Looks like NI have gotten something right!!! GR2

[Amberience]

religion = bullshit
sprituality = divine

so, this is your belief?

My opinion. Whether you equate opinion with belief thats your opinion.

[bduffy]

You dig semantics, eh, Andrew?

[Stupid American Pig]

While everyone is perfectly entitled to their opinion on religion, how about keeping it in HPC or OT threads.

[Amberience]

I never brought it up. Somebody decided to comment on my signature.

[bduffy]

You're both right. It should probably be taken elsewhere so we can all opine about the high end in the Tweed Cab...

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

In the interest of moving from an arguement about religion to an arguement about a piece of software:

I just checked out the GR2 demo side by side with my Vetta II. Mind you, a Vetta II is just a pimped out PodXT. I'm mainly a high-gain player, so that's all I really bothered to check out.

To compare these I set up a simple but fair test. I plugged my guitar into my amp with everything set to bypass. In otherwords, I was using my amp as a $1,700 DI box. There were no amp models in use, no cabinets or mics, no EQ of any sort. All I was using were my amp's gain and analog->digital converters.

I recorded a riff into my computer and ran it through GR2. After tweaking for a while I managed to get a tone that I was happy with. The first thing that struck me was how much better GR2 was at high-gain stuff than GR1. The sound seemed tighter and sounded less filtered.

Then I put GR2 into bypass and sent the clean signal back out to my amp (This was all through AES/EBU digital connectors, so there was no generational loss). I then ran my amp back into my computer through the AES/EBU cables since comparing the sound from my speakers to the sound from my cab would obviously be unfair.

The difference was very obvious. GR2 may be much better than GR1 for high-gain, but the Vetta/PodXT still blows it away. The noise floor was much lower, the sound was less muddy and you could really feel it right in your chest even though the volume was the same.

My girlfriend who was present at the time said that the Vetta sounded much better, and I completely agree. If my amp were destroyed or stolen I'd sooner replace it with a PodXT than GR2 after hearing the comparison.

[cptgone]

GR2 may be much better than GR1 for high-gain, but the Vetta/PodXT still blows it away.

Exactly as I feared. I want a Line6 AmpFarm VST!!!! Thanks for the info...

[cheul]

Hey interesting post Lawnmower, could you give some details on the GR components you used in your "benchmark" ?

[Amberience]

I just traded Rob Papen's BLUE for a Pod v2.0 (not the XT)

Can't wait till it arrives.

[Amberience]

Oh, and since they're on your computer, you could encode the GR2 sound and your VETTA sound as FLAC files and upload them

[Jason Brian Merrill]

GR2 may be much better than GR1 for high-gain, but the Vetta/PodXT still blows it away.

Exactly as I feared. I want a Line6 AmpFarm VST!!!! Thanks for the info...

i would say "blow it away" is a bit strong -- owning both of them, i can say that Guitar rig 2 has superior sound, but not by much, and PODXT just has more variety in amps. The effects in guitar rig kill podxt for sure, and the amps are a bit better, but less of them.

[Jason Brian Merrill]

I just traded Rob Papen's BLUE for a Pod v2.0 (not the XT)

Can't wait till it arrives.

ouch.. pod 2?

podxt is much better from what i hear... 2 is definetly not on par with guitar rig 2.. but still a nice little unit

[bmanic]

I've owned a Pod 2.0 and I had a Pod XT at home for a week. It's a bit better than the old v2 but not much. All the same problems (like serious lack of dynamics) are still present. Try doing a pinch harmonic on a POD. Where one would scream in a real amp, barely makes a bark on the POD. The same problem of 'grainy' sound is still present in the pod which makes it stand out when recorded into songs that need a wall of guitar.

I still think that the Yamaha DG stomp and especially Vox Valvetone are much better sounding guitar solutions but none of these are perfect (the yamaha having a quite grainy sound too but in more pleasing way than the pod).

I've never liked any of the guitar amp software, at all. They've always sucked big time. The only amp sim that impressed me a bit was the free simulanalog stuff. That sounded quite ok when ran at 96khz. Isn't the simulanalog dude coding for IK's amplitube 2? I sure hope so because amplitude 1 was like the worst excuse for guitar tone that I have ever heard (just MY opinion so keep the flames at bay!).

Cheers!
bManic

[cptgone]

GR2 may be much better than GR1 for high-gain, but the Vetta/PodXT still blows it away.

Exactly as I feared. I want a Line6 AmpFarm VST!!!! Thanks for the info...

i would say "blow it away" is a bit strong -- owning both of them, i can say that Guitar rig 2 has superior sound, but not by much, and PODXT just has more variety in amps. The effects in guitar rig kill podxt for sure, and the amps are a bit better, but less of them.

I see...

[Lawnmower Of The Damned]

I'd be happy to show some examples, but I don't have time today. I'll try to get some up tomorrow, if you like.

As for a lack of dynamics, are you kidding? So long as you don't max the gain out then there's plenty of nuance to the Vetta/PodXT. Even on the Uberschall model I can still get a completely clean sound with a gentle strum.

The only problem with posting examples is that I don't have web-space, and I have ADSL (Fast downloads, slow uploads) so it's going to be a pain to do it. If you are serious about wanting examples then that's fine, but if you're just being a wise ass then please say so before I waste my afternoon on it tomorrow.