Boutique Amp is a set of guitar amp sounds in ReFill format for users of Propellerhead Reason music software. An update for Boutique Amp ReFill is now available in the shop. For all Boutique Amp ReFill owners a free downloadable update is provided by email.
This update adds new functionality to 19 of the 22 included Combinator patches. The 32 Amp patches are not updated. The biggest change is the deletion of the Polarity Inversion functionality. Because of this I reprogrammed the spot of the Polarity INV button with new functionality.
During the development of the Boutique Amp ReFill I thought I had discovered something cool: asymmetrical performance of all saturation devices in Reason. Although I tested it over and over again, I found out later (too late) that I was wrong. Reversing the polarity of the input or reversing the outputsignal will result in exactly the same sound (= symmetrical performance). This makes a Polarity INV button for the Combinator patches unnecessary. The SSL Mixer in Reason has a polarity INV button (see screenshot) for those who need it.
So there you go: version 1.5 of Boutique Amp ReFill is here. Beter than ever!
Boutique Amp is available in the shop for only $15, get it here.
7 Comments
I can’t seem to get a Vox & Celestion Blue/Silver chime tone out of the new Softube amp. It sounds very Fender/Marshall to my ears. Any tips or thoughts?
I own a Vox AC15 with Celestion Alnico Blue speaker. For this type of sound I would use Twang as Amp model (with Boost on you get a great Strat tone) and Cabinet on Fat. It’s a Fender type of tone but fat an I like it much. I can get that Hendrix Slight Return / Stevie Ray kind of sound this way.
Extra EQ and compression does help too. I use this all the time for creating my own sounds. And I use this technique for the patches of my Boutique Amp ReFill.
I am not sure what amps they used for modelling, I also believe it’s Fender & Marshall and no Vox. The Rock Amp has very much compression to it which I can’t relate to anything I’ve used in the past. And the Bright Cabinet is extremely bright. It can be useful is some situations but these are a little too extreme in my opinion. Maybe that’s why they included them. But still, by adding EQ and compression you can do all sorts of things with these Amp and Cabinet models.
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Thanks for the ideas. I think the Crunch model is supposed to be a Vox. Here’s a quote from softube.com.
“Crunch: British 60’s classic that keeps its chiming, present character whether you play it clean or drive it so hard it’s on the verge of breaking down.”
I guess the cab models don’t include any Celestion blue alnico flavor, which maybe makes it sound more like a Marshall.
I think I will also try some parallel processing of the Softube amp with the old Line 6 sims while they’re still in there. I’ve got PodFarm, so there’s an AC30 model in there. I’ve also got the Kuassa Vermillion amp, so I’ll be layering up some experiments.
Yes, there’s no right Cab for it. Crunch with the Tight Cab is not as nice as Twang with the Fat Cab in my opinion.
Thanks for the tip btw. Now I found http://www.softube.com/index.php?id=news59 and although it has the wrong naming of the Cab models it is very useful information. I couldn’t find this some time ago. I even contacted the Props about a manual, but there never was a manual (I wanted to know for example why the leds were included and things like that).
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I am thinking… if I read the info of the Softube site correctly Crunch with the Room Cab should give you the Vox AC30 sound. That’s not a super direct sound because of the Room. I guess a little EQ and Compression should be needed to change the speaker Cab sound a bit different.
I will work on this… cool 😀
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I emailed someone at Softube about getting a more Celestion Blue type (and other) cabinet sounds out of a cab modelling RE to go with AMP. He said it seemed like it might be a good idea. Who knows if they’d ever make it, but at least he was positive about it in theory.
I wonder if the RE format would allow for a convoution host where you could load up the RedWirez AC30 (or any other) impulse responses.
It would be nice to have more models. Is Amp using convolution techniques? I guess it does because it includes a bit of noticeable room reverb on all Cab models (although only one Cab is called Room).
At the moment the RE format doesn’t allow to load any eternal samples/files other than the patch of the RE effect itself.
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