Amp modellers/sims/plugins - my search for good tone.

Haych

I've never really been fan of amp modelling, either software or hardware, although I preferred using hardware devices as it gives something tangible to play with rather than endless software parameters.  However, the concept I love - the thought that I can have all these different tones in a desktop box or even a soft-sim and play and record at all hours of the day and night is something I really really want.

The built in amp sims that come bundled with Logic are ok but a bit meh.  They don't sound spectacular and require a lot of tweaking before I could find a tone I could use.  I find this frustrating as it stifles creativity and wastes time as I should be laying down takes instead of fiddling with software parameters in search of a good tone.

The Yamaha THR was pretty good though and I enjoyed using it to get some decent guitar tones onto SSD.  It was simple to use but a bit limited in the number of tones it could supply but overall started to restore my faith that technology could do what I wanted.

Helix came out and I got really excited......... until I saw the price.  Then Helix Native came out and I really wanted it.  The price was not too bad so I figured I'd give the demo version a trial.

I was immediately disappointed at the out-of-the-box guitar tones, they were just as rubbish as most other sims and no better than the Logic sims.  There was certainly nothing I could immediately use - which I think there should be. Then the fun really started and Helix just decided not to work and would cause Logic to hang on startup until I uninstalled it.

A couple of emails back and forth to Line 6 and the issue couldn't be resolved and Line 6 lost interest in helping so I figured spending a few hundred quid for disappointing sounds and technical headaches was out of the question.

Then I heard about this Positive Grid thing and decided to check it out.  It seems they do lots of different things and to be honest it's quite confusing at first and potentially very expensive depending on what you want.  However, I downloaded their Bias Amp 2 demo and I'm blown away!  

It's everything I really wanted in a software plugin.  The tones are great out of the box and considering that I don't have access to the full stack of amps and options I can only imagine what's available.  They are also simple to use and I don't have to spend ages endlessly tweaking stuff to get a really good (and I am very impressed) tone.

It's also cost effective by comparison to many and it works with Logic without causing it to hang.

I think my credit card is about to put some weight on

PolarityMan

for the amp sims I own my ordering is

Helix Native
Amplitube 4
Bias Amp

I don't use the presets in Helix but if I just use an amp+cab block on its own as my base tone it sounds great.

guitarfishbay

Wait for Black Friday before buying any more software, unless you really want it right now.

For Marshall tones I'd recommend demoing Mercuriall Spark, and if you like higher gain sounds Neural DSP Fortin Nameless (though most people would prefer it with the drive pedal switched off).  I haven't tried the latest version of BIAS. 

Personally I do like many of the sounds in Helix Native and Amplitube, but it depends on what you want.  There is a lot of choice these days!

andy_k

its early days for me -with amp sims and impulses etc, but what I am finding is--you dont need to spend to get good tone, in fact, I find that I try and get 'my' tone with whatever I use, and often dont get even 1 per cent into what is included in the package.
I like Logic stuff, it does it all, but obviously only on Mac,
in Pro-tools, I then signed up for Slate package, which includes S-gear, also does everything, and at least now pro-tools and Slate are cross platform, 
then I had to find a cross platform for pro-tools, so I went with Reaper, which was a good move for me, so I looked into some free stuff that will work cross platform for a 'core' sound.
Lots to look at here- but I used the Lepou and Ignite stuff as a starting point.
A large part of the sound is the impulse response, so I found the 7-deadly sins pack online, which is a huge collection, and straight away I found a couple that do what I want in there, so definitely cant see any reason to  pay for anything else, on top of s-gear for me at least.
I see it a bit like a chorus pedal--sounds glorious when you first hear it, but you wouldnt use it on every track, and all these paid for things seem to highlight their processed delay-reverb sounds as a selling point.
For live stuff, I'm using a Marshall code, sorry, but after a few teething problems it'll do until it breaks, then I'll use my backup-Katana.--point being, there might be better stuff, but it all gets made to work the way I want it.
YMMV.
cheers

pintspiller

Behringer GDI has been worth every penny.

Jonathanthomas83

Kemper. Search = completed it mate.

LeftHandMan

I recently bought the Waves PRS Supermodels and am really impressed. The 3 amps cover clean, crunch and high gain, have a noise-gate, tuner and an IR loader. Works well with Reaper.