Electric Guitar Emulators

[KillerV]

I used to be completely against amp-sims untill a buddy of mine bought me Amplitube as a present. I suddenly found myself playing around with it more and more. Even though these things will never be a substitute for a great amp doing it's thing, I have to admit that it has become a useful addition to my studio in a number of ways. Let me explain:

My studio is still "up and coming" and I work in an area where you take all the work you can get. That means that I get bands coming in the studio with really shitty gear sometimes. For some reason lots of guys these days buy themselves a really good axe, but skimps on the amp. Anyway, so I have to do something to keep the recording from sounding like absolute shit (I mean my name is gonna be on it...) so I split their signal with an ABY box and mic their amp, but also get a DI-signal that I can use with the amp-sim. I then sit with them and get a mix between their amp and something in the sim that we're both happy with. It has been the case once or twice that they then decided to ditch their amp's sound and just use the sim.

The only problem that I've found with recordings tracked completely with an amp-sim is that they end up having a sort of "plastic" quality with not nearly as much depth as a good amp will give you, but it's a trade-off because the only reason they tracked everything with it in the first place was because their own amps were so shitty.

I also don't have the luxury of only doing hard-ass rock/blues/metal/etc. recordings. I have had to produce RnB, pop, etc. When an artist comes in and needs a guitarist/bassist I usually step up and play the parts for them. This means I sometimes have to use sounds outside of what I would normally use. For these occasions amp-sims have also saved my ass because of their flexibility. These are also typically situations where guitars don't rule the mix, so the "plastic factor" isn't as apparent.

In all the other stuff I do where we (me and the artist) are mostly happy but just want some extra textures to work with in guitar-sounds I'll gladly fire up my amp-sim and we'll use that. They do seem to "fit" in a mix pretty nicely right from the start.

Free ones like the SimulAnalog ones are really cool, as well as Fretted Synth's FreeAmp.

One area that modelling this sucks in is actual modelling amps. A while back I had to play through a Line 6 Spider at a festival and it sounded like absolute crap, no matter which settings I tried.

Oh, and one more cool trick (if it hasn't been mentioned yet): Send your drums through an amp sim (especially a nice distorted setting) and mix it in under the real thing. It gives you a vibe that nothing else will and it works really nicely, depending on the song.

[357mag]

I personally feel the hardware emulators sound much better than their software counterparts.

[fortyseven]

Originally Posted by KillerV

Oh, and one more cool trick (if it hasn't been mentioned yet): Send your drums through an amp sim (especially a nice distorted setting) and mix it in under the real thing. It gives you a vibe that nothing else will and it works really nicely, depending on the song.

I was toying with that very idea last night. Hmmm I think I know what I'll be doing this evening!

[professor tweed]

I've checked out a few sound samples on the web. All sound better than what came out of my pod 2 before it gave up the ghost (although I have heard a pod 2 sound very good live through a keyboard amp on a jazz sound). Even the Line 6 toneport samples sound better to me than the samples up for their Pods. The one which really caught my ears is virtual amp room by swedish company softube. It's expensive but I was really impressed by the sounds, especially the fender twin 'brown' amp. That to me sounds like some of the sounds I've heard from boutique fender clone amp makers up on their sites, rather than the sounds on guitar rig, amplitube etc. I am getting a laptop soon and will try out the demo version and post feedback.

[garageband]

The Vox Tonelab is my thing. It's got a tuner and really good FX and (best) has optical output. The 44.1 is a bit of a problem but the workaround is not too painful. Great dynamic distortions and serves as a DI box, obviating the need for separate preamp plumbing. I spent a day with Guitar Rig and wasn't impressed at all. Kinda flat, like a lot of the Line 6 stuff. The Tonelab is fast to dial in and program and has a really low noise floor on the high gain amp models.

[Deodar]

Orb 451 ...calling Orb 451.Reality check Bro:Metallica?Emulators& Tube Amps?# this out;
YouTube - Metallica - Enter Sandman Intro,Test Behringer GDI21 V-Tone related are interesting
I'm just negotiating for that DI Box,$65 NZ with $75US the offshore price.With our Xchange
rate thats $225NZ.Direct Recording & FX.Tempting....

[elz23]

I have to say, I use amp sims most of the time now, with the restraints of noise and rubbish sounding rooms, and i have NOT heard one better than Studio Devil.

That thing is honestly amazing. I'm not a guitar player, but I know a good tone, and I know this can deliver. It takes a bit of playing around, but not half as much as i would have thought, and the presets give you a good starting place.

my 2 cents.

[Deodar]

OK,have to Fess Up to using as many Processors as I find sound good,& have effects that
are better than mine.Either putting them thru my Amp or playing them au naturale,eg the
Behringer X V Amp is noisy thru an amp but clean thru headphones,although volume is an
issue.Zoom have this field wrapped up with their constant development & fast CPU.,they
make good recording interfaces too.100 ms processor means no latency & effect changes
are instant in the G2.1u,"worlds fastest patch change"-80 patches&54 effects.Awesome.

[bradzoot]

Originally Posted by 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

That just reminded me of seeing Billy Gibbons on 'The old grey whistle test' years ago. They had just done 'Cheap sunglasses'. Old whisperin' Bob asks Billy, how do you get that sound on your guitar and Billy say's 'well I have this old valve radio and I sort of added an input jack and an output jack, and that's it. Or something along those lines.
I used to have one too, but i guess it was junked.

[DolphinFace]

I love WAVES GTR. I am amazed at how good it sounds. I never thought I could get such a good sound with direct-in (which I've always hated the sound of in the past.)

I haven't tried the others on your list, I'm curious as to how they compare to WAVES GTR.