Desktop Guitar rigs...sims

CoolCat

Well-known member
Im curious about the hype on Fractal Axe FX units vs the Eleven and even cheaper Pods.

But also all the AmpSim plugins like Amplitube and PodFarm and many more software type guitar rigs now available since the Fractal gear was upgraded from Gen to Ultra to II and then III...

Been reading and the Fractal all seem to get good to great reviews, so they seem to be the Benchmark.

However when it comes to desktop home recording the Amp Sims and Modelers seem less of a downgrade from the Fractal stuff. Why?
Is it because more time and manipulation and plugin-amp sims are as good for Home Recording and excluding playing Live, they do as good as the Fractal in the Home studio environment?

Ive had numerous rack pods and beans and never the Fractal unit, so I was hoping to get some input before dumping cash just to test drive one.
 
I'm interested too. I got Amplitube's Fender Collection a short while back and have barely scratched the surface, so I'm still in discovery mode.
 
I was just listing the options again and forgot to include..... analog zero converted stuff...like

SANSAMP...where its an analog, hardware unit with less features but more of a Radial DI type box with no A/D D/A conversion digital processing....

and Im thinking desktop home recording Guitar rigs/sims.... that allow to monitor through speakers/headphones for tracking in the same.

Im kind of thinking too about having something that can go direct to the DAW without plugins/mouse. I havent really tried my preamp/ART TPS that has some Electric guitar settings much. It worked for Bass pretty good its a tubeness with gain pre with the compression overdrive ability.

I just bought a $100 Pod Pro XT in mint shape to compare again, its worth at least $150.....but the Fractals are like $800-$1200 used for the old generation units? thats a lot of cash.
 
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I'm interested too. I got Amplitube's Fender Collection a short while back and have barely scratched the surface, so I'm still in discovery mode.

you probably did a lot of reading too then. one thing seems to be the old old forum posts might be talking different converters and blurry items, however maybe not, its confusing with all the marketing saying the "new version is so much better"....?

i know the amplifier thing wasnt working for me in the other room etc...thats for sure.
So then the PodFarm sims is great, really hard to beat for all you get in the software sim with gates, all the effects and SAVE AS...

but getting a guitar track without the software&mouse leads me in circles back to some type of hardware for those times you just want to stay analog into the DAW. (is it just pure laziness? or Gear addiction?)

always leads to the Fractal Benchmark people rave about (except the cost) and now theres all the HD versions or even $1300 Line6 Helix which must be the attempt to get into the Fractal pieces of the pie.(and cost too?)

Im going to try the Pod Pro/desktop version...but maybe run out and get a SansAmp or what Ive read Behringer copied them really well and sell ripoff copys pretty cheap $30 same Analog unit sound for DI/Analog ish....Guitar stuff.

Theres a Fractal local I could get and test drive....$800...oldest generation which many say isnt as good. I was hoping to get some 2018 comments of anyone whose actually already compared all this stuff. Save some time and cash.
 
I am new here but been with FRactal Audio since the beginning. They are fabulous. You get what you pay for. Now, if I could only learn more about home recording. Oh, right. That's why I am here. Just browsing and saw this thread.
 
I can only comment on what I hear and in my opinion the Kemper is the best emulation of real amps. It's so dang close I really doubt I could pick which one was a kemper and which was the amp it was profiling. However I have also heard that out of the box, a lot of people don't like this thing (so 3rd party profiles are pretty much a must as I understand it).

The fractal doesn't nail it exactly, however I don't really think this is a con as the Fractal still sounds really good and unlike the Kemper has FX built in as well. It seems a lot more versatile than a Kemper.

The L6 Helix in terms of tones, again doesn't nail the emulation but it's still really damn good. Again I would be pretty happy with this kind of arrangement personally if I didn't already own a few amps. I was actually thinking about snagging an HX Effects because I think I would be happy with it.

The Eleven rack seems to do rock and clean tones pretty well but all of the high gain stuff has been a little wanting in my opinion. Even though these can be had on the cheap, it's probably my least favorite option you mentioned.

In my opinion though the best quiet setup is a tube head that you already own with a two notes torpedo (in the case of home recording, the captor seems just fine).

Emulating the speaker cabinet has gotten pretty damn good. I'm planning on snagging one down the road.

On the computer only side, the latest thing that sounds really good to me is the Fortin Nameless Suite... probably because Mike Fortin was involved in the creation of the software.

If you try out Line 6's native software I would say don't bother with a podfarm demo, skip right to the native Helix demo. It's more money but it's lightyears better than the podfarm stuff. I do have experience with the podfarm stuff and it's pretty bad by comparison IMO.
 
The nicest I've played with is Vandal Amp (by Samplitude / Magix)
(if interested, I'm selling this softamp)


However, does only work in windows.

I'm using Linux now, and I'm experimenting with the Mod Duo, which is a very nice device :)
 
I use Avids 11 Rack most of the time. I always record a dry track as well for re-amping if the time ever comes. I've used many different amp sim plug ins. I really liked Peavey's ReValver, but when I got a new C drive, the reinstall didn't work and there's no customer support.

The 11 Rack is decent. I'd argue that it's adequate for what I do. The main reason I bought was because it came with a full version of PT 11. Now I know I don't really care for PT because it doesn't do step sequencing like Sonar. (no experience with any other DAW)
1 thing I like about the 11 rack is it's always on, and I can just plug in and play without having a DAW session open. though I always have a session open so I can play keyboards too.
 
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