Some Thoughts On Digital Guitar Amp Modelers
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
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I dabbled into digital modelling amplifiers, modelling units, modelling plugins, IRs and the whole bit. The idea of having all the amps in one box or one inexpensive piece of software was attractive… but in the end, I could never get a sound I was happy with and worse, OPTION PARALYSIS. I spent way more time dialing and tweaking presets that after a while realized I wasn’t even playing guitar anymore. Gave that up and now just sticking with real amps and running a mic on a cab for home recording. It still bugs me though as I have a few buddies who have gotten great guitar sounds out of plugins. I choose to just play guitar. Plugging into and amp and turning it up gets instant “hell yeah” tone.
Haha, yeah, like a restaurant menu with way too many choices. I get that.
Totally
@@chuckbouscaren3898 exactly! And then no matter what you pick off the menu ends up leaving you kinda disappointed or wondering if that other thing woulda been better. Ha!
Hey Justin, great topic! I actually have a lot of experience here as I’ve been playing a Helix for the last 6 years or so. Before that I was a the amp and pedalboard guy. I herniated a disc lugging a Vox AC30 to and from gigs so the prospect of using a modeler was very attractive. Alot of the local places where my band plays actually require us to run direct and we run in ears. Lately I have been missing a playing a tube amp thanks to your videos as well as Uncle Larry and Guthrie Trap’s videos. I just picked up a used 65 DRRI and it’s gonna take a minute to get used to again not to mention that I had sold off all of my pedals so now I’ve gotta start all over again, but that’s the fun part and soooo many options! Thanks for putting a different perspective out there to consider.
I used a Kemper for several years live and even cut a couple of albums using one. I switched back to a stereo rig with real amps, there is just a little extra magic in the way they feel to me, and I think I play a little bit better with them. But as far as consistency, no technical issues and being super easy for my crew to setup, modelers can be really pretty great
I’m a vintage combo guy (Princetons, Supros etc). It’s just what I’ve always used. That being said, my pedalboard (similar to yours in many ways), has a Flint on the end, and I will drop in a Dream 65 in the Flint’s place (using the verb and Trem), for big stage gigs where the monitoring is robust, and amp is just unneeded. Smaller club gigs, it’s just hard to give up an amp. The ambience of open back cabs really adds to the sound the audience takes in.
I use an Iridium w York IR’s in the studio all the time. It sounds great. Both the Dream and Iridium are super simple to use.
@@liontone York IRs are definitely the key on the iridium on all the amps. Made a huge improvement 👍
Hey Justin, great video and subject. The idea of traveling light is appealing and some gigs it’s actually becoming a necessity. I’m a ridiculously old school tube guy, but I might start to consider the simplest modeling set up I can lay my hands on just to stay in the game. Great intro too!
Great to hear your thoughts Justin! I just picked up a quad cortex for the same reason, and tend to agree with you regarding application of amp modellers.
I think it’s going to serve me really well for fly dates and really any gig that calls for a silent stage, however I totally intend to still use tube amps and a pedalboard when the application calls for it!
Awsome channel Justin, I like it! Speaking about fly rigs: two years ago I had been using one of these modelers too, but it did quit after the 2nd show on tour. No way to get it running again. Luckily I found one of these Blackstar HT1, 2nd hand, at a Guitar Center which I am using as fly rig since then together with a small pedal board (comp, drive, delay). It works amazingly well...some real tubes inside, 4 knobs, whatever you dial in sounds and feels usable, reverb on board, cab sim on headphone out, fits into a suitcase and is not much heavier or bigger than a decent modeler. I can hook it up to a cab if there's one available at the venue or run it DI. This thing is working perfect for me as I really hate the never ending programming procedure you have with modelers or multi FXs. I can work with it BUT there is no comparison to a full sized amp with at least some 15W +. However, amp volume and stage volume are essential. Even if you are using in ears a silent stage is sounding weird to the audience in front of it - I mean at least you want to sell some sort of Rock'nRoll, don't you? 😀
Awesome!
I had one of those HT1 heads. I loved it so much that I bought the HT5 and gave the 1 to my brother.
There's no better amp for playing at home imo. I have several amps, but the Blackstar gets the most use.
I've gone back and forth over the years but now I ultimately just run an Iridium on my pedal board out into the mixer / IEMs. It took a little while to get a sound from the Iridium that feels like an amp but with some custom IRs (this was the piece that just took some experimenting for a few hours to find one that works) from a feel perspective (at least through the IEMs) it is near identical for me.
We play smaller venues (
Sometimes it's nice to easily get a full blown tone from factory presets in one device, and rock it that way. Even though it sounds processed and fake, I still like it as another flavor and can get inspiration from that. But real amps are still better most of the time to me.
Welcome back Justin!
Thanks Chuck!!
I prefer modeling for playing at home. Great consistent tone at low volumes with lots of flexibility.
I don’t play out live currently but if I did, I would still probably prefer a real tube amp. But it comes at a big cost vs modeling: less versatility, a lot of weight to move and less reliable than anything digital.
I would never knock anyone for using modelers in a live setting because it totally makes sense.
Hey Justin, have you heard or tried out one of the Tone Master Deluxe Reverbs? I played a Tube and a Tone Master side by side and couldn’t tell the difference with my eyes closed. I’d be interested to hear your opinion on them.
Back in the early 90’s when I started playing, I started with solid state, I didn’t know anything about amps ! Years later I had a modeling amps………but to me my playing sounded fake, so I switched to TUBE amps
But I’m just a hobby guitarist not a pro like you young man 👍 so I understand why U would use modelers
Cool!
Well I think that they are better than transistor distortion. It seems like you get less fizzy distortion on the most recent digital modelers.
But some of them are kind of terrible. Oddly enough I think my positive good spark sounds better than my boss Katana 100 at low volume.
And that's because the Katana at low volume sounds fizzy when you have lots of distortion.
But you don't need a power amp at all to run a modeler. The whole point is that you would run it direct and listen back via wedges or in ears. I agree if you're using only the pre-amp sims then you need a power amp, but then it's still probably more convenient if you require multiple amps to do that than actually take multiple amps.
But the intro was your Bassman, right?
I don't use Amps however I do have a Vox speaker cabinet with a 10 Greenback speaker goes with a micro power amp l. My Amp modeler ( NUX Trident ) and a volume pedal .....I have zero use for big pedalboards , they are heavy , bulky and they do fail , it has happened to me more than once live. Dumped my pedalboard and never looked back. Would rather spend time dialing in my patches than " teching" a pedalboard . I gig 3 times a month I don't earn my living playing music so a multi effects unit get ls the job done . I covers everything I need to play Eagles Tribute in 1 band , Hot Country in another band and 70s + 80s Rock in another band. Load in is easy , plunk my Trident down , connect my volume pedal , run an out to my powered cab and Im loaded in . Makes load outs after the show fast work too .
People always always always forget that what makes an amp feel and sound the way it does in a room is the fact it's going into a guitar cab in that room.
Where do II order the T Shirt, I want! Black XL please .... 🙂
I've tried and/or used several digital amp modelers, from a Digitech RP100 (meh), a Line6 Flextone II 2X12 (ok, not great, only one "tube-y" sounding amp model to my ears ), to a Boss Katana 50 (pretty darn good). They've gotten better sounding over the years, but it's still all about the glowing glass for the best electric guitar tone. There are lots of great analog solid state guitar amps out there too: Quilter (!), Peavey Bandits, Orange Crush RT35 (a little beast, a hidden gem of sorts). I do like the lightweight/high power and convenience of solid state amps though.
Digitech RP100, now that takes me back to my youth!
Cool!
Haha
@@CliveBixby0214 $99.95 in 1999, if I remember right. Some of the factory presets were hilariously over the top, LOL.
@@angryshoebox sounds about right! I remember in HS I saved up $200 for the RP350
So we lug those big tube amps around for ourselves. You think 99.9 percent of the audience knows or cares what gear we're using? No, as long as it gets in the ballpark of the recording theyve heard. That said, I dont like modelers, theres almost no dynamics to any of them.
The only people who think modeling amps are great, have never owned real vintage tube amps in proper condition.
yeah thats not true. Some of us just arent so precious about a tone that gets mixed down with everything else and can be barely differentiated by the audience. Also convenience sometimes just wins.