Scuffham Amps - S-GEAR

Started by Elantric, July 13, 2015, 11:33:05 AM

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Elantric

http://www.scuffhamamps.com/product/s-gear



STATE OF THE ART SOFTWARE GUITAR AMPLIFICATION
S-Gear is a collection of guitar amps, speaker cabinets and effects implemented in software for use with your computer, Windows PC or MAC. The software comes as a Standalone Application and as plug-ins for use with the most popular DAW (digital audio workstation) recording software.



S-Gear screenshot
The sound of a boutique tube amp, turned up loud!
The really special thing about S-Gear is the amazing high quality of guitar amp tones achieved simply by plugging your guitar into a computer via an audio interface. S-Gear gives you a professional guitar sound without the expense and hassle. We are talking about the sound of a high quality tube amp, turned up loud, and mic'd up professionally in a suitable acoustic space. S-Gear's boutique designed amps, coupled with accurate convolution based speaker cabinet emulation, provide a massive range of guitar tones.

Flexible S-Gear Rack
Flexible Drag & Drop Effects Rack.
S-Gear features a flexible effects rack and four different rack processing units. Drag & drop rack units to change the processing order in your rack.

Detailed modelling of analogue electronics is the key ingredient in the DelayThing and ModThing processors, providing versatile analogue style delay and modulation effects. RoomThing is a studio quality reverb processor adding depth and space to your guitar sounds.

Boutique design expertise.
If you've never tried S-Gear you are missing out on a great experience. All the amps and effects are carefully designed by Mike Scuffham (former product designer for Marshall Amplification, and veteran of hardware electronic product design). You may come across products boasting high numbers of amps and effects, but the Scuffham approach is to give you only the best. We want you to achieve the best possible sounds with the minimum of hassle. Read more about our approach to modelling classic guitar amp electronic circuits.



15 day fully featured trial.
Head over to the download page and install the software. You get 15 days to demo the full product, after which we are sure you will agree that S-Gear is a must-have tool for any discerning guitarist.

► For playing, practicing and recording guitar at home, enjoy pro-quality guitar sounds with headphones or studio monitors, any time of the day or night. For quality, versatility and convenience, this beats any traditional guitar amp. For some, it might provide the first experience of playing through a top quality tube amp at high volume. And without waking up the children!

► For the professional working studio or music producer, S-Gear can give your projects a top class guitar sound, streamline your work and give you more time to focus on producing great music.

► For the writing and performing artist, S-Gear gives you the convenience of working on your music when and where you need to. With inspiring guitar sounds instantly available, you can concentrate more effort on your guitar playing and your music.




Additional details on NI RigKontrol 3 - seems to be the choice for many Computer based Amp Sims

http://www.scuffhamamps.com/forum/6-general-discussion/6793-using-s-gear-live-setup-experience-and-results?limitstart=0
QuoteI think that the best option overall for controlling S-Gear is the Native Instruments Rig Kontrol 3 pedal. It is all metal construction, USB stereo audio interface, plus it has 8 midi assignable footswitches and a rocker pedal (with a switch under), also 2 additional controller sockets for more pedals. It also has midi in and out sockets and will clock up to 192k if I remember correctly.
You have to run the Native Instruments Controller editor to assign the switches, but they can send a wide variety of usb midi data to S-Gear or to a plug in host. I have tried it (not live as yet) both with the standalone and with MainStage. I don't especially enjoy setting MainStage up though, I can find it a bit confusing sometimes.

The Rig Kontrol 3 audio is clean too. I am rather fussy about noise and don't often like to use a gate as I adjust the guitar volume constantly. The interface itself is not especially noisy compared with other manufacturers' cheap-ish offerings, but it can be really improved by driving BOTH channels at once and using S-Gear in stereo input mode. I use a Lehle Sunday Driver and a splitter cable in to the left and right sockets of the Rig Kontrol. This improves the S/N ratio by a very worthwhile amount and the Sunday Driver is an excellent buffer.

I set up this system like a pedal board. I don't use a lot of different patches, so I have 2 switches assigned for program up/ down, and the rest turn effects on and off or switch amp parameters like boost. The pedal is set for Wah (currently from Amplitube), with another pedal plugged in which controls delay mix.

I'm not sure if N.I. still make the Rig Kontrol 3, but they turn up on ebay from time to time for not much money, probably cheaply enough to pick one up as an experiment. I think you'll be impressed - it's a great combination.

Cheers!

szilard

I like S-Gear, it's become my go to amp sim.

Here are some demos -








stevereel

I've been performing with Scuffham as a plug-in in MainStage for several years now.

I've owned some nice tube amps... Fender, Rivera, Peavey, and Marshall. I've tried a number of different modelers, going back to Tom Scholtz rockman, Line 6, and Roland.

I have never been happier with my rig or sound than now, using Scuffham S-Gear.

The basic Guitar rig is guitar (Les Paul or Godin XTSA with Fishman Triple Play)>
interface (have used Apogee duet, Akai EIE and currently iConnectAUDIO4+)>
2013 Macbook Air running MainStage with scuffham plug-in> Power amp> Matrix NL12.
I'm feeding the outs of the interface through a direct box and into Front of House mixer and In-ear monitors.

I'm also using the Godin with FTP and a YouRock for guitar synth, all through MainStage.

The only thing that could improve Scuffham S-gear would be a hardware version, either pedal, head, or rack mount.

My 2 cents worth...



MusicOverGear

Tried the demo when it first came out. At that time I still used nice tube amps, and I went straight from that to V-Guitar. Otherwise I would be all over S-Gear. The maker of that plug has a deep sensibility regarding amps - definitely made by someone who can play well enough to grok all the little things that novice players don't notice.

Elantric

http://www.scuffhamamps.com/forum/7-bugs-issues/6959-midi-sources-not-listed-by-s-gear

There are 50 programmable MIDI controllers in S-GEAR which can be mapped to any incoming MIDI Control Change message. Please see p57 of the User Manual for details of setting up S-GEAR MIDI controllers.

You should be able to use your external MIDI controllers with S-GEAR parameters - provided you set up the S-GEAR controllers first.


http://www.scuffhamamps.com/images/documents/sgear_usermanual.pdf

mordecai

#5
After playing with the demo for about a week I was pretty impressed. The amp sims are few but extremely well done. With a flip of a few switches a single amp can turn into a totally different animal making it very versatile especially the Wayfarer and the Duke. The post effects are top notch. Ended up buying this when it was on sale this past week as well as the Standard Bias FX Desktop.

Anyone looking for the classic sounds this is the amp sim, loads of good options. It doesn't do extreme metal tones but neither do I... I am more of a pushed gusty fender clean with some good breakup in there when you dig in, this sim can do it better than anything I have tried so far. I am not able to get my hands on an Axe FX to compare amp tones but for what I do this has me pleased. I have looked for a shootout of an AxeFX and S-gear but can't find one.

Here is the thing that you have to realize about this sim - post effects only - and limited post effects. What this sim does it does very well but at the expense of limited selections. While I mostly do amp, delay, reverb I do like to use compression, dirt, fuzz, trem(available on Wayfarer), and octave effects. I tried all kinds of things in front of it and still have to say that Bias FX is the best effects sim in VST land. While I do prefer the amps S-gear offers the quality of pedals in Bias FX are better than anything GR5, Amplitube, or Logic's Pedalboard had to offer. As far as Bias vs S-gear amp quality/feel S-gear comes out on top. If you need dual amps and tons of effects then Bias FX is still amazing. I find the marriage of Bias FX for pre effects and S-gear for Amp and Post effects to be the best of both worlds. Now just waiting for Postive Grid to finally come through with midi, not holding my breath.


Weed_

#6
Funny... I find bias fx effects horrible in comparison to any vst, where {NI} Guitar Rig 5 wins in terms of tweakabillity. Also find {Yonac} Tonestack to be top noch with all the stomps minus the drive...wish there was a desktop version.

mordecai

YMMV, for the tones I am using Bias FX effects gets me there very quickly with not much effort. Not used Yonac before is that an iPad app? Guitar Rig 5 is very tweak-able but it makes everything sound flat to me. Very much like the way the HD500 sounds good but is kind of stiff when playing it. The way S-Gear and Bias FX feel is much better overall to anything I have used prior in regards to VSTs, to me, they sound better as well. But tone in general is very subjective. I am glad I found a good combo for me. Curious as to see if/when GR6 will hit the scene, if they address their amps and update the effects it could be a killer product.

Weed_

Best scenario I can think of would be NI buying s-gear amps for the GR6 AND offer ipad version of it!  8)

mordecai

You just blew my mind. 100% agree.  ;D

GeePeeAxe

This is my favorite digital amp simulation these days.
The new version has 5 amps. They are all very good and responsive.
No fizzy digital artifacts so far. My analogue pedals work perfectly with it.
For lovers of classic rock sounds, this is a perfect choice.
For my taste the expressivness is slightly better than with Positiv Grid BIAS.

nervoteso

just tried s-gear 2: fantastic! it's the best amp simulations i 've ever tried, talking about distortions. i'll but it surely.

bbob

Recent post on the Scuffham Amps forum from Mike Scuffham:

http://www.scuffhamamps.com/forum/3-news-info/7890-s-gear-development-status

Dear forum folks,

I know many are very keen to know what we are working on and why there hasn't been any major features added to S-GEAR since Jan 2015.

Whilst it is great business to provide a continual flow of new features, it is also important to take a pause from time to time and review the core technology that underpins the product. This is where my focus has been for the last 18 months.

Prior to launching S-GEAR in 2011, I spent nearly two years developing the S-GEAR tube modelling technology which provides the foundation of all existing amps in S-GEAR. These amps are still going strong and there is a growing user base of which a significant proportion constitutes professional musicians and producers. This continued growth is vitally important.

My mission is to keep producing the very best software based amps that I possibly can. This requires a commitment to continual research and experimentation, but also a commitment to quality, however long that takes to achieve.

To everyone here on the forum, I am very grateful for all the good will, support, ideas and enthusiasm shown - I read the forum every day. I am also very grateful for all the new customers who contact me post-purchase with their enthusiasm for the product. I'm also very happy when I hear from existing customers for whom S-GEAR has become an integral part of their musical production process.

Scuffham Amps will be exhibiting at the Nashville summer NAMM show in 2017. We're very excited about that as it will be our first major trade show appearance since Frankfurt in 2012. To our friends here in Europe, we are also looking at opportunities to attend some of the smaller regional trade shows and hopefully get to meet and talk to some of you.

Regarding product releases, for obvious reasons I don't wish to set release date expectations until we are right on top of a release. There are however some new maintenance updates of S-GEAR ready for imminent release later this month.

Best wishes,
Mike

Neardark72

I have mixt feelings on the major amp sims that I like for different reasons.

S-gear is my favorite for soloing. You have the feeling of a real amp while shredding.
I didn't enjoy it as much for the riffs tones though.
Probably the best for Leslie tones, but I don't dig those. Some decent clean presets as well.

I love the clean tones of TH3. The dimension D got me insane clean tones. The riffs tones are ok, but they might have the worst cab simulators.
Using LePou cabs with it got me good results.

BIAS is weird, you have decent tones but tweaking was a major pain with the trial version I got. I saw the potential, but couldn't get there. If there's a user library, I could enjoy it.

Guitar Rig is ok only if I use amp impulses. The user presets that I found were mostly terrible. Some were insane thought.

I didn't like the peavey bullet something... but I'm not a reference, i never digged Peavey amps.

bbob

S-Gear version 2.7 was released today.  ;D

admin

#15
https://www.scuffhamamps.com/news/product-news/94-namm-report-2018

NAMM SHOW REPORT 2018
Print   Email
Published: 06 February 2018   Category: Product News



Winter NAMM 2018 may have been the biggest and noisiest ever!

It was the first time exhibiting for Scuffham Amps and our booth was located right in the heart of the guitar hall where ambient noise SPL exceeded 100dB much of the time. Basically a hostile playing and listening environment, even with headphones!

Here's our report from the show including news of what to expect form S-GEAR development in 2018...





NAMM REPORT
NAMM is traditionally a show for dealers and manufacturers to meet and do business. However, it's become a lot more than that in recent years with social media firing up more public interest in the show. For a small company like Scuffham, the attraction of being at NAMM is to connect with musicians, producers and other people working within the musical instrument industry. The show did not disappoint on this level, we had the opportunity to meet and talk with S-GEAR users, discuss guitars, amps, recording, performance and the future of S-GEAR. Very notably it was great to meet Eric Lambert (aka Elambo, long time Scuffham forum moderator and creative director at Earhole studios).

We were fortunate to have two very experienced demo guitarists on the booth in Anaheim, UK based guitarist Jerry Stevenson and NY based guitarist Brad Craig. Both Brad and Jerry have used S-GEAR extensively in session work and on their own projects.
MAKING OUR OWN NOISE
S-GEAR running into a Mission Engineering Gemini managed to cut through the noise, Berklee graduate and awesome guitar talent David Blitt stopped by the booth, grabbed my PRS singlecut and shredded this piece with the Wayfarer...




WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH SCUFFHAM DEVELOPMENT?
2016 and 2017 were largely focused on re-development of the core Scuffham Amps modelling technologies, including revisited tube modelling algorithms and more detailed power amp and speaker modelling approaches. The results of this work will be rolled into future Scuffham products.

It became clear that some re-work of the S-GEAR User Interface was necessary before we could introduce any further amps, pedals or rack effects into the product. The latter part of 2017 focused on this revision of the S-GEAR User Interface, responding to much of the feedback we have recieved about the useability of S-GEAR v1 & v2. The results of this UI re-work will be available soon in the form of S-GEAR v2.9.


S-GEAR v2.9 PREVIEW
S-GEAR v2.9 was on preview at the show. This version is scheduled for relesae in the spring and includes a heavily re-worked User Interface built on updated software libraries.

S-GEAR v2.9

Here are some of the improvements to be found in the forthcoming v2.9 :
* Focus on Useabilty and Productivity
* Extended Presets capability with unlimited preset banks
* Side bar view allows full height scrolling of preset and impulse lists
* Drag & drop re-ordering of preset lists
* Drag to import/export presets
* User impulses can be organised into folders
* Larger fonts & other improvements for visibility
* Accessibility features for visually imparied users
* Facotry presets included for all rack devices
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2018...
You can expect to see one or more maintenance releases of S-GEAR v2 (in the form of v2.8) in the coming weeks - these updates will be free of charge.

S-GEAR v2.9 will be released in the spring, including the User Interface re-work described above. S-GEAR v2.9 will be a free update to anyone who purchased (or purchases) S-GEAR in the 12 months preceeding the v2.9 release. For other customers there will be a small upgrade fee (to be announced).

It is envisioned that S-GEAR v3 will be a new App and Plug-in to incorporate developments in the core amp modelling technology along with other heavily requested features such as drive & compression effects in front of the amp section. Stay tuned!
THANK YOU!
Thank you to everyone who visited our booth during the show. Meeting face to face with so many S-GEAR users made the show every bit worthwhile.

- Mike Scuffham

Smash

Jerry Stevenson is a superb player who's always embraced technology. remember seeing him gigging out with his own custom made guitar with GK2 pup and GR50 doing amazing things in a band called B Sharp 25 years ago. I think he started me off wanting to explore guitar synth. Fantastic voice too.