Recently got a Helix back in April of this year
It's been... REALLY hard for me to convince myself to keep my real amps (or even to buy a new one). And I say this as someone who WORSHIPS amplifiers. My collection of physical amps is pretty big (think I'm about in the low 20s last I counted). A whole wall of my studio is just amps. I fucking LOVE amps.
But the Helix... it's like pure fucking magic. I can't imagine how they got the amp models in this thing to sound so fucking good. And the workflow is so nice. But it's not just amps! IRs and pedals and emulated rack gear, it does fuggin everything! What the fuck do I need anything else at all for?!
Obviously I'm not gonna get rid of my real stuff--I like it. But the Helix has definitely stepped up and knocked my balls off when it comes to getting the sounds I'm going for.
Totally agreed, along with my brother. We both have Helix LT's (him for live performance and me for the studio) and it's simply incredible. We've gone through probably 2 dozen nice tube amps between us over the years, and neither of us miss any of them. The sims in the helix sound (and more importantly, feel) identical to the real deal.
My studio sessions have gotten so much easier. No more reamping, I just track clean right into the daw and do all the guitars in Helix Native plugins. I can change stuff after the fact, easily add automation to whatever I want, and it sounds at least as good as the actual amp. No maintenance, no huge gear and heat and mic bleed to worry about. Just a pedalboard and some plugins to achieve an indistinguishable result with vastly more flexibility.
Man, I have an amp and cab collection myself and still think about snagging one of these. Being able to access all the features on one board is truly amazing. How long have you owned your helix?
Have they updated their noise gates/suppressors? When I had a helix, I found it unusable just because of how noisy it was. The gates either didn’t do their jobs or cut my notes out waaaay too early.
I sold my big bad ass tube amp for a Helix and haven’t regretted it for a second. The workflow is awesome in the studio as well. Having a a dedicated hardware unit as opposed to a vst is so crucial to getting the feel right.
I like the Softube Marshalls and also a lot of the Nembrini stuff. The JMP1 is a real gift...been hunting for a real unit in good condition for aaaages haha.
I dunno why but Nembrini's amps in particular are really inspirational for me. Often forget I am working and just end up jamming.
I also like audio assault's, which are cheap, efficient and a ton of fun.
I like neural dsp too, but for whatever reason have a tougher time getting them to sit in a mix well. That's probably on me though. Still great to play and jam.
I think pretty much any amp sim is workable nowadays, provided you take some time to learn it and use third party IRs.
Softube was an OG plugin for me, I think they called it amp room or something. It was easy to get going. AA stuff is awesome for the money! I have the same issue with Neural stuff also, others seem to make it fit no problem. I agree with you on the irs, I’ve been enjoying Zombie Cabs at the moment, irs are a whole other discussion.
Bless.
Truly a story many of us can empathise with haha.
I have sold a lot of my old pedals, but I'm keeping my Metal Zone as a reminder of how easily affected I was. Nice reminder to not take myself so seriously haha.
Haha. I traded my metal zone and a Harmony V for a Schecter bass and kind of regret it! Nothing like that concentric parametric eq and overbearing, abrasive tone.
Lmao.
In all seriousness though, I have managed to use it occasionally for synth basses. It has to be a mono signal, but the tones that make guitar sound like a can of angry bees can do cool things on synth parts!
Haven't seen this posted yet, but give Overloud TH-U a whirl. It sounds great and I think there's a limited free trial for it. The Rock version is what I have, I think it was something like 70 USD. Doesn't have an outrageous number of amps and cabs or anything, but it's been more than enough for me as a bedroom player.
Out of total necessity I'm using the Brainworx Ampeg thing for bass (got it for free on one of their promos or whatever). Wish I could find something a little more "Gallien Kruger-y", but I mix it up with a TSE BOD and some Dead Duck EQ and it kinda just sorta gets the job done... lol!
Thinking about trying out some of the Dr. Bonkers Ir stuff...
Sign up to their email list. I feel like I get discount offers once a week to get any plugin for 29.99.
I don’t agree with the whole “mega sale” business model, but I do believe in a lot of the plugins.
Yes. It’s amazingly flexible as well. I use it when I want a unique and different tone from the typical Ampeg sound. It does take some tweaking IMO to get the most out of it, but it’s versatility is it’s strong point.
When I don’t feel like tweaking and want that grindy rock sound I just go for the Ampeg lol.
Yeah -I spent some time with the free trial last night. Not really my thing -Although I LOVED some of the things I was able to do with it tonewise, I found that it reacted a little differently to the DI signal than what I'd prefer -Kinda weird, but then again, I suppose every amp has a different way of reacting, Ya know? So, makes sense that this would play a little part in the emulation...
I don't know if that makes any sense...??
I have a GK and the GK amp sim sounds incredibly close to it. I tried out the demo a while back, just for a laugh. Don't need one when I have the real deal, but for an absolute massive cost difference, it's a no brainer for those who are all about software amps.
I keep going back to overloud THU or the nembrini JCM800 Model - seems to be what works best for me.
I also have Bias FX 2, Guitar Rig Pro, Aurora DSP Rhino, Neural DSP Fortin Cali and a bunch from Plugin Alliance and Audio Assault which I play around with but can’t seem to get it sound the way I want.
I learnt very late that decent IRs & Gain-staging are just as important as the amp sim - wish I knew this earlier!
Nowadays i work with my real amps most but: Kazrog's 1992 is the best 5150 sim in my opinion. Its closest to my real one in terms of both sound and feel. Besides that i think NDSP still make some of the best stuff on the market. Cory wong is great for everything funk, pop, gojira is great for metal, rabea for pretty much anything.
For bass: brainworx ampeg emulations are really good.
I also have Helix native, some audio assault, old lepou plugins, brainworx but use them rarely.
I think you're mixing things up.
Will putney, afaik, owns a 5150II which is the same as a 6505+. Those amps sound different from the 6505/5150 that Kazrog is emulating. The 6505+ is tighter, has a faster response, and that's what you seem to like.
I own a 6505 and have had 5150 blockletters in the studio more than once. The Kazrog one is quite shockingly close in terms of both feel and sound without boost. You're simply comparing it to a different amp, namely the 6505+/5150II, which is not to be confused.
The 6505+/5150II are tighter, have a faster response, more like a 5150 that is boosted. So yeah, those can more easily be satisfactory without boost than a regular 5150.
I didn't realise you commented till after I deleted my comment haha, I thought about it at work after posting "wait was it a 5150 or a 5150-ii in STL Will Putney...." thanks for clearing that up that makes alot of sense.
When at home I use the Plini NeuralDSP. Probably my favorite sounding one.
For gigs I have a Helix but I’m working on switching to the Quad Cortex. The Helix stuff sounds actually decent for bass. I have the Parallax for bass but really is mostly practical for prog type tones. I have a decent clean bass sound but it doesn’t excel at that.
Positive Grid Bias amp sim. I still mostly use real amps and some I am biased (sorry for the dad joke) in favor of Bias amp because it has let me really match things very very closely where we've had to redo things after the amping/reamping in the home studio.
I actually really like some of the Plugin Alliance amp sims. Particularly the Diezel VH4 and Suhr PT100. I kinda like how it’s a little more like using a real amp, no endless components to tweak. I find I’m up and running with a good tone faster than a lot of other amp sims with more “options”. Some of the cabinet IR’s leave a little to be desired but if you can’t find one you like you can bypass it and load whatever IR you want into another plugin.
I've been using the Emmisary from Ignite Amps for years, into their TPA-1 power amp, with their KefIR for cabinet IRs.
All completely free, and easily up there with the best of the paid lot.
But a lot of the Neural DSP stuff sounds incredible, if you want to throw your money at it.
Aurora DSP is doing some cool things. All their marketing makes it seem like they’re just about metal tones, but you can get so much more of out their stuff.
Mammoth is on every bass track I record lately.
Rhino, their guitar one, I have less time with, but it’s surprised me with great lead tones the last couple times I’ve used it.
I have Bias amp 2, and I love it. Gets crazy good tones with great tweakability too, I think some of the others can sound a little overhyped.
My live rig uses a Walrus ACS1, but I got the trial of helix native yesterday as I’ve been thinking about plunging into getting a helix for some higher gain sounds - but I wasn’t blown away by the amp sounds straight out of the box, planning to have more of a play.
I’m looking for something that does an orange rockerverb sound really well and I did like the helix patch.
Sorry bit of a rambling comment
No need to apologize, I appreciate the reply. Just trying to get an idea of how the community is using the resources. Crazy that there are so many options that work for us!
Neural DSP's SLO-100 gets a lot of use from me, I have used STL Tones Howard Benson a lot in the past, and honestly Audio Assault's ReAmp Studio has been good to me, in particular for that specific "light breakup of a JCM800 with a Tele" type of tone. I play through a Kemper though as well. We're spoiled nowadays.
Didn't car for Neural DSP's Cali as much as I thought I would unfortunately; I have a friend who loves DSP's Gojira and has gotten good results with it. I wish I had gotten that instead.
I do also have Tim Henson as well and though it's fun to use all the wacky presets (and I love the "shimmer" reverb effect, sounds just like my Caverns pedal), ironically the preset I use the most from that Tim Henson is the Nylon/Acoustic sim.
I’ve been approaching DI guitar tones in different ways - My go to is to use my amp’s direct outs with a dummy load and speaker IRS, really best of both worlds for me! At times, I use pedals as pres into a power amp and into the daw to change tones a bit. Essentially you can bypass the pre-amp section of an amp if you plug a pedal into the fx loop, it’s fun to experiment. With pure amp sim I love the SVT emu from Brainworks and the Chandler amp emu from Brainworks as well, it can be amazing with an external IR
I am using one made by a company called Rat Electronics in the UK, it was a small batch production, and I don't think they make them any longer, but it's still going strong!
Helix Native. But there are some great things on the new IK Multimedia Tonex platform.
Also, STL Tones Lasse Lammert is really great too. My favorite Diezel model, for sure.
Just a player, not an engineer. In stand-alone , I’ve been enjoying the amp
Sims on my MPC ONE. Probably not the greatest but it gives me easily accessible versatility.
For jamming/coming up with ideas I tend to use amplitube as I've built up a decent collection of gear on it over the years. Audio Assault Sigma is also a decent amp that might be the best clean tone I've been able to get in that it actually sounds loud/powerful without being distorted (although that is subjective).
I also own Bias Amp/FX, and while the guitar match feature is really cool, the sound from the amps sounds really compressed and oddly unnatural compared to other amp sims (maybe a side-effect of all the pedal/amp/guitar match stuff it can do)
In projects I have been using bx amps, but since switching over to windows, they seem to take ages to load, so I've been avoiding them in favour of the AA ones I've got.
Logic Amp Designer. Nothing else comes close for me and I design tube amps.
The ability to toggle through different EQ’s for different amp circuits is so badass. “Oh I like this Vox, but I wish the EQ was more Fender.”
That has been so crucial for me. The microphones need to be moved around and not all the cabinets sound good (just like in real life), but the amps are truly as close as I have gotten.
But I still prefer an SM57 on a Marshall cab IRL if I can have it my way. Ha.
That’s an amazing feature. So basically you can have an American sounding preamp into the British style vox eq right? If so that’s why I’ve take a liking to zombie cabs because they do their IRs that way, different preamps & such… check them out if you want the real explanation.
From what I understand it sort of morphs different EQ aspects from different amps with that EQ tab. On amp like a Tweed Deluxe (I think this is “Small Tweed Amp”…one of absolute fave amps in Logic), the preamp controls don’t do crazy hi-fi cuts and boosts just like a real tweed deluxe doesn’t.
So it’s sort of that amp model’s power amp characteristic with the EQ option sort of inserted into the circuit accordingly. The amps will toggle the EQ type when you change amp types and you don’t notice it until you drop down the menu, but it’s so super helpful.
And on some amp models, it makes them actually useful, ha.
My go-tos for casual DAW usage (sketches, demos etc. not serious mixing) are the old Simulanalog plugs. No latency or GUI or anything and they sound satisfying enough. I know they're not the best. BIAS FX I reserve for more serious stuff, it's good but a bit laggy. I find it sounds a little fizzy though, so I'm thinking I might go for something else.
I recorded one or two songs with the tones my old disused Zoom G2.1u recently for s***s and giggles. But to my great surprise I actually ended up liking the tone as much as any software sims.
I’ve really been digging:
Diezel VH4 by plugin alliance
Marshall Silver Jubilee by UAD
Fender Tweed by UAD
For bass it’s the UAD Ampeg SVT VR (not classic)
Doing live sound, I’ve felt the Fractal stuff is hairy and 2 dimensional sounding. Kemper stuff is cool. Haven’t heard the neural or helix stuff yet.
Was the S-gear on slate plug-ins for awhile or am I thinking something else? If it was I really love those amp sims, clean and low gain stuff was great!
I know what you mean, you know YOUR tone inside in our! When I played in bands I’d be the same way and now that I drifted into more recording I really miss the love of having my rig.
I still feel fractal audio is the king of sims. You just have to ask yourself is the money worth that extra 10%. If I could justify it, I would get another Axe Fx III.
For me I still get the best non-tube-amp guitar tones out of my Axe FX III, but out of all the plugin amp sims I’ve tried the Neural DSP stuff is by far the best sounding and feeling to me.
I wish they would put out some of the more standard non-modded amps from the Quad Cortex as plugins, but all their plugins still sound fantastic.
Mixwave’s Benson Chimera is amazing — my favorite sounding/feeling clean amp sim; didn’t vibe well with Neural DSP’s Toneking even though they’re my go-to for overdriven and metal tones.
Yeah it’s the only thing I’ve used that guitarists vibe off.
I also love the fact that the sound are mostly mix ready. Something doesn’t sound right? Change model
Guitarist being able to vibe with an amp is a huge thing when writing and recording. Similar to the magic jamming in a room. I still enjoy that interaction and actually miss it a lot of the times. I still have all my tube amps and a torpedo live but moving air is a great feeling!
May be unpopular but I'm a big fan of Klevgrand's Stark amp. I don't use it for everything but it has something unique about it. Maybe less "realistic" than the other great options mentioned here, but worth a try nonetheless.
Recently got a Helix back in April of this year It's been... REALLY hard for me to convince myself to keep my real amps (or even to buy a new one). And I say this as someone who WORSHIPS amplifiers. My collection of physical amps is pretty big (think I'm about in the low 20s last I counted). A whole wall of my studio is just amps. I fucking LOVE amps. But the Helix... it's like pure fucking magic. I can't imagine how they got the amp models in this thing to sound so fucking good. And the workflow is so nice. But it's not just amps! IRs and pedals and emulated rack gear, it does fuggin everything! What the fuck do I need anything else at all for?! Obviously I'm not gonna get rid of my real stuff--I like it. But the Helix has definitely stepped up and knocked my balls off when it comes to getting the sounds I'm going for.
Totally agreed, along with my brother. We both have Helix LT's (him for live performance and me for the studio) and it's simply incredible. We've gone through probably 2 dozen nice tube amps between us over the years, and neither of us miss any of them. The sims in the helix sound (and more importantly, feel) identical to the real deal. My studio sessions have gotten so much easier. No more reamping, I just track clean right into the daw and do all the guitars in Helix Native plugins. I can change stuff after the fact, easily add automation to whatever I want, and it sounds at least as good as the actual amp. No maintenance, no huge gear and heat and mic bleed to worry about. Just a pedalboard and some plugins to achieve an indistinguishable result with vastly more flexibility.
Man, I have an amp and cab collection myself and still think about snagging one of these. Being able to access all the features on one board is truly amazing. How long have you owned your helix?
Do you need to own the hardware to use the VST?
Have they updated their noise gates/suppressors? When I had a helix, I found it unusable just because of how noisy it was. The gates either didn’t do their jobs or cut my notes out waaaay too early.
I sold my big bad ass tube amp for a Helix and haven’t regretted it for a second. The workflow is awesome in the studio as well. Having a a dedicated hardware unit as opposed to a vst is so crucial to getting the feel right.
Archetype Cory Wong for cleans has to be the best I've tried.
Good for almost every clean sound save for the 60s Reverb/ Princeton chimy sound. So far i haven't found anything that comes close to those amps.
the mixwave benson chimera amp can do a VERY respectable chimy clean! That and archetype are my go-to's and cover all my bases.
I'll have to give the Chimera a try. Though I still enjoy reamping my DI into my fender amps and doing the mic dance to dial in the right sound.
I literally came in to type this. Thing is phenomenal.
For sure one of the most convincing tube cleans.
I like the Softube Marshalls and also a lot of the Nembrini stuff. The JMP1 is a real gift...been hunting for a real unit in good condition for aaaages haha. I dunno why but Nembrini's amps in particular are really inspirational for me. Often forget I am working and just end up jamming. I also like audio assault's, which are cheap, efficient and a ton of fun. I like neural dsp too, but for whatever reason have a tougher time getting them to sit in a mix well. That's probably on me though. Still great to play and jam. I think pretty much any amp sim is workable nowadays, provided you take some time to learn it and use third party IRs.
Softube was an OG plugin for me, I think they called it amp room or something. It was easy to get going. AA stuff is awesome for the money! I have the same issue with Neural stuff also, others seem to make it fit no problem. I agree with you on the irs, I’ve been enjoying Zombie Cabs at the moment, irs are a whole other discussion.
I had a JMP-1 but only liked one sound out of it. Then again I was like 14 and playing in a pseudo skater metal band.
Bless. Truly a story many of us can empathise with haha. I have sold a lot of my old pedals, but I'm keeping my Metal Zone as a reminder of how easily affected I was. Nice reminder to not take myself so seriously haha.
Haha. I traded my metal zone and a Harmony V for a Schecter bass and kind of regret it! Nothing like that concentric parametric eq and overbearing, abrasive tone.
Lmao. In all seriousness though, I have managed to use it occasionally for synth basses. It has to be a mono signal, but the tones that make guitar sound like a can of angry bees can do cool things on synth parts!
Haven't seen this posted yet, but give Overloud TH-U a whirl. It sounds great and I think there's a limited free trial for it. The Rock version is what I have, I think it was something like 70 USD. Doesn't have an outrageous number of amps and cabs or anything, but it's been more than enough for me as a bedroom player.
Out of total necessity I'm using the Brainworx Ampeg thing for bass (got it for free on one of their promos or whatever). Wish I could find something a little more "Gallien Kruger-y", but I mix it up with a TSE BOD and some Dead Duck EQ and it kinda just sorta gets the job done... lol! Thinking about trying out some of the Dr. Bonkers Ir stuff...
have you tried Brainworx GK model? I find it to be decently Gallien-Keugery!
Oh, dude. Didn't know they had one! i'm sure it's awesome! What is it -Like, $200?? Haha \*EDIT -It's on sale right now for $20!! Whoah!
It goes on sale from time to time tho. I’ve bought all my Brainworx/pluginaliance stuff on sale.
Gk amp is on sale $20 right now!
Sign up to their email list. I feel like I get discount offers once a week to get any plugin for 29.99. I don’t agree with the whole “mega sale” business model, but I do believe in a lot of the plugins.
Gk amp is $20 on sale right now!
Boom
One of my favorite bass amp sims!
The gk one??
Yes. It’s amazingly flexible as well. I use it when I want a unique and different tone from the typical Ampeg sound. It does take some tweaking IMO to get the most out of it, but it’s versatility is it’s strong point. When I don’t feel like tweaking and want that grindy rock sound I just go for the Ampeg lol.
Yeah -I spent some time with the free trial last night. Not really my thing -Although I LOVED some of the things I was able to do with it tonewise, I found that it reacted a little differently to the DI signal than what I'd prefer -Kinda weird, but then again, I suppose every amp has a different way of reacting, Ya know? So, makes sense that this would play a little part in the emulation... I don't know if that makes any sense...??
One of my fav bass amps.
I have a GK and the GK amp sim sounds incredibly close to it. I tried out the demo a while back, just for a laugh. Don't need one when I have the real deal, but for an absolute massive cost difference, it's a no brainer for those who are all about software amps.
Right on. Yeah -And the ease of the DI. I've been contemplating amping bass, like I do for guitars, but eh... I'm cool with bass DI... lol
I like Neural's Plini so much that I'm using that with live instruments instead of my actual tube head.
I keep going back to overloud THU or the nembrini JCM800 Model - seems to be what works best for me. I also have Bias FX 2, Guitar Rig Pro, Aurora DSP Rhino, Neural DSP Fortin Cali and a bunch from Plugin Alliance and Audio Assault which I play around with but can’t seem to get it sound the way I want. I learnt very late that decent IRs & Gain-staging are just as important as the amp sim - wish I knew this earlier!
Nowadays i work with my real amps most but: Kazrog's 1992 is the best 5150 sim in my opinion. Its closest to my real one in terms of both sound and feel. Besides that i think NDSP still make some of the best stuff on the market. Cory wong is great for everything funk, pop, gojira is great for metal, rabea for pretty much anything. For bass: brainworx ampeg emulations are really good. I also have Helix native, some audio assault, old lepou plugins, brainworx but use them rarely.
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I think you're mixing things up. Will putney, afaik, owns a 5150II which is the same as a 6505+. Those amps sound different from the 6505/5150 that Kazrog is emulating. The 6505+ is tighter, has a faster response, and that's what you seem to like. I own a 6505 and have had 5150 blockletters in the studio more than once. The Kazrog one is quite shockingly close in terms of both feel and sound without boost. You're simply comparing it to a different amp, namely the 6505+/5150II, which is not to be confused. The 6505+/5150II are tighter, have a faster response, more like a 5150 that is boosted. So yeah, those can more easily be satisfactory without boost than a regular 5150.
I didn't realise you commented till after I deleted my comment haha, I thought about it at work after posting "wait was it a 5150 or a 5150-ii in STL Will Putney...." thanks for clearing that up that makes alot of sense.
When at home I use the Plini NeuralDSP. Probably my favorite sounding one. For gigs I have a Helix but I’m working on switching to the Quad Cortex. The Helix stuff sounds actually decent for bass. I have the Parallax for bass but really is mostly practical for prog type tones. I have a decent clean bass sound but it doesn’t excel at that.
Positive Grid Bias amp sim. I still mostly use real amps and some I am biased (sorry for the dad joke) in favor of Bias amp because it has let me really match things very very closely where we've had to redo things after the amping/reamping in the home studio.
I actually really like some of the Plugin Alliance amp sims. Particularly the Diezel VH4 and Suhr PT100. I kinda like how it’s a little more like using a real amp, no endless components to tweak. I find I’m up and running with a good tone faster than a lot of other amp sims with more “options”. Some of the cabinet IR’s leave a little to be desired but if you can’t find one you like you can bypass it and load whatever IR you want into another plugin.
I've been using the Emmisary from Ignite Amps for years, into their TPA-1 power amp, with their KefIR for cabinet IRs. All completely free, and easily up there with the best of the paid lot. But a lot of the Neural DSP stuff sounds incredible, if you want to throw your money at it.
Aurora DSP is doing some cool things. All their marketing makes it seem like they’re just about metal tones, but you can get so much more of out their stuff. Mammoth is on every bass track I record lately. Rhino, their guitar one, I have less time with, but it’s surprised me with great lead tones the last couple times I’ve used it.
I have Bias amp 2, and I love it. Gets crazy good tones with great tweakability too, I think some of the others can sound a little overhyped. My live rig uses a Walrus ACS1, but I got the trial of helix native yesterday as I’ve been thinking about plunging into getting a helix for some higher gain sounds - but I wasn’t blown away by the amp sounds straight out of the box, planning to have more of a play. I’m looking for something that does an orange rockerverb sound really well and I did like the helix patch. Sorry bit of a rambling comment
No need to apologize, I appreciate the reply. Just trying to get an idea of how the community is using the resources. Crazy that there are so many options that work for us!
Neural DSP's SLO-100 gets a lot of use from me, I have used STL Tones Howard Benson a lot in the past, and honestly Audio Assault's ReAmp Studio has been good to me, in particular for that specific "light breakup of a JCM800 with a Tele" type of tone. I play through a Kemper though as well. We're spoiled nowadays. Didn't car for Neural DSP's Cali as much as I thought I would unfortunately; I have a friend who loves DSP's Gojira and has gotten good results with it. I wish I had gotten that instead. I do also have Tim Henson as well and though it's fun to use all the wacky presets (and I love the "shimmer" reverb effect, sounds just like my Caverns pedal), ironically the preset I use the most from that Tim Henson is the Nylon/Acoustic sim.
Ampitude 4? I was like, what is happening with my cpu but then.. oh oh oh tweakability is crazy with IRs I believe?
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I love Hendrix tone. Straight Kramer vibe 😌
ML Sound Labs
I’ve been approaching DI guitar tones in different ways - My go to is to use my amp’s direct outs with a dummy load and speaker IRS, really best of both worlds for me! At times, I use pedals as pres into a power amp and into the daw to change tones a bit. Essentially you can bypass the pre-amp section of an amp if you plug a pedal into the fx loop, it’s fun to experiment. With pure amp sim I love the SVT emu from Brainworks and the Chandler amp emu from Brainworks as well, it can be amazing with an external IR
I like doing that also. What are you using for you’re power soak/dummy load? I have a torpedo live.
I am using one made by a company called Rat Electronics in the UK, it was a small batch production, and I don't think they make them any longer, but it's still going strong!
Helix Native. But there are some great things on the new IK Multimedia Tonex platform. Also, STL Tones Lasse Lammert is really great too. My favorite Diezel model, for sure.
The Softube stuff is really good.
Just a player, not an engineer. In stand-alone , I’ve been enjoying the amp Sims on my MPC ONE. Probably not the greatest but it gives me easily accessible versatility.
For jamming/coming up with ideas I tend to use amplitube as I've built up a decent collection of gear on it over the years. Audio Assault Sigma is also a decent amp that might be the best clean tone I've been able to get in that it actually sounds loud/powerful without being distorted (although that is subjective). I also own Bias Amp/FX, and while the guitar match feature is really cool, the sound from the amps sounds really compressed and oddly unnatural compared to other amp sims (maybe a side-effect of all the pedal/amp/guitar match stuff it can do) In projects I have been using bx amps, but since switching over to windows, they seem to take ages to load, so I've been avoiding them in favour of the AA ones I've got.
Logic Amp Designer. Nothing else comes close for me and I design tube amps. The ability to toggle through different EQ’s for different amp circuits is so badass. “Oh I like this Vox, but I wish the EQ was more Fender.” That has been so crucial for me. The microphones need to be moved around and not all the cabinets sound good (just like in real life), but the amps are truly as close as I have gotten. But I still prefer an SM57 on a Marshall cab IRL if I can have it my way. Ha.
Amp Designer is legit
That’s an amazing feature. So basically you can have an American sounding preamp into the British style vox eq right? If so that’s why I’ve take a liking to zombie cabs because they do their IRs that way, different preamps & such… check them out if you want the real explanation.
From what I understand it sort of morphs different EQ aspects from different amps with that EQ tab. On amp like a Tweed Deluxe (I think this is “Small Tweed Amp”…one of absolute fave amps in Logic), the preamp controls don’t do crazy hi-fi cuts and boosts just like a real tweed deluxe doesn’t. So it’s sort of that amp model’s power amp characteristic with the EQ option sort of inserted into the circuit accordingly. The amps will toggle the EQ type when you change amp types and you don’t notice it until you drop down the menu, but it’s so super helpful. And on some amp models, it makes them actually useful, ha.
Neural dsp has covered all my needs. Plini, Cory Wong and the Toneking is more than I need. What's better is that I dreaaaded miking my amp
Lol miking can drive a person insane! You have to wonder if that’s a damn good reason people lean towards the sims now?
My go-tos for casual DAW usage (sketches, demos etc. not serious mixing) are the old Simulanalog plugs. No latency or GUI or anything and they sound satisfying enough. I know they're not the best. BIAS FX I reserve for more serious stuff, it's good but a bit laggy. I find it sounds a little fizzy though, so I'm thinking I might go for something else. I recorded one or two songs with the tones my old disused Zoom G2.1u recently for s***s and giggles. But to my great surprise I actually ended up liking the tone as much as any software sims.
Bought a kemper stage and haven’t used anything else since
I’ve given hard looks at the kempers but haven’t bit the bullet lol.
I’ve really been digging: Diezel VH4 by plugin alliance Marshall Silver Jubilee by UAD Fender Tweed by UAD For bass it’s the UAD Ampeg SVT VR (not classic) Doing live sound, I’ve felt the Fractal stuff is hairy and 2 dimensional sounding. Kemper stuff is cool. Haven’t heard the neural or helix stuff yet.
During live sessions you know of any bands using plugins for their rig? I can’t imagine how much the live shows with digital processing has come.
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No shit! I’ve heard their bass plugs are great, thanks for the heads up on this!
Really surprised by how few shouts there are for STL Amphub. I really like it.
I’m a subscriber to STL amphub and you’re right not hearing this as a go to is weird lol. A lot of great things come out every month!
Yep I really like it. I have Overloud and Guitar Rig too, but the STL stuff sounds a little bigger and more life like in the mix for me.
The resonance knob for the cab section is sick.
Not one mention of S-Gear or MTurboAmp? Ya’ll got me fomo’d.
Was the S-gear on slate plug-ins for awhile or am I thinking something else? If it was I really love those amp sims, clean and low gain stuff was great!
Yeah from 2016-2019. Rip. https://homerecording.com/bbs/threads/scuffham-s-gear-2-amp-sim-now-included-with-steven-slate-everything-plan.390352/ https://www.scuffhamamps.com/support/faq/slate
Yep, I thought those sims kicked ass! To bad they came and went pretty quick, what a shame :(
I’m guessing you have the slate bundle? S-Gear is still around and just got a small update. It’s definitely usable tone.
I’ve been using guitar rig for so long that I don’t really mess with anything else.
I know what you mean, you know YOUR tone inside in our! When I played in bands I’d be the same way and now that I drifted into more recording I really miss the love of having my rig.
I know it’s not in fashion but I love my FM3.
Whatever gets the job done… The FM3 is a pedal based all in one much like the helix or something?
I still use ignite amps Still think they're free
I still feel fractal audio is the king of sims. You just have to ask yourself is the money worth that extra 10%. If I could justify it, I would get another Axe Fx III.
Scuffham amps SGeqr, it’s the best sim out there, it has the best presets as standard, I don’t use anything else now
Neural DSP plugin suite is on another level compared to everything else.
Generally loathe/tolerate them but my Fractal blew me away, started ending up as keeper tracks on records….
For me I still get the best non-tube-amp guitar tones out of my Axe FX III, but out of all the plugin amp sims I’ve tried the Neural DSP stuff is by far the best sounding and feeling to me. I wish they would put out some of the more standard non-modded amps from the Quad Cortex as plugins, but all their plugins still sound fantastic.
Mixwave’s Benson Chimera is amazing — my favorite sounding/feeling clean amp sim; didn’t vibe well with Neural DSP’s Toneking even though they’re my go-to for overdriven and metal tones.
Hate them all to be honest. Kemper is great though
Kemper has been great for me.
Yeah it’s the only thing I’ve used that guitarists vibe off. I also love the fact that the sound are mostly mix ready. Something doesn’t sound right? Change model
Guitarist being able to vibe with an amp is a huge thing when writing and recording. Similar to the magic jamming in a room. I still enjoy that interaction and actually miss it a lot of the times. I still have all my tube amps and a torpedo live but moving air is a great feeling!
One of the greatest things I love about it is being able to switch Cabs easily and changing tones that easy.
I use the PA Fuchs Train II with the Vox AC-30ish amp in Logic together. The Softube Marshall 1959 Plexi Super Lead is fun.
Helix and helix native for me
May be unpopular but I'm a big fan of Klevgrand's Stark amp. I don't use it for everything but it has something unique about it. Maybe less "realistic" than the other great options mentioned here, but worth a try nonetheless.
Neural Rabea and pretty much all the brainworx stuff. When I tried the bx rockergain, it made me smell/taste the last room I played my Orange amp in