The Big Guitar Amp Sim Roundup + Review

[Dewdman42]

Hey I need all the help I can get

[CapnLockheed]

Hey Craig, Just wanted to say thank you for the Peavey/ReValver love.
I've used Peavey gear since the late 70's. Tough as nails, very reliable
and great bang for the buck. I've also been part of the ReValver development
team since before it even existed. I worked with, (and still do), Michael Ljunggren
when his company, Alien Connections, was developing his audio editor Pristine Sounds.
When he first introduced ReValver it was an exciting time. Like Peavey itself, ReValver early on pioneered elements that were firsts in the ampsim world. Two of them, which were my personal suggestions were the ability to load third party VST's and external
IRS. The ability to tweak amps at the component level was another ReValver first. Of course, many others followed suit. But R4 is still leading the pack with more recent developments in modeling. R4 is my main go to ampsim....of course, I'm a wee bit
biased....LOL!!

I kind of like that they've revived the AMR brand with ReValver. I still have an old AMR MIDI Director.....handy little widget!

Also....a bit off topic....but thanks for all you do over at Presonus. I was a mod for several years. Just grabbed your new VoxTool FX Chain for S1. Can't wait to give it a workout!

Cheers......CL

[CapnLockheed]

I also don't happen to think there is anything wrong with using creative solutions, if it gets the sound you want. I used to run a Vox Tonelab modeler into a 20/20 tube power amp and 2x12 cab; when I could have rather ran it direct. It sounded definitely different that way, particularly because I was usually running through both a modeled amp and the actual 20/20 tube power amp...and as well I was often using modeled cab....and then the real cab on top of that. It meant I had to dial in my presets a little brighter to get through two layers of cabinets, but I felt that the feel and raw tube sound through my 20/20 was just more fun and sounded great on stage. Sometimes I would go around the modeled cab...in which case the sound was definitely a bit more dynamic and sounded more like my real cab....spankier........and in that case...the FX were before the cab....more like the FXLOOP scenario....sandwiched in between the modeled amp and the real amp.

Not conventional I know to have a modeler feeding a real amp and cab, but it sounded good and I preferred playing through celestions any day over what would come through my in-ears. This was while everyone on the internet was trying to tell me I needed a full range monitor speaker or something different, in order to preserve the pristine modeling. Ok. maybe so, but it sounded better, warmer, tubier, and just more fun to play when I ran through real tubes and real cab...so I did...not a conventional signal chain to be sure, but since I know what the real thing is supposed to sound like, I was able to make it sound just like I wanted... not a problem. Mostly it just took some of the high end off would wasn't always a bad thing anyway.

All this software and modeling provides a lot of different options and there is no reason not to experiment. They say Hendrix used to daisy chain amps together to get some ginormous new sounds.. (shrug). Whatever works really.

Agree 100%. Before software we did all sorts of crazy stuff in the studio. Randy Bachman got that "American Woman" tone by cascading amps. And now we do all sorts of crazy stuff with software. As far as creating sounds, IMHO, anything goes. The only difference is that with hardware there a few basic rules....so that you don't electrocute yourself or blowup expensive gear!

[Ploki]

Hey, does Bias AMP still use HTML for GUI?

[tapper mike]

.. or blowup expensive gear!

And then a guy named Eddie came along

[ElKabong]

Thanks for the review on ReValver. I'm a huge fan of the software and eagerly awaiting ReValver 5. If Peavey had dedicated the marketing budget toward promoting R4 that Positive Grid seems to dump into selling Bias stuff, I have a feeling way more people would be fans.

[mmann]

Hey, does Bias AMP still use HTML for GUI?

BIAS Amp 2 and BIAS FX 2 still use JavaScript and HTML to render the GUI.

[Anderton]

It's not about it making "you" sound good, it's about YOU making "it" sound good

I would file that under "wisdom."

[ilmai]

A small favor to ask: could you link all actual review posts in the OP?

Just bought Blue Cat's Destructor (the amp section of Axiom), it's a really interesting piece of software. I was initially driven away by the presets because they are all super dark (were all of them designed on a strat? ) but after a bit of tweaking I got some really nice results, especially when combined with an IR file in the post section. I need to spend some time crafting a handful of favorite presets for my use and I will be a happy man with this plugin. It's never going to match Mercuriall plugins for high gain tones but for everything else, this might become my go-to amp plugin.

Bonus points for being a really nice destruction effect (I mean it's in the name) for synths and other uses. Can never have too much destruction right?

[Ploki]

BIAS Amp 2 and BIAS FX 2 still use JavaScript and HTML to render the GUI.

oof. what a turnoff :/ i think it sounds great and its on the top of my list but this is such a turnoff.

edit:
i just demoed it on my Mac Mini. Interface is so laggy
sound is so good tho. Any other tweaker freak amp plugins?

[ElKabong]

BIAS Amp 2 and BIAS FX 2 still use JavaScript and HTML to render the GUI.

oof. what a turnoff :/ i think it sounds great and its on the top of my list but this is such a turnoff.

edit:
i just demoed it on my Mac Mini. Interface is so laggy
sound is so good tho. Any other tweaker freak amp plugins?

Agreed on the Bias interfaces. They're laggy and it results in a lot of annoying triple-clicking, when you click on something, think it didn't work, click again, and realize that the second click undid what you meant to do, and then have to click a third time.

If you like tweaking, I'd really recommend ReValver. You can tweak with mathematical precision, and the end result (to my ears) is so much less brittle and compressed sounding than Bias FX.

[Anderton]

A small favor to ask: could you link all actual review posts in the OP?

I'm waiting to hear back from KVR about the future of this thread. I've done what I was asked to do, so I'm basically done with this project. However, KVR wants to continue this in some way. Stay tuned...

[Zanman777]

A small favor to ask: could you link all actual review posts in the OP?

IK Multimedia Amplitube 4 review
viewtopic.php?p=7483640#p7483640

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 5 review
viewtopic.php?p=7485661#p7485661

Line 6 Helix Native 1.81 review
viewtopic.php?p=7492346#p7492346

PRS Supermodel Amps review
viewtopic.php?p=7494829#p7494829

Positive Grid BIAS FX 2 & BIAS AMP 2 review
viewtopic.php?p=7504250#p7504250

Blue Cat's Axiom review
viewtopic.php?p=7510982#p7510982

STL Tonality - Howard Benson Guitar Plug-In Suite review
viewtopic.php?p=7536894#p7536894

Scuffham S-Gear review
viewtopic.php?p=7542336#p7542336

Overloud TH-U review
viewtopic.php?p=7545513#p7545513

Peavey ReValver 4 review
viewtopic.php?p=7556148#p7556148

I'd like to thank everyone here in the forum for your terrific insights. I'm a "silent" forum reader, but still learnt a lot from you guys. A special thank you for the author of the post, of course, Craig Anderton. Consider this my tiny contribution to the post!

[Blue Cat Audio]

Just bought Blue Cat's Destructor (the amp section of Axiom), it's a really interesting piece of software. I was initially driven away by the presets because they are all super dark (were all of them designed on a strat? ) but after a bit of tweaking I got some really nice results, especially when combined with an IR file in the post section.

Presets have been designed and tested with a couple of different guitars (from telecaster to hollow body jazz), but the general spectral balance is a matter of taste and context, and as you know, cats are quite sensitive to treble .

It's never going to match Mercuriall plugins for high gain tones but for everything else, this might become my go-to amp plugin.

For extremely high gain sounds, you may want to cascade two instances in series: modern high gain amps usually use several distortion stages to increase the density of higher harmonics. That's what we have done in the new Axiom 1.3 presets, with an additional distortion plug-in in front of the amp simulation (Destructor actually has a couple of distortion pedal presets in the "Guitar FX" category that you can use as a starting point):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDsGGYYsqz4
Impulse responses are also very useful for high gain tones (with more harmonics, the exact shape of the post filter is very audible) - the distortion tones in the examples above all use IRs.

Bonus points for being a really nice destruction effect (I mean it's in the name) for synths and other uses. Can never have too much destruction right?

It also works pretty well as a mini channel strip on vocals or for other mixing tasks (with or without that much destruction ).

[Ploki]

Agreed on the Bias interfaces. They're laggy and it results in a lot of annoying triple-clicking, when you click on something, think it didn't work, click again, and realize that the second click undid what you meant to do, and then have to click a third time.

If you like tweaking, I'd really recommend ReValver. You can tweak with mathematical precision, and the end result (to my ears) is so much less brittle and compressed sounding than Bias FX.

looks cool, but last update 2016

Wrote to bias support, their official support guy said "I'm not a fan either but i wouldn't hold my breath"
Props for honesty.