Guitar and bass amp emulation

Anyone into this?

Drambo has a wide palette of possibilities for emulating amps, overdrive and distortion pedals, plus modulation effects, including volume and transient aware processing.

And you can "switch presets" by using 16 scene buttons.

Has anyone yet had a go at it?

Finally, add the Thafknar AUv3 convolution engine and have your favorite cabinet and acoustic environment on top.

Comments

  • For this type of use especially but in general as well - it would be nice to be able to give scenes custom names.

  • Hm. Good idea indeed. Pads are large enough, with word wrap even on iPhone πŸ˜‰

  • edited April 2020

    @supadom That's a nice concept!

    Even the noise is there πŸ˜‰

    Is there an amp simulator that you would like to get close to?


    Please try shaping your own distortion curve using a symmetrical 'S-shape curve' in Graphic Shaper (bipolar mode).

    I would record a short guitar riff, play it in a loop and draw curves until it sounds nice.

    Levels are important when using the Graphic Shaper module, you might want to use a compressor before it.

  • I’ve ended up replacing the hiss sample with noise module albeit not quite the same it keeps the size of the file lower.

    Thanks for the advice re: graphic shaper. TBH I don’t get on with it firstly because I don’t know how it works exactly and when messing around with it I quickly end up with a rather unpleasant hi pitch fuzz style distortion. I will try the compressor before it to see if that calms it down a bit.

  • @supadom

    @Cian posted a link that might be useful: https://youtu.be/4UBXSoYlf-g

  • edited April 2020

    I’ve watched through it and spent a bit trying to reproduce some of the waveshaper knowledge however I’m none the wiser since the tools used are at least visually different. Drambo’s shaper seems like a more rudimentary affair and I’m finding it hard to work with as is. No matter how subtly I modify the wave I end up with shit. I’ve cleaned up the patch a bit and I’m going to leave it at that. This was just something I wanted to try and seems like I’ve achieved what I personally wanted I.e. useable (to me) clean sound. I cannot, or desire to compete with sound architects spending ages to acquire knowledge to get their results. I’m sure there will be others who can have a shot at this either from where I left off or from a clean slate. Sound design it is a massive rabbit whole and is hugely subjective to boot. While I’m happy to dip my toes, that’s where I’m going to stay as making music is definitely where my heart is and if I want to build I choose wood, saw and screws as opposed to waveshaper


    The above shouldn’t read as bitter. I’m just trying to come clear about how I feel about it (which definitely isn’t bitter, or resentful). ;)


    thanks for the link @denx

  • @supadom There's no doubt that creating a smooth shaper curve can be quite a challenge, not the least due to the fact that there's no zero-crossing mirror nor spline function available.

    I already thought about writing a utility that will create a number of "smooth" waveshaper curves for use as presets in the Graphic shaper, let's see if I can find someone to join the effort ;)

  • edited April 2020

    Here are two classic waveshaper curves for you to start with, called "Serge" and "Lockhart".

    Have fun!


    Remember: You can also crossfade between different waveshaper curves, driven by dynamic content analysis using envelope follower, transient detector, frequency filtering etc.

  • @giku Splines for the waveshaper would greatly enhance this module. :)

  • Another thing about waveshaping is that it tends to alias quite easily - and that can have a huge effect on sound quality. In the past in my own code the difference between no over sampling and 8x (or even 16 - god help us) was dramatic. However oversampling brings its own problems.

  • ...plus mirroring the positive half at the zero crossing πŸ˜ƒ

  • Im aware of that. This module is waiting for me :)

  • edited April 2020

    Freaking awesome, we’re gonna have to raise Giku a statue at some point

  • Instant crash in standalone and AUV3 mode. Is this an instrument rack or a preset?

  • edited April 2020

    Thanks for the feedback, I'll check it...

    It's a processor rack.

    Edit: Works fine here when importing as Processor rack.

    Tried with Drambo v1.0.2 and v1.0.3.

  • It is a rack preset.

    1. Load Drambo in the effect slot of your host
    2. create new track in main
    3. tap rack header and import from files download folder.
    4. load preset.
    5. enjoy and comment with feedback ;)
  • edited April 2020


    Ok so here is what I am doing step by step. I am new to Drambo so maybe just need to get used to the language being used. Thanks in advance.

    1. Have downloaded the amp-sim-10 (was 9 but redownloaded just in case) to my iCloud
    2. Open new Drambo instance as an effect in AUM
    3. Opens with Main, MIDI to CV ready to go (but also works the same way if I insert a new track #2)
    4. Click on Green + sign to the right of MIDI to CV
    5. Choose Processor
    6. Choose Blue presets
    7. Import Amp-sim-10
    8. Press Amp-sim-10
    9. Reopen/relaunch drambo after it auto closes and try something else!

    So of all those steps, which is wrong? It must be something basic!

  • edited April 2020

    At step 4 instead of pressing the green plus, just tap rack header (blue) and import the preset from there. You should hear a pop and a noise as if turning on a real amp ;)


  • edited April 2020

    Ok thank you, at least this time it seemed to work a bit better... except now Drambo is frozen with Amp sim 10 on the name of the #2 pad and at the rack header (blue). I wonder what on earth is going on! I think I'll play around with this some more in other ways and come back to this since it seems I'm doing something fundamentally wrong and maybe need to learn more about Drambo before attempting this. Appreciate the help so far.

    I even wondered if my guitar interface was somehow screwing things up, so uplugged that so it would use the microphone as an input. No joy.

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