Electric Guitar Emulators

[brandondrury]

2008 has been the year of the guitar emulator. Just a year ago, I would have laughed at the idea of using plugins for my guitar tones. While I still haven't done it, I've came close. I suspect 2009 could be the year I record an album without a real amp.

So, let's talk about electric guitar emulators. Here are a few you should check out:

Premium Plugins
Revalver MK3
Amplitube
Guitar Rig 3
Waves GTR3

Free Plugins
SimulAnalog Guitar suite
Aradaz

[zildjohn01]

Nick Crow has a couple of great amps. And don't forget about impulses.

And shouldn't the title be "Amp Sims"? If I could emulate a whole guitar and a decent player, I'd be set

[fortyseven]

And lets not forget about GTR 3 by Waves. Although I havent played with it at all, I hear its pretty killer! It has also been said that its better sounding than Guitar Rig and Revalver although I cannot confirm this personally.
Its all just heresay really!

From my point of view though I am thankful that 2008 has been the year of guitar emulators. I've been a drummer all my life and recently had to stop playing due to medical reasons. So I decided to take up guitar and after a few months of saving I eventually bought my first ever electric guitar.
However, having spent all my money on the actual instrument I had no money left over to buy an amp. It was then that I heard of Revalver and downloaded the demo version. I was so impressed that I ended up buying it and Guitar Rig 3.
I am happy to say that I have not looked back and do not regret getting them. I know there are a lot of 'purists' who would not agree with me but with apps like Guitar Rig and Revalver I can play on amps that I would normally never be able to afford and its extremely simple and convenient.
I believe that they come extremely close to the real thing and for people like me its a godsend!

[orb451]

I've been playing tube amps most of the 16 years I've been playing and recently got into recording. Given that I've got a crappy sounding room and noisy fiancee and noisy neighbors I'm kind of limited in terms of getting my 2x12 combo (Carvin V3) mic'd up and dialed in. So.......... I started using emulators and going direct. I tried FreeAmp (not too bad but too much lag on my system) and then Guitar Rig 3. The thing to me, with Guitar Rig is the bottom end always sounds either extremely boomy and boxy or flabby. For example, if I play the first minute or two of Harvester of Sorrow from Metallica with a tube amp, I can really lay into the palm muting and it sounds tight, but with GR3 at least, I can't get that kind of low end definition and *chug* without it sounding off... at least to my ears. But thankfully I found these *impulse* samples and combing GR3 with the impulses through Voxengo's BoogEx or whatever its called has helped a lot.

I've tried Aradz stuff as well and really like it for some applications. The latest thing that has me hooked is this thing called StudioDevil Guitar Amp. It's not a big VST like GR3 in terms of routing, effects, cabs, amps, mics, etc. It only has a few knobs and switches but combining that, with the impulses has yielded a much more solid tone.

It reminds me of the ol' Unix philosophy for any geeks (yes I'm one) out there, that is, find a tool that does one thing and does it well. Instead of the all-in-wonder-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink type programs that try to do too much. I think GR3's clean sounds are very cool and sound good, but the overdrive/distortion is lacking a bit, but if you spend enough time with it, like anything, you can get it to sound pretty good. Again, just my experience and my opinion...

Never tried Revalver or any of the other sims so I can't speak to those.

[brandondrury]

For example, if I play the first minute or two of Harvester of Sorrow from Metallica with a tube amp, I can really lay into the palm muting and it sounds tight

This is inaccurate. There are tons of HORRIBLE tube amps out there that would sound dramatically worse on your palm mutes. If you want to rave about a particular tube amp, I'm all for it. However, this mentality that all tube amps are outstanding is a total load of shit. If you don't believe me, I've got a Lee Jackson I'll sell you for $400.

Brandon

[orb451]

Yeah sorry about that, I should have qualified that statement. I'm happy with the way MY tube amp sounds. Someone else could listen in and think it blows monkey chunks and that's cool with me but when I compare MY tube amp with amp sims I go by what I hear as the difference in low-end, definition, etc. I think amp sims are cool and I use them more than the actual tube amp these days for sake of convenience and actually how *well* they do as a whole. Didn't mean to come off like I was saying all tube amps are the shit and everything else is worthless. Mind you, the last time I was into anything closely related to amp modeling is the mid to late 90's when I heard Roland's VG-8 (I think was the name of it) that had a midi pickup mounted on a strat that gave you access to all sorts of tones and sounds, and something they called COSM or something along those lines.... Sounded cool to me back then but at the time, couldn't replace (to me anyway) what I was used to hearing from amps (tube or otherwise).

Point being, I can only go by what I'm familiar with (Peavey Solid State amps, Marshall Tube and Solid State amps, Mesa Tube Pre/Power Amps, Carvin Tube amps, Crate solid state amps and maybe a few others I'm forgetting). Trust me I'm not one of those Analog snobs that think the fucking toaster in the kitchen has to have 6L6's in it (from WWII Russian Factories no less) in order for my humble Wheat Toast to taste "good". http://forum.recordingreview.com/ima...ons/icon10.gif

[adorian]

Now my granpa had one of those FM radios with tubes in it and a Class A amp to boot, I wish my mom didn't junk it when they were bulldozing his workshop, that would've sounded pretty good on guitar

I hate some of these tube amps as well - the Blue Voodoo and Kranks come to mind. On the other hand I don't think I've heard anything that sounds better than a tube amp on guitar, sims or solid state so you have to be careful how you classify the gear.

If say a kind in his bedroom studio that has a 10 watt Squier amp mics it up and records it in his PC via a $10 Sony dynamic mic it will sound like crap. If on the other hand the kid plugs in direct and uses an amp sim software he might get something halfway decent.

If that kid had only this amp sim to work on the sound he might even be able to get some brilliant results that us tube snobs can't get because we are so used to hearing the response of a real amp in a room. I think the new generation of guitar users, the reason I call them users is because it is such a PC-centric task nowadays, will be able to achieve much better tonal results than say myself, when I have stacked up half a room of tube gear and distortion boxes which I can immediately access for any type of sound I think of.

[357mag]

What are impulses?

[orb451]

Impulses are audio *captures* of a particular amp, room and mic setup. My understanding is that they can be made by just about anyone with the right software. Think of them as a *snapshot* of an amp (head/combo/cabinet) and then a mic (in whatever position i.e. on-axis, off-axis, near, far, etc) and then a room (probably to a lesser degree). I think what they sometimes do to capture the impulse is record a sine wave of pink or white noise through an amp going from 20Hz to 20KHz. Voxengo Boogex is a nice free impulse program. You can download these impulses from a lot of places on the net, then load them in Boogex and run things like Guitar Rig and others into the Boogex to try out different impulses.

I recommend you check out:

www.guitarampmodeling.com

For more info, they have TONS of free presets for all the major guitar amp emulators out there and lots of impulse files you can download (also free). As well as tutorials and articles to help get you started.

Good luck!

orb.

[fmw]

I have a little modeling amp made by VOX. Some people like the sound. Some do not. I think those who do not compare it to the amp it is modeling and don't think it isn't an exact match. I think those who do just accept the tone for what it is. Personally I think it sounds fine if you don't overdo the distortion. If I got similar results from a plug-in, I'd be content.