Modeling technology: Give your thoughts and comments. This not Good vs Evil or a Poll

Neve, I'm with you, but sometimes I'm just too lazy and I like the convenience factor... instead of going through a bunch of cables, hooking up a mic, trying to find a nice spot to place it,.... just plug in some amp modeller, select patch and hit 'record'...

Alonso, although I understand your sentiments towards Digitech, I've played on at least 2 products that made me frown in a positive way. The Genesis 3 and the RP20 (an older multi fx floorboard with a 12AX7 tube in its pre-amp section).
The RP20 is -I believe- older than the Boss GT-3, yet it sounds so much better, fuller and more dynamic. Its ease of use is crappy, but the sound ruled. And I've owned a RP7 for 2 weeks, and that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Even for direct recording the pre-amp sounds worked, when selecting different cab sims...

But, hopefully tomorrow I may be able to A/B the Genesis 3 vs. the V-Amp 2. If it goes through, I'll post my findings...
 
O.K. here's a question then. I am on a really tight budget.

Do I..... use a basic solid state Peavey 212 combo miked with an sm57? (not the greatest sounding amp)

OR.......Go with a Yamaha DG stomp or POD?

I need flexability and affordability!

Tyler
 
Speeddemon said:
But, hopefully tomorrow I may be able to A/B the Genesis 3 vs. the V-Amp 2. If it goes through, I'll post my findings...
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The V-amp is incredible for the money.

I'm not about to say it's better than the POD (or even Genesis3), as both have their benefits/drawbacks.

The major problem with the V-amp is a pretty common one: the distortion doesn't sound particularly authentic, surprize surprize.

I have heard the Boss GP-20 does a pretty admirable job emulating real distortion. Anyone have any experience with this puppy who could verify this?
 
KingstonRock said:
How about the Mesa Boogie Road king, instead of modeling it, they actually put EL34s, 6L6s, four channels with independent reverb and any other "real amp" option you could imagine into the amp. Only about 10 times the price as a POD!
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I saw the Road King ad and drooled... then I went to Harmony Central and everybody hates them. I guess the Road King is loaded with features, but not tone.

The amp I want to hear is that new Randall RM4 thing... it uses swappable pre-amp modules... Kinda pricey... especially when you consider it needs a seperate power amp.
 
Spark monkey, if youre Peavey amp is a crappy one, like most cheap Peavey, I think your better off with the modeler.....sticky situation though......

Has anyone used those vocal processors that have mic modelers or even preamp modelers?
 
Too bad the mesa sucks, I've seen that randall thing. What they need is a mesa based or marshal based preamp, just made by mesa, not just various randall tones. thats TRUE modeling!
 
Hey Speedy,

I dunno how you can say the G3 is cleaner than the POD sounds.....especially when using the rock amp settings....

I agree, that the G3 "clean" sounds are pretty good/nice....but the Hi-gain, Brit-Stack, Rectifier, etc... sounds as "raspy" as hell, they all have that Billy-Gibbons feel to 'em........kinda over processed, etc...

I've tried for the last 5 days now to get a clean /powerful Dave Gilmour tone out of the G3 - and it's totally impossible - but with the POD it's a snap.......

Like I said in a previous post, I do find some of the POD amp sounds to be kinda THIN....but not muddy, especially when comared to the G3...

OK, so I asked my bro in Fla (who is a pro guitarist, gigged for many years) to demo the G3, and let me know what he thought....

He just gave me his response today via ICQ

1) CRAPPY rock sounds

2) Pretty good clean sounds

3) Hard to figure out the effects settings.

4) The POD is way better...

TRY the POD Pro if ya get a chance.

Regards,

KEV
 
KEV, the POD Pro is almost 2x the price of the Genesis 3 here. BEsides, if I would think about the POD Pro, a more fair competitor would be the Sansamp PSA-1. Remember that the Genesis 3 has a lot more and better effects than the POD Pro.

KEV, I think your 'raspy' is my 'clarity' and my 'muddy' is your 'smooth'... :confused:
 
KingstonRock said:
Too bad the mesa sucks, I've seen that randall thing. What they need is a mesa based or marshal based preamp, just made by mesa, not just various randall tones. thats TRUE modeling!
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ok.. triaxis. for the budget conscious, a v-twin.
 
I'm not a gutiarist but I find the v-amp often sounds better than the real thing in the mix, it got everything you want without any of the extra low end and crap you get with a real cabinet. It means alot less work from my point of view as a tech.

Now its no mesa but for the price there is nothing better.

One other thing with amp modeling is what you use for a montior, if your using one live you really should get a quality powered montior like the JBL eon10's(or 12 or 15, but the 10's sound great), yorkville NX20P or even a mackie SRM-450. And in the studio listen on the control room montiors.
 
Interesting and helpful thoughts, everyone. Let me add my two cents... as a studio guitarist, not a sharp high-techie, I've only had experience with one of the units mentioned--the Johnson J-Station--which 've used heavily (recording, not live) for the past year. In short, I believe that I've had great results. I've used it especially for jazzier sounds (e.g., Pat Metheney) and rock (e.g., Steve Morse), and have found that I can produce nearly any sound (from smooth and clean to nasty and growling) if I just take a few minutes to edit, especially in the "deep editing" mode. I suppose that other units might do a better or quicker job, but I'm reminded that a lot's possible--at least with the J-Station--if one just takes a little time to massage the various sound options and parameters. The only weakness I've run into is that the clean, higher frequency notes sound rather weak although I attribute this in part to my using lighter gauge strings.

Now, does anyone care to move the discussion to options for realistic drum modeling?
 
Jeffree, I share your views on the J-Station. I got it for the bass sounds which are great. A guitarist I know used a POD live with the foot pedal and for my money its not quite good enough. Although for recording I thought the overdriven sounds were comparable to the J-Station, but the J-station wins hands down for the crunch and clean sounds. I like the digital output capability and its damn cheap for what it does I've got no complaints
 
Right on, Matt... $150 buys a lot these days, doesn't it? And a $1000 buys an entire home (digital) studio. Lucky us.

J.
 
Jeff, the J-station excels at clean sounds, ESPECIALLY the darker jazz tones. I totally concur there. Ive used the acoustic amps alot. The bass sounds were actually the original reason I bought it. The J-station bass is deeeep and punchy.
As far as clean top end it really depends on the guitar and amp model youre using. By and large the top end on the J-station isnt as realistic and organic sounding as the mid (1-2k) and low mid (350-800).
 
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