KVR Audio

heavyrocks · Post by **heavyrocks** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:41 pm

I've been messing around with Guitar Rig 2 and the whole Amplitube series for a while now and I don't have any problem with the tone, as far as harmonics and distortion and such, but they all seem to add weird unnatural compression to the sound and it's driving me nuts. Am I not tweaking the right settings or is this just a limitation of today's generation of software? Does anybody prefer anything over these two? Are there significant improvements in the newer Guitar Rigs?

Phildo · Post by **Phildo** » Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:59 pm

For general-purpose rock use (not so much for the really high-gain modern metal stuff), I still find myself going back to the JCM900 emulation in Simulanalog's Guitar Suite Freeware VST. I shelled out for the entire Amplitube 2 series, which is good - especially the very lovely Amplitube Fender, but time and again I find that both I and my clients prefer the Simulanalog stuff.

I understand that it was made by the people behind Overloud, so maybe the TH-1 may be worth trying.

But give Guitar Suite a go. It's free, so there's nothing to lose!

http://www.simulanalog.org/

You have to wander 'round thesite a bit to find it, but it's worthwhile. And, as I said, FREE!

electro · Post by **electro** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 12:08 am

The Amplitube Metal DS-1 and Simulanalog DS-1 sound different.

jplanet · Post by **jplanet** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 12:24 am

I'm personally a fan of PodFarm, but I also like Guitar Rig and Amplitube - I haven't experienced any kind of weird compression as you describe, though, so you might encounter the same problem if that issue is a result of something in your signal path...it could be your preamp, cables, pickups, etc...or any combination of the above...Have you tried constructing sounds from scratch or are you going by the presets? I haven't found more than a small handful of presents that sounded good to me, I just always set up my sounds as if I was in rehearsal plugging in my pedals and dialing up the sound on the amp...

Peter - IK Multimedia · Fri Nov 06, 2009 12:28 am

Agreeing with jplanet - if there's a way to test it with direct signal that would really be a much better test.

tikcus · Post by **tikcus** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:12 am

My fav's are:

studiodevil v1.4 (NOT the pro version, it sucks),

guitar rig 4 (huge improvement over the other versions, I was really surprized, as good sounding and responsive on certain presets as studiodevil),

amplitube fender. (I don't like any of the other amplitubes, but the fender version actually sounds ok).

Honorable mention: I've made some good presets with THD, but the factory ones are terrible.

Jafo · Post by **Jafo** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:39 am

Plenty of SimulAnalog love here; the tone, response, and price are excellent! Nick Crow's "Simple Guitar Combo" though AeternusEternus' cab sims also kicks prodigious amounts of ass! Studio Devil (I've only used the BVC) is too bright, but really nails it otherwise. ISTR loving Trash, too. BTE's Juicy 77 is temperamental, but worth a try.

PurpleCatfishBettie · Post by **PurpleCatfishBettie** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 6:32 am

I like the ACME Bar Gig heads, especially the Tamla and the Gimme. The entire line of them can make some excellent tones. They're used with a cabsim such as the LePou IR. The thing is, that this combination - ACME Bar Gig head with LePou cabsim - is a bit intensive on the CPU on this 1.8ghz machine with 1gb of RAM.

The Simulanalog JCM900 on the other hand loads in with CPU to spare, but is not as versatile. It is really good in any event.

Speaking of versatile; the Green Machine is free as well, and does a lot of different things.

On another thread, a few posters were saying that Voxengo Boogex is the best free amp, hands down.

That new AmplifikationLite from Aradaz sounds good; same with LePou Hybrit.

Nick Crowe and Ronald Passion also come to mind; then there's the California Sun from Auraplug.

For distortion boxes, I've enjoyed the Roktion 808 and the Compact Distortion.

There's so much free stuff out there that the best thing is probably to check it all out for yourself.

The one thing is, that with the IR cabinet simulators, you may want to have some really 'good' IR files. 'May want to' because a person can load some really odd ('not good') .wav files into such cabsims, and get 'interesting' results.

BFunKu · Post by **BFunKu** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 7:02 am

Overloud TH1 sounds the Best to me anyway. But the SimulAnalog VSTs are all must haves and sound Excellent as well. Plus the price is right on. Also I really like the Nick Crow VSTs a lot too. The Aradaz Amp Sims are Damn Good too. There are actually quite a few really damn Good free Amp sims out there.

gavriloP · Post by **gavriloP** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:01 am

LePou's new LE456 is really good ampsim for some real hi-gain mayhem! With LeCab and some fitting impulses it grunts metal! And still keeps hum and buzz levels sane.

http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/

And it's free too!

Also this tubescreamer emu from BTE works well before amps.

http://www.bteaudio.com/software/TSS/TSS.html

Rathead · Post by **Rathead** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:08 am

Many to choose from at http://www.acmebargig.com/

I have had great success with some of these and they each have a strong character of their own.

No seeker-of-free-amp-sim-software should be without them!

KvH · Post by **KvH** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:20 am

I've tried Guitarrig but to me it sounds a bit to polished.
Also tried Peavy's Revalver which I find the most authentic but I don't like the interface and it's editing is too deep for me.
Now I am using Amplitube 2 and the Hendrix edition wich are ok but it's a shame you cannot change the pedals with drag en drop, and I miss the opportunity to use VST effects in the program itself.

Also check out the cabinet emulations from audioease they also sound really cool.
But in fact there's no program wich can emulate a real amp because of the loudness in my opninion.

cosmosis · Post by **cosmosis** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 9:44 am

I dig the major contenders like Guitar Rig, Amplitube and TH1, but my vote goes to Softube's Vintage Amp Room. I get some great clean tones, and they go dirty well with some overdrive behind them. It's also very light on the old CPU. Maybe I'm weird, but I think it doesn't get as much recognition here as I think it should. But I do understand it's a matter of taste.

I'm also a big Simulanalog fan, and the effects are very useful for things besides guitars. Kuassa also got my attention.

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:04 am

Personally, I feel Guitar Rig 4 was a real turning point in amp sims. It's such a vast improvement over GR 2, I'd urge you to go download the demo now and see what you think.

Example: tonight I got home and found an client email saying they needed a 30-second rock track by tomorrow. But my Strat was at the jam space! All I had was my 1988 Ibanez with (literally) 13-year old strings and a shot Floyd-Rose bridge. I managed to pull something out of my ass using only GR 4 (including fake bass!), and it sounds quite good considering. Luckily they wanted garage rock, a la Jet, but still...can't imagine doing this with any other amp sim! Thank you, NI!!

Anyways, yeah: GR 4 is tha shiz.

zeoy · Post by **zeoy** » Fri Nov 06, 2009 10:11 am

tikcus wrote:studiodevil v1.4 (NOT the pro version, it sucks)

Are you sure* ?

I've become a fan since the BVC freebie and I thing VGA and AMP were steps in the right direction. AMP needs some polishing in some workflow details but the sound is great IMHO.

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*3xSD AMP, no external FX used

Best amp-modeling plugin?