Does the authenticity of your guitar amp/cab emulaton matter to you?

[Hink]

For me at least, I would love cranking up an old Mesa Boogie Mark IV, or my friend's Carvin head, but I don't have the cashflow to throw at a real amp right now, nor do I have the space to actually house one. When I found out about virtual amps, I was in heaven. I'd love to be a purist, but I'm more concerned with making music... besides, these days I seem less bent on making real guitar noises (it's too much fun running my classical guitar through a synth emu!)

less than two feet away from where I sit now is my Boogie SOB on a slant cab with 4 celestions I rarely play it these days though, I just can't crank it up enough here to make it worth it.

[vurt]

if im going for a particular sound then yes, perhaps. if im looking for a good sound then no, not so much.

[ughnonumus]

Does the authenticity of your guitar amp/cab emulaton matter to you?

no

[susiwong]

so what you're saying is that if the emulation is precise then it's easier because you can set it up like your physical version of the amp and you're good to go? This kind of confuses me, you me and many others here understand the days of 1-3 (tops) sounding amps because we lived it. I honestly think that quite a few guitar players back in those days chose their style by the amp they had. With tube amps for a long time there weren't a whole lot of amps with more than one channel.

Perfectly correct.
I like my amps to be one trick ponies, but this trick better be good.
I've played hundreds of gigs on the clean channel of my Classic 50, my Strat with EC boost and a modded Ernie Ball in the insert, and I got all the tones I needed for the 5 hrs country / rock repertoire we did, from squeaky clean to AC DC style crunch and everything in between. Sometimes I added a Dynacomp and a delay, just for kicks. The tonal variation came from the fingers and the controls on the guitar.
Over the years I learned there's no way to fundamentally change the tone of a vintage style amp using the controls, if an amp doesn't deliver after 30 sec worth of tweaking to suit the guitar it never will.
You can't even make a Deluxe sound like a Twin or Super though they're pretty similar in many ways ...
Imho for recording the way to go is choose the right guitar / amp combination for a track, set the controls and play. Everything else is done in the mix.
I think in terms like "give me a Les Paul and a Marshall" or "here I'd like a Tele through a Bassman".

I wonder if the endless tweaking you do is because you can and the grass is always greener.

Not guilty.
All I do is what I'm used to do in hardware, an amp, a cab, maybe a booster in front.
Kinda interesting that GR4's control room was the breakthrough for me, totally, no matter if I'm using GR, AT, TH-1 or whatever.
Now most amps have the character I'm expecting, granted, some better, some worse, but finally I can record with confidence using sims.
And don't think I'm not capable of programming complex chains, I used to earn my living for a decade building guitar- and PA systems for nationwide acts over here, from making a concept together with the customer, choosing the components, assembling the stuff and programming everything till the first gigs, until everything worked to the customer's satisfaction.
With guitars and amps however I'm a firm believer in "simpler sounds better".
Ymmv, certainly, and different styles might need different approaches, the above is only my personal experience for country, blues, classic rock and these things, not more.
Cheers,
susiwong

[MitchK1989]

I'd rather have something sound GOOD than AUTHENTIC.

I see no reason why a much more capable and complex machine like a computer couldn't easily surpass the general "muddy or harsh, take your pick" tone of 99% of hardware amps. I've had way better results with TRASH than with almost every amp I've tried other than a fender deluxe reverb - which was awesome...

[GreyLion]

Most of us haven't played through enough amps to actually know what authenticity would really sound like anyhow, though we probably all think we have a clue, as a result of listening to a lot of recorded music. Maybe enough live music to have an idea, too.

But I think that a lot of times just hearing an amp doesn't give you any idea about how they 'feel' to play.

For me, I seem to gravitate toward JCM800 emus as a starting point for liquid sustainy high-gain tones. Though I've only played through a real one maybe half a dozen times.

And I mostly end up at a Fender Twin for clean and a Blackface Deluxe Reverb for other clean and crunchy tones. Got both of those, so I'm intimately familiar with them, and they just sound 'right' for blues and rock.

I think that the closest I've ever come to a 'real' Deluxe sound was though the emu in the old Johnson J-Station.

[robogone]

Most of the time I'm more interested in what fits with what I'm doing. Occasionally I think something doesn't sound quite right as I know what it CAN sound like using the real thing, but for the most part I don't think about that.

[nickm]

Most of us haven't played through enough amps to actually know what authenticity would really sound like anyhow, though we probably all think we have a clue, as a result of listening to a lot of recorded music. Maybe enough live music to have an idea, too.

Excellent point -- I fall into that category for sure. The first non-junk amp I ever owned was a Line6 FlexTone... And some might question the "non-junk" tag... So there ya go.

I think authenticity is also more important depending on the type of music you play. I do trip-hop, so weirdo crap pawnshop sound is more my thing, which I can dial in with astounding economy with my Line6 gear. OTOH, if I were playing blues or even straight guitar rock, I can see that dialing in an "authentic" Blackface or JCM800 would be very important starting place for my sound.

[vespers75]

Hell no, it doesn't matter.

As long as I have the sound I need. My typical guitar sounds would make most people cringe anyway, as my music requires a cold and sterile sound with a focus on treble anyhow.

[jancivil]

I have played through exactly two amps in my life I've LOVED, a fender twin reverb and a marshall 50W (cabinet and amp in the same box) of unknown vintage to me (since it wasn't really my amp and it was twenty some years ago).

with an amp sim for playing a guitar through, yes I am looking for some tones I've gotten before and to expand on that. (I got a marshall tone last nite that was exactamundo what I was dialing for, through some Amplitubes, and I'll post that maybe tomorrow btw.) I'm rather blues-based on the instrument, and I have a personal sort of tone, and yes if that isn't right it's not worth bothering with. I'm with susiwong on tweaking, if you don't get it quick, it's not happening, for a guitarist, a guitar and an amp. It's there or it's not.

as far as sending the audio from a virtual instrument thru an amp sim, well that is a different story altogether.

that said, for me there is no value or interest in A/Bing emus with the real thing as I don't own any of the latter, it's too high maintenance anyway to cart hardware around, I'm too old for that shit.

[stk]

Brand/model authenticity? No.. but..

I have a couple ballpark amp tones I like, and judge an ampsim by its ability to achieve at least one of those tones with that bare minimum of fluffing about.

I know I can just drop an 57 in front of my JCM800 or my mate's Bassman, maybe tweak a couple eq settings, and it's going to sound fantastic. I expect the same from a sim.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

...
with an amp sim for playing a guitar through, yes I am looking for some tones I've gotten before and to expand on that. (I got a marshall tone last nite that was exactamundo what I was dialing for, through some Amplitubes, and I'll post that maybe tomorrow btw.)...

Please do!

...
that said, for me there is no value or interest in A/Bing emus with the real thing as I don't own any of the latter, it's too high maintenance anyway to cart hardware around, I'm too old for that shit.

Personally, and I have been happy with AmpliTube for far longer than the time I've been with IK, as far as software and AmpliTube specifically - as a consumer/lazy recording guy, I came for the convenience and left with excellent tone that exceeded my expectations. I have had and do have hardware amps, I love them too. I don't think I even subconsciously A/B the models with the real versions I've played. I just like what comes out of the speakers in the end.

[blueman]

On my hardware amps I can dial in the sound for a certain guitar "blind" mostly, switch on standby and bam !

With sims, until recently endless tweaking was necessary to get in the ballpark at least , fortunately GR4's CR is a huge step in the right direction for me, also giving more authenticity to AT and TH-1.

I think this is because the hardware just is what it is whereas the software is...partially what it's trying to emulate PLUS extra information that you may or may not want (usually not). Amp sims require more tweaking to get rid of this information, boost the information you do want and then try to make it sound more "real" and compensate for the extra damage you may have done along the way. People had these issues in the 80s with mondo racks where every piece of gear altered the signal so that the next piece in the chain had to fix or make up for it.

Maybe it's a futile exercise in the end but it's hard to get used to the fizz and mud that spews out of amp modeling software. It's probably never going to sound "natural". Thus, all the tweaking. I think we are still trying to hear the glass in the tube rattle and feel the pressure of the speaker pushing air Funny huh? It's always going to sound a little flat because well...IT IS! It's not a 3d affair like a guitar and amp setup and yet we seem to (subconsciously) be looking for that anyway.

What sounds good in your monitors is what fits the mix. What sounds good in the real world is what rattles the doors and windows loose Amp modeling is for your mix NOT for your neighbors to enjoy

Hey, maybe we can all just learn to enjoy that plastic 2d tone as the new standard. Because that's what it is fast becoming!

From South Park... "Hey! Put that down! What are you doing?! Real guitars are for old people!!"

[donkey tugger]

Nope,

Most of the amps I've ever had have been utter shite (apart from the one Marshall I had, which was nice) and these VSTs sound 10x better.

The 'Lead 100' (no further nomenclature was given regarding its provenance) was a great amp mind. I look forward to a simulation. . I think I swapped it for a Yamaha RX17 drum machine at some stage. That was utter shite too.

[pgvpgv333]

When will the time come when we want a amp to sound like a ampsim? I suspect it is around the corner.