$99/£81, blackstaramps.com
When Blackstar launched its St James amplifiers, quite a lot of hay was made about how light-weight they have been. And for good motive – some actually attention-grabbing R&D went into making them weigh significantly lower than the typical tube amps. However what if that’s not gentle sufficient for ya? Nicely, weighing in at 0 kilograms is the brand new St James plugin, a software program recreation of the EL34 and 6L6 amps entered squarely into the identical class as your common Neural DSP suite. How does it stack up?
The St James plugin affords two heads (apparently, two greater than the precise St James had, after his encounter with King Herod Agrippa I) – the EL34 and 6L6 flavours of the vary. Opening the plugin and I’m met with the gray tolex of the EL34 St James amplifier, and I’ve to say, the renderings do look pretty – not a very powerful factor, however good to see care taken in that regard.
The UI is pretty easy, with a sign chain diagram on the backside with energy switches for every block. What’s good is that, regardless of the place within the chain you’re, the amp head controls stay on the high, that means you can also make changes to essentially the most impactful controls at the same time as you fiddle with digital mics and the like.
The sign chain is, then, so as: pre-effects pedals (overdrive, compression and many others), a alternative of both the 6L6 or EL34 amp head, CabRig, post-effects pedals (delay, reverb and many others), and eventually a grasp EQ. Flanking this chain on the UI are controls for enter and output ranges, in addition to the edge for the noise gate.
In Use
With the whole lot arrange, I’m able to get taking part in – and instantly, issues are off to begin. Cleans from the EL34 amp sound brilliant, chimey and nice – and clicking round among the higher-gain presets, there’s not even a touch of fizz. Really feelthat ever-unquantifiable factor that may actually make or break simulations of tube amplifiers, is on level, too. On that observe, I discovered myself leaving the ‘sag’ management engaged, because it simply made issues a bit extra enjoyable to play with a natural-feeling compression that rewarded digging in.
Publish-effects are all completely serviceable, with essentially the most characterful being the flanger and the harmonic mode of the tremolo. After that it’s the pretty neutral-sounding (however completely usable) delay and reverb, each stereo. The pre-effects are a matter of style, too – the phaser is a bit sterile, however the refrain has a bit extra character, and the compressor is completely good at bringing cleaner single-coil sounds to life.
The overdrive pedal is a bit trickier to get proper in an amp sim. However the strategy Blackstar has taken is a brilliant one: for individuals who favor to run their drives into a giant high-headroom clear sound, there’s a extra full-frequency pedal merely labelled ‘overdrive’. This performs one of the best with the EL34 amp, and can be utilized to craft some tasteful, bluesy lead and rhythm sounds. Assume a BD-2 right into a Fender – nonetheless good and dynamic, however there’s undoubtedly some crunching happening.
However for these aiming for the fashionable steel factor, you’ll be able to flick over to the TS mode for that traditional mid-hump overdrive (mmm – inexperienced flavour!), which unsurprisingly tightens up the high-gain channel of the 6L6 head. You’re then free to dial up the aggression with out palm-muted gallops ever flubbing out right into a muddy mess. A normal follow for actual amps, sure, however the truth that it really works as anticipated here’s a testomony to the accuracy of the plugin.
On the subject of cupboards, there’s a complete host of Blackstar’s personal on supply, all accessed through the CabRig block. You’ll be able to load two at a time, pan them to style, and blend in room atmosphere with variable width. The cupboards vary from vintagey 1x12s to outsized 4x12s, and so you’ll be able to go from 57-mic’d tightness to ribbon-mic’d roominess and the whole lot in between.
All of the sounds are fairly good, nevertheless there’s no method to modify the place of every mic, aside from having it on- or off-axis. However hey, there’s nonetheless a wholesome number of mics and cupboards to select from, so when you can’t nudge digital mics millimetre by millimetre, there’s nonetheless a broad gamut of sounds, a few of that are positive to do what you want. However right here is the place we now have to speak in regards to the limitations…
The constraints
The St James plugin doesn’t supply a local means so that you can load in your personal IRs, as a result of CabRig itself doesn’t use them. It’s extra of an algorithmic factor happening. This isn’t actually a dealbreaker, a minimum of within the sense that I used to be by no means sad with the sounds from CabRig – however I do know some gamers on the market are very connected to their very own cupboard IRs. You’re, nevertheless, already in a DAW, so turning off the CabRig block and plonking an IR loader subsequent within the chain is an possibility.
The second and extra drastic limitation is the dearth of assist for MIDI management. You’ll be able to goal just about each parameter with DAW automation, so if you happen to do need to use the plugin stay, it might probably nonetheless change sounds in time with a observe. Nonetheless, I couldn’t discover any method to get a MIDI controller to interface with it – perhaps act as a switcher for the digital pedals or only a method to change presets. It’s a barely disappointing oversight for what’s in any other case a really nicely thought-out piece of software program, and one that ought to make you assume twice if you wish to use the plugin as a pure efficiency instrument.
Different minor issues embrace the dearth of an on-board tuner or a transposer, that are each current in newer Neural plugins. These aren’t arduous to implement into your chain (once more, DAW) – however having them in a single useful bundle would perhaps make the St James plugin a extra interesting prospect as a follow instrument.
General
The St James nonetheless affords quite a lot of nice guitar sounds for lower than the worth of a single {hardware} pedal. The truth that it consists of two wildly totally different flavours of tube amp additionally means it’s an inherently versatile factor to have in your manufacturing toolbox, and for individuals who need to dip their toe into what amps can supply, it’s a fairly nice preliminary overview. And as a lot as ‘mix-ready’ is a little bit of a advertising and marketing cliche, it’s not unfaithful right here: the constancy of the sounds and the precise taking part in expertise are simple. In case you’re on the lookout for a brand new amp plugin, it’s completely value giving the free trial a go and discovering out if you happen to click on with the St James.
Discover out extra at blackstaramps.com.
