KVR Audio

Trevor Jackson · Post by **Trevor Jackson** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:12 am

I am currently playing around with Guitar Rig. I like it but, I mean, it's not the Holy Grail. Does any one know of what my alternatives are? Paticularly that aren't so bloody expensive? I have so many plugins on my host system (Ableton) that I don't feel I really need another chorus, compressor, etc. So, I guess a good distortion unit and maybe some other guitar specific effects would be great. (What? did somebody say "free download'?)

Thanks.

rockstarfx · Post by **rockstarfx** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:18 am

izotope trash is my holy grail.

computermusic500 · Post by **computermusic500** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:18 am

If you have some stomp boxes that you own it might be a good idea to avoid plugins altogether and just use a good s.b. in between your signal. I find that I can get as good or better sounds doing this than by using an amp sim such as guitar rig. Plus, you don't use much cpu.

Trevor Jackson · Post by **Trevor Jackson** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 3:52 pm

I have a Boss GS 10 Stomp that has all the amp modeling and preamps and all the other cowchips. I've tried them all, vox, line 6, etc. The boss is the best and it is still noisy as hell for a digital recording. One thing I like about Guitar Rig is that I can tweak it to be dead dead silent, even with a gnarly distortion on it.

I guess MY holy grail would be a good, SIMPLE distortion plug in. I can get everything else from somewhere else in my rig. I mean Guitar rig is $500 and its got a metronome, tuner, recorder-within-a-recorder, bla-bla-bla. All that stuff is ducky, buuuuuttt......The quiet distortion is the only element that isn't repetitive in my arsenal.

computermusic500 wrote:If you have some stomp boxes that you own it might be a good idea to avoid plugins altogether and just use a good s.b. in between your signal. I find that I can get as good or better sounds doing this than by using an amp sim such as guitar rig. Plus, you don't use much cpu.

brandondrury · Post by **brandondrury** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 3:57 pm

I think the right amp, cranked up high, with a Royer R121 or a SM 57 through a Neve is about as "Holy Grail" as you are going to get.

I know that most of you are sort of midi / direct only but I've never heard a plugin / simulator that came close.

Brandon

feyshay · Post by **feyshay** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:01 pm

I agree with getting an amp and recording in a decent room. Outside of that, I'd have to rate the POD XT Pro and GR2 as the best sims.
Have you considered using a DI to get a direct in and then sending part of your signal through a good pedal (a quality low noise overdrive pedal, like Fulltone Fulldrive 2). That would get you the distortion/overdrive you want. You could also reamp to the pedal and then add the cabinet/room/air/effect of yhour choice in the POD or GR2.

alex zonder · Post by **alex zonder** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:02 pm

Find a FREE alternative here:
http://frettedsynth.asseca.com/ampsims.html#FreeAmpSE

Home Page:
http://www.frettedsynth.com/

Klemperer · Post by **Klemperer** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:04 pm

I liked the guitar rig demo MUCH and couldn't test Amplitube2 (what? a dongle for a DEMO? Why not only being allowed to test it in jail from midnight to 3 am without water and something to eat

). I use the Aura pro from db-audioware, and others from the same developer with QuantumFX (you already have enough effects, you say) and sometimes add the Vamp2 (really a bargain for the price, got it for 99 Euro, new!) or different software-plugins with my presonus-preamp. If I could afford it, I'd get Guitar Rig2, but I get good guitar-tones out of the axe with my simple and not too expensive setup. There are good freebies around like from fretted synth, I use them too, marvellous.

alex zonder · Post by **alex zonder** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:12 pm

And have a look at this list:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... sc&start=0

Be sure to check these out:
http://bteaudio.com/software/Juicy77/Juicy77.html
http://www.voxengo.com/product/boogex/
http://dapoup.celeonet.fr/tribute/index ... 1129293038 (= Simulanalog Guitar Suite, with GUI)

Plus a simple fuzz box:
http://www.audiodamage.com/product_info ... ducts_id=3

guitarzan · Post by **guitarzan** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:13 pm

You already have the link to FrettedSynth's FreeAmpSE - another great free one is SimulAnalog's Guitar Suite:
http://www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm [EDIT: didn't see the GUI one listed in the post above - but that one doen't work right for me so you might want the original, too. For whatever it's worth, I actually prefer these two freebies used along with other great free vst's over Guitar Rig 2]

monsterbeetle · Post by **monsterbeetle** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 4:32 pm

Line6 PodXT is all you need, I've been trying all combinations of free software plugins out there (simulanalog, boogex, freeamp, guitifier (now called cortex), kjaerhus free plugins for FX, delay, EQ and compression, SARO, phase90, BuzRoom Buz and OctBuz and others for auto wah and tremolo, etc, impulse response from noisevault in SIR, etc....)

I've tried guitar rig 2 demo, nothing will get you where the pod can take you, from crystal clear to insane palm muting with low end thump...

Guitar rig 2 still sounds thin compared to the Line 6 MetalShop models.

For 500$ I'd go for a podXT live (which I did) rather than a guitar rig 2 package which still needs an expensive pc and sound card to sound good, and cannot work standalone.

The only thing that the pod hasn't is a decent rotovibe emulation, the Uvibe model it has just sucks, but the simulanalog package offers this, so...

the pod is more straight forward to use, good for both live playing and recording digitally via usb (good for reamping a dry take too, you get the kind of flexibility GR gives you).

line6 all the way. Simple stuff that just works great out of the box.

Just my two cents.

MelodyMan · Post by **MelodyMan** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:20 pm

Or try to get a Johnson J-station on ebay. Out of production, but a great amp-sim

stag · Post by **stag** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:26 pm

Amplitube 2 or Simulanalog GS, they beat the crap out of any hardware including a JCM800, even assuming you have the tools and knowlledge to print it to tape.

Westex · Post by **Westex** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:28 pm

guitarzan wrote:another great free one is SimulAnalog's Guitar Suite:
http://www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm [EDIT: didn't see the GUI one listed in the post above - but that one doen't work right for me so you might want the original, too. For whatever it's worth, I actually prefer these two freebies used along with other great free vst's over Guitar Rig 2]

my feelings exactly...

fwiw, i bought a pod - sold it. i bought a j-station - sold it. bought a sansamp - still using it. as far as commercial software goes, izotope trash is pretty useful.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 5:37 pm

If it doesn't need to be a plug-in, TonePort is great value-for money. I have one and I rate its sims higher than GR1, though I haven't bothered demoing GR2 yet.

Any Alternatives to Guitar Rig