UAFX Native Lion, Ruby and Dream

I guess that's one way of looking at it but if you buy the 3 UA models, you get 3 amps for $450(on sale half off, $900 regular price).  You can buy AmpHub outright($99) plus 3 models for $49 each and still be way less than UA.  Personally, I still use real amps on most projects but when amp sims are needed I subscribe 1 month at a time and end up paying $26-$39 range per year for all this:

• Big Cat Sphynx V2: Bad Cat© LYNX™ V2 50W
• Blackhole Arcturus 100: Blackstar™ Artisan™ 100
• Bogart Ultrasonic Blue: Bogner™ Uberschall™
• Brit J1 2084: Marshall™ JMP1™ / Marshall™ EL84 20/20
• Brit J45: Marshall® JTM45®
• Brit J800: Marshall® JCM800® 2203
• Brit Plex: Marshall® Super Lead 100®
• Burner Excel Ltd: Brunetti™ XL R-Evo™ Limited Edition
• Cali Dual Rect 2 Ch: Mesa Boogie® Dual Rectifier 2 Channel®
• Eagle 53: Engl™ 530 preamp & Engl™ Fireball™ poweramp
• Eagle Fire 60: Engl™ Fireball™ 60
• Eagle Power V1: ENGL® Powerball® 1
• Eddy 5153: Fender® EVH® 5150 III
• Emissary: Ignite Amps® Emissary®
• Fenix Bass 1959: Fender® Bassmann® 5F6-A
• Fenix Brown Combo: Fender® Deluxe® 6G3
• Fenix HR Ville 1996 Combo: Fender® DeVille™ 410 USA
• Forbid Symbol: Fortin™ Sigil™
• Frantic Drachen: Framus®
• Frantic Kobra: Framus® Cobra
• Gasoline Herbie V3: Diezel® Herbert III™
• Hotwatt Doctor 103: Hiwatt™ DR103® Custom 100
• Ignite Amps Graviton: Custom Bass Amp
• Krater Dimed Plus: Krank™ Krankenstein+®
• Krater Ravage 1: Krank™ Revolution® 1
• Lab Mr Hectic: Laboga™ Mr Hector™
• Lancaster VR100: Laney™ VH100R™
• Meridian 31: Peavey™ 3120™
• Meridian 65 Plus: Peavey™ 6505 Plus™
• Meridian 65: Peavey™ 6505™
• Meridian Class 30: Peavey® Classic 30®
• Meridian XSr: Peavey™ JSX™
• Origin Dual Black 50: Orange® Dual Dark 50®
• Origin Rocker MK1: Orange® Rockerverb MK1®
• Pyros Archean V2 50: PRS™ Archon™
• Pyros Tremor 15: PRS™ MT15®
• Randy El Diablo 50: Randall™ Diavlo RD50
• Raven Type D: Revv™ D20™
• Raven Type G: Revv™ G20™
• Saratov M50: Sovtek™ Mig 50™
• Solstice Solo 100: Soldano® SLO100®
• Steiner ToneCake 50: Steavens™ Poundcake™
• Vicarius Black 30: Victory™ V30 The Countess™ MKI
• Vicarius Grey 50: Victory™ The Kraken™
• Vulture A30 Combo: Vox® AC30® Top Boost

Plus a ton of pedal effects:
• AutoWah
• Basic Compressor
• Basic Volume Pedal
• Boss® HM2 : Bold Dist H2
• Boss® MT2 : Bold Dist M2
• Boss® OD1 : Bold Drive O1
• Boss® SD1 : Bold Drive S1
• Darkglass Electronics® B3K™ V1 : Obsidius Modern 3001
• Darkglass Electronics® Vintage Microtubes™ Bass Pedal : Obsidius Vintage
• Digitech® Bad Monkey: DeeGeeT Drive Monkey Business
• Dunlop® Cry Baby GCB95 : Dune Wah Cry 95
• Earth Quaker Devices® Plumes : Ear Shatter Drive Pluvius
• Envelope Filter
• Fortin® 33 : Forbid 66
• Franken Fuzz
• Fulltone® OCDv14 : Foo Drive DOC 14
• Horizon Devices® Precision Drive : Horde Drive Accuracy
• Ibanez® TS9 : Ibis Drive T9
• Ignite Amps Tyrant Screamer,
• JHS® TheAT : Jax Drive Andy
• Klon™ Centaur™ : Kentaurus Drive
• Marshall® Blues Breaker : Brit Drive Blue
• Marshall® Drive Master : Brit Drive Red
• Marshall® Shred Master : Brit Drive Gold
• Maxon® OD808 : Max Drive M808
• MXR® Custom Badass Modified OD : Mizar Drive Kickass Mod
• MXR® Distortion Plus : Mizar Dist Plus
• MXR® M109 : GEQ6
• Proco® Rat : Prodigal Dist Raw v2
• Proco® TurboRat : Prodigal Dist Raw Turbo
• Seymour Duncan® 805 : Sigma Delta Drive 505
• TC® Integrated Preamp : Tease Preamp
• Tech 21® Bass Driver DI : Technyc Drive Direct Bass V1
• Trioctaver
• Wampler® Abasi Pathos : Wampus Animal Distortion
• Wampler® Euphoria : Wampus D-phoria
• Wampler® Triple Wreck : Wampus Dist Triple Wick
• Xotic® BB Preamp : Xordium Preamp 2B
• Xotic® EP Booster™ : Xordium Epsilon Boost

Effects
• Analog Delay
• Analog Tremolo
• Chainsaw Eq
• Digital Chorus
• Digital Flanger
• Digital Phaser
• Digital Tremolo
• Digital Delay
• Digital Reverb
• Droptaver
• Giano Guitar Doubler
• Multi Chorus
• MXR® M108 : GEQ10
• Orbital Delay
• Parametric Eq
• Shapeshifter Verb
• Spaceverb
• Studio Compressor
• Vintage Modulation

It covers a lot of ground for anything that may need that flexibility 👍🏼

Fair enough, just wanted to offer an alternative for anyone that may be interested.  I think they sound better than anything I've used and I've tried a bunch over the years.  Seems like finding UA alternatives is probably going to be a good idea but that's just my own 2 cents.  

Gonna try them out. Even if it’s just a couple that might be cool

I tried TH-U and it was good…Maybe it’s the simplicity of the GUI that makes me really like the UA stuff. IDK.

So just spent about 45 minutes with Amphub...If you're in to metal and heavy rock, this would be great. I had trouble getting clean headroom in anything. Even pulling the input knob down...and honestly, I didn't think it sounded any better than Helix...

Played around with Tonex and Helix…and I just find the UA stuff sooooo much more realistic. There are some Tonex ones that sound good…but they all sound the same to me.

Yeah agree Line 6 GUI looks about 10 years old. This is the reason I don't often open HN. Would be great if they had an overhaul tbh. 

I bought the 3 plugins at $109. I can’t resist guitar amp modeling, especially around the $30-$40 range per plugin.

I’m liking the Dream 65. I can see why some don’t like the taper of the gain in the lower regions, but I do like listening to driven Fenders though. It was really easy to dial in some sounds that worked with the single coil guitar I was using.

The Ruby sounds good. Normal channel sounds as I expected to, even taking something like a treble boosted signal. I don’t use the included cabs. I prefer Celestion Alnico Blue IRs. The Brilliant channel was a little odd to me. I’m used to the tone stack of my Vox AC15C1 Top Boost channel, which I often play through a Suhr Reactive Load. The combination of the Treble, Bass, and Cut knobs didn’t react to my expectations.

The Lion sounded great. I only got to test the Lead model, but it sounded as I expected a Marshall sim to sound. From Helix Native, like the Brit Trem Brt model for Plexi sounds. The Lion sounds better though. I again bypassed the Lion cabs to use my own IRs.

I did my own captures of my Vox AC15 and Plexi clone in Neural Amp Modeler, the free ToneX competitor, and have been using those amps primarily. I do see myself incorporating all of these UAD amps in my workflow. They are easy to dial in and the interface isn’t cluttered.

When comparing to similar models (Deluxe Reverb, AC30, Plexi), the UA generally sounds better to me. The bread and butter Helix models are the oldest ones on that platform, and their recent amp models over the past 5 years have improved. I’ve got a Fractal FM3 that I’d still like to hear against the UAD amps.

I’ve read all the negative things about UA as of late, and didn’t think that I would end up liking these amp sims as much. I didn’t consider the pedals at all, but I think they did a good job with the modeling.

All the eq knobs on Ruby, in the TB channel, acts like cuts. In the sense that all the way to the left is the most bass/treble possible. All the way to the right is the least bass/treble.

I also don't get it, since we do have the Cut knob for that. But might be accurate to these type of Vintage Vox amps. I don't know, never used them. But I do have a Handwired AC30 and that got me confused asf.

That’s interesting. I had no idea what the knobs were doing as I was twisting them.

I was trying to match this distorted humbucker tone I had with my AC15. The AC15 was set with the Volume at 3:00, Treble 11:00, Bass 12:00, and the Cut at Minimum. The closest I got with the Ruby was with the Volume around 2:00, Treble 9:00, Bass Maxed, and the Cut around 1:00. This was with a Celestion Blue-like speaker IR with an SM57 near the cap edge.

I know the modern AC15 isn’t a vintage AC30, but it was a head scratcher of a first impression.

UA was able to get my ua coupon working so did buy the 3 amp sims: think they seem very useful.

I find them easier to work with than logic’s drop downs.

Thx UA!