VST guitar amp effects

  • Thread starter Thread starter Goldilox
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Goldilox

Goldilox

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Not sure whether this is best here or in the computer recording section.

Has anyone found any VST amp simulators that actually sound good? Before everyone tells me to mic up my amp - I'm just looking feed an electric straight into my interface to get some song ideas demoed without annoying the neighbours, not making a 'proper' recording.

Everything I've got (and I've downloaded a couple of new ones today) seems to want to make my gently crunchy stonesesque rhythm part sound like death metal...

Or do you all just have PODs?
 
What's your amp? I don't know about yours, but I can get some surprisingly tolerable sounds on tape out of mine at "conversation" volume. Also, if it's like a 100 watt Marshall head that needs to be moving some air to sound decent, a decent practice amp might be an answer - I got a Tech-21 Trademark 30 used for $180 that sounds absolutely phenomenal recorded at even very low levels.

I don't think I've ever recorded anything Stones-y with it, but this is something I did to demo it over at sevenstring.org when I first picked it up. This was at totally apartment friendly volumes, direct in, with a SM57, using my guitar's (an Ibanez Universe seven string) volume knob to control the gain:



A bit sloppy, but whatever, it was fun. :D
 
Have you tried Guitar Rig 4 from Native Instruments? They have a demo version, which has everything except you have to re-open the program in 30min and you can not save your combination. If you like you can use it.

It both works as a standalone software or either a virtual instrument (vst and/or power tools format).
 
Ahhh, a subject I'm very familiar with.

The answer is this: Totally depends what sort of sound you're after.

In my experience with the POD XT vs and a blues Jr valve amp and SM57, there is no way the POD will emulate that clean sound or that clean-tending-to- just-overdriven sparkly class-A valve sound. Forget it.

But if you are well and truly past clean tones and are into overdrive or distortion (picture a young man, leather pants in the 80's with big hair and a big Marshall stack) I think the POD does a good job at emulating it. Certainly good enough to put some thought down on track and be a bit inspired by how nice it sounds.

Heavier than this, I can't comment - it's not me scene ..... man.

I also can't comment on other emulators (amplitube etc). I haven't tried them for years and I'm sure they've changed.

Hope this helps.
Cheers,

FM
 
pure.fusion said:
Ahhh, a subject I'm very familiar with.

The answer is this: Totally depends what sort of sound you're after.

In my experience with the POD XT vs and a blues Jr valve amp and SM57, there is no way the POD will emulate that clean sound or that clean-tending-to- just-overdriven sparkly class-A valve sound. Forget it.

But if you are well and truly past clean tones and are into overdrive or distortion (picture a young man, leather pants in the 80's with big hair and a big Marshall stack) I think the POD does a good job at emulating it. Certainly good enough to put some thought down on track and be a bit inspired by how nice it sounds.

Heavier than this, I can't comment - it's not me scene ..... man.

I also can't comment on other emulators (amplitube etc). I haven't tried them for years and I'm sure they've changed.

Hope this helps.
Cheers,

FM
Click to expand...

I've always found the exact opposite to be true. Amp sims can usually get a passable clean sound but the distortions totally miss the boat. But I agree that a slightly overdriven sound is completely out of the question.
 
Thanks for the thoughts guys - I've got plenty to be playing with now. Really like the SimulAnalog Guitar suite - the fender twin is good as well as the Marshall. I appreciate it's never going to be as good as the real thing partciularly for cleaner sounds, but I was struggling to even get anything usable to demo song ideas (with drum-machine etc - I don't expect to sound like a real band - I have a real band for that).
 
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