Members SevenString Posted September 5, 2009 Members Share Posted September 5, 2009 Thursday night, I downloaded and installed Waves' GTR Solo product, which is free for a year's usage. Yesterday, I switched from a mic'ed amp setup to plugging my guitar directly into my audio interface. Then, I quickly assigned GTR Solo as an AU effect inside my host, then was able to quickly and intuitively created several amp/stompbox patches that had "my" bread-and-butter sounds. So last night, when I did my usual webshow of live music, I was able to perform all of the guitar parts using GTR Solo instead of my amp rig, and it sounded fantastic. I had more compliments on my guitar tone last night than I've ever received in the past shows. Also, I REALLY enjoyed having the guitar parts coming at a reasonable volume through the control room monitors, instead of blasting out of a cranked amp. It REALLY surprised me, how in less that 24 hours, I went from registering and downloading to doing a great sounding live performance. So, this morning I woke up still enthused over the product, so I hooked up a midi controller to the software. Now, for next week's show, I'll have some real-time patch switching and stompbox control. I've used amp sim software before, but I have to say, with GTR Solo, the ease with which I was able to "dial in" my own, VERY convincing sounds was really refreshing. Of course, it doesn't hurt that Waves is giving it away for free year of use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Voltaire Posted September 5, 2009 Members Share Posted September 5, 2009 nice! good product, i like the effects the best, personally (i have the full version) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SevenString Posted September 6, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 6, 2009 nice! good product, i like the effects the best, personally (i have the full version)The full version looks fantastic too! I was looking at that as an upgrade option, but so far, GTR Solo is rockin' my world pretty well, so until the day I "outgrow it", I'm happy. Speaking of happy, in order to license the "free" version of GTR Solo for a year, I had to sign up and create an account on the Waves site.Well, I logged in to my account today, just for kicks, and noticed an "online specials" tab in my menu. When I opened it, I saw that I could buy a full GTR Solo license for $70 instead of $140 (or $105 at MF/GC).So that was a no-brainer. GTR Solo for $70? Done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Voltaire Posted September 7, 2009 Members Share Posted September 7, 2009 The full version looks fantastic too! I was looking at that as an upgrade option, but so far, GTR Solo is rockin' my world pretty well, so until the day I "outgrow it", I'm happy. Speaking of happy, in order to license the "free" version of GTR Solo for a year, I had to sign up and create an account on the Waves site. Well, I logged in to my account today, just for kicks, and noticed an "online specials" tab in my menu. When I opened it, I saw that I could buy a full GTR Solo license for $70 instead of $140 (or $105 at MF/GC). So that was a no-brainer. GTR Solo for $70? Done! success! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted September 8, 2009 Members Share Posted September 8, 2009 I did some custom patches for Solo that you can download from the Waves web site IIRC. They're oriented more for sound sources other than guitar, though, like a harmony synthesizer for vocals and some "bonecrusher" drum sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SevenString Posted September 9, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 9, 2009 I did some custom patches for Solo that you can download from the Waves web site IIRC. They're oriented more for sound sources other than guitar, though, like a harmony synthesizer for vocals and some "bonecrusher" drum sounds.I noticed those up on the site. I'll download those and give 'em a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted September 9, 2009 Members Share Posted September 9, 2009 And how very stupid of me...this is a GREAT chance to give a gratuitous, totally self-serving plug for my book, 21st Century Guitarist. It'll get you up to speed on the "power user" aspects of Solo pretty fast, and I think you'd find it helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SevenString Posted September 9, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 9, 2009 And how very stupid of me...this is a GREAT chance to give a gratuitous, totally self-serving plug for my book, 21st Century Guitarist. It'll get you up to speed on the "power user" aspects of Solo pretty fast, and I think you'd find it helpful. I'll look into that as well. I did notice that product, and WAS surprised you didn't mention it. But those Waves folks "got" me again tonight. So much for my "sticking with GTR Solo till I outgrow it". I looked at my upgrade options, and realized I could upgrade to the full GTR3 software for $40 bucks. So I went ahead and did it. As they say, in for a penny, in for a pound, I guess. So, since I already own an iLok dongle, my total outlay for GTR3.5 was only $110, saving me $25 off of the lowest online price (MF/GC) and $70 off of Waves' list price. They really are pretty clever in terms of marketing that product. It IS very good in terms of sound, and will hit a lot of people's "sweet spots", including mine, so for minimal effort on their part in terms of customer support (all automated ordering), they have a pretty good system for getting you hooked (c'mon! try it for a year!), then up-selling in a couple of easy-to-swallow stages to their full GTR3 product. Eh, I still feel like I got a good deal, so it's all good. Now I need to go start playing with those Neil Citron amps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SevenString Posted September 9, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 9, 2009 Okay, currently my only REAL complaint is that the patch names appear in TINY TINY text in the Waves interface. This is bad in a live performance setting for obvious reasons. If there was a setting where I could have my patch names show up on the screen in really big text, I would be MUCH happier. Since more and more people seem to be using this for live performances, this seems like such an obvious (and easy) feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SevenString Posted September 11, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 11, 2009 A couple of years ago, I sold my L6 Vetta. Great amp, but my back couldn't really take much more of hauling that beast around for live gigs. But one thing that I REALLY missed about that Vetta was having two simultaneous amp sims running in stereo. With GTR3, I've got it back, and more. I love the GTR3 implementation of this. Very intuitive, and I can easily get those lush sounds that I missed. I would also argue that the GTR3 sims are producing sounds that are MUCH better than what I could ever get out of my Vetta. I have another performance tonight, and was thinking that I would stick with GTR Solo for this one, because I had already put together all my patches, but yesterday I managed to quickly put together my "bread and butter" patches in GTR3 that are FAR superior to what I was able to do in GTR Solo. So for tonight, GTR3 it is! Really, for a total of $110 (not counting the iLok that I already had), this software has a LOT of value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SevenString Posted September 12, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 12, 2009 For comparison, I'm trying out the L6 Pod Farm. First impressions, I'm sorry to say, I'm not really liking it as much, either tonally or interface wise. There ARE some little gems to be found here and there, but overall, it just isn't doing it for me. In contrast, GTR grabbed me right away, and I've been STAYING happy with it. But with POD Farm, the high-gain sounds have a little too much digital "box-of-bees" thing going on, that you have to tweak a little too much for my taste to get something more "natural". Well, the Soldano head was nice, I'll say that. But also, I didn't feel like the POD Farm sims were capturing the nuances when I rolled off my volume knob or changed pickups, at least not as well as GTR seems to do. Maybe some of you are loving POD Farm, and that's cool too. I suppose it's just a personal thing, GTR just fits me better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members davidlimwk Posted September 19, 2009 Members Share Posted September 19, 2009 So, this morning I woke up still enthused over the product, so I hooked up a midi controller to the software. Now, for next week's show, I'll have some real-time patch switching and stompbox control. I had recently downloaded GTR solo too and think that the sounds are awesome.. Now thinking of how to incorporate it into a live stage setup. I'm just wondering about the type of MIDI controller you're using. Can you do wahs and volume control stuff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SevenString Posted September 19, 2009 Author Members Share Posted September 19, 2009 I had recently downloaded GTR solo too and think that the sounds are awesome.. Now thinking of how to incorporate it into a live stage setup.I'm just wondering about the type of MIDI controller you're using. Can you do wahs and volume control stuff? Mine is an older "button only" midi controller, but yes, if your controller has expression pedals, you can assign them to parameters such as wah and volume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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