I agree with you if you have the proper room for micing the way you suggest, otherwise it's an advanced technique best left alone. When you put a condenser away from amp it's not going to be selective, anything it hears it will pick-up. So your only two choices are to play way to loud which will over power ambient noises, or have a sound proof room. Either way it's without a good room the disadvantages can easily out weigh the advantages...it only takes small noise to screw up a good take.Funkybot wrote:Modeling is easier but it's not perfect IMO. I think the best route, if you're a serious guitar player, is to own a good tube amp as well as a modeller. I'm currently using Guitarport most of the time, but even with the model packs that bring it up to the amps included in the Vetta series, it still doesn't do everything. Why? Becuase I can't throw an SM57 in front on axis right on the girll, with a BLUE Ball a foot back, and a condensor a few feet back in the room, and use them as needed, etc. Sure Guitar Rig does this, but the guitar tones in Guitar Rig while ok, don't compare to even the Pod series. The technology is almost there but not quite. This will be less of an issue in the near future, but me, I'll still want both. For instance, the best clean tone I ever got from an amp or a modeller was just one BLUE Ball three inches away from the grill of my Twin. It was completely open and just wonderfully balanced. I've never approached that good a sound with a modeler. But in reality, it's a pain in the ass to set up the mics, find the sweet spots, make sure they're all in phase, then find the time when you can actually record without driving everyone around you insane. Meanwhile with a few clicks of my mouse, the Guitarport can get me a great sound rather quickly. In all honesty, I want both in my project studio. Let's face it too, while every big studio has a POD and a bunch of Line 6 gear (hell I imagine a lot of the albums we listen to have Pod's on them somewhere), when you're walking into a studio that's running you anywhere from $40 an hour and up, you're expecting to play through a good amp, and have it sound great. And if you have the right people/gear behind that, you'll get sounds that should make you glad you didn't get use a modeler.
BTW the Sansamp rules on bass, but you'll still probably want something else with it. Either a different more clean DI, like a Countryman, a mic'd bass amp, or even a different modeler. I'm a big fan of the Sansamp with my J-Station for bass, as the J-Station includes bass amps/cabs. The guitar Pod can sound ok, but none of the speaker/mic combos produce the really well round bottom end of something geared specifically for bass. What they need to do is sell some bass models, cabs, mic combos as model packs for the guitar Pod series. But, if you get yourself a nice fat rounded tone off the Sansamp (which isn't hard), and forgoe low end entirely on the Pod, you can get a nice blend of the two signals in a mix with the Pod just providing extra presence and clarity without muddying up the low end the Sansamp is getting you.
Anyway, take everything I said with a grain of salt, different strokes for different folks and all, but hopefully someone finds some of this useful.
So while I agree with you on a professional level, and basing it on "real" studios as you have, I disagree with the practicality at the "home recording" level for the average person.
I will say that your use of "if you're a serious guitar player" is a bit elitist and sorry, but a lame thing to say. I consider myself a very serious guitar player, if I wanna get the job done I will find a way and that doesn't always mean throwing money and gear at the problem. I say if you're a serious guitar play you can make a shoe box with rubber bands wrapped around it sound good. A Sansamp GT2 would be more then enough for someone who can play, everything else is gravy...
