I am addressing this question to experienced guitarists.

I am a keyboardist so I don't have the proper ears and judgment concerning realistic sounding of different guitar FX, amp & cabs. So, to me, most vst emulators sound descent.

I would like to have your opinion and what you think is the closest to the real thing. I know this is very subjective but I'm curious to ear your advises.

(Guitar Rig, Overloud TH2,3, Waves GTR Amp/Stomp, AmpliTube, Positive Grid, among others...)

Thanks!

 

To be honset there is no big difference in "sounding more real" between all the big emualtions. You can get a good sound from every big name emu.
They dont "feel" right if you play them. But i am pretty sure you cant find someone that can tell you a difference between your mentioned emus after they got mixed. At least i can`t and i would call myself expirienced guitar player and emu user.

At the moment for me the best package for "playing feel", "sound" and "what you get for your money" is Th3. Followed by Amplitube 4 and REvavler 4.

If you just wanna have the best playing feel of a dynamic amp get s-Gear.

I dont like Waves GTR and Guitar Rig at all.

Bias is in my opinion Ok sounding and meh feeling if you play it. It is a too much hyped emu. the whole package compared to other emus is not really great in my opinion. Bias just pays the most for endorsement. I dont like the gui at all. But thats taste.

Peavey revavler 4 is nice like mentioned. The ACT feature is quiet nice. And the VST load ability in the REvavler chain is really nice too.

The most important part if you use an emu is the IR. A good cab IR makes your sound good. So you should more look into the whole package you get for your money and the GUI than the sound. Cause there is no big difference. Or better there is no difference if the guitars are mixed. Use a good IR and you get useable results from all of your mentioned emus.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Sep 17, 2017

Guitar Rig then Amplitude for me.

I do not really care for Overloud TH2,3,.

 

Amplitube 4, second is revalver

 

To be honest, I have no idea which to me is "the best" emulator. For a moment there I really like the Helix thing, however, not after a little bit more, but then just moments before it bombed and I was zoning in on a clean Mesa sound I began again to say, not...bad. For me, Amplitube is pretty good, but as has been with TH2, Guitar Rig, ReValver and as well even the fairly shitty Waves GTR, they all sound novel and fresh for a little while, a short amount of time, but then all begin again to bum me out, none feel right as rain. The moment I unplug from the DI and jack into one of my amps, the sun comes out from behind the clouds and it's once more the first day of Spring, the birds are chirping and the fresh smell of freshly cut grass is fragrant and heady on the warm blown wind. Unfortunately for me, playing at the sweet spot of my amps is just too loud for where I live. I just have to settle for these plugins that don't turn me on like the real thing does and settle for the tools at my disposal. I don't mind playing soft synths, but playing electric guitar through an amp can't in my experience be duplicated, the sound waves vibrating through your body and informing you how to play, the onset of feedback is alive with its own life and soul and your picking attack totally dictates when and where the speaker starts to break up. Reality is triumphant in every contest, the virtual in the head to head always comes out second best, always, and every time.

 

tried them all/have them all. line6 helix is the best realistic hands down

 

My list from my most used to least used:

1. Amplitube 4
2. Peavey Revalver MK4
3. Guitar Rig Pro
4. Waves GTR Tool Rack Pro
5. Universal Audio stuff
6. Toontrack EZmix2 (please try not to laugh lmao)
7. Avid Eleven MKII AAX plugin for Pro Tools.
8. Not really digging the Overloud plugins stuff, but I do use it on the rare occasion.
9. Built in Logic Pro X amp.
10. Line6 POD Farm 2
11. JamVOX III (again, please try not to laugh lmfao).

1 = most used. 11 = used once every 3 years or so. #3, #4 and #5 I use just as much as one another. But Guitar Rig Pro is #3 because I had it longer and used it in more songs. I didn't acquire Waves audio stuff or UAD2 stuff until last year.

Now, if I had to choose which ones are best, I'd have to give this award to UAD2 plugins.

 

Surprised so one likes S-gear or Kazrog.

 

The word "best" is subjective. You're not going to have an answer for that question. In fact, the "most realistic one" will differ form one individual to another.

However, the fact that an amp simulator released in 2011 is still usually rated higher than the rest of its competition at 2017 should probably say something.

 

Well, it's not that I don't like them... I just don't own them so I can't say if I like them or not. I never really tried them. I didn't know about S-Gear until late last year and I didn't know about Kazrog until earlier this year (like most audio plugins, I discovered both thru the sister site). Never really downloaded them because I'm pretty much happy as can be with my Amplitube 4 and my UAD2 Marshall amps. That's all. I do wanna try S-Gear sometime though. Maybe I'll like it.

 

Blue Cat's Destructor is worth checking out also.

 

If you don't know much about guitar amps, I advice you to just use the free plugins from LePou and Ignite with the GuitarHack impulses. They are good sounding and simple, whereas a lot of ampsims have a pretty complicated interface that might confuse someone who doesn't come from the guitar world.

Other than that, it's really a matter of taste - I find that different ampsim manufacturers kind of have a sound of their own, with small variation between models. I'd generally recommend S-Gear, Bias, Thermionik, and Kuassa. Amplitube's new version has some great models but it's also filled with really old and terrible models that, if you don't know much about guitar amps and how to tweak them, might give you bad results.

 

Why does everybody say s-gear has the feel? I couldn't get nor the feel nor the metal sound.
From my own experience, the native Helix and Bias fx are better. They both sound and feel good.
I also like the waves GTR, but getting the metal sound is a little complicated (use a clean amp and metal pedal - the Van Halen preset).
For some of these vsts I use a decent noise gate like waves X-noise or Izotope Rx. In bias the noise gate is great already and you don't need additional.

If you really want the feel and the little touch and sound of your guitar buy an amp.

 

I love Thermionik + Recabinet, prefer it over everything else and I've tried pretty much everything else. But I am sick and tired of discussing guitar stuff. I've started playing guitar twelve years ago and it's still my main instrument (behind voice nowadays) but I'll never again consider myself being a guitarist. The nonsense I've read over the years is so far beyond any rational thought that I am done with the topic. I've been once before after I was tired of the entire modeling vs tube amps discussion and made the mistake to look at those topics again. I don't know which of the boards it was but someone wrote that Thermionik sounds the best but he/she/it wouldn't use it because it's ugly. It doesn't get any more pointless to discuss "sound" with guitarists. Especially those who are fixed on one genre and one sound who are unable to even remotely understand that different people might have different preferences, priorities and goals. Bring up "Drop-C" in a group of Blues players...

 

When it comes to these virtual guitar rigs it is really interesting to me how everybody's ears are so completely different, one person thinking that one product is fantastic and the other that it is utterly and total garbage. I guess that there is no accounting for personal taste. When it comes to soft synths there is much more a concensus about quality and how close a virtual clone can get to the original. Maybe because a guitar is a much more personal instrument, the body of 99.999% of guitars ever made were once alive, living and breathing beings that's fixed physical purposed stretched themselves upwards towards their source of life, the sun, and now reincarnated as musical instruments with the sole purpose, their new reason of being as a conduit of expression of the soul and imagination of the player. We hold it to our bodies like a lover, and if done right, just as if were a human partner, become extensions of ourselves within the context of their own strengths and weaknesses, and so two might become one within glorious extensions of the moment.

 

Line6 Helix >>with Nebula cabs \m/ is my choice but i can use any of them with a good Cab sound like i get from Nebula >>> for an all in one solution i would chose AmpliTube 4 >>> @superliquidsunshine is correct tho what one thinks of as good tone another thinks is not ;)

 

Last edited: Sep 17, 2017

by placing in top 3 amplitube and guitar rig, some people in here definitely do still live somewhere in 2005's ..

because we are in 2017 and before this thread goes out of control:

1) any guitar amp sim from Universal Audio (if you can afford those)
2) Scuffham Amps S-Gear
3) just don't bother about all the rest

 

I like Revalver4, TH3, Thermionik & maybe few others (Pod Farm) sometimes. Not a guitarist, but they all sound prty good w/ guitar libs.

 

In case you want a fast, light on memory and easy to setup, try TSE X502.

It's like one of those free Poulin, etc also mentioned on steroids. In fact there are free alternatives of the same developer.

 

Hey guys, you are really awesome !
As usual your comments are always valuable and instructive.
I really appreciate your contribution and knowledge.

@superliquidsunshine Did I ever told you I like your poetry? You have a sense of description like no other, colorful and rich, I could almost ear the birds and feel the sun when you plugged the guitar in the real thing...

Excuse my ignorance but would you care to share with us which one you are talking about ?


The emu that I use the most, I must admit. is Guitar Rig. It is the first I tried back to Komplete 7 era, and even though I don't like the presets (too much of everything) by tweaking here and there and playing with the knobs I have manage to get pretty nice sounding FX. I like its interface and its signal flow.

I also played a lot with Amplitude and found it as many interesting options. I haven't really tried Overloud nor Positive Grid.
I will most certainly consider trying the ones you mentioned.

Again, thank you for all your suggestions !!!