PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

My opinion and review about the GAM, Guitar Amp Modeller from Celmo:

This Device is the best I’ve ever got as a Plug-in for Pulsar. It’s fantastic…

After I’ve got it, I’ve being trying it out and am freaking out! It is so versatile; you can pull out such warm and clear, aggressive and heavy, soft and tidy, funky, soloing sounds from it, anything you need from your guitar actually. No more fake distortions, REAL leading distortion for your guitars and other instruments. This distortion is mind-boggling to recreate the “Furtado” FX when with your mike too, sounding very analogue indeed!

The leading guitars I’ve created are extremely inspiring, feeling like the real thing, AT LAST! Perhaps, one of the things that surprised me most is the sustain it recreates and the lively crispy crystal clear rocky harmonics you can articulate with your instrument, playing a bit “a la Jeff Beck”.

My guitar is no longer sitting there, waiting for an opportunity; it’s the rest of my instruments in the system that are waiting for the guitar to give “them” an opportunity now.

I’m very exigent when talking about guitar FXs cos I’ve played with many conscious sounding guitarists and so I’ve learned to pay attention to the sound and they had many good FXs processors costing a eye and a leg of your body! Well I can assert seriously that the GAM it’s a professional sounding multi amp for your recording studio.

I’ve tried it adding a dual delay, just after the GAM, and then, adding a master verb… MAN… CAN’T BELIEVE IT!!! If you play guitar, please try it out, without postponement of any kind!

Of course, I’ve tried it too in synths giving them awfully interesting textures. Many people here, at the Z, have complained about the lack of “analogue” feeling on the Pulsar synths sounds. Well, they can be a bit could if you don’t beef them up a bit with some sort of warm something, it’s true. This problem is over for me, the GAM gives them this warm analogue sound cos, in actual fact, is like passing your sounds through an amp that gives you this heartfelt valve kind of sound.

The GAM, as any other good FX Plug-ins is not something you have to tray for a couple of minutes, and this is it… Do not make such a big mistake please, go through it slowly and try it with time, tweak these knobs and search for your sounds for a while. Remember it’s a versatile sounding FX with many possibilities.

I’ve used it for my guitarbass too – of course, and can give pretty deep sounding basses too. I even went crazy playing distorted and it’s funny, it sounds great. Remembers me the Jaco Pastorious solos sound when he used to play with Whether Report.

I’m going to post sort of a demo when I have a little more time; you’re going to flip over it, I certify this as a complete certainty! You won’t believe these sounds are coming from a software reproduction of those legendary amplifiers, I rather can see you saying these sounds ARE actually coming from the REAL amplifiers themselves, hidden somewhere in my home!

For some miserable 60 American dollars, this plug it’s a MUST for every Pulsar/Scope user!!!

Absolutely recommended.

Points: 1000 and going up!

wow, it's just a shame I suck at playing the guitar

So,play your synth through it! It works!

Try playing every f***ing thing through it. EG tuff breakbeats. Mean Shit!!

I play drum loops through it ... very dirty

I’m creating some big sounds with the GAM this way:

The GAM, then I connect it to a double delay, and finally I connect it to a Masterverb. The output is superb for big and inspiring leading guitar sounds.

I’m trying it too for drum loops too, and gives them a very analogue touch, similar to some Rebirth drums sounds, which I like very much.

Yes, it's an amazing device! I tested the demo and in my opinion it is far better than Line6 Pod and I'm now really starting to question the quality of the J-station as well. Too bad that there's only one distortion type in GAM. I'm gonna order the full version soon. Can you guys suggest any other Celmo devices I should get at the same time? Professional views on X-machine and De-noiser would be great. Anyone?

I agree with you here when comparing the POD, but the price is a “LITTLE” cheaper too!

Well, if I were you, I would buy the Bassman III, which is for me one of the best synths to be found for the SFP, then the Supreme Analogue Synth and the Deep Blue Deluxe. These synths are extraordinary.

Celmo is a guy we can trust; this man is the recipient of so much talent and professionalism
He has the knowledge, he has the good taste, all his products are wonderfull and clever tools.
You can buy all the Celmo's stuff with closed eyes, and ears wide open

I have four "favourite" synths and Nestor has just named three of them. The other is the Prisma.

Well Spirit, we just have the same taste I guess! I like exactly the same synths than you...

I bought the X-machine and GAM after trying them out. Great sounding devices! I mainly play guitar so the synths have to wait. GAM works well together with J-station and it can even hold together an output signal from a tube preamp. Wonderful! Thanks Celmo!

Unitar, tell me please how do you use it? I mean, how do you connect everything together and what kind of guitar sounds are you looking for then? Cheers...

Nestor: I have a Jackson KV-2 guitar with Seymour Duncan Custom SH-5 pickup. From there the signal chain is Yamaha TB-01 Tone Booster -> Mesa Boogie V-Twin tube preamp -> J-Station -> Pulsar SPDif input -> GAM. I just bought Celmos X-machine and it works great as a compressor for guitar tracks.

I aim for a vintage 70's rock sound with a "modern" low end for a fatter tone. I also use many kinds of clean sounds. For my basic rhythm sound I use the clean channel of V-twin and Fender Band Master / Bassman 4*10 modelling from the J-station. When not recording I play with Fender Hot Rod Deluxe tubecombo and I want my DI guitar to sound the same. I may post a sound sample later.

It would be interesting to hear how others DI guitars...

Sorry guys, I can't agree, I tried the demo and unless the full ver. is different/better
I didn't like it, It's not quite as open as I would have liked, although the cleaner tone are good, the bottom end just wasn't full or round enough for me. I guess I really never got away from micing up an amp, OK it's a bit fiddly but once you get that sweet spot your set. I'm not totally against these amp emulators, I do use a Pod for pre-pro and writing and stuff and that works for me, Isn't choice great

On 2002-06-27 02:30, davo wrote:
... but once you get that sweet spot your set...

...with your neighbours

davo, have mercy with us underprivilegded who can't play it the right way.
You certainly compared Celmo's with your main setup.
How would you rate the difference ?
In Celmo's demos there's only that frequent sound penalty, no other decreases. I agree fully to your last sentence.

cheers, Tom

Sorry, but I have to correct something
On the final release (but not on the demo version) you can find an other suppl.control which add this bottom.
Sorry again, I have to correct the demo version ASAP. This demo version was the first release and stay unchanged.

celmo

GAM or any other modelling device I've tried can't cut it on their own. If you just put the guitar straight into the analog inputs there's no way you can get a strong distortion sound.

I think that one always needs tubes somewhere in the signal chain with guitars. Of course a real amp always sounds better but how many people can get that sound to tape with affordable microphones?! With DI you get what you are hearing.

But then again guitar sounds are a matter of taste and mine changes constantly...

I have the GAM as well and it's fine. I mean I think it's great someone saw fit to do this but I have to tell you, it will never replace my Line 6 Pod.

Maybe this is an unfair comparison, I admit that. I love Celmo's stuff. Have quite a few of his devices. All top notch. I salute him!

As far as needing tubes, well, I'm old school so I agree. But the Pod is nothing short of fantastic. I've recorded entire CD's with these Line 6 devices and I challenge anyone to tell the difference between the real thing and the simulation. You can't accept the presets. You have to get in there and tweak the darn things to get a realistic tone. I think the built-in effects are a little weak and I rarely use them for recording purposes. Just my 2 cents.

If you want to hear some samples of my work (using the Line 6 device) check out some of the MP3's on my website (www.LnLRecording.com)

Everything there recorded with tripleDAT and/or Pulsar/tripleDAT. Enjoy!

Now I see how you use your guitar Pulsarians… well, you guys have an arsenal of power there and I guess it was not very cheep you could say… at least 600$! Well, in reality, what I want to particularly stress in here – apart of the high, superb quality of a ***software*** emulation PLUG-ING of Modeled Amps, is THE PRICE of the plug-in. It’s very cheap and undeniable, very good! Then, of course, we have to think about the taste of every one of us, which is certainly different.

I, for instance, like fusion guitar sounds… Let’s say the sounds used by the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the Larry Carlton sound – lord of guitar leads, the Santana old Gibson sound, etc., i.e., very warm sounds in fact, it’s surprising I actually can reproduce these sounds quite well with the GAM alone!

It was very kind of you both, Unitar and Krizrox, to explain how you actually use the GAM yourself. I use it in a very simple way with fantastic results: my lovely white Yamaha RGZ 312 connected to my JoeMeek VC3 ProChannel, then connected to the GAM, then connected to a double delay S and finally, to a Master Verb. This way I’m getting these kind of sounds I’ve been dreaming off, for so long… and in my own house, with my old guitar and with just 4DSPs, this is the MAGIC of the GAM, that is way I’m so grateful to Celmo an this plug-ing.