Hi there! Thanks for stopping by and watching the video, and I would love to hear your thoughts on the comparisons! 🎸 Get extra 5% off on Axe Machina using my code "JAMESZHAN": bit.ly/axemachina 🥁 My Drumforge Savior custom preset used in the demo: bit.ly/jzpsaviorkit 🖥 Clean My Mac X: macpaw.audw.net/c/3720200/263631/1733

This was the best comparison video I've seen in a long time, thank you for all your thorough demonstration.

Thank you for clean simple and deep vision! It's what I like in this type of videos, great job man!)

Exactly what I was looking for. Appreciate all the work it took to do this.

Your comparison reviews are so helpful and so thorough. Thank you

What a great video! I have the Axe Machina and Shreddage Hydra but didn't use them too much lately. Now your video changed that completely, thanks for your time and the in depth comparison. Subbed

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Glad to hear that! Have fun :)

I love how in depth you’ve gone with comparing these videos! Looks like I’m gonna need Axe Machina now 😅 Your GGD videos are hands down the best in my opinion, no one else is displaying every kit piece/ articulation at every velocity. You’re videos have been really helpful! I would love to see more of these types of videos, maybe Hellrazer, Cabal, and Heavier7 next?

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your kind words! They really mean a lot. I plan to do more of those drum deep dive videos in the future! I will check those three libraries out!

@ramonlorenzovaldavia1306

Жыл бұрын

Heavier7String is one of the best guitars, only rivals shreddage, Hellrazer is one step down Heavier7Strings has the most natural tone and realism even with single notes where else can you notice in some cases something "machine" but HS7 no, it is a pity that it is practically an Abandonware, the small development team got frustrated with Heavier9Strings which would be its next virtual guitar... They have also stopped offering updates from HS7, despite some faithful in the forum We keep publishing and offering some details where we can improve... But it seems that they have no intentions, no money or time to get some new development 😞

Thanks so much for this super in-depth review! Thanks to everyone who's checked it out!

@StoriesOfSolitude

Жыл бұрын

Definitely giving this a download once I get my tax return lol. This video sold me!

Check out the Ample Sound libraries. They sound more realistic than all three of these but it sounds like Axe definitely has better palm mute samples.

@jayey195

Жыл бұрын

I use Ample metal eclipse and I love the sound of it when you bypass the effects and use different amps like Ml sound lab Root and Neural Dsp Archetype: Gojira

@thronosstudios

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, nah. I've been messing around with Shreddage 3 Hydra and I've been able to match and even exceed what I've heard so far from Ample Sound libraries. They're good, but not _that_ good. It also depends on what you're using; cleans or dirty

@kobzelfn9588

8 ай бұрын

@@thronosstudiosI use AMH, is there a good way to make a good tone for it?

Fantastic breakdown. While I'm not in the market for a virtual guitar library, if I was, this would make the decision easy! Thanks for sharing, James.

One of the best demo of axe machina demo 👍. It would be cool to hear how better it would be if you unleashed the full suite of your mixing and mastering skills! Keep up the good videos!

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thank you for your kind words!

Brilliant video James, i'm sold for Axe !

Thanks for your detailed review 💯

I have Odin 2 and it sounds pretty good, but seems to have not enough samples and articulations. Thanks for doing this video. Looks like Hydra is the one to get to fill in the gaps with more articulations and a neck pickup.

omg subbed for the ad countdown alone

I would love to see you make a "How to Make MIDI Guitar Realistic" video

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

I don't program guitars a lot so I honestly don't think I have that much to offer on that end! Aside from varying the velocities, moving notes slightly off the grid, and thinking like a guitarist, there's not much else I do to humanize guitar MIDI libraries. I think the bulk of the humanizing work is in the sampling and the sampling algorithm.

@ElegiesAus

Жыл бұрын

Joey Sturgis Tones recently made a video doing this for Odin II

@bum6523

11 ай бұрын

A bit late on this, but impact sound works made a whole series on programming guitar. It's obviously aimed towards their shreddage line, but its applicable to about any other guitar

Fantastic review...♥️

I have Hydra,Odin II and Axe Machina..Axe Machina is a whole new beast its the cleanest tightest virtual Guitar out at the moment and sounds fantastic. Craig and the Soundiron team did an brilliant job.

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Totally agreed!

Excellent video! High level of detail.

Hey man I used your discount code to buy this on 11/30/22 for your records. Great vids I found you a while back when looking up some drum forge things. The older I grow I know we're not into metal for the large following because if you put this effort into other genres you probably would have a wider viewer base but kudos for doing what you enjoy.

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for using my code! Metal is indeed a super small niche, but to me, there's no point of doing KZread if it's not on something I'm passionate about. This is also why I avoid using cringey, clickbait titles and thumbnails-they often do work better but man I don't want to be associated with that kind of style. Call me stubborn, haha!

@jablakeb

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan what a relief! By all means - please keep being "stubborn"!

Thank you for this very thorough comparison. I am novice on guitar VSTs and to me all sounds perfectly useable. Good to know. Axe Machina is now on sale for 49$ and seems like the deal to get at the moment.

Excellent demo overall, dude! As a long time user of Impact Soundworks and their Shreddage libraries, I’ll have to admit that I was impressed with Axe Machina in their upper register. It had a vibe very similar to Monuments and their recent guitar tones. Odin sounds good in the lower register, but that’s about it. To my ears, Shreddage still takes the cake in the overall most well-rounded sound. Add to that, Impact offers a wide variety of other guitar libraries that utilize the same engine (now updated to 3.5).

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for checking out the video and for sharing your experience!

At last Shreddage has a competitor worthy of fear! Odin has his lights, but he falls short in programming... Anyway, I think Shreddage keeps to offer a lot of flexibility to tweak his guitars... But this Axe Machina, sounds very good I will dare to try it

I miss Amplesounds Hellrazer in this comparsion

Now *THIS* is a proper review!! Very well done! Axe Machina has so much more character than Odin by a mile, and Shreddage slightly, but noticeable.

I’d like to hear your opinion on Shreddage 3 Serpent. I actually felt that out of all the “heavy” Shreddage 3 guitars, it feels the most alive.

This is the most in-depth overview I have ever seen on KZread! Not gonna lie, I legit thought Odin II would be the cheapest option until I heard a very unnecessary pricing for that 'simple' VST 😂 Here's a question: will you make part 2 of this using different guitar VSTs later on? I'd like to hear your opinion about Shreddage 3, Heavier7Strings, and that one from AmpleSound; I forget their 7-string VST product name. Cheers!

Hi James. Big hugs from Moscow. Your work is great, thank you!

Thank you for this!!!!

Awesome demo! What amp sim did you use for this?

Great video, I did want to add some points: Shreddage has on by default a Rake articulation so when you go past 90 or 100 velocity you will get that hot/pick digging into the string sound but if you go for cca under 80 maybe velocity the sound gets much more "standard" - great for soloing but meh on rhythyms, does seem to work great on those open strings djenty notes. To get even better portamento on shreddage you can just overlap notes for hammer on and pull off(it has a setting on the main page for which intervals of half-notes you wat it to use for, I tend to stand between 2 and 4 semitones(4 semitones mostly for soloing) Also, for better portamento too you could just overlap the notes and use the keyswitch to trigger either the slide and pull off, this works even better when you want to pulloff a note from the 7th fret to the open string. Last thing for shreddage(I didn't see it used but maybe that section just didn't show on the piano roll) there's a string selector, so you can tell the software exactly on which string you would like certain riffs or parts of the riff you want to be played, this increases the "natural" factor of the library In the case of Odin, I'd suggest tweaking the decay intensity as well, while I don't use Odin that much either(mainly because there aren't a lot of articulations recorded) it still doesn't sound as midi-ish when going for faster runs/chugs. Notes for the whole video, I feel like the chugs on Axe machina are the odd ones out with having so much low end, and shreddage/odin might have sounded better with different amp settings/cabs. Another thing I like to do(even when amping actual people playing) is eq my DI into the amp, or go as far as to get an eq-match the DI sound of shreddage to match the Odin or viceversa. While these solutions are great I still haven't found the golden guitar library(at this point I think I have better chances of just learning to play the dang guitar properly), however you may want to look at some other guitars such as: Hellrazer or Eclipse(although eclipse goes only as low as drop C), Realeight, which although lightweight has a lot of articulations and humanization options built in(although this one feels more sampled and modeled/altered than just sampled extensively), Heavier7Strings which works well but I have only tested it so far, and the best one out there: Prominy V-Metal, also goes down only to drop C, however it works within kontakt so downtuning the whole instrument an octave below and eq-ing the DI could work wonders, also has the largest amount of articulations and round robins recorded. Bottom note: EX-machina seems fine especially for the discounted price, the fact that it only works in full kontakt kinda makes it a no go for me.

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for all the info! It will be super helpful for anyone who might be reading. First off, I forgot to switch the MIDI editor to reflect the library that's playing on the video, so whatever you are looking at in the MIDI editor doesn't always reflect how I programmed the library I'm demoing. For example, I did use the forced string, hand position and fretting settings, as well as overlapping notes for portamento, in Hydra! I mentioned in the video that I intentionally kept the amp settings identical to showcase how different the DI samples can sound among these 3 libraries. I know about Ample Sound's guitar libraries, but it's rather unknown among the metal musicians in my circle so I opted to kept the two that are the most popular (Shreddage and Odin). I wish Axe Machina wasn't full Kontakt only too!

The video was probably a lot of work, thank you very much for your effort! I'm currently looking for a heavy guitar library, so your video is worth its weight in gold for me. Even though I personally like the sound of Axe machina the best, I would rather go for hydra since I don't have the full version of Kontakt 7. Or can you recommend another sampler library for metal / metalcore?

Many thanks for the review! I did get it using your code 🙂...however, it took me a while to realise how to deactivate the amp when loading the DI preset... it's somewhat hidden under "rack 2" in the FX tab :D

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for using my code! Appreciate it. And yeah, I remember getting confused on that too when I loaded the DI patch.

Hey, man! Love your content. Could you do a tutorial on how to set Reaper just like yours one?

I like Shreddage because of the more raw sound. The natural sound of it's mids allow for a much broader variety of music which you can use for many. I've found that if the muddiness caused by those mids in dient riffs or such can be generally solved with tone adjustment plugins like Neutron or Antares and EQing. Shreddage's ability to well... shred is also utterly beautiful.

Good review as always James! Some things that for me are important in the decision making would be; full Kontakt required or not, price and last but definitely not least, note range. Odin goes down an octave below C I think, how about the others?

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching! In case you missed it, I did mention that Axe Machina does require full version of Kontakt. There's also a price comparison at the end of the video. AM goes down to F and Shreddage Hydra is low E.

can you do one with cabal 8, Real 8 and Ample Metal and Ample Hell raiser

Awesome video! Your videos are always so in depth and helpful. I'm curious what you were saying in the audio before you had to adjust to "axe machina." Maybe the original name for the program? 🤨

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thanks Nathan! Glad you liked the video. Haha I was waiting to see if anyone noticed it. I originally thought the product name "Axe Machina" was a word play on "axe machine," like "guitar machine," so I pronounced "machina" like "machine" with an "a" sound at the end. Only did I realized I recorded the whole video mispronouncing the product name when my wife pointed out to me it was supposed to be a word play on "deus ex machina." I had to replace all thirty-something instances of me saying the product name after! Told me like 4 hours 😩

@nathanstatham5022

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan Oh wow! What a task having to go through it all again to punch in the audio 😣. And that's why you're great man! Going to all that trouble just to make sure it was 100% on point. I almost didn't notice it either until later in the video. I was like, "is that an overdub?" Figured I'd ask and see if there was different name they had called it, but that makes perfect sense now! Keep up the videos man. I absolutely love your content! Your videos definitely are a cut above the rest with the content, production quality, and your musicianship. 🙌

perfect review

We need more honest truthful content creators like this guy who will not allow themselves to mislead consumers just to get special deals from companies.

I don’t know why but I found axe machina hard to sound good with an amp sim same with Odin but shreddage has served me so well also I love vmetal by prominy

Yo James! I was looking for a guitar vst. I saw comments about the Hellrazer on reddit, and bought it. Then saw people praising Odin II and got that one too. With your review I saw Axe. I have not seen Axe between top guitar vst reviews over the internet before. After hearing it on your channel I was really surprised. I got Axe now. I must say, Axe has the best tonality, and most musical sounding one. Odin II has a dark tone, less musical. Hellrazer is bright and more musical tones than Odin. My favorite now is Axe for sure. and Hellrazer. By the way, Fenrir Runeforge by Solemn and Rhino by Aurora are the best sounding Amps I tried so far. I tried Neural DSP stuff, but for me, even though the sound clarirty is sligthly better, the Amps sound like it comes from a radio speaker. With Rhino and Fenrir it feels like a huge Speaker cabinet in front of you. Very chunky, bassy sound.

I use odin and love it but do wish they'd incorporate chords to save time, also better sliding and bending options

Hello friend, I'm worried about something, and I haven't seen any information about it. Axe machina also doesn't have fret-visualizer like Odin? How do you determine which string and fret they should sound on? In Shreddage we have absolute control over what note we want to sound and at what position. Do you use some automatic algorithm or else you didn't sample the whole fretboard? From ODIN I'm almost sure they don't, because of the small size of the library, but AXE Machina is very heavy in size... I don't think the visual interface they have chosen is the best. After using it for a while, is it worth it? Do you think it can compete in realism against Shreddage? Beyond this video, where it sounds really good...

It's hard to pick just one... I find each one have elements in certain places that make them sound better. Good review but makes things harder to pick one! lol

thanks !

thanks james. Great review.

of course my opinion is subjective so take what I say with a grain of salt. After doing some blind listening, my preference is hydra, then axe machina and odin 2 in that order. Granted I'm listening on my headset, but I prefer the bite that I'm able to hear in hydra. The other 2 sound a bit too muddy for my taste. However Odin 2 sounds the most mechanical to me. I'm curious to give this a listen in my home studio after work today. I was thinking of getting a new midi guitar library to layer with my live guitar recordings and this has given me a lot to think about! Thanks for sharing good sir!

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Remember I intentionally used the same tone for all the libraries to reduce the number of variables in the comparison. I think you can easily fix the muddiness with a different amp setting :) I think at the end of the day it comes down to realism

For anyone thinking about buying it, it's currently on a 50% sale and the code still works too.

@MahmoudNader

7 ай бұрын

Totally worth it... My channel is full of songs utilizing this library and no one even noticed it's not a real guitar performance

@BoundlessxArts

7 ай бұрын

@@MahmoudNader just bought it yesterday and still trying to figure all the stuff it offers. Can't wait to replace my basic midi guitars with something that actually sounds good.

@MahmoudNader

7 ай бұрын

​@@BoundlessxArtsYeah man I use it even though I'm actually a guitarist lol

@BoundlessxArts

7 ай бұрын

@@MahmoudNader very nice. Do you have any suggestions for tuning or fx settings? I'm still looking for a nice sound I like.

@JamesZhan

6 ай бұрын

@@MahmoudNader No way! Just checked out your channel and I love your work! You should definitely tag Soundiron about this; I'm sure they love hearing their product in the wild!

axe machina comes in the cleanest, and has the most punch, Odin has the best realism and mid range is excellent....great review especially where you compare how they sound in the articulations and low note intervals

Great video man! Love the depth. I do disagree with your initial thoughts saying they (guitars) sound natural and could pass as real, though. I was surprised you said that you would’ve possibly not noticed. The first demo sounds very programmed to me and would not pass at all. But it sounds great for demos to help get an idea across! Personally, I still think these libraries are far from usable in actual productions to pass as “real” guitars. BUT, they’re getting better! Thanks for taking the time to do this!

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Hey Mike thanks for the comment! I think it's possible that we are each used to different guitar editing levels. In the mix, Axe Machina absolutely sounds similar to how edited I like my guitars. When I record, I encourage the guitarist to record bit by bit to get the maximum level of "tightness." When I record myself (and I'm not a good guitarist at that), I sometimes record note by note just to get every note clear and on time. You are right though, I think all these libraries are close but still not there. I was going to included a blind test consists of real guitar recordings, Shreddage Hydra, Odin II and Axe Machina, but I left it out because it would have made the video even longer than it is now lol

@jablakeb

Жыл бұрын

you probably wouldn't be saying that had you not already known they were "fake". I mean, they are recorded with real guitars... have you ever listened to purely edited "real" guitar? Because that alone can sound "fake" - it's just part of the editing process and what the industry standards are today. Don't be an elitist - the metal community has too many already ;)

@MikeSkinnerAudio

Жыл бұрын

@@jablakeb As someone who has edited for bands such as Darko, Left To Suffer, and others, I certainly know what edited music sounds like my man! Robotic guitars are certainly a stylistic choice, but even bands that program drums almost always record real guitars because the libraries just aren't there yet. This hasn't nothing to do with elitism. Hope you have a good day!

@emanuel_soundtrack

Жыл бұрын

@@jablakeb what is the problem of being elitist in art?

I stop by here every now and then, to listen how you say Axe Machina.

So I looked into what's up with the low notes below that Low A on axe machina. Less pick attack, more low mids than what's above those notes. Low F up to Low G#/Ab. Someone at sound iron confirmed that those notes are actually pitch shifted/corrected. So if you ever heard that sound before, it might be familiar. Imo, still very usable. But, it obviously will come across as less natural for those low pedal tones if you play below that Low A. I suspect Odin might be pitched shifted as well, it goes very low for a 6 string. Imo, still very usable and benefits from the evertune. Odin has an odd drift with high end with many repeated notes that I don't understand. Less consistent round robin samples? Shreddage is most natural to it's lowest note cause it's only recorded notes but I agree it has some odd choices for how articulations feel when playing low. Axe, imo has the best feel and round robin samples all the way up the neck. Especially if you vary velocities on each note.

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Really? So Soundiron told you that the lowest F note up to the low Ab are pitch-shifted? I find that decision really strange because why wouldn't Craig (the guitarist who sampled the guitar) just record those notes? Thanks for the insights btw!

@colinmitchell1287

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan not really sure tbh, but sound iron added the pitchshift/corrected low notes, Craig just did the recordings. I exclusively play in a low F, so I had to figure out what was up. So I reached out. I use all of these libraries and it's the only one I found noticable (but still very useful notes imo). But, it is understandable for a 7 string. It having those lower notes is still good, but I would of been a happier if those low notes were just recorded instead of pitched.

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

@@colinmitchell1287 I thought low F is how low Craig tuned his guitar to. So I guess the original low string note is low A?

@colinmitchell1287

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan yep, only recorded notes down to low A. Low F to Low G#/Ab are pitch corrected/shifted. Thankfully the person at sound iron who responded were transparent enough to answer my questions about those low notes. (I offset the low mids booming a bit more and less presence from the pitch shift by automating a dynamic EQ on the DI just for those notes).

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

@@colinmitchell1287 I wish I had known that. I would have compared the real lowest note sample to the pitch shifted one. Kudos to Soundiron for being transparent for sure. I mean, at the end of the day, I couldn't really tell the samples were pitch-shifted and the low F samples sounded really good in most scenarios.

I feel like once these tracks are added to a mix. All of those subtle shortcomings won’t even be heard as they’ll be drowned out by the other instruments so if you wanna save money, go ahead and get it.

Axe Machina has ideal sound for me

Does ex Machina have pinch harmonics?

how to turn down the volume in odin 2 ?

hi, great song, but no actual shredding, only chords and palm mutes, we need to hear if these virtual guitars can handle shredding?

The Odin and Sheddage are VERY NOTICIBLY muffled? Are you sure you "EQ'd them properly to sit in the mix" ?? I suspect tampering... Would love a NON-EQ version. Thanks for the effort in the video, very good quality. But with professional quality, comes professional tricks. Like your dostracting Axe Machina dub instead of doing a different video take. Hope to have a redo on this one. If not, I look forward to your other videos!

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

The EQing is very minimal. Mostly just a low cut to cut out the low end rumble. The difference you hear is pretty much the difference directly from the DIs. I only realized I was mispronouncing Axe Machina after I finished editing the entire video. It would make no sense to re-record the entire thing. Editing a video like this with so many motion graphics takes a LONG time. Ultimately, I believe the dubbing doesn't affect the information I wanted to convey.

I think it's best to have all of them and use them for their intended purposes

@jablakeb

Жыл бұрын

agreed but that's too expensive for a lot of people

for me I will probably use telos for leads and ax machina for everything else, just my choice.

Looks like Axe Machina said.."Ok..let's tripple the price!"

I aim to play this hard both IRL and Virtually😊

Was about to buy Axe Machina from this vid but it turns out it's ONLY for paid version of Kontakt. Oh well, bought Shreddage instead lol. Thanks for the video!

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I definitely wish they made it available for the free Kontakt player!

I consider that Shreddage Jupiter still is the BEST GUITAR from Shreddage Series, I don´t like the sound of Hydra on most of cases... It's good to see another virtual guitar library because it's been a while from the last virtual guitar... I think Heavier 7 Strings is the best overall... and next Shreddage Jupiter for the SO MANY OPTIONS to tweak the sound... V Metal is great too but too old and lack from palm mutes layers, Ample made a great work with Hellrazer but still is not enough, I hate Odin, no customization... I will try Axe Machina but I think, it´s not a great step...

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Shreddage III definitely offers a lot of amazing features. I'm not a huge fan of Hydra's sound either, but I will check out Jupiter!

@davidvierabarreras

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan Jupiter is exactly the same old Shreddage 2X but with some articulation samples added and of course benefiting from the Shreddage 3 engine... Then they made three more for metal: Serpent, Rouge and Hydra and yet I think the best sampled is still the Jupiter, it's also somewhat subjective, but if you manage to try it, you'll realize that despite being older than Hydra, it may sound better in most cases... I also invite you to check out Heavier7String, it's a pity that ThreeBodyTech doesn't seem to have intentions of doing nothing else with it 😞 But the palm mutes, the RR, the single notes and pick attack have no rival

I think the comparisons in this video are valid, and Axe Machina sounds really great! But I do think your Odin examples don't truly show the results you can get with the library. Odin isn't programmed the same way the others are as there isn't as much "engine" involvement- it just does what you tell it to do. Things like managing velocity and offsetting later notes in a chord do wonders for the versatility, and I believe it to be among the best VI guitars out there, when used fully. It's not without shortcomings, the notes don't ring out long enough, it lacks meaningful slide capabilities, and you have no ability to control string selection, but it also gets it results without the engine fighting you. A couple additional items, you can turn off the string noise, and the notes are not out of tune in lower registers. Odin was sampled on an Evertune equipped guitar, so it doesn't go sharp when plucked hard like other guitars.

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Odin has a "Humanize" knob that would randomize the velocities (and I think position too?) so I would disagree that Odin *requires* you to manually humanize it. In fact, Shreddage and Axe Machine are the ones that lack automatic humanization. If I remember correctly, in all the rhythm guitar examples, the Humanize knob was set to maximum. How do you turn off string noises in Odin? It's not in the Advanced section and I can't find it anywhere else. I don't really care what guitar was used to sample, but I definitely heard some notes that are just slightly out of tune in the low notes riff. Maybe it's the way those samples are picked? I'm not sure, but the issue is the distinction between the low F note and the low F# note is sometimes a bit blurred with Odin. Axe Machine didn't have that issue, at least to my ears!

@KS-ld7zs

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan Cheers, thanks for making such an in-depth comparison! The humanize knob does some behind-the-scenes magic, but my experience tells me it's not a replacement for mindful control of velocity and note-positions, especially in anything meant to be strummed. Happy to send you any reference MIDI if there is interest. You can turn off the string noise by disengaging 'Raw Mode' in the Advanced tab. Not exactly an intuitive label to be fair and it does truly turn it off. Shreddage is nice in that you can blend the noise to taste. Regarding the tuning of the notes, I'll have to run them through a tuner to see where the pitch truly lands, but an Evertune is a custom type of bridge that essentially dynamically balances the string tension to remove pitch variance from things like hard picking. In theory, notes should be 100% on-pitch at all times. They are getting pretty popular in the heavier genres as time goes on. Any guitar or bass without an Evertune installed is going to suffer from hard-pluck sharpness. In any case, what I think Axe Machina does best is mimicking the fluffy noise that underpins any real performance. There is an ever-present layer of noise from the palm and from the fretting hand that tends to get lost in sampled guitar libraries, but the noise acts like a binder to glue the performance together. Axe Machina is the first I've heard that actually accomplishes this extra bit of realism.

Yeah I don't like the palm mutes in shreddage either. I don't know what happened to shreddage. Shreddage 2 was good but now it went downhill and probably because of that pick scrap. I can't hear the note in the palm mutes! Though I switched to Hellrazer and it's much better. Definitely going to get axe machina one of these days! I love soundiron anyway. Cheap instruments and good quality.

Shreddage sounds the brightest of the three…which I would prefer for having all those low tones cut and be heard

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Yeah but you can always use EQ to make the other two sound brighter

No doubt, all these guitars are made for low-tuned riffs. And they sound nice (and pretty similar). But, in my opinion, a lot of sampled guitars sound terrible with riffs in standard E tuning (and D or C too). Low tuning tends to mask some problems.

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Yes these are all metal guitar libraries. Shreddage has different libraries for non-metal genres.

@f.artemenkov

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan Yeah! I mean metal riffs too. Not all metal riffs require low tuning.

@LETSpeakTRUTH

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan He's talking about E standard riffs, like classic thrash Metal riffs. Metallica, Megadeth etc and other Death Metal riffs too. Hydra sounds REALLY weak, flat, lacking in low end chug. etc. I know this is probably not worth doing, but it would be really appreciated if you can do a similar test, with E standard riffs, with a lot of low E chugging (not power chord chugs). E standard metal is neglected completely with sample library demos/reviews. I've been writing with Jupiter recently, because I've been developing wrist/tendon issues. I don't want to stop writing metal, but currently I'm a little disheartened after spending money on Hydra, only for it to not work anywhere near, as well as Jupiter for E standard stuff. Axe and Odin II look cool, but I would want to be sure, before potentially wasting my money on one of the libraries. Just a suggestion. Good video, either way.

@user-xc7km3vn5b

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan Yeah, one more vote from me. :) I would also like to hear what these sound like on standard tuning also. The classic Metal bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priests typically use standard tuning. Great video BTW.

Homie was saying axe Ma-shin-ah and had to dub over the proper pronunciation, hehe

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

YUP. I genuinely thought it was a wordplay on “axe machine,” as in “guitar machine” (machine because it’s a program). And I know I’m not the only one who mispronounced it because I saw another review video of this library where the guy pronounced it wrong 😂

@bunsenbacktracks

Жыл бұрын

@@JamesZhan Haha I figured. I was really high and listening with headphone on when I noticed something seemed just a little un-canny aha. Great video man. Got me sold on the axe machina.

I like the guy that programmed the MIDI guitars

Good tool for people who can't play guitar no doubt. I think there's still a long way to go for guitar VSTs to sound realistic, the whole thing sounds programmed here. All the little nuances we all play on guitar are just not there in any of them so they sound too precise and robotic, that combined with the attack of the notes makes them easy to spot from a real guitar. The solo in particular sounds very fake here

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

You are not wrong, but I think different genres are different. For example, in some popular metal sub-genres, the recorded guitar DIs are edited so to the grid that they sound similar to what the sample libraries can produce.

Havier7Strings

axe machina definitely sounds best overall, but shreddage def has the best lead sound

Shreddage for leads, Machina for rhythms… imo

*update to my last comment* Ugh! I figured out shreddage! Okay, I'm using serpent but it's kind of the same as hydra as hydra just has 8 strings I believe. Shreddage is done so poorly! The chugging sounds like a choke but if you don't use the (Tact velocity setting) and use higher velocity for chugging and bursts for slow doom chugs, it sounds better but it conflicts with the sustains! This is the work around. My velocity setting ------------------------------- Rake: 125-127 Sustain: 118-124 Palm Mutes: 1-117 Then later, once you have your riffs, take the Tact Velocity setting off and set to default. Make two tracks, one with chugs on and another with sustains on and copy pasta the sustains to the second track and play around with velocity on sustains for better results. Maybe even play with some of the bursts for better results too if you need. This is how you would work shreddage and it's terrible. Way back when, shreddage 2 used to have better velocity setting and was all based on velocity and was the best. I guess they tried going modern djent with the chugs now AND they just had to make the chugs and sustains separate on a keyswitch which was a terrible idea. That's why it sounds like that but the sample for the choke sounds just have too big of a velocity range. Totally recommend Axe Machina over this! But! If you wanted nice sounding double tracks, get Ample Hellrazer, Shreddage Hydra (or Serpent), and Axe Machina. Have Axe Machina Lead the Rhythm with volume over the other ones just a tad. Hydra can provide the nice low pick scrape choke-chugs so you can hear the chug, and use higher velocity. Hellrazer can help provide the note on low mids. Then play with amp settings and an equalizer to make them sound somewhat the same. And you got a heavy sounding double track. Although if there were only another Axe Machina, you could just use 2 tracks for a nice quad track sound with slightly different amp settings but there isn't so I'd recommend buy the 2 guitars and put them together over Axe Machina. And of course that would leave Odin II which is just a scam, don't buy, unless you want a different sound which is fine although there are plenty of other cheap metal guitar vsts out there for sounding different.

Great sound! Is it possible to make fake heavy metal sound so real that it fools the best recording engineer or musician? And if the sound can fool anyone, then is it possible for an expert, or AI, to look at the waveform on a screen and know that the guitar and drums are fake?

Hydra is not their best work. The original Shreddage IIX was their best vst guitar. Unfortunately, they discontinued it to be replaced by Shreddage Jupiter, which suffers from same issues of all other guitars in the Shreddage 3 engine.

@JamesZhan

Жыл бұрын

Oh really? That's quite interesting to hear. I thought the engine in Shreddage 3 is extremely sophisticated

@consonaadversapars

Жыл бұрын

Shreddage Jupiter still handles fast mutes pasagges way better than Hydra.

Personally, I feel that every one of these libraries is inferior to Ample Sound's offerings. There's more that goes into programming realistic guitars than what you've demonstrated-chords should be triggered as they are played, with slight timing adjustments per string to emulate the downstroke/upstroke. Additionally, fretboard positioning AI is still not perfect, so you really can't beat programming each string/fret individually with your intuition. Ample Sound's only shortcoming is a lacking sample pool for open strings. In every other regard, Ample Sound is hands-down better than ImpactSoundworks, SoundIron, SolemnTones, Prominy, ThreeBodyTech, MusicLab, Wavelet Audio, OrangeTreeSamples-you name it. Also you don't need Kontakt, so it's better in that way as well.

I don’t know folks. Axe Machina sounds the worst to me. Hydra best, followed closely by Odin. Odin seems to have more of an evil tone.

@JamesZhan

5 ай бұрын

And this is why I always leave my opinions AFTER I've shown how the product sounds. A good number of comments said that they love how Axe Machina sounded, so it really all comes down to personal preference!

💞 'promo sm'!

I'm sorry, I just don't think they are even close to being good enough yet.

It seemed flat to me, i was waiting for a build and it just laid back ..

Comparte the three with the OLD but ALMIGHTY POWERFUL -----HEAVIER7STRINGS------ from ThreeBodyTech Software (the same creator of Kirchoff EQ) but unfortunately the abandoned the project with no signs of improving... But they achieve the BEST REALISM that I heard on a Virtual Guitar, the samples are so well captured, they use a powerful algorithms, the results are impressive, only it lacks of more articulations and perhaps a better interface to control slides, etc. But... bro, just test it!