Amp reivews

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
PEAVLEY
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by PEAVLEY » Wed Aug 03, 2011 9:08 am

Ds the best note to go with on a guitar.It's the most acurately tuned note on a guitar in terms of intonation.

glitchrock-buddha
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by glitchrock-buddha » Wed Aug 03, 2011 3:59 pm

TheLion1 wrote: having said that, ive tried GR and AMP and im not really sure about either of them. i have a nice tube amp to compare them to and they always fall short. i can never get the sound beefy or full enough to my liking. but ive been playing with the same tone for a few years now. id much prefer to mic up the guitar amp. however, i do like to use GR and AMP for effects and whatnot.
By GR you mean Guitar Rig right?

I've tried for years to like Guitar Rig, but the sad truth is that it falls short for a full guitar tone. It has lots of cool effects and all, but the pure guitar tones tend to be flat and lifeless. You can even tell this by watching youtube vids of guitar rig. They're own demos don't even sound very full on the NI site. I can get ok sounds out of it with the right eq'ing, but the truth is that Amplitube just blows it out of the water. You can get very accurate and convincing amp sounds out of amplitube that actually sound like you recording a real amp. Live's amp and guitar rig sound like software to me, although useful for effects.

Most guitar recording I've done has been in Logic and I'm quite pleased with Logic's amps as well, but of course I can't use them in Live. Being an owner of Komplete, I just can't stand the thought of buying another guitar amp package since I will always have guiatar rig and Live's amp. And I'll use Logic's amps when in Logic. But outside Logic, amplitube just rules.

As a quick heads up to anyone wanting a free alternative: Amplitube 3 has a free version which has 4 amps and a bunch of cabs and effects. Two of the amps, the default ones, are based on the fender super reverb and fender deluxe reverb 65. Pretty nice amps and they sound great. The custom shop also lets you buy additional amps one at a time if you want. to add to the free version Not sure of the exact prices, but probably around 15 bucks an amp. I only just realized about this free version and I'll probably use guitar rig as an effects board through these free fender amps now when in Live.
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rikhyray
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by rikhyray » Wed Aug 03, 2011 9:10 pm

Hi fellow guitarists. I don't want to start new thread unnecessary. Have a question regarding the subject.
Started to use my electric guitar after long years, want to use it live as well - hope for some advice.
My experience with emulators - POD (software), Amplitube, Guitar rig and obviously the Lives own discussed here. Experimenting a lot with all of them but in all cases ending up with "the best sound of them all" which was full bypass just using regular Live and VST effects.
I use only one electric, it is custom made headless - birdseye maple neck, ABM hardware, the body is chiseled rosewood with ES like mahogany middle part with 4 point bolt on, tiger stripped maple top, Lace- blue(N) gold, red pickups and 5 position switch (no tone volume knobs- to f.. up the sound). When I was using it more frequently, my preference was Boogie combo or blackface Champ only effect TC analog chorus.
I am giving these details to let you understand what i am looking for- it is not for session, hired gun work, no need for 1007 amp models and 512 cabinets. I just want to get "my sound" , not going to schlepp a Boogie to gigs neither getting on my neighbours nerves recording it with mic. I want as close as it gets to that kind of sound (old classic Boogie) be it hard or software.
Heard that Tech21 Sansamtp has something of sort called California, I had their original eons ago, didn't like it that time too much ( using real valves those days). Anyone used Roger Linn Adrenalinn, unfortunately no chance to try it anywhere here.
Are there any really good hardware options ? Regarding software, don't care for zillions models just want one would be the best at getting the Boogie (vintage not the megadistorted metal type) kind of sound. I am open to any suggestions except IK products, Live 8 most definitely does not like IK (never had issues after removing IK plugins from VST folder)
thanks in advance.

Tone Deft
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by Tone Deft » Wed Aug 03, 2011 9:42 pm

pick one and learn it. I've read reviews from all sides "I've used X and could never get it to sound as full as Y" applied to ALL the options. you have to decide for yourself.

one thing I think is universal is that you HAVE TO put in the time to tweak the tones yourself. get the gain how you want and ensure that you're not clipping anywhere in the signal path.

myself, I went the Line 6 Pod route because computers suck and I don't want to deal with them when I want to play guitar. I will NEVER have my playing interfered with a change in computer latency, a crash, bootup time or any of the pitfalls of a computer. I've also lived in apartments for most of my life so a nice fat proper amp has never really been an option. :(

REAL amps sound great but when it comes to recording them there's the mic, the pre-amp etc.

you know this music stuff pretty damn well, I'd give you a better chance than most to have some patience and wrestle a tone out of the device of your choice.

my $0.02.
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glitchrock-buddha
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by glitchrock-buddha » Wed Aug 03, 2011 9:55 pm

Tone Deft wrote:pick one and learn it. I've read reviews from all sides "I've used X and could never get it to sound as full as Y" applied to ALL the options. you have to decide for yourself.
...
you know this music stuff pretty damn well, I'd give you a better chance than most to have some patience and wrestle a tone out of the device of your choice.
(assuming that was directed at me)

yeah, that's just it, Guitar Rig is the one I know, the one I've learned the most, but I've finally admitted to myself that Amplitube sounds more realistic. I have played guitar for about 20 years and always owned a tube amp growing up, usually fender or peavey. Twin Reverb being my personal fav. Sometimes I think that people who think guitar rig sounds the best just haven't played a real tube amp or don't see that kind of sound as necessarily better. But to me, Amplitube just has that sound. Pull up a twin reverb in Guitar Rig and Amplitube and the twin emulate in Live's amp, all with similar settings and the guitar is just going to sound more lively and punchy (as it should) in Amplitube, more like the real thing. I really wish I saw it the other way around...
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Tone Deft
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by Tone Deft » Wed Aug 03, 2011 11:04 pm

meant for rikhyray but it applies to many. I know you've been asking yourself this question for years. it's a journey. don't stop belieeeeeving!

a friend of mine is a very good player, he gets studio gigs all over his state, he plays whatever stringed instrument he wants, very good guitar player with some nice tube amps, he loves Guitar Rig. others don't.
In my life
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At people who I'd much rather kick in the eye?
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icedsushi
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by icedsushi » Wed Aug 03, 2011 11:54 pm

I just switched from Amplitube to Guitar Rig. I do think (the guitar amps in) Amplitube sound fuller & more realistic in general, but that's not always what you want. Sometimes you don't want the guitar sound too full and then it competes with the bass guitar & everything else that's going on. And when you turn everything in Guitar Rig to HI quality mode, the margin gets quite slim between the two.

I also found that many of the amp models had a similar distortion when overdriven. Where Guitar Rig seems to have more variety in tones as you switch from amp to amp. I thought all the bass amps sections (Ampeg, Trace & Acoustic) in Amplitube sounded eerily the same when you set them flat, took EQ out of the equation & turned the gain up. I would think the overdrive itself from each amp should be slightly different how it breaks up (tube, solid state, etc) to demonstrate the unique character of each amp. I had to use the EQ on the amps to get them to have a different character from each other. It made me wonder if they might have started with the same model for all the bass amps & went from there to the EQ section.

Guitar Rig seems to have subtle differences between the amps, even when they're set flat, so while there's only one bass amp for example, there seems to be a little less redundancy between the amps. Guitar Rig also has better effects and a more organized & intuitive space saving user interface, IMO.

Ableton's amp isn't quite as good or comprehensive as either of those but I don't think it's bad or unusable and it offers a different flavor than either of those two.
Last edited by icedsushi on Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:00 am, edited 1 time in total.

rikhyray
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by rikhyray » Wed Aug 03, 2011 11:58 pm

Tone Deft wrote: computers suck and I don't want to deal with them when I want to play guitar. I will NEVER have my playing interfered with a change in computer latency, a crash, bootup time or any of the pitfalls of a computer.
Absolutely agree. I am more interested in hardware solution for reasons you mention and some more, yet open to check some software that i don't know about. Similarly with hardware- there might be some stuff from smaller manufacturers that I never knew exist. Since I have good sounding instrument I don't need software or hardware that (supposedly) makes any guitar sound like Strat, Les Paul, L 5 or D'angelico New Yorker depending on preset. It probably makes sense for someone with 50$ Guanzong made guitar but not for decent instrument with its own distinct sound, character that you want to preserve.
Unlike with DAWs and digital instruments, for use with real instrument I want to find something that I won't bother about update, upgrade but rather dig into it, discover/set "my sounds" and focus on music, playing, have the sonic option "chiseled" in my memory, have them on "standby" ready to be called when music needs them.

agent314
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by agent314 » Thu Aug 04, 2011 12:01 am

My gripe with Guitar Rig was always that the distortion didn't respond to picking dynamics as well as the real thing.

I've started playing through my little ART Tube Studio preamp, and it has made a huge difference in how it responds and how much nuance you can get out of it.

Still not quite the real thing, but for my purposes it's close enough.

Plus, NI's support for it has been pretty good. Aren't there some fairly widespread known issues when using IK/Amplitube with Live that they just don't seem to care about?

Buleriachk
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by Buleriachk » Thu Aug 04, 2011 1:03 am

The main issue for me with IK and Live happened because I left some stray clips in Arrangement view while playing in Session view that weren't synced. Once I removed all the clips in arrangement view, things were fine again..

The arrangement view clips had been recorded inadvertently; that didn't seem to bother other VST's, but it did crash Live in weird ways if an instance of IK Amplitube was instantiated. Delete clip - problem solved...

dysanfel
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Re: Amp reivews

Post by dysanfel » Sat Apr 02, 2016 9:27 pm

The Ableton site says there are over 400 patches for Amp and Cabinet. I count about 50 between the plugs and the Audio effects racks. Where are the rest? Live 9.6 Suite
Gig Rig - rMBP 2.3GHZ i7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, OSX 10.13.x, Presonus FS, Live 10.x
Home Rig - i9 eight-core Hackintosh 32GB DDR4, 2nd Generation Scarlett 18i20, ADA8000, JoeMeek SixQ, Live 10.x

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