The Ultimate Guitar Di Shootout!!!!!!!

[jd99gt]

Hey Kiddies,

After seeing Brandon's shootout of Guitar Rig 2 vs real amps, I decided to do my own monster shootout. Like many of you, I am limited in the amount of time that i can crank my real amps- with cranky neighbors and a family in the house, its hard to find some loud jam time at home.
So, I put together a little shootout of a few simple digital amp modeling programs, a guitar floor processor, and a real amp- using the preamp Direct (ie-No Speakers). I also recorded each clip seperately using celestion v30 Impulse file with Voxengo Boogex

I didnt mess around at all with the settings, I used them as they came in the program or on the processor, and for the real amp it was pretty much a 6-4-6 settup with the preamp gain on 5.

This is the list of each clip, as they play throughout the whole track. All the clips are on one track, there is a slight pause between each clip, and the amplitube clips have an intemittent hiss due to the fact that my trial period has run out.lol

Here goes-
1. Real Peavey 5150 Preamp Lead Channel Dry
2. Real Peavey 5150 Preamp Lead Channel with impulse
3. Guitar Rig 3- Old Metallica Model
4. Guitar Rig 3- Gratifier Amp Modern Scoop Model
5. Amplitube 2- Dual Rectifier Model
6. Digitech GNX3- Mesa Dual Rectifier Model
7. Digitech GNX3- Peavey 5150 Model -Compare this to #2
8. Guitar Rig 3- Old Metallica Model - Cab Off- Used v30 impulse
9. Guitar Rig 3- Gratifier Amp Modern Scoop Model -Cab Off- Used v30 impulse
10. Amplitube 2- Dual Rectifier Model- Cab Off- Used V30 Impulse
11. Digitech GNX3- Mesa Dual Recitifier Model- Cab off- Used v30 Impulse
12. Digitech GNX3- Peavey 5150 Model- Cab off- Used v30 Impulse

Note: The Digitech Presets that I used dont come stock with the unit, they were from the MFX Supermodels Disc- $60, over 1000 specially designed presets for GNX3 unit. Its a much better representation of what these units are capable of.


After doing this test, even though everything was Direct IN, I am still partial to the real tube preamp from the 5150. (Using it with the impulse, you almost cant tell the difference between it and a micd 5150 with a 4X12 cab) . In clips 1 and 2, there is that saturation that you just cant get with digital models. I still think that these digital models are great, all of my recordings reviews on this site (as shitty as they are) were done using assorted digital models similar to the ones on these clips. I would prefer to use my real amp, but digital models dont blow up transformers or blow tubes (like my 5150 recently did) , and definitely wont wake up the neighbors. lol

Let me know what you guys think.
This is classic case of Re-amping, so the input is the exact same audio signal for every track.
Thanks GUYS
ENjoy

[brandondrury]

Very interesting test.

Some of these tones would probably be very usable with a little tweaking. I've always hard a hard time judging guitars without drums in there. The modeling / impulse stuff has really opened the doors for direct recording.

I was writing a song yesterday with a buddy. I started out with a high gain JCM 800 type of sound. As we got the verse finished, it was clear we should have been using a cleaner tone. I had totally forgotten how easy it was to just change the settings on the plugin. That's pretty badass!

1) Coming straight out of the 5150 sucks, but it's supposed to. It's the stereotypical direct guitar sound. Yuck! Btw, do you have your amp connected to a Hotplate or something or are you just recording the the DI from the 5150 while you play through a guitar cabinet. Tube amps must have a load on them or they melt. This is a great way to blow transformers!

2) Now we are into usable land. After hearing fizz-o-rama it's easy to not like this one, but if you hear it with clear ears it ain't bad!

3) I'm not sure that old Metallica is a good name for this one, but oh well. More of a SM 57 kind of tone. Not enough gain for this riff in my opinion. This kind of tone is again very usable.

4) The Gratifier has lots of upper midrange. In a mix with a giant bass sound this would again be very usable.

5) I don't like how the low end gets so loose and rumbly on this one, but it's apparent darkness would make it very good in certain situations.

6) I like this one. It seems balanced and big.

7) This one hurts. I don't like it.

8) Not much use for that one.

9) Even less use for that one.

10) Thin. Kind of brittle. Again, in a big bass situation it's usable but I don't like the lack of balls in the palm mutes.

11) Useless

12) Sounds like a fizzy direct guitar.

[jd99gt]

Thanks for the listen Brandon. I agree, that the most usable tones were the real 5150 with the impulse- #2, and the GNX3 Mesa Dual Rectifier-#6. For Some reason though, when I usually record DI, I use my gnx3 and I tweak the MFX supermodels patches and I dont get as good a sound. Maybe for now when Im recording DI ill just use their patches straight up?

I did not connect up to a cab, and now that I think of it, that may be why I fried that transformer the first time. Maybe Ill get a TAD Fanta. The Power section is not bypassed on the 5150 when using just the preamp. How do I give the amp the speaker load without being loud?
Thanks
Jd

[guitargod09]

4 really stuck out to me. I like a guitar like this with a more midrangy sound. 6 sounds great too, definetly my two top ones. wow the first one almost sounds better than the one with the impulses, almost like part of the tone is relying on the distorion that comes from DI recording! It sounds so much better! JK JK I'll have to add on to this later today playing the same riff but using DI tones from Line 6's toneport using gearbox and use some of the same models.

[brandondrury]

How do I give the amp the speaker load without being loud?

The only good way I know is to use a Hot Plate. That's how I would do it. I guess you could run to a cabinet covered in blankets or something, but that isn't exactly what you want either.

Brandon

[adorian]

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but I couldn't get to like a single one of these sounds. Some were okay on a bad guitar day but honestly I think you should really see what you can do with more tweaking. The words overblown, over-processed, rough and fake come to mind for pretty much everything here.
You should try a H&K Redbox speaker emulation DI between your amp and speakers on the 5150 - this is what I got (the darker sound on "Raising Hell") with:
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