What a mess [EDIT] applies to VST version only..

bisherltd

O.K. so I bought Bias FX and Bias AMP 2.

It takes at least 30 seconds to load an instance of Bias FX. This is crazy
Bias Amp loads all the amps in nice catagories Blues, Glassy etc, but when you go to Bias FX you get just one catagory - BIAS AMP 2. Useless.
You can't try the amps in Bias AMP with effects, so how are you supposed to tweak them?
You can't tweak the Amps in Bias FX, so.... how are you supposed to tweak them......?
You can't import or export banks of amps. You can in almost every other amp sim.
You can't label amps with metadata - good settings or notes - even podfarm used to have this.
Bias pedal is useless as you can't use it with amps to try out the sounds.... WHHYYYY?!!!

Is it me or is Bias a total mess of a product? They need to put the whole thing in one package and charge money to switch bits of it on or off IMO.

Sorry to whine but the amps sound great, just the implementation sucks....

[EDIT] I'm talking about the VST versions, not ipad. That's why it's posted in the 'Desktop' forum...

Ásgeir Helgi Þrastarson

Takes me 14 secs to open the app. After about 1-2 seconds, I can already play guitar and listen to the tone that was loaded last time I opened the app.
Haven't tested personally but maybe Positive Grid will improve upon this if they receive feedback?
Bias Amp and Bias FX are not the same programs. You can either make an educated guess or you can just load an effect before Bias Amp on a channel strip in a DAW.
Same reply as above.
5 & 6. I can't comment on this as I don't care about these types of features.
Put it in front of Bias Amp on a channel strip in a DAW.

Regarding Bias FX, Bias Amp and Bias Pedal, you have to realise these are independent apps. Bias pedal is a software that emulates pedals, nothing more, nothing less.

Bias FX is a package that kinda does it all and is great. In the end it's all business and Positive Grid sell more products by having them separate.

Sascha Ballweg

@bisherltd some good ideas in there. Please send them via a support-ticket to the PG-Staff.

Elric

@sascha-ballweg Yup, if you see something that is a specific issue you can file a ticket (example: I agree with #2 in fact it is a general thing PG needs to improve: in general ALL of the PG products could benefit from some configurable browsing hierarchies (user imported impulses, imported pedals, imported amps (even with the categories in 2 I have like 50-60 'metal' amps alone to sift through for example ).

That said, @bisherltd : a lot of your issues are with your own work flow (3-7). I'll have to write up how I use pedal, amp, and FX, some time.

Tips:
Don't forget you can instantiate more than one thing in your DAW or Plugin host. You really need one to effectively switch back and forth. I typically only use the stand alone versions for single use. For dialing things in conjunction with one another you need a host so you can flip between the plugs. It is pretty great actually.

Some of the architecture is to support mobile and the hardware products too.

Also, one important note: Pedal has built-in amp models to try the FX with in stand alone mode. See the bottom bar. In fact I always have to remember to disable this when using it as an FX plugin with other plugins, otherwise you get double amp/cab sounds and it is icky.

Sascha Ballweg

@elric said in What a mess.:

Also, one important note: Pedal has built-in amp models to try the FX with in stand alone mode. See the bottom bar. In fact I always have to remember to disable this when using it as an FX plugin with other plugins, otherwise you get double amp/cab sounds and it is icky.

Oups! Thank you for this hint!

danbieranowski

@bisherltd Tweaking the actual Amp from within FX was previously possible, although I haven't tried it with the most recent.

This link shows how, if you want to test it. https://help.positivegrid.com/hc/en-us/articles/204942805-BIAS-Amp-Integration

pipelineaudio

1, 2, 5 and 6 are biggies to me, big time

Elric

@danbieranowski That is the iPad version switching apps for you via a hot button, it still totally works but has always been an iOS only feature. It completely swaps engines, like running two stand alone instances on a desktop. It could integrate the result back into FX but that is the only upside vs desktop.

alderre

I don’t want to believe that PG keeps everything separate Just to make more money.

Somewhere in the past they made the decision and now are stuck with 2 semi incompatible programs.

Maybe they are just busy making me a floor unit

bisherltd

Hi All

Thanks for the replies. On further research it seems that the ipad version works really well as far as integration is concerned.

Unfortunately I'm using the VST versions, and on those none of the integration is there, which is kind of annoying considering the money I've blown on the 'pro' version.

So my only solution appears to be loading three plugins, one bias fx for pre pedals, then bias amp, then bias fx for post fx again. But hang on, now I want to tweak the pedals......... which I can't do. God knows what the latency would be with three plugins....

On the VST versions of bias there is NO integration..... I've spent getting on for 800 quid on this........ just really badly implemented.....

Could PG please reply to this? How are we supposed to use it?

Chris

bisherltd

This post is deleted!

pipelineaudio

I think this is a distinction without a difference. Loading three VSTs actually seems a lot more convenient to me than loading three standalone apps

bisherltd

My suggestion is to have one VST - Bias FX, but have bias amp and pedal open within this plugin as paid unlockable parts of the plugin.

Why would you load 3 standalone apps? when did I suggest that? I'm talking about the plugins.

Tannhauser

All this has been mentioned and discussed. And I have said I use FX pre, AMP, FX post. Levels must be set right to get an analogous FX-only tone. My system is a 3ghz '07-ish quad core, and it does take a bit for each instance to load interface on first-viewing.

Visibility of B2 amps in FX is difficult only because they haven't upgraded the interface to see the whole amp title, as they did in B2.

The products make sense from a mobile perspective (look and then forget).

bisherltd

@tannhauser said in What a mess [EDIT] applies to VST version only..:

All this has been mentioned and discussed. And I have said I use FX pre, AMP, FX post. Levels must be set right to get an analogous FX-only tone. My system is a 3ghz '07-ish quad core, and it does take a bit for each instance to load interface on first-viewing.

Visibility of B2 amps in FX is difficult only because they haven't upgraded the interface to see the whole amp title, as they did in B2.

The products make sense from a mobile perspective (look and then forget).

Interesting. The only problem with that is you can't have the amps in stereo, plus what is the latency of the three plugins? I'm guessing it's more than one instance of FX?

maxkristoffersson68

@bisherltd Hey:) I use the VST version aswell. I got they same problem as you, i got Bias fx pro, amp 2 elite. As for open Bias fx i have the waiting time, yes i to can play and here the sound, still takes way to long to open the interface. Now as far as the Amp 2 its worse, am starting to lose some hair lol. I have to agree on all 1-7 but if i hade to pick just one, its the freaking loading time, jesus what the hell is gping on.

Other then that am a happy camper (old wow gamer here haha)

But i as meny others said Before woude love if PG just put all programs together and you just needed one, a man can dream right:) O wait Amp 2 just started, am out haha....

There is one thing that goes fast atleast with Bias FX, and that is downloading other presets from other players on the cloud, i only wish it woud be the same for the rest ...

Elric

@maxkristoffersson68 Yes, the latest version of FX definitely has severe issues with load time and UI slowness in general.

This is a new thing and it is a separate issue from the work flows of one program versus many... this happened with the new version that’s supports Amp2 perhaps it should get its own topic.

I am planning to enter a help ticket @Felix and @Joe-Kuo
But others can do so also.

Basically:

FX takes forever to start UI either as VST or stand alone
When replacing an amp it is pretty much unusable, especially with Bias 2 amps... You have to right click ‘replace’ and then wait for ever while it reloads the entire B2 amp database, the sidebar menu is not even selectable for many seconds. If you click it too soon, it closes and you have to start over again.
Once you have the sidebar loaded you pick Bias 2 and then I have 100 amp match presets plus maybe a hundred more of my own to scroll through. The scrolling is slow and jerky and the amp names are incomplete so I actually have to guess which amp is which because I frequently have more than one with different power tube type or cab IR.

It takes a super long time to pick one. And then if I accidentally picked the wrong one (due to the truncated name) or want to try a different one, it all starts over again. It is pretty brutal.

The amps seem to be in random order each session too.

Honestly I’d just prefer a text list with a search bar.

Felix

@bisherltd @Elric
Just done a few tests through a 2012 i5 MBP.(ram:16GB)
It takes around 12s to launch FX and 2~3s to load patches.
Which OS system and computer spec are you guys running? I'd like to know if it's a performance issue or computer limitations.

BTW, I will share all the feedback and suggestions directly to our product team and we will definitely fix some known issues later. Please stay tuned!

Elric

@felix Hey Felix: I doubt it is hardware limits. I am running on a more current machine than yours .

I think the issues here are replacing Amps when large Bias 1 and Bias 2 libraries are in play. Loading a preset is perfectly reasonable and I can live with the longer startup time what is completely out of hand is doing:

Right click Amp -> Replace
Going to Bias 2 submenu
Scrolling through library
Selecting new amp.

Honestly, it is not usable. I can't really fully utilize my extensive Amp 2 library because of the slowness, it takes much too long to replace something because I often do this one amp after the other searching for just the right one.

macOS High Sierra Latest patch
Latest FX/Amp 2 Elite
Hardware:
15-inch MacBook Pro - Space Gray (2016)
2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7
16GB 2133MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM
Radeon Pro 455 with 2GB VRAM
1TB PCIe-based SSD

I have a second 2015 MBPro. Same deal.

I can take this to a ticket if you want. I can send you my FX and Amp2 data folders, etc. Or could do a screen recording with Quicktime. etc

Thanks for responding! It is sounding good though. Lots of promise here.

pipelineaudio

That is a good rundown elric. We REALLY tried to keep it to three clicks to an absolute maximum in REAPER whenever possible, and often less than that, the feel of the Bias GUI's is tricky...it may be a legacy of needing to work in iOs, I dont know