Which vst based guitar amp sims should I check out?

[hibidy]

Speaking of cat pics...





Thank you for mentioning the ss.org, Hibidy, but it takes me to some "System Software" website?

http://www.sevenstring.org/

NO, you don't have to play sevenstrings Lot's of kiddies with way too much of mom and dads money, but man, some fab info, and gear porn you cannot fathom.

[Hink]

Indeed i would love to try out all the exciting IK stuff but WTF to all the marketing bullshit and unwanted installs. I have used amplitude 3 before but got fed up with playing with some demo stuff only to be told i have something missing from the demo and would i like to buy it!!!!!!

IK make a drop in dll please!

my deal with the marketing is my whole life I have heard "sounds just like a marshall" for so many amps that namedropping as it were turns me off. It doesn't matter if it's licensed or whatever, the name doesn't mean a thing to me besides a quick identifier. As far as accuracy, I guess I'm just not like others who have total tonal recall. I have owned many amps but my memory of how they sound is not to be trusted, just something as simple as relativity changes everything. An amp model will sometimes sound better and sometimes sound worse after trying a different model, with sims like AT model jumping is common but imho the ears are tainted from this process some. Sometimes different is better, sometimes it isn't and that's what it boils down to...so I got no time for brand names. (nor do I care about the gui looking like the model of the amp, I dont stare at my computer when I play guitar)

As for installing a bunch of stuff, I agree on that too. Every new install finds me asking myself what I really need to install and things that are a pita stay out. I'm not a dongle hater but I only have one plug left that uses an ilok (bt tracker, no brainer from AM) and I dont use that enough to install ilok (really I haven't used it since the first few days I had it).

As for the IK popping into every thread, I just dont agree in this thread...others yes but this was the proper place, as an exsalesman I see it as Peter doing his job. Like I said before, in other threads I have been quite vocal about how I think it's wrong. I do know that the thread does not need a total derail over it, the OP deserves to have his question answered

[Hink]

@Hink:

Excellent post.

Several good points made there.

appreciated

[hibidy]

The first thing to check out since I believe it's still at an unreal price is this

http://www.recabi.net/

I was just told something I have a hard time believing, but it's been mentioned that you'll get the update to 3.5 even at this price!

It's the no-brainer of no-brainers for amp sim users.

Edit: lolz, it was straight from the horses mouth.

[Hink]

not just with sim users, recab is great with the line out from amps and pre-amps as well

[PurpleCatfishBettie]

i've not been able to afford commercial sims.

of the freeware, poulin are still my favorite-sounding.

simulanalog for low, low cpu.

my computer is such an 'antique' that recabinet takes 10%+ cpu. it's great how easy recabinet is to use, but the cpu hit is too much, and sent me back to hand-loading free IRs (one at a time) into kefir.

having no DI, the question is; would a commercial ampsim (s-gear) or a DI be the next logical step? would s-gear run on this p4 with 1gb of RAM?

[Peevy2000]

I'm a big fan of Amplitube & what it has to offer but it can tend to be a bit less dynamically responsive than I'd like. Plus the fact that it can be a bit crash prone especially with Ableton Live. (usually only happens when trying to setup midi within AT)

So I thought I'd give S-Gear a go again, since I hadn't used it in a while. (demo run out on windows, now trying it on my mac) and I have to agree with the general opinion of it in this thread. It probably is the closest your gonna get to the real thing for an AmpSim. Since I never had a valve amp until I got my EVH 5150 50w last year, I wouldn't have been able to give an opinion on the subject. I'm gonna trial it a bit more tomorrow & maybe A/B it with AT to be sure before I decide to hit the buy button.

not just with sim users, recab is great with the line out from amps and pre-amps as well

This is definitely the way to go if you have a decent amp, I plug headphones into the phones input (for silent recording) of my EVH & run out from the pre-amp into my K6 soundcard using recab in my DAW & its verrrrry close to the sound I'm getting from a real cab.

Back on topic though, you cant really go wrong with either S-Gear or Amplitube, S-Gear might have a bit of an edge though. I'll chime in tomorrow when I've had a bit more demo time with S-Gear

[hibidy]

I must be the only person on earth that doesn't care for s gear.

It doesn't suck. And I got it at a great price, and it does feel good. But I'll think I'm cookin' along with it and realize I like other things better.

I'll load it back up tonight and play round with it some more. I guess considering how bad I am at guitar (considering) I shouldn't even care, but there really isn't anything like that sound!!

[beau921]

I originally recommended to the original poster Amplitube 3 Free and ReValver.

Actually, I was trying to be conservative in recommending 2 that would offer the most versatility and tonal options. In truth, I'm a gear hound and would recommend having all of them. I'm not even sure how many I have, right now. Along with a rack full of hardware guitar and bass gear.

These are my views from experience, and God knows, before I offend anyone, I'm giving my opinions to the original poster's question.

I see Amplitube 3 as the standard, because everything that comes along, eventually, gets compared to it. Just like, I believe Hink mentioned, "...sounds just like a Marshall."

Amplitube 3 is, as someone said an "all in one solution."

ReValver is not only an all in one solution, but can also act like a series of individual modules chained together.

Beyond that, I recommend gathering as many guitar amp software, and hardware, tools as possible. I personally change settings and/or guitars and/or amps for every sequentially layered track to give the guitars definition against each other. In that, a number of amp software simulators can only give more options for tonal versatility.

When we begin discussing "high gain," it's usually in the context of distortion.

Understood.

However in my playing I view "gain" and "distortion" as 2 separate things.

Whenever I have hardware or software with presets, I find I always dial back a bit the distortion. There is a point where I hear the clarity disappear and it becomes too much...for my playing style, but maybe not yours.

It seems a high level of distortion often "softens the blow" of the sound's intensity. And, I want to loosen your teeth with sound, sooooo...

I typically refer to mine as drive rather than distortion, because I'm, likely, using a lot less than most here.

High gain can obviously lead to a sort of buzzsaw guitar sound. But, I use it much more as a level at the front of the amp, hardware or software.

That's hard to explain because it's actually a kind of feel I get when I hit a string. The push that makes it seem to jump off the guitar and through the amp.

So, when I'm recommending Amplitube 3 Free and ReValver, that's based upon getting a tonal gain at the front of the amp [software].

That works for me. But, what is it you say here...your milage may vary.

There is a box Waves markets in conjunction with PRS that acts as an interface into your soundcard and it, making much more simple and basic in description, sort of, loads down the guitar to what it would get going into the front inputs of any hardware amplifier.

If anyone here is using something else, or nothing, into the computer soundcard, then, before we even get into the amp software we have a different signal path, which will affect the end result dramatically in most cases.

Do I think mine is best?

Well, of course, I do.

Just like you all do about your own.

This is one of those rare times when it's both. Mine is best, and so is yours.

Having listened to S-Gear, I won't say I didn't like it. But, nothing there led me to buy it.

But, to be completely contradictory, I have the Marshall JMP-1, that being designed by the S-Gear programmer [?], and of all my hardware, there is something different about that one.

So, not one word I posted previously was against S-Gear, it was, rather, for the things I've used and found, overall, the most versatile, and that should be explored by anyone looking for amp software.

IK Multimedia surely can get a reaction from people here.

When I, occasionally, speak-up about them here, it's in the most positive way, because I have had nothing but good experiences with their software, and in my discussions with their representatives.

If you don't like, or want their software, don't use it.

Speaking for myself only, I don't understand the concern over what installs along with Amplitube 3 Free.

Sometimes, it's portrayed as malicious.

It's a software amp, a license manager for the serial number, and the Custom Shop for potential expansion, sometimes for free or at drastically reduced prices, of the software.

It takes a bit more time than installing just a .dll file, but the end result is well worth it.

Until recently I was using an ancient, by computer standards, computer, and never found any negative affect of the install on it's performance.

So, after all that, I stand by my original recommendations, and add all the rest.

You can't have enough tools.

If we're getting beyond recommending only amp software, I can't second enough Recabinet. That is a must-have, especially for that price.

Also, the Torpedo P-1 [?] version that can be downloaded free.

And, I'd go as far as recommending the software Rangmaster Treble Booster, 'Rangebastard.' However, in sweetening the mids and highs, it seems to take out some of the low-end of the guitar tonal range, which I happen to like. But if you want to hear the rumbling low-end in your guitar sound, you may come away disappointed.

I have a hardware simulation, and the software version. I never plug-in the guitar without one of them.

All that said, I agree with zerocrossing in that whatever recommendations you get are just that...personal opinions.

It's not only the amp software, but also the genre you play in, your style, and even your recording techniques that may affect which one is right for you.

And, in closing, since Hink and I recently cordially agreed on something, I wanted to add...

Gibson guitars are magic!!!

[zerocrossing]

The cold hard truth is that so far no plug in sounds as good as the better hardware modelers, but the hardware modelers are expensive and less flexible to use. That said, there is no accounting for taste. I saw someone post that they liked "S-Gear and Revalver" which makes me scratch my head because S-Gear sounds great to me and Revalver sounds horrible.... TO ME. So, when opinions like this abound, how can you trust anyone? You can't. Demo them and trust yourself. No one else's opinion is worth a lick.

Exactly. Let people like what they like. I'd love to do the real thing. It's just too costly and too cumbersome for me. For all the cash I've plinked on amp sims, and even a couple of hardware emu's, it's still way under what an axe fx costs. Maybe if I tried something like that or the kemper I'd save my squeegee money (I'll give a penny to the first person who can remember where that came from!) but for now I LOVE living in the computer world. It's easy peasy.

Exact-a-mundo Cunningham! (Jump to the last sentences if you don't want the scenic route)

When I was in grade school I used a second hand Teisico (sp?) junk amp. In high school I obtained a Vox Buckingham when I saved up enough. During a time of crazy transition and couch surfing, a small solid state Marshall became my amp (that thing sounded fantastic). Then I moved to an Ampeg stereo chorus model when I needed something bigger. (maybe my favorite amp ever) At one point I was using a Digitech 2120 into two Peavey KB60s and it sounded glorious.

After that I had a smattering of different amps over the years.. Line6 modeling amps (ultimately I hated them) a Johnson JT60 Modeling amp (way better to my ears) and an Ampeg Reverbrocket... I think that's all of them, though I'd borrow amps from music shops I worked in at times when I needed something different. In the end I found real amps, as good as they can be, started to feel cumbersome in my world. My world had become much more studio orientated. My "schtick" became much more relient on audio looping devices. My last gigging rig consisted of two Mackie powered PA speakers being fed by a Vox Tonelab SE. I got a ton of complements about my tone then.

At one point gigging stopped making sense to me. Often I found the breakdown/transportation/setup/breakdown/transportion/resetup process to outlast the length of the gig. I was frustrated that I couldn't consistently replicate what I was doing in the studio in a live situation. Bad sound systems, dim stages and short set up times abound. I kept seeing a guy I know (aka Kid Beyond) doing his beat-box looping thing. He had a small rack, midi control pedal, laptop and a mic. So tiny! I knew audio loopers had been done well in software but my only experience with software amp sims was with Guitar Rig, and at that point I hated it (still don't like it much for guitar stuff). Thus began my decent into software. If I had to name a "favorite" for me it would have to be IK Multimedia's Amplitube. The quality, variety and ease of use make it the "King Of Tone" in my book. Sure, others are great too, but that's my pick. I don't work for IK or it's affiliates.

So is that the end of my long boring story? Nope. When the Kemper Amp Profiler came out, I did what ever it took to make one mine. I wasn't disappointed. It blows away Amplitube and all the rest. Of course, it's got a hefty price tag. Does it make me never pine for a good ol' tube amp? No. Less, but not never.

My point? Oh right, there was a point! My point is, I made music with what ever was at hand at any given time. What ever sounded best that I could afford, or worked in my situation, or was the only thing I could get my hands on, I used. If that's not you, then you're probably a hack who's more interested in bragging rights or collecting stuff than you are about playing music.

[Hink]

The cold hard truth is that so far no plug in sounds as good as the better hardware modelers, but the hardware modelers are expensive and less flexible to use. That said, there is no accounting for taste. I saw someone post that they liked "S-Gear and Revalver" which makes me scratch my head because S-Gear sounds great to me and Revalver sounds horrible.... TO ME. So, when opinions like this abound, how can you trust anyone? You can't. Demo them and trust yourself. No one else's opinion is worth a lick.

Exactly. Let people like what they like. I'd love to do the real thing. It's just too costly and too cumbersome for me. For all the cash I've plinked on amp sims, and even a couple of hardware emu's, it's still way under what an axe fx costs. Maybe if I tried something like that or the kemper I'd save my squeegee money (I'll give a penny to the first person who can remember where that came from!) but for now I LOVE living in the computer world. It's easy peasy.

Exact-a-mundo Cunningham! (Jump to the last sentences if you don't want the scenic route)

When I was in grade school I used a second hand Teisico (sp?) junk amp. In high school I obtained a Vox Buckingham when I saved up enough. During a time of crazy transition and couch surfing, a small solid state Marshall became my amp (that thing sounded fantastic). Then I moved to an Ampeg stereo chorus model when I needed something bigger. (maybe my favorite amp ever) At one point I was using a Digitech 2120 into two Peavey KB60s and it sounded glorious.

After that I had a smattering of different amps over the years.. Line6 modeling amps (ultimately I hated them) a Johnson JT60 Modeling amp (way better to my ears) and an Ampeg Reverbrocket... I think that's all of them, though I'd borrow amps from music shops I worked in at times when I needed something different. In the end I found real amps, as good as they can be, started to feel cumbersome in my world. My world had become much more studio orientated. My "schtick" became much more relient on audio looping devices. My last gigging rig consisted of two Mackie powered PA speakers being fed by a Vox Tonelab SE. I got a ton of complements about my tone then.

At one point gigging stopped making sense to me. Often I found the breakdown/transportation/setup/breakdown/transportion/resetup process to outlast the length of the gig. I was frustrated that I couldn't consistently replicate what I was doing in the studio in a live situation. Bad sound systems, dim stages and short set up times abound. I kept seeing a guy I know (aka Kid Beyond) doing his beat-box looping thing. He had a small rack, midi control pedal, laptop and a mic. So tiny! I knew audio loopers had been done well in software but my only experience with software amp sims was with Guitar Rig, and at that point I hated it (still don't like it much for guitar stuff). Thus began my decent into software. If I had to name a "favorite" for me it would have to be IK Multimedia's Amplitube. The quality, variety and ease of use make it the "King Of Tone" in my book. Sure, others are great too, but that's my pick. I don't work for IK or it's affiliates.

So is that the end of my long boring story? Nope. When the Kemper Amp Profiler came out, I did what ever it took to make one mine. I wasn't disappointed. It blows away Amplitube and all the rest. Of course, it's got a hefty price tag. Does it make me never pine for a good ol' tube amp? No. Less, but not never.

My point? Oh right, there was a point! My point is, I made music with what ever was at hand at any given time. What ever sounded best that I could afford, or worked in my situation, or was the only thing I could get my hands on, I used. If that's not you, then you're probably a hack who's more interested in bragging rights or collecting stuff than you are about playing music.

zc, that story is very familiar because I was the same way and I think it was a gift. I turned 41 in 2000, up untril then I did not have more than two guitars at once ever, never paid more than 400 dollars for a guitar but it never stopped me. That's where all my DIY came from, I had no other choice so I learned to appreciate inexpensive gear and improve it as I could...meanwhile playing on gear some people would laugh at only made me better as I see it.

Sadly if you discuss these things at KvR someone will find fault with everything...that was bad and wrong according to a few people here. I should have waited and worked hard to save the money to buy a Gibson or the like before I started playing, learning to play on cheap guitars according to them is bad. Sadly up until this year we always had Ian B, the king of cheap guitars so there was some balance I'll never understand though the thinking of having to have the best gear to learn on, my first amp ever was a ham radio amp and my father put a speaker in a cardboard box and this was before my first electric. I used a no name nylon string guitar ( I was in 5th grade then) that was my sister's and I (typical me) put a cheap Laffeyette Electronics pick-up on it. Still every day I ran all the way home from school to play...That's what I try to explain to people too, amp sims make real tones so they are real amps and if you cant get the tone you want you can still have a ball, learn and grow by working with the tones you can get...someday if you keep at you'll have more tones to work with.

The best part is, 42 years later, I still get that same kick...I still cannot wait until the next time I get to play.

FWIW I can see some people thinking I'm about bragging rights because the last few years I have added a lot of cool gear...but I waited a lifetime to be able to do that and I have earned it..it's also why I do buy a lot of gear lately that I just do not even talk about anymore. I will be from ear to ear though when my baritone body is done (another 5-9 weeks)

[Peevy2000]

I've spent a bit more time with S-Gear today & A/B'd it with Amplitube. So what's the verdict.....well S-Gear is a very great sounding amp sim, perhaps one of the best out there. But I wouldn't go as far as saying its the clear winner (over Amplitube at least) It does in some ways outshine AT, especially when it comes to behaving a bit more like a real amp. Both dynamically & the tonally,. There's a bit more depth & responsiveness with SG's tone control & I really like the extra control over the Power Amp section. But there is a price to pay for all this goodness, there's definitely a noticeable amount of latency at 256 samples. Not an ideal sample rate for tracking guitar but I barley notice the latency at all while using Amplitube at the same sample rate.

But IMHO it doesn't totally thrash AT & AT has a lot to offer that IMO SG can't really compete with right now. The shear amount of great amp types AT has to offer, like most of the fender amps & recently some really great high gain amps like, Anger, Soldano & the Thunderverb. Also a lot of the Amps that came with AT3 are very decent too.

OK you could argue that IK's whole custom shop way of working is just gimmicky & its not like your getting a real fender, Orange or Soldano amp. In some ways maybe it is a bit on the gimmicky side but instead of seeing it this way, I tend to forget about the amp names & see it as adding different flavoured amp types, components, parameters & tweak-ability to an already brilliant ampsim.

Having said all this, I still stick to what I said in my previous post in the thread. You can't really go wrong with either S-Gear or Amplitube, the choice at the end of the day is yours.

[hibidy]

I just saw this:

On AC/DC's latest album, Black Ice, Young has stated that he used AmpliTube software on "Big Jack" and "Anything Goes"

At s gear: It does some things well, but after trying very hard last night (I really spend way too much time searching "tone" and not "playing" enough) I have determined it's not anything special enough to warrant the "amp sim killer" moniker it seems to have established.

Sorry, but I'd sell mine if license transfer was possible, and I collect amp sims

[blueman]

May I suggest Amplifikation Vermilion

Omg, the "cream" is awesome! Man, that cab might be better than the recabinet!

+1 This amp is a too-well kept secret

[blueman]

May I suggest Amplifikation Vermilion

This one's on my short list of go-to models for clean and slightly overdriven tones. Love this amp

Here's a lil' clip of me trying to coax some sultry tone-age from this beauty