It was one of those things that needed to happen. GR5 is great and all but the TH2 Producer version was just getting me far closer to what I want and instead of attempting to try to combine the two to get access to the extra effects in GR (like phasers, chorus, compressor, etc...) I figured this would be a worthwhile purchase. I'm not gonna say I'm disappointed with the Randall heads because they are pretty accurate as far as Randall stuff goes (and I used a Randall head extensively VIA a buddy who I shared gear with but I always set it to clean and applied my own effects) but I just never really dug their distortion tone. I've always found them too "crackly" and the distortion breaks apart when you crank it up. That's personal taste though. I will find use for them somewhere I'm sure but like I said I am REALLY digging the Overloud Custom (which is included in the Producer version).
I mentioned it in a previous thread that I think the sim manufacturers should not necessarily abandon trying to model existing amps but really they have so much power at their disposal to create NEW tones with their knowledge and skill that I think they could have far more success pleasing the studio guitarists starting from scratch. I feel Overloud has done a great job in this department but obviously the traditionalists will always want to hear the brand names invoked.
I only played with it briefly and although it didn't have the WOW factor I anticipated as I went through all the presets (and I noodled with every single one that was apparent but for some reason I think I'm missing some trick to access more... but that's another discussion) I found that almost every single one was quite interesting and with tweaking will be usable. I'm curious as to whether Overloud will release new presets or allow users to create and share their own. I find it odd that there are slots for 999 factory presets but less than 20% of that capacity is used. I for one would contribute to a pool of presets if given the proper environment and motivation to do so.
All in all I think this is going to be super cool and I can't wait to have more time to mess around with it all. However for now with my current project I'm actually going to stick with using what's available in the producer version because it did kind of start of with the intent of showcasing what it is capable of and it is on it's own a VERY impressive sim. I'm understanding a little better what people were saying when they mentioned that TH2 full version wasn't necessarily BETTER than the Producer version but just a lot MORE of it. I think it's actually quite laudable that they did it this way because it gives people an extremely useful tool as opposed to just dangling a carrot in front of everyones faces in hopes for more sales which, in my opinion, is what happened with the Sonar version of Guitar Rig.
Long story short... if you are guitar player this is probably gonna be something you want to snag tonight because who the heck knows when it's going to go on sale again and the full version is EXPENSIVE. Remember Overloud is likely controlling the price on this stuff and they seem to be a relative new company in the Sonar fold so anticipating them to behave like Native Instruments or Cakewalk is probably not advisable. I also think that this product is becoming so successful (and for good reason) that they may not really need to put on special prices because people will likely be willing to pay for it.
Just my thoughts on the matter. Cheers all.