ShredAstaire Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 Amplitube or other types of digital modeling. I KNOW there are some people that are 100% against it.... I was always skeptical but not against it...had a modelling amp a while back (Line 6) and it was pretty junky...tried some "Software" amps in the past and was not impressed. Didn't sound real enough, you know? Now, I just tried out Amplitube 3 recently and I am very impressed. They have some "Official" models signed off on by the manufacturers (Fender, Orange, Soldano etc) and they sound great. You have to do some tweaking but I was surprised how natural some of them can sound. It also includes all kinds of effects pedals as well. Now, the pedals don't sounds AS good as the amps but there are some decent ones in there. I found that I really enjoyed using it late at night when the wife and neighbours are sleeping....i can still rock out and record without cranking and micing my amp. Don't get me wrong though, this program will never replace my amp but its a great alternative when I can't use my amp, or if i'm travelling. So where do you stand on this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Searcy Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 While I have 3 good tube amps 1 good solid state amp, 99 percent of everything I record is played through my line 6 pod or amps sim software. I guess you could say I'm all about the modeling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dem00n Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I stand in front of my PC to much, i dont want to do it to play guitar. I rather have a amp, suck it *****es. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BT Bob Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I recently bought an Apogee Jam for my iPad. I've been using it with GarageBand and really like it. So much fun to paly with at low volume (headphones on, even) and try different sounds and effects. I've wondered about buying Amplitube as well, but don't know if it'll give me much over GB. But certainly for practice sessions, these apps are brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fl00dsm0k3 Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 i like the pod might think about getting one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rct Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I'm a guitar player from the 70's and you'd think I would want nothing to do with it. I'll lower the ante even further, I have a couple Behringer VAmp Pros, one for guitar, one for bass. I use them on everything when I've a mind to. Sometimes an amp, sometimes one of them, sometimes both at one time, sometimes both at one time mulitiple times. Depends on what you need to do or sound you want. rct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryUK Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 Funny enough. I was looking at bids on the Pod hd500 last night. It looks great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabba2203 Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I've been a Line 6 POD user for a long time. I didn't like the original Pod or Pod 2 but the PodXT modeling was great, they seemed to have improved it more with the PodX3 and now I just got the PodHD which has the best Line 6 modeling I have heard from them. It has a lot of the same tweakable features as the Fractal AxeFX but at a fraction of the cost. I think they sound similarly good compared to each other. I also use Amplitube and Guitar Rig, not bad sounding either, but I like the Line 6 PodHD better. It's great for writing and recording stuff on the quick. All that said, however.....I do final recordings with a real amp and gig with a real amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexri Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I love modeling and I'm tired of the anti-digital crusade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fingers galore Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I have been using Amplitube and Guitar Rig for years. I use them for jamming to backing tracks and for recording with Cubase at home. Do they sound like real amps? Not quite, but you can get reasonably good sounds with them. I open up multiple tracks in Cubase and assign each track with different Amplitube and Guitar Rig presets. It takes some tweaking but it sounds pretty good. Once I find a good sound combination I save them to recall when needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tman Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I'm in the like modeling camp as well. I recorded with my old acoustic and used modeling within Logic. Really made a huge difference. Cool stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinh Posted January 17, 2012 Report Share Posted January 17, 2012 I think this is one of those areas where ideology tends to skew perceptions. A French study that the Economist reported last week, showed that, in blind tests (wearing welding goggles and with a chin cloth soaked in a pungent oil to disguise smell), a panel of highly regarded violinists picked a modern instrument as superior to a multi-million dollar Stradivarius. I would love to do something similar, e.g play a few modern rock and country recordings with "straight" guitar tone, and then ask experienced guitar players to pick the real Marshall or Twin Reverb. If the difference is a glaring as some suggest, it should be easy to pick one real amp out of say, ten recordings, nine of which feature modeling amps or software. I wonder how many people could do better than the random chance of 10%? The debate reminds me of many conversations I had with young musicians when I has a small studio in the 90's. The young guys would obsess over the minutest aspects of tone that added nothing to ther recordings. I distinctly remember an exasperating conversation in which a young guitarist, who insisted that his sound depended entirely on getting the exact correct stereo mix of THREE (count 'em - three!) amps that he used in parallel, all of which had to be mic'd at differing distances with different types of mics. (Unfortunately, all three rather undistinguished amps gave out three varying degrees of crap, however they were mic'd and mixed.) We worked on the guitar sound for almost two hours, while the other band members became increasingly restless, and rolled their eyes each time the guitarist pronounced himself dissatisfied, He finally shouted that I was an (expletive) idiot for failing to understand that "the exact guitar sound is vital, without that sound, this band just does not work." This typifies an unfortunate attitude of guitarists (of which I am one). We obsess over the last nth degree of tone, while losing sight of the fact that songwriting, arrangement, and musical skills are simply far more important to a band in the real world than a small degree of difference in guitar tone. To me the modeling debate is a bit like that. Frankly, no one except the guitarist cares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 ...I found that I really enjoyed using it late at night when the wife and neighbours are sleeping....i can still rock out and record without cranking and micing my amp. ... So where do you stand on this? That's exactly where I stand. I find the modeled sounds (for me it's iMac or iPad) to be great for quiet practice. I also record with them often for my own demos. However, at band volume I personally find things like the Line 6 lacking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich W Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I just tried out Amplitube 3 recently and I am very impressed. I found that I really enjoyed using it late at night when the wife and neighbours are sleeping. Don't get me wrong though, this program will never replace my amp but its a great alternative when I can't use my amp, or if i'm travelling. So where do you stand on this? I sometimes use Amplitube 3 (free version) with headphones when playing at night ... and occasionally the iPod version of Amplitube when I'm away from home. I have a passion for good tube amps and, to my ears, nothing comes close to the tone of output tube distortion. But I play at all hours of the day, and I agree with you Shred ... Amplitube is a good tool for getting in a few hours of late-night practice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djroge1 Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 Amplitube or other types of digital modeling... Don't get me wrong though, this program will never replace my amp but its a great alternative when I can't use my amp, or if i'm travelling. So where do you stand on this? I stood on my amp modeling equipment and they all broke. I stood on my tube amps and they still work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I love tube amps and I always will. Fenders are my favorite. But nowadays I mostly play my Line 6 Vetta II. It's got everything but the kitchen sink. I'll give up a little tone to get the versatility (kinda hard to get SRV and all the different Lifeson tones out of a single tube amp). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy R Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I have a ton of amps but use Guitar Rig a lot. Good for traveling and re-amping is nice... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cthulhu fhtagn Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 This topic is way too controversial for me. In before the lock! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredAstaire Posted January 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I thought we had more purists in our midst than we do I suppose... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturn Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 My buddy and band mate has a GNX4 (actually he has 2 of them), that I use when we have practice at his house. I don't even have to bring my amp, and just run through the GNX4 into the PA. It does a million things and is very convenient that way. I also use it to play through when we do "acoustic" gigs. It takes up no space and allows me to get many different sounds while adding fills and leads over the acoustic songs. If I did home recording it would also be great for that. However, I only use it for the convenience. I really don't care for the sounds of the modeling software. He's always trying to get me to use it at bigger gigs, but I'm stubborn and insist on using my tube amp and a few stomp boxes. I might have a nest of cables to hook up and deal with, and don't have millions of tones to choose from, but I just don't want that "digital" tone that the GNX4 produces. Another guitar playing buddy bought one of those Line 6 POD HD500 effects. I thought that actually sounded good compared to other Line 6 stuff I've heard. It didn't sound so "computerized" to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morkolo Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I bought Amplitube a couple of years ago and haven't used in just about as long. Even after I upgraded my sound card and connections it still didn't give me the sound I was looking for. I like the idea of it but the end result to my ears is less than pleasing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredAstaire Posted January 18, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I bought Amplitube a couple of years ago and haven't used in just about as long. Even after I upgraded my sound card and connections it still didn't give me the sound I was looking for. I like the idea of it but the end result to my ears is less than pleasing. I had tried previous versions as well...was it Amplitube 3 you tried? I don't think it was available a couple of years ago but i could be wrong.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heymisterk Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 While I play through a tube amp, I am not against the digital route either. They both have their merits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 I did some recordings through Line 6 Pod farm, while I thought they were good I did not find them to sound as organic as my tube amp recordings and could never figure out how to have gain and not get muddy. I guess I could have done more tweaking. Now that my Line 6 UX2 is gone so is the Pod Farm that came with it, at this point I am not planning to replace it since I can play along through headphones using other devices. One thing that I am curious about is the Metal package from AmpliTube, to me these are the tones I have a harder time dialing in. So I may look into that. On the amplifier side I have a Fender Super Champ XD that is quite convenient to carry, different amps and different effects in a single light package, it sounds like a toy compared to my Mesa 5:25 but it is 1/4 the weight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich W Posted January 18, 2012 Report Share Posted January 18, 2012 While I play through a tube amp, I am not against the digital route either. They both have their merits. Many people preach the superiority of analog signals and tube amps, but also use pedals. Myself included. The irony is that some tube-amp purists with disdain for the "digital route" don't appreciate that stomp boxes, with few exceptions, are solid-state and digitally clip the guitar's signal before it reaches the amp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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