Dual Rectifier vs Itself and 7 Top Amp Simulators

[mintcheerios]

The Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier is probably one of the most modeled amps ever. No guitar amp modeler is complete without it. It has defined the sound of 90's metal and has earned its title as the "California" or "US Modern" sound. Today it is still considered one of the best amps for metal and hard rock and can be heard on the records of countless high-profile artists. It's no wonder that everyone has tried to model this amp. The question I want to answer with this shootout is, has anyone come close?

I compare the real Dual Rectifier to its simulations from seven of some of the most well-known guitar amp simulator plug-ins. The red or modern channel was used for everything. I set the Dual Rectifier to have some rather neutral settings (which I've attached in Settings.zip) and tried to tweak each amp sim to match that as close as possible. Since this shootout is not about testing how close the knobs coincide with the amp, I did this to see how close each amp sim could get to the real deal.

Let me explain why this shootout contains 16 files. Instead of using the cabinet modeler of each amp sim, I used a single impulse file. For those who aren't familiar with impulses, it's basically a snapshot of a mic'ed cabinet setup. It is arguably the best technology we have for cabinet modeling right now (and it's free to use!). I made an impulse of my mic setup to do this test. The same untouched mic setup is used to record the actual cabinet. So here is why there are 16 files. 8 of them use impulses, and the other 8 were recorded through the actual cabinet. One of the files take the Dual Rectifier's FX send and goes through an impulse (hence the Dual Rectifier vs. itself). The following is a list of each file in alphabetical order:

Amplitube 2 + Impulse
Amplitube 2 Real Cab
Guitar Rig 3 + Impulse
Guitar Rig 3 Real Cab
Overloud TH1 + Impulse
Overloud TH1 Real Cab
Pod Farm + Impulse
Pod Farm Real Cab
Real Amp + Impulse
Real Amp Real Cab
Revalver II + Impulse
Revalver II Real Cab
Revalver III + Impulse
Revalver III Real Cab
Waves GTR3 + Impulse
Waves GTR3 Real Cab

The guitar riff used comes from this song. I've also attached all the settings for each amp sim and amp I used. The key contains the answers and all the details on the process I went through. Also the partial keys.zip file contains five txt files each containing some hints. The hints are inside the txt file so you can unzip the file without worry. One file reveals which are impulses and which use real cabs, one tells you which is the real amp and real cab file, one tells you which two use the real amp head, one tells you which files are using Revalver (for those who want to blindly compare only MKII and MKIII, and finally the last one tells you which files are the same amp or amp sim. Some people understandably wanted to compare only certain files as there are a lot to listen to. Lastly, I've attached the impulse and DI track so you can try to match the tone yourself. Enjoy!

Pictures of my setup:

[rockerdude]

I liked #2& # 15 the most.Thanks for taking the time to do this.This is a eye opener.I liked the real amp and cab but the eq was a little off for my taste.Great job!

[Audio~Geek]

Hey that's wicked.

I don't have time to really listen at the moment, but great job!
Some of the mp3s have a ringing, is that the lossy compression or part of the emulation or signal chain?
Nice studio furniture, classy.

[mintcheerios]

I've attached the wav files also if you want to take the mp3 compression out of the equation. They are split into two zip files since the site wouldn't let me upload them in one file for some reason.

[mightygorgon]

Hello there,
This my first post and my take on getting a closer to real Rectifier sound with RevMkIII and IR. Due to "Modern" setting not having a presence know I used an eq afterwards. It still is missing something but I guess it could be better if i knew the cutoff frequency of the presence knob or use a matching eq.

Best Regards...

[enroe]

Hello mintcheerios!

Great test - thank you!

The best sounding mp3s - IMO - are: Number 9 and number 15. Both different amp sims ...

[enroe]

My detailed rating here:

No rating
------------------------
1 +
2 o
3 +
4 +
5 -
6 o
7 +
8 +
9 ++
10 +
11 o
12 +
13 o
14 +
15 ++
16 -
------------------------

So the best are No. 9 and 15: Both very **** and transparent - with a nice attack-part also. The Worst are No. 5 and 16: harsh, muddy, aggressive.

------------------------

Of course I disclosed your key.txt and discoverd which amps No. 9 and 15 were. I wasn't really surprised - but I thought Revalver III would sound better than verion II. At least in your test this cannot be proved. Interesting also: The real amp doesn't displace the ampsims - for my ears at least.

Thanx for this test!

enroe.

[enroe]

An addition here:

You did test the best known current ampsimps. Would you consider to add some freeware ampsims to your test? I think the comparison of only the three best known freeware ampsims would add some spice to this test ...

Thanks anyway

enroe.

[RHCNYC]

A very thorough test, and I look forward to checking them out.

This is the kind of stuff that really makes this site the fuckin' bomb diggity.

Thanks for your work.

[mintcheerios]

Originally Posted by enroe

My detailed rating here:

No rating
------------------------
1 +
2 o
3 +
4 +
5 -
6 o
7 +
8 +
9 ++
10 +
11 o
12 +
13 o
14 +
15 ++
16 -
------------------------

So the best are No. 9 and 15: Both very **** and transparent - with a nice attack-part also. The Worst are No. 5 and 16: harsh, muddy, aggressive.

------------------------

Of course I disclosed your key.txt and discoverd which amps No. 9 and 15 were. I wasn't really surprised - but I thought Revalver III would sound better than verion II. At least in your test this cannot be proved. Interesting also: The real amp doesn't displace the ampsims - for my ears at least.

Thanx for this test!

enroe.

I don't want to start any conspiracy theories, but Revalver MKIII's Dual Rec model has changed a lot from MKII which was before it was bought out by Peavey.