The Big Guitar Amp Sim Roundup + Review

[glokraw]

There is a difference between a 'big problem', and what I'll call a 'dedicated purpose'. If we walked together into a full-featured gear store, each with $3000, and a store that had tube-amps, modelled amps and floorboards, and a wall of software boxes, we could each walk out happy, penniless, without having made any duplicate purchases, and both able to put great but differing tools to good use.
I suspect we each would make some purchases that covered a wide range of capabilities, and some that catered to specific needs or desires, but were by design, not wildly versatile.

Walking in the same store with the same needs/desires, but only $300 dollars, totally changes the size of what we carry back to the 'benz.
But size might not change the quality of our finished recordings a few months down the road

[glokraw]

The amp, cab, and room is baked into the recording.

One great thing about home studios and software, is that when incorporating baked-in physical gear and spaces that will provide a track, we can optimize that recording to be easy to fit in a software based project, and the rough sketch of the emerging song. Some will simultaneously record a fully dry version alongside one with the room ambience and effects, and then put the ears-guys to work!

I'm going to watch this video among many others,(edit: the actual editing session starts at 9:15 with the playback of the song) hoping to become my own 'ears-guy' before winter falls fresh
Cheers

https://youtu.be/dfECw4O0PIQ

[martink78]

Interesting, I am a bit suprised NeuralDSP's are not mentioned more. They are by far my favorites, I've tried most of the others but neurals stuff is the first that, to me, sounds really good, even compared to my Laney IRT.
I don't really play much metal (my chops are not good enough) but neural's stuff is really versatile so I have no problem dialing in lo-mid, gain, bluesy tones and often use the volume knob on my guitar to clean upp the tone.
I find it really simple to dial in good tones, it just a matter of deciding on the amout of gain and then eq to taste. Most settings sound good, so it's really just the character that needs to be dialed in.
I do use third party IR's (mostly ownhammer) as I found the Neural ones a mit muddy, I think they have to much room for my taste.
I bough OMEGA, Cali, Nolly, Cory and Tone King but there is a lot of overlap (tone wise) and since they are so versatile I could probably get by with just one of them.
I also use my (physical) pedals with them, mainly for fuzz and that works well.

[Chickenman]

I like the Neural stuff, I don't fuss too much these days with sounds, just grab something from a plugin and go for it.

It's almost impossible to sound bad if you can play, some more recent plugins only have one knob >.> super ez.

[pekbro]

The Benson Chimera sim from Mixcraft is pretty good imo, though it's got a weird resonance to it at times that I don't like. Probably you need to have a pretty twangy guitar like a Telecaster to hear it. The reverb is pretty good as well, but the spring sound seems overly exaggerated to me, when compared to my real tube reverb, which doesn't really sound like that. I'm not fond of the Fuzz pedal in it, tho I did not like the sound of actual Benson pedal either (which is why I don't have one). The cab sim is nothing special either imo, it might sound better with your favorite IR loader instead. All in all pretty good I think, although it's not cheap. For just about $100 more you could get a Quilter Superblock, which is much better imo, of course, you would need to buy some pedals to go along with that if you want the same type of effects that are available in the plugin.

[The Noodlist]

Acustica has just released Aero for guitar.
https://www.acustica-audio.com/store/t/acqua/tools/aero

Aero is a plugin suite consisting of two FREE players, AERO STOMP and AERO AMP, both available in VST, VST3, AU and AAX format. They represent a pioneering and innovative new project from Acustica aimed at the world of sound design and guitar. It is our first suite of Acqua plug-ins using our revolutionary new AI-based Terra technology.

[The Noodlist]

Acustica has just released Aero for guitar.
https://www.acustica-audio.com/store/t/acqua/tools/aero

My system and Studio One can't handle it, I'll try Reaper. I'm also finding the interface a bit of a pain, over elaborate and counter productive.

[pekbro]

Here's the demo I did of the Benson Chimera Sim over at GS before my demo ran out, in case
anyone is curious.

I haven't bought the thing, but I do like it. Just not into amp sims lately, I may buy the reverb
plugin at some point. *I also spent a ton of money on DAW upgrades and stuff last week which
kinda puts this into the luxury category for me. Maybe during a good sale if they ever do that.

Chimera mp3

[pekbro]

Acustica has just released Aero for guitar.
https://www.acustica-audio.com/store/t/acqua/tools/aero

My system and Studio One can't handle it, I'll try Reaper. I'm also finding the interface a bit of a pain, over elaborate and counter productive.

I have never really gotten on with anything I've tried from them sadly. Their solution seems
difficult to argue against, but in practice, I have found them problematic and wont even
bother with the free stuff these days.

[pekbro]

I did pick up the Nembrini Overdrive Special before the intro price ended, dunno if it sounds like the real thing, but I like it, particularly with pedals. Also grabbed the overloud super cabinet as that was pretty cheap too, it's quite good imo and the crossover mode is interesting. Not keen on it being built into the TH-U which I'm not going to use for anything other than the super cabinet.

[The Noodlist]

A free spring reverb and OCD pedal for Acustica Nebula users, courtesy of Sound On Sound Magazine.
Download
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/outboard-media

Article
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... dio-nebula

[punkfest2000]

TH-U imo is the one to get because it has not only great modelling but all those rig packs which are essentially Kemper Profiles. Best of both worlds, and the effects are very high quality also. Furthermore they've added a very capable IR processor if you want to use your own 3rd party IRs.

[hotmitts]

How are the ml sound lab 'amped' series, do you folks think ?
I have so many sims already but the hype and reviews make these sound interesting
https://ml-sound-lab.com/pages/amped-plugins

[punkfest2000]

How are the ml sound lab 'amped' series, do you folks think ?
I have so many sims already but the hype and reviews make these sound interesting
https://ml-sound-lab.com/pages/amped-plugins

Haven't tried it. Would consider it but the price of each profiled amp is 2-5x more expensive than the cost of TH-Us profiles.

[The Noodlist]

How are the ml sound lab 'amped' series, do you folks think ?
I have so many sims already but the hype and reviews make these sound interesting
https://ml-sound-lab.com/pages/amped-plugins

 

I've been trying to whittle through the demos, I really like the clean sounds, and found the nag screen and silence to be detrimental to evaluating.

More testing to be done, I'm down to.
Ark
Flagship
GNR
Humble
ML5
ML800
VX30