CORTEX: Guitar Amp that really ROCKS!

[veseli koljac]

don't make me posting stuff I recorded through my beloved GX110

why not,i like to hear..

[jens]

amp: lead

tube: 80%

gain: 80-100%

pressence: 75%

bass/mids/treble: depends on technique taste and guitar

speakers: for a start try Fender10 & Vox

this should give you something like a start - you need to tweak it to your personal situation anyway...

[rpc9943]

I'm kind of struggling with cortex, although now i realize its probably one of the best amp sims ive tried (only free of course), I've still found trouble trying to figure out the "best" way to deal with setting up different guitar sounds... I mean like I want one guitar thats clean then one that's entirely separate sounding, etc... It's almost a struggle weaselling out the proper tone... Also struggling with distortion in general, like to get that great smashing pumpkins or oasis distortion sound... I dont know, maybe I'll just keep tweeking, I run things through overdrive.. But never found a really great distortion yet. The amp sim worked right but...

RonC

[vtx]

amp: lead

tube: 80%

gain: 80-100%

pressence: 75%

bass/mids/treble: depends on technique taste and guitar

speakers: for a start try Fender10 & Vox

this should give you something like a start - you need to tweak it to your personal situation anyway...

cheerz... jens
whats your preference on the bass eq when your playin high pitched leads
I seem to add it to get that filled out sound, but maybe it should stay thin to cut through the mix
the Fender works pretty good, just added a touch of retro-delay

[jens]

don't make me posting stuff I recorded through my beloved GX110

why not,i like to hear..

seriously: I'm not sure if I'm able to record what is great about it...

I bought it because I was looking for a cheap, small, powerful, flexible and good sounding amp - 'no way' you might say but that's wrong

whenever I spent hard earned bucks for gear I try to make sure that I really get vfm - and Behringer often delivers here but not always - when I bought my J-Station I actually wanted to buy a V-Amp but it was really noisy and actually had a shitty sound so I asked the guy in the shop if I was doing something wrong when testing it and he said: 'that's cheap shit - but check this one' and then he showed me the J-Station about which I never heard or read a word before and I was literally blown away - so I bought it although it cost a lot more than I actually had been willing to pay and I must say it's one of the best purchases I ever did. I wouldn't have bought the V-Amp - well because it was shit (b.t.w.: I'm referring to the V-Amp1 - V-Amp2 which I believe is much better wasn't yet out at that time) - my GX110 however is a fantastic amp with a hi-quality (Jensen) speaker.

[jens]

cheerz... jens
whats your preference on the bass eq when your playin high pitched leads

I'd say that depends on what's below the solo - in any case I wouldn't crank up both bass & mids - I think usually I'd crank up the mids to about 70-80%, the highs maybe to something like 60-70% and the bass rather to 40-50%

oh, and one important point: try to switch between the two different EQ-types - they are rather different from each other


edit: the EQ-suggestion I gave above tends to give some kind of 'creamy, floydy' lead sound - if you're in search of more scream then crank up the highs and pull down the mids - if you then miss some bottom raise the bass

[vtx]

cheerz... jens
whats your preference on the bass eq when your playin high pitched leads

I'd say that depends on what's below the solo - in any case I wouldn't crank up both bass & mids - I think usually I'd crank up the mids to about 70-80%, the highs maybe to something like 60-70% and the bass rather to 40-50%

oh, and one important point: try to switch between the two different EQ-types - they are rather different from each other


edit: the EQ-suggestion I gave above tends to give some kind of 'creamy, floydy' lead sound - if you're in search of more scream then crank up the highs and pull down the mids - if you then miss some bottom raise the bass

good stuff
no , floydy's good, I like it
one more thing, don't mean to be a pain
I've got classic compressor with full out release inbetween cortex and the delay
is that where it should be or are there situations where you would put it at the front or back of the chain

thanx man

[jens]

one more thing, don't mean to be a pain
I've got classic compressor with full out release inbetween cortex and the delay
is that where it should be or are there situations where you would put it at the front or back of the chain

thanx man

no problem - just ask right away - I'm glad if I can be of any service

as I wrote the important thing about an amp is imo its dynamic behaviour - and you are killing it when you put a compressor before the amp but I'd be careful with using a compressor anyway - why do you want to use it? If it is for achieving a longer sustain then right on - crank it up - if you want a clean lead sound to literally 'jump' at you then right on crank it up - but keep in mind that a compressor sometimes does more harm than good as it steals dynamic... (which means that rhythm guitar and compression usually don't go too well together)

[TristezaOrange]

at first I just went for a quick f**k but then I fell in love

Shit happens all the time

My first axe was Kawai . You know I was young and inoccent. This guitar looked awesome so I fell in love and bought it. Electronics were shit but was neck through body with 24 frets and sustained for days. I replaced the pickups with EMGs and still have it. Next I bought my Levinson R1 and then a friend gave me his Vintage Tokai strat. Both lovely guitars

Is your friend still living in Athens??

[Lunch Money]

Why not a real GT-2? Because of the price-point already mentioned.

Also, as described by other people in this thread, it's a hobby for me-- of course, I will do my best to get my hands on the Behringer version before I buy, but at $49.99 CDN msrp and $39.99 street, it's not like it'd be wasted money, even if I ended up only using it as a D.I. with ground lift.

The fact is with those new Behringer stomp boxes announced at NAMM-- the BOSS, SansAmp, and other manufacturers that they're based on have been ripping us off. It's all solid-state technology, which is NOT expensive and NOT that difficult to emulate for an engineer. With Boss, we are certainly paying for the durable housing and not the technology; but even then, a typical Boss pedal SHOULD cost $40-50 and they'd still make a very healthy profit.

I have no doubts that the GT-2 is also over-priced. It may be slightly more sophisticated than some standard stomp-boxes, but not drastically so. It's still cheap transistors, capacitors, and diodes.

SO-- unless Behringer completely "effed" up, it's not likely that the quality is noticeably inferior even if it IS "slightly" less.

Regarding the V-Amp, that's another example of taste-- some people actually prefer many of the models to the PodXT's, though I haven't heard of any of them being compared to the J-Station.

If I got something that cost more than $40, I would certainly go for the J-Station because it also has MIDI controller knobs and digital output.

Greg

[zeoy]

at first I just went for a quick f**k but then I fell in love

Shit happens all the time

My first axe was Kawai . You know I was young and inoccent. This guitar looked awesome so I fell in love and bought it. Electronics were shit but was neck through body with 24 frets and sustained for days. I replaced the pickups with EMGs and still have it. Next I bought my Levinson R1 and then a friend gave me his Vintage Tokai strat. Both lovely guitars

Is your friend still living in Athens??

Yes, but he ran out off vintage gear unless you want a Celeron 666

[jens]

Regarding the V-Amp, that's another example of taste-- some people actually prefer many of the models to the PodXT's, though I haven't heard of any of them being compared to the J-Station.

I

t.b.h. I think the Pod is a piece of overprized crap
(but then it was the first of its kind - I think you could somehow compare it to ProTools)

[Shane Sanders]

t.b.h. I think the Pod is a piece of overprized crap
(but then it was the first of its kind - I think you could somehow compare it to ProTools)

What do you run your bass through Jens? Currently I don't have a cabinet but I use a BassPodPro for some things though I'd prefer at this point to just have one or two real heads and D.I. box or some cab-only emulation.

[jens]

t.b.h. I think the Pod is a piece of overprized crap
(but then it was the first of its kind - I think you could somehow compare it to ProTools)

What do you run your bass through Jens? Currently I don't have a cabinet but I use a BassPodPro for some things though I'd prefer at this point to just have one or two real heads and D.I. box or some cab-only emulation.

I run it either through my J-Station or through my Hughes&Kettner Fortress ((transistor/tube hybrid preamp) but usually I'm not too satisfied with my bass-tone - I find it quite hard to get a good bass-sound without miking a big cabinet (which I can't because of my neighbours)

the J-Station has very good cabinet emulations when it comes to guitars, but it seems to be much harder to emulate a proper bass-cabinet (of which are several included as well)

[Jaeson Merrill]

yes i know,but for 45e there is no chance to be good.like all others stuff from behringer.(maybe i'm wrong...who knows....)

just cause its inexpensive doesnt mean its cheap....

I have fooled many with behringer