The Noir Tones sim from Sonatura Audio ... Vintage clean tones only

[Jim Soloway]

I've been beta testing a very different new sim from Sonatura Audio called "Noir Tones". I was only provided with a plugin but apparently there will also be a standalone app as well. I'm a clean tone specialist and I am really impressed. (I have no affiliation with this product other than being given the opportunity to play with it).

This sim is really specialized. It provides models of three classic vintage Amps from the Rocky Mountain Music Museum (the Kalamazoo Saturn, Sears Durango, and the Valveco Maui. They're easily recognized from the graphics in the interface). The interface is really simple with basic controls from the amp plus and input and output level control. As limited as that may seem, they make up for it with a very simple but sophisticated set of mic controls. You can save patches of your favorite settings but there's no difficult programming involved. It's all really simple and entirely intuitive. I was up and running immediately and after doing my first couple of recordings I went back and spent about 60 seconds with the manual to be sure I was getting the most out of the mic controls. With the plugin, you can also mute all the mics with a single switch and route the signal to an IR loader for a lot more flexibility.

Here's a very short recording running first through the Durango routed to the Lancaster Audio's Pulse IR loader and then the same recording through the Saturn running the speaker and mics from the app.

[Stefan Eff]

That sounds very nice and promising! Can‘t wait to try myself soon. There are only very few good clean amp plugins. Honestly I only know the Tone King Imperial and Mateus Asato plugins from Neuraldsp which are on the other hand breathtaking (the Tone King isn‘t distinguishable from the real amp).
So yes, those vintage models are really special and something new!
A standalone version is a must btw!

[Jim Soloway]

That sounds very nice and promising! Can‘t wait to try myself soon. There are only very few good clean amp plugins. Honestly I only know the Tone King Imperial and Mateus Asato plugins from Neuraldsp which are on the other hand breathtaking (the Tone King isn‘t distinguishable from the real amp).
So yes, those vintage models are really special and something new!
A standalone version is a must btw!

The first thing I told Craig was that they needed a stand alone app. Obviously not everyone is recording but even while recording when I use Scuffham S-Gear (which I've been using for years), what I'm hearing while I'm actually playing is the desktop app running the same patch as the track. That way I'm hearing the same thing as the DAW is recording and there is no latency issue. More importantly, I play through my computer and headphones almost all of the time when I'm playing at home and recording is only a small part of that. So for that playing the stand alone app is everything to me.

[Bob_Ross]

Next step after a standalone app: Standalone hardware! ("Dear Santa...")

[jads57]

Jim your tone is always excellent,and this is no exception! I do think a lot of it is your use of fingers and technique.

[jzucker]

i've used a bunch of the amp simulators that run on my computer but the latency always bothers me, particularly when improvising or playing a bass grove. I've found it impossible to really feel comfortable.

OTOH, the independent processing devices have an unnoticeable (to me) latency. On my last album (Jack Zucker - YouTube) all the guitar and bass parts were played on the fractal.

The way I record, I use one set of outputs to go to an FRFR setup in the room and that is what I monitor. Then I run a dry signal into the computer but am still using the virtual amp/speaker from the fractal for my direct recording. I use plugins for delay, reverb, modulation, compression, etc.

doing it this way allows me to bypass the latency of a double A/D/D/A conversion which is what happens when you monitor direct.

[Jim Soloway]

i've used a bunch of the amp simulators that run on my computer but the latency always bothers me, particularly when improvising or playing a bass grove. I've found it impossible to really feel comfortable.

OTOH, the independent processing devices have an unnoticeable (to me) latency. On my last album (Jack Zucker - YouTube) all the guitar and bass parts were played on the fractal.

The way I record, I use one set of outputs to go to an FRFR setup in the room and that is what I monitor. Then I run a dry signal into the computer but am still using the virtual amp/speaker from the fractal for my direct recording. I use plugins for delay, reverb, modulation, compression, etc.

doing it this way allows me to bypass the latency of a double A/D/D/A conversion which is what happens when you monitor direct.

I've been using Scuffham S-Gear for about 5 years. It comes with both a plugin and a desktop app and they share the same library of patches. The plugin has terrible latency but at least to my ears, the desktop app has no latency at all. When I record, the track I am recording to is muted and what I'm hearing is the guitar through the app along with the unarmed tracks .

Right now the app from Noir Tones is not available yet so I'm still hearing the S-Gear app when I'm recording but hopefully their app will work the same way. In either case I've found a way to work with the Noir Tones plugin that's giving me what I consider to be the best recorded tone I've ever gotten. I'm using it in conjunction with a stereo IR loader and I just love what I'm hearing, enough so that in the middle of the mastering process on my new album I've switch the entire project over that setup.