guitar looping during performance

[chapelier fou]

UKRuss, you are absolutely right.It depends on if you really want to have a REAL guitar sound or not. I personnaly don't. And the thing with plugs like amplitube or whatever is they are very CPU hungry. That's why I don't use them (20% on my MBP).

[Pasha]

In the old days without DAW I was using a Zoom 9030 to have the necessary Compressor, Chorus, Delay (and some distortion/reverb) plugged into or looped into a Fender Amp.
So if today you exchange the hardware processor for the software processor you can obtain the same (more or less) thing. However even today I record the Guitar wet after being processed by my zoom 9030 (a real relic ).
In a live situation all depends on what sound you need and your genre. Like UKRuss says no-one really can tell an amp simulation from a real amp sound, but if you're on the fat side of distorted sounds I personally prefer using the saturated channel of a real amp (better with valves)for additional crunch and warmth. Analogue is analogue even for guitars... you can get the sound from the inserts out and place it into Live via soundcard.

- Best
- Pasha

[AceLuby]

I've tried mic'ing my guitar and bought a nice condenser mic to do so...


Now I run DI from my multi-FX and use that mic to mic our crappy bass drum.

[LoopStationZebra]

If you've got an amp mic'd AND your feeding into Ableton, you will ALWAYS have your amp sound present. If that's what you're after then great. However, that same effect can be achieved in other ways through Ableton or a Pod X3 or whatever.

It really gets down to this: Do you want an amp presence before going into your DAW? I just stopped with all the amp nonsense and run everything through a pair of powered speakers. Trying to find an amp that could handle a huge range of frequencies - even a keyboard amp - was a joke. Stick (which of course has extreme highs AND lows), guitar, bass, synths, drums, harmonica, etc. I'd have to have at least 3 amps to cover that. Nah. Powered speakers it is...

[Sage]

No no no no NO.

Guitar into pedal board (like a Pod X3 Live, or traditional pedals, etc)
Pedal board into interface (Motu Ultralite, etc)
Interface Outs to Your fav amp or speaker setup
Done.

This setup is very simple, and allows you to do modeling at the pedalboard or laptop level. I actually run my Sticks and guitar through powered PA speakers at this point. It's amazing how many people who do a shitload of modeling, FX, and mangling will still insist on having a prestine 60s Fender Twin or some shit because they think it's going to make some kind of difference after they've processed the shit out of their sound, lol.

That setup is the best approach.

An amp does make a difference, never been able to get feedback properly using monitors and in small venues, it's nicer to let the amp do it's thing than go through the PA, not that sound engineers ever agree!
If I was playing big enough venues where the guitar could only be heard through the PA, I wouldn't have any issues with amp modeling.

[Pete Lacis]

The big question here is for guitar "tone" purists. If you love the original tone of your guitar > amp as well as dig the sounds of guitar + pedalboard > amp and want to manipulate THAT sound, the modeling thing just won't cut it. While I liked the re-amping idea, I believe the issue here is to play guitar, record guitar, and then play more guitar along with looped guitar. In essence, the intention is to make Ableton the best Boomerang phrase sampler in the universe.

To make this really work for tone purists, I would go with either an ISO cab such as Demeter's SSC-1 Silent Speaker Chamber http://www.demeteramps.com/products/cabinets/ssc1.html OR a top-notch speaker speaker simulator like the Palmer PDI-03 http://www.palmergear.com/pdi03.shtml

[wasoota]

The big question here is for guitar "tone" purists. If you love the original tone of your guitar > amp as well as dig the sounds of guitar + pedalboard > amp and want to manipulate THAT sound, the modeling thing just won't cut it. While I liked the re-amping idea, I believe the issue here is to play guitar, record guitar, and then play more guitar along with looped guitar. In essence, the intention is to make Ableton the best Boomerang phrase sampler in the universe.

To make this really work for tone purists, I would go with either an ISO cab such as Demeter's SSC-1 Silent Speaker Chamber http://www.demeteramps.com/products/cabinets/ssc1.html OR a top-notch speaker speaker simulator like the Palmer PDI-03 http://www.palmergear.com/pdi03.shtml

I have a Palmer ADIG-LB (the sequel unit to the one you linked) and frankly the cab sim doesn't blow me away. It's 'okay' and probably better than the competition, the loadbox is a great feature and the build quality (and I mean components, not just the case) will probably outlive most of us, but the $630 retail come from the latter, the cab sim is not worth that kind of money IMO. It's pretty good for distorted tones, but clean tones are way over compressed in the cab sim out, and what's the point if you always have to bend over and tweak the 'direct' component every time you change channels?

I just use the Palmer as a loadbox (dummy speaker load) on my guitar head and run the unprocessed signal (i.e. with the 'speaker sim' component at zero) into Poulin LeCab (http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/) with impulses (IRs) from Recabinet. The results are not 100% there, but I'd say 95%, which is closer than anything else I have, including full-blown modelling. The Palmer I'd put at about 75%.

Because you're only simulating the cab with LeCab, CPU usage is way below a fully blown amp plugin. LeCab is free and Recabinet was on sale for a ridiculous $14 (it still is as of May 12). As an added bonus I can run my rack preamps directly into LeCab as well and get the same results, even a plain old distortion stompbox sounds like an amp. It's really the greatest thing I've discovered since Live itself.

I bought my palmer ADIG-LB third-hand used for $120, which is probably even cheaper than stealing it, so I'm very happy with it, but at the price they ask new I wouldn't recommend it. LeCab and those IRs really blew my mind and opened up a whole universe of tonal possibilities. And two months ago I didn't even know what an IR was.

[Homebelly]

I have both a rivera silent sister, and a palmer PGA-04 ADIG-LB.
In the past i have used the palmer as a through box where by the amp has been directed to both a sound card and to a 4X12.
Works great. The palmer isn't exactly like playing into a live speaker box, its bone dry for one thing and a lot stiffer that an actual 2X12 or 4X12.
However, if you intend to FSU when your guitar is in live, then that shouldn't matter. I did mess a while back with running my amp out to the palmer, into my soundcard and then into LIVE. From there live went out to a set of PA speakers with the amp running dry into a 4X12. The PA speakers amplified what was happening n Live and the guitar amp just amplified my guitar.

As for the silent sister.
I have raved about this box in other threads.
It is hands down the best single speaker ISO box i have used, and i have used both the Demeter and the randall.
The rivera is probably my single best buy in a long long time.
I said "See ya" to my pod and all of my software based amp sims...

[kristoffer1989]

guitar to pedalboard, pedalboard to soundcard, soundcard to amp. that's what i do.

[chapelier fou]

guitar to pedalboard, pedalboard to soundcard, soundcard to amp. that's what i do.

Ok, but mono.

EDIT : hum, and it's a line leveled output.

[kristoffer1989]

guitar to pedalboard, pedalboard to soundcard, soundcard to amp. that's what i do.

Ok, but mono.

EDIT : hum, and it's a line leveled output.

yeah the amp is in mono, still way better than micing your amp. Then you will have lots of ther sounds to i tell you.