Best Answer lmao!!!!!! haha \m/

 

Ill give my coment on this as a man that records real amps all day everyday >>> i would rather have a cheaper head with a killer cab an speaker than a great Head with a cheap cab... Cause the speaker is the most important element in recording and also what you hear... i have cheap guitar heads that kick ass with the right Cab and Marshall, Mesa, and Engl heads that sound like total shit with a cheap cab and speaker ;) so Impulses or what i Like is Nebula impulses for the most ITB real sound you can get trust me is the most important thing... all the amp sims ive used sound pretty damn good with the right speaker impulses \m/ SO the short story is Amplitude,Bias,Guitar Rig,Revolver or what ever you chose is fine with the right SPEAKER \m/

 

I agree with you. I have a whole bunch of real amps and mics, but a lot of times, being an apartment dweller, headphone and laptop is the way to go sometimes.

 

@Jaymz, agreed! The cab makes a HUGE difference. I've just recently started mixing heads and cabs to get different tones. The Thunderverb going into those Texas Heats... It's interesting!
Which makes me wonder... Use an amp emulator minus cabinet emulation, out into a fairly flat power amp, say a Mackie M series powering your cabinet of choice, mic'd and back in. Should be able to get some amp tones of amps you don't own. Anyone try this?

 

Get Nebula impulses... hell ill give you some of mine... use any guitar sim you like = as close to the real thing you can get ... the impulses with Nebula react like a real guitar Cab... Record a Dry signal and switch out impulses from any you choose with Nebula Impulse from say Ownhammer>>>> youll be amazed i promise

 

Yes ive done this with awsome results man \m/

 

Nebula Impulses = bye bye to the fizz factor and the pick attack response to the amp sim increases 50% or better... i tested this with Bends digging into the guitar notes and fast scale runs an the response with Nebula cabs is to me the best of
all impulses on the market ;) but you have to test for yourself to know this \m/ They just sound more like a recorded cab with a mic

 

Exactly. I use amp sims a lot for compositional work, and initial mixdowns until I get my mic'd captures done. That way the neighbors don't get completely pissed at me...

Excellent. I was going to try this, but after hearing someone being successful with it, I can go into it without thinking "this may be a huge waste of time!"
I've been wanting to borrow a Mesa or Engl head since a lot of metal heads are using them now, it seems. Just to see what they are about tonally. Maybe this is a good poor man's way to sample some of the boutique amp tones.

Totally agree on Nebula for the cab simulator. It's more real than anything else I've tried. Do you find the gainstaging into and out of Nebula to be a bit "strange" in the levels you have to set?

 

I mix em for the tone im after for the style im recording... im still a Big Marshall fan ... Thing bout a Marshall is you can mic it up even with a shitty tone it sounds killer lol... no kidding i have a old Marshall 212 that sounds like shit till i mic it up... Ive got a few 800's a 900 and one of my Favorites is a DSL 100 Marshall 2000... I love Engl and Mesa too but i always seem to mix in a Marshall somewhere with any amps i record because they are just cleaner with less fizz... I love a Marshall and Peavey 5150 prolly 2 of my most favorite recording amps for classic an Def heavy stuff

 

I noticed the fizz thing in comparison from a Krank Krankenstein 120 Watt Tube head to my Marshall Mode 4. I love the Mode 4 because it's so versatile, which is an odd thing to say about a Marshall. It can sound very close to a JCM 800, but that 4th channel can get nasty! The Marshall seems to have more low mids in it while the Krank was a bit more top end in it. The Mode 4 didn't have to be as loud to hit the sweet spot either. I'm trying to compensate the top end with a different mic choice next time I record, but throwing that Wollensak emulation in the chain just seemed to smoothify that all out. I've never tried a 5150. I was turned off of Peavey as it was my first guitar amp (an Audition 20) and just can't get that bad taste out of my ears! But my understanding is a lot of players swear by them.

I wonder where a good 5150 emulation can be found... There, back on topic sort of!

 

softube and his vintage amp room convince me for the classic marshall tone. Did you tried it?

 

I've tried the softube pelao, but I don't really like them. Jaymz, you couldn't pay me to reinstall Nebula 3 onto my computer. I think it's great, but I get so close with software away from it, so long as you're willing to experiment. I always use Nadir with hard panned stereo cabs, but differing distance cab IR's. I think that Mesa's are shit for anything but the late 90s/early 2000's Santana over compressed tone. I use Carvin's for almost everything (my guitar and amp), but I'm a guy that digs Frank Zappa. For metal, I would always choose a Marshall Cab with Celestion's. I have a Crate solid-state amp (the VTX-200S.) Not a remarkable amp by any means, but everytime I use that thing live, guitarists come up to me afterwards and ask what kind of tubes it has. I tell them that it's solid-state and they're dumbfounded, but then I tell them that it has Celestion greenback 75's. You're absolutely correct that the speakers are the most important factor when it comes to guitar amp chain. Besides speakers, pick-ups make the biggest difference, and before that, your fingers. I am loving this thread.

 

been trying tons of these amp sim .. the best one is S Gear for me, just fit in immediately on my mix .. the GUI is fast compared to BIAS.
add something from Eventide Harmonizer voila .. you'll get a classy TONE

 

really great plugin s gear 2

 

Wow, I still hate S-Gear.

 

s gear it's not best ampsim but is much better than others i loved the tweed emulation, what plugin do you use for your clean tones

 

Please elaborate...

Was getting ready to test drive a few of these that I have not tried yet and this one was on the list. It'd be nice to know going in what other's experiences are.

 

People hate S-Gear for metal tones, yet my EMG equipped Soloist into The Wayfarer seems to disagree. I actually have to turn the gain down.

 

S GEAR is only for clean tones and nothing more, it can't be perfect in all amp that simulates i think this is common mistake think that one software is good for all, i was searching for that software but is a great mistake

 

Excellent info. It may be gain staging or the chain that's giving people a bad impression. You'd need a different chain if you're after clean tones or overdriven ones. I find this to be the case with the amp sims I've used in the past. Also, I'd be interested to hear the takes from people who are using different cabinet emulations than the built in ones.