Guitar amp sim suggestions/advice?

[kovacs]

It's sad a fact so little of you have played in front of a tube amp.

Sheesh. I've played for 25 years, don't come tell me what I have NOT done.

[Stupid American Pig]

so kingston, how are the efx? I am mainly interested in the modulation efx, as I would use this for a rhodes and wurly along with my guitar.

[Kingston]

It's sad a fact so little of you have played in front of a tube amp.

Sheesh. I've played for 25 years, don't come tell me what I have NOT done.

Well, in that case you should've known about the lack of dynamic control in most current emulations, and the fact that using volume knob as a tonal control just doesn't work on most of them.

That has been one of the main grudges about the whole previous generation of amp sims.

how are the efx? I am mainly interested in the modulation efx, as I would use this for a rhodes and wurly along with my guitar.

Tremolo is the best I've heard, but rotary is just horrid and sounds more like a bad flanger.

Chorus/flanger/phaser are ok, but they are post-cab only. Generally I find no use for them as there are better sounding stomp boxes to do that. The univibe (pre-amp stomp) has only the vibrato part modelled, which is a shame because the phaser is much more important part of univibe.

Most of this is fixed in the more expensive Tonelab SE as it offers much more FX and more flexible preamp and post amp FX routing (similar to podxt).

Sometimes I wish I would've bought that instead as it also has this killer filter stomp thingy. Now I have to get a couple of real chorus and phaser stomps instead.

One thing I've noticed about the chorus/flanger/phaser section is that somehow all the current VST modulation plugs lack definition (resolution) compared to these.
Similar quality can be found on eventide orvilles etc. and it's a shame no one has created the kind of super sounding modulation plug yet. Sure there's uber-featured plugs, but they all lack in the soundquality/aliasing department. Yes, even modulation benefits from oversampling and increased resolution.

[Stupid American Pig]

hmmmm- your answer certainly complicates things....

thanks though

[Col.G]

POWER SWITCH
v-amp2 doesnt have a bloody powerswitch???

go figure... you have to unplug it from the wall, DONT unplug it from the machine or it will blow up... hehe ive done it..

I plugged my V-amp2 powerpack into a power strip with a switch on it. Now my V-amp2 has a power switch. Why they didn't put a switch on the damn thing in the first place is a mystery.
I like the sound for the money.
You can also use 8 of the endless rotory knobs as a midi controller in cubase, which is kinda of a weird option. But its still fun to do when you get bored.

[Jaeson Merrill]

The ability to actually use your guitar volume control is a plus, and just confirms the dynamic possibilities.

Which of the above mentioned units do NOT offer this? Or in what way is this special with Vox? (I'm curious, no offense!).

I didn't quite mean it that way. Of course you're free to use your guitar volume knob anywhere.

The point was that it barely makes any difference on the rest of them, in case you haven't noticed. It's sad a fact so little of you have played in front of a tube amp.

works fine here, im sure the tonelab is a bit better, but the podxt does some great stuff in an experienced hand as well as the v-amp2...

wonder, perhaps your volume knob is broke hehe

[Jaeson Merrill]

o yes, ive experienced tube amps in my short lifetime.. nothing that great imo. Tube, warm, fuzzy, all buzz words when it comes down to sound. which is subjective really.

lets hear some examples eh?

[Hink]

It's sad a fact so little of you have played in front of a tube amp.

Sheesh. I've played for 25 years, don't come tell me what I have NOT done.

Yeah really I have owned (played 33 years) a twin reverb (2x12), a marshall plexi, a marshall jcm 800 and a mesa boogie sob (all three heads) the plexi was hot rodded by me and my buddy in the 70's. There use to be a wiring diagram that gave a gain boost and master volume...now I have the marshall tube pre-amp.

But let me tell you today the standards are so much better and you can do some much more. Tubes are microphonic, worse feedback and noisey, not too mention they really need a burn in time before playing. They also require a more consistant power source then solid state. If I played a club and there was any line droppage forget it you can hear the high end drop.

The tech 21 stuff is amazing and on top of all that I don't want no more hernia's my beast of rig now weighs a lot (with a 400 watt power amp). But I'm enjoying having my cab wired for stereo.

The Marshalls con't do it for me and I don't want to fork out the bucks for a new Boogie when I can sound as good as I do with very little noise. Don't belive me try a stereo rig with a maximizer...you'll go home and think someone threw a wet blanket on your amp.

[Kajiki]

Why not buying an amp with a speaker? In my opinion, you can't feel an electric guitar as a complete instrument without an amp. A good solid-state practice amp will cost you less than $100.

[Hink]

Why not buying an amp with a speaker? In my opinion, you can't feel an electric guitar as a complete instrument without an amp. A good solid-state practice amp will cost you less than $100.

I guess what matters most is your recording enviroment, Like sometimes a split my signal to my power amp so I can get feedback, but I don't have a nice enough area to mic up a cab proper (for me tha's an sm 57 up to the speakers and a large diapram condenser about 5-10 feet away). So emulation is better...but....err trust me stand in front of my rig and turn up you ax, you'll feel it all right...

[Kajiki]

Yeah, exactly. You are buying your first guitar...but with a fake amp? I think you can't feel the sound of an elec guitar with wimpy studio monitors or a headphone. You've got to feel the sound of the guitar with your chest in order to understand the instrument.

[Lunch Money]

Kingston,

You're not in a position to determine what best suits someone else, and you also have no way of knowing what we have or have not used, other than what we've told you.

Bottom line: from what I've seen, I have no reason to doubt you about the Tonelab. Thanks for mentioning it, since it truly DOES seem like the best piece of kit for an amp sim solution. Honestly.

However: The 1974 Garnet head sitting in my basement is a tube and tone legend. But it's a pain in the ass to record, and frankly, despite being a 'legend', I'm not all that fond of the tone.

Tubes do not equal tone.

As for volume knob responsiveness, I've already been candid that I haven't tested all these boxes, but I'd like to test this particular observation for myself. It has verisimilitude (ie. it's believable and conceivable), but my understanding is that the lower-gain amp sims are quite responsive, indeed. I know that the volume knob makes a big difference in Green Machine II, so I can't imagine that a $399 Pod would just turn everything into generic mush. Like I said, this is one I'd have to see for myself.

And, as I mentioned months ago, there are SO many factors in recording a tube amp that can go awry, turning your recording to shit. Too many pieces of the equation to even mention.... so even if you HAVE a tube amp that's a tone god, good luck recording that sound in a 'bedroom' (ie. office, computer room, actual bedroom, etc.) studio, which is what many of us have.

Greg

[smp]

Yeah, exactly. You are buying your first guitar...but with a fake amp? I think you can't feel the sound of an elec guitar with wimpy studio monitors or a headphone. You've got to feel the sound of the guitar with your chest in order to understand the instrument.

First electric guitar

I'm lookoing at doing it this way because I don't have the room to properly mic up an amp (or decent soundcard inputs for that matter - must get around to changing from the Audigy one day) and I want to do some relatively mindless f**king up of sound on a casual basis (ie turn computer on, plug guitar in, stuff around with the sound).

Anyway, I'll probably be looking at buying a "starter pack" when I do get the guitar - cheap knock-off guitar, even dodgier amp Then I can get the best (or worst) of both worlds

-s

[smp]

Thanks for the suggestions. Lot's of interesting conversation here, however...

Anyone arguing about the merits (or otherwise) of things like the PodXT have missed some of my point. Guitarport and V-Amp2 are both about $US99. PodXT is $299 - that's 3x the price.

Secondly, I'm not looking to use it live (I have a general disdain and dislike for humanity, but even I wouldn't inflict the pain of my guitar playing on anyone but my wife and my guitar teacher - and even my wife doesn't want to know about it most of the time - my guitar teacher gets paid to suffer though ). I'm not looking to use it to jam with other people. I'm looking at a simple way of getting a good signal into my computer and getting an amped up sound if I want to without having to mic up an amp (no room, basically).

I'll check out some of the suggestions mentioned here, but I'm leaning more towards GuitarPort because of GuitarPortOnline. I am still very interested in impressions on your amp sim of choice such as
- ease of use
- general quality of sound
- easy to record into sequencer of choice
- flexibility of simulated amps (ie are they set or can you f**k around with them some?)

Remember, I'm very amateur looking to have some very amateur fun in the privacy of my own home (video camera not included). It doesn't need to set the world on fire (actually, is setting the world on fire covered under warranty?)

-s

[Jaeson Merrill]

Thanks for the suggestions. Lot's of interesting conversation here, however...

Anyone arguing about the merits (or otherwise) of things like the PodXT have missed some of my point. Guitarport and V-Amp2 are both about $US99. PodXT is $299 - that's 3x the price.


-s

right, its all about price, features, and usage..

how much is it?
what can it do?
of what it CAN do, what will YOU use?

If youre not playing live, that would lean a bit toward guitar port, but i would SERIOUSLY look into if guitarport can edit sounds to your liking. Im not sure about that one.

if not, that would really suck.

its funny, i could stick a glowing tube in this large turd i crapped out earlier (quite painfully actually) and youd have the whole of the gearslutz forum crying over how digital crap is harsh.

fact is, crap is crap.

what am i saying?

must be the cold medicine...

the you have those preamps that have "tubes" in them that are hardly applied the way that it could be used best anyway... but its a tube, and its WARM and FUZZY