70's Marshall - Amp Sim Shootout

Drew_TNBD

Just came across this:

http://jameswoodward.net/review/amp-simulator-shootout-70s-marshall/

What do you think?

guitarfishbay

Ok I'll have a quick go, based on clip 1.  It is all a bit scratchy sounding in isolation but you can still differentiate the meat of the sounds so just responding on comparison between what I'm hearing.  Using ATH M50 headphones.

No 7 is terrible, no 9 not far behind (almost painfully bright here).  No 13 and 14 sound quite fake too.

I liked 11 and 12.  Sim 8 and Sim 3 were also ok.  Probably indifferent on the rest, not going to re-check them.

I have just checked the answers and can say I'm not surprised about 8, I don't think anything got better when I upgraded and got the newer plugin, I've always thought the old one sounded better.  

Also don't see why he had such a long post chain, using comps, tape sims, slate virtual console etc.  Seems a bit unecessary for an amp sim comparison, surely just the amp sim itself or at most high and low pass would've been fairest.  A lot of people buying their software legitimately won't also own the rest of that signal chain unless they're interested in recording and have the spare cash.  It would've been more representative with less post gear.

ICBM

Wow... that's a lot of listening!

Trying to get a brief snapshot of each one and mark as like/don't like seems to be the quickest way, then going back and listening to the 'likes' in more detail, keeping a running mental note of which was the previous best. It's interesting that the one I thought was overall the best when comparing clips 2 and 3, I didn't like on clip 1. But I'll have to vote for that instead of the one which sounded best on clip 1 - Sim 12 - since it's two against one. (And the playing style on 2 and 3 is more like me.)

And it did surprise me which one it was when I looked at the answers!

Sim 7.

I was listening on my Pioneer SA540 and Wharfedale Lasers by the way.

randomhandclaps

Between 1,8 & 14 I was struggling to vote.  I went for 14 (just over 1).  The only one I knew what it was straight away was 7 - although it's clichéd even in a crunch sound it's still loaded with fizz.

What I found the most interesting is that I had given up on amp sims ever being satisfying, yet the ones I like least out of this test were the more popular ones that I had already used, so maybe their is hope for better results with some of the others.

guitarfishbay

It was the low note I didn't like on sim 7 in clip 1.  It just doesn't sound right to me, sounds more like a fuzz pedal than an amp.  I'll freely admit to never having played or recorded a real 1970s Marshall though.  FWIW that plugin has plenty of good sounds in it, I used to use the SLO model and the greenback cabs a lot for high gain lead tones and I was happy with the results.

guitarfishbay

Lol, just voted and have seen the results... proves a lot!

In the blind test currently the leader has 13% and is a piece of software that gets bashed on the net.  This drops to 6% after the reveal currently.

In the non blind test the leader has 27%, the same plugin currently has 9% in the blind test.

randomhandclaps

guitarfishbay said:

It was the low note I didn't like on sim 7 in clip 1.  It just doesn't sound right to me, sounds more like a fuzz pedal than an amp.  I'll freely admit to never having played or recorded a real 1970s Marshall though.  FWIW that plugin has plenty of good sounds in it, I used to use the SLO model and the greenback cabs a lot for high gain lead tones and I was happy with the results.

On the earlier PODs - XT-era, the SLO was by far their best model for anything with decent gain on tap.

ICBM

Since I seem to be taking a longer tea break than usual I went back and did it in more detail and I'm not sure now!

Clip 1: 1 - OK; 2 - lacking body; 3 - blanket over it, terrible; 4 - OK (new best); 5 - a bit thin; 6 - a bit boxy; 7 - buzzy; 8 - boxy; 9 - thin, terrible; 10 - pretty good (new best); 11 - blanket; 12 - pretty good (new best), 13 - distant, boxy; 14 - pretty good but not quite new best.

Clip 2: 1 - buzzy;  2 - not bad (new best); 3 - blanket, terrible; 4 - pretty good (new best); 5 - too small-sounding; 6 - boxy; 7 - pretty realistic (new best); 8 - boxy or muffled; 9 - pretty good (just a little thin); 10 - blanket; 11 - boxy; 12 - pretty good; 13 - distant, boxy; 14 - pretty good, maybe new best.

Clip 3: 1 - pretty good; 2 - pretty good (new best); 3 - blanket, terrible! 4 - a little muffled; 5 - pretty good but not better than 2; 6 - boxy; 7 - pretty good (new best); 8 - not working; 9 - thin, clangy; 10 - blanket; 11 - boxy; 12 - too honky; 13 - muffled; 14 - pretty good (new best).

So I would say that makes 14 probably the best overall and comes closest to the real amp sound, but 7 still a close second. It does have a bit of fuzz at the bottom end, but so do the real amps. What I like about both these more than the others is that they're more open-sounding - too many of the others sound 'narrow' and either boxy or just dull. 3 is dreadful in all of them but I admit it's not too much of a surprise when I saw what it was!

None of them really sound like real amps in this test though. Whether that would be true in a mix is another story.

guitarfishbay

I do wish he'd sneaked a real amp in to the test too without saying he was doing it until after the reveal.