Can Guitar Amp Simulators Compete With Real Ones? - RecordingRevolution.com

With so many great sounding virtual guitar amps on the market these days (both in plugin and hardware form) a common question I get is: do they sound professional enough to use?

Or should we just stick with real guitar amps?

Today I thought I would let YOU hear the difference for yourself and give you my take on the subject.

Hint: there's more than just tone to consider!

#guitarampsimulator #virtualguitaramp #ampsim

[pvalenti]

So I listened on my phone but it was quite obvious to me that the Sim had a TON more mids and highs. So when you bumped the mids I was like, "WTH is he thinking!?" Then when you low passed the vox rather than the Sim I was like, "Okay this guy must not be hearing what I'm hearing!"

Long story short, I feel this was a horrible comparison as to properly judge we would need to have the Sim be a Vox ac15 with similar mic and position eq'd to sound similar.

The only thing I feel that I got from this is that the Sim sounds better sonically which I feel we can agree upon.

However I was very disappointed that you didn't audition several amp Sims or even look for a similar Sim to the source.

Seems like you may need to do a follow up video in which you don't try to compare apples to oranges, but more like apples to virtual apples.

Just my opinion of course ymmv.

[andrewt]

I'm pretty sure no one gave the Beatles a hard time about plugging a guitar directly into the console. Both an amp and sim can sound great or terrible. The only thing that really matters is what works in the context of the song.

[andrevitorsantos]

You should have compared a real VOX with a VOX emulation, not with a Marshal SIlver Jubilee emulation

[centocerez]

I've played guitar live and in studio for 20 years. Always been a "digital sucks" guy. Lately I've started dabbling in home recording for my solo project and couldn't record my stack at home so I tried the free Guitar Rig Marshall sim. Man, just put a bit of post eq on there and got the best recorded tone of my life. Sold my amp and pedals and bought a shit load of plug-ins.

[AndrewStonerock]

Think people need to worry less about how "real" it sounds, and instead worry about how good it sounds. I literally just tracked two EP with my line 6 helix, and it sounds incredible! I wasn't worried about if it sounded real, and I found that I enjoyed the recording process more..

[ChernobylAudio]

I do 99% of my productions with amp simulators and I never use Amplitube because it's too dirty and harsh and requires way too much work. Companies like Neural DSP, STL Tones, Mercuriall, Audiority, Ignite Amps, are making much better products and don't cost nearly as much.

[bradhargis]

Amp sims will never replace the real thing. Sure some get really close to the point of not hearing a difference in a mix, but the feel and nuance of playing a real tube amp will never go away.

[nikht]

And still the tone snobs persist. I've been saying this for over ten years: Tone snobs, it's over! In a mix, no one can tell the difference between a real amp, and no one cares. The last thing we need in music is musicians advocating for needless consumerist ideals.

[brainmurde]

In 2015 I replace real amps with Fractal AxeFx. In 2019 i sold my AxeFx and start using only ampsim Neural DSP plugins. They are awesome. Everything I need.
Main thing for me, I'm making music for listeners. And if they don't hear the difference, there is no way to pay more or have any difficulties while recording.
For rehearsal I still prefer 5150 with 4x12 cab. But in studio only plugins.

[freecitizen]

It’s not only the sound, it’s also the “feel” of a tube guitar amp.
Even different approaches to the rectifier, diodes or tubes of various types, has a huge effect on both the sound and feel.
I just don’t enjoy playing through anything but tubes, especially with a tube rectifier that creates some “sag”.

[TheDilligan]

I am first and foremost a guitar player. And I play blues. And I have yet to find a single amp sim that sounds realistic on blues playing. It's the most revealing thing. Sure when you play like a robot, everything is clean with no real dynamics, Amp sims can sound real.

But when you play blues, you rake the strings, fret them in weird ways, pluck and slap them and get expression on every note, it reveals how badly even the best amp sims handle dynamic distortion and harmonics.

I have a full-analog live rig and a full-digital live rig. And I know that on the digital, I have to play completely differently and generally need to change effects and presets mid song (verse/chorus/solo) to get a sound... While on my analog rig, I can get all of those tones and get them better without having to change any settings - just the way my fingers attack the strings and the volume knob on the guitar.. I ca go from clean, spacey sounds to thick distorion with just my hands..

But on every amp sim I have ever played with or heard, the dynamics are crushed and the distortion responds way too evenly to the playing.

And when you are recording a blues song, it sounds like you are playing toy instruments. It sounds cheap and lacks life. Every fallback in a guitar sim becomes completely obvious on blues music. Even when you hear real blues artists playing them on great mixes, it is a song killer.

[CugnoBrasso]

Short answer: yes
Long answer: yessss!

[Tryggvasson]

i am absolutely convinced amp sims compete, and i only use amp sims, problem is, hearing the way this example was made, i'm almost inclined to change my mind :) - and say not only they don't compete, but are not even in the same league.


that amp sim sounded soooo bad - from that huge, almost white noise-like low end rumble, to the fizzy top - like noise, again - to the harshness of that metallic high mid frequency, and then that horrible droning whistle in the high mids, and the garbled, almst gargled distortion breaking down - completely incomparable to the smooth, creamy, level, buzz of the tube distortion.


on a personal note, i love amplitube, love the concept of it, and having available in front of me amps i've never seen, almost physically present, with their shapes, and specific controls, and idiosyncrasies - i love that - the interface, the concept, and options are killer. that being said... i don't think it's nearly the best sound at all - and many of the observations on this tone, in my experience, are general to the entire program. i preferred th-3 before, by a small margin - the shortcoming of th-3, in my view, is that it sounds a bit electronic, with a hint of square, bit crusher like distortion - but the attack is better, the glassiness and brittleness of tube are well recreated, and it doesn't have the problems i mentioned here, which reminded me of my amplitube days - although, granted, th-3 is a bit harsh itself. anyway, they were close, not a huge difference. the graphic concept of th-3 is not nearly as inspired as amplitube's.


however, with the rig player in th-u, and the redesigned ir loader, that difference in sound is significant now. the rig player is kemper technology - IR rig sampling - and it's pretty much as far ahead, in sound, as the Kemper was to other digital hardware. i tend to not like the cab IR settings usually included in the rigs - too much cap for me, but that's not a rule - and use the separate IR loader, which amplitube doesn't have - i don't use cab emulations anymore, and IRs make another big difference - and th-u has some great irs included - although not an inner edge of cone setting on a 2x12, or a 1x12 - of course you can use your own irs - so i use the mixIR3 cabinet from Rewirez, which is awesome, instead - an ir loader with the graphical interface and tweaking and mic placing workflow of a cabinet emulator - which is something I've been waiting for for years, and don't understand why it took so long for someone to actually do it - in all fairness mixIR seems to have existed for some time, but it's only now that I've learned about it - anyway, they seem to be singular in implementing the idea. they've got all the great cabs available, with pretty much all the great mic choices, with many sampled positions, it's easier to tweak than even a cab amulator, without browsing endlessly and clicking files to change IRs, as in other ir loaders, it sounds great, it looks great. the downside is that it's gonna break the back of your hard drive - the bass and two amp collections unpack to something like 18 gigs - in all sampling rates - of which I've only kept the 48 K. so the rig player, in th-u, with the mixIR3, for me, i find sounds beautifully and very natural. for the first time it doesn't just sound cool, it sounds like a guitar. find a good analog delay, a good tape, a good console emulation... sweet! it's party all the time in olafsville - wherever that is.

[monadyne]

To all the commenters here who are saying that tube amp guys are "tone snobs", here's something to think about: all these amp sims you're such fans of- - -what are the simulations based upon? The software engineers study the sound and behavior of various amps, attempting to replicate them. What are the common amp sims? The Fender '57 Bassman, Fender Twin Reverb, various specific Marshall amps from the '60's, '70's, '80's (each era having unique characteristics), Vox AC15 and AC30, Mesa Boogie, and many others, such as Dumble, TwoRock, Orange, etc., etc. Why have they chosen those specific amps? Because they get great tone!
Think how irrational it is to hate on people who are fans of the very amps used to create the simulations you think so highly of.

[duppykitoon]

Why would you compare a Vox AC15 amp to an Amplitube Marshall sim, particulary considering the fact that Amplitube has an AC30 sim? Makes absolutely no sense.

[lairdey]

I have found that if you really want to have an apples to apples tone from the amp to the model that there are a few things that have helped me along the way. 1) Reference a demo of the physical amp you’re wanting to model 2) Use a similar guitar in the same pickup position as the reference 3) Use a Match EQ plug-in after the sim in the signal chain. That last one evens out all the discrepancies so well that I tried it through all three channels of Amplitube’s Triple Rec model, and it held its character through each of them.

[A.J.]

Glenn Fricker from SMG studio has already done such blind test comparing Peavy 5150 vs 4 amp-sim plugins, so just few listeners could define the real amp from the emulated ones

[ziggy]

my favorite plugins are:
1) Mercuriall Spark (marshall sound)
2) Neural Dsp Fortin Nameless ( heavy rhythm sound)
3) Bias Fx2 ( for fender cleans)
4) Mercuriall ss11x (for cleans, and some distortions)
5) Valhalla delay (best delay plugin in the market)

[officialWWM]

I've been using the Headrush for the last couple of years and I challenge anyone to tell the difference.

[kpierce]

Amplitube is probably a bit outdated at this point. It was great when it came out though. Check out Neural DSP's products. I've never heard sims that accurate. They're what I rely on when my axe fx isn't around.