countess all modded to varying degrees There you go. The models for the other archetype plugins are also known. Only most of the pedals and cabs are still mysteries, which I‘d love to know what they are. 5:15 I‘m also considering the Morgan Suite to choose for the free plugin voucher I got. I own the Nolly and Parallax (and a QC).

[@felipe.rodrigues]

@@josuastangl7140 models are known but super modified as well

[@AlexGichevMusic]

1. Yeah, noticed that after the fact. The high gain tones on that I LOVE (the "Push out the baby" Ola Englund preset or whatever it's called is my fav) 2. Thanks! 3. Would recommend. You're not gonna be getting any djent tones out of it, but the cleans and slightly driven tones are very nice, and it does thing that the Nolly doesn't imo. Thanks for writing!

[@hauntedhotdog]

Honestly probably the best "all-rounder" from Neural. You can make it work for just about anything. Nolly X would work, too, but this is the correct choice for your specific needs. I own a lot of Neural plugins, and while the Mesa Boogie is also excellent and quite versatile for different genres, it's a LOT more finicky and you can easily make it sound truly, truly awful. Good choice, and good luck!

[@hauntedhotdog]

Also, X upgrades are free for owners.

[@AlexGichevMusic]

Yeah, a lot of the Neural stuff sounds amazing, but I feel like the Soldano has the best good sounds to bad sounds ratio out of all them. If YOU had to pick only one what would you choose? Thanks for writing!

[@hauntedhotdog]

If I had to choose one... man, I'd have to go Petrucci because while it IS the most expensive and can be finicky, you have access to a lot of usable tones for a wide variety of hard rock/metal and I love the sound of melodic lead parts on that one it's really smooth and beautiful. Cleans are really nice, too Love the Gojira X for the dirty octave stuff, and overall I think Nolly X has the best pure metal rhythm tone, but yeah for me the Petrucci one is special because of how the melodic lead stuff just soars and has that elusive, buttery smooth quality Dream Theater is known for.

[@chromebuoy]

I just moved to this alone too. I got them all but this amp does everything. Once this moves to QC which is soon it might be time to pull the plug finally

[@AlexGichevMusic]

YES! To be honest, after all the shooting out, I was not sure if I was making the right choice or had just gone full bananas, but I'm glad there's someone else with similar taste out there! Thanks for writing!

[@nicktshredz]

I am mainly a Helix user but I am constantly going to the Soldano models for my live tones. The 3 channels are so versatile. I didn't know the plugin had the transposer! That right there is a selling point for me.

[@AlexGichevMusic]

I used to use the Helix Native software a few years ago. Liked it a lot. But yeah, the Soldano is extremely versatile and the transposer is a very cool feature. Not really a make-or-brake for me, but still useful. Thanks for writing!

[@81giorikas]

@@AlexGichevMusic I don't like the neural soldano. I think it is a bit super fizzy and more gainy than vs what I like to hear from a soldano. If it works for you then great, as far as I've tested it it was borderline not good. I do have a soldano but I guess the cab and room play a huge difference. As far as tone goes what you are getting here is very good. For me and vs my real one, I think amplitube takes the crown easily, second is the pod HD, not the helix, third LePou which is free and I wonder if anybody remembers it, then Helix, then some others and then neural lol. I don't like it, does it show?

[@AlexGichevMusic]

@@81giorikas Hah. Damn, that’s a helpful list actually. I’m starting to hear a lot of good stuff about the Amplitube. I do remember the LePou stuff, the le456 was one of my favs, still have it and use it. Sick plugin! Weird how the Pod hd is better than the helix. Do you own one of the new ones or an old one, out of curiosity? Thanks for writing!

[@81giorikas]

@@AlexGichevMusic I have an avenger. It is supposedely not exactly an SLO but in the family I guess. I have to say, the amplitube matches the avenger as far as "clipping" goes. You know, distortion guitar sound is nothing to write about actually. It's your guitar signal, you input a note. The perfect amplifier should reproduce that note as is. Loud. And you wouldn't like it, it'd be as dull as your guitar played acoustically on the couch. Now you have tubes or solid state it doesn't really matter. Or even digital distortion which are what these plugins etc are mated to IR (long eqs produced by reverb). Every little point in the chain will add harmonics to the note you input. Odd or even. The sum of it, it is distortion. The eq part of it is also essential. Eq alters time, it is frequency (time) bypass. So it alters what you feel and perceive from a distorted signal. In the end, I'd guess that all of these are very close. But it is amplitube and pod HD which are the most realistic to me. I should say that they are also the more enjoyable BY FAR. I also isolated the pod SLO preamp and dual fed the soldano and pod HD and alternate between the two, feeding the avenger. They were almost indistinguishable. That is what I hear "DI" as well, although your ears in the room is always a more complex sound field. Hope this helps.

[@ramsonk]

Cool presets dude, I was fortunate enough to win a license for the SLO X for free. Its a great sounding plugin but i feel it lacks a bit of character sometimes but thats just me. Also the X updates are completely free for existing users, I can't wait for the Tim Henson X to come out istg

[@felipe.rodrigues]

I'm going through the same journey. Tested Gojira, Nolly, and now I'm on Soldano trial. I have to say, what a tone, and how easy is to get a good tone out of it

[@AlexGichevMusic]

Yeah, its pretty hard to make it sound bad to be honest. Really great plugin! Thanks for commenting!

[@diablomozart]

i bought the original soldano slo100 plugin...the upgrade to x was free...never had a problem with either version...it does take a bit to find "your tone" as with a regular amp but i think it's awesome and use it all the time

[@AlexGichevMusic]

Oh, so it is free, well that's nice of them! Yeah, it is awesome. I'm not really one to search for ONE specific tone to call my own, I just enjoy messing around with different sounds and Soldano does that really well, at least inn my opinion. Thanks for commenting!

[@timolebeck6405]

for 100 bucks you can get Amplitude MAX on sale (and its almost ways on sale!) which has ALL the amps you could ever need! Just my 2c ;)

[@AlexGichevMusic]

I'm not really looking for an all in one type of amp sim, I'd rather have just one amp, as strange as that sounds. The bias fx, helix native, amphub types of software kind of overwhelm me. Worth a try tho, thanks for the suggestion! Seems like all the pedal in that would be a big selling point for me. Thanks for commenting!

[@ElShogoso]

I went for the mesa II C+ for a similar reason: I wanted the full experience of dialing in a virtual amp. I also wanted to have some basic effects. I like metallica, dream theater and the like, and I also like fender-style clean/crunch sounds. So it was a no brainer. The only downside of the IIC+ is that it's probably the least intuitive amp and the hardest to dial in. You kinda have to know how those mark amps tick, and it also seems that the controls also don't completely respond exactly like the real amp, though that isn't an issue for people who just have the plugin.

[@AlexGichevMusic]

Yes! The II C+ did have the amp feel going for it, just wasn't EXACTLY my thing. Maybe I just don't know how to dial it in, I've never spend time with a real one. Considering your tastes tho...it seems like it definitely is your thing. Thanks for writing!

[@ryandavis4247]

Good for u

[@intothemusic7121]

Nice and interesting video. In your plugin exploration story, did you ever try Revalver, now at version 5 and owned by HeadRush?

[@AlexGichevMusic]

Thanks, man! No, I've never tried the ReValver. Looks cool, but I don't think many people are familiar with how it sounds. Seems like it's worth a try tho. Thanks for writing!

[@christophers5666]

I remember the Fortin Cali having a clean channel, still, I would have gone with the soldano as well

[@AlexGichevMusic]

Oh, crap! Yeah, just checked, it does. Just didn't remember correctly when shooting this, but yeah, likewise, I'm, still going with the Soldano.

[@Xarvulth]

I use Gojira, its a banger

[@BelminHxC]

Free upgrade to the X versions if I remember correctly.

[@AlexGichevMusic]

YES! Well...I'm not 100% but someone else said the same thing in comments. Thanks for writing!

[@manirai1003]

Seems like you're a minimalist like me.... Too many options just confuses me as well.... After tons of searching, found Mercuriall plugins really statisfying: Visually as well as Socially.... After that I am sticking to it. No more searching....

[@AlexGichevMusic]

Yeah, I'm not really a fan of overcrowded UIs and options for the sake of options. I think I tried some of the free Mercurial stuff back in the day, but to be honest, don't remember how they sounded at all. Thanks for commenting!

[@Durkhead]

It doesnt matter what amp sim you use it matters what ir you use just make sure the amp sim has the features you want

[@AlexGichevMusic]

Mmmmm I actually don’t agree here. I’ve done little mini shootouts (just for myself, not full on videos) where I ran different plugins through the same IR and they did sound pretty different. Maybe I’m gonna make this into a video, cause I also thought this before doing the shootout. Thanks for writing!