A few weeks back I made the plunge and tried the Wall of Sound plugin with the 2 free cabs that came with it. You try the plugin out for 30 days with a temporary license. You get access to their site to try all the virtual cabinets on the site. If you like the plugin, all you have to do is buy 2 or more cabinets and they give you a full license. I have to admit that I was pretty skeptical about this deal. I tried the plug with the 2 free cabs and was blown away! I quickly purchased 6 additional cabs and received my full registration. BTW, cabs are only from 5 or 6 dollars up to 10 or 12! The price is very friendly and they didn't scrimp on quality!
Today I finally had a chance to push this thing thru the meat grinder. I had several different style guitar tracks to lay. I decided to give the amp sims a rest and see what I could do with this new plug. I ran a guitar cable off of the Line Recording jack on the back of my Fender/Rivera Concert straight in to my Studio-Captures. I set the input on the Studios for a little compression and pulled up the projects in X3.
In the project, I set up a track and inserted the Wall Of Sound plug in to the FX bin. After it came up, I chose a Two Rock cab with 2X12s and a condenser mic. I then placed the mic in the virtual room a little back off of the cab. I must say at this point that there are a lot of features in this plug. They just about covered anything you can think of.
I looked thru my pedal collection and decided on the EH Soul Food overdrive. I ran my Fender Strat with EMG gold letter SA pickups and the midrange boost knob into the Soul Food. Then set the Concert for a good sound in the room, even though I didn't mic the cab. Once that was done, I tweaked WOS for the cab sound and off we went.
The tone was absolutely astonishing! The guitar had the familiar response that I have lacked, other than with my HD500. It was such a satisfying experience. Almost like shaking hands with an old friend after being away for a long time.
I had a Pete Anderson type Tele track to do. Tweaked the Soul Food, chose a Twin cab with JBLs in it, tweaked the mic and BANG! Very close! I had a Contemporary Gospel track. Tweaked everything based on a vintage Marshall cab and BANG! Done.
All the tracks I cut today was such a pleasure. I had missed my 2 Concert rig for a long time. At home in my project studio, it just is such a pain to try to get those amps recorded. I've always used PODs or amp plugs and then if the budget was there I would re-record in a larger studio where we could set up some mics.
This plug is an answer to my prayers! I can't say that it would be for you but you MUST try this thing! Check it out at Two Tones!
I know this is a long post but I wanted to share with you what I think is a no-brainer if you're looking for a way to get your fave tube amp sound in to the computer with out all the headaches of volume and mics. Please, give it a shot!