SynthMakerMcBarGig ·
Hey guys after months of development the release has finally come....(now I can sleep) If you are interested Shred 1.06 is available from the AcmeBarGig website... http://www.acmebargig.com
Hey guys I wanted to share with you what the Finished Shred Freeware amp sim suite looks like, same ad at KVR, But I wanted to share it with you all here at homeground so to speak...So many of you have contributed to this over the past year by being a great set of teachers! I have learned by example from most of you, so, I thank you for all of this. Coming from a standard coding background, learning SM has been a roller coaster to say the least, but I think I finally have a bit of a handle on it now...Things that I just took for granted could not be done in the conventional way..I wasted more time trying to create Switch/Select case controls in SM than I needed to, but, once you get into the flow and the way things work, it gets easier. Funny, I am writing an addon for Shred in C++ and I find myself at times wishing there was a some of the SM controls available. Namely that Preset Text File control...Malc and Jorge have really done a good job on this... SM certainly has a flow all unto itself...
OMG the tips that popup in Shred! I never want to see another Integer switch again!
Anyways, Here it is..
This software has taken a Giant leap forward since its early public betas. Best of all, Shred 1.06 is FREEWARE! Not adware, not Donationware, not "please join our mailing list so we can spam the hell outta ya ware!"..100% FREEWARE! When released, Try it out, if you like it, great, record us a song or two, after all... (Insert corny line here) thats the true payment in the end, its all about the music and being original!
Overall skin by Amit Talwar... Popups, Heads(except FrankenAMP), Cabinets, Knobs, Effects, Backgroud RedShift skin by Dan Huff(aka Nikko) FrankenAMP Skin by Manwelo Sitoy
Feature Highlights
Six Versatile flexible tone creators
And one that you can make yourself This technology allows you to select the parts from any of the other heads and mix and match them for a sound all your own... You like the bass from the Marvel head? Add its bass knob. Want the Gain of the Shred Head?, Add its Gain section!
Customize Head Option
The above dialog is shown when you select Customize head. It allows you to interchange virtually all aspects of all heads. Apart from selecting different Gain Sections, Tonestacks, and Power amps, you can also Select the Input profile and the Tonal correction method. Every head in the real world, and in Shred operates a little differently where Input and Output are concerned. The Input Profile is a set of Filters that allow the signal coming into the Gain section to be formatted. Whereas the Tonal Correction operates on the output of the head. Heavily distorted digital amp sims have a variety of issues that their real world counterparts may not have as much of. Like Rumble, and Fizz(A white noise type of sound). Tonal correction makes a few assumptions, It assumes that if say for example you are using the Shred head, which is a higher gain type of head, well, there probably is going to be Fizz, so Tonal Correction aids in removing some of that fizz. However, thats not to say you're stuck with Tonal Correction, you can also mix Tonal correction with the original Signal. Say for example you find the Tonal correction of the Shred Head a little too Harsh, It removes too much, well you can simply mix in some of the original signal by using the Tonal Correction knob on the Cabinets.
(Insert next corny line here)Its all about flexibility and allowing you to be original...
Tonestack Selection
How would you use this?
An example... I really love the bass response of Quarter, But the overall classic heavy Distorted tone of the Marvel is the overall sound I'm looking for.
This is a simple fix... Click Customize Head, Click Define Tonestack, select Quarter's bass knob...Done! You now have the bass knob from Quarter added to the Marvel Head...
and another example...
A Little too much rumble... Another simple fix... Click Customize Head, Select the Tonal Correction of SuperSound 1972...Done!
It has been our experience that...This type of tweaking can go on for hours! If you're a tone tweaker, thats What ABG is all about and has been about since day one! Ask any one of the DIG 2.0 Users...Speaking of DIG 2.0 Users!...You guys are gonna Love Shred Suite!
Customize Head = Virtually any component with any component!
NON TONE TWEAKERS...Listen UP! Throughout the past year, many, many people have requested the ability to just plug in and Play...You've seen us on the forums, in the chat rooms, listening, looking, and learning from you. Trying our absolute best to understand your needs and deliver them to you. We think you'll agree... We FINALLY have something for the NON-TWEAKERS! ...We have not forgot about you!
Head Selection Simply select a pre-designed head and go.. You can select a head using the arrow controls in the top right corner. The left arrow moves back or up from the currently selected Head, Right moves forward or down from the currently selected head, and, the down arrow displays the following Head selection dialog.
This dialog shows images of each head and on the right gives a brief description of each...You simply Click the head you want and go...
Now all you NON-Tweakers...How easy is that?
Presets! ABG has a history of providing you with the very worst presets humanly possible! Well, that all changes starting with Shred Suite! We have and will incorporate useable, great sounding, presets. In the past we under estimated your desire for Presets, and for that we are sorry, but, hopefully you will now find Shred Suite and its included presets useable. At the very least, they will be a great place for you to start making your next platinum CD sound!
Shred Suite has 2 types of external Files, ABG is now supporting banks of presets. In the past you were limited by the number of presets on your screen, or you were forced to save single presets to disk...Now you can save all the presets on the screen at once, and load all the presets from a different bank file at once.
What about the effects? Yep! we included them too! On the left side of the screen, about midway down, is the effects selection control.
Shred comes with 6 built in Stereo out Rack effects.
Shiver Tremolo... Nuttin special here! standard Tremolo..But where'd we get that Name? well we are from Canada you know? Its Winter and Cold!
DIG Stereo Delay We have been hearing from you.. and you guys really like the delay that came with DIG 2.0! How could we not include it when Shred was designed for all the DIG 2.0 users, you will not have to loose your beloved delay! Its here...and for you skeptics...No its not a cheap attempt at recycling code! well maybe a little...
Noise Gate... Do we need to explain this?
Mountain Reverb This is an experiment in Cheesy naming! No, its a standard Reverb, A little heavy on CPU like most verbs, But still completely useable in real time.
OD Treble Master The popular Treble master from the Preampus Classic Hybrid line. So many of you have asked for it in a stand alone! Well sorry, that release is coming still...We've been a little busy as of late! But we included it here. Why include a classic stomp with a Shred Suite? Because the original Shredders used one! and we're all about getting to the root of the tone...and that all starts with the originators of it!
The Naus Filter What is it?
Its many things, a standard oscillator, an Auto Wah, try it and see for yourself, very cool new effect to join our lineup.
Cabinets! We have worked on these since May 2009!
We have worked long and hard at finding a way to get the Cabinets to sound like a real amp from the floor, not in dynamics, but in tone. We think that a lot of sims end up sounding like they are from an already mastered final product. Thats all well and good as long as you are not going to master your tracks...But if you are, then you need to leave some room for the mastering process. Try adding an exciter to a sim that sounds polished already...Whats the result?...Say good bye to your definition in cymbals. So much for your tonal dynamics, and frequency separation! Out the window, or at least you will have a harder time trying to define it.
One of our mandates is to forward Digital amp sim technology, and get it more into the mainstream. To do that, all participants must agree, Musician, Sound engineer, Producer, and the polisher of the bunch, the mastering engineer. As long as there is one element that does not, then the technology stays relegated to your bedroom! So, with the Tonal Correction and in fact the way in which the Pseudo room modeling works, we feel we are a step closer to providing mastering engineers with something in the end that will make their life a little easier and your final product better.
We tried to keep this whole process easy and seamless, simple in its design and operation. We didn't make 2 mic controls, we made one control shared between two mics. Really simple eh? If your mic is right up against the speaker, you get lots of speaker sound, if your mic is further away from the speaker, you get room sound How easy is that? Here it is..
Heck we even put arrows and a room % meter to help!
But where do you load the Cabinets from? Look above the Cabinet control...Thats a drop down list control...Simple eh? As a matter of fact, as you move your mouse over anything in Shred, if its a control it highlights in green, and, a Tip shows up at the bottom of the plugin telling you what that control does. KISS...(Keep it simple stupid!) Well thats great, but...(here comes one of those"What if" scenarios) What if the user doesn't speak English? We made the tips into mult-language tips! You can select your language down at the bottom, and, if your language does not appear, if you do the translation for us, we'll include it...
Incidentally, that cabinet displayed in the above image, was made by ABG's own Todd Melowitz, aka Pickasso, he's one of the Brain Children behind Redshift! His cabs are superb!
Speaking of Superb Cabs...Ryan Harvey of Catharsis Studios has been cool enough to donate His collection of Cabs, and we've included the freeware cabinets by the amazing Beamso! Thanks Beamso, Ryan and Todd, you guys kick butt!
Speaking of RedShift...(Insert yet another What if Scenario)...What if the user has a crappy guitar, and cannot get a good sound because of it?
We included the RedShift Pickup Replacer..with a twist!
For those of you familiar with Redshift, you'll notice this version is more compact and has a couple different controls. Rather than Volume controls for Wet and Dry, in keeping with the simple to use theme, we condensed that into one mix knob. Now you can mix your wet and dry signals with one knob. We've added another cool twist, we have made Redshift into an Overdrive box, but be careful, it will drive the heads like crazy. With all of Shreds overdrive facilities turned on full, its basically a useless sound other than for some special effect you want to create. So, no one can say Shred does not have enough drive...HEAR THAT METAL HEADS!
Rooms? We got rooms, 16 custom weird ass, acid trip shaped rooms! Everything from a upside down wine glass looking thing to a deformed hand...and wow are they different! They all react differently... The Cab is at the bottom of the room pointing towards the top. However, you can move the cabinet left and right as well. The room mic is in the centre of the room, and of course the Cab Mic is at the cabinet.
We made it so that you can select floor and wall coverings!
Clicking the Adjust room button, shown here..
Brings up this Dialog..
From here you can select the overall size of the room, the type of coverings on the wall, and the type of Flooring. We call this pseudo room modeling because these are approximations of the effect that these types of materials will have on sound, nonetheless... its effective at creating a reasonable sounding room. This is also where a lot of our research went. As was said earlier, we want to make a computer amp that will add to the mastering process, not burden it. This pseudo room modeling helps to achieve this. Most people think that the closer the mic is to the speaker the better...well, not always the case, sometimes to achieve realism, you need some room sound too and Shred is at its best when you mix room sound in.
You didn't actually think the Tone Tweaking was over did you?
Power amp mods! In the real world, you can change things in your Head to better suit your needs, well you can in Shred too! When you click on Head mods the following dialog appears...
Head mods are predefined snippets that change the characteristics of your head internally. Things like Adding a notch filter, Boosting the gain into the poweramp so you get more poweramp distortion, you know, you can even turn the poweramp into a solid state amp. This particular mod is great for cleans...The best part is... these are external files, and, we plan on providing regular free updates of them. Feel free to ask for a custom one one too, we're always listening, unless of course you're that guy that pisses us off...Stupid Guy...!
Tentative release date for Shred Suite 1.06 FREEWARE....
February 20th 2010.
Thanks for reading!