The GTR3 software is very easy to use. It is intuitive if you are familiar with guitar effects/amp chains. There are decent presets included to get you started if you aren't experienced at creating your own tones. Compared to other amp sims, I think the presets in GTR3 are actually a lot better than the presets in NI Guitar Rig, Amplitube, Pod Farm, etc. One thing that was a little strange for me was the dual amps in the full version of the plug-in. They come set up with two amps (one panned left, and one panned right). Most of the time when I am working on a tone, my preference is to only use one amp. It was a little frustrating to have to disable one amp everything I opened the software, but I guess it is just a matter of preference. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE One thing that I like about the software is that it comes with "lite" versions as separate plug-ins. This can be useful when you don't have use for the entire toolrack, but just want to add a single amp or an effects box. This can be done to save CPU processing when working on a full mix. The other main benefit of having the different versions of the plug-in is for tracking. A big problem when tracking guitars is latency when the computer needs to process the signal, so it plays back the audio with a slight delay. Most DAWs give you the option to decrease the latency with the trade-off of decreased processing power for decreased latency. Therefore, I like to use the "lite" versions of the plug-ins during tracking with low latency. Then I switch to the full versions of the plug-in during mixing when I want to add more effects, dual amps, etc. OVERALL OPINION The Waves GTR3 is an amplifier simulator (and effects too) plug-in to be used in a DAW. It includes models of guitar amps ranging from 'clean' to 'high-gain.' Many of the classic guitar amps are included (fender, vox, marshall), although it is a little difficult to tell some times which amps are which. Other amp sims are more obvious about which amp you are using, but just change the name due to licencing. In Waves GTR3, it is harder to tell, but it is more about finding one that sounds good rather than picking a particular amp. There are some unique amps included that aren't included with other amp sims. I think this is probably due to the partnership between PRS and Waves for this product. Nonetheless, there are some cool sounding amps that you won't find elsewhere. The effects are decent. Waves is best known for their general effects (eq, compressors, etc) and less known for amp sims in particular, so I had high expectations for what they would include in this effects package. I would have liked to see some better effects like an 1176 compressor model or SSL eq model inside GTR3, similar to how Native Instruments has these effects as options to be used inside Guitar Rig.
When it comes to guitars, the number one thing that every guitar must do is be in tune. If a guitar is not in tune, it'll throw your entire mix off. Personally, I'm fairly adamant about perfect tuning and intonation. Well, as perfect as it can be; it's a guitar, after all. Various different software tuners have popped up throughout the years, and the Waves version is among them. It's been around longer than some of them, but it's still a very solid tuner. The tuner itself came with my GTR3 package, and I've used it a few times within the program. It's a chromatic tuner where you can set your reference pitch to nearly anything you need to set it to. It's fairly accurate, although there are some other tuners out there that are quite a bit more accurate. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE This is where Waves is the champion. They never drop the ball when it comes to stability. I've never experienced a single mishap or crash while using this software, and I don't expect to. I've been a long time user of Waves, and they never let me down. This is also cross platform compatible. I'm a Mac user, and living in a world that's dominated by Windows users can sometimes be a bit of a drag. Waves caters to both OSes without any issues. There is one issue, however. The GTR3 software is 32 bit software. It's not a huge deal, but OS X is moving towards being fully 64 bit, and I hope they update it before the next OS rolls around and drops 32 bit support all together. OVERALL OPINION The tuner itself is fine. It tunes your guitars, basses or whatever perfectly fine. However, there are better options out there if you're into the whole software tuning thing. Personally, I like to use pedals to tune my guitars. I find that the Turbo Tuner is one of the most accurate and easiest to use tuners out there. The accuracy is way better than this software. They also make a software version of that very pedal, and it works nicely as well. I just find myself being a bit more of a hardware guy. In short, the tuner is good, but there are better ones out there.
Waves has recently made their own little, portable guitar amp. This thing is meant to strap onto your hip so you can play wherever you are. It's a very small device, and it has a few switches and knobs. At the top, you have the different effects you can dial in. You can choose between chorus, reverb and delay. The knob next to it controls how much of the effect you'd like. Next, you have a wah, trem or phaser switch. The knob to the right controls the aggressiveness of that effect. Finally, you can choose between what kind of amp you want - warm, bright or normal. The knob next to it controls the gain. UTILIZATION This thing is really haggard. For one, it's not that versatile at all. The toggle switches themselves are very plastic-y feeling, and I wonder how easily they'll break. I never liked the whole "put an amp on your hip and walk around while playing" aspect, so maybe this thing just isn't for me. On the other hand, it's super simple to setup. Anybody can plug into this and get some sort of sound. Just don't expect anything good. There's really no need to read the manual for this thing. SOUND QUALITY The sound is awful. It's buzzy, thin and the effects are trash. Let's start with the effects - for one, you can barely control anything on them. You can either control the intensity or the level. Both of which are pretty much combined into one knob, so it's real hard to dial in anything usable. The amp models themselves sound like pure ass. I wouldn't recommend this to anybody. OVERALL OPINION If someone offers to buy you one of these, politely decline it. They're not even worth checking out, it's that bad. The effects suck, the amp models suck, the device feels flimsy, and walking around with an amp on your hip is just plain stupid. Spend your money elsewhere.
The Waves Ltd. GTR Solo is guitar amp and effects modeling software that Waves has made free for a year! The software can be downloaded from Waves' website and with a short registration process. It shouldn't take too long and is available for all DAW's that I'm aware of. The software comes with a series of modeled amplifiers as well as stomp boxes for effects of all kinds. It splits it up into separate plug-ins for your amplifiers and effects. There is also a tuner for helpful inside the box guitar tuning. The plug-ins aren't hard to use and there's definitely a lot that can be done with them. I've never checked out the manual for GTR Solo but there is one available for it that I'm sure is in depth enough for users on all levels. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE I'm running the Waves Ltd. GTR Solo software in Pro Tools 9 on my system at home. My computer is a Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM, while I'm running Pro Tools 9 with a Digi 002R audio interface (or standalone as is possible with PT 9). It doesn't take up too much processing power from what I can tell and from how I've been using it on my system. Of course it will vary depending on the system you're running it on, but in general I think users will be able to run it without problems. OVERALL OPINION It's really awesome that Waves is letting everyone get GTR Solo free for a year, and of course I'd highly recommend taking advantage of this. It's a pretty awesome tool for in the box guitar modeling and for getting effects of all kinds. It's never going to sound like the real thing, but considering how many different options there are here between the amp modeling, cabinets, effects, and utilities, it's great that everything sounds great. You don't need to take my word for it, just check it out for yourself today and see what's it's all about...
