I dont know if this is only me, but i noticed that free amp sims give me a better overall sound.
I am a "metal" guy, meaning that distortion is my main tone, and here comes my confusion...

Maybe free amp sims are directed to users with cheap audio equipment? (cheap audio interface, etc)
Maybe free amps were made with cheap equipment, i know for instance that Vadim Taranov uses the guitar straight to the line in of his computer and that is how he does his amp sims...

With this said, my current audio interface is a Behringer UMC22...

What i thought now is that maybe paid sims are made for people with good audio interfaces, kinda like if you wanted to use Helix Native with a cheap audio interface, it wont sound as intended.

Sorry for my english btw, not my main language.

 

I have been impressed by a number of free amp sims and let down by some of the more expensive ones. Vadim Taranov is probably my favorite developer, he makes amazing free sims and his premium plugins are very reasonable. Nalex has some solid free stuff as well. I don't know if its that they make their stuff using cheap gear and therefore when they get it sounding good it also sounds good on our cheap gear, or, some of the free sims are just as good as/or better than many paid sims.

 

Agreed! I love the Vadim Noise Supression plugin, truly a godsend! I havent got too much noise with distortion with the interface, but that plugin just cleans about any unnecesary noise in the chain.

I think that they tend to sound better because they use not over-the-top gear to test/make their amp sims.

Edit: for example you can see people complaining that "the preset just doesnt sound the same when i try it" for this exact same reason... that preset was made with high quality gear, and a better guitar for sure.

 

Plenty of very good stuff for free. I just miss some cleaner stuff: most are higher gain oriented. I prefer fuzz tones (love that old face bender free vst pedal).

 

I just went and deleted most of the "paid" plugins i had... Now i just use free stuff except for Addictive Drums.

And yes, fuzz tones arent very popular it seems.

 

Vadim has the largest selection of amps that I like by far but Nalex is also good. Then there are the Ignite amps, the LePou stuff is old but still good, TSE has some good free stuff. There was a developer by the name of Ronald Passion way back and I really dug his RevolutionZ. There were 2 versions of it that I found and I liked them both but the newer was better. Even the ancient Simulanalog amp is pretty decent.There are quite a few paid ones that I like as well, though. I have a couple presets in Revalver that I like, THU has lots of good stuff, the waves archon is great, kuassa, etc. But, to be honest, there's enough good free ones to do just about anything you need.

 

I strongly disagree, but anyway the AD/DA of an interface really does make a difference, but it is not really night and day differences. One can make good recording out of a Scarlett 2i4 if used properly. I used Lepou Lecto back in the day and to be honest even before that I used amplitube and guitarrig 4 but Lepou Lecto with free IRs (fredman ones) nailed the Mesa Rectifier tone somewhat correctly in the ballpark, in terms of sound quality..but not "feel". My main go to in the past was Lecto and Simulanalog JCM800 boosted. I know Vadim when he also with us on AcmeBarGig forum when Shred's successor, HeadCase was developed. In terms of "feel" Shred and HeadCase was better even when I used mismatched impedance to the line input when I had no audio interface on me sometimes.

Fast forward to now, Nalex Amplex is my second go to amp sims, eventhough I have Kuassa (Kuassa was devs of aradaz and ronaldpassion IIRC) and PA Diezel VH4 is my main tone.

You really can't go wrong with free amp sims now or you are not doing it right with your setup (bad cables, bad guitar setups, bad gainstaging, the list goes on) IME you can just get a guitar cable into an audio interface and get a good tone with a free amp sim if gainstaged correctly.

 

It's always best to use what you like.

I think the Lepou amp sims sound great and they happen to be free. I see no downside to that.

 

Totally, there is enough free stuff out there, except for drum sounds, that is why i still use Addictive Drums.
I dont know about RevolutionZ, i will search it up.

I agree with you, but i think you misunderstood what i said lol. I said that maybe some devs that make free stuff, made their amps with cheap audio interfaces and that is why i am getting best results with these than with paid amps vsts. Kinda like those devs with paid amps tested, for example, the Neural DSP plugins with an Apollo Audio interface with excellent instrument input, etc.

Of course there is no downside! I get the best tones out of Lepou plugins than with paid ones.

 

You should use whatever you get the best results out of! In my case, I have way more time under my belt that I spent with free stuff, so many a times it's easier for me to get a good tone out of the free plugins. LePou is legendary, and Vadim is still making awesome plugins, but the appearance of NaLex was unexpected and truly one of the best things that happened in the free VST amp sim world.

But sometimes, there are areas where the paid stuff does excel. It's particularly true for the mid-gain and edge of breakup sound. Personally, I really like Helix Native because of its sound, routing capabilities and the fact that I really love and need a few of the Line 6 amps and effects as I use them a lot. I also find lots of use for POD Farm too because I own an older hardware unit with the same generation of modelling.

I agree that there's not so much clean stuff out there. But there a few that come to mind:
1. LePou Lextac: Even if it has some great driven tones, it has an awesome clean channel too and does edge of breakup tones quite well.
2. NaLex Ninja: On top of the really tight and aggressive drive channel, it has a solid clean channel that works great for more modern tones.

Great point! I've found that to be true almost 100% of the time. Free plugins are almost always way more lightweight.

 

Bro, i need to say THANKS for mentioning Shred and Headcase, it made me go search for them and find what i was looking for in amp simulation! they sound evil and old school as hell, loving it! thanks a lot man!

Totally bro, i understand you, i also like Helix for its pitch shifter and distortion pedals, very good stuff... however i find that free plugins are "easier" to use somehow, and more raw in terms of sound, more true to life, i dont know how to explain it haha.
It also matchs a mediocre player like me, with mediocre sound equipment, i dont need fancy stuff.

 

Did you get the pack of Headcase amps? There's a head installer and a whole bunch of amps that you can add to headcase. Cant remember where I found it all but there were quite a few. IFace was amazing for its time. That was the first IR loader I seen that let you drag a mic around instead of going through individual IR files. But it only worked with RedWirez

 

This. A must have for any super high gain stuff.

 

The few tracks I did back in the day used TSE 808 (free version), Poulin Legion and the Catharsis IRs. Sounds great. I did this test using the Prominy V-Metal Kontakt lib:


Emissary also massively kicks asses. I'm outdated for modern free ampsims and similar but I'm sure the suggestions here are also good. Vadim Taranov is a hell of a programmer.

 

Last edited: Sep 24, 2021

I got EVERYTHING from Headcase, a guy in a Facebook group shared all the amps and the lastest Headcase version (1.5.4)
What i found terribly bizarre and funny was that in order to install ampsims you need to install them with JPG images of the amps LOL
But it works great, the built in cabs are very good too, but i use the "Loner" version, which is just the amp, so you can use your own impulses...
I found lots of old school amps there.

Totally mate, its an awesome plugin, it just cleans all the unwanted noise, makes recordings sound 10x clearer.

Sounds good, a bit dark in tone, but better than any tone i could make back in the day for sure lol, also V-Metal round robins SUCK, Shreddage was 100 times better, i remember V-Metal being 10GB while Shreddage was just 2GB or so, good old days!

Glad i just learned to play guitar and bought one 6 or 7 years ago.

 

Was it a guy named Dom? I gave him all the headcase stuff. He's a pretty big contributor to some of the facebook groups and the guitar and bass plugins site

 

Great stuff here :

https://www.patreon.com/analogobsession

All free

 

I honestly cant remember bro, i deleted Headcase already anyway, because it was giving me some problems lol.

Thanks bro, i know Analog Obsession, amazing stuff.