All fortin amps are hot modded plexis

The most difficult amps to capture with their character are Marshall plexi JMP amps, they carry som any ways.
1-STL Tones Howard Benson is a 50watt red series tremolo plexi
2- Mercurial Spark, both JMP and JCM 800s
3-Tonocracy's JCM800 is rock solid nice, Tonocracy is the NAM version and nemesis of Tonnex and Amplitube in one., cause it also has pedals.
4- Kuassa Caliburn, great Marshall tones.
5- Softube Marshall Suite, everything rocks with the SD1 TS9 even Rat and Blues drivers
6- Kuassa Cream
7- IK Multimedia - Tonnex has awesome tones
8- OL TH-U
9- Audio Assault British Gain, British 45 and Britons are very good Marshalls.
10-Scuffman Sims

Next level high gain modded Marshalls?
1.NDSP Fortin Nameless
2.NDSP Fortin Cali
3.PA Friedman B100
4.PA Surh SE100
5.PA Friedman Shirly DS-40
6.PA Friedman Boxom Betty
7-Nembrini Marshalls all sound nice, especially Mrh810v2
8-STL Tones Howard Benson's WIZARD are all based on Marshall
9-NDSP Nolly, Petruci etc etc
10-Amplutube Marshall JCM800 and JCM900 Slash AFDs

 

Softube Marshalls
Audio Assault
Guitar Rig for clean tones

 

Thanks to all who recommended stuff, I know that I'd need to do a lot catch-up!

Personally I've got a decent setup in our band space (DI, amp pre out, mic -> record), but for layering, double tracking and working with ideas.. I still gravitate to Guitar Rig, I like it because you can go for simple clean tones to massive fuck up of piled FX. Sure it doesn't do really high gain distortion but it's good for most stuff.

I've not dicked with bass tones as such... again GR and oftentimes the Plugin Alliance SVTVR which is good for the money, unless I'm borrowing our bassists chain (quite similar to mine) for my own stuff.

 

forget everything you read here, get a hold of the free TONOCRACY< everyone is sharing the best profiles captures from everywhere, its insane, has more to offer then Tonnex-Amplitube, incorporates NAM and NAM profiles, dont hesitate and grab it, its FREE! and you can change skins if you know how to open packages on Macs

https://www.thegearpage.net/board/index.php?threads/tonocracy-oh-yeah.2505778/page-33
Ignore the demo mode in these images, the guy is using a home folder on a external drive, its all free and un locked if you download it., sounds better then Softube, tonex, amplitube and even neural DSP!

 

I don't like all-in-one plugins, the exception is Helix Native, but it works sluggishly.
Prefers to have a separate plug-in just for the amp, separate IR, separate favorite effects:

1. Otto audio II II II II II - one amp to rule everything. Not only low tuned hi gain, I can set the sound on the border of overdrive with it, clean channels , American or British sound, vintage or modern. Very responsive. I feel like I'm playing on a real amp

Effects:
- Klevgrand Brusfri - best de-noises
- BlueCat Accufriend - to create guitar feedback
- Kuassa stomp effects: reverb, delay, tremolo
- Three-body Cabinetron as IR loader

honorable mentions: VTarAmps, MLSoundlab, NAM, MeldaMCabinet

 

Guitar (Rock/Metal)
1. HeadRush Revalver 5
2. TSE Audio X50II
3. P.R.O.T.O. Four (Vadim Taranov)

Bass:
1. Bogren BassKnob

 

My new lists for 2024 now are:
1. Genome
2. Tonocracy
3. Scuffham S Gear
4. NAM

 

I usually do the Joey Sturgis thing of having 3 layers of panned guitars (plus 2 DI´s that work as sidechain for a noisegate at the beginning of the bus, thats a Glenn Fricker thing), being a high gain layer, a crunch layer and an almost clean layer (along with pro-q3 instaces with emphasis on pick attack, so the most used amp sims are Nolly and Gojira, cuz i can use the same plugin for each layer and that gets you to a more cohesive tone between the layers. Sometimes i´ll use II II II II too, but just for the high gain layer, that´s its natural use, not the best sim for cleaner tones. Some of the 5150/6505 sims from ML Sound Lab work fine for that too. I play in a metalcore band, so i tend to look for good 5150 emulations, and Neural DSP Nolly might be the best in that field.

 

How do you, if you do, try to recreate that setup during a live performance?

 

no sluggish issues with Tonocracy, its basically helix with nam profiles (which opens Kemper, helix, tonex, etc) ...., and infact helix, amplitube tonex make problems and are sluggish, including Helix (compared to tonocracy) and I think the problem is the copy protection junk... but OTTO is realllllly good lol

why we dont have a sister version is beyond me

 

Last edited: Mar 29, 2024

I do the same things but now use tonocracy as a performance tool, I can capture all the presets from any NDSP plug and use it like the cortex with Tonocracy (which is free)

 

To my ears, NAM/Tonocracy sound WAY better than most amp sims but, while they don't develop a way to normalize the levels of their profiles, they can be awfully inconsistent when it comes to gain staging. And while I find them the most inspiring to play when you find a good setup, the process to get to that point is much more sterile and trial-and-error-ish than just dialing some knobs in your NDSP/Softube/whichever other traditional sim. They're still my favourite, tough.


Lately I've found that the best way to complement any amp sim is to load the cab IR in Three-Body Tech's Cabinetron and tweak some parameters there. It's got a neat room emulation and some easy ways to subtly soften and modify the tonal balance of the sound.

 

As a metal player, i never clicked on ToneX.
It lacks fast dynamic : it is "spongy" to me.
Slow reaction to fast picking.

NAM : very good BUT plagued by TOO MANY JUNK
No, i don't have time to test all 5150/6505 captures.

So i ended up with THU Rig Player and STL Ignite for amp captures (blend between profiling AND algo).
Hardware : selected only 10 profiles on GE200

And now THU integrate new profiling + algo in the same amp.
Need to try them against STL Ignite.

Best effects : Helix for sure

Trying Tonocracy witch is basically a NAM loader + their SchemAccurate tech.

Same principle than STL, THU : using profiling AND algo based on circuit in the same amp.
So you get accuracy AND flexibility.

To me, it is the future of guitar sim, compared to algo only or profiling only.
One is less accurate, other is not flexible.

I don't want to play on "algo only" amp sims anymore after trying profiling dynamic accuracy

 

Last edited: Mar 29, 2024

I just dont. Record is record, live is live, for me they are absolutely different things, and in fact, i dont like bands that try to reproduce exactly what´s on their records when playing live, or if they make a live album, and its the same as the album but with crowd noises. That being said, i play live with my helix into the loop fx of the amp that is at the venue im playing. The tone i use with the Helix is kind of based on what´s on the record, mainly the first layer of guitars, but you know what? Nobody has ever said to me "dude, you didnt sound as on your record", because in a live context, with a live mix, most people cant tell the difference from whats on the record, and there are tons of factor contributing through that, because, and this is a key question...when you listen to a record, what you use? The normal answer would be: headphones, pc speakers, a stereo system, your phone, etc. No one, except besides people who work as live engineers for bands would say "i normally listen to music through a PA".

 

My rule of thumb for finding profiles is in the download page - if they detail the settings of the amps and at least some technical specs, it's probably worthwhile. If it's empty, I don't even try.

For metal tones I love ArlingtonAudio's Single Rectifier or northern_fox's Dual Rectifier profiles + some mixed IR from York Audio's 4x12 Oversize pack. I've never been a Mesa fan but it gets surprisingly punchy and tight.

 

recording wise this blows helix and the rest out of the water because its exactly like using Helix but with additional ability to do what Tonnex can, which means you can share captures from everywhere using NAM, the cool idea is it offers more then NAM itself for every single add-on you use inside tonocracy, example a OD or Gate..more options...Tonocracy basically eliminates your concert about a all in one type SIM set up where you cant open the amp sim lane or have to shut off all these routed things before and after the sim ,softube allows the amp sim to open alone like audio assault, but not the pedals.

I dont see your point with HELIX and recording since Tonocray sounds better, is free and the workflow is very familiar to Helix.., see your helix if you are using hardware but I got the native and see zero interest since Tonocracy became free and I tried it.

As for LIVE this is as good as it gets, same familiar set up like HELIX but I guess maybe not as advance hardware.

The only weakness it has is that the effects dont sync, you cant load 3rd party VST, but based on your interests these are unrelated to the recording method we described.,

As for sounding like the record live only very good bands sound the way they are in studio live, INXS and Bad Brains recorded records in 30 mins on the fly into the consoles like the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd etc, later added some vocal over dubs, And like the Rolling Stones etc they sounded even better live and in addition would improvise the songs., So I dont see your point but can agree its a matter of taste or perspective.

 

Last edited: Mar 29, 2024

Like Pedro Sofia said and I wholeheartedly concur, I've seen so many bands electric guitar players sound sound spot on to the sound of the records while playing in much smaller venues as well as in stadiums. Neil Young, Joe Perry, Jerry Garcia, Eric Johnson and even Adrian Belew who has lots of things going on on his pedalboard achieved the goal as well as slew of others all nailed their studio tone.

 

I may agree, but, as you said in the final part, its a matter of taste. That being said, for using tonocracy or NAM while playing live, i need a laptop, and i dont have one, not because i cant afford it, but because it disrupts my daily life, and that goes beyond music, i got very personal motives to reduce to the minimum my relationship with mobile devices. So, i got my way of recording stuff, with a desktop, and, something i forgot to mention, i use the helix as interface but in DI mode, so i´ve also tried the native, and all that (but since i got the legit hardware but not the legit native...thats a different story). For the live setting, and this is another thing i didnt mention, im from Chile, South America, and here the conditions can be very different, almost opposites form one show to another, you can play in a venue with a 5150 III, while the next show you get a Line6 spider, so i got like 10 different presets on the helix, to match each situation, a 4cm preset if theres a good tube amp, some presets (for different songs), if theres an average/decent head or combo, so i go into the fx loop, and another bunch of presets in case of a shitty amp (or the complete abscence of one), with IR´s if i decide that it will sound better to be plugged direct into the console. So, what i didnt mention on the other reply was that i got to adapt to my mental conditions (avoiding mobile devices), and to the conditions of the place i live.

 

this thread is about amp sim in 2024, not hwardware

Amp sim hardware., the best deal is Tonocracy, https://atomicamps.com/amplifireboxmkii/
There are a number of pedals in the making or already available for this and they are half the price of Tonnex., then you have Tonnex...everything else is not worth it, free is best, then paid is Tonnex.. since they are all able to re capture each other, it comes down to what you want live.., ins-outs-midi-wha, etc etc

So for Live decide if you need a wah, volume and how many switches, then choose the audio interfaces, XLR - HIz combos, etc etc
https://atomicamps.com/amplifireboxmkii/
https://tonocracy.com/
https://atomicamps.com/

 

I downloaded it earlier today but haven't yet the chance to install it. Thanks for the suggestions.