Amp simulator recommendations

[Division Monarchy]

I've done most my recording in the past with a miked up tube amp, but recently sold it. I have NI Guitar Rig, but I'm just not feeling the tone or vibe. I have additionally tried the native Ableton and Logic plugins, along with Amplitube, and I dislike those even more. Is there anything else out there? Would a Sansamp box be an upgrade? I'm really regretting selling the tube amp, but getting another amp is just not an option right now. Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.

[Mister Natural]

DM - dialing-in your "taste" of GTR tone with modeling takes quite a bit of trial & error - not to mention a certain trust/comfort level with the quality of your studio monitoring.
No one gets happy with the presets these devices & software comes with. LIVE's AMP can sound really good for bassGTR but(IMHO) not so much for 6 strings.
I'm also a user of G-Rig5, PodFarm2 and several free sims along with an Adrenalinn box

Describe for us what tone you're going for - cleans or crunch or high-gain . . .

[sana48]

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... krack.html


Keep an eye on this one, I got it on sale recently for 50$

These guys are amazing.

[mmorgan]

Scuffham S-Gear is the only one I will use when I'm looking for a guitar sim that is very sensitive to the players 'touch' (lot's of others use it for this reason also). I will also use FabFilter Saturn if I am just going for more of an effect type processing...it is an amazing plug.

I have other sims (including GR5) but those two are the best imho.

[Stromkraft]

Anyone have tried Vintage Amp Room or Metal Amp Room by Softube?

[aschneider]

Anyone have tried Vintage Amp Room or [urlhttp://www.softube.com/index.php?id=mar]Metal Amp Room[/url] by Softube?

Owner of Vintage Amp Room and Bass Amp Room here. And jsyk, you won't be able to obtain the same quality over the signal with Ableton Amp.

I was used to get out a complete song from Vintage Amp Room when in the road, feeling somewhat satisfied with it. But then when I was back in the studio and I performed the guitar parts against my Twin and AC30, the difference was big enough that I ended replacing the plug-in takes 10/10. I patch to a Kemper now, but still, kissing goodbye to hardware is one of my dreams as a guitar player.

Edit: I just delivered an electric guitar arrangement. When I offered the customer to record the takes with the 'proper' stack, they declined praising the sound quality. The rack was Tuner+Compressor+Ampx2+Cabinet+3. You never cease to amaze me, Ableton.

[Soundivad]

check out peaveys "revalver IV" if you ask me one of the best, i also enjoy magixs "vandal" a lot.... but for my final mixing i tend always to get back to revalver.

[Division Monarchy]

Thanks for the recommendations. I think after all the software based stuff I've tried, I'm just giving up on that route. Going to try a Sansamp GT2 and hope it works. My previous amp was a sweet sounding Gibson with class A tubes, and that is just not a sound easily replaced by software. If I had a system to run UAD plugins, I would consider staying within software, but I don't for now.

[aschneider]

You could still get decent results with Amp if no other options is available. As with hardware, routing amp heads can help you embody sound quite nicely. Something like this:



Then you could add a Dynamic tube in the middle of the amps and some Saturator at the end...give it a try. I'd like to know that do you think.

[doghouse]

Division Monarchy,

Sansamp stuff works well. There's quite a choice of them these days, just make sure the one you get has speaker emulation. The GT2 is a good choice.

Behringer has a copy of the GT2, the GDi21 that sells for much less if you're on a tight budget.

[legbiter]

In my opinion, it is a difficult issue to deal with. If you go back to the days when we used real valve amps and then compare those to the transistor stuff which came afterwards then you know what I mean.

The challenges are in the gain settings, if you get those right then you can set up some really good amp simulations, however, this is incredibly time-consuming because every guitar and effect chain has a different output level.

Your best bet is a valve pre-amp and then use the amp and speaker simulation along with that that. Guitar rig pro does it for me too. I feel that it is easier to use and has a bunch of really useable pre-sets. You can take a really clean-sounding strat and turn that into a hot metal sound in just the click of a finger. However, I use a vox tonelab pre-amp to warm up the signal first, it pays off because it is easy to set up. If you use SPDIF out and MIDI sync-in with the tonelab to control the effects then you might not even want to use any additional effects, however what really works is the use of Ableton's equalisers, limiters and so on to keep the signal manageable. I also make use of the noise gate to get rid of any unwanted frequencies picked up by the guitar.

[ned rush]

Guitar Rig or Line 6.

[BobSubgenius]

I'm a big fan of S-Gear. Had Guitar Rig before for years (used the last 3 versions a lot) and like you I also tried the Ableton amp sim and Amplitube. S-Gear is far superior in my opinion.
Sound has more depth and more warmth. With Guitar Rig I always felt like I had to throw every pre-amp and tape sim I have on it later to get that sound.
Also reacts way more natural to the volume pot on the guitar and your playing dynamics. You can really interact with the sound of the amp.
Presets are good and useable.
FX are sounding really great as well.