Electric Guitar Emulators

[Briza]

I have gearbox- the plug that comes with the toneport.(line 6) At first i thought it was amazing, now i think it's good. There is much better out there. I like some of the tones revalvermk3 produces, and even some of the free amp sims can get some ok tones, although not nearly as versatile.

[Meelo]

You guys are missing out on all the fun.

In this context, i think the only software worth mentioning is Revalver - and i am risking being burned on a virtual stake here, but if you know what you're doing, the sounds it produces are simply better than the competition.

That said, there's some more recent software that hasn't been listed here, and marks a possible actual competition for Revalver.
First, there's Overloud's TH1, which is rumored to have better high-gain sounds and effects (I haven't tried it, so this is pure heresy).
Then there's Axe-FX, which is basically a hardware unit but is now coming out as a VST plugin, and that one should seriously kick ass.

[recordingDR]

I use Guitar Rig 3 and I'm very happy with it. Sure, a lot of times I would rather just use a nice amp. But a lot of times it gives me just the tone I'm looking for. Plus, lets be honest, who DOESN'T have fun messing around with all the options on these things?

I'm curious about Digidesign's Eleven plug-in. Has anyone used it? It's featured heavily on Silversun Pickup's "Carnavas" record, which is a fucking good record, especially for guitar tones.

[geoffireland12]

For $100 get the gearbox gold package, then just upgrade for free to pod farm through line6s website. Really hard to beat this for the price and its fun to mess around with. Also I have an old vox tonelab, it works great for certain things and not so great for others. This is kinda true for everything though I think.

[clintmangun]

I tell you I bought a little peavey vyper combo, its solid state but it sounds killer. The thing that kinda sucks about all tube heads to me is that it seems like you have to turn em up alot to keep em from sounding weak. If you got neighbors like I do then you really cant.

[CyberCat]

found this thread just as I was about to inquire about guitar synths.

I have recently (this week) been playing around with MusicLab RealGuitar & RealSynth and I find them very realistic. I like the string and the fact that I can strum them - and the fact that they work as standalone apps. But it doesn't allow you to finger a chord and then strum the chord with the mouse like a real guitar does. You finger the chord and it strums it at the same time. Or you play the fret positions where the mouse is located.

Is there any other (better) guitar that allows (mouse) strumming especially upstroke & downstroke and allows strumming while fingering a particular chord (say while holding a keyboard key)?

[Hysteria]

I prefer hardware-based emulators, mainly for convenience and one less thing to take up precious CPU horsepower.

I currently use a Digitech GSP 1101 (which can also be used as a kind of plug in, not that I've tried it) which I find to sound superb. The models are nice and well defined, not fizzy and thin. I find the fx to be lush (it has Lexicon reverb on-board) and overall I'm very happy with it.

I nearly bought an AXE-FX Ultra which is arguably the best modeller/guitar fx around. I followed it for years and when I was close to finally buying one (there was a waiting list) I found I was to be dad so decided that perhaps I didn't actually need to spend four figures on a guitar emulator...Damn...sometimes I wish I wasn't so responsible

By the way a good web board for high-end guitar stuff is www.hugeracksinc.com but like many it's mainly for gear fetishists

I did experiment with one set of free VST plugins and found the results to be very good, you can download them below.

Welcome To SimulAnalog

Cheers

Simon

[Sparmactro]

I use Revalver MKIII, but still I cant get a "close to real" sound... Maybe is because of my mixing... I think Amplitube have more power than revalver talking about distortion, but Revalver sounds more realistic.

[TonyB]

Originally Posted by recordingDR

I use Guitar Rig 3 and I'm very happy with it. Sure, a lot of times I would rather just use a nice amp. But a lot of times it gives me just the tone I'm looking for. Plus, lets be honest, who DOESN'T have fun messing around with all the options on these things?

I'm curious about Digidesign's Eleven plug-in. Has anyone used it? It's featured heavily on Silversun Pickup's "Carnavas" record, which is a fucking good record, especially for guitar tones.

Guitar Rig 3 is very robust. Unfortunately I've never been able to dial in the sounds I was looking for. I'm sure they're there, but I've never been able to get the harshness out of the settings. I've been more successful using it to supplement clean guitar tones.

I've never tried Re-valver. Sounds like something worth checking out.

Yeah, there's nothing like putting a 57 or 421 (or Royer 121 if I could afford to buy one) in front of a Fender or Marshall amp (depending on what you're going after) and going at it!

[Brell]

I was really impressed by Amplitube Metal. Most people who heard the tracks I recorded with it could not tell that it was not a real amp. All the effects it has are really nice too.

Has anyone tried out Softube's Metal Amp Room? Is it worth a shot?