The Big Guitar Amp Sim Roundup + Review

[telecode]

Re IKM amplitube. I just create.user.preelsets and access them from there. I rarely browser around the other area.in the application and don't get prompted for items I don't have.

Re. Ampire. The heard it was one of the worst sounding attempt at amp sim. Try.demo.

[ZINO]

Re IKM amplitube. I just create.user.preelsets and access them from there. I rarely browser around the other area.in the application and don't get prompted for items I don't have.

Re. Ampire. The heard it was one of the worst sounding attempt at amp sim. Try.demo.

New one looks and sounds nice. They also sell it for other hosts now, and for a cool price as well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ6ZZ_u9X_M

[telecode]

New one looks and sounds nice. They also sell it for other hosts now, and for a cool price as well...

yup. looks cool. try out demo. let us know how it works. its up against Neural DSP Plini and Nolly. They are the new sims to beat on the market.

[cristian2cu]

Emissary from Ignite Amps is a good free product for heavy/metal guitars. For other styels... S-Gear from Slate it was an unbelievable VST modul and I have no idea why the licence is finished.

[Underoath77]

Blue Cat Audio Axiom+Patchwork+PlugNscript means you can create any effect, any amp, any cab....possibilities are endless !

[owen_musician]

New one looks and sounds nice. They also sell it for other hosts now, and for a cool price as well...

yup. looks cool. try out demo. let us know how it works. its up against Neural DSP Plini and Nolly. They are the new sims to beat on the market.

Hey Telecode. Good to see a friendly face. I got booted off Gearslutz for criticising He Who Must Not Be Criticised.

Back on topic. Still loving my Nolly and Plini plugins but have also been blown away by the Bogner XTC pack for TH-U Rig Player.
This truly is the best time to be a guitar player (in terms of gear that is - the money sucks these days )

[telecode]

New one looks and sounds nice. They also sell it for other hosts now, and for a cool price as well...

yup. looks cool. try out demo. let us know how it works. its up against Neural DSP Plini and Nolly. They are the new sims to beat on the market.

Hey Telecode. Good to see a friendly face. I got booted off Gearslutz for criticising He Who Must Not Be Criticised.

Back on topic. Still loving my Nolly and Plini plugins but have also been blown away by the Bogner XTC pack for TH-U Rig Player.
This truly is the best time to be a guitar player (in terms of gear that is - the money sucks these days )

hey dude. good to see ya here.

plini is on my to get list. also TH-U rig i think.

[Mats Eriksson]

My favorite Amp Emulation is actually hardware based and it's the Kemper Profiling Amp, I really enjoyed that piece of hardware while I owned it...

...Those were facts that definitely had some weight for me to decide to stay with Amplitube at least until I can afford buying a new Kemper.

I think basically those slow things that dawns on you eventually has come forth with gear like Kemper and AxeFX Fractal. It's the same with the new Iridium by Strymon. I don't know if we're digressing, but I heard of Kemper users that detects that it has an "inherent sound that spans the profiles". Or things like "...can't quite put my finger on, but I don't like hearing it. A kind of plasticity or lack of girth. It makes the Kemper somewhat easy to spot in the wild..."

This is not detected by the initial impression. You should go way beyond the honeymoon period. Some hardware has it lesser than others, but I feel all softare modellers suffers from this. Some to a lesser degree, and some to a greater degree. But it takes a while to detect.

[oonabe]

My favorite Amp Emulation is actually hardware based and it's the Kemper Profiling Amp, I really enjoyed that piece of hardware while I owned it...

...Those were facts that definitely had some weight for me to decide to stay with Amplitube at least until I can afford buying a new Kemper.

I think basically those slow things that dawns on you eventually has come forth with gear like Kemper and AxeFX Fractal. It's the same with the new Iridium by Strymon. I don't know if we're digressing, but I heard of Kemper users that detects that it has an "inherent sound that spans the profiles". Or things like "...can't quite put my finger on, but I don't like hearing it. A kind of plasticity or lack of girth. It makes the Kemper somewhat easy to spot in the wild..."

This is not detected by the initial impression. You should go way beyond the honeymoon period. Some hardware has it lesser than others, but I feel all softare modellers suffers from this. Some to a lesser degree, and some to a greater degree. But it takes a while to detect.

Yeah you might be right about that, the thing is that I don't really have a problem with that plasticity as long as the sound is rich and full or my ears just like it. I used to play in a more "traditional" way years ago, recording songs with guitars, bass and drums, but I evolved myself more and more into synth and computer made music so that plasticity fits even better my sound now than it might have done in the past.

So for me it is now more interesting to have flexibility by having amp emulations than having a real amp or amps. Anyways, I was always like that, I play guitar since 1988 and since the first Line 6 POD came out back in the 90s I've been always interested in amp emulation more than in real amplifiers.

[Mats Eriksson]

Yeah you might be right about that, the thing is that I don't really have a problem with that plasticity as long as the sound is rich and full or my ears just like it. I used to play in a more "traditional" way years ago, recording songs with guitars, bass and drums, but I evolved myself more and more into synth and computer made music so that plasticity fits even better my sound now than it might have done in the past.

So for me it is now more interesting to have flexibility by having amp emulations than having a real amp or amps. Anyways, I was always like that, I play guitar since 1988 and since the first Line 6 POD came out back in the 90s I've been always interested in amp emulation more than in real amplifiers.

I mean me myself have never ever really really played one period music style on guitar. My friends doesn't know me as a vintage buff or boutiqe buff, that plays music from the 50s rockabilly, blues things and early country. No collecting vintage guitars either, I have favored this stance instead: No 50-60 Hz hum from pickups neither single coils nor humbucker. And as the times has moved on, I have embraced technical innovations, such as active EMG pickups, because those can be run through effects, no hum, large headroom, without losing signal. Same with guitars. Who plays 012 set, spun third these days and FLATWOUNDS? As it was supposed to sound like, back then? Heavily radiused necks where you can't bend notes properly without choking on the frets, and so on. Weak output pickups, yada yada, blabla...

So I am no luddite, or "amish" using technology only from a certain period, because I don't play that music. So I have bought a Boss GT-1000 recently, equally loathed and lauded it seems. A few select amps to choose from, but a plethora of effects. Same with old tube guitar amps. With their cabinets. I'd rather run in stereo into a PA because all reverbs, effects, doesn't sound THAT great into a speaker cab of an old tube amps. Same with the downtune things, 7 string guitars, these days and octavers. You're going into the bass guitar range, and not that many old school speakers can't take that for long time without tearing apart eventually. The speaker just views it a low notes, regardless of guitar bass or synth, and behaves accordingly. It'll choke and tear apart soon enough. So, these kind of effects sounds, are more important to me these days, than something nailing the old time tube amps character to a tee. The most important thing, is that it is a) handy b) you don't have to crank the master volume of a 100 W amp live and destroy everybodys ears. This is the main thing as well as pleasing the FOH engineers, who seem to just LOVE mixing a Kemper thing. I've heard of NO ONE working as a FOH that doesn't like the Kemper. However, it's all about how well the profiling has been done. But then again, there's no such thing as one-size-fits all. You can't please everyone. The "plasticity" is in the GT-1000 too, but to a lesser degree than some. It's cheaper than a Kemper too, so one has to keep that in mind.

But if an impromptu blues gig turns up, it's just me and a cable into an tube amp and a suitable guitar. Don't mind. But then I really do think an old tube amp fares slightly better in that case. And I prefer that one. But those ones is happening once in a blue moon, it was 6 years since last time I played guitar on a blues gig.

[oonabe]

But if an impromptu blues gig turns up, it's just me and a cable into an tube amp and a suitable guitar. Don't mind. But then I really do think an old tube amp fares slightly better in that case. And I prefer that one. But those ones is happening once in a blue moon, it was 6 years since last time I played guitar on a blues gig.

Yes, I totally get your point too, though my last time playing on a real amp has been at least 10 years ago, but I also liked its simplicity.

I have to say that I considered myself never a guitarist, though it's the instrument I learned to play the first and played it for the longest time, as a kid I actually wanted to learn drums first and I was during my whole life as a musician more interested in writing songs and tracks for each instrument rather than concentrating on a single instrument.

I guess that's why for me it is more interesting to have flexibility than simplicity or a concrete sound. For this purpose I think gear like the Kemper or similar tools are the perfect choice.

[ijiwaru]

[Delete]

[Echoes in the Attic]

I've been doing a lot of amp sim testing lately as I've been thinking about replacing my Amplitube. This thread has been very useful as guidance! MY general requirements have been that I want something that works reasonably well on touch screen because I hate reaching for the mouse when playing guitar, and also no ilok. I'd like a package with effects and amps but I do have plenty of effects so a standalone amp sim might work too. I also would prefer not to have to use external IRs in an IR loader, I'd rather decent built in cab sim, be it IR or modeled.

Soundwise I'm liking S-Gear and Kuassa (especially matchlock). I don't love that S-gear puts it VST where it wants and doesn't let you chose. The interface also has some issues to me, especially that reverb with the "data" knob. But not bad. Kuassa is less flexible in terms of not being able to put effects between the head and cab like you can with others, and I don' really want to use a separate IR loader after it. But still would probably be worth having at least matchlock as I really want that clean/broken up fender tone. But I would also like a self-contained pedal board/amp package with lots of presets and a nice assortment of amps and effects. S-Gear is actually enough in terms of the amps that it covers, but could have more effects.

Well I personally like the TH-U workflow and interface the best. Great assortment of effects and pretty flexible in terms of arrangement of everything. But the one thing I can't figure out is why is it so dark and muffled? Some patches sound decent when I am using my strat bridge pickup, but it doesn't sound like a bridge pickup as it's so dark. Middle and neck are no go for most patches unless I crank the treble in the master and reduce the bass most of the way. I almost thought I had an issue with my guitar input. I noticed turning off respire helped sometimes. But I don't know, I've seen many videos where it sounds great, so I am sort of wondering if my setup is unusually dark, perhaps my interface. I've tried two guitars and it always seems very dark to me. And my other amp sims aren't nearly as muffled and bassy so I don't know. Has anyone else noticed this?

[Echoes in the Attic]

Re IKM amplitube. I just create.user.preelsets and access them from there. I rarely browser around the other area.in the application and don't get prompted for items I don't have.

Re. Ampire. The heard it was one of the worst sounding attempt at amp sim. Try.demo.

New one looks and sounds nice. They also sell it for other hosts now, and for a cool price as well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ6ZZ_u9X_M

That does look pretty good. I really like the sound of that Twin from the videos I've seen. And not a bad price at all. I can't find a demo for it though, is there one available?

[jinotsuh]

so I am sort of wondering if my setup is unusually dark, perhaps my interface. I've tried two guitars and it always seems very dark to me. And my other amp sims aren't nearly as muffled and bassy so I don't know. Has anyone else noticed this?

imo, No it's not your set up, IMO there is and has always been 'something' with the TH's and there is that general 'darkness'. I started using them since TH2, and there was 'something' not quite right for me, and I could never really be happy with it. Then came TH3, upgraded, same old 'something' going on, then came TH-U same thing, the Rig libraries (I had 8 of them) were OK, but I had other sims that I much preferred, and I never really used any of the TH's that much. I found myself every 6 or so months wasting time trying to get them to sound appealing to myself, but it was just much easier with other stuff I had, so just recently I said farewell to the TH's and sold TH2, TH3, TH-U and 8 Rig Libraries. The Rig P{layer/Rig Libraries were mostly ok, but still not quite.

I personally never thought much of S-Gear, owned for years, but haven't even fired it up or kept it up to date for years, clean and slight breakup are OK and what it does best, but it's higher gain stuff isn't for me.

I didn't really see the 'wow' in 3rd party IR's myself until recently, despite owning RedWirez Big Box, nearly all of Ownhammers collection, a heap of 2notes stuff, all the Celestions, Rosen Digital/Lancaster Audio and a pile of Choptones IR's. No matter how many times I tried the standard Cabs that came with whatever sim always sounded better, I couldn't understand how people raved about them, then I did some experimenting and finally for ME, I worked out what I had to do to make them cook for ME, now I use them all the time.

Hope you find what you are looking for.

Oh, re Ampire, the new one is leaps and bounds above the old one, it's actually very usable, where as I never touched the old version after initial run through. Don't know if there is a demo, just had a quick look and couldn't find anything, mine came with the S1 update.