ultrasound
New member
I use it on DId bass and sounds great.
You're gonna get a bunch of people telling you that they hate amp sims because they all sound fake. The truth is they probably don't know how to use them and/or have never heard them used by someone that knows how to use them.
Some sims suck, some are great. Great ones in the right hands will fool anyone.
Having said that, I think real amps are still better.
Greg, what is a one you think is pretty good?
thanks.
I've only played with a few myself. Guitar Rig and Peavey's Revalver seemed pretty good to me. Amplitube is probably the most popular but I wasn't too impressed with it.
It seems most sim packages do one or two amp models pretty well, and the rest are useless. And really, who uses that many sounds and styles? I think most people have their favorite kind of clean sound and they stick with that, and their favorite kind of crunch or overdrive sound and they stick with that.
Hey Greg - why do you prefer real amps to sims? I've heard some of your clips from sims, and I agree they sound as good as an amp. I've never owned/tried a sim, so I can't compare it to an amp. So I'm wondering why you like amps better.
I want to know that all the sounds I recorded existed in the real world - if for only a moment.
I figure I am going to get a better ac30 sound from an amp sim than from my supersonic 100% of the time, because my supersonic can't pretend to be anything except a fender.
An amp sim is a huge time saver and that in turn makes it a significant productivity tool. For that reason alone they should get more respect (and more credit) than they do.
On the other hand, purists that can afford to be purists should do so because bias confirmation is a self-reinforcing act, and feeling good about what you do turns out to be pretty important. If I have the amp, I want to use it, right? Maybe?
The performance is always more important than the decision to use an amp or a sim. And since you're getting a direct signal in the latter case, you can always reamp the damned thing if you are losing sleep over it. It may well be best practice to record everything direct and reamp later anyway, to preserve the maximum flexibility later when the song is no longer conceptual and imagination has to be reconciled with reality.
I no longer feel conflicted this way about tambourines and shakers and cowbells. I have some nice ones, and can play them. It is tedious and unforgiving.
Or, I can use superior drummer to fly in some guy who is 50 times better than me at the instrument, recorded in a better studio than mine and with nicer gear than I have. Oh, and I can pick between five or six completely different loops and have complete control over tempo.
Why would I ever want to spend another hour recording a tambourine?
I guess multitracking is out of the question, then. After all, it is an entirely artificial ensemble, right?
I am mostly kidding. But at the end of the day, the point is to create a sound that is pleasing to your ears, right? If you can do that - with whatever tool is at your disposal - then you are doing it properly.
The least important aspect of a tone is its pedigree.
I guess I have two purposes. One is, like you say, create a sound that's pleasing to my ears. But also to produce the sound in a way that's pleasing to my inner self. Again, I'm not always rational.