The best single modelled Amp tone

Lev

Hi all, my fist post here so be gentle with me. Anyway the point of my post is this, last night I was noodling away at low volume on with a strat and Mustang 1 amp. I selected the Deluxe Reverb amp and happily spend an hour jamming and found myself really getting into the tones I was getting. It was responsive, inspiring, articulate etc everything one would want from a great tube amp tone (albeit at low volume). Now many of the amp models and FX in the Mustang 1 are quite poor, especially at the dirtier end but it does do Fender cleans rather well.

It got me thinking maybe I've been misjudging the whole point of modelling amps. I tend to judge them in their entirety, like if 8 of the 10 amp models are poor then I label the amp as being a 'poor amp' despite the fact that 2 of the amp models may be fantastic. I recall seeing an interview with The Edge once where he said most multiFX will do at least one thing really well, it's just a matter of finding what it does well and use it.

A second hand Mustang 1 can be bought for peanuts and ok it might not be fantastic at everything but if I bought a single sound traditional amp and it gave me that same deluxe reverb tone I'd be raving about it. So my question is what are the best modeled amp tones out there? - not necessarily the best modelling amps.

Grumpyrocker

There's a model in Line 6's Amp Farm software called Spinal Puppet. It's a ridiculous high gain tone and on its own sounds a bit silly. But in a mix it is fabulous. And apparently it's been used a lot on big-selling commercial records. Played into a VST with better cab impulses it sounds immense.

ThePrettyDamned

Grumpyrocker said:

There's a model in Line 6's Amp Farm software called Spinal Puppet. It's a ridiculous high gain tone and on its own sounds a bit silly. But in a mix it is fabulous. And apparently it's been used a lot on big-selling commercial records. Played into a VST with better cab impulses it sounds immense.

I agree - it sounds fine with pod farm speaker cabs, but I plan on trying some other ones to see if I can make it sound better.  

The AC30 model is really great, too, once you've followed it with the american preamp, parametric eq and compressor.  Same as a lot of the models, really - you need to experiment to find the sounds.  The jcm one is awful though...

dogload

For home practice or recording I generally use software modellers through my PC.

If it's just practice I'll use Amplitube, which has a pretty good selection of amps and the pedals are quite lifelike.

For recording I'll probably go for Amplitube or Guitar Rig. Sometimes if I'm feeling a bit more raw I'll use a thing called California Sun which is FREE! from here. Bung a load of vst stomp boxes in front and BOOM! Well, I like it anyway.

ddlooping

Welcome to  theFB  ,@Lev

ICBM

Interesting point. Although not an amp, I've owned a couple of Boss ME-50s, which have a whole load of modelled overdrive/distortions - they're all terrible, except for the 'Natural Overdrive' which is actually very good and almost indistinguishable from my Mesa V-Twin valve preamp.

I also really liked the Boss Fender Deluxe Reverb pedal - it doesn't sound like a DR, but it does have a really nice chunky overdrive sound of its own. Shame the rest of the pedal is a functional disaster area though...

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM said:

Interesting point. Although not an amp, I've owned a couple of Boss ME-50s, which have a whole load of modelled overdrive/distortions - they're all terrible, except for the 'Natural Overdrive' which is actually very good and almost indistinguishable from my Mesa V-Twin valve preamp.

I also really liked the Boss Fender Deluxe Reverb pedal - it doesn't sound like a DR, but it does have a really nice chunky overdrive sound of its own. Shame the rest of the pedal is a functional disaster area though...

You should try the Boss Dyna drive.  It's really, really great.  No idea if it might be related to the ME50 circuitry?

Ooo just remembered, the older vox valvetronix 100 watter had a 70's model that sounded really, really great, and the nu metal sound on it was huge.  The ac30 top boost sound was nice, but not quite like a vox - great sound in it's own right though.

ICBM

ThePrettyDamned said:

You should try the Boss Dyna drive.  It's really, really great.  No idea if it might be related to the ME50 circuitry?

Not sure - the write-up on BossArea says it's related to the Cube 60 amp, which I can't stand. I'll have to try one though, the idea of dynamic sensitivity is appealing and is usually lacking in modelled sounds.

ThePrettyDamned

Ahh okay.  It sounded great to me, a little bit bright but the eq was powerful enough to sort it out.  And it is stupidly sensitive, much more so than most other drive pedals.  

Nice sounding though, and goes from low gain to really quite high!

mudslide73

dogload said:

For home practice or recording I generally use software modellers through my PC.

If it's just practice I'll use Amplitube, which has a pretty good selection of amps and the pedals are quite lifelike.

For recording I'll probably go for Amplitube or Guitar Rig. Sometimes if I'm feeling a bit more raw I'll use a thing called California Sun which is FREE! from here. Bung a load of vst stomp boxes in front and BOOM! Well, I like it anyway.

I'm a big fan of Amplitube's "Hardvrock" preset. Completely ott but great for widdling with. I use the EVH presets on GR too.

Grumpyrocker

The Soldano models on the POD HD are rather lovely.

EricTheWeary

I have a Mustang I and 90% of the time use the Deluxe Reverb model. The rest split between the Twin and Bassman. If they made a simpler Mustang with only the Fender models ( the supersonic model sounds awful but I guess I could live with it thrown in) and a careful selection of the Fx and made it bigger and louder and tougher then what a great pub level gigging amp. So close and yet so far. >-)

Pyroman

 Mustang/ Super Champ models I think are great:

 Bassman.  One of my favorite cleans, and my go to for low gain/light crunch.  Make sure you try it through the 2x12C cab!

Brit 60's (AC30).  As presented, it's a rather nice tone.  Wind the gain knob up, and holy shit!  Excellent drive sound!

Brit 70's (Plexi)  The more I use this, the more I like it.  Lovely fat drive sounds, and red hot leads.

Brit 80's (JCM)  This one's a peach, too.  Really makes the amp roar.

Tweed Deluxe

Champ.  Very old school vintage sounding- esp with the small room reverb wound up a bit, and some slapback!

Jazzmaster.  This is a nice clean tone.  STAYS clean, too no matter how you push the gain.

Obviously, the Princeton, Twin Reverb, and deluxe Reverb are all nice clean sounds.  They all make good foundations for pedals, too.

Super Sonic.  I have to revise my earlier opinion of this one.  I gave it another go yesterday- just the stock preset ( Super Sonic burn, I think), and quite liked it.

** One caviat:  I've never actually played through any of the real amps.  I'm simply judging each on it's own merits as to whether it sounds good or not.  I have no idea if they sound just like the real thing, and frankly, don't care.**

  For FX.

Fender's reverbs on both amps.  Love em!  The spring can go from a lil bit to a cavernous echo.  The room reverb is very convincing.  The Large Hall really makes me feel like I'm playing in a large empty hall!   Two thumbs up for the digi reverbs on these amps.

gubble

I really love the sounds I get from My Line 6 Duoverb.

Especially combining two different (or similar) amps together.

The Fender blackface model on it is superb imho.

stickyfiddle

I've always found with modellers that the Vox ones have great Vox models and the fender ones have great fender models. I don't use my mustang 1 a huge amount ATM but it's such a useful little thing to have around and the Plexi, Champ and Deluxe models in particular sound great.

Also, I find GarageBand is shit except the Hiwatt model, which I adore

p90fool

I keep an old Oberheim preamp in my studio rack just for its Marshall JMP patch. It actually sounds like most old Marshalls when you just plug straight in and turn it up to about 8. A bit farty and messy, but with a beefy cabinet "thud". I often rough out ideas with it intending to replace it with the real thing later, but then keep it on the finished track.

I also keep a 90s Zoom 2100 just because I like the envelope filter in it.

My favourite though is an Alesis Nanoverb. I have a rack full of much classier units, but thats the only one with a flanger which you can stall at any point through its sweep. Marvellous!

thumpingrug

I have  a tendency to use the Lux and Marshall models 90% of the time on the HD 500.  

Welcome to the fray.  

sted

The BE and HBE models in the axe-fx 2 are stunningly good.