Sansamp PSA-1 for $600 worth it?

I've A/B'd the ProTools plugin with BDDI and other Sansamp racks many times and I always choose the plug-in. They're so close that to me it makes more sense to use something you can keep adjusting rather than being stuck with it. And even besides that point, i often just prefer the sound of the plug.
 
The Rammstein thing is a Recto and PSA blend as you say. When I use it for guitars I actually prefer it lined instead of using it with a power amp and cab. I've always found a "real" guitar amp to sound superior and no matter how you use the PSA in a real amp/cab combo it's way too muffled and you need to process the hell out of it to gain any definition from it. So I just love it for the thing that it does when lined. Only thing you need to consider, and this is true for bass as well... I find that you generally need to EQ the hell out of it. But the great thing is that it takes lots and lots of EQ very well. So you can basically shape it into anything you want.

I find it very common to need to filter out a lot from 90Hz down plus add a good dose of high-mids (6-9db) and maybe also to filter out some of the extreme high-end. That with a 3-4db cut at 300Hz or something and you're in heaven/hell whichever you fancy.

Here's also a PSA 1.1 / real amp blend thing with the PSA for bass distortion... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0RK6qsuffU&feature=related

That Miseration record sounds great - fucking monstrous. I usually use less over-drive on the bass, to get more of a clangy Decapitated type saturation, but man the bass distortion on that track sits really well in the mix. I noticed in one of the production diary videos you're tweaking the Sansamp and then just give up because it isn't working on the fast parts.... but it ended up on the record anyway? Also, using a Mark III on a death record.... nice.

Cheers again for the heads up. It's good to have all this in mind when going in to grab the unit. The guy will let me know in a week if he decides to sell.
 
That Miseration record sounds great - fucking monstrous. I usually use less over-drive on the bass, to get more of a clangy Decapitated type saturation, but man the bass distortion on that track sits really well in the mix. I noticed in one of the production diary videos you're tweaking the Sansamp and then just give up because it isn't working on the fast parts.... but it ended up on the record anyway? Also, using a Mark III on a death record.... nice.

Cheers again for the heads up. It's good to have all this in mind when going in to grab the unit. The guy will let me know in a week if he decides to sell.

Thx very much man!

Yeah the PSA sounds great with less distortion on bass too. The story of the guitar sound on The Mirroring Shadow and how it came to be could possibly take a couple of pages to go through all in all. Basically it's because of one giant mistake after another and the final result was just a last minute experiment with a big dose of luck involved in order to make it all work and is nothing I'd EVER try on purpose to begin with but it just turned out awesome.

It's the story of very bad line signals, hard drive crashes and the glory of old backups. :Smokin:
 
Plec, didn't realize you posted here, I really dig your work!

Thx Jarkko!

*Excuse the tiny hijack*
Plec, jag har nog slutat att bli förvånad över hur bra allt du, Christian och Marcus är inblandad i...
Jag går på MLP (Musicfactory) och jag blev helt till mig när Bengan sa att han var delägare av Panic Room (om jag förstod det rätt nu vill säga...). Jag hoppas man får ta sig en titt i Panic Room någon gång :Saint:

Det är bara att kika ut...
 
Damn, and here I am thinking about selling mine cause I can't get a decent tone out of it! :lol: Atleast for guitars, for bass it works quite nice but then again it's nothing I can't set up with a DI + amp sims and EQ to justify keeping it around. But with all the praise it gets here , I feel like I'm missing something!
 
Wheeeee!!

Ermz, looks like I just became a lucky owner of a second PSA 1.1 (put up for adoption by "The Unavoidable") :rock:
I've got twins now!!! :ill:

Get yourself one too and we'll have the little bastards play while us big guys have a beer together! :kickass:
 
Only if you throw in a half-assed BBQ like you were trying to start on that video! We can put on a gig, running everyone through the Sansamp and get endorsed :D.

FYI, the Miseration record just made my 'metal reference CD' list. You did something very cool here. I love the use of room sound on the snare - something rarely anyone in metal uses effectively (apart from Bergstrand - the master). The overall balance puts it up against the very best metal productions out there today. I shall have to work extra hard to match this soon (until you sabotage my efforts with your master :p).
 
I cannot recommend sansamp PSA1 for guitars. I spent long time trying to get decent tone out of it, direct, with impulses, without, extreme eq, etc. No success. The raw sound is very harsh and "wet" sound (impulses) is very blurry and dark. The unit have probably some kind of very strange built-in cabinet simulation, and doesn´t sound like mic´ed cabinet nor like raw preamp :hypno: I recommend it for bass, or any other sources like drums, it is in fact multiband distortion unit, very cool and unique IMHO, and I also very like blended sound like Rammstein, In Extremo etc. But this is IMHO experimental unit and DO NOT EXPECT any "ordinary" guitar sound!!!