Has anyone else gone "virtual"?

[Superlizard]

"They have a *loooooong* ways to go when it comes to emulating a tube amp's dynamics... i.e. pick soft, cleaner - pick hard, more dirt - and using guitar vol knob to go from practically clean to "mean"."

the Pod does do this. If I back off on my guitar's vol knob the "amp" cleans up. You can also use a boost pedal in front of a pod with the same results as a real amp and there are pick dynamics. The Tube Screemer model within the Pod also acts like a real tube screemer should.

Brian

I'd have to hear it with my own ears to be convinced the touch/picking sensitivity is on par with a good tube amp circuit.

...not to mention the interaction of a tube amp with a good speaker.

Yeah, I'm a cynic.  *shrugs*

 

[AndyG]

Interesting the variety of comments this thread has generated.

As I mentioned before, your guitar tone is a very personal thing, and what sounds like angels singing to one person sounds like cats in heat to another.

Funny thing is, any amp will sound "somewhat" different depending where you use it, and you'll usually tweak things accordingly.  And you can't tell me that the guy at the back of the club on his 12th Coors light will notice the subtle difference between a real and virtual 12AX7  :icon_scratch:

I still love old tube gear, and if I could afford to have a collection, I would.  To me, the virtual world is the best thing for versatility vs tone vs price.

 

[Vol. Knob]

I firmly beleive that the "very best thing" is the "real thing", out of a desire to simplify, total control at the mixing board, and speed up the set-up-and-tear-down, I too have gone virtual.

I traded a Tube Screamer (recent, stock, scratched and dirty) for a Vox Tonelab SE.  I really really really got the better end of that trade.  I guess the guy didnt want to have to read a manual to use his pedal.  Can't say I blame him, the Tonelab SE can be daunting until you get used to it.

Having gone this route, I've never ever heard myself so well in the mix.  In fact, since our drummer uses an electric kit, we all plug into the PA.  The only one who uses an amp is our bassist, and we still run him into the PA.  Setup, teardown, and soundcheck all go much much faster these days.

As I'm a swiss-army-knife player in a cover band, I need to be able to get from pristine clean tones to sizzling dirty tones without too much tap dancing.  Plus I need a wah, chorus, filtertron, and an assortment of different delays.  Before the tonelab I had two overflowing pedalboards.

The funny thing is, at our last wedding gig I was able to play the entire show on one amp setting, the Brittish '80s (Marshall JCM 800) dialed up dirty and used my guitars volume knob to clean everything up.  I never even turned the distortion pedal modeling function on.  I think I only used the chorus once and the filtertron twice.

 

[mayfly]

Yep, this has been my experience as well.  For "real" shows I use my Tonelab patches, but I have found that for jams where I'm positioned away from the box I just select a nice hot lead sound, then turn down the volume on the guitar to clean it up.

That tonelab thing is pretty amazing.  Nice job swapping a tube screamer for it!

 

[stubhead]

It's kind of funny, what with all the available models, I seem to use the other knobs to end up making each model sound as much alike as possible.... :icon_scratch:
Same thing with five different reverbs, by the time I end up saving different ones and A/B'ing them I've got 'em all sounding alike.  :hello2:
Because I played Marshalls for 25 years or so (still got a choicy no-master 50-watter stashed away) I usually end up going for the early Marshall model, simply cause it's what I'm comfy with. Sometimes it's called a "Plexi", or a  JTM45, or a Marsh-50 or something - then like you said, just jack it up and down with my volume control. I keep a few adjacent patches with different levels of compression, a (15%?) touch of chorus to stereo-tize stuff etc. My adoring fans just want to get hammered and sleep with each other's wives anyway, you'd have to screw up pretty royally to even get noticed.  :laughing11:


http://www.abesofmaine.com/item.do?item=MSHJTM45&id=MSHJTM45&l=FROOGLE - $1,749.00

http://www.digitech.com/products/Multi-Effects/RP250.php - $149.95

 

[Vol. Knob]

Before I started to noodle around with modelers, I always thought I was either a Fender blackface amp guy or a Vox amp guy.  Once I started playing with Modelers, I discovered that I was a Marshall guy.  Go figure.

Stubhead, I like the early Marshall Models too, but I stick the "trebble boost" pedal model in front of 'em and find they sound like a JCM800 model.

So when I get back to playing real amps again, I think I'm gonna need to buy a Marshall.....  Oh boy, gotta spend more money again...

 

[OzziePete]

No matter how good virtual instruments get, they'll always just be a short term investment.  I can still record my 5150 from 15 years ago with a good ol' SM57, but can't for the life of me record Virtual instruments because my half decade old computer running a now outdatted operating system isn't compatiable with ANY software on the market today.

erik

The issue of virtual amp modelling is close to my heart.

I found out long ago, that my preference in guitars and amps varies a lot from what type of music I want to play. You could say I'd need a warehouse full of guitars and amps before I'd be satisfied.

Then along comes amp modelling. And digital recording within your own PC at home. Double yah!  :hello2:

I bought a Cubase program but realised very quickly that this program is dependent upon the OS. So when I upgrade my OS in my PC I have to upgrade my recording software. I would like to try a Linux OS, but I don't think Cubase cater for that OS yet - and in fairness, the Linux scene has many variations of that one OS, so maybe there's compatibility issues too.

But obviously, if I were to spend a decent amount of money on a virtual amp package, it too would be dependent on the OS being maintained. Now, dear old Microsoft do things to suit themselves, and they do deliberately stop providing upgrades for older OS software, so that in time, your OS becomes slower and obsolete and you need to buy a new PC with the new OS they have on offer.

Actual amps last a lifetime if properly serviced, and not pushed too hard. Same cannot be said for virtual amps.

A healthy compromise for me, would be an amp sim box, that can plug straight into any A/D/A box into your PC.

For me, actual amps are no longer viable.

I wear hearing aids partly because of playing too loud, and my job depends upon me retaining what hearing I have. Having consulted with an Ear Nose & Throat Specialist recently, he could offer no firm rules in regards to noise levels. 70dB may be OK for some but not others. Some people may be able to endure regular exposure to 90+ dB without too much loss of hearing, whilst others may lose a fair portion. His only advice was to keep the noise down, so even a decent 5 watt tube amp fully cranked, and close enough to me, may cause some concerns. My best option is to go through small PC speakers, keep the recording noise down to a minimal, and all this means a more controlled environment. DI'ing through an amp simulator box and then into a DI and A/D/A box inot the PC is the best option. Recording at present captured by Cubase software recording to hard disc.

I am open for suggestions that some of you may have had with amp sim boxes. They are few and far between in Australia. Obviously I'd be looking at a box that was self contained and didn't require the loading of drivers etc. into the OS, as again, OS obsolescence is an issue.