Best amp-modeling plugin?

[blueman]

so GTR3.5 is living happily in my DAW not sure when I'll get to try it though

Did you pull the trigger? Where did you buy it from? And, what is 3.5?

[Hink]

so GTR3.5 is living happily in my DAW not sure when I'll get to try it though

Did you pull the trigger? Where did you buy it from? And, what is 3.5?

I bought the electronic delivery from audiomidi, 3.5 is what it says on the installer and shortcut

ilok = no problems

[zerocrossing]

so GTR3.5 is living happily in my DAW not sure when I'll get to try it though

Did you pull the trigger? Where did you buy it from? And, what is 3.5?

I bought the electronic delivery from audiomidi, 3.5 is what it says on the installer and shortcut

ilok = no problems

For fun I tried to download their GR3 Solo that you can use free for a year.

The authorization application fails. WTF?

[Hink]

can't help you there, sorry

[blueman]

So, does 3.5 have the new Neil amps? Curious to hear how you like those (or not?). Anyway, have fun with and do report back with your findings...

[Hink]

So, does 3.5 have the new Neil amps? Curious to hear how you like those (or not?). Anyway, have fun with and do report back with your findings...

yes it does, I will definately keep all posted...

[zerocrossing]

can't help you there, sorry

Hm, for some reason it seems to work fine without the authorization.

Sounds good. Not going to make me switch from Amplitube any time soon but I'd recommend it as a freebee for sure. Also, the full deal for $135? That's a sweet deal for someone who wants a nice amp modeler on a tight budget.

[hibidy]

can't help you there, sorry

Hm, for some reason it seems to work fine without the authorization.

Sounds good. Not going to make me switch from Amplitube any time soon but I'd recommend it as a freebee for sure. Also, the full deal for $135? That's a sweet deal for someone who wants a nice amp modeler on a tight budget.

Or a gear ho who likes to own everything (who dat be.....hmmmm )

My wallet is getting pretty thin these days, oh well, fits in my pants better.

[zerocrossing]

can't help you there, sorry

Hm, for some reason it seems to work fine without the authorization.

Sounds good. Not going to make me switch from Amplitube any time soon but I'd recommend it as a freebee for sure. Also, the full deal for $135? That's a sweet deal for someone who wants a nice amp modeler on a tight budget.

Or a gear ho who likes to own everything (who dat be.....hmmmm )

My wallet is getting pretty thin these days, oh well, fits in my pants better.

Don't do it. If you've got a few of the IK's and like 'em I don't think you're missing out with GTR 3. Check the free for a year one and if you find yourself using it a lot then maybe, but don't just get it because you're bored. (like I do )

[Pizza Man]

Free is free but a year from now I still won't have any money.

[hibidy]

Free is free but a year from now I still won't have any money.

What is it FL used to say, "save up your squeegee money".....

[hibidy]

but don't just get it because you're bored. (like I do )

Well, I've already spent an unholy amount this year....which has equated to ZERO songs being finished (but many many started )

Not that I'm going to buy it or anything, but at this point, it's all moot in the spending department

[Sascha Franck]

Hm, all these endless debates about the "best" amp sims and such (really just the same as "best virtual analog synth", "best freebie" and what not).

Let's look at it from another POV. And I'll start that with a provocative question:
Instead of always looking for the "best" sound, apparently never being too happy (otherwise these threads wouldn't get that long), how many of you are really trying to "adopt" to a sound?
To me it seems people expect the perfect Marshall, Boogie, Fender and whatever tone straight after they plugged in their guitars. Now, obviously, the amp sim makers support that expectation as they're all coming up with names close to the originals, photorealistic GUIs and the likes - but so far it should be rather clear that their efforts are at least not 100% there yet. This may change one day (and it's already gotten pretty great in some cases), but well, my question still remains, and to put it slightly different: Why do we even want to reproduce a certain sound all the time? As said, why not "adopt" to what we already have? Why not search for the other things these virtual worlds have on offer?

Historically, "adopting" to a sound has a great tradition. The first overdriven guitar tones weren't used because they were cool, they were a byproduct of amps not being loud enough. Fortunately, most of those amps were tube driven, so the unwanted distortion at least sounded somewhat harmonic. But it still wasn't intentional until the middle of the 60s, so players had to learn to live with it. And to probably "expand" things - which is what happened, so overdriven sounds became an intentional thing and got worked on.
But, apart from very few new things (such as grungy and/or NuMetal sounds), this sort of sound evolution stopped somewhen in the 70s. Sure, the 80s brought digital FX to the table, but it's almost as if the "source sounds" haven't been worked on much ever since. At least most people seem to want a palette of sounds that were already available 30 years ago, the only regular exception perhaps being some "chugga chugga" NuMetal stuff. If you look at these kinda threads, if you look at what the developers offer, you can see Twins, Voxes, Marshalls, Boogies, etc. asked for all the time.
Ok, I probably wouldn't know how to improve whatever "source sounds" too much myself either, so quite sometimes I'm just in line with the all the other folks, trying to get some more or less traditional sounds out of whatever amp sim.
Yet: Do we really have to be *that* conservative that each and every tonal aspect of whatever vintage amps has to be captured?
IMVHO, since around 2-5 years (depending on whether we talk software emulations only or also take the various hardware modelers into account), amp sims can be used in a professional environment. No, we don't get that "nailed" AC/DC rock riff tone (or any other "celibrity" tone...) yet, but does it really matter? As long as the dynamics are right (to me that's *the* key point of a tone, something that never made me like PODs too much, even if I have two of them), as long as things work well in a mix, things are more or less fine for me.

Another story abour "adopting" to a sound, from my personal history as someone almost exclusively earning his money from playing since around 20 years:
First thing to mention might be that when I started out, I've almost always been the guitar player with the cheesiest equipment around. Pawn shop guitars and amps, cheap FX units, etc. Yet, that didn't seem to stop my "career". Without padding myself on the back too much (because it really wasn't that much of an achievement), in my old hometown, I've been one of the most asked players (for some musical styles at least) pretty much shortly after people got aware of me. The cheesy amp stuff I had never made people wonder, let alone them criticizing my sound at all. Not even once. Of course, I myself have been majorly pissed off that some other players (sometimes really bad players) could afford all the great stuff, just because their parents were rich or so. Yet, as said, that didn't stop me from becoming comparatively sucessful.
Now, in the meantime, especially as things started to pay off, I *did* of course buy some higher quality equipment. But, at the same time, I quickly had to realize that proper DI sounds would earn me money easier. When you play a wedding/gala/birthday/Top40 job (which is what I had to do for years), very often space is tight, there might be no FOH engineer, etc. So usually it didn't make much sense to bring my Marshall (and/or Boogie), the rack (with looper, additional preamps and FX) and whatever large cabinet with me. So I started out with whatever was on the market to give me some at least halfway useful DI signal (roughly in chronological order: Roland GP8, H&K Redbox, H&K Scream Machine, Roland GP6, some Zoom I don't even remember the model name anymore, POD (1+XT), VAmp, Boss GT5, Boss GT10 - the list is incomplete and I often added the occasional preamps).
Long story made a little shorter: Up to this day, the setup that has earned me WAY more money than any of my higher quality stuff is a combination of a Boss GT5 (retired a year ago in favour of the GT10) and a Gallien-Krueger vocal amp (that I only used for monitoring - and still use).
Sure, I've also been playing in rock/funk/pop bands, that's where I'm using the real deal, but these kinda gigs earned me almost no money.
So, about the GT5 sound: Is it any good? No way, especially at these days standards. Has any of the musicians I played with (some really fine ones among them) ever complained about my sound, though? No, not a single time. And that's taking me back to the top, I absolutely believe that I got away with this equipmemt because I "adopted" to the sound I had. Sure, most of my colleagues did notice a massive improvment when I got the GT10 (which IMO is almost fantastic), but I'm sure I would've gotten away with the GT5 for another decade just fine.

Fwiw, just so that nobody gets me wrong, I have absolutely high demands regarding amp sims myself, but at the same time I'm absolutely happy with what we already have these days. In case I was still on Windows, I'd probably get away with the great recent freebies (such as Acmebargig and LePou) only.

Sorry for the long drivel.

- Sascha

[susiwong]

Can only speak for myself, but my motivation for posting in these threads is slightly different.
Part of it is the exchange of tips, I constantly learn from other people's findings and try to give back some of my own experience in return.
The other part is to give the devs feedback that is not as easy to ignore as a mail to an automated support system. I bet IK, NI, Overloud and Co are monitoring these threads closely, they'd be stupid if they wouldn't. Discussions like the recent GR4 CR debate will hopefully keep the competitors on their toes and result in welcome improvements down the road.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not so foolish to think my own little posts will change anything, but lively discussions of these topics do make a difference imho.
And until the quality of sims has reached the quality level of, say, UA or SSL emulations I'll keep on stirring the fire.
That said, when I'm sitting there, guitar in hand, I'm doing exactly what you were talking about, 2 mins to dial in a sound and then play and subconsciously adapt to the idiosyncracies of that tone, just like with hardware.
Ymmv,
susiwong

[Hink]

I think this thread was started for different reasons, I'm not sure if the rest of you folk noticed but the original poster has not been back since starting the thread and he also only has 11 posts. I think somewhere on another forum someone is laughing saying "see I told you I could KvR going".

Worry not those because good things generally come from these threads even if there is grief along the way. I agree with Sascha, in fact in the "authentic" thread I said the same thing. We're to the point of emulating emulation, wanting to sound just like our "heroes".

I bought GTR for a few reasons...

1. GAS...yeah I admit it
2. Partially because of what I stated three times, sounds get stale and it's cool to switch around and eventually the stale sounds are fresh again.
3. I think this concept really applies to old farts like me, but the bottom line is I would say more than 99% of my playing is not about song writing and doesn't even get recorded. Sascha talked about not being able to afford gear, this was me until the turn of the century, in fact I never spent more than 500 bux for a guitar until 05. Most of my guitar life I had one guitar, one amp and very few pedals just because I couldn't afford more. In fact I have owned one wah wah pedal in my life, a Morely Power Wah I bought in 82 and traded by 83.

I now have 7 guitars currently playable. Often I had to get clever to get a sound I liked, many was the time I thought "what will I do if "xxxx" dies"?
I find it very relaxing now to just start messing about with my POD or sims and creating tones and just jamming. Often I find myself going back to the days of old and dong convoluted things just to see how 'ideas' (or daydreams) I had in those days really work. Often I find myself finding something fun and just getting lost in it for a while but when push comes to shove I never return to that tone. If I'm not recording I can set my buffers small enough to not be able to not worry about latency or about recording "dry". With my health issues this is very important, in fact it's the greatest gift ever as getting lost in playing is very theraputical. I honestly believe when I die I'll have a git-ar in my hands.

About my impressions on GTR3.5, so far nothing earth shattering but there is still a lot more to explore, with both GTR and GR4 there are so many routing options not available with PODs. However I'm not impressed with the stomps I've tried so far, when using stand alone I cant find a way of just having one amp (besides turning one all the way down) and the cabs haven't excited me. GR4 is the better jam sim for me because it has great tools in it, like the lfo and sequencer to automate things like a wah pedal. (like that silly clip I did in the GR4 thread)

However for re-amping I see this being very strong because of the various vst options making it modular. Also the cabs don't matter because I have plenty of ir's in fact I think ir's have spoiled emulated cabs in sims for me.

After the first of the year either overloud or amplitube is in my sights.