Can someone please explain the difference between these two versions? Is it a decent product?

Well if you are referring to TH2 Producer bundled with Sonar Platinum compared to TH2 Sonar bundled with Professional and artist, I don't really know, but I would guess that the later 2 just contain 'less', cut down versions of the full product, I have the full product and have never used the bundled versions except for a brief moment way back, before immediately going to the Overloud site and purchasing the full product, which is just more, much more.
 
Is it any good ?, well that's up to you I guess. To me it is the king. I have TH2 Full, S-Gear, Revalver, All Studio Devil products, GTR, Amplion, Amplitube and Guitar Rig, and for me TH2 is the best, I use it the most, 99% of the time, it has everything I want or need, if I had to choose 1, it would be TH2.

Good morning RSMCGUITAR!


From the Cakewalk store.
"TH2 Producer users who upgrade to the Full Version of TH2 will get an additional 20 amp models, 20 cabinets, 15 microphones, plus 60 stomp boxes, pedals and rack effects. "
Essentially, more toys to play with when it comes to the full TH2 product.

But that is not saying TH2 Producer is bad! I've used it myself and have been very impressed with its features. Side-note: double-clicking on a cab, for instance, brings up microphone and other options (I mention this because before I knew this, I wasn't very impressed, but after, it really opened up new possibilities.)
I would link you to something I made featuring TH2 Producer effects on guitar, but I don't feel it's in good taste to post it in public, so if you would like to hear that, let me know via PM!

To answer your query in a short way: TH2 regular has more sound and tone options, but I would definitely say TH2 Producer, even though I would consider it a "light" version, is more than just a decent product, capable of being used in music without sounding cheap (if you take the time to actually play with all the settings!)


Hope this helps!
-Hypocrita

it has more pedals, amps, and cabs. I have both. I use the full version, but before upgrading, i'd consider trying the new amps that CW included in the new Sonar. as much as I like TH2 for backing guitars and "standard" riff-based playing, I find it hard to get a nice stereo delay or chorus using it. maybe there is a secret i'm missing, but I haven't been able to replicate the success i'd have with just bypassing TH2 and just running my guitar into individual plugs and getting nice wide stereo effects.
 
I think it was a much better buy to upgrade to full Breverb (although with the new plug, I'm not so sure).

If you are a guitar player and don't already own one of the really high end sims the full version is definitely worth the price. Even if you do own the other ones it is still a very nice program that has features that helps provide much more realistic tones. Two of the nicest things about it is a) the cab/room/IR options and b) the fact it responds to input signals like a real amp would (much more so than something like GuitarRig5 which I also own).
 
a) If I have a good amp/drive/FX sound going on but it isn't quite punching through how I like or sitting in the mix properly getting at the cab/mic/room settings is almost guaranteed to polish things off. You have something like a dozen types of mics to choose, you have two possible mics on the front of the cab (and they can be different mic models) that you can place anywhere in relation to any of the cones on the cab (not just a few limited choices like in other programs) AND on top of those two mics you can also blend in a 45 degree mic and a rear mic which REALLY helps. You can choose from I think four or five different rooms all of which sound exactly as they should (IMO). There are invert phase switches and high/low cut filters on everything which is really nice. You can also choose from a buttload of included impulse reponse cabinets (although you cannot tweak these like the other cabs but they made sure each style of cab IR has lots of variations representing common mic set ups) and you can also import your own. And all that is only if you just have ONE cabinet in the chain. With the little TH2 mixer you can send out to two distinct cabinets with their own independent settings. Beyond that you could add even more cabs in a chain I think but I'm not sure how much benefit it would be at that point. You can save cab setup presets independently too so instead of creating a whole new bank in the main presets library you just save it in the cabinet dialog.
 
You do however have access to the mic positioning/blending stuff in the Sonar version but you don't nearly as many cabs and I'm pretty sure the mic selection is limited too. That in itself it's a huge bonus of the upgrade.
 
b) When I play into GR5 at varying levels of volume/attack/etc the sim just seems to remain the same. There is no character or color differences. The only thing that really happens is the drive or effects won't engage as aggressively if I play softer but it sounds unnatural. In TH2 they have some crazy way of processing the signal so when it's driving the amp models and effects it reacts like you would expect their hardware counterparts to. I personally think that most of a guitar player's tonal character comes directly from their attack/right hand technique and it's a special skill to use that to millk the tone and nuances out of the amp/effects being used. In other sims I've used that reaction/interplay seems to be missing and it sucks. I have to completely alter my right hand technique because those subtle nuances I'm trying to convey don't translate well and just make it sound crappy. With TH2 set up properly I can really get into things because it's doing what I expect it to. I don't have to think about it.
 
The Sonar version of course still has that really nice processing and the including Overloud custom head works quite well for a lot of stuff but to REALLY hear how good TH2 is at this kind of thing you gotta try the Bogner and Randall heads which only come with the full version. I swear you can almost feel the tubes glowing and reacting to what you are playing. It's unbelievable. I do a lot of ultra high gain stuff which is much easier to deal with within a sim because you are processing/distorting the heck out the signal but I also like doing bluesy/jazzy stuff using clean/slightly tube driven tones. That's where it really becomes apparent how good these models are.
 
Beyond that though all the stomp boxes and rack effect units that come with it make it super useful for pretty much most hings I'd ever do. I own and have played through a lot of the stuff modeled and it is all pretty spot on. I can tweak it just like I would the real thing so that makes things a lot easier when dialing in tones.
 
The downsides to me about TH2 are... it's a little overwhelming at times. There is just SO much going on and SO many things that can be tweaked it can be a little hard to sort through it all and nail down a specific sound. Having experience with guitar gear, how it's set up and some recording know how is really imperative to getting the most out of it (unless you don't mind using presets which I only really use as a means to get ideas on how to set things up myself). The other thing is I find that even though the main windows are pretty easy to understand and use (the mapping windows) a lot of stuff is hidden so you really have to give the manual a good once over. The presets section annoys the heck out of me too. I find it's a really weird set up for saving, searching and loading things. Most people really like it though so it could be I'm just a little dumb.
 
Anyway... I think it's great and have never regretted dropping the extra cash on it. I just wish I had known about it sooner because I upgraded to GR5 literally a month or two before X2 came out with TH2 in it. I haven't opened GR5 in well over a year and even then that was just to screw around with some bass tones (which I still kind of like GR5 for but I intend to buy the Overloud MarkII bass program which looks way batter).
 
Cheers.

Oh and don't forget to play around with the Varifire flyout knob. Not sure what the heck that thing actually does but it seems to really emphasise that coloring/reaction stuff I was talking about. When I was still on the Sonar version that made the included amps a lot nicer sounding/feeling with just some easy adjustments.

The Brunetti amps have become my goto for that Dumble type sound. The Randalls and all the others in the full version of TH2 are stellar. But the Brunetti amps make the upgrade worth every penny.
I, too, have most of the high end amp sims but since I upgraded to TH2 full a few years back, they have sat idle! If you want that TRUE boutique amp sound along the lines of a Dumble or Two Rock or Doctor Z, the Brunettis fill that space very well.

Oops... I said Bogner instead of Brunetti. Sorry.
 
I meant the Brunetti sims.
 
I knew Sidroe would show up with his Brunetti love and he is totally right. They sound awesome. In fact I only really started exploring what they were capable of based on his posts. As a metal/rock guy I was mostly sticking to the models I'm familiar with IRL but those Brunettis aren't only just crazy sounding clean amps... they can sear like no tomorrow with the right effects and tweaks. Very unique sounding too when you use them in that capacity.
 
I don't want to sound like Eddie or Diamond or whatever... I wanna sound like Beepster... and Beepster sounds like blood dribbling out of your ears. ;-)

Well Beepster, I must say that is one heck of a review. It motivated me to go to the Overloud site and check it out. I was under the impression that I was already getting the full version with Sonar Platinum but alas, no. After seeing and hearing the full version I know that I was expecting too much. Anyway, at the upgrade price of $99 from the Cakewalk store it will have to be on my to-do list for a later time and make do with TH2 Producer for now.
 
I knew you knew what you were talking about when you mentioned articulation transference and that is what has sold me. Now I won't bother looking at anything else and concentrate on learning the ins and outs of TH2 or just mic my Mesa Boogie.
 

Blues_Jam
Well Beepster, I must say that is one heck of a review. It motivated me to go to the Overloud site and check it out. I was under the impression that I was already getting the full version with Sonar Platinum but alas, no. After seeing and hearing the full version I know that I was expecting too much. Anyway, at the upgrade price of $99 from the Cakewalk store it will have to be on my to-do list for a later time and make do with TH2 Producer for now.
 
I knew you knew what you were talking about when you mentioned articulation transference and that is what has sold me. Now I won't bother looking at anything else and concentrate on learning the ins and outs of TH2 or just mic my Mesa Boogie.
 

That's great and I don't think you'll be disappointed but for the sake of full disclosure I have heard some of the other high end offerings from IK and Amplitude have good response as well however you don't get the discount of being a Sonar owner and based on my (admittedly minimal) research they seem to really hone in on specific models as opposed to the much broader range TH2 has.
 
Another thing to keep in mind is that sims can only do so much with the signal they are being fed. I've been experimenting a lot with feeding TH2 with signals from some of my outboard gear instead of using the DI on my interface. The reason being is even though being a Focusrite Scarlett user I think I have a better instrument/hi z in than if I was using other interfaces (it does seem to be a better signal than my old Echo Layla 3G) when I plug into my Line6 or old Traynor and use the line outs to my board into the interface and THEN into TH2 I get the benefit of having a proper guitar amp preamp that is expecting a guitar input as opposed to a general interface DI.
 
That said... that method is kind of hit or miss and the more I learn about TH2 I find that for certain things the direct DI actually works better. There are also some solutions for guitar impedence matching some of the very smart fellows around here have been turning me on to like the Motu Z-Box and there are apparently even some fancy mixers (Mackie I think) that are designed to give that guitar preamp stage set up which really helps the signal once it hits the sim.
 
I've also been doing some crazy stuff using my line outs on the amps and my old stomp boxes which sounds cool but tends to be really "close" and sharp on the raw track(s). What I recently discovered is if I record doubled tracks or have done some kind of dual output into two separate tracks (my Line 6 has two independent channels that I can route DI out) I can create a bus, route the doubled tracks to it, add a completely empty instance of TH2 to the FX bin then simply add a cabinet to TH2.
 
By doing that I essentially take that raw, nasty output from my pedals/amps and add whatever cab, mics and room I want to it. Of course I could also add reverb or other effects before or after the cab. Sounds great and I get to use all this crap I have laying around. lol
 
Anyway... lots of cool stuff you can do with the basic Sonar version too. That was the one very nice thing I found about that version. When we got GR4 lite or whatever it was it was essentially unusable to me so I upgraded to GR5 which was WAY better and I could use it. With the included version of TH2 it is as good as the full version as far as sheer functionality (and you could do a lot of the freaky stuff I was talking about with it) except it just doesn't have as many sounds and options. The ones that ARE there though work very well if you tweak them out right.
 
Honestly once I upgraded to the full version for a little while I was thinking that maybe (because I'm broke) I could have just coasted on the basic version for a while it's that useable but after realizing how insanely powerful and diverse the full version is there was no question it was the right move to make.
 
This is just my opinion though. Your mileage may vary.
 
Cheers.