The Big Guitar Amp Sim Roundup + Review

[SLiC]

S Gear has been due an update for quite some time now (was expected in the summer) - it’s a paid update according to the forum (mainly GUI related I believe as it’s a tiny thing currently in 4K)

Not sure why it’s running late, but may be worth jumping in after the update....

[Mats Eriksson]

Unlike Amplitube and Native, Scuffham is more or less a one man company. Can't imagine that he hasn't got several ulcers already. Poor mr Scuffham. He is doing all programming, and haven't got any employees or collaborators. He just "bundled" a third party software tuner maker into the S-Gear. I would love to if some amp sim maker just stayed with one amp only. The rest is only left to turn knobs.

And the the knobs where turned infinitly. As you turn them up you could still turn them past 11, and the gain structure and tone stack would change to be reminiscent of other IRL amp stacks, tone control, etc. The knobs could turn to different colors or reading so you know where you were. Like a master volume that changes... after 11 it goes from A/B class into A class and so on. No stops in the knobs so to speak. Endless gain structure. And as they develop their software, well, just turn on the knobs a few turns more. What I miss with ALL amp sims, is the possibility to sound real ugly, like you can on an IRL tube amp.

Think avant garde guitarist Glen Branca, and all those noise makers. With warts and all.

[imrae]

For PA I'd suggest Bassdude (probably the most widely mentioned and praised), bx_megadual (good feel and options, hard to control the low-end though) and/or the Engl E765 (quite a bit more versatile).

For smaller devs I'd nominate Caliburn by Kuassa (puts a smile on my face and I'm not even a Marshall guy) and Grind Machine II by Audio Assault (it's an interesting selection of amps and very affordable, but there's something odd about the sound/feel I can't put my finger on and perhaps an expert like Craig can explain it.)

It's a pity Kazrog's Thermionik is currently unavailable; it's easily #1 for high-gain out of stuff I've tried.

[Mats Eriksson]

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Still haven't heard any amp sim trying to nail Brian Mays AC-30 tone. When listening to his "a cappela" delay solo on Queens classic "Brighton Rock" with long delays on, one can hear a clear "THSCKKK!!!" in each and every pick attack of every note of his. It's the taxed AC-30 maybe with the mysterious treble booster built by John Deacon, and miked up so the room ambience is quie wet. Of course that he uses his guitar, red special, and picks with a coin may make some sense, but he doesn't always have this "THSCKK"!!". It's the percussive thump I am after. Of course, when he does legato, hammerons, pulloffs, it's gone, and as fast he leans in with the pick it goes "THSCKKK!!" due to the sheer volume and that he taxes his amps and speaker to the max.

My idea is that he can, and knows how to tame the UGLY.

If someone else was handed over his guitar/setup at that point, and tries to play anything, we all would be quite lost, and it would sound just hideously cringeworthy. I will state this example in the next post.

[Mats Eriksson]

And if someone thought of nailing that elusive never ending cliche of Eric Johnson sound, here's the proof in the pudding. Roland Blues Tube comparison with Tone Capsules, are 4 compared, and he starts out with the others. At around 5:00 mark he kicks in the EJ Tone Capsule ... and....drum roll...cringe...ugly as ****... and he goes "Why do you want that? "

https://youtu.be/UolrzOY0yFc?t=289

Take note of how he picks, and holds the pick.

Now, over to the horses mouth, the man himself, with exactly the same amp and tone capsule and same settings on the Roland Blues Cube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz9y8yCLYWQ

It's a matter of how to tame the ugly. Avoid the warts and all. With playing technique. Nothing less, nothing more.

[Forgotten]

Still haven't heard any amp sim trying to nail Brian Mays AC-30 tone.

His tone doesn't just come from AC30s though - he drives them with a treble booster and uses a very unique guitar. Sometimes he's not using an AC30 though and uses the 'Deacy' amp that John Deacon built for him.

I think you would need to at the very least have his Red Special as the start point to try to nail that sound.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Still haven't heard any amp sim trying to nail Brian Mays AC-30 tone.

His tone doesn't just come from AC30s though - he drives them with a treble booster and uses a very unique guitar. Sometimes he's not using an AC30 though and uses the 'Deacy' amp that John Deacon built for him.

I think you would need to at the very least have his Red Special as the start point to try to nail that sound.

Indeed, his Red Special is a huge part of his sound. Just saw Queen last week and he sounded great. It's a combination of the three-AC30 in wet/dry/wet configuration, the treble booster, and Red Special guitar - then of course backing out from there with the sixpence as plectrum and the fingers and brain of the man himself. Throw in that oddball phaser that sounds amazing, too. During the show he used wah sparingly, just as sparingly as used in the studio.

Edit - and studio-wise, the Deacy is indeed a huge part of why the mass of layered harmony parts don't sound like a mess. Apparently he also had a preference about the battery in the Deacy being drained a bit if memory serves.

[reggie1979]

And if someone thought of nailing that elusive never ending cliche of Eric Johnson sound, here's the proof in the pudding. Roland Blues Tube comparison with Tone Capsules, are 4 compared, and he starts out with the others. At around 5:00 mark he kicks in the EJ Tone Capsule ... and....drum roll...cringe...ugly as ****... and he goes "Why do you want that? "

https://youtu.be/UolrzOY0yFc?t=289

Take note of how he picks, and holds the pick.

Now, over to the horses mouth, the man himself, with exactly the same amp and tone capsule and same settings on the Roland Blues Cube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz9y8yCLYWQ

It's a matter of how to tame the ugly. Avoid the warts and all. With playing technique. Nothing less, nothing more.

It's always funny to have people sell things when the player is what makes the sound. EJ is going to sound like EJ pretty much no matter what imo.

Still, I wish I could have a real amp but it's not in the deck. That blues cube sounds really nice.

[Mats Eriksson]

I am hearing that percussive plucky pick attack of the AC-30 on others. The coin as a pick doesn't make sense to me, it isn't part of that particular sound. A coin sounds off like a steel or stone pick, or if you hammer with a bottleneck slide up there in the strings. The first attack is a whistling high note for a couple of milliseconds, if that even...maybe one or two.

Norwegian "ECM-jazz" old stalwart Terje Rypdal has single coils too (strat), and AC-30. On his recordings one can hear that "tchk" too, with a reuglar pick. Sorry I have not got a better onomatepoetic word for it. The Deacy Amp (Brian May) wasn't used that often, though. The Treble booster was however. The thing I am after is that both Terje and Brian doesn't not use many pedals, if any in front of their amps. However, in Terjes case, loads of delays and reverbs after amp.

BTW he has his own signature guitars now made, to his approval, so they would be as close as it gets. They're expensive (at least the bmg super) since they're hand made, but I don't think those differ too much from the original, save in terms of feel. Single coil "Burns like" pickups. The other attempts that were made prior to this was cringworthy and not up to snuff. Hence that he started his "own" business.

[Forgotten]

Indeed, his Red Special is a huge part of his sound. Just saw Queen last week and he sounded great. It's a combination of the three-AC30 in wet/dry/wet configuration, the treble booster, and Red Special guitar - then of course backing out from there with the sixpence as plectrum and the fingers and brain of the man himself. Throw in that oddball phaser that sounds amazing, too. During the show he used wah sparingly, just as sparingly as used in the studio.

Edit - and studio-wise, the Deacy is indeed a huge part of why the mass of layered harmony parts don't sound like a mess. Apparently he also had a preference about the battery in the Deacy being drained a bit if memory serves.

I remember that about the battery too, but I think it was more to do with the type of 9v battery - he felt that the common type of 9v battery didn't work as well as the giant 2lb batteries that are not so common anymore.

I think a lot of his gear was modified over the years by Pete Cornish though (who has built gear for tons of people, and never gets the amount of credit he deserves), and I recall that some of the original gear he uses was rehoused in different enclosures.

[Forgotten]

The coin as a pick doesn't make sense to me, it isn't part of that particular sound.

You have to remember how he uses it though - he plays with a really light touch (he drops them all the time) which allows him to rotate them as he plays, so he's playing from anywhere between parallel with the strings to a right angle, which brings the milled edge of the coin into play.

If you listen carefully you can hear the rotation of the coin during individual songs, particularly when he plays live. At certain angles it brings out some really unique harmonics that you would never get with a regular pick.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

I had also meant to touch on this topic too:

Amp sims are NOT plug and play. Just as many people will say an amp sim is a piece of garbage as will say it sounds just like the real thing. My experience is that whoever designed an amp sim’s presets probably doesn’t play the same guitar as you, use the same strings, have the same pickup, play with the same pick, practice the same playing style, or has the same taste in music. So if you decide whether a sim is any good based on whether you like the presets, that’s kind of like thinking the photos on an online dating site actually represent what you’re going to see.

For me, the first thing that came to mind is a challenge we've seen with AmpliTube. I'll even keep it specific to the cabinets and microphones for simplicity (plus it is absolutely the best example of this).

Basically, when we introduced the full 3D microphone positioning of the Cab Room, it was essentially a case where we may have given too much flexibility. This isn't meant to insult users, as I know there are plenty of power users and people who know the topic of putting microphones in front of speaker cabinets like the back of their hand. However, we serve a large market of guitar players and there's a large portion of that market who have zero experience or knowledge doing this. But, like many guitar players, they do want to play around with s**t because it can be a lot of fun.

This has been taken into consideration for the future of AmpliTube as we never want to set anybody up for failure (or the more morbid saying if you give someone enough rope they'll end up hanging him/herself). There's definitely room for what I wouldn't want to call compromise, because the best solution will not take anything away from either/any type of user. We'd also avoid doing that whenever possible. I personally love the flexibility but I do know a thing or two about miking a cabinet. Many don't or don't want to mess with it, which is also fair, so we can also continue to distill that knowledge - for example with the default mic placement and matched cabinet choices - for those that want as close to plug and play as they can get, even if Craig is 100% correct that amp sims are not plug and play.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Indeed, his Red Special is a huge part of his sound. Just saw Queen last week and he sounded great. It's a combination of the three-AC30 in wet/dry/wet configuration, the treble booster, and Red Special guitar - then of course backing out from there with the sixpence as plectrum and the fingers and brain of the man himself. Throw in that oddball phaser that sounds amazing, too. During the show he used wah sparingly, just as sparingly as used in the studio.

Edit - and studio-wise, the Deacy is indeed a huge part of why the mass of layered harmony parts don't sound like a mess. Apparently he also had a preference about the battery in the Deacy being drained a bit if memory serves.

I remember that about the battery too, but I think it was more to do with the type of 9v battery - he felt that the common type of 9v battery didn't work as well as the giant 2lb batteries that are not so common anymore.

I think a lot of his gear was modified over the years by Pete Cornish though (who has built gear for tons of people, and never gets the amount of credit he deserves), and I recall that some of the original gear he uses was rehoused in different enclosures.

Thank you for the note about the battery. And yes, there was also a lot of credit due to Pete Cornish who I didn't mention (for shame!).

On the Deacy amp subject, it seems to be quite often used in the studio from 1974 through and past 1990 from any source I've seen.

[Mats Eriksson]

The Deacy amp was used mostly on overdubs and multi parts harmony guitars, to mimick big band sounds, like trumpets, clarinets, trombones, saxes and whatever. I never heard of any use of the Deacy amp live. The "Thsck" attack can be heard on Queen "Live Killers" album when he plays Brighton Rock solo live.

[telecode]

I had also meant to touch on this topic too:

Amp sims are NOT plug and play. Just as many people will say an amp sim is a piece of garbage as will say it sounds just like the real thing. My experience is that whoever designed an amp sim’s presets probably doesn’t play the same guitar as you, use the same strings, have the same pickup, play with the same pick, practice the same playing style, or has the same taste in music. So if you decide whether a sim is any good based on whether you like the presets, that’s kind of like thinking the photos on an online dating site actually represent what you’re going to see.

For me, the first thing that came to mind is a challenge we've seen with AmpliTube. I'll even keep it specific to the cabinets and microphones for simplicity (plus it is absolutely the best example of this).

Basically, when we introduced the full 3D microphone positioning of the Cab Room, it was essentially a case where we may have given too much flexibility. This isn't meant to insult users, as I know there are plenty of power users and people who know the topic of putting microphones in front of speaker cabinets like the back of their hand. However, we serve a large market of guitar players and there's a large portion of that market who have zero experience or knowledge doing this. But, like many guitar players, they do want to play around with s**t because it can be a lot of fun.

This has been taken into consideration for the future of AmpliTube as we never want to set anybody up for failure (or the more morbid saying if you give someone enough rope they'll end up hanging him/herself). There's definitely room for what I wouldn't want to call compromise, because the best solution will not take anything away from either/any type of user. We'd also avoid doing that whenever possible. I personally love the flexibility but I do know a thing or two about miking a cabinet. Many don't or don't want to mess with it, which is also fair, so we can also continue to distill that knowledge - for example with the default mic placement and matched cabinet choices - for those that want as close to plug and play as they can get, even if Craig is 100% correct that amp sims are not plug and play.

I personally like the ability to tinker with Mike placement and distance from cabinets. But I feel it's sometimes a excersize in futility. The change in sound is so subtle that I don't think it will be noticable in a song where lots of stuff and going on. Maybe quiet secretions where these is just guitar parts .