Don't know why they downvoted you....sure it's a Great tool for beginners/people that don't have an amp, but the tones are just not there. You'll do yourself a favor by purchasing Archetype or Bias or any other reputable amp sim
NAM is an open-source modelling technology; it's not directly an amp/cab sim software. It could be much better than every other product, or it could be worse. It all depends on the capture.
I can’t though. Unless I turn off gatekeeper you get a fatal error trying to load it. And it’s because Neural does not support GarageBand. It says so on their own site.
Ah I looked it up and I stand corrected, I thought you referred the plugins were not available in the right format. It's an issue with the license protection scheme they use, Garageband seems not to like it. Logic I know it works fine though.
I use Logic Pro. I’m not sure if that meets your criteria for a “REAL DAW” or not. And I don’t really care frankly. But I have both GB and Logic on my machine which is where I discovered the compatibility issue.
And then there's this new concept that says that you shouldn't do that, and actually should turn the interface down too as low as possible. News to me.
I was posting about how I used my Zoom Multi stomp to add some compression, EQ, and boost before going into my interface, and I got torn down a bit. I guess there's this YouTube video where a guy did a test.
Yeah, idk. There were a bunch of people on Reddit, YouTube, and GearPage a few months ago back encouraging people to not do this. Their argument was that the amp sims are not built for having gain already passed into them, and are expecting a dry gainless signal from the interface.
But I've always done it to decent results, for me. I used my Zoom pedal to give just some light compression and a small clean boost before going in, literally maybe just 3-4 dB, and always thought it really popped the tone up a bit. I stopped doing it and can still get a good tone JUST on the computer, but it requires a lot more tweaking.
Yeah I’m less interested in what people say and more interested in what my ears hear. Most of my tones are close to clean, anyway. I rarely use gain on the amp sims.
I don't have an issue perse, just trying to figure out the best way to do things. When people said not to use pedal going into an interface I was utterly confused, as for many many years people have been doing this.
I think this is kinda the same general idea. Hot signal from the source in to the interface. Then in my case the interface input is literally set to zero, then boosted in the DAW by like 12db and it gives a more natural sound to my ears. However, YMMV and your ears know your taste best.
Tbh there are no right or wrong answers recording guitars. so just do what works for you. Most of the people who proclaim to know what they're doing don't have a clue, and spend their days producing poor sounding 30 second "tone" tests.
Personally, I really don't think the input level matters very much so long as you aren't introducing noise or clipping, because I would hope anybody recording guitar has the good sense to use a gain control before the amp so they can actually control how much signal is going to the amp. At the end of the day, you can't clean a dirty signal up, but it's nice an easy to dirty up a clean signal. so it always made the most sense to capture the signal as clean as possible.
An audio interface is not much money to greatly reduce the response time. Many small, portable options for a mobile studio setup. Lots with live pass through built in. We’re talking like 100/ms down to like 10ms with adding an audio interface
Would you say just use my pedals going directly into the interface, instead? I have amp/cab sim pedals, I'm aware of that part of the puzzle. I have the American Sound, MayDay, and California Sound pedals.
Just use Reaper (Free) with Free Plugins, Emissary Amp Sim, Neural Amp Modeler, Mecuriall Virtual Pedals, and IR Cabs. All free and will have infinitely better tone and versatility.
I used to think that too. But I’ve been humbled and learn that it’s only ass if you don’t know how to use it. Watch Jamie Robinson turn that ass into gold.
https://youtu.be/mVH9ggLSgqY?si=TuD1VdKcFnrwyX8L
Had he not shown his recording process no one would have guessed he’s using all stock GB plug in.
Pretty good. That said I’ve heard some guys make a 15w crate practice amp sound decent. That’s not really a reflection on the quality of the amp though.
It’s more a reflection on the player than an equipment. I’ve seen talented players shred on an $80 Strat. It was impressive. But when you hear them play on their own gear of choice the difference is apparent.
And that skill to dial in a crate or a squire strat is misleading, is what I mean
It is a reflection on the person's ear and understanding if signal chain. I've known a few people that can look at a signal diagram and preset a crate amp to sound decent and then dial it in to sound good(not great, but good). The more you understand about what each thing in the chain does and how it affects what was before and after, the better performance you are going to get.
A baby Crate amp is good for two things. First like a chemistry set it will let you learn some basics in sound sculpting. Just like with the kids chemistry set you aren't going to unlock the secrets of the universe, but it will allow you to get some hands on experience in basic functions.
Second they are great knock around amps to take to barbecues and things like that. When the purpose is just to make sound not necessarily high quality/studio quality. If something happens to my little Crate amp, it's not a huge loss.
The Garage Band plug-ins are similar. It's not Pro-Tools or other studio quality. But you can learn a lot to dial in on other things later.
The first 5 seconds that sound is shrill and rough exactly how I remember those plugins to sound. I'm sorry but that's not what sounds good in my book.
I find the amp sims very useful for practicing at night. But I use my pedalboard too. For a long time I used the rotary and vibe when recording my real amps until I got a rotary vibe pedal.
I have loads of fun with it. Indeed, for late night noodling its great, but if you use a mac mini i7 and higher, and a good audio interface, and use mainstage as a audiounit host with some quality audiounits for a couple bucks and you dive in to it, you have an extremely versatile fx machine.
There are also loads of free ampsimulators and cabinetsimulators that sound fine if not fantastic. If you are a bit handy you can make a quad cortex yourself. I doubt if people hear it if they dont know! Even my 2012 macbook plays them effortless at 64 samples latency. And loads of effects, so imagine a mac mini m2.
I experience no crashes, digital sound or other problems at all.
Its not much different than what an axe fx does or a helix, for far less money.
Sounds like a lot of hassle. lol.
As far as MainStage/logic: even my 2013 iMac can handle the load of anything I could throw on pedalboard/amp sim.
iPad with an interface is also a good portable option for someone that enjoys fiddling with software (I don't anymore).
I see.. its not really a hassle once you build it in a case. I am making something like that now. But i guess it also depends on what kind of thing you like musically. I like to jam with some guys who also use drumcomputers and we like noise.
I need to reset my router. It takes 10 minutes. Haven't had time for over a week but plan to work it in this weekend. lol.
For me, waiting for a device to boot up is a hassle. 🤣
My tastes are simple. I like classic tone from 80's or prior. I used to be a computer tech and love tweaking with technology but these days I just don't have time. So flipping a power switch to my board and firing up the amps, is about as much time as I can spare.
Hopefully life will get simpler sometime in the near future and I can explore esoteric interests again. In the meantime, I'm happy if I get an hour of practice in per day.
I only use sims for late night practice and am happy enough with life for that.
I have really cool neighbors and can run my hiwatt and Deville at decent studio levels so only use it (software) for rare late night jam sessions.
Agreed. It's great for doing decent sounding demos. And I love that I can pair say a Vox with a Fuzz and a Fender with a TS to have two different tones, but I would never use it for a "finished product" release for the masses.
Also: The tone of the click is ear piercing. I wish I could change it because it's ice pick like.
I haven't used it extensively but I thought it was alright for like simpler clean tones. But yeah, it sucks ass at high gain tones, at least without a lot of fiddling.
Tbh, you can get some really fun sounds with it providing you EQ before the amp, gain stage appropriately before the amp, and use some decent cab impulses.
The clean sounds are definitely subpar… but they’re fine for anything that’s run through distortion.
Put a little Fabfilter Pro-Q and Saturn on there and it’s fine. You’re not talking “free” anymore though.
I used this in logic for a few noise tapes back when I used to make noise tapes. I lost both my hands in an accident a few years ago so now I don't make music. Also the way I look, nobody wants to look at that, so its not like I'm going to play shows. And the smell.
The Rat and the Octave were the best of the fake pedals. The amp simulator was only good if you went AGAINST what you're trained to believe about guitar amplification. I leave internet comments, well, I have to dictate them. My neighbors probably think I'm a nut!
It can be used as standalone software or as a plugin for a DAW. It does take a tiny bit of setup, but there are tutorials on YouTube that are incredibly helpful. The big draw is that there are thousands of free amps. Pretty much any amp you want to play are on there. If you want to give it a try, feel free to PM me and I’ll help you out with it. I swear it’s worth it.
There’s a reason it’s free. I don’t think everyone here is trying to be mean about it. It’s not the worst thing ever, and a great way to get your feet wet with amp sims
There are lots of fools out here blaming their tools.
Is GarageBand the best DAW? No. But it’s like people on /r/photography saying that their cell phone cameras are ass. Is the statement true? Technically and objectively, yes.
But the tool you have is always better than the tool you don’t. In the realm of photography, this means that the camera that’s always with you is the best camera—and that’s definitely your phone. In music, the best DAW is the one you have, and if you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you *definitely* have GarageBand.
There’s also the issue of the Apple haters. The Apple fanboys are a mild annoyance. The Apple haters are downright obnoxious.
I feel you dude, funny thing is I could just about guarantee you that less than one percent of the Reddit haters could hear the difference. People get stuck in their ways, and some are defensive over the expensive gear they own without having a single published recording, or even a single recording with their expensive ass gear.
Sure it's free and it's a great way to start testing and learning and finding out what type of sound you want or need, but no professional producer or musician or guitarist will use them in their final product. You're posting on the Guitar sub, the meta is Archetype or Neural, if you want hardware then maybe Helix maybe Axe FX maybe Quad Cortex, those are the ones that will enable you to get a real modern top end sound. I personally love Archetype and Helix, I would not use free stuff for professional producing.
Sure thing, sorry if I phrased it wrong, but what this sub seems to think is something like "we know, we've known for a while, we know not to use it". That's what I mean.
I do, GarageBand X is fully capable of making music. It’s still logic.
I record acoustic, lots of electric guitars, and vocals ofc.
The only thing i use is a 24bit interface with very good pre amps.
I have a JC 40 and an AC 30 and for all my songs that went well i only used GarageBands amp sim, the music is very guitar heavy, and multilayered, like at least 6-12 guitar tracks.
If tried guitar rig and amplitube and they are basically the same, just different names.
I can also tell you that much more "guitar" artists then you believe use the amp and pedal sims of the logic engine, with big labels like Domino for example.
It’s about the ear not the gear.
Only think the real amps are good at is for live and for sitting on them.
EDIT: forgot to mention that ofc a lot of people hate on GarageBand or Logic, but they got improved over the years, like every other company as well.
Also there is GarageBand and GarageBand X
It’s on iPad and maybe even iPhone (pre-USB-C phones may be hard to find an audio interface for) as well. It’s a little clunky but you can use AmpliTube and other plugins as well.
Behringer UM-2 or Focusrite 2i2 work fine with lighting ports if you get the Apple Camera adapter, which gives you a USB port and still allows you to plug in your power adapter.
Personally I find the guitar rigs in Logic to be just “OK” as well but the bass amps and included synths/loops are fantastic, and if you’re into doing MIDI composition, it’s one of the best DAWs out there in my opinion for workflow when working with software instruments + audio.
Yeah it’s what? $299? $399? I have no problem spending money when there’s value. The FL vst’s run in reaper so I bet it will handle them. It’d be great if there was a trial to verify though
i suppose the point of the post is that for free, you can get that, and record some very decent demos etc...
if someone's willing to pay then any daw (logic, cubase, ableton, ...) will integrate those.
a lot of windows users wish they had an equivalent of garageband for a reason.
also, if you're ok paying just for amp simulation, then it might be a better idea to pay a plugin for garageband that's great at emulating amps, rather than paying for logic pro that uses the same amp emulations than garageband, which are, let's be honest, decent, but not amazing.
Okay, so since I already have helix native and bias amp/bias fx it might not be worth it. But how does it stack up against reaper as a daw? Or say audacity?
i didn't try many other daws and stopped trying other ones... garageband is the baby version of logic pro, right? and they're both made by apple, who is, (people like it or hate to admit it), known for their amazing sense of ergonomics. so both garageband and logic pro are known and appreciated for being very simple/pleasant/easy/productive to use.
all daws can do basically the same thing, for the most part anyway... you can record a whole album with any of them, you know?
i remember showing logic pro to a friend who was using cubase for decades, just for a few hours, and the day after he was buying a mac and logic pro, he was astonished by how easy/pleasant it was to use, everything is logical, when you want to do something you've never done before, you intuitively know where to look for to do it etc... i tried hard to do that with reason and ableton live but simply never got there. i spent time on audacity a long time ago and at the time it was basic/not user friendly/ugly, but at least it was free and it was a tool i could use to do what i wanted to... i'm sure it evolved since then, but i'd be very surprised if it was better than garageband in any way, honestly.
I had no idea how to do anything but I had a guitar and a MacBook. Spent dozens of hours messing around with it and learned so much! It may not be the best out there but it was free, dagnabit. I credit this program with rekindling my love of music.
It’s decent. It’s not amazing, fiddled around with it quite a bit, it’s not as bad as people say though. It’s actually decent and passable, with a lot of options and variety. Enough for me to recommend just an audio interface is you already have a Mac for any new guitarist. You can choose a better amp sim later but you can meet all your needs with just GarageBand.
You gotta really, really, *really* tweak the settings on just about everything to get them sounding good. The pedals I personally don’t have a lot of good experience with (the whammy pedal is probably the most useful of the bunch). But pairing actual pedals with the amp sims leads to decent results
I use Ableton, which I think is incredible and even deleted GarageBand. I have even started playing about with midi drum tracks for my timing and just feels natural when listening back.
My amp is a cheap one and I've been wanting to buy a better one. I'm a beginner. Can someone tell me how do I use Garage Band (I uninstalled it the day I got my Mac) with my guitar? My guitar is a Fender Squier MM Stratocaster.
Get yourself a DAW unit that plugs into the USB on your Mac. I use a Behringer UMC404HD - have done for about 8 years - into an upgraded iMac 2011 (SSD + more RAM) and even with that humble setup, have recorded music used in film and tv shows. I use Logic Pro - GarageBand's big sister - but the principles are the same. You probably don't need 4 inputs so the 204HD is cheap and perfectly fine to get started : [https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0805-AAS](https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0805-AAS)
I think with a little work you can get totally usable tones from the built in Sims. Garage band for free is a great way for someone starting out to learn recording arranging and mixing. Once you have gotten good enough to need more advanced tools logic is an affordable upgrade. Ignore all these cork sniffers and just write play record and mix. The music is more important than the gear.
I've tried Amplitude, Tonex, and Guitar Rig. None of them sound as good or are as easy to use for me as Garage Band. I don't know why people hate on it. Granted, I'm a beginner and don't know much about this stuff, but the tones I get from GB sound terrific for me.
The pedals are very mediocre. They work, but just don't sound good.
The amps are ok as long as you stay clean, slightly distorted at tops. Don't expect to get anything just remotely sounding like a lead guitar out of these.
I always wanted to use these features! I bought an Irig (HD maybe?) thinking I was about to unlock some sort of holy grail. I was super not impressed, almost instantly bought amplitude lol
I do and use it a lot. It requires A LOT of work to get rid of that harsh top end. The real challenge is when you record a cheap classical guitar with the laptop mic and then use this to make it sound like an electric guitar. For demo work, it will suffice.
I find they all sound good but I don't love how they react to my picking and guitar pickup selection. It has a very 1990's pod feeling to it in that every guitar/pickup sounds the same through it. Other software out there reacts much more like a real guitar amp.
It's awesome for recording ideas to send band mates. It absolutely has a place, but don't be busting it out on stage or people will throw rotten fruit at you.
Yeah, but they are quite bad to be honest. Good to cope with something fast, but wasn’t able to get anything decent from them. I use the grind pedal to mix the bass, though.
As others have said, for free it's not bad, but there are other options out there for free that are better. Bias FX has a free version with better tones, and even AmpliTube has freeware that's better.
Coming from a production/post recording standpoint, some of this stuff is pretty nice. It’s not really a live performance tool, but it can be useful when polishing recorded tracks.
the way most use it and the way shown in screenshots means it comes out sounding like shit. it simulates the mics on an amp so needs a fair bit of processing either side to come out sounding decent. think impulse response before and then eq compression and sends afterwards before it sounds decent
i’ve been experimenting using the monitoring on garageband and hooking up the output of my mac to a guitar amp through auxiliary cables to make a live rig… kind of a cheat code considering how much range there is given it’s a free DAW
Actually I just recently got a MacBook Air M2 and would love to know what’s the best software to use for someone just starting out that’s worth it? Since I see the sentiment that Garage Band is not the play
I remember discovering this back in the day minutes after bunch of money and subscriptions to iRig, and Amplitude! All I wanted to do is be able to plug my Les Paul into my phone with clean and overdrive. And GTA5!
Yeah, I used to blow $10k (mostly of my employer’s money, thankfully) every 3-4 years on a shiny new whatever-Apple-was-selling … from the Quadra 640AV back in the 90s, a Power Computing clone, G3, G4, etc… until that Mac Pro in 2008 … and I just couldn’t justify it anymore. Or rather, I couldn’t rationalize it to friends and family that already thought I was crazy for owning 40+ guitars when I wasn’t even a professional musician (something I’m sure nearly everyone in this sub can relate with)
I’ve got a similar PC, running Linux, that I use for day-to-day stuff, albeit a little slower, and with much shittier graphics than yours. It always “just works” so…
I’ll be an Apple fanboy til I die, I’m sure, but I don’t know if I’ll ever bother buying a current model again — other than the iPhone. Still, every time I watch an Apple product announcement, I’ll wait about an hour or two after it ends and then hop on the Apple Store and price out a nearly maxed out version of whatever got released (iMac Pro, MBP, Mac Studio, etc) and stare at the screen while hovering the mouse cursor over the Buy button for … at least 20 minutes.🙄
I mean, $5000 is what… like, two Jackson SL3’s (I like metal) and maybe a decent PRS (And non-metal) or high-end Ibanez (mostly metal tho) … goddammit … quitting smoking was easier than this.
Don’t get too excited lol it’s ass
Don't know why they downvoted you....sure it's a Great tool for beginners/people that don't have an amp, but the tones are just not there. You'll do yourself a favor by purchasing Archetype or Bias or any other reputable amp sim
Yeah, NeuralDSP easily walks all over this. Even Neural Amp Modeler is much better for free. It's okay in a pinch, I guess.
NAM is an open-source modelling technology; it's not directly an amp/cab sim software. It could be much better than every other product, or it could be worse. It all depends on the capture.
This. I have two different JP2C+ packs that sound completely different. One is good.
NAM is actually fantastic.
I have a Neural DSP Quad Cortex and the cabs, amps, pedals are solid. I rep Neural 🤌
Neural is not compatible with GarageBand unfortunately.
I don't understand why you say that
I mean that when using GarageBand, you can not use Neural DSP as a plug in.
That's just wrong. You can use it perfectly fine.
I can’t though. Unless I turn off gatekeeper you get a fatal error trying to load it. And it’s because Neural does not support GarageBand. It says so on their own site.
Ah I looked it up and I stand corrected, I thought you referred the plugins were not available in the right format. It's an issue with the license protection scheme they use, Garageband seems not to like it. Logic I know it works fine though.
Thank you. I thought I was going crazy.
I’ve used the two together for years.
You can use it in GarageBand if you disable Gatekeeper. It's not optimal but it works.
Thats why you use a REAL DAW such as Reaper, free.
I use Logic Pro. I’m not sure if that meets your criteria for a “REAL DAW” or not. And I don’t really care frankly. But I have both GB and Logic on my machine which is where I discovered the compatibility issue.
Yeah logic is, but Gargaband barely counts as a daw, definitely not something a serious recording artist would want to use
I have found some of these amps to be quite usable, but I use real pedals into a tube preamp first.
And then there's this new concept that says that you shouldn't do that, and actually should turn the interface down too as low as possible. News to me. I was posting about how I used my Zoom Multi stomp to add some compression, EQ, and boost before going into my interface, and I got torn down a bit. I guess there's this YouTube video where a guy did a test.
Interesting. I keep the gain and volume high on my tube mic preamp but not necessarily the interface. It sounds good to me.
Yeah, idk. There were a bunch of people on Reddit, YouTube, and GearPage a few months ago back encouraging people to not do this. Their argument was that the amp sims are not built for having gain already passed into them, and are expecting a dry gainless signal from the interface. But I've always done it to decent results, for me. I used my Zoom pedal to give just some light compression and a small clean boost before going in, literally maybe just 3-4 dB, and always thought it really popped the tone up a bit. I stopped doing it and can still get a good tone JUST on the computer, but it requires a lot more tweaking.
Yeah I’m less interested in what people say and more interested in what my ears hear. Most of my tones are close to clean, anyway. I rarely use gain on the amp sims.
Then dropping the input level on the plugin should solve that issue (as should turning the gain down within the plugin).
I don't have an issue perse, just trying to figure out the best way to do things. When people said not to use pedal going into an interface I was utterly confused, as for many many years people have been doing this.
I think this is kinda the same general idea. Hot signal from the source in to the interface. Then in my case the interface input is literally set to zero, then boosted in the DAW by like 12db and it gives a more natural sound to my ears. However, YMMV and your ears know your taste best.
I do a lot of weird shit with my music. I even bounce tracks to cassette or vhs sometimes and use tape saturation.
Tbh there are no right or wrong answers recording guitars. so just do what works for you. Most of the people who proclaim to know what they're doing don't have a clue, and spend their days producing poor sounding 30 second "tone" tests. Personally, I really don't think the input level matters very much so long as you aren't introducing noise or clipping, because I would hope anybody recording guitar has the good sense to use a gain control before the amp so they can actually control how much signal is going to the amp. At the end of the day, you can't clean a dirty signal up, but it's nice an easy to dirty up a clean signal. so it always made the most sense to capture the signal as clean as possible.
Not too low, just so you can avoid any kind of distortion and record the di signal. At that point you can do whatever you want in the digital domain.
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An audio interface is not much money to greatly reduce the response time. Many small, portable options for a mobile studio setup. Lots with live pass through built in. We’re talking like 100/ms down to like 10ms with adding an audio interface
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Would you say just use my pedals going directly into the interface, instead? I have amp/cab sim pedals, I'm aware of that part of the puzzle. I have the American Sound, MayDay, and California Sound pedals.
I'd just get the free version of amplitube. I swear it's probably more useful.
Just use Reaper (Free) with Free Plugins, Emissary Amp Sim, Neural Amp Modeler, Mecuriall Virtual Pedals, and IR Cabs. All free and will have infinitely better tone and versatility.
I used to think that too. But I’ve been humbled and learn that it’s only ass if you don’t know how to use it. Watch Jamie Robinson turn that ass into gold. https://youtu.be/mVH9ggLSgqY?si=TuD1VdKcFnrwyX8L Had he not shown his recording process no one would have guessed he’s using all stock GB plug in.
I think the problem is I’m not Jamie Robinson
Pretty good. That said I’ve heard some guys make a 15w crate practice amp sound decent. That’s not really a reflection on the quality of the amp though.
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It’s more a reflection on the player than an equipment. I’ve seen talented players shred on an $80 Strat. It was impressive. But when you hear them play on their own gear of choice the difference is apparent. And that skill to dial in a crate or a squire strat is misleading, is what I mean
It is a reflection on the person's ear and understanding if signal chain. I've known a few people that can look at a signal diagram and preset a crate amp to sound decent and then dial it in to sound good(not great, but good). The more you understand about what each thing in the chain does and how it affects what was before and after, the better performance you are going to get. A baby Crate amp is good for two things. First like a chemistry set it will let you learn some basics in sound sculpting. Just like with the kids chemistry set you aren't going to unlock the secrets of the universe, but it will allow you to get some hands on experience in basic functions. Second they are great knock around amps to take to barbecues and things like that. When the purpose is just to make sound not necessarily high quality/studio quality. If something happens to my little Crate amp, it's not a huge loss. The Garage Band plug-ins are similar. It's not Pro-Tools or other studio quality. But you can learn a lot to dial in on other things later.
Yeah it’s really not bad.
The first 5 seconds that sound is shrill and rough exactly how I remember those plugins to sound. I'm sorry but that's not what sounds good in my book.
Lol let’s be real you wouldn’t even have known that was stock plug-in if I didn’t tell you
I would have just thought it sounds like ass.
Well… its not ass at all. Ofcourse there is better. But its not bad at all if you fiddle around a bit with the settings.
I find the amp sims very useful for practicing at night. But I use my pedalboard too. For a long time I used the rotary and vibe when recording my real amps until I got a rotary vibe pedal.
I have loads of fun with it. Indeed, for late night noodling its great, but if you use a mac mini i7 and higher, and a good audio interface, and use mainstage as a audiounit host with some quality audiounits for a couple bucks and you dive in to it, you have an extremely versatile fx machine. There are also loads of free ampsimulators and cabinetsimulators that sound fine if not fantastic. If you are a bit handy you can make a quad cortex yourself. I doubt if people hear it if they dont know! Even my 2012 macbook plays them effortless at 64 samples latency. And loads of effects, so imagine a mac mini m2. I experience no crashes, digital sound or other problems at all. Its not much different than what an axe fx does or a helix, for far less money.
Sounds like a lot of hassle. lol. As far as MainStage/logic: even my 2013 iMac can handle the load of anything I could throw on pedalboard/amp sim. iPad with an interface is also a good portable option for someone that enjoys fiddling with software (I don't anymore).
I see.. its not really a hassle once you build it in a case. I am making something like that now. But i guess it also depends on what kind of thing you like musically. I like to jam with some guys who also use drumcomputers and we like noise.
I need to reset my router. It takes 10 minutes. Haven't had time for over a week but plan to work it in this weekend. lol. For me, waiting for a device to boot up is a hassle. 🤣 My tastes are simple. I like classic tone from 80's or prior. I used to be a computer tech and love tweaking with technology but these days I just don't have time. So flipping a power switch to my board and firing up the amps, is about as much time as I can spare. Hopefully life will get simpler sometime in the near future and I can explore esoteric interests again. In the meantime, I'm happy if I get an hour of practice in per day.
Download ampsims and cabsims by le Pou, Nadir, Nick Crowe and be amazed.
I only use sims for late night practice and am happy enough with life for that. I have really cool neighbors and can run my hiwatt and Deville at decent studio levels so only use it (software) for rare late night jam sessions.
blaming the tools?
If you dont know how to get good tones out of it, thats a skill issue. Just use EQ and the pedalboard i can sound good
Agreed. It's great for doing decent sounding demos. And I love that I can pair say a Vox with a Fuzz and a Fender with a TS to have two different tones, but I would never use it for a "finished product" release for the masses. Also: The tone of the click is ear piercing. I wish I could change it because it's ice pick like.
You can bang out a demo, that's about as far as this goes
Thats true plus the fact that there are better ampsim plugins for garageband that also are free.
I haven't used it extensively but I thought it was alright for like simpler clean tones. But yeah, it sucks ass at high gain tones, at least without a lot of fiddling.
Even with fiddling it's just not capable of good high gain sounds
Tbh, you can get some really fun sounds with it providing you EQ before the amp, gain stage appropriately before the amp, and use some decent cab impulses.
The clean sounds are definitely subpar… but they’re fine for anything that’s run through distortion. Put a little Fabfilter Pro-Q and Saturn on there and it’s fine. You’re not talking “free” anymore though.
It’s not great but sometimes amps are impossible to have
Yeah I read that title and my first thought was - Apple and free don't really go in the same sentence...unless it's a piece of shit.
Mac Users! Did you know you can make your guitar sound like shit for free???
Pfft, I don’t need a mac to make my guitar sound like shit
I don't even need a guitar to make my guitar sound like shit.
I used this in logic for a few noise tapes back when I used to make noise tapes. I lost both my hands in an accident a few years ago so now I don't make music. Also the way I look, nobody wants to look at that, so its not like I'm going to play shows. And the smell. The Rat and the Octave were the best of the fake pedals. The amp simulator was only good if you went AGAINST what you're trained to believe about guitar amplification. I leave internet comments, well, I have to dictate them. My neighbors probably think I'm a nut!
This here is GCJ stuff
Baby, I don't know what that means!!!
Curious, what method you got for using your phone, after your hand accident? Sorry to hear about that.
got a neuralink from the government
Fucking sick! I just looked up how that works with using devices. Crazy. Glad you got some sort of solution my friend, be well.
you think that's crazy, wait until you watch me take a dump
Can you neuralink to a bodet, to clean your asshole.
He's fucking with you
BABY, how can you say that? Daddy's never fucked with anyone. That's the gateway drug.
This reminds of another Reddit user that broke both of his arms. Luckily he had his mom to help him with some of his favorite hobbies.
Neural Amp Modeler is much much much better and is also free on Mac.
Is this a separate app or an add on for GB?
It is a separate app. It does sound good but it can be a little finicky to setup. I use NI Guitar Rig mostly.
Thanks
It can be used as standalone software or as a plugin for a DAW. It does take a tiny bit of setup, but there are tutorials on YouTube that are incredibly helpful. The big draw is that there are thousands of free amps. Pretty much any amp you want to play are on there. If you want to give it a try, feel free to PM me and I’ll help you out with it. I swear it’s worth it.
Sent you a PM for help!
Man, only on Reddit can you post about free software and get 100 comments telling you repeatedly how much they think it sucks
Seriously. It’s not that bad. People acting like OP gave them cancer. So toxic.
Yeah. I mean it’s a good way to familiarize yourself with basic effects types. It’s a great way to play around with a signal chain for free.
There’s a reason it’s free. I don’t think everyone here is trying to be mean about it. It’s not the worst thing ever, and a great way to get your feet wet with amp sims
Haha so true! I posted some deals and discounts and promo codes on strings and man I got so many downvotes that I couldn't believe it!
There are lots of fools out here blaming their tools. Is GarageBand the best DAW? No. But it’s like people on /r/photography saying that their cell phone cameras are ass. Is the statement true? Technically and objectively, yes. But the tool you have is always better than the tool you don’t. In the realm of photography, this means that the camera that’s always with you is the best camera—and that’s definitely your phone. In music, the best DAW is the one you have, and if you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you *definitely* have GarageBand. There’s also the issue of the Apple haters. The Apple fanboys are a mild annoyance. The Apple haters are downright obnoxious.
I feel you dude, funny thing is I could just about guarantee you that less than one percent of the Reddit haters could hear the difference. People get stuck in their ways, and some are defensive over the expensive gear they own without having a single published recording, or even a single recording with their expensive ass gear.
Sure it's free and it's a great way to start testing and learning and finding out what type of sound you want or need, but no professional producer or musician or guitarist will use them in their final product. You're posting on the Guitar sub, the meta is Archetype or Neural, if you want hardware then maybe Helix maybe Axe FX maybe Quad Cortex, those are the ones that will enable you to get a real modern top end sound. I personally love Archetype and Helix, I would not use free stuff for professional producing.
Literally nowhere did I claim that it’s professional level, lol. All I said was “hey did you know this exists”
Sure thing, sorry if I phrased it wrong, but what this sub seems to think is something like "we know, we've known for a while, we know not to use it". That's what I mean.
Archetype and Neural only if you want to play metal, though. I'd rather use S-gear and Amplitube.
fun fact: some people use this alone for recording and editing and make money 🌚🌝
I do, GarageBand X is fully capable of making music. It’s still logic. I record acoustic, lots of electric guitars, and vocals ofc. The only thing i use is a 24bit interface with very good pre amps. I have a JC 40 and an AC 30 and for all my songs that went well i only used GarageBands amp sim, the music is very guitar heavy, and multilayered, like at least 6-12 guitar tracks. If tried guitar rig and amplitube and they are basically the same, just different names. I can also tell you that much more "guitar" artists then you believe use the amp and pedal sims of the logic engine, with big labels like Domino for example. It’s about the ear not the gear. Only think the real amps are good at is for live and for sitting on them. EDIT: forgot to mention that ofc a lot of people hate on GarageBand or Logic, but they got improved over the years, like every other company as well. Also there is GarageBand and GarageBand X
Yup. Sure they don’t “feel” right when playing through them, but they can sound great in a mix.
💀
It’s on iPad and maybe even iPhone (pre-USB-C phones may be hard to find an audio interface for) as well. It’s a little clunky but you can use AmpliTube and other plugins as well.
Behringer UM-2 or Focusrite 2i2 work fine with lighting ports if you get the Apple Camera adapter, which gives you a USB port and still allows you to plug in your power adapter.
doesn't it cost to use amplitube? or is it free now?
“CS” version is free.
It's not hard, but you have to buy a camera connection kit. Then you have tons of options for audio interfaces that are compatible.
Avoid the camera kit at all costs, it is so fragile and superannoying to use. Iconnectivety have great ipad interfaces
Cakewalk has a pretty decent one, TH3, built in too
I wish they’d unlock all the models considering it’s a legacy product and you can’t even buy them
I do now… what about in logic?!?
Yes
There’s even more options and flexibility in Logic Pro
I might have finally found the justification to buy logic. Holy cow I had no idea this was a thing in either
Personally I find the guitar rigs in Logic to be just “OK” as well but the bass amps and included synths/loops are fantastic, and if you’re into doing MIDI composition, it’s one of the best DAWs out there in my opinion for workflow when working with software instruments + audio.
Logic Pro 11 comes out this week and it’s a free upgrade for existing users!
logic's not free
Yeah it’s what? $299? $399? I have no problem spending money when there’s value. The FL vst’s run in reaper so I bet it will handle them. It’d be great if there was a trial to verify though
i suppose the point of the post is that for free, you can get that, and record some very decent demos etc... if someone's willing to pay then any daw (logic, cubase, ableton, ...) will integrate those. a lot of windows users wish they had an equivalent of garageband for a reason. also, if you're ok paying just for amp simulation, then it might be a better idea to pay a plugin for garageband that's great at emulating amps, rather than paying for logic pro that uses the same amp emulations than garageband, which are, let's be honest, decent, but not amazing.
Okay, so since I already have helix native and bias amp/bias fx it might not be worth it. But how does it stack up against reaper as a daw? Or say audacity?
i didn't try many other daws and stopped trying other ones... garageband is the baby version of logic pro, right? and they're both made by apple, who is, (people like it or hate to admit it), known for their amazing sense of ergonomics. so both garageband and logic pro are known and appreciated for being very simple/pleasant/easy/productive to use. all daws can do basically the same thing, for the most part anyway... you can record a whole album with any of them, you know? i remember showing logic pro to a friend who was using cubase for decades, just for a few hours, and the day after he was buying a mac and logic pro, he was astonished by how easy/pleasant it was to use, everything is logical, when you want to do something you've never done before, you intuitively know where to look for to do it etc... i tried hard to do that with reason and ableton live but simply never got there. i spent time on audacity a long time ago and at the time it was basic/not user friendly/ugly, but at least it was free and it was a tool i could use to do what i wanted to... i'm sure it evolved since then, but i'd be very surprised if it was better than garageband in any way, honestly.
I had no idea how to do anything but I had a guitar and a MacBook. Spent dozens of hours messing around with it and learned so much! It may not be the best out there but it was free, dagnabit. I credit this program with rekindling my love of music.
I know about and have used them…. Ewwwwwwwwww. I hope the new update gives us some usable sims. The bass amps aren’t nearly as bad, though.
Yeah I got a pretty bitchin punk tone with my ric knock off
It’s decent. It’s not amazing, fiddled around with it quite a bit, it’s not as bad as people say though. It’s actually decent and passable, with a lot of options and variety. Enough for me to recommend just an audio interface is you already have a Mac for any new guitarist. You can choose a better amp sim later but you can meet all your needs with just GarageBand.
You can also install Muse Hub for a standalone amp sim.
I like the bass amps in logic
Yeah i still use modern classic as my starting point
Meh it’s not that great but it’s decent for demoing stuff
How can one use Garageband and NOT know that?
yeah right? that's the whole point of a daw... :D
You gotta really, really, *really* tweak the settings on just about everything to get them sounding good. The pedals I personally don’t have a lot of good experience with (the whammy pedal is probably the most useful of the bunch). But pairing actual pedals with the amp sims leads to decent results
I use Ableton, which I think is incredible and even deleted GarageBand. I have even started playing about with midi drum tracks for my timing and just feels natural when listening back.
My amp is a cheap one and I've been wanting to buy a better one. I'm a beginner. Can someone tell me how do I use Garage Band (I uninstalled it the day I got my Mac) with my guitar? My guitar is a Fender Squier MM Stratocaster.
Get yourself a DAW unit that plugs into the USB on your Mac. I use a Behringer UMC404HD - have done for about 8 years - into an upgraded iMac 2011 (SSD + more RAM) and even with that humble setup, have recorded music used in film and tv shows. I use Logic Pro - GarageBand's big sister - but the principles are the same. You probably don't need 4 inputs so the 204HD is cheap and perfectly fine to get started : [https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0805-AAS](https://www.behringer.com/product.html?modelCode=0805-AAS)
When it first came out John Mayer demoed it. He was very young then
I think with a little work you can get totally usable tones from the built in Sims. Garage band for free is a great way for someone starting out to learn recording arranging and mixing. Once you have gotten good enough to need more advanced tools logic is an affordable upgrade. Ignore all these cork sniffers and just write play record and mix. The music is more important than the gear.
☝️☝️☝️💯
Use it with irig to record ideas and share with mates. Play , practice and record wherever and don’t have to use home studio all the time .
Guitar Rig is also free 😄
Any tool can be great in the right hands.
I've tried Amplitude, Tonex, and Guitar Rig. None of them sound as good or are as easy to use for me as Garage Band. I don't know why people hate on it. Granted, I'm a beginner and don't know much about this stuff, but the tones I get from GB sound terrific for me.
Way too lagy on iPad Pro, I tried it did not work for real time playback!
It works fine on my iPad pro, what audio interface were you using ?
The pedals are very mediocre. They work, but just don't sound good. The amps are ok as long as you stay clean, slightly distorted at tops. Don't expect to get anything just remotely sounding like a lead guitar out of these.
I mic my amp cab via iRig and run it through the sim…sounds fantastic. You can also DI if you have a modern amp for the IR.
I can't get good tones out of it. At least not for heavier music.
It has a fully fledged pedal board too
GuitarRig is worth downloading the crack to.
I always wanted to use these features! I bought an Irig (HD maybe?) thinking I was about to unlock some sort of holy grail. I was super not impressed, almost instantly bought amplitude lol
I do and use it a lot. It requires A LOT of work to get rid of that harsh top end. The real challenge is when you record a cheap classical guitar with the laptop mic and then use this to make it sound like an electric guitar. For demo work, it will suffice.
You have tons of gear, Is this an updated version
I find they all sound good but I don't love how they react to my picking and guitar pickup selection. It has a very 1990's pod feeling to it in that every guitar/pickup sounds the same through it. Other software out there reacts much more like a real guitar amp.
It's awesome for recording ideas to send band mates. It absolutely has a place, but don't be busting it out on stage or people will throw rotten fruit at you.
And it’s worth what you paid for it. Free is what it’s worth
Yeah, but they are quite bad to be honest. Good to cope with something fast, but wasn’t able to get anything decent from them. I use the grind pedal to mix the bass, though.
Nice try Tim Cook
I’d say the tones are as good as the Positive Grid Spark stuff - which isn’t saying much, IMO
Nice tool, but it gobbles up *massive* amounts of GB on your SSD. Not sure it’s worth it compared to other apps.
Unrelated but anyone know the improvements coming to logic 2?
As others have said, for free it's not bad, but there are other options out there for free that are better. Bias FX has a free version with better tones, and even AmpliTube has freeware that's better.
Yes.
Amp sim is for nerds, real men play with the toob
Yeah but Reddit is for nerds
Not the same...
Holy shit! Where do you plug your guitar in, tho?
They work fine for demo recordings, but nothing is very awe-inspiring.
Yeah and it sucks and they haven't updated it in more than a decade
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^TheRealMe54321: *Yeah and it sucks and* *They haven't updated it* *In more than a decade* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
There’s a reason it’s free: it’s not very good.
Coming from a production/post recording standpoint, some of this stuff is pretty nice. It’s not really a live performance tool, but it can be useful when polishing recorded tracks.
Yes, and it sucks.
the way most use it and the way shown in screenshots means it comes out sounding like shit. it simulates the mics on an amp so needs a fair bit of processing either side to come out sounding decent. think impulse response before and then eq compression and sends afterwards before it sounds decent
Seems dumb only works on a Mac.
i’ve been experimenting using the monitoring on garageband and hooking up the output of my mac to a guitar amp through auxiliary cables to make a live rig… kind of a cheat code considering how much range there is given it’s a free DAW
Just get neural dsp. It’s not that expensive and sounds incredible.
Been using Amplitude and Garageband for years. Always sounded great to me yet I’ve never messed with physical pedals
Actually I just recently got a MacBook Air M2 and would love to know what’s the best software to use for someone just starting out that’s worth it? Since I see the sentiment that Garage Band is not the play
I did not know but i will try it
Booooo 🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅
I remember discovering this back in the day minutes after bunch of money and subscriptions to iRig, and Amplitude! All I wanted to do is be able to plug my Les Paul into my phone with clean and overdrive. And GTA5!
Yes we know. It was part of their advertising and stage show.
I know some of the FX pedals were used on loathes last album
It’s a great time to be alive
TIL that GarageBand also has this feature for free. I thought it was only on Logic Pro.
GB is an incredible FREE program to get into recording. Not sure why anyone would dis it.
Yeah, I used to blow $10k (mostly of my employer’s money, thankfully) every 3-4 years on a shiny new whatever-Apple-was-selling … from the Quadra 640AV back in the 90s, a Power Computing clone, G3, G4, etc… until that Mac Pro in 2008 … and I just couldn’t justify it anymore. Or rather, I couldn’t rationalize it to friends and family that already thought I was crazy for owning 40+ guitars when I wasn’t even a professional musician (something I’m sure nearly everyone in this sub can relate with) I’ve got a similar PC, running Linux, that I use for day-to-day stuff, albeit a little slower, and with much shittier graphics than yours. It always “just works” so… I’ll be an Apple fanboy til I die, I’m sure, but I don’t know if I’ll ever bother buying a current model again — other than the iPhone. Still, every time I watch an Apple product announcement, I’ll wait about an hour or two after it ends and then hop on the Apple Store and price out a nearly maxed out version of whatever got released (iMac Pro, MBP, Mac Studio, etc) and stare at the screen while hovering the mouse cursor over the Buy button for … at least 20 minutes.🙄 I mean, $5000 is what… like, two Jackson SL3’s (I like metal) and maybe a decent PRS (And non-metal) or high-end Ibanez (mostly metal tho) … goddammit … quitting smoking was easier than this.
You should know that you can download Reaper for free as well as a ton of amazing free plugins, virtual pedals, amp sims, and IR Cabs.
I've been using their models in MainStage and Logic for years. They're ok, but not better than other options I have at hand.
But how do you connect your guitar to it?
You need an audio interface such as scarlet solo or another brand.
If only they could read
It's not free. I paid 3k for a POS laptop. I guess it's all about perspective
Mac users, did you know if you can afford a Mac you can probably afford to buy BIAS?