KVR Audio

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:28 pm

If you're already a guitar player, trying to deal with samples for anything other than texture will be an appalling experience. If you truly just want a "reasonable" sound, there's lots out there. I've used Green Machine II a lot in the past, and I now use a Line 6 TonePort (the GuitarPort recommended in this thread will do just as well for "one guitar ONLY" situations, especially with the update coming this month).

Greg

justjazz · Post by **justjazz** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:44 pm

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 3:53 pm

jj, the default SOUNDS on the GuitarPort and TonePort are identical, and both can be upgraded in the same ways.

The reason GuitarPort costs less is because of the hardware. It's just a guitar input with 1 input level knob, an analog output (for headphones or speakers), and the USB connection (for recording).

There's a lot to be said for psychology. Some people simply saw the GP as a "toy," and therefore they psychologically didn't take it seriously. However, its included tones are identical down to the bit-level to those in the PODxt.

Harmony Central reviews are not reliable in the least, and indeed my experience has been that most HC user reviews are written by idiots.

For 1 in and 1 out, you will not clog your USB. I'm using the TonePort's full bandwidth (ie. more than the GuitarPort with more in and out options) with no problems.

Guitar Combos are actually pretty good. If you like the sound of those 3 amps and don't mind having ONLY those 3, it could be a good choice for you.

Greg

justjazz · Post by **justjazz** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 4:12 pm

krank · Post by **krank** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 4:19 pm

Reading this thread with the Amplitube 2 banner running above. I just came to think of how Squids would rave about AT2 as the ultimate emulation solution for guitarists, a product in its own class that would strike awe into any software sceptic. Funny how after its release no-one here seems to recommend it.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 7:59 pm

Nobody from this forum seems to be buying AT2 because:

a) it is too effing expensive
b) it has dongle-based protection so that you can't even demo it.

A few people have bought it and are happy with it, but I don't think it turned out to be the revolution advertised.

Greg, do I have to use the USB? I can't figure that out. The reason I ask is that I have had lots of issues with clicks/pops in my setup. It's a very delicate balance to get things set up right with my nforce4 board and firewire card. If I could avoid passing data over the USB bus and just use analog in/out, I think I would be better off.

You should be able to use the analog path, but remember that this adds an extra stage of D-A and then A-D conversion. Shouldn't be a big issue, though.

It seems like the GuitarPort pushes most of the DSP to the PC and sends raw audio back and forth over USB with the algorithms running on the PC. I've seen mention of 10% CPU on a zippy AMD.

That 10%... who knows. People aren't very reliable when it comes to that kind of info.

However, it's true that it DOES put ALL (not just "some") of the DSP onto the PC. The GuitarPort hardware itself is just a D/A converter and "soundcard," and contains no DSP of its own. I have a medium-powered AMD (Athlon 2600+) and I don't really notice a substantial CPU hit. Certainly less of a hit than when I run a hungry plug-in like Amplitube.

Greg

justjazz · Post by **justjazz** » Sat Jul 29, 2006 8:30 pm

justjazz · Post by **justjazz** » Mon Jul 31, 2006 8:44 pm

justjazz · Post by **justjazz** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 10:58 am

Trevor Jackson · Post by **Trevor Jackson** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 12:59 pm

I started the last thread about distortion.

After trying just about everything, I finally settled on Native Instruments Guitar Combos. Three amps, a Fender, a Vox and a Mesa. It's on sale now for $79 and there are some acceptable patches -- yes even some that rival my venerable Bad Monkey (perfectly respectable stomp).

IMO, the way to do it is to find a basic tone you want and then use your own reverb, tremolo, etc. rather than using the particualr program's effects. You will save a lot of money that way, also, and in my experience will not expend too much more CPU usage, either. For guitars, the actual fuzz seems to be the biggest CPU hog. Everything else is negotiable.

justjazz wrote:Last try since I've got to make a purchase soon. Do you guy agree that the v-amp and pod don't seem to mix well with their thin sound, or is it possible I'm doing something wrong? Even the Leslie effect seemed thin and didn't have a lot of depth/movement in my headphones or speakers.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:38 pm

justjazz wrote:Last try since I've got to make a purchase soon. Do you guy agree that the v-amp and pod don't seem to mix well with their thin sound, or is it possible I'm doing something wrong? Even the Leslie effect seemed thin and didn't have a lot of depth/movement in my headphones or speakers.

I didn't care for the v-amp, but I don't agree about the thin sound with POD. I've had the exact opposite experience...but I guess it depends on what you call thin. As for the rotary speaker not having any depth or movement...a leslie is horns...by nature they are going to be fairly thin sounding...as for movement you must remember there shouldn't be a lot of movement or imaging in your headphones. Rotary speaker is not auto-panning. On stage the speaker doesn't rotate around you, it rotates in place. Some relections do you comeback at you from around you, but mostly the tone is amplitude and tonal changes. So not having a lot of movement is natural (not having any wouldn't be). As for depth, that could be taken several ways, so I'm not sure what you mean by depth. There is a rotary speaker vst called Macdonald I think (free) that's pretty good, you might want to give it a shot...

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:58 pm

Lunch Money wrote:Nobody from this forum seems to be buying AT2 because:

a) it is too effing expensive
b) it has dongle-based protection so that you can't even demo it.

A few people have bought it and are happy with it, but I don't think it turned out to be the revolution advertised.

I own it but purely only because of the "Buy AT1 now, get AT2 free later!" scheme. AT2 does indeed sound good. I personally think it beats Guitar Rig 1 and 2, but the PodXTLive beats AT2 just for sheer useablity!

I would not have bought AT2 outright, the scheme trapped me and many others I would say.

Glooper · Post by **Glooper** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 2:12 pm

A cheap small practice amp and an SM57 is much better than DIing with Amp Sims and is probably as cheap as one of those pod things too.

Or of course use my loops..

ben

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 2:19 pm

Y'know what Gloop... I have a VOX Pathfinder. Its only a 15watt amp, but do you think I could get a phat sound out of it by micing it up?

PaulG · Post by **PaulG** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 2:29 pm

Hey, I've had the Pod XT, TonePort, GuitarPort AND the Vamp2. I am primarily a rock player from the "80's" style, and I did have to do some tweaking to get what I thought were good tones.

And others thought so too, as I'd frequently get comments to "what's that on the radio?" when I'd have one of my songs playing in the background.

I WAS using a BBE plug-in or a Spectralive plug-in, too, both of which can make an incredible positive effect on a mix if used wisely.

Guitar distortion