Your fav Amp Sims as of 2023?

[dastewart]

I've never looked past Scuffham S-Gear since buying it some years back. I wasn't even looking for a new amp sim but was testing a bunch out to see how much they aliased (a man has to have a hobby!). But whenever I played through S-gear I just found myself noodling around for ages because for reasons I can't explain it just seemed so much more fun to play through this than any of the other amp sims. Including the ones that I'd been using up to that point.

Bought it the next time it went on sale and have never looked back since, especially since it keeps getting upgraded with cool stuff.

As far as I can tell this is a bit of a one man operation (Mike Scuffham who at one point was an amp designer for Marshall) but there is something about this that just makes playing guitar fun.

[Naillerz78]

I've never looked past Scuffham S-Gear since buying it some years back….(etc)
whenever I played through S-gear I just found myself noodling around for ages because for reasons I can't explain it just seemed so much more fun to play through this than any of the other amp sims. Including the ones that I'd been using up to that point.

Bought it the next time it went on sale and have never looked back since, especially since it keeps getting upgraded with cool stuff.

As far as I can tell this is a bit of a one man operation (Mike Scuffham who at one point was an amp designer for Marshall) but there is something about this that just makes playing guitar fun.

Yes there definitely is something different about it. same exp here when playing w /it re the time spent jamming and noodling. loadsa fun
Maybe it’s a lack of aliasing / sizzle compared to others( ?)

Which amp sims had you been using before that out of interest?

I still rate ReValver4 for the Orange amp and a few other sounds. That Fun-Factor also. Which is more important than ‘realism’ for me.

Here’s a improv jam with the S Gear “JB Blues” preset after firing it up again today.
The presets are great. This is quite long btw.

https://voca.ro/15Db4d9epnZP

Guess the riffs at 4:24 and at the end

[dastewart]

Which amp sims had you been using before that out of interest?

Mainly Presonus Ampire (with all the extra content) and Aurora DSP Rhino. Not really unhappy with either of those, at the time, but was just curious to see how things would sound will less aliasing so downloaded a bunch of demos of sims that all claimed to reduce/eliminate aliasing.

I can't remember exactly which other ones I tried but I know there was something from Nembrini and Neural DSP and (I think) Amplitube. And after all the demos expired I just found myself really missing s-gear and that feeling didn't go away so bought it in the next sale.

Something about it just really clicked with me, on all the different amps, and I felt myself noodling away just having fun.

Nice chops btw and no idea what the riffs were but that's on me. I'm sure you played them accurately.

[pekbro]

I forget what I used on this track, nembrini's dumble model prob. It's intentionally lofi so hard to tell.

*At any rate, It's been many years since I tried scuffam's s-gear, maybe I'll check it out again.
-Cheers

https://vimeo.com/731527409

[jamcat]

TONEX would be my favorite if they ever fix the amp disable bug.

[pekbro]

TONEX would be my favorite if they ever fix the amp disable bug.

It's on sale ($49) too I think (still). I'm a little skittish of IK, I dont like shopping from inside my rig. Most all the guitar stuff has a shop inside it iirc. IMO, super irritating and a waste of your computer resources, just so they can shove the store right in your face. No thanks...

*Others do that too I know, like overloud for instance, but they dont preload everything like IK tends to do, maybe not with Tonex?

I tend to use HW more than anything anyway. My amp and effects were stupidly expensive, no way I'm not going to use it all whenever possible. *shrug

[Naillerz78]

Which amp sims had you been using before that out of interest?

Mainly Presonus Ampire (with all the extra content) and Aurora DSP Rhino. Not really unhappy with either of those, at the time, but was just curious to see how things would sound will less aliasing so downloaded a bunch of demos of sims that all claimed to reduce/eliminate aliasing.

I can't remember exactly which other ones I tried but I know there was something from Nembrini and Neural DSP and (I think) Amplitube. And after all the demos expired I just found myself really missing s-gear and that feeling didn't go away so bought it in the next sale.

Something about it just really clicked with me, on all the different amps, and I felt myself noodling away just having fun.

Nice chops btw and no idea what the riffs were but that's on me. I'm sure you played them accurately.

Thanks !
Jeff Beck was one - “ do you know what I mean”
And Jane’s Addictions intro riff from “stop” at the end

[hotmitts]

I got Scuffham S-Gear a while back cause i heard it does good cleans, encouraged by the comments here ( havent had a chance to really try it out yet)

[electro]

what bug?

TONEX would be my favorite if they ever fix the amp disable bug.

[jamcat]

what bug?

TONEX would be my favorite if they ever fix the amp disable bug.

I’ve documented it here several times. Here it is:

When a song has been saved with either the amp or cab component disabled, TONEX will process the audio with it enabled upon reopening the song, though it will still appear disabled in the UI.

This occurs in the VST3 version on both Mac and Windows in at the very least Cubase and Studio One, and possibly other DAWs as well. This bug has occurred in every version after 1.2.6.

So in a scenario where you are using an amp model from TONEX going into a 3rd party IR, there is no way to disable the TONEX cab model and keep it disabled. You have to manually toggle it on and off every time you load the song.

[Naillerz78]

I forget what I used on this track, nembrini's dumble model prob. It's intentionally lofi so hard to tell.

*At any rate, It's been many years since I tried scuffam's s-gear, maybe I'll check it out again.
-Cheers

https://vimeo.com/731527409

very trippy Pekbro
That’s dope smoking music

[pekbro]

I forget what I used on this track, nembrini's dumble model prob. It's intentionally lofi so hard to tell.

*At any rate, It's been many years since I tried scuffam's s-gear, maybe I'll check it out again.
-Cheers

https://vimeo.com/731527409

very trippy Pekbro
That’s dope smoking music

Thx, yea no doubt I was smoking some dope when I made that.
I liked what you posted as well, kind of impressed at the loudness of
the vocaroo thing. The recording sounded much better than I thought
it would.

-Cheers

[dastewart]

I got Scuffham S-Gear a while back cause i heard it does good cleans, encouraged by the comments here ( havent had a chance to really try it out yet)

Yup, S-gear has a bit of a reputation for being great with cleans and "edge of breakup" settings but I think it sounds really great with "crank it up" stuff too. Maybe because the amp models are mainly based on older, classic units there's an impression that it can't do modern metal type of stuff but I've heard some fairly convincing metal tones coming out of s-gear although that has been with additional IRs for the cabs.

Here's one video that I saw a while back that was interesting if you're into that kind of thing

[Naillerz78]

Thx, yea no doubt I was smoking some dope when I made that.
I liked what you posted as well, kind of impressed at the loudness of
the vocaroo thing. The recording sounded much better than I thought
it would.

-Cheers

Thanks man I’m getting handy now w Reaper now and recording myself. And yes the Vocaroo is awesome .. and for free !

That was just a one-take improv jam.
Listening back I hear it sounds quite like the Beatles ‘Taxman’.. I was trying for Jon Spencer Blues Explosion tho

[pekbro]

I download S-Gear, haven't tried it yet. I dunno to me it seems dated and feature poor compared to others. Maybe it's just the lack of stupid numbers of HW models, I've gotten used to that I guess. Of course it boils down to the tone, so Ill reserve judgement. In the least the static IR thing is insufficient these days imo, what with all the dynamic stuff going around, which really is superior ime. I use a loadbox and boutique amp a lot, the cab sim is paramount for me.
Of course, I have most of the usual suspects in that arena already.