Agreed, I have presonus bluetube pre that I modded (replaced the tube). I replaced the cheap chinese 12ax7 tube with a nice looking russian Genalex one. Its insane the difference in build quality (and sound) of the tubes just looking at the glass and coils inside of them.
I used to use this in my live bass rig with a comp16 chained behind it feeding into my crate combo amp. World of difference in sound and bite. Whenever I record live instruments or vox, I hit it with just a little bit of tube going in. Not too much though, Im not looking for heavy saturation here, just a little bit of nice warm color. When you zoom in on the wavs the difference between the clean ones and the tube ones are crazy, more rounded and smoother looking instead of so jagged.

I was going to build this at one time till I looked at my tubepre and realized I could just mod the one I had.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Guitar-Tube-Pre-Amp/

 

Last edited: Jun 1, 2017

i'll send it man, thank you

 

Yeah, that's a recommended upgrade for the MPA. I'm not sure if the Pro II has the Chinese tubes. There's supposed to be a version of it that's got decent tubes from the get go. I'll have to look inside it at some point. Also, what tubes are in it determines what color you'll get.
Hell, my other guitar player liked the sound of it so much plugged into his Orange that he bought one.

 

So the Lexicon Alpha does have a "instrument" input. I don't know how good is it. So this is like general advice for anyone trying to figure out why their guitar sounds suck on computer.

I've tried loads of different preamps, DI boxes, effect boxes and audio interfaces with different types of preamps to plug my guitar into. It does make a difference. Sometimes a big difference. For example someone recommended on this thread an ART Tube preamp. I find they sound good as DI boxes but are noticeably noisy when using semi-to high-gain sounds. Get one for your condenser microphone. Don't get one for your guitar.

My current setup has a (don't laugh) Behringer V-Amp Pro as a DI box. I get that the thing it self is horribly dated but the input section seems to be "pro" quality and it gives you the option to capture the analog signal before it ever hits the digital modelling stuff via an aux output. I got it for 30e used. It sounds very clean and is not noisy at all.

My recommendation? Instead of using the instrument input on your cheap interface get a quality active DI box. You can get a decent one from Samson / Behringer etc. for 30e. Or buy some brand name DI box for 100e. Like Radial.

Personally I don't believe the AD converters of your interface makes any audible difference no matter how shitty / cheap interface you have. The post DI box preamp section can make a difference with your guitar. Some add a surprising amount of noise.

Unless you have powered active pickups that output low impedance signal your guitar cable also makes a difference. You want the cable to be as short as physically possible. The longer it is the more high frequency stuff you lose. That's just how it is and there is no way around it. You CAN hear the difference. 6 meter cable is bad. 3 is better. 1,5 meters is even better. You also want you cable to be "high quality". You don't need to go all Hi-Fi on this shit but don't use the cheapest possible unshielded cable with a core made of crappy dirty metal. If you're using a long super cheap cable, do yourself a favor and buy a 20e brand cable and you'll be fine. It will last you years.

I'm not saying getting a quality DI box and a quality guitar cable will improve anyone's tone but they might.

And of course, like someone mentioned: new strings. It really is the biggest thing you can do. Put new strings on every time you seriously record something. In "real" studio settings some guitarists / engineers change the strings every few hours of recording and have a secondary guitar for noodling around / warmup so the strings on the main guitar stay good.

 

Last edited: Jun 2, 2017

Nebula is the way to go for cab sim with the IRs mentioned above, there is nothing better ITB.
I recorded a 5 song demo for a local rock band and was testing amp sims out when I mixed it. The orange sims in AmpliTube were a joke compared to the Bias ones, in fact most of all of them were thin compared to the Bias sims. Can Amplitube load 3rd party cab IRs? Good IRs is what you need. Also some of the best sounding sims are the Le Pou plugs, and theyre free http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/ Amplitube was good in its heyday when there was nothing but it, Revalver and Guitar Rig. And it is an all in one solution which is appealing and EZ, but theres much better tech and plugs available now. @Jaymz is very familiar with getting that wall of shred sound in and out of the box. Maybe hell chime in and help us out.

 

Last edited: Jun 2, 2017

@subGENRE No, Amplitube can't load 3rd-party IRs, even in version 4, which is ridiculous. You need to use a separate loader (Ignite NadIR, Le Pou etc).

 

nothing comes close to real paper speakers moving real air into a real mic for guitar cabinet sound. the reason is that a speaker cabinet is NOT a bandpass filter. the effect on guitar tone , by having is real cabinet with high end materials and speakers into high end mic and preamp, is NOT a bandpass filter! the cabinet and speakers has the biggest impact on tone than any other factor even though the others are important ( guitar, amp etc.)


this is just my perspective on it years of trying to use amp sims

i still use amplitube 4 and revalver when im in hurry or play quietly ( also use an amp sim freeware i was a part of ,making called acmebargig headcase)

 

Last edited: Jun 2, 2017

@Riot7, agreed, the Art does get somewhat noisy if your input level is so low that you have to crank the gain wide open. None of the guitars I've recorded (single coil Tele, dbl coil LP, Active PU Jackson, etc.) have required cranking it that high to get a decent record level. I adjust the Gain for color, but also to keep the noise level in check. I adjust the Output level to get the record level right. There's also a 10dB boost switch on the back that will seriously increase the noise floor so I try to leave that out. Running the grid hot or starved doesn't seem to affect noise level. I've got two (both brand new, so new tubes) that reliably operate this way. If I wanted more gain for distortion, I wouldn't try to get that from the Art, I'd use a distortion pedal in front or a distortion plugin in the chain.
Just my experience which seems to differ from yours on this particular piece of equipment.
@subGENRE, Bias has Orange? Do you know which amp was modeled?

 

If all else fails EQ matching works pretty damn well with heavy guitars.

 

@digitaldragon they modeled the ac30 head. I'm not super familiar with orange amps and honestly have only heard the combos (except for concerts). But the amplitube one was thin and brittle sounding compared to the bias fx one. But until I did a comparison I had no idea.

 

Last edited: Jun 2, 2017

Why the hell didn't I think of that now I feel stupid. Ive EQ matched vocals before I don't know why I didn't think to do it with guitars

 

Last edited: Jun 2, 2017

i've solved the problem, my Di is too weak because the lexicon alpha converters, but i matched an eq from jamvox di's and it was perfect because it raises up the highs but not too much to create a hiss, and after the amp i apply a post eq for the drive hiss. if you want to tell about add another effect, you are welcome