WAVES GTR 2.0 (Mac/Win)

Dec 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Orren Merton

Waves and Paul Reed Smith Guitars are both companies renowned for producing high-quality products. Their collaboration on Waves GTR produced a hardware-software bundle designed for guitar recording. Waves GTR 2.0 is an upgraded version that was released earlier this year. It adds a number of new amp and cabinet models, among other improvements.

The bundle consists of the Waves PRS Guitar Interface (WPGI) and a collection of plug-ins that includes Waves Tuner, a fully featured chromatic tuner; Waves Amp (see Fig. 1), which gives you models of 10 amplifiers, 15 speaker cabinets, and 9 microphones; and Waves Stomp, a virtual pedalboard that can be filled with either 2, 4, or 6 (depending on which configuration of Stomp you open) of 23 stompbox-style effects. Each of the plug-ins in GTR 2.0 offers mono, stereo, and mono-in/stereo-out configurations. Waves Amp also features a dual-cabinet configuration, which routes the guitar amp model's output through two cabinet models in parallel.

Plugging In

Clearly, Waves understands that a great guitar sound starts with a great guitar signal. The WPGI (see Fig. 2) includes a solid-state preamp that can convert your signal from unbalanced to balanced. It gets the best results with a balanced mixer input or audio-interface input.

The WPGI operates with either two 9V batteries (included) or a 12V DC adapter (optional), and it has a ground-lift switch in case you are experiencing ground loop noise in your signal.

From an I/O standpoint, the WPGI has a 1 MΩ, unbalance ¼-inch input that's impedance matched for passive guitar pickups and can output either a balanced XLR or unbalanced ¼-inch signal. Its XLR output can be set to either line (+4 dB) or mic (-28 dB) level.

I was surprised by the lack of a balanced ¼-inch TRS output. Waves recommends sending a balanced line-level signal to your DAW, but most line-level inputs on affordable audio interfaces use TRS inputs. In my case, I used an XLR-to-TRS cable in order to connect the XLR output from the WPGI to a line-level TRS input on my RME Fireface 800.

I wish the WPGI had a direct USB connection to the computer, because that would eliminate the need for an audio interface altogether. Incorporating USB would make the WPGI far more useful with a laptop or live rig.

The WPGI has minimal metering. Its 3-level indicator LEDs show if a signal is present, is at a nominal level, or is overloading. No dB indications are included on the meter. I would have preferred at least six LEDs; dB indications; and a dB scale around the gain knob.

While I have some reservations about the design of the WPGI, I have none about its sound quality. I own a number of rather expensive DI boxes, and the WPGI held its own sonically with all of them.

I tried out the WPGI with a number of different guitars, including a Koll Tornado and a Gretsch Duo-Jet (both with FilterTron pickups); a humbucker-equipped Patrick Eggle Berlin Pro V; and a single-coil Fender Telecaster. In each case the WPGI output a strong, clean signal. It had gain to spare, and introduced no additional noise of its own even when turned up. I was very impressed with how good my guitars sounded through it.

Tune Me Up

Tuners are not the most exciting of plug-ins, but they're a necessity. The excellent Waves Tuner features a pop-up menu with various modes for chromatic, guitar, or alternate tunings; you can adjust the tuning reference plus or minus 6 cents; and you can toggle notes on or off.

Those features are all solidly implemented, but what makes this tuner stand out is its response. Many software tuners are too jerky to be useful. I've found them to be so sensitive to even inaudible variations in pitch that the tuner jumps from value to value faster than I can tune up. But Waves Tuner captures that magical balance between accuracy and speed; it responds to changes in string pitch quickly enough to be accurate, but not so fast that I feel broadsided by the information.

Getting Amped

Waves Amp has a clean and easy-to-understand user interface, which, unlike some other amp-modeling software, doesn't change appearance to reflect the selected amp or cabinet model. Pull-down menus let you choose the amp, cabinet, and microphone model.

All of the amp models have controls for drive, EQ, and presence. You get a vintage-style VU meter for master volume, below which sits a master volume knob. Also included is a bypass switch and a standard Waves control bar for preset loading, saving, and A/B comparison.

The names of the amplifier models — Clean, Sweet, Edgy, Cream, Drive, OverDrive, Crunch, Hot, Modern, and Direct (a direct box model) — don't specify which actual amps they were modeled from. However, there are enough clues to deduce that they're emulating Fender, Vox, Marshall, and Mesa/Boogie amps, as well as other vintage and modern classics.

The ten amplifier simulations make it possible to generate tones that range from sparkling clean to heavily distorted. In general, the Clean, Sweet, Edgy, and Drive amps are fantastic. The clean and edge-of-breakup sounds they produce are better than in any other simulation I've heard. Adding to the realism, these models are very touch responsive and dynamic. The Edgy amp is my favorite. It gets some amazingly open, rich, and dynamic Vox-like tones (see Web Clip 1).

The more heavily distorted amp models sound overly compressed to my ears, and in some cases have an odd, nasally, notch-EQ'd tone that real high-gain amplifiers don't. Nonetheless, with careful tweaking I was able to get some believable tones out of the Crunch and Hot simulations.