Simuanalog

[stayne]

What an amazing sounding amp sim. I've dropped a tube screamer in front of it and came up with some SERIOUSLY good tone.

Lots of noise though. I've tried a noise gate (Floorfish) but I'm not getting good results. Any ideas to get rid of it?

[Bennett]

Floorfish is a great frequency dependent gate, but if you want absolute silence in between, then you need either mda dynamics or gvst's ggate. Both offer adjustable threshold, attack, and release parameters.

The other thing you might want to check is that the hardware input side of the signal chain is clean. You might be running into some impedance matching issues going in DI with your guitar.

I find that the simulanalog suite is quieter than other ampsimps.

[guitarzan]

Floorfish is VERY adjustable - it took a lot of tweaking before it seemed just right to me. It is best as a downward expander and not as a gate (best not to adjust to total silence but rather to a usable threshold).

I agree that SimulAnalog is amazing, I think it's the most accurate tube amp sim yet (especially in the higher frequencies, where most amp sims sound attenuated).

[stayne]

thanks, ggate works like a charm.

if you want it to really shine:

tube screamer -> jcm900 -> classic eq (boomer) -> classic chorus (lead guitar chorus)

[Sascha Franck]

I really don't get much noise with my setup, so it could indeed be something happening before the signal hits your sequencer.
Ok, well, I'm usually using humbuckers, but even with single coils it's not much of an issue - actually even less than with most real amps.

FWIW, my "normal" setups for such things these days is an M-Audio Audiobuddy running into an Indigo I/O. But I don't get any more noise with NIs Rig Kontrol 2 either.

[stayne]

here's the signal with no gate. very noisy, and it's not my chain.

www.strafed.net/stuff/simu.mp3

it IS supposed to be an insert, right? heh.

[Sascha Franck]

This is sounding *exactly* like computer noise.
So, it's at least partially your chain.

[stayne]

nothing else makes this noise. only amp sims. i have it reeeeeally beefed up with gain and presence, maybe that's it. the jcm900 sounds better alone, but there's just not enough gain for my tastes without the tube screamer.

mess with it a bit and see if you get any similar racket with them combined.

[stayne]

here's both settings:

www.strafed.net/stuff/jcm.jpg
www.strafed.net/stuff/ts.jpg

[Kiwburger]

nothing else makes this noise. only amp sims.

That's because nothing else is connected to a noisey guitar ... guitar amps are high gain devices that amplify whatever signal they are given. Most guitars have a poor signal to noise ratio - especially when close to the chaotic EMI fields surrounding a PC and monitor ... does most of the noise go away when you turn the guitar volume knob right down? Quality shielded guitars with noiseless pickups are rare and expensive. Checkout www.emginc.com to see what a lot of professionals are using.

[Sascha Franck]

http://home.arcor.de/s.franck/temp/Simul.mp3

As you can clearly see (err... hear), the S/N ratio is quite a lot better. I've been using the very same settings you posted and my input gain was leveled so I had a few bits of headroom left.
The noise you can hear competes quite well to my real amps at comparable gain settings. As said before, I think they're even producing a bit more of noise.

[stayne]

Thanks Kiwburger. I've been playing for around 16 years now so I'm pretty much up to snuff on quality gear. EMGs are nice pickups for sure.

I get zero noise when I use my POD 2.0 so I'll probably switch back to that for now. I just figured I'd try out some amp sims... I like the idea of being able to have total tonal freedom without having to re-record.

Sascha, sounds like you're getting about as much noise as me. Thanks regardless for taking the time.

[stayne]

oh and by the way, if i turn my guitar all the way down... and even unplug it and turn off the mixer, the noise is still there. if i put the effects on a channel by themselves, still noise. it's not my signal, it's the software.

[AndrewSimon]

The software doesn't create noise.
Maybe it's coming from the sound card.
I will do some tests and confirm this.
What happens if you short the input on the sound card?

[Sascha Franck]

Sascha, sounds like you're getting about as much noise as me. Thanks regardless for taking the time.

Err, pardon?

Well, if you think a difference of over 10dB in noisefloor (which is what I get after normalizing both files and comparing the "noise only" parts in the beginning of each file) is "about as much noise"... then I really don't know.

And, it's *not* the software, defenitely not! When you run a synth through the same settings of SimulAnalog, you're getting NO noise - even when running a very, very silent signal through it.
And when I'm turning down my guitar, I'm almost noisefree as well, but of course there's various things still affecting the signal, such as my net computer (which is sitting on the same power lead with the soundcard out running into my mixer as well) the TV (which I didn't bother to turn off) and whatever.
With all the not required things turned off I'm getting another few dBs less of noise.
And of course the preamp, which is less than stellar as well, is adding some bits, too.

I'm serious, you should check your signal path.
What soundcard are you using? What preamp? Are there much USB devices connected? Etc etc...
I'm almost 100% sure it's not your guitar or cable but something related to your recording chain.
You can easily check that with any wave editor. Unplug your guitar cable from whatever preamp you're using (keep the gain setting) then record away and have your wave editor check the maximum level. Then do the same but pull the preamp gain all the way down.

Whatever.