amp simulators

[The Garage]

So let's see. There's the Line 6 Pod 2 and Pod Pro. There's the Tech21 Psa-1. The Johnson J-station. The Hughes and Kettner Tubeman. Who's got one and how do you like it? If anyone has got their hands on more than one, maybe you can tell us how they compare. And who has had the opportunity to use the amp modeling plugins like Amp Farm and Warp VST? How do THESE compare? Thanks.

 

[VOXVENDOR]

I don't know how they COMPARE... but I know I LOVE my POD..!

(Don't Let Ed see this)..

 

[Fab4ever]

I own the Pod and while I am not completely satisfied, it does a decent enough job giving me a clean sound and a few good distortion sounds.

I have played through Amp Farm in a studio several times, and I was quite impressed with the sounds the producer was getting. Now, he also had an Avalon preamp/compressor/eq, so I'm sure that helped the sound!!

If I could choose one to use recording, of course I'd go with Amp Farm. But the Pod works for me now (and it's much much cheaper!)

 

[Joe E]

POD !!!!

I really like the POD. It's great for recording. I even use the tube pre amp emulation with keyboards. I use the rotating speaker effect on the POD and go direct into the tape deck. Sudo leslie organ with a warm tone.

I have used the tech 21 stuff live and liked it, but never used it in the studio. I id try the j station and the beringer units at GC but was much more impressed with the POD.

Overall the POD seems to have a little of everything. Out of the box is sounds good, but if ya take some time to tweak it it sounds great. Most (and I said MOST) people that don't like it, haven't taken the time to tweek it to thier taste.

Later

 

[64Firebird]

I have a J-Station and my buddy Badger has a POD Pro. A few weeks ago we recorded me playing the same licks on each unit and compaired them with me playing through a 64 Fender Bassman (50w 2x12). Other that hearing the "space" on the amp I couldn't tell the differance!

Now, we weren't going for a heavy metal sound. We just turned up the fender to about 5 where it just starts to crunch and tried to get the same sound out of the J and POD.

 

[windowman]

Anybody game to putting up, say, 20 or 30 second sample recordings of their best distortion patchs on their respective units? Might make a good thread for people to refer to when these amp simulator questions come up, as they always do now and then. Just a thought.

 

[subtonez]

amp sim shootout

Someone posted a bunch of samples comparing the aforementioned amp sims. He is a POD user, but is pretty objective and did a nice test by using the same sample through each of the amp sims:

http://www.dthraco.com/pod.htm

follow the link "competition"

 

[j]

The Line 6 Guitar Port is pretty neat. It's like the POD but it is controlled by software and you have to have a PC with USB. I just got one and it is definitely a great toy..(and possibly much more) .However, I haven't been able to get it to record in my software sequencer yet.

 

[bongolation]

Depends on what you're going to use it for... If you just want an effect for live play, it's a matter of taste and ear, but if it's for digital recording, it's the J-Station - hands down, end of story.

AFAIK, it's the only one under around $600 with S/PDIF interface, above and beyond all else. This is make-or-break. No multiple A/D/D/A reconversions with S/PDIF, and that's important.

The computerized editing control via J-Edit is great, too. Otherwise, it's just an effect, which is why more people aren't enthusiastic about them; they're not using them as they were really intended to be used. If you haven't operated the J-Station via computer, you don't know ANYTHING about the unit.

It's not a cheap device. Having amortized their investment, the J-Station box has dropped from around $450 to under $150 for the same unit, the upgrades for which are downloadable firmware rather than expensive hardware.

And - lastly - the J-Station is American made.

 

[barroso]

i record guitar thru these devices:
line out of a small marshall reverb 12 solid state amp
hughes and kettner tubeman plus
line6 pod 2

my advice is to experiment with every thing you have your hands on. the big difference in the DI you named is that the tubemn is not an emulator, it's a top notch sounding preamp and recordin amp. it's dube driven while the pod is not. the pod is not easy to use at first glance but it's a great unit to have a lot of different sounds. i prefer the clean and crunch sounds of the tubeman, while i appreciate a lot distorted sounds of the pod. they are really different tools. if i have a specific sound in mind i use the tubeman, if i want to make new sounds i use the pod. the marshall has an awesome recording quality and i was really amazed by that, it'a an old practice combo... it works really goos with bass too.

 

[VOXVENDOR]

I always wondered if Line6 purpously makes THeIR models sound better....

The pod is decent and all the amp simulators are ok.. but when you switchy to the line six suff, It really jusmps out..

Is This subliminal, so one thinks that Line6 is better?

 

[beaverbiscuit]

What about Alien Connections' ReValver?

Anyone using this, like via Sonar? I haven't yet made use of it (still working on my signal chain), but it looks and sounds promising, especially the full version.

 

[windowman]

Revalver is my choice for best sounding of the bunch except it's distortion is noisy. I only have the lite version though and I think the full version has some kind of noise reduction circuitry. I've used it to punch up tracks of other amp sims too and it's real good at that. I tried to record a 30-second segment this morning with a little Zoom 503. It's not that great but I got the best distortion sound I could with it. The first is the segment is just the Zoom unit. The second is what it sounds like after using Revalver to fix it a little. (I wish I had more time to work on the Revalver edited one because I know I could get a better sound than this but anyhow, you can see that it does make quite a difference.)

Hey you guys should check out that link subtones left. There's a shootout page there with a bunch of different amp sims. Well done! I was surprised how well the Boss unit sounded.

 

[beaverbiscuit]

Thanks for the demo, windowman. If the full version of ReValver is half as good as I suspect it is, I'll be saving to purchase it.

BTW, sounds to me like you're a great player, windowman. You obviously know your way around the fretboard.

 

[bongolation]

I've never really gotten anywhere with ReValver, though I had fond hopes for it. I'm also somewhat confused by the 16 or 32 bit only options.

It's somewhat more awkward to use than an outboard unit.

Eventually I suppose I'll get something worthwhile out of it with some more practice.

 

[AlChuck]

Mr. G: Oh. I like POD. I'm having POD tele strat POD cables POD Les Paul POD POD POD POD..."

Chorus: "POD POD POD POD POD POD POD POD..."

 

[bizarre]

I've got the SansAmp PSA-1 and I think it does the job all right, can't do the bluesy stuff though, doesn't bother me as I'm no bluesman
I've never made presets ecpecially for going direct to my soundcard as I have a couple of deseant amp simulators on it, but I've been goin' directly to the mixer at a gig because my amp suddenly died - long story .. I'll spare you
buttom line is : I think it works, I'll post some samples later, right now I have to put my kids to bed, then a session with a singer, then .. if I can keep my eyes open, I'll post some
later
bizz

Oh - should I mention - I once had the digitech 2201 - great amp simulator - lousy distortion, but everything else about that unit was great

 

[BrettB]

We can argue about this forever, but I'm a POD lover! great sounds, only the clean sounds are not that great as their distorted ones.

 

[Aaron Cheney]

I have had great results with CW AmpSim. I like the dimension it adds to a track. Usually I'm using it to add some dirt to a clean tone, not piling more distortion on an already distorted one.

Aaron
http://www.aaroncheney.com

 

[Bighand]

$.02 = consider the Boss GT-6, as well = Digital outs

Bighand
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