I would like to introduce the publication of the first plugin under my own brand of plugins.
The story of the onyx amplifier started in 2014. A young engineering student, with a passion for vacuum tubes, began designing his own guitar amplifier. It didn’t take too long before the first prototypes were made. After countless hours of tweaking and tuning, the amplifier was finally done. It was the birth of a three channeled tube amplifier, with a seperate pre- and power amp. The idea of making software plugins started right after being introduced to the world of digital signal processing. It took an internship and the introduction to the LV2 standard to turn this idea into reality.
The Onyx plugin is based on this beast from the past. Translating this amplifier turned out to be quite the challange. There were three main objectives that were very important. The sound had to be as close to the original as possible. The three channels of the origial amp had to be been combined into a single channel. This resulted in a minimalistic control layout that has been carefully tuned to give users the same broad range of sounds. The gain control, in combination with the clipping stage, creates unique distorion sounds that range from a sparkly clean sound all the way to modern metal.
The character knob controls the voice of the amplifier.
The sound will be:
- warmer when the knob is set to eight o’clock;
- transparent when the knob is set to twelve o’clock;
- bright when the knob is set to four o’clock.
The traditional BMT tonestack, found in many famous amplifiers, finds it’s place in this amplifier as well due to it’s wide toneshaping characteristics. With only three knobs you will gain control over a vast landscape of sounds, matching the minimalistic design aproach.
getting started with the Onyx won’t take much effort.
A few tips and tricks to get the best sounds out of the Onyx with little effort:
- Add a noise gate as the first pedal in your signal chain.
- Add a boost pedal infront of the amplifier.
- Using the MOD vintage and modern cabinet in parallel will create a think and rich wall of sound.
- place delay and reverb effects at the end of the signal chain.
just downloaded this - first impressions are REALLY good… and that’s without adding a cab sim… there are SO few amp sims that sound good without a cab… well done
Good work! Caveat: When I tried to add a second instance to the pedal board it gave one loud crackle and afterwards both instances were silent. Luckily my mixer and monitors survived this incidence…
Ooops, I stumbled directly into another issue. This time I’m not sure it’s onyx’s fault though: I setup my pedalboard with two instances of onyx, saved it and shutdown the MOD. Then today I powered up the MOD and let it boot only to be greeted with my guitar sounding totally plain (i.e. onyx not doing its thing in the signal path). Then I headed over to the computer to configure the USB network interface to check out the pedal board. While doing this the MOD suddenly started to produce horrendous continuous crackling noise. I quickly pulled down the fader on my mixer and pondered the situation. After a while the frantic red blinking of the output clipping LEDs stopped and the sound was fine there after.
So I wonder if onyx has another bug hidden with multiple instances when the MOD starts up?
Hey Jarno, I just tried the Onyx for the first time, and I have to say I am very impressed! It really is a very good sounding plugin. I’m looking forward to see what else you come up with.
I have a couple of suggestions/feature requests for it though. Firstly, I’d love to be able to run it in stereo. Second, when running at low gain and soft clipping, you always end up with less than unity gain for the whole plugin, even with volume maxed. This means that when you turn it off, there is a significant volume boost. Please can you add a bit more volume?
But seriously, good job. You nailed the sound of this one.
Just another happy user, really great amp this one. I’m struggling to get any good sounds out of many other amps on the MOD but this works splendidly, thanks!
Hi Jarno, I was trying to reproduced the pedalboard your are showing in your video. I could not figure out what the first plugin is in your chain. It is the black Guitarix plugin. Could you tell me what that is? Thanks for your help.
Hi, sorry for the late reply. I am not sure what the name of the plugin is. I don’t have my MOD with me at the moment. It is a noise filtering plugin from guitarix. I think it is in the unstable section. I will have a look and let you know when I get back home!
Yes, looks like it’s the GxDenoiser2 plugin, which is currently only in the MOD Labs.
As long the Labs ain’t be included in the MOD UI, your best way to get it is to download it directly from my github page, were I’ve put a ready to use binary :
instruction for how to unpack and install it on your MOD is given there.
This has been fixed and is just uploaded to my github page. I informed one of MOD’s employees that it is good to go. Shouldn’t take too long before it is updated in the plugin store.
Unity gain can now be achieved with the gain knob all the way down. Adjust the volume knob until you reach unity. The plugin now has a 3db volume boost if the gain is all the way down and the volume all the way up. Unity gain can easily be achieved now.
i set up a board for my guitarist and had the crackle issue (when starting the mod with the pedalboard active or switching to the pedalboard) with one instance of the onyx running.
i will test if it’s resolved aswell!
having said that - the onyx sounds awesome. my guitarist was baffled (in a good way) and i might think about learning to play the guitar…
