Recording - August 2021 - 49

-Review by Alex Hawley
Overloud:
TH-U Premium
A one-stop shop for amp,
cabinet, and effects simulation
Overloud makes software for recording musicians, such
as the GEM studio plugin series, guitar and bass tools,
and more. TH-U, the company's respected amp simulator
(previously TH3), recently received a massive upgrade.
It's packed with new features, such as the SuperCabinet IR
processor, Rig Player, Amp Tweak, and more. With a plethora
of amp simulations available on the market, TH3 was always
a quiet achiever, perhaps a bit under the radar but packed
with versatility and pleasing tones. The new TH-U evolution
amps it up a bit (sorry, had to), and I was especially excited
to dive in with the new SuperCabinet IR processor, which
makes use of the new Fluid Convolution technology.
Overview
TH-U includes a mix of amp modeling and amp capturing
technology, with 89 guitar amps and 50 cabinets, four bass
amps and cabinets, 77 pedal and rack effects, and 18 microphone
models. The user interface is easy to use, and comes
with a huge range of presets to get you up and running.
Rig Player
Rig Player is a new component of TH-U that actually models
complete guitar and bass rigs, including the nonlinear and
dynamic responses of the amplifier, cabinet, preamp, microphone,
and room sound. It incorporates a proprietary technology
called R2M (Rig to Model). The R2M process is done
in-house at Overloud and there are a fair number of expansion
packs already available. Overloud offers rig expansion libraries
from a few partners as well, such as Choptones, The Amp
Factory, Big Hairy Sounds, and Live Ready Sound.
In use, I found the Rig Player models to be responsive and
lively. There's a JCM 800 model from Slate that I found particularly
inspiring (with some finesse). At first, I thought it was
missing a bit of clarity, as I found the top end to sound slightly
muffled and smeared, especially next to the hardware Marshall
I play through all the time, but I dialed it into a much more
familiar place in short order by adjusting the onboard EQ and
presence settings. I love the Blackstar HT 40 Clean Modern
model for cleaner tones; it serves as a great pedal platform
amp that allowed some of the simulated pedals and studio effects
to shine.
46 RECORDING August 2021
All Rig Player models come with cabinets, but these can be
bypassed in favor of any other model, such as a custom SuperCabinet
setting. I felt the Rig Player models globally responded
in a natural and dynamic way, making them quite fun to play
and record through! To me, Rig Players are a gateway; once
you spend some time with them, diving into the robust library
of expansions becomes inevitable.
SuperCabinet
The premium license of TH-U includes the new SuperCabinet
IR processor, accessible within the TH-U plugin. SuperCabinet
is a powerful IR processing tool that comes with a massive collection
of IR profiles. In addition, it runs on the new Overloud
Fluid Convolution technology, which reduces CPU load and
artifacts while increasing realism.
SuperCabinet allows you to select and customize the speaker,
microphone (including placement), preamp, and power amp
type (solid state vs. tube). On top of that, you can stack up to
four different IRs at once while adding EQ, panning, and stereo
depth settings; all Overloud IR libraries are phase aligned
for easy layering. Once you have a custom setting you like, it's
possible to export the profile as a new IR file as well; that way,
you can easily load it onto your favorite hardware and take it
on the road.
More advanced tone shaping is possible with the multi-band
mode, which essentially provides the flexibility to designate different
IR profiles for specific frequency ranges. For example, a
4x12 closed back for chunky low-mid response can be paired
with a 1x12 open-back cabinet with an Alnico Blue speaker
for the top-end response. I found that when using multi-band
mode, the stereo control opens up the sounds in a natural way.
The stereo knob gives an extensive range of width. Pushed to
extremes, it feels like a double-tracked guitar with a surprisingly
natural response. I usually avoid 'fake stereo'-type effects, as
they typically sound phasey to my ears, but I felt the stereo
widening in SuperCabinet to be musical sounding-an easy
way to get huge tones!
Amp Tweak
Amp Tweak is another new feature that allows you to change
the pre and power tubes of a particular amp model, as well
as simulate the action of a variac. Made famous by Van Halen,
variacs are designed to lower the supply voltage to the
amp, which can radically change the sound. There's typically
a sweet spot somewhere in the neighborhood of 90V - 100V
that yields warmer, thicker, and more saturated tones. While it
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