Real amps vs modelling and plugin amps

[YnJ]

Check out the Boss ME-5. Only the reverb and delay are digital, the rest of it is analog. TC Electronic Nova System also had analog distortions.

I already have a second hand Boss GX-700 I ordered on the way. The overdrive/distortion section is all analogue circutry on that as well, while the effects and the preamps are digital. I ordered it as it was very affordable, again about the same price as a couple dirt pedals, and primarily for use as an effects unit. The analogue section also weighed in on the decision to get it. It has more effects than the ME-5, so I would think it would mostly overlap it. The preamp and cab sim sections can be turned on and off with a button on the front plate (it's a rack unit), simple and practical, as can all the other effects. The chorus, reverb and delay has their own sections, so you can use them all simultanously, and it also has a mod section with several additional effects, and a separate EQ section

The TC Electronic Nova System sounds interesting, I'll keep that in mind

[YnJ]

I watched that video. The fuzz he made a point about sounded more like an overdrive to me. I mean, it didn't sound bad, actually quite good, it was not what I would call a fuzz though, and was pretty much on/off with no dynamic response

[zerocrossing]

I still can't find any digital amp which have the same dynamic response as a tube or solid state amp though

Check out the Boss ME-5. Only the reverb and delay are digital, the rest of it is analog. TC Electronic Nova System also had analog distortions.

The whole idea that a digital distortion can’t be good is so 1995. A while ago, I wanted a CV controllable distortion for my little eurorack setup. I listened to so many demos… so very many… Anyway, the one that kept coming up with consistently good sound and character was the Roland Torcido, so I picked it up. Totally loved it. A few weeks later, I found some article about it and how it was TOTALLY DIGITAL. The HORROR!

Smash cut to now, I got rid of the eurorack setup, but the Torcido remains. It’s now dedicated to the output of the Uno Synth Pro X. I think some of the algorithms live on, in the distortion of the Roland emulation plugins.

[Uncle E]

I already have a second hand Boss GX-700 I ordered on the way. The overdrive/distortion section is all analogue circutry on that as well, while the effects and the preamps are digital. I ordered it as it was very affordable, again about the same price as a couple dirt pedals, and primarily for use as an effects unit. The analogue section also weighed in on the decision to get it. It has more effects than the ME-5, so I would think it would mostly overlap it. The preamp and cab sim sections can be turned on and off with a button on the front plate (it's a rack unit), simple and practical, as can all the other effects. The chorus, reverb and delay has their own sections, so you can use them all simultanously, and it also has a mod section with several additional effects, and a separate EQ section

Sounds cool. The one knob editing kills it for me, even if it's a hundred times better than the *no knobs* editing on the ME-5. The Roland GP-100 has plenty of knobs and is supposed to be somewhat equivalent to the GX-700, except no analog distortion!

The Nova System has 4 knobs.

[Uncle E]

The whole idea that a digital distortion can’t be good is so 1995.

Well, we are talking about 90s preamps, after all.

[zerocrossing]

I watched that video. The fuzz he made a point about sounded more like an overdrive to me. I mean, it didn't sound bad, actually quite good, it was not what I would call a fuzz though, and was pretty much on/off with no dynamic response

What’s most funny about this comment is how it both contradicts your previous comments and pretends to know how the part was played. Obviously, consistently struck strings will not produce a wide dynamic range.

I’m not even saying that the POD is capable of great dynamics, but we’re talking about 1998 digital technologies. I don’t think the point of that demo was to show that no progress has been made since 1998. Obviously, that’s ridiculous, and clearly Line6 has spent the past 27 years refining and developing their technologies. Many other companies have thrown their hats into the ring, and more competition always leads to higher quality products. When I was building my analog pedal board, one of the things I bought was an Electro Harmonix Cock Fight +. I didn’t keep it. I felt like the software models that I had were just as good and less noisy. I should add that I’m more often than not using active pickups, so the push-pull relationship between a fuzz and pickup is already gone in my world. I don’t miss it that much.

[Uncle E]

The Line 6 octave fuzz sounds exactly like the Queens of the Stone Age "Little Sister" solo to me, and that was a Fulltone Ultimate Octave.

[zerocrossing]

Why does this argument come back, again and again, like herpes? There are so many great analog preamp pedals that do great amp impersonations. There’s the whole Synergy thing. Obviously the traditional guitar amp is alive and well. If digital bothers you, go buy an analog solution and go away and make your music.

[Uncle E]

Why does this argument come back, again and again, like herpes? There are so many great analog preamp pedals that do great amp impersonations. There’s the whole Synergy thing. Obviously the traditional guitar amp is alive and well. If digital bothers you, go buy an analog solution and go away and make your music.

Seriously. With all the new tube pedals from Friedman and Tone King, there's never been a better time for digital haters to go amp-less. I imagine Soldano, Morgan, and perhaps even Synergy will have similar preamp pedals, since they're all part of the same factory.

[zerocrossing]

Why does this argument come back, again and again, like herpes? There are so many great analog preamp pedals that do great amp impersonations. There’s the whole Synergy thing. Obviously the traditional guitar amp is alive and well. If digital bothers you, go buy an analog solution and go away and make your music.

Seriously. With all the new tube pedals from Friedman and Tone King, there's never been a better time for digital haters to go amp-less. I imagine Soldano, Morgan, and perhaps even Synergy will have similar preamp pedals, since they're all part of the same factory.

I was listening to demos of the Tubesteader boxes and frankly I thought they sounded pretty amazing, especially the Magnatone and Orange flavors.

[YnJ]

Sounds cool. The one knob editing kills it for me, even if it's a hundred times better than the *no knobs* editing on the ME-5. The Roland GP-100 has plenty of knobs and is supposed to be somewhat equivalent to the GX-700, except no analog distortion

I'm not going to argue with you about the single knob editing, I would have liked it to have more knobs as well. I can live with it though, I spent hours back in the day editing digital synths through a small windown with endless parameters and up/down arrows, this is nothing in comparison. I picked it up today and have spent the last couple of hours trying it out. As a dirt pedal in front of the amp it really shines. Most of the distorions included, if not all, are based on classic Boss pedals. Some I already have, some not. Add to this that you can add a compressor and EQ, and you have some nice options to shape the sound. The post effects are classic Boss quality

You can use it as a preamp, with some patience and heavy use of the EQ you can tweak some of the models into sounding OK-ish, add some delay and everything sounds better. It will never be more than an OK preamp at the most. It's well worth the money as a distortion unit, as well as a multieffect though

[zerocrossing]

Continuing my "real world" hunt for aliasing. I went through a sampling of Guitar Rig 7 and Helix Native, and they were all very clean doing my triangle wave at a high E while bending up two intervals. I did find the Helix's "Swedish Chainsaw" (BOSS HM-2 emulation) to alias a lot. This is also true of the IK Tonex captures of it in Motorsag and Soft HM, which is in line with keeping the HM-2 being the worst sounding distortion pedal in hardware and software. Perhaps it is unemulateable? Could it be the holy grail of guitar amp modeling? Stay tuned!

[Uncle E]

I'm not going to argue with you about the single knob editing, I would have liked it to have more knobs as well. I can live with it though, I spent hours back in the day editing digital synths through a small windown with endless parameters and up/down arrows, this is nothing in comparison. I picked it up today and have spent the last couple of hours trying it out. As a dirt pedal in front of the amp it really shines. Most of the distorions included, if not all, are based on classic Boss pedals. Some I already have, some not. Add to this that you can add a compressor and EQ, and you have some nice options to shape the sound. The post effects are classic Boss quality

Did Boss ever make a dedicated distortion pedal that is analog but with digital control? Elektron did the Analog Drive and it was quite good. TC had a Nova Drive pedal and it could even do two separate distortions in parallel, which I don't think the Analog Drive could do.

[Naillerz78]

DP

[stoopicus]

Why does this argument come back, again and again, like herpes? There are so many great analog preamp pedals that do great amp impersonations. There’s the whole Synergy thing. Obviously the traditional guitar amp is alive and well. If digital bothers you, go buy an analog solution and go away and make your music.

Seriously. With all the new tube pedals from Friedman and Tone King, there's never been a better time for digital haters to go amp-less. I imagine Soldano, Morgan, and perhaps even Synergy will have similar preamp pedals, since they're all part of the same factory.

This is, like, Tech21's entire business model