Your fav Amp Sims as of 2023?

[simon.a.billington]

I just wished they'd split it into separate pedalboard and amp plugins, but also allowed you to get hide the browser/chain area. Minimising the amount of "noise" on the UI helps to stay focused I feel.

If it doesn't need to be there, then it shouldn't be, especially when it can be just now click away.

You can hide the browser and the signal flow. The buttons are in the header.

Yeah I got my wires crossed. I originally thought the other user was referring to Amplitube, for some stupid reason. As you pointed out, Guitar Rig doesn't have that problem.

[Britishboxer]

There has to be a solution — pedalboards should not cost hundreds of dollars!
Imagine having a pedalboard with an expression pedal or two, like the Behringer FCB1010, but that also can load sounds, combinations, and control a range of hardware or software effects wirelessly or with advanced connectors to a rack (if hardware). And all the sims you use in a computer are modular — you can even use true effects loops between the preamp and amp (like a stereo chorus with a mono out into the return effects loop of a second amp). And the price is right unless you add more and more modulars, both integrated in software and the floor pedalboard.

Why have people instead continued to stay stuck in their ecosystems instead of solving this? Tonex does not do this — they are only captures. Real Marshalls are asymmetrical and heard all over the place instead of directing a smooth tone signal centered around. The only way people can get results from amps is if they can actually dial in a sweet spot — not go from capture to capture to capture. I mean, they sound great once you find something, but what about dialing in? It’s not the same as a producer or engineer — or you — using EQ on the Console where you already have effects sends dedicated to the over all mix shared by the whole band or tracks.

[harddaysnight]

After a long time using S-Gear, and having it beat everything out - I've switched to Neural DSP's Cory Wong X.

I own way too many amp sims, for years, I'd try new ones, return to S-Gear, rinse and repeat.. but this time, can't see that happening.

Something about the Cory Wong X is absolutely perfect for me, it sounds fantastic, super easy to use and get killer tones with, is amazing for cleans and offers more dirt than I need (I don't do metal fwiw).

It's so good that I'll probably pick up one of their bass modellers - although, this isn't necessary because the Cory Wong X is great for bass too.

I've been so impressed with this, that I tried another one of their products - Mantra - and that's a beast of a plugin too.

NeuralDSP might have a bit of a fan in me.
Seriously impressed with it.

[digitalboytn]

After a long time using S-Gear, and having it beat everything out - I've switched to Neural DSP's Cory Wong X.

I own way too many amp sims, for years, I'd try new ones, return to S-Gear, rinse and repeat.. but this time, can't see that happening.

Something about the Cory Wong X is absolutely perfect for me, it sounds fantastic, super easy to use and get killer tones with, is amazing for cleans and offers more dirt than I need (I don't do metal fwiw).

It's so good that I'll probably pick up one of their bass modellers - although, this isn't necessary because the Cory Wong X is great for bass too.

I've been so impressed with this, that I tried another one of their products - Mantra - and that's a beast of a plugin too.

NeuralDSP might have a bit of a fan in me.
Seriously impressed with it.

If it floats your boat,then there's nothing wong with that

[Ploki]

I’m currently on Neural mesa mark, fuse audio f59 and softube amproom vintage collection

[dastewart]

After a long time using S-Gear, and having it beat everything out - I've switched to Neural DSP's Cory Wong X.

Interesting. Looks like I'll need to demo this before the BF sale as I'm a huge s-gear fan.

Thanks for sharing.

[poonna]

I've settled with Neural DSP Morgan Amp Suite and Mercuriall Ampbox with Rectofire (Mesa Dual Rectifier) and 1987X SG (Marshall) models. Ampbox also acts as a pedal board before the Morgan Amp Suite. Morgan amps are great for those Vox and Fender clean and edge-of-breakup tones. Ampbox handles plexi and high-gain tones. I have other Neural DSP amps as well, but these two together cover most of what I want.

[harddaysnight]

After a long time using S-Gear, and having it beat everything out - I've switched to Neural DSP's Cory Wong X.

Interesting. Looks like I'll need to demo this before the BF sale as I'm a huge s-gear fan.

Thanks for sharing.

Definitely give it a shot - it's super easy to use, all of the amp heads sound fantastic and it lets you load up your own IRs, if you're into that kind of thing.

You'll be up and running in no time.

[kraster]

Cory Wong X is excellent. Just a great all rounder.

It's a great basic clean amp that accommodates a lot of different tones.

The Cytomic Scream pedal before it works wonders for gnarliness.

One of the Amp heads is actually an SSL channel strip so it's also great for super dry DI'd tones.

[zerocrossing]

Hello,

what is the best cab sim out there? I have tried the amplitube 5 cabs, and they seem to be much better than IRs (even if they are based on IRs as for as I understand it). Is it worth trying other cab sims like guitar rig, wall of sound, amp room, positive grid or is amplitube 5 the best there is?

I personally prefer Amplitube’s cab-console setup to be by far the best. I used to think the cabinets were very uneven in quality, but I now think that they are all good, but some are just not for me. I’ve only recently started to swap out speaker types, and the results have been striking. All of the sudden, a mediocre sound could become great. It also loads high resolution stereo IRs, which few things do, and the room convolution is great. The best of any modeler package.

One thing I noticed recently was how bad I felt a lot of the Tonex factory captures were, and it felt like the amp only captures were usually very good. I’d never tried turning off the cabinet section of a Tonex capture. Seemed like voodoo. How does it know? But I like to experiment, so I gave it a shot, and I was blown away by the results. Captures that I’d written off as terrible (why are most so boomy and dull?) became great with one of the Amplitube cabinets, or IRs.

Is Amplitube perfect? Nope. There’s been a weird bug where some sliders get stuck until you click off them. I’ve reported it more than once and I’ve been ignored. The multi tap delay sometimes stops working if it goes into self oscillation from feedback. The Mesa Mark IIC+ aliases like a stuck pig. So does the HM-2 pedal. If you are using a Tonex capture inside it and want to use the room convolution, you have to load a blank IR.

For me, all that is worth it, because the results I can get are spectacular. Truly better than most of the results of me futzing about placing mics on cabs, running into the control room to see what the results were, running back out to make an adjustment, play back the tape, rinse, lather, repeat. I see now they have robot mic mounts. Brilliant, but back in my day, we did it ourselves! In the snow!

I’ve seen some people say, “oh, with plugins, you are just going to sound like everyone else with that plugin.” I dare you to find a studio out there with the collection of gear I have modeled, and that also includes unique plugins to put before or after your cabinet. The odds of someone putting together the same rig, including the mic positions and setting, is astronomically high. Meanwhile, we’ve heard the same Telecaster through a Twin about a billion times.

[metalifuxx]

Wavemind NAM Universal (NAMU) with any of the SlamminMofo FREE captures…free and as good or higher quality than any pay/commercial pack. His latest Vox AC30 pack is just sublime. But seriously download and try all them. There’s not a tone you can’t get with his library of packs he has available for free on Tone3000.
But just give his new AC30 pack a try. He also just released a Marshall JTM45 pack that is insanely good too as well as all his Plexi variants of amps he has captured. Blows Tonex out the water, not even close with the dynamic response of NAM, no boxiness, harshness or mushiness when you dig in, just opens right up with chime instead of doing the Tonex thing where higher gain tones get narrow, harsh/boxy and really compressed in a bad non musical way. If you weren’t impressed by trying random NAM profiles, try SlamminMofo’s captures…i still can’t believe he doesn’t charge money for these.

https://www.tone3000.com/tones/vox-ac30 ... racy-31267

[jtsterays]

Wavemind NAM Universal (NAMU) with any of the SlamminMofo FREE captures…free and as good or higher quality than any pay/commercial pack. His latest Vox AC30 pack is just sublime. But seriously download and try all them. There’s not a tone you can’t get with his library of packs he has available for free on Tone3000.
But just give his new AC30 pack a try. He also just released a Marshall JTM45 pack that is insanely good too as well as all his Plexi variants of amps he has captured. Blows Tonex out the water, not even close with the dynamic response of NAM, no boxiness, harshness or mushiness when you dig in, just opens right up with chime instead of doing the Tonex thing where higher gain tones get narrow, harsh/boxy and really compressed in a bad non musical way. If you weren’t impressed by trying random NAM profiles, try SlamminMofo’s captures…i still can’t believe he doesn’t charge money for these.

https://www.tone3000.com/tones/vox-ac30 ... racy-31267

Yes, this AC30 pack is f*cking crazy, I was so impressed so when I tried it.

[metalifuxx]

Wavemind NAM Universal (NAMU) with any of the SlamminMofo FREE captures…free and as good or higher quality than any pay/commercial pack. His latest Vox AC30 pack is just sublime. But seriously download and try all them. There’s not a tone you can’t get with his library of packs he has available for free on Tone3000.
But just give his new AC30 pack a try. He also just released a Marshall JTM45 pack that is insanely good too as well as all his Plexi variants of amps he has captured. Blows Tonex out the water, not even close with the dynamic response of NAM, no boxiness, harshness or mushiness when you dig in, just opens right up with chime instead of doing the Tonex thing where higher gain tones get narrow, harsh/boxy and really compressed in a bad non musical way. If you weren’t impressed by trying random NAM profiles, try SlamminMofo’s captures…i still can’t believe he doesn’t charge money for these.

https://www.tone3000.com/tones/vox-ac30 ... racy-31267

Yes, this AC30 pack is f*cking crazy, I was so impressed so when I tried it.

Dude, i dialed in the just the first clean super chimey capture and couldn’t stop playing for like two hours. The first time in many years that an “amp sim” that i tried for the first time had me hooked to play for hours. He also made a profile pack of a Rangemaster treble boost clone to go along with it.

After using SlamminMofos profile packs, I can’t bring myself to use Tonex ever again until they either allow for highest NAM quality captures or just flat out support NAM format to be used within Tonex at least on the software side of things. One thing no NAM supporting plugin has done yet, is implement a preset/profile browser that makes use of NAM profile meta tagging like Tonex does…HINT HINT NUDGE NUDGE to any developer that would love to take my money now. And make it like Arturia’s synth preset meta tag tree like browser/search, or any other fx/synth that implements browsing searching with tags etc.

[zerocrossing]

Tonex thing where higher gain tones get narrow, harsh/boxy and really compressed in a bad non musical way.

Tonex can't do high gain? Wut?









I think maybe you're thinking of IK's factory captures, which seem to have a surprising number of ones that I don't think sound good at all. Not sure what's up with that, but I just experimented with turning the cab section off and using either Amplitube's native cab sim or Ownhammer IRs and they sprung to life and sounded great. If you are using the pedal, turn off the cab and just dial in their speaker sim and adjust to taste. Also, turning your input gain down can do wonders for Vox type Tonex, even if you then turn the amp gain up.

Or don't. I did a thorough comparison of NAM and Tonex at one point, and the main selling point for Tonex was the feature set, libraries, and how they seamlessly integrated it with Amplitube. NAM is very impressive for a free plugin, but back then, to find captures you had to go on a Facebook page and 90% of them were terrible. I popped on to Tonex and found a bunch of great stuff, and for $99, it was worth it just to not have to go on Facebook.

[guitarzan]

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