The Anvil - Ignite Amps Newest VST Plugin

Description:
The Anvil is a digital emulation of a three channels tube preamplifier for guitar. It has been developed to accurately model its real hardware counterpart, designed by Andy Zeugs.

Features:
− Dynamic 12AX7 / ECC83 coupled triode stages analog modeling
− Three channels: clean, rhythm and lead, each with fully separated controls
− Mono / Stereo processing support
− Selectable oversampling rate (up to 8x)
− Global input / output level controls
− Double precision (64 bit) floating point mathematical model
− Fully automatable controls
- Zero latency

Fully coded in C++


Click here to Download

I was given the opportunity to test this beast before it's release. Thanks for the opportunity Alu! Although it's not my favorite, It keeps growing on me. and honestly, I still have mixed feelings about it. I could even change my mind about it again before I finish typing this. Having said that, two things are certain.

1. The Anvil plays like a dream. It's very responsive and tight. It responds well to dynamic changes and simply feels good. And I mean GOOD.

2. Most of you will absolutely love it.

The Anvil tends to have a very scooped profile. The first time I inserted it on a track, I already had the track recorded. Meaning that I heard it before I played it. I knew it was going to be more scooped than what I generally like, but I almost didn't even want to play it.

..But then I picked up the guitar and started playing.....and couldn't stop. I thought "This thing feels fantastic!" So much so that I stayed up way too late one night just playing. It responds well and just feels real.

I've found that I really like playing the Anvil with less gain. It sounds better to me with a (still on the lead channel mind you) little less gain than I would normally use. And I think you can hear it in the examples below. This less gain worked really well for the slide part as well (hear below).

So then I did my comparison tests and decided that I still like my NRR1/x50 tone better. It simply cuts through the mix better and has a little more uumph in those mids that I like. I also think the Anvil has just a hair too much upper end saturation, making it a little muddy at times. NRR1/x50, while a little brighter and a little harsh-er, has a slightly smoother curve up the frequency range to me. But I'm certainly not finished experimenting with this amp and I could completely change my mind in a few days.

For the nice feeling it has, I'll probably use The Anvil to track with. And with some more experimenting with cabs and post EQ changes, I can probably find a better way of fine tuning this amp to make it sound more like something I could use for everything.

Screenshot of my Settings
Anvil - Take 1
Anvil - Take 2 re-tracked, better playing and added slide
X50/NRR1 - Take 2 X50 on the left, NRR1v1 on the right - Understand that I've had months to refine this tone as well. I still love the bite it has!

Bass: TSE B.O.D., Lextac
Drums SSD 3.5

Thanks Ignite Amps for a beautiful plugin.

Steven Slate Drums 4.0

Just got an email. Here's to even better sounding drums in the future, I'm excited:

The New STEVEN SLATE DRUMS Virtual Instrument

The new STEVEN SLATE DRUMS 4.0 Virtual Instrument is going to be the most massive drum instrument in the industry. New in 4.0 is the new SSD4 Player, a drum sampler built from the ground up by the same development team behind the award winning TRIGGER drum replacement plugin. Also new are dozens of new drumkits recorded by Steven Slate called the DELUXE series. These new unprocessed kits use Steven's years of experience in recording drums to create the most amazing sounding virtual kits you'll hear! New kits include multiple Rock kits, a Jazz and Brushes kit, a vintage early 60's Ringo kit, and even 5 new Electro, Dance, and Urban kits designed by producer Griffon Boice. SSD4 will also debut with multiple expansion packs in various genres by some of the top producers and mixers in the field.
So do you want to be one of the first people to try SSD4? Well.. there's a catch. We're looking for some people who will want to help us make this plugin a rock solid beast on all systems and in all DAWS. If you're willing to put the time in to help, then you should be part of our beta team! We're going to choose 50 new people to join the SSD4 beta team this week. Here is how:
1. Sign in to your TWITTER account and follow Steven Slate at @slateproaudio
2. Later today, Steven will announce how to apply to be an SSD4 beta tester.
3. That's it.