KVR Audio

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:34 am

Not likely. Technology WILL eventually get there. It's inevitable. And the continued success and production of virtual amps proves that there's enough of an interest to sustain and spark new research into the field. Plus, companies with an eye to Line6 and the success of amps like their VettaII (which IS software digital modeling in a hardware shell) will want a piece of that pie.

Heck, I ALREADY find myself saying, "Well that's a good sound, but it's not getting me to the same inspirational level as Green Machine Amp II's 'Paula's Favourite' preset."

The preset is actually mildly artificial-sounding (well, and it's heavily-effected, which I usually avoid) but there's something about it that gets me to crank out nice-sounding soaring solos.

Greg

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:05 am

damn cold froze your sarcasm genes my friend

Sound is so subjective to begin with, but I do agree that using brand names is a little lame...

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 3:37 am

Whoops. I'm not so good at picking up on subtle sarcasm, and the biting kind makes me even colder than the Canadian weather so I avoid it.

Sowwy!

Green Machine Amp II... there's a good brand name.

~BURNY~ · Post by **~BURNY~** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:20 am

Lunch Money wrote:
But it's just not very good-sounding. I don't consider it to be a particularly good example of hi-gain, either. It's more like... normal Marshall-style gain, available since 1968.

Greg

Normal Marshall style gain????!!! No way, it sounds like a plugin, a bad one!!!

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:25 am

I just meant in terms of 'style'.

Yeah, the sound of it was horrible, too. Some of that was the artifacts, some of it was the excessive reverb, but most of it was just the bad tone.

fritzman · Post by **fritzman** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 9:53 am

~BURNY~ wrote:
Lunch Money wrote:
But it's just not very good-sounding. I don't consider it to be a particularly good example of hi-gain, either. It's more like... normal Marshall-style gain, available since 1968.

Greg
Normal Marshall style gain????!!! No way, it sounds like a plugin, a bad one!!!

I'd say like a distortion pedal. A mediocre one.

fritzman · Post by **fritzman** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 9:54 am

AndrewSimon wrote:I hope the day will come (and I belive it will pretty soon) when players will say:
"Oh that's the famous XYZ plug sound, you can't do it with a real amp you need the famous XYZ plug for that"

Yes, that will come for sure.

Will be fun then.

kevvvvv · Post by **kevvvvv** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:03 pm

Lunch Money

Green Machine Amp II's 'Paula's Favourite' preset."

Now there's one for the boys

Guitarjeff · Post by **Guitarjeff** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 9:27 pm

Ok,

You people want to hear comparisons? Check these.

I have the same guitar file playing through GTR, Amplitube, GR-2,Reamped with my x-box and My Soldano SLO through a Palmer Speaker Simulator (the new reissued one) and reamped with x-box and My Soldano through a Marshall 4x12 mic'ed with a Shure sm 57.

To my ears, the Soldano/Marshall cab wins hands down of course, but the interesting thing is that GR 2 sounds closer to the Palmer track while GTR sounds closer to the Marshall cab track. I think the amp sim part is better in GR 2, but the cab sim is better in the Waves plug. Amplitube is not even in the ballpark IMO.

I tried (not too hard) to emulate the sound of the Soldano by modifying existing presets on all 3 amp sims.

These are recorded with my Black Les Paul custom straight into my Motu Traveler and into Nuendo.

Grab them here:

Soldano/Marshall

Soldano/Palmer

GTR

GR-2

Amplitube-1

Direct file

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 9:45 pm

Ah, very nice comparison, Jeff!
Amazing how bad AT1 is doing besides the others. I actually like the GR2 version as it should be pretty open to further tweakings, so you can make it suit a mix fine.
I find the Soldano/Cab version to sound a bit too mid-ish for my taste, btw. Probably the mic not pointing close enough to the speaker cone for what I'd like.

However, many thanks for those!

One question though: What did you use to monitor while recording?

Guitarjeff · Post by **Guitarjeff** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 9:58 pm

Sascha Franck wrote:Ah, very nice comparison, Jeff!
Amazing how bad AT1 is doing besides the others. I actually like the GR2 version as it should be pretty open to further tweakings, so you can make it suit a mix fine.
I find the Soldano/Cab version to sound a bit too mid-ish for my taste, btw. Probably the mic not pointing close enough to the speaker cone for what I'd like.

However, many thanks for those!

One question though: What did you use to monitor while recording?

Hi Sascha!

I do like the GR-2 sound as well. I think it could be tweaked further.

I am monitoring through my Pod 2.0.

Yes, I purposefully miced the cab Off-axis as I prefer that midrangey tone for my stuff.

Cheers!

Jeff

kilroy · Post by **kilroy** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:24 pm

amptest

Ok Jeff and Sascha...would you please give me an idea how this file sounds on first listen. Just an objective critique would be nice. I used your DI source Jeff.

Sascha Franck · Post by **Sascha Franck** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:29 pm

kilroy wrote: Ok Jeff and Sascha...would you please give me an idea how this file sounds on first listen. Just an objective critique would be nice. I used your DI source Jeff.

Too muddy for my taste. Sounds like someone playing behind the doors of a rehearsal room. Character of the drive might be fine though, but it's hard to tell.

spuddle · Post by **spuddle** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:38 pm

Hmm nice comparisons. To my ears nothing beats the warmth of the soldano and the marshall cab just yet... The key thing i'm interested in is the dynamic response so i'll just have to try the demos soon. (Waiting for Amplitube 2 though for better A/B comparisons).

Guitarjeff · Post by **Guitarjeff** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:55 pm

kilroy wrote:amptest

Ok Jeff and Sascha...would you please give me an idea how this file sounds on first listen. Just an objective critique would be nice. I used your DI source Jeff.

I think it sounds like GTR with a slightly more Trebly setting than the one I used. It sounds pretty good!

Jeff

Waves GTR vs Native Instruments Guitar Rig 2