Guitar Plug ins

[Hypomixolydian]

Hi

Noticed the Pod Farm Platinum going for a good price (99 euros) but I am put off by using an i-Lock, yet willing to compromise if it is really good. There doesn't seem to be a way to try a demo without a key.

Also tried Overloud TH 1. Also needs a key but can work with a license file. I have to say I loved it.

At the moment I use Guitar Rig 3, which I like a lot, but have to say the Overloud was better, particularly for cleaner sounds. Distortion is pretty good on both.

Tried the IK Multimedia stuff, but find the sound a bit brittle and lacking warmth. Guitar Rig is better in my opinion.

Any views on the above plugs? Which do you think sound better? Pod Farm Platinum is a good price, Overloud is very CPU friendly and maybe the best sounding but priceyish for now and I already own Guitar Rig.

I haven't heard Pod Farm so would like to hear comments from users, particularly in comparison with the plugs I have mentioned.

[shuutobi]

It's better to have an iLok than have to use a dongle the size of an audio interface that uses 498mA.
Been using Line6 stuff since '99 so the Pod Farm was just a natural thing to buy for me.

On a side note... In the real world I'm going to stepping back into the world of point to point hand wired tube amps.
Having an amp that is easily serviceable brings me extreme peace of mind.

[UKRuss]

If you havent upgraded to Guitar Rig 4 then that is the way to go. New amps, new FX including master FX tool plus the veeeery nice new Control Room way of micing up and mixing amps with different types of mic and cabinet.

s'nice.

Coolplex and Iceverb are worth the upgrade on their own really.

[Hypomixolydian]

If you havent upgraded to Guitar Rig 4 then that is the way to go. New amps, new FX including master FX tool plus the veeeery nice new Control Room way of micing up and mixing amps with different types of mic and cabinet.

s'nice.

Coolplex and Iceverb are worth the upgrade on their own really.

I will be upgrading to Guitar Rig 4 (Komplete 6), just looking at other alternatives. 99 Euros for Pod Farm Platinum sounds like a new price and I have to say the Overloud TH1 is impressive and low on cpu which can't be said for Guitar Rig. Though is version 4 significantly better than 3?

[leedsquietman]

Guitar Rig isn't really any worse for CPU than other amp sims, which are all hungry - recommendation - turn off any modules which aren't being used (some presets have modules in them which aren't used they are bypassed/power off) and reduce the load by clicking the high resolution mode button to turn the double sampling frequency off (be sure to turn it back on when you render the mix, it helps to prevent aliasing).

The new amp in GR4 does clean better than any of the others and the control room is a great function (albeit this can be a bit CPU intensive given it has several mics/mic positions turned on by default).

The best solution as always - mic up a real guitar amp. Second best solution Fractal Audio's hardware Fractal Axe but $1499 for the regular version and $1999 for the turbo charged version are a bit more than the average home studio user can afford.

[Hypomixolydian]

Guitar Rig isn't really any worse for CPU than other amp sims, which are all hungry - recommendation - turn off any modules which aren't being used (some presets have modules in them which aren't used they are bypassed/power off) and reduce the load by clicking the high resolution mode button to turn the double sampling frequency off (be sure to turn it back on when you render the mix, it helps to prevent aliasing).

The new amp in GR4 does clean better than any of the others and the control room is a great function (albeit this can be a bit CPU intensive given it has several mics/mic positions turned on by default).

The best solution as always - mic up a real guitar amp. Second best solution Fractal Audio's hardware Fractal Axe but $1499 for the regular version and $1999 for the turbo charged version are a bit more than the average home studio user can afford.

Micing a real amp is maybe a purist approach and based on my crappy but I am happy enough with amp, I could never get it to sound as good as a VST plug. So that is not on. Fractal looks great but for that money, I may as well buy a new laptop. I prefer the software route. Mainly for the flexibility and not having to commit yourself to a sound when you record.

CPU wise the Overloud is very good. Some sounds are only a 2% cpu hit wheras a similar in Grig 3 is 10-12%

[UKRuss]

I think you've made up your mind already, go for Overloud if thats what you want.

I can't say I have had any CPU glitch problems with GR4 running multiple instances in large Live sets, sometimes playing live that way.

I don't think you can get better modulation and control on your Guitar effects than GR4 but i find some of the distortion a bit off colour, but Coolplex plus Control Room plus some automated delays and verbs in GR4 are wonderful to play and record.

Its is a thing of beauty IMO.

[mdk]

theres loads of good free stuff these days as well, check out

LePou : http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/

acmebargig : http://www.acmebargig.com/

nick crow : http://sites.google.com/site/nickcrowlab/

also get some good impulse responses like the Guitar Hack pack : http://relivethefuture.com/music/patche ... pulses.rar

[mdk]

and this forum is good :

http://www.guitarampmodeling.com

[Hypomixolydian]

I think you've made up your mind already, go for Overloud if thats what you want.

I can't say I have had any CPU glitch problems with GR4 running multiple instances in large Live sets, sometimes playing live that way.

I don't think you can get better modulation and control on your Guitar effects than GR4 but i find some of the distortion a bit off colour, but Coolplex plus Control Room plus some automated delays and verbs in GR4 are wonderful to play and record.

Its is a thing of beauty IMO.

I haven't really decided on anything, just impressed with the low CPU load of Overloud plus it's clean sounds were really nice. I'll be getting Guitar Rig 4 anyway with the upgrade to Komplete 6. My original curiosity was with Pod Farm Platinum. Is it any good compared to Grig or Overloud seeing it is only 99 euros?

theres loads of good free stuff these days as well, check out

LePou : http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/

acmebargig : http://www.acmebargig.com/

nick crow : http://sites.google.com/site/nickcrowlab/

also get some good impulse responses like the Guitar Hack pack : http://relivethefuture.com/music/patche ... pulses.rar

and this forum is good :

http://www.guitarampmodeling.com

Thanks for the links mdk

[leedsquietman]

I'm with Russ in that my preferred guitar modelling is GR4 but it's all subjective and there are others who prefer Pod Farm, Amplitube, Waves GTR, etc, etc.

I think Guitar Rig has really improved since GR2, where most of the distortion based sounds were iffy and it was mostly only usable for abstract type sounds.

Micing up an amp is not as difficult as you think and it actually works fine even on small amps - in fact you're better off micing up a small amp if you are in a small space, something under 20 watts works fine in a typical home studio, there are bespoke guitar amp manufacturers, like 65 amps 'lil Elvis which is a custom valve 12 watt hand wired amp which sounds amazing if you throw a Sennheiser 421 or Shure SM57 or Coles ribbon mic etc on it. Heck, even amping up my crummy Yamaha 10 watt practice amp with an SM57 yields a better result than amp sims. (although I typically amp up my Fender Frontman 25R, but if I want a thinner sound, the Yam is not so bad at all). My favourite was my Roland 30 watt Jazz chorus but I had to sell that recently as I was laid off.

[TheEclectic]

I like Audiffex and typically use it to augment my guitar sound (one track with the raw guitar and another with the effects). Their effects are available for guitar in two ways:

Individual Effects plug-ins: http://www.audiffex.com/EN/software-effect-pedals.html

Guitar Processor: http://www.audiffex.com/EN/intone/98/so ... essor.html

Both use the same effects, but the processor comes with a bunch of presets. note that editing the settings is a bit more difficult than with some of the other options.

They have a free trial downloads, so you can give them a try and decide for yourself.

[Homebelly]

I'm with Russ in that my preferred guitar modelling is GR4 but it's all subjective and there are others who prefer Pod Farm, Amplitube, Waves GTR, etc, etc.

I think Guitar Rig has really improved since GR2, where most of the distortion based sounds were iffy and it was mostly only usable for abstract type sounds.

Micing up an amp is not as difficult as you think and it actually works fine even on small amps - in fact you're better off micing up a small amp if you are in a small space, something under 20 watts works fine in a typical home studio, there are bespoke guitar amp manufacturers, like 65 amps 'lil Elvis which is a custom valve 12 watt hand wired amp which sounds amazing if you throw a Sennheiser 421 or Shure SM57 or Coles ribbon mic etc on it. Heck, even amping up my crummy Yamaha 10 watt practice amp with an SM57 yields a better result than amp sims. (although I typically amp up my Fender Frontman 25R, but if I want a thinner sound, the Yam is not so bad at all). My favourite was my Roland 30 watt Jazz chorus but I had to sell that recently as I was laid off.

If you already have an amp, then i would highly recommend Rivera's Silent Sister.
I bought one a couple of months back and haven't touched an amp sim since.
Mine is loaded up with a eminence 75 watt speaker and an SM57 right now.
I'm able to run my Matamp at full volume and i can still talk to who ever is in the room with me.
Its not dead silent, and i've buried mine in a closet to cut a few more dB's off. I've also run it with the cabs iso door open to get some room into the mIx and create feed back.
Best piece of recording gear i have bought in a long long time.

Next best place to go if you have a big ass amp over 50watts is an attenuater/speaker sim.
SPL make a very nice one and i have a Palmer if and when i need it.

Personally, any thing with a higher wattage that 5 watts is probably gonna be way loud for most apartments.

[Pasha]

I have got a Toneport UX1 from Line 6 but I use it only on my Laptop which BTW didn't have an audio card so I got this (my main interface is different on the primary desktop that is an iMac). I'm looking for the Pod Farm Platinum upgrade but I'm puzzled by the fact that Line6 forum report low Snow Leopard compatibility. They are working on it but I do not know if they have a good record of solid drivers.

Having said so, IK Multimedia is not my favorite. Got an horrible experience with their support and many IK Multimedia products have problems with Live.
Got a Fender Start + Deluxe with lace sensors (almost 20 years old). Tested Guitar Rig and IK Multimedia Amplitube. The latter makes more noise than Guitar Rig (I mean annoying noise). With Line6 Toneport + Podfarm plug-in (or not) noise is not there but here is my take as a Podfarm (bundled version) usage : Podfarm application offers more control than the plug in

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Pasha

[Hypomixolydian]

Hello again,

After getting my Guitar Rig 4 update I have to agree that it is the best sounding of the guitar amp modellers. I would still recommend Overloud TH1 as it is as good with clean sounds, but Grig4 does distortion better.

Overloud though is far kinder to CPU use, so I will get it eventually (if at some point in the future there is a special deal).

Initially, I was more interested in comments regarding Pod Farm Platinum, but no response here.

Thanks for your input.