The Big Guitar Amp Sim Roundup + Review

[ilmai]

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):

Thanks for the reply & tips, using another Destructor with a pedal preset or The Scream in front of Destructor definitely improves a lot of high gain sounds. And as nice as the post-filter section is, using IRs here also improves results a lot.

Thankfully Bitwig allows me to save whole device chains as presets so I can easily load a guitar tone consisting of plugins from various developers.

[ilmai]

After some more testing, Destructor is definitely as nice as ReAxis for cleans, crunch & lead tones, but for high gain rhythm guitars, I can't seem to dial in the kind of thick rhythm guitar tones I'm getting from ReAxis. Even when using two Destructors in series. Not that it's a problem to use different amp sims for different purposes, but I wanted to see if I could take it there, since I like the interface of Destructor a more than ReAxis.

[ElKabong]

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.

It's still better in 2019 than stuff that came out last month. And the next version is on the cusp of being released.

[Ploki]

It's still better in 2019 than stuff that came out last month. And the next version is on the cusp of being released.

i'll give it a spin. soundwise so far i gotta say BIAS sounds pretty damn good. I kinda wonder how can they code such a good sound engine with such garbage GUI.

[Zanman777]

What is the difference between Amplitube Fender Collection 1 and 2? I bought FC 1 a few years ago, and haven't used it in a while. Does FC 2 only add a couple more amp models?

[Blue Cat Audio]

After some more testing, Destructor is definitely as nice as ReAxis for cleans, crunch & lead tones, but for high gain rhythm guitars, I can't seem to dial in the kind of thick rhythm guitar tones I'm getting from ReAxis. Even when using two Destructors in series. Not that it's a problem to use different amp sims for different purposes, but I wanted to see if I could take it there, since I like the interface of Destructor a more than ReAxis.

Have you tried the new Axiom 1.3 high gain presets? If you like them, it is pretty easy to reproduce with Destructor only.

[Dewdman42]

What is the difference between Amplitube Fender Collection 1 and 2? I bought FC 1 a few years ago, and haven't used it in a while. Does FC 2 only add a couple more amp models?

Fc2 has totally new amp modeling technology that is way better

[ilmai]

Have you tried the new Axiom 1.3 high gain presets? If you like them, it is pretty easy to reproduce with Destructor only.

Yeah they're great for some types of tones, but for others they can't really match ReAxis for example.

[Zanman777]

What is the difference between Amplitube Fender Collection 1 and 2? I bought FC 1 a few years ago, and haven't used it in a while. Does FC 2 only add a couple more amp models?

Fc2 has totally new amp modeling technology that is way better

So I wasted money on Fender Collection 1? Is there a way to resell, or something?

[mmann]

So I wasted money on Fender Collection 1? Is there a way to resell, or something?

Not at all! The Fender Collection 1 has different amps and more of them (12 compared to 7).

Collection 1 also has 9 stomp effects and 7 rack effects; Collection 2 has no effects at all.

The Collection 2 does offer their "Dynamic Interaction Modeling" but I actually use Collection 1 more because I prefer the amps that were modeled and the effects.

[Anderton]

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!

Thank you very much!! Saved me a lot of time. I posted this in the OP, with credit of course

[ElKabong]

It's still better in 2019 than stuff that came out last month. And the next version is on the cusp of being released.

i'll give it a spin. soundwise so far i gotta say BIAS sounds pretty damn good. I kinda wonder how can they code such a good sound engine with such garbage GUI.

My suspicion is that it's related to the fact that it originated as a mobile phone app first. So the core algorithms from the mobile app probably translate pretty seamlessly to the desktop; but the actual implementation less so. In fact, it might make sense to use some really lightweight UI like HTML on a smartphone where you want all the processing power spent on the DSP. But on the PC, the UI is definitely a huge letdown.

[PeterP_swe]

In fact, it might make sense to use some really lightweight UI like HTML on a smartphone where you want all the processing power spent on the DSP. But on the PC, the UI is definitely a huge letdown.

Using HTML makes it quick and easy to develop, but it's definitively not lightweight or easy on CPU and RAM. They need to embed a web browser in the plugin just for the UI.

It's a shame really, the processing sounds good and I'd be interested in buying Bias if they only made a native UI.

[Dewdman42]

I agree. I tried out their demo for a bit, the gui lag was unbearable.

[Dewdman42]

Mercurial Spark just went on sale 50% off for 72 hours. FYI. This is my favorite Marshall sim to date.

I am curious why a few products were not included in this big review thread. For example, these are missing and IMHO in some cases are some of the best:

• Mercurial
• JamVox
• Kazrog Thermionik and Recabinet
• Waves GTR
• SoftTube Vintage Room
• Plugin Alliance
• TSE X50
• Kuassa

Probably a few more I'm overlooking....