Is the BIAS stuff that good? Are The amps, FX and pedal programs worth the $169 per program or are the overhyped and just for the lazy or lesser knowledgeable folks?
I love freeware or cheapware and whenever I have tried some of the stuff like Amplitube, Guitarrig and acmebargig and I have been really let down by them.
I prefer getting my hands dirty setting compressors, EQ, and distortion/saturation myself to match tones I like, that said I am usually approaching clean tones. The tones from a nice driven crunchy amp and cab are not usually what I'm after.
So for me, BIAS would be a waste of money, but if you want to model specific amps, I have used BIAS and it is really, really good at it.
I never record actual amps, just not practical for me to do. I love my free/cheap ware for being able to create metal/hard rock/rock tones but I need access to more versatility and I like having it in a pinch when needed. Seems like BIAS is the way to go but are the BIAS programs THAT much better than amplitube and the other crap I have tried.
BIAS I think is a strange one. I played one of their Marshall emulations and I think it sounded and felt really nice (this was with a friend's guitar and monitoring, so can't be certain).
But at the same time I keep reading quite some unsatisfied feedback, concerning stability issues etc. And then there's their questionable marketing babble, which at least to me come across as arrogant and very much over-hyping.
Quote:
Actually, all of our development is done completely in-house. We've compiled the best of the best to make an all-star team that's second to none, much like our products!
I'd suggest demoing it against S-Gear, and Thermionik 5 by Kazrog, which should have a demo version available very soon.
Tried BIAS and didn't think it sounded as good as other programs on the market. What style of music are you playing? Do you need tons of effects? I have S-Gear and really love the sound of it. Super great cleans and even works for metal if you use the right IR's. TSE X50 and Recabinet Thermionik sound great for heavy stuff too.
Tried BIAS and didn't think it sounded as good as other programs on the market. What style of music are you playing? Do you need tons of effects? I have S-Gear and really love the sound of it. Super great cleans and even works for metal if you use the right IR's. TSE X50 and Recabinet Thermionik sound great for heavy stuff too.
I am looking to use it for a bunch of different genres, I want something versatile. I have the new TSE X50 2.0 and it crushes, I love it but the clean tones are just meh. Right now I am using a ton of different free/cheap ware and I am would prefer to just use one program if possible.
I had Bias Amp and really liked it, but it was bested for my tastes by Brainworx and ReCab 4. So I asked Positive Grid about selling my license second hand, which their user agreement specifically states you can do. I was told they would not allow second hand transfers.
I told them I bought the software under the explicit understanding that I could sell the license at a later date if I chose to do so, as audio software users so often do, and that I would not have bought it if the license hadn't made that clear, and I requested a refund. I was ignored for over a week.
Long story short, I went back and forth with them and was given the run around for almost a month, during which they removed their license agreement from their website and told me they'd refund me and never followed through. It was only after I told them I had all the e-mails from the beginning, I'd gotten a screenshot of their license agreement from google cache, and I threatened to post the entire thing on every major music board on the internet that they finally refunded me.
I'm far from the only dissatisfied user of their software or hardware out there either, they rolled out a MIDI controller recently and it was a cheaply made disaster. You can google it.
I don't want to say that you won't be happy with the sound of the plug. Just be aware of what kind of company you're dealing with. If you have any sort of problem or want to sell it later, you're screwed. And IMO, that's pretty important in this business.
And I agree with EvilDragon, ReCab, now known as Thermionik, is better. And it's cheaper, depending on what you get.
I think I am gonna go with the recabinet stuff and see where it gets me. I think along with the new TSE amp, the lepou stuff, ignite gear and the EZMIX toontrack stuff, I should be good to go.
1 month ago before the release of Thermionik 5 I would have said
that for clean sound Recabinet/Thermionik (Kazrog) and S-Gear are nice, though
Kazrok had and still have the best response, imo, hence the best choice for tracking.
Now there is Thermionik only for me !
But like with all stuff:
what is good for me, and for him and maybe for her,
is not automatically good for you ! Test it by yourself and find out!
Long story short, I went back and forth with them and was given the run around for almost a month, during which they removed their license agreement from their website and told me they'd refund me and never followed through. It was only after I told them I had all the e-mails from the beginning, I'd gotten a screenshot of their license agreement from google cache, and I threatened to post the entire thing on every major music board on the internet that they finally refunded me.
I bought the BIAS FX pro. I was in a hurry when I bought it, ment to buy BIAS amp Pro, so I replied said if they could change to bias amp (note I forgot to mention pro).
Nothing happened email wise. I found a thread on their community that you should not reply on the mail, but submit a request on the help site. So I did, nothing happen. Then I found out that they have changed the license to amp std ($100 less fx pro).
So I mail and I mailed and sometimes I get an reply, why do you want that, I explain, then quiet.I mailed and I mailed and then I get a reply 'why do you want that'.
Much of this I guess is the time zone, me answer the day day after.
I did get an reply on my first email, so I had two request going on.
After 23 days I get my license (I manage to reply directly).
The FX pro is good I think.The GUI is nice. I think it is easy to get results.
I want it simple, I'm not a tweaking guy so I appreciate this part a lot.
And yes, loyalty isn't rewarded. I will get an $20 reduction on the amp pro if I buy it. That isn't quite serious
Yeah, I got a bad taste from when they told me they wouldn't honor their own agreement so I started saving everything, and they tried to worm out of it as long as they possibly could. I did some reading up on other unhappy users and got the sense that they are a rapidly expanding, Asian owned big corporate deal that is not responsive to customer support at all. They released a hardware MIDI controller pedalboard a few months ago that failed on a significant percentage of users, and last I checked they were still waiting on recalls.
They're releasing a 600 watt hardware amp head that has their modeling tech in it any day now. I'm wondering if it's going to be a big disaster, with failures all over the place and the company cutting it's losses and leaving the customers with the bag.
Nothing happened email wise. I found a thread on their community that you should not reply on the mail, but submit a request on the help site.
I also read that, which makes it doubly scummy on more levels, because their users have already told them about the problem and they haven't fixed it and are using it to deliberately ignore their users, and even beyond THAT, I knew about it after the first e-mail so I sent in separate support requests for each subsequent time I contacted them and it STILL took a month to get it worked out, and I specifically had to tell them the last time that I knew their e-mail system wasn't working properly and that wasn't any excuse for them not to process the refund.
They're releasing a 600 watt hardware amp head that has their modeling tech in it any day now. I'm wondering if it's going to be a big disaster, with failures all over the place and the company cutting it's losses and leaving the customers with the bag.
There going to try to market that to compete with the Kemper. :facepalm: (we really need a facepalm emoji!)
Tone matching has been around for a quite a while and isn't anything like what the Kemper does. You definitely don't need the Bias head to accomplish it.
I won't mention anything about the faces that dude made in the video everytime he used a metal preset.
I have x50, BIAS, ReCabinet and POD Farm. Honestly POD Farm is the best, or at least BIAS is the worst amongst these four amp sims. But here are more some more engineers' opinions about BIAS. If you don't know Eyal Levi, just google him. He is very creditable!
EDIT: Whenever my clients gave me an AXE FX tone, they always end up preferring the tone I get from POD Farm. Here's an example. Judge it by yourself!
Last edited by JamesZhan9592; 02-07-2016 at 04:04 PM.
TBH that POD tone sounds horribly phasey :P the reason you prefer it over the Axe might be that it's mixed way louder.
Try the loudness normalization feature in the SWS extensions; it's excellent for these types of comparisons!
The band preferred it. And you are the only one finding it phasey. I found that the axe tone is super thin and there is a frequency that is annoying as well all the way thru. Anyways, Joey Sturgis's production is very well-known and he's famous for his POD Farm tone. So with that, you can't go wrong with POD Farm. Also, the new Born of Osiris album was reamped with x50, so I guess it's another good choice. But I still prefer POD Farm.
EDIT: Also, the only reason that the axe tone sounds quieter is because it's thinner. The two tones have the same RMS leve when I put a metering plugin on them.
Well, I am dumb and I went ahead and bought the BIAS amp and FX with the metal pack because I am impulsive I guess.
Immediately I am mad. First off the metal pack is somehow in and not in it. I bought it and instead of download it says "HAD IT" on the tab. With some looking around I find out that there's been issues with the metal pack and bias FX. Well gee, thanks for telling me when I purchased it. The metal stomps show up in FX but the amps show up nowhere.
Next problem, there's no way to change amps inside BIAS FX, tried everything and there doesn't seem to be a way to do it. And then it says "oh just click on the FX tab in BIAS AMP, sure ok why not, but wait, it's not there.
Then there's the flubbiness in some of the tones or tones that are for some reason panned all the way left or all the way right in the preset with seemingly no way to remedy that either.
All the instructions and FAQ tips are so damn vague and useless not to mention the customer service that are very quick to help when you are wanting to buy things but don't respond to anything when there's trouble.
I am going to get a full refund even if I have to file a claim with paypal.
Well, I am dumb and I went ahead and bought the BIAS amp and FX with the metal pack because I am impulsive I guess.
Immediately I am mad. First off the metal pack is somehow in and not in it. I bought it and instead of download it says "HAD IT" on the tab. With some looking around I find out that there's been issues with the metal pack and bias FX. Well gee, thanks for telling me when I purchased it. The metal stomps show up in FX but the amps show up nowhere.
Next problem, there's no way to change amps inside BIAS FX, tried everything and there doesn't seem to be a way to do it. And then it says "oh just click on the FX tab in BIAS AMP, sure ok why not, but wait, it's not there.
Then there's the flubbiness in some of the tones or tones that are for some reason panned all the way left or all the way right in the preset with seemingly no way to remedy that either.
All the instructions and FAQ tips are so damn vague and useless not to mention the customer service that are very quick to help when you are wanting to buy things but don't respond to anything when there's trouble.
I am going to get a full refund even if I have to file a claim with paypal.
Thermionik and scuffham here I come.
If only you read my reply earlier haha. And yes, I heard that the presets are very crappy.
I guess that's the only thing that matters in the end.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesZhan9592
EDIT: Also, the only reason that the axe tone sounds quieter is because it's thinner. The two tones have the same RMS leve when I put a metering plugin on them.
RMS is inadequate for comparing subjective loudness, because it doesn't take into account the frequency response of the human ear. For example excessive energy in the (sub)bass range can greatly increase the RMS reading, while being virtually inaudible. That's why they've developed the EBU loudness measurement standards, and that tech is also included in the SWS extensions, in the form of Breeder's LUFS normalization scripts. Highly recommended. :P
Anyway, if you're happy with POD Farm, who am I to argue? I used to use that stuff too, but I think that more modern products like S-Gear have a lot more to offer, especially when it comes to the response to playing dynamics and the "feel".
I guess that's the only thing that matters in the end.
RMS is inadequate for comparing subjective loudness, because it doesn't take into account the frequency response of the human ear. For example excessive energy in the (sub)bass range can greatly increase the RMS reading, while being virtually inaudible. That's why they've developed the EBU loudness measurement standards, and that tech is also included in the SWS extensions, in the form of Breeder's LUFS normalization scripts. Highly recommended. :P
both guitar tones were high cut and low cut at the same frequencies. But honestly tho, maybe it's really because the axe tone is too thin. I mean it's not like that tone is the only tone axe fx has, and I'm aware that it takes a lot of tweaking to get a good tone out of axe. It's just that in a mix, i just cannot justify a $3k unit on the axe. That's all.
If they refuse the refund, I will do a paypal dispute based on the fact that there's a lot of problems with the program that are known to positive grid but yet not mentioned on the website until you run into problems and have to go digging for answers.
I am disappointed in myself for being impulsive and also disappointed in Ola Englund for so heavily endorsing such a broken product. He's usually so locked into putting his word behind truly awesome gear. Same with Ryan Bruce.
Eyal Levi refused to endorse BIAS for very good reasons, but he is working in audio so that's probably one of his main incomes. But Ola is like a pure guitarist that earns money from endorsing and gigging and all that kind of stuff (I assume). A good amp sim doesn't really need to put out so many ads and get so many guitarist to endorse it (seriously, BIAS ad is all over my Facebook). Does a 6505 needs advertising? No. The reason why I said you can never go wrong with POD farm or x50 is that they are both used in great records. Joey Sturgis has been using POD Farm for like 10 years and just look at how successful he is now. I trust him, and POD farm didn't disappoint! =D
^^ Yah, that didn't work at all and the instructions are just so "hey man maybe this might work, who knows"
Then there's this..
3. How to integrate BIAS amp models with BIAS FX?
BIAS FX is fully integrated with BIAS AMP (sold separately), all 12 included amp models can be opened into BIAS AMP, tweaked and import back to BIAS FX.
And you can import any BIAS amp models into BIAS FX’s dual amp system. Simply TAP the BIAS FX icon in BIAS AMP upper bar, you can open the current BIAS amp model into BIAS FX.
^^ Yah that didn't work either.
Screw this company. So mad at myself for being impulsive. Gotta say I am going to be thinking twice about taking endorsements from Ola and Fluff as the gospel.
Eyal Levi refused to endorse BIAS for very good reasons, but he is working in audio so that's probably one of his main incomes. But Ola is like a pure guitarist that earns money from endorsing and gigging and all that kind of stuff (I assume). A good amp sim doesn't really need to put out so many ads and get so many guitarist to endorse it (seriously, BIAS ad is all over my Facebook). Does a 6505 needs advertising? No. The reason why I said you can never go wrong with POD farm or x50 is that they are both used in great records. Joey Sturgis has been using POD Farm for like 10 years and just look at how successful he is now. I trust him, and POD farm didn't disappoint! =D
I'll trust free/cheap ware. I wouldn't even pirate the BIAS programs, that's how crappy they are. I opened a dispute with paypal.
Well the way I look at it, positive grid can't say no to the refund because they make no mention of problems they are well aware of prior to the customer buying the software. If not then oh well, lesson learned and a lot of time to drag their name through the mud on various forums.
They are a fairly big company so it won't surprise me if you don't get refunded. But the thing is no matter what you tell people they never trust you. They trust Ola or whichever "big" guitarists they pay for endorsement. But I still try to warn people from buying BIAS.
They are a fairly big company so it won't surprise me if you don't get refunded. But the thing is no matter what you tell people they never trust you. They trust Ola or whichever "big" guitarists they pay for endorsement. But I still try to warn people from buying BIAS.
Paypal is bigger and I have grounds for a claim. I am hoping it works out. If not, oh well. Lesson learned and maybe in time they will fix the program enough for it to be useful.
The paypal claim won't work; I looked into it when I was going through this. It specifically excludes any transaction involving intangibles like software unless the software came on a physical media like a DVD or USB drive. Which kind of makes sense from their perspective; with piracy and such the way it is, trying to mediate disputes with software vendors is a can of worms I wouldn't want to open either.
I would just do what I did: e-mail them through their support system, state your problems with the software and state that you would like to uninstall it and be refunded. They have a 30 day guarantee, just be polite but clear.
Found this thread via one of my saved Google searches. First of all, thanks for all the kind words here! In any case, I appreciate everyone's patience in waiting for a free demo of my latest release (Thermionik 5, and of course Recabinet 5.)
I'm really shocked to hear some of the horror stories regarding other companies out there. As a one man operation (at least for now), I support my users personally (as often as I can.) If that task ever becomes too huge for me to handle alongside making my software the best it can be, I will hire humans (not robots) to help out.
This is a labor of love for me, that started because I wasn't entirely happy with what else was out there. I'm constantly refining and perfecting my software. As you may have guessed, I'm a guitarist and producer myself, and I use what I create.
The paypal claim won't work; I looked into it when I was going through this. It specifically excludes any transaction involving intangibles like software unless the software came on a physical media like a DVD or USB drive. Which kind of makes sense from their perspective; with piracy and such the way it is, trying to mediate disputes with software vendors is a can of worms I wouldn't want to open either.
I would just do what I did: e-mail them through their support system, state your problems with the software and state that you would like to uninstall it and be refunded. They have a 30 day guarantee, just be polite but clear.
I was polite and clear with their support and I believe they are going to refund me. Then I will be purchasing Thermionik immediately.
Found this thread via one of my saved Google searches. First of all, thanks for all the kind words here! In any case, I appreciate everyone's patience in waiting for a free demo of my latest release (Thermionik 5, and of course Recabinet 5.)
I'm really shocked to hear some of the horror stories regarding other companies out there. As a one man operation (at least for now), I support my users personally (as often as I can.) If that task ever becomes too huge for me to handle alongside making my software the best it can be, I will hire humans (not robots) to help out.
This is a labor of love for me, that started because I wasn't entirely happy with what else was out there. I'm constantly refining and perfecting my software. As you may have guessed, I'm a guitarist and producer myself, and I use what I create.
I'm currently using one of Brainworx' ENGL plugs for my main high gain sound, but I've always loved Soldano amps and many of their modeled counterparts and when I learned that you had included an SLO-100 in the new version of Thermionik I was thrilled. I hadn't adequately tested ReCab before Brainworx so I'd never bought it before and thus don't qualify for any discount, otherwise I would have certainly bought it already. But I'm a new customer as it stands and $50 is still an investment for me when I have so many guitar plugs, especially superb ones like Brainworx.
I'm on your mailing list and have been waiting for the demo versions to become available with a massive amount of anticipation and some consternation. If the SLO is to my liking I would buy its pack in a heartbeat, and if I found it better for my taste I would happily sell the Brainworx. I tend to be a 'one sound to rule them all' kind of guy. I like modelers for their ease of use in recording, but I'm a writer constantly seeking my own voice, not a cover guy.
And I'm a total gear whore who abandons the last thing I was using the instant I find something that suits me better, like most musicians.
To get or not to get BIAS stuff.
Linear Mode
