headcase 1.53 AMPS....CUSTOM amp series....... MMJ

[parkway]

Request:

Jeff Beck: Album: Blow by Blow - Tune: "Cause We've Ended As Lovers" [amp - marshall or ampeg??]
Jeff Beck: Album: There and Back - Tune: "Too Much to Lose" and "The Pump"
Jeff Beck: Album: Who Else - Tune: "Angel [Footsteps]"

any of these would be awesome

thanks

[parkway]

Request:

Steely Dan: Katy Lied: Songs: "Daddy Don't Live in That New York City No More", "Doctor Wu", "Chain Lightning"
[any one of these would be awesome...cuz the album was a work of art from end to end]
Steely Dan: Aja: Songs: "Josie"
Steely Dan: Royal Scam: Song: "Don't Take Me Alive" [lead guitar: Larry Carlton]

trying to focus on the cleaner amps [although there's some definite "dirt" in "Don't Take Me Alive"....by the way I forgot to mention. "Don't Take Me Alive" played a big part in my wanting to learn guitar.

thanks

parkway

[parkway]

another secret weapon for sustain used on many records in that era.............. E-Bow!

I think this was part of the tool box for Bowie's "Scary Monsters" and I think I've seen Carlos Alomar use one on "Heroes"[Bowie alumni plus was on probably the best live recording of all David Bowie - Glass Spider Tout 1987 with Peter Frampton [awesome duet on "sons of the Silent Age"]

parkway

[Ken McLaren]

another secret weapon for sustain used on many records in that era.............. E-Bow!

I think this was part of the tool box for Bowie's "Scary Monsters" and I think I've seen Carlos Alomar use one on "Heroes"[Bowie alumni plus was on probably the best live recording of all David Bowie - Glass Spider Tout 1987 with Peter Frampton [awesome duet on "sons of the Silent Age"]

parkway

Man, you know you been in it a long time when people talk about eras and realize that you were recording back then too. Hell I remember speeding up the multitrack an octave higher and playing single notes on a guitar to emulate a bass guitar... The owner of the stuidio nearly had a fit!, "Why the hell didn't you just plug in one of the basses? haha I also remember taking a Studer two track and swiping the tape back and forth to emulate album scratches... Bob nearly had a fit then too. I remember him asking me, "YOU DID'NT USE MY RECORD PLAYER FOR THAT DID YOU!" ? No I used your Studer two track... BOOM!! It was like a nuclear freakin bomb went off..

So, that era was when I cut my teeth and got my ass kicked, it was a lot easier to find work in a studio back then. I feel for the kids coming up in the industry now because of that reason. Although the internet is a fantastic place to learn, it lacks the hands on skill that was so readily available back then. You can read all day about setting mics on cabs, but until you do it for a while and get your own style, its still only theory. Back then a kid could get a break and volunteer at a studio where the senior guys would teach you. Then after a while, you could actually get a paid gig...Now.. It just seems more difficult..

Edit:
Actually while I'm strolling down memory lane here, I want to share another studio story with you. One day we had a large name producer come in. The first thing he did was have the drummer play and he'd walk around the room back and forth covering up one ear. He'd stop every now and then kneel, and spin around in a circle, then stand up and spin around in a circle.. I looked at Bob and said, WTF is this guy on? (or something along those lines) I didn't know who he was at that time... And I'm not going to say either. He did this for each instrument, then he did it as the whole band played. This went on for at least 2 days..

Anyways, as it turns out, this producer is known for having one of the BEST natural room sounds on all his recordings. He would place a mic in each position where he spun around in a circle, and the reason he had an ear covered was so that he could hear what the mic would hear. Spinning around allowed him to decide how the mic was to be aimed, kneeling and standing told him at what height to place the mic. He would record each position, make an adjustment, record another position, make and adjustment. etc...

He told me the reason was two fold, he could work out the best room sounds, but that was done the first day, what he really wanted the band to do was practice the tunes in a mind numbing second nature fashion. If he heard a mistake or thought one of the musicians was loose. He'd say that he had to have just the bass player, or just the guitarist. The band recorded their tracks in almost a single take, tight as hell. And thats why they won a grammy. Some of the tracks that were on th album, were right off the floor, they thought they were doing sound tests...

Anyways, I just wanted to share that with you.. I'm in a nostalgic giving mood... haha

[parkway]

another secret weapon for sustain used on many records in that era.............. E-Bow!

I think this was part of the tool box for Bowie's "Scary Monsters" and I think I've seen Carlos Alomar use one on "Heroes"[Bowie alumni plus was on probably the best live recording of all David Bowie - Glass Spider Tout 1987 with Peter Frampton [awesome duet on "sons of the Silent Age"]

parkway

Man, you know you been in it a long time when people talk about eras and realize that you were recording back then too. Hell I remember speeding up the multitrack an octave higher and playing single notes on a guitar to emulate a bass guitar... The owner of the stuidio nearly had a fit!, "Why the hell didn't you just plug in one of the basses? haha I also remember taking a Studer two track and swiping the tape back and forth to emulate album scratches... Bob nearly had a fit then too. I remember him asking me, "YOU DID'NT USE MY RECORD PLAYER FOR THAT DID YOU!" ? No I used your Studer two track... BOOM!! It was like a nuclear freakin bomb went off..

So, that era was when I cut my teeth and got my ass kicked, it was a lot easier to find work in a studio back then. I feel for the kids coming up in the industry now because of that reason. Although the internet is a fantastic place to learn, it lacks the hands on skill that was so readily available back then. You can read all day about setting mics on cabs, but until you do it for a while and get your own style, its still only theory. Back then a kid could get a break and volunteer at a studio where the senior guys would teach you. Then after a while, you could actually get a paid gig...Now.. It just seems more difficult..

It's funny you mention the value of stripping away the toys in favor of the hands on skill. Although I haven't had nearly the volume of experience you have had it's amazing to me the amount of joy I get just slinging on the strat and listening to the sound that comes out of it without even being plugged into an amp. And I agree with your take on the way that the industry monster has kamakazied music for kids today. It amazes me to listen to recordings of Roy Orbison or the Platters not to mention what was done in Berry Gordy's Motown studios and hear the quality and passion that came out of what's considered to be really antiquated technology.

[Ken McLaren]

Yeah I think everyone should know the fundamentals in order to get the most out of their recording. They should know what a real amp feels like, and they should know how to mic one. All knowledge is good..

[strangedogs]

Roy was one of my heros - those days produced some of the very best recordings using analog hardware and TALENT.

[Ken McLaren]

HAHA Sorry about writing a book earlier.. I was just in a chatty mood..

[Tetragammatone]

HAHA Sorry about writing a book earlier.. I was just in a chatty mood..

No no Ken you shouldn't be sorry either way, that was really informative, good experience for me to read it

[Ken McLaren]

My family and I had a prertty big scare a about 4-6 months ago and as a result I find my self stumbling down memory lane a little more often these days. I'm sure there are other old tube heads here like me who find themselves doing the same thiing, I'm the stupid one daring enough to bore you with the details.

If ever start talking about flat files and screen scraping, you should ban me...
(btw, the older developers will know exactly what flat files and screen scraping is)

[Ken McLaren]

Nice..

[Tetragammatone]

Pure death metal drug pearl

I also have a request, Jac. I'd like a 2 channel amp where one channel is Deftones White Pony era tone and the second is their self-titled 2003 recording tone like those brutal chorus passages in Hexagram and When Girls Telephone Boys.

p.s. a system of a down mezmerize/hypnotize era tone would be very cool too

[feticcio]

Hi I'm new and I don't know how to use those things! Are they presets? or just skins?

[Ken McLaren]

They are images that contain the definitions of the heads. So the images you see, when you install it, will be installed into your copy of head case..

Here is a video that shows you how to use these heads a little easier..
This is all current information except for the Part at the end of the video about the Virtual Amp Stash browser. Thats around 10:40. We had to revoke our support, that included disabling the browser. The good news is however, we have another browser coming to replace it, and we will be launching a new head respository..
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/7630363/Releases/HeadCase/AsylumVideos/Installing%20a%20Head.mp4
If you have any more questions feel free to ask..

EDIT:
Changed
included disabling their browser
to
included disabling the browser

[bigcraigie_1]

We had to revoke our support, that included disabling their browser

Interesting lets set the record straight ....The amp Builders that built the amps and http://www.VirtualAmpStash.com / http://www.ampskindesigns.com sites provided far superior support to AcmeBarGig the Pre purchasers and the public than was ever offered to the pre purchasers and the public by AcmeBargig.

Cheers
Richard Dalton

Couldn't disagree more. The level of support from Ken and the team is first class. That level of support is about to reach an all new high so watch this space folks.

[Ken McLaren]

We had to revoke our support, that included disabling their browser

Interesting lets set the record straight ....The amp Builders that built the amps and http://www.VirtualAmpStash.com / http://www.ampskindesigns.com sites provided far superior support to AcmeBarGig the Pre purchasers and the public than was ever offered to the pre purchasers and the public by AcmeBargig.

Cheers
Richard Dalton

Just wanted to make sure there was another record of his blatent "statement of fact". You can go ahead and delete it now, just like you did with all your other statements..

[Ken McLaren]

well heres one that wont be removed anytime soon
http://www.ampskindesigns.com

Wanna Bet..

Oh Scott...

[Ken McLaren]

(Google, Optusnet, and whoisprivacyprotect.com)
I have quoted statements made by Ms. (Moderator Edit) at the Ampskindesigns.com blog, My answers follow directly after them and explain why they are incorrect. Given the previous statements which you should also have, and this individual's history, this is proof of malice and as such defamation

I really should not be giving you and your psychosis the time of day, but I must answer. I am growing tired of keeping my mouth shut while you are allowed to run yours and no one stops you from making defamatory remarks or statements that are baseless, or at best incorrect.

A review of our interaction with this Developer that accepted cash money for a empty product that was promised to have included 25 amps when complete to retail from the Company.

OK.. First off it was Shred 2.0 that had 25 heads. Head Case made no such claim, we claimed there would be hundreds available.. Last count VAS had 199 does it not? So, thats a false statement...Remove it... "cash money for a empty product" False statement, remove it also immediately.

After 4 Years we have stopped supporting this individual as what has came to fruition as the retail product has become not only a 4 year bad experience and left a bad taste for everyone concerned but is also become a joke.

Funny how all of a sudden its become a bad experience just because we eliminated your sorry psycho ass. After seeing you go on attacks of Peavey, IK Multiumedia, Andy Sneap, Ultimate Metal, KVRAudio, and The Gear Page just to name a few, It was a great day here at the virtual HQ when I finally got to tell you to GFY and get the hell out. We knew you would cause this type of trouble for us, you had already threatened to, but frankly we don't care what you do or say, all anyone has to do is look at your history and they'll know what type of person you actually are. Even though you use multiple names (we call them your different personalities) we will post the names you are known to use.. It won't be long before they get the picture of what you really are.

As far as it being a bad experience for everyone, I don't think you have the right to speak for everyone. I'm sure there are some that did not enjoy the ride, I am sure there are others who did.. such is the nature of what we were doing but you have no right to speak for anyone other than yourself anyways, so remove this statement immediately as it is false.

The Deception started from The Developer of AcmeBargig Headcase trying to push the next product on the facebook group Named Preampus Live 2013 , in a thread and was the fix as far as he was concerned to the problems within headcase's load times at a additonal cost of 40 dollars

Lets answer with facts, Although I'm pretty sure there are little voices that tell you things, Dalton, s1770, Richard, Seven, -X-, or Cinderose. (These are the names we know you use, so I wanted to make sure I addressed all your personalities). Anyways when the voices speak to you, it does not mean that what they tell you is correct. Now in getting back to the quote, The answer I am speaking about is the answer for a live application, head case was never meant to be a live plugin. Preampus and Head Case are different products so yes there will be a different cost for them. If you want to have your own Head case designed head put into preampus live, then we will be offering that service.

The interesting addition to this individuals statement was if you built your amp in headcase you could have your amp included in Preampus live 2013 for an additional service costing .

Exactly, I'm glad you understand. What personality am I speaking with now? I like this one they are a little smarter than the others..

This individual will try to refocus or redirect the problems of this product it seems other than tell the truth of the deficiency of the product for example Slow Load Times ,NO midi implementation for switching of presets when in truth he had started and shared beta builds with the Midi Implementation then stated and removed the Midi Implementation as in his opinon it could come in an update at a later time as coding for such a module was to time consuming for him

OK well whatever personality that is, man can they ever ramble.. So what I think you are complaining about here, is the slow load times, and that we made beta versions of head case with MIDI yet didn't release with the midi.
OK slow load times, as was said about 5 million times already, I cannot guarantee we will get them any faster, obviously if we can we will. As far as the MIDI is concerned.. You are once again mistaken.. The DLL version of head case does not include midi because it is to be used in a daw, and all daws provide automation. We spoke about this at the forum and and everyone said they use DAW automation anyways. So what's the point of adding more bloat to the plugin by now building midi into it. Its like shooting a deer twice? The beta versions that you so nicely provided screen shots of (BTW remove them immediately), were to become EXE versions where MIDI had to be included becauase the power of a daw was not available to a stand alone EXE. We have not built the unsupported bonus EXE versions as yet but we will as the Asylum progresses.
So that statement is wrong, remove it immediately..

Midi implementation did not make it to retail no midi switching

Maybe you have to repeat yourself, I don't but for your benefit, lets say this again...
There is no midi in the retail version, we are providing unsupported EXE files that do contain midi at a later time..

Purchasers are not given any thought to this persons changes of direction

Oh really, I seem to remember that we were building Shred 2 and then we all took a vote whether to upgrade to Head Case.. Head Case was voted in so we built it. I also seem to remember that I was going to release a year ago and the pre-purchasers said not to release it. They wanted better graphics. I guess in your world that means that we didn't listen or speak to anyone, just merrily went about being evil. Absolute idiocy...
Your statement is wrong, remove it immediately.

we are already at build 1.54 its been 4 years midi was done we want the product we paid for.

You did not pay for midi, midi control is for the stand alone exe files of the suite and the builder and those are not part of the official distribution, they are a bonus. I have already explained why we did not put midi into the plugin, but I'll do it again. The plugins require recording software to run, that recording software already has automation built in. So why include something that is already there and is probably more flexible from the daw? The stand alone exe files do not have the power of a daw's automation behind them so of course we have to make them midi controllable.

Your statement is wrong, remove it immediately..

( Changes like this were very common with this developer and added far more additional time within the 4 years )

How do you know what did what. With statements like that you are giving the impression that you were actually involved. Whatever personality it is that thinks that, you really must not listen to it. You were not involved and you do not know what cost time and what did not. Furthermore, stop saying to others in private that you were a co owner of ABG! You never owned any of this company or it's software at all. You came to me and asked if you could run a skin site, I said sure that'd be great. And to help you get traffic we'll add a link in the program for you. Then you came to me and asked if I minded that you started VAS, I said no problem and we'll try and help you if we can. Thats all you were ever involved in, nothing else... You were not part of the design team, you were not part of the beta tester team, although I did send you a couple copies of betas to test. (Thats why you got the screen shots of the MIDI versions).

Once again your statement is false, remove it immediately.

This Product was in development for 4 years this information was never once mentioned to pre purchasers on entering into pre purchasing this product we probably all thought a time frame of 12months at maxium would be acceptable, seems we were all wrong while the Developer spent our money and made us wait like fools.

OK, well ABG has not been making plugins for 4 years, so this was not in development for 4 years. That statement is false, remove it immediately.
It was in development for 2-1/2 to 3 years, though, so yes it was in development a long time. Now I can see here exactly what you are trying to make me do. You want me to expose some of my personal challenges to feed your sick ego. Like as if in some way you have won because you forced me to discuss personal things. If making me expose personal information about my health makes you feel any better and makes you feel like you won, then fine here goes.

I worked on head case for a long time, every day for at least 12 hours and MANY people can confirm that. At that time I was a smoker, overweight, and did not get much exercise. What I am about to tell you will explain one year of development time, time that I really didn't do too much on head case. Some of you know I had a heart attack and a stroke last year, in fact I had it while we were in the home stretch. As I said earlier, I wanted to release head case a year ago in December, but the pre-purchase group did not want it released, they wanted us to improve the graphics, so we did. Unfortunately while doing that I had the heart attack and stroke. The next number of months were spent in recovery, quitting smoking, and trying to get better. So, I am sorry it took that long, that was my fault, but it was not intentional as Richard, Dalton, -X-, s1770, Cinderose, or Seven would have you believe.

Once I was well enough that I felt comfortable, I had to relearn parts of the code and how they worked, that was not an easy task. There were even some math functions that I had no clue what they were doing, Like why am I taking an average in this spot or similar simple functions. So its sink or swim, I chose what I thought the honourable route and that is to finish the product and release it. Now, after the attacks and character assasination from Richard, Dalton, -X-, s1770, Cinderose, or Seven I should have just quit and got totally better. I have apologized many times about the length of time it took, but we were not that far off from 12 months if we did not listen to the pre-purchasers and released last year.

The amps at VirtualAmpStash for intance were designed by a handful of Amp Builders that supported the creation of amps within headcase , AcmeBarGig the company had nothing to do with the Creation of these amps at all and there was minimal amps developed by Ken Mc laren for the companys finished Product as this individual was relying on the amps @ VirtualAmpStash as a external resource available to him so he did not have to supply what he had mentioned in the product some years before. everyone had already built and shared these amps far before the companys retail product was to become available Acmebargig actual Retail Release was a minimal near empty shell
yet Ken Mc Laren says he revoked support to these sites, people are smarter than you give them credit for .

Well then they certainly can see a run on sentence and lack of punctuation.. So, let me see if I can understand what your complaint is here..?.... Nope I'll have to break it into understandable parts..

The amps at VirtualAmpStash for intance were designed by a handful of Amp Builders that supported the creation of amps within headcase , AcmeBarGig the company had nothing to do with the Creation of these amps at all

OK so I guess you are complaining that the product does what we said it would do and that we allowed people to build amps? Or are you complaining that we didn't build the amps? Well, frankly, how is it that those amps came to be... were they started from scratch.. ? Nope.. Why is that? Its because every single one of them were started using our template amps...
Your statement is false remove it immediately...

there was minimal amps developed by Ken Mc laren for the companys finished Product

So.. ? Whats your point? Head case has the ability to install heads remember? Even if I was bound to make 25 heads as you claim, I could make them at any time. The only time that Head case and 25 heads is mentioned is on an old beta where we were transitioning from Shred 2.0 to Head Case development.

as this individual was relying on the amps @ VirtualAmpStash as a external resource available to him so he did not have to supply what he had mentioned in the product some years before.

This is just atrocious grammar, nevertheless I'll answer it...
Once Again, Shred 2 was advertised as 25 heads, head case I said there would be hundreds, and there is..

what do you actually get for your money ?
Download the Demo from there site and see just what is on offer for your 60 Dollars
again a near empty shell that they want you to create and submit your amps to there passworded account site
then they will advertise the product has a huge amount of amps available that btw you built not them,,Go figure .

Yes you should go download the demo and see if it is the near empty shell that Richard says it is. I wonder which one of the five plugins are the empty shell he is talking about. Is it the one called the builder that exposes every function in the head and allows you to edit them, Is It the Suite with its full effects rack, stomp boxes and THREE complete cabinet interfaces? Maybe its the loner because that is only a single head without the cabs or effects. Oh wait, thats the point and why its called Loner.

Either way its not a near empty shell so remove this lie immediately...

The private conversations, remove them immediately or suffer the consequences..

We have not persued you or fought back at all throughout your whole tirade. This is because I strongly believe this statement..

Never Argue with an Idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Now enough is enough Ms. (Moderator Edit). I would suggest you stop your harrassment and make the edits I outlined above. If not you are leaving us little choice other than to escalate. Frankly I would much rather move on, but this matter will be escalated if this continues. You have all your answers above so there is no excuse left for you to continue on the course you are on. Govern yourself accordingly

[sjc]

Sad that someone has nothing better to to do than go on some pointless crusade against a company that has really gone above and beyond for their users.

Moving on....

[bigcraigie_1]

I second that. Keep you're chin up Ken, you really don't need to justify yourself or you're product to any of us in the community. You've given more to us than we could possibly ask for and I for one are more than greatful.

[Ken McLaren]

Thanks guys..
Seems those sites are no longer available.. Do you think that maybe google is having a power outage oin the server that hosts them sites?

Anyways, I am feeling better already...

[sjc]

Thanks guys..
Seems those sites are no longer available.. Do you think that maybe google is having a power outage oin the server that hosts them sites?

Anyways, I am feeling better already...

Be a shame if FB did away with both of the vas FB pages... just sayin'

well heres one that wont be removed anytime soon
http://www.ampskindesigns.com

Wanna Bet..

Oh Scott...

[ScottRiley]

I think it's important here to clarify that we have not breached our word or terms throughout any of this process. Claims that any individual, persons or personalities have not received what they paid for are false.

I want to outline this:

The beta pre-purchase deal provided supporters of ABG to pre-purchase HC, be involved with – and shape – its development and receive a license to use the full commercial version upon release.

This license includes access to all upgrades of HC until, but not including, version 2.0. This is the exact same license we provide anone who purchased, or who pre-purchased Head Case. We are not locking an individual, persons or personalities our of receiving these updates.

Our beta forum, which now represents a closed community for discussion of other innovations, has always been an exclusive area for private discussion and testing of new technologies. As soon as the HC beta was over, the beta forum was restructured . The pre-purchase deal we offered allowed access to a certain part of this forum, up to the point of Head Case's commercial release. We have revoked access to this forum for certain individuals, persons and personalities for a number of reasons, all of which we are well within our rights to do, as per their agreement to our terms and conditions upon account creation.

We've gone above and beyond to keep a lot of the people who contributed to Head Case's development on board to experience some of our new products; mainly because of how greatly received Head Case was by these people and how much they helped shape the product. Others, we have removed from the forum simply because we did not feel comfortable having them on board and viewing potentially critical information. Again, as per agreed terms, something which is agreed upon account creation.

So; in less legal speak, here's a TL;DR:

Dude gets what he pays for. Dude acts like an entitled dick. Company decides they don't want Dude involved in shaping future products. Company removes Dude from area where Dude can potentially exploit critical information or sabotage development. Dude makes false claims against company resulting in untold stress and halted developments. Company has to wade through seven seas of bullshit to clear its name, rethink it's structure and generally stress the hell out for several sleepless nights.

We honour our word. We also like to get involved with the people who dig our products and give them the chance to join in on the fun. We also now know that this can backfire, so we're treading carefully.

Regardless of whatever happens, everyone who pre-purchased HC will get what they paid for. Until they request a refund, they are an AcmeBarGig customer and even though we don't get along with everyone (hey, it happens) we'd be stupid to not honour them as our customer.

I would also like to say; from a non-official standpoint; Ken is one the best dudes I've ever had the pleasure of working with. ABG is built on a solid friendship and everyone involved genuinely, hugely digs each other. We're not 'a dude in india, a developer in Canada and a web designer in the uk' (mainly because that only covers three of us) we're a bunch of dudes who share a passion, an ethos and a great friendship. I'm not sure when we've ever 'pretended' to be a 'corporate entity' (well, as a Canadian LLC it's hard to avoid the face we ARE, in fact, an officially recognised corporate entity) but I hope we've never came across as self-aggrandising in any way. We try and make it clear we're a small, personable collection of guys who want to make cool stuff for everyone to use, quite why that would be used as a stick to beat us with is certainly beyond my comprehension.

I hope that goes some way to communicating what we've taken from this whole ordeal and provides some rather necessary counterpoint to some of the vitriol that has came our way.

Cheers
~ Scott

[sjc]

[Ken McLaren]

See now Scott.. I could never speak so eloquently. Well done..