Your favourite Desktop Amp Modeller?

Niallseroreilly

Had a blast at the Bias FX desktop standalone and was pretty impressed, thinking about investing in desktop software as undoubtedly there will be black friday offers.

Anyone care to recommend their favourite or bash one they hated?

guitarfishbay

Depends what sounds you want!

I'd recommend demoing:

Neural DSP Fortin Nameless Suite (high gain sounds, turn off the distortion pedal unless you want to play djent)

Mercuriall Spark (range of Marshall sounds)

TSE X50 (metal 5150 type sounds)

Line 6 Helix Native (covers most sounds)

Amplitube 4 + expansions (covers most sounds)

But really it’s all personal taste, most things have demos these days so try them and see what works for you!

guitarfishbay

FWIW my favourite is the Fortin Nameless. I think it’s on par with what you can get from an Axe FX personally. I haven’t found another plugin capable of the same ‘big amp’ low end dynamics

equalsql

I've got Bias, S-Gear, Amplitude and bx_megasingle. Of  the four I tend to use S-Gear the most being that it is less CPU intensive than Bias and Ampitube and the amps just sound and feel better to me.

bx_megasingle is also very good though only simulates one amp. I picked up the bx on one of Brainworx's blowout sales where it was a fraction of its normal retail price ( < £30 iirc) so it was good value, but its normal price of $149 is way too high for what you get.

octatonic

I have almost all of them- S Gear is the one I use the most, but actually I use the Helix/Axe FX/Kemper hardware more than anything.
There is something about committing to the sound that satisfies.

guitarfishbay

octatonic said:

I have almost all of them- S Gear is the one I use the most, but actually I use the Helix/Axe FX/Kemper hardware more than anything.
There is something about committing to the sound that satisfies.

Have you tried both of the Neural DSP plugins?

IMO they’re a step ahead of most other plugin makers right now like for like, but they only cover a small range of sounds. I’m hoping they’re teaming up with more manufacturers in the future.

scovell001

I have bias fx & amplitude 4, plugged in via an m track 2x2. The biggest tip I got recently was that you basically have to have guitar volume on 10 to drive the hardware/software properly. I initially thought the new bias fx was better but amplitube definitely sounds better now. 

Enjoyable programmes but not quite as satisfying as the real thing.

dbphoto

I have Amplitube 4 with all the expansions but keep going back to PodFarm 2.5 Platinum as I am so used to it.

TTBZ

Mercuriall Spark is awesome for Marshall tones. Personally much prefer it to anything I've got out of the Helix Native trial after multiple attempts at it! The built in cab sim is great and I don't find I need to use IRs like I did with other modellers. Want to give the Fortin Nameless a go too but it's probably a bit too metal for me.

PC_Dave

I love the simplicity of S Gear, and I think it gets discounted a couple of times a year.

Niallseroreilly

I downloaded the demo of the S Gear, helix native, bias fx and amplitube. 

Out of all them so far I think the s gear sounds great. Really impressed by the sounds. Thanks guys

chris_john

I had a Helix but I preferred S Gear's amp modelling. I ended up selling the Helix because it wasn't getting as much play time - and went back to analog pedals into the PC. I found that I was spending a lot of time tweaking and fiddling with the Helix, rather than actually playing. With S- Gear 2, it is much easier to plug in and find a satisfactory tone that makes you want to play.

rico

I really like BIAS Amp 2 and BIAS FX for home practice (London flat...) when I feel like i'd be a nuisance playing through a proper set up. There is infinite tweakability and a whole host of presets available on the tonecloud. 

skullfunkerry

Of the ones I've tried recently Guitar Rig was my favourite, but I'm using the line out of my Katana into the PC now, as I always felt like there was a tiny bit of latency with the programs I tried.

In previous setups, I've found Pod Farm 2 to be excellent, and (quite a while ago now), Amplitube's Orange Rockerverb model was pretty much identical in sound and feel to my actual Rockerverb

DulcetJones

I am a dinosaur here, the only one I have or have ever used is the Fuse software that came with my Fender Mustang 1 amp.    I find it easy to use and has more options than I'll ever need for recording.  

bingefeller

Boss GT-0001 isn't too bad.  

Philly_Q

I've only got the free version of Amplitube, I was going to try some others but downloading anything seemed like a momentous enough event for me.

S-Gear sounds interesting though, I might give it a go.

Jalapeno

I love the PoD 2 Blackface deluxe - I use it all over the place.