Ableton Forum

maxon stuff is really good if you can find 'em.

and all things electro harmonix are great if you can afford it. go to their site and listen to the demos of the POG and HOG. amazing, but about 300 quid a pop. a lot of money for a stompbox.

i'd love a 16-second delay reissue, but i think they were a limited edition. i couldn't find one when i was looking.

I love guitarrig 2 since the updates, but never use any of the presets, as they're all a bit '80's sounding to me, with very over-egged effects. I also use loads of the free amp and pedal sims, most of which were detailed in this months Computer Music. I don't know why, but the Line 6 stuff has never done it for me.

I tend to mix between a DI signal for guitar and bass, so it can be software or hardware re-amped at any time, and a selection of favourite tones from my GT-8 [no presets ], an H&K Warp Factor, and an Ibanez Wah pedal, and that's it for hardware pedals.

My tips for tone: use what sounds good, no presets, play with feel not speed.

dj superflat wrote:i love zvex fx. i know you're looking for multifx pedals, but i haven't found any that come close to what you can get with a bunch of stomp boxes (you always end up with that cheesy over effected 80s sound).

yes but thats what register wants!

lol

You prefer the sound of GR2 over Amplitube 2? Amplitube 2 sounds quite good to me.

I go round and round with this one too. Guitar Rig 2 is the best thing I've tried for direct recording/ straight to PA in terms of the speaker/mic sims. But I haven't heard Amplitube yet.

I go back and forth on the heavy tones, though. Sometimes they hit the spot, and sometimes it seems like something's missing. There are just so many variables - in GR itself, and in the outboard gear (PA etc.) There are great sounds to be had in GR2, but there are an infinite number of ways to sound lousy too. The vast number of options can definitely work to your detriment, especially if there is an impatient band or audience waiting on you.

I've recently started experimenting with GR2 into little amplifiers vs. the PA, and it can make things a little easier. But I still haven't found quite what I'm looking for.

Amplitube 2 sounds quite a bit improved over the original Amplitube to me. It sounds better than any other sim I've tried. I have not tried GR2, only the original GR. However, to get the best sounds out of it, you need substantial computing power.

my issue: i think GRII is great for getting sounds appropriate for recording. that is, it really very close to what it would sound like to record a guitar through the various mics and fx to tape or whatever. but i don't think it's much like what a live amp sounds like. that is, i don't expect the kids to ditch SGs and old marshalls if you want that ACDC/fugazi sound. i've got a holland i love (straight rip off of old marshalls), some old fenders that sound great (love the trem), a rivera that sounds better than any marshall i've had. and i've never heard a sim that sounds near the same as any of those amps when pushed to the limit. granted, playing at those volumes may rarely be practical or warranted, but there's something to the interaction of the amp and guitar -- the rattle and hum -- at high gain that the sims don't seem to accurately capture. but i only need that for live play.

when i record, i either use a mesa tube pedal (it's effectively just a tube amp) into soundcard or run into a tube instrument pre into soundcard for clean sounds. it's just so much easier than micing an amp. i understand that, in theory, you might be better off just using the inputs in the GRII controller, but i don't really buy that.

How about, Behringer V-Amp`s

PeReYrA wrote:How about, Behringer V-Amp`s

I have one, really bad tone, IMO.

Behringer V-AMP sounds very bad.

http://www.tech21nyc.com/tm30.html

this looks like a good bet...

plenty of tone and portable too!

I like my rackmount POD Pro. The tones are good if you're willing to search for the sweet spot in each model with the specific guitar you are playing. When recording I play through my PA speakers for Monitoring and can record a dry signal or fully wetted.

I use the following:

PodXT
Digitech DHP-33 (awesome, awesome harmony processor...Eventide-esque)
Korg A2 (fantastic for modulation effects...stay away from the overdrives unless you're look for something cold and harsh)
Boss OD-2
DOD FX10 BiFet
Boss DD-20
Ibanez PDM1 (terrific old-school modulation delay)

At one point, I was all pedals, into an honest-to-goodness amp. That was nice, but inconvenient. Then I sold them all, and went strictly with the PodXT, which was convenient, but a step down in tone. The PodXT is, IMHO, one of the best amp modellers out there right now; certainly the equal of Guitar Rig 2 and Amplitube, but the effects are a mixed bag. The TS808 is good, but the BigMuffPi is just ok. The EHX Memory Man is terrible.

So I've made a compromise: I have some pedals, which cover tones that I can't do with the XT (and I'm still looking for a couple), I use the XT amp sims and some of the effects, and I have a couple of rack processors for specialty sounds.

Horses for courses, I say. Pedals do overdrive better than these simulators, for the most part. But you cannot deny the value of convenience. However, I actually prefer to have less convenience sometimes, and this is one reason I like the XT over the software simulators. Yes, with GR2 and Amplitube, I can edit right up until mixdown; but I like to make decisions early, and not fix-it-in-the-mix. The XT actually makes me think a little more, since I'm printing the result.

Has anybody mentioned Keeley Electronics pedals yet?

Because they are one of the most superior lines of custom original and modded pedals on the market. I and nearly every other guitarist I know in Chicago (albeit jazz, rock, funk, electronic styles) either use these pedals or at least respect them.

I recommend the Keeley Compressor, which is a Ross compressor copy (Trey Anastasio of Phish used the Ross) - it gives a lot of warmth to your tone, and the sustain is endless if you want it to be. Charlie Hunter uses the Keeley Compressor.

I also recommend the Keeley modded Ibanez TS-9 or TS-808 Tubescreamer. The Keeley mod just replaces the innards with quality materials, like the old 70's ones were made with. The tone is considerably better.

But they have a bunch of pedals too. And you can have them put the pedals inside a custom wooden casing which looks great on the pedal board.

I also use Zvex (I have the Woolly Mammoth and the Fuzz Factory). They have great tone, but I haven't figured them out yet b/c my signal gets cut out all the time. Both are new so it's not something wrong - I just don't get it.

Novel wrote:Behringer V-AMP sounds very bad.

I (somewhat) disagree. The V-Amp2 was my first amp modeller. I found the clean and slightly OD tones to be decent (I'm thinking driven AC30 type sound). The louder, more distorted tones aren't great, and the effects are basically useless, but the V-Amp2 does have its uses.