Which vst based guitar amp sims should I check out?

[Ah Xoc Kin]

...I've owned or played them all and I honestly feel that the Amplitube stuff (newer Custom shop models) sound the most like real amps...

One thing to consider is that plenty of real amps sound awful. When it comes to tube amps, some can sound awful one day and great the next one.

I have not owned or played them all. Probably my only mainstream amp has been a JCM-800 that I had in the 90s. These days I've only kept a Cruise MQ-4 and an original zenTera.
I was lucky to attend an amp shootout with dozens of high end and vintage amps. There was a row of 5 Gibson amps, same model, each sounded different. IIRC I liked one. Similar for 6 old Vox amps. In that case I liked two. The nicest tone (to me) came out of a Dumble amp. Out of perhaps 50 amps, I don't think I liked more than 5 or 7. Not that they were bad, but at best some just sounded OK. Would I want a modeller that sounded 100% like most of those real amps? No.
I haven't used Amplitube in a long time. IIRC, the Metalhead amp sounded awful, yet it was supposed to sound exactly like the original.

Back when I had a few tube amps I tried different things to get the sounds I wanted, from adjusting the bias to swapping tubes and trying different tube types and brands. With modelers it is no different in terms of trying different things, which can be as simple as removing digital fizzyness via an equalizer. For me some can work better as practice tools (i.e., they have a metronome, the ability to slow down songs, etc.) and others are great for getting a polished sound quickly. It's great to have so many choices these days.

[Cooker]

Amplitube amps are good but each has a sweetspot to find which isn't a nature of real amps.

[AC222]

Amplitube amps are good but each has a sweetspot to find which isn't a nature of real amps.

I think this is spot on. The newer Custom Shop amps seem to have a bigger sweet spot and so do the better amp sims in general. Great observation.

[bill45]

Where are you finding the sweet spots in these amps.
The gain knob, eq, moving the mics around?

[ivansc]

I own quite a few amp sims, including AT free plus a bunch of the custard shop addons.
For some reason earlier on today, I decided to try a few of the sims back to back against each other.

None of them really really did it for me, but what was really noticeable as that the AT ones wound up sounding the least convincing on clean sounds to me.
Amazingly,the elderly UAD Nigel on my UAD1 cards and the original Waves GTR Solo sounded the most believable.

But I have yet to buy Scuffham's little beastie.

And I have to say that unless you are used to using real valve/tube amps, and good ones at that, you really aren't going to know what you should be shooting for if you want a realistic valve amp sound.
I have owned a bunch of real ones over the years and still have three nice ones.
Best amp I ever owned for what I do was a 63 piggy back Fender Tremolux.
Should never have sold it.

And I too find IKMM's massed assaults a little excessive, but what the heck.
You would think by now they would have figured out how much damage it does to their credibility.

[rpm]

I loved the S-Gear drive sounds but I mostly use clean sounds. What would you recommend for clean?

EDIT: Just noticed on the web that S-Gear excels at cleans so gonna have to try that again.

[arkmabat]

A free version of this http://www.overloud.com/products/th2.php comes with Sonar. I actually like it a lot.

[rpm]

I read a lot of raves about Th2 but it's a bit expensive (and I won't be buying Sonar).

[PurpleCatfishBettie]

i've once again arrived at poulin/lepou. these sound fairly amazing.

[itneveris]

Another vote for Kuassa amps, these things sound beautiful.

[rpm]

I have the lepou but I wasn't able to get the nice sounds. I guess I need to add cabinet sim after lepou? Is there a free cabinet sim you recommend. I have no idea how cabinet sims work. I know there is something called an impulse response and these are captured and you can load them, but that's about it.

So you say kuassa is good for cleans?

[hibidy]

Yes, go to

http://www.igniteamps.com/en/audio-plug-ins

I don't remember if it comes with any impulsed. Look up "gods cabs" and "7 deadly sins" cabs.

[rpm]

So I guess from ignite amps you're suggesting I place the NadIR after the lepou amp sim, right? Cool, I'll try that, thanks!

[RafaelMorgan]

Well,

I've been experiencing with literally all amp simulators for quite some time.

I must say that a lot of them are very suitable to be used in a mix, I mean, as a post production tool, but are not even close to the real deal regarding live playing dynamics and feel...Not even close.

In my experience, the best ones in terms of playing dynamics and feel, are S-Gear, Brainworx Rockrack (very underrated) and TSE X50, in that exact order. These are the ones you should check out if you're a guitar player, not only a mix engineer.

In terms of effects, Guitar Rig is the best by far. Their effects rack is very versatile. It's very effective as a whole if you're a mixing engineer trying to make a guitar sit well within a mix; It's not good in terms of realism when judged on it's own, though.

Usually, when I want to have fun and just play my guitar, I use Guitar Rig for effects, Rockrack as amp/cab and very often I find myself using Kasrog's Recabinet as a cab sim (turning off Rockrack's cab sim in this case).

If you're looking for free stuff, try LePou's...His plugs are as good or even better than most commercial ones.

Anyway, nothing close to the real thing in terms of playing dynamics.

[clintmartin]

I suggest Amplitube Fender for cleans. I've been a Fender guy forever and these are dead on. I sold my twin and use the Deluxe model now. I use the Super-Sonic for high gain stuff. I also own Redwirez MixIR2 for impulses when wanted.