Guitar Rig Vs Amplitube !

what are IMPULSES?

 

He must be using convolution based impulses to simulate cabinets and/or spaces.

Altiverb does this, as does IR-1

 

Precisely, Marc. For my money, they can't be beat. Even plugging a real amp's line out into your computer with IMPULSES can get you some really incredible stuff. (Just remember to use a load).
I get all of my IMPULSES from here . . .

http://www.guitarampmodeling.com/viewforum.php?f=32&sid=04c1cfa23dc93e1284be56da8dc6e8ae.

I recommend everyone give them a shot.Here is a free host software . . .

http://www.voxengo.com/product/boogex/.

You should be able to figure it out from there.

 

I have heard so many times this: "the tone is in your hands" ...
Thats not true, at least not enterely true. Tone is 50% gear and 50% the guitar player.

Can you imagine this?:

For example take E. Van Halen and the song Eruption. Can you imagine Eruption played in the worst amp, without reverb and without any effects, just the worst transistor cheap mosquito tone in the world? It would be the same? No.

Can you imagine a very bad player, playing Eruption with the Van Halen's gear? It would sound like crap.

So the answer is we need the best tone than gear can produce so we can extract from there a great tone. If we have the basic, good tone to work on, with our hands, brain, experience in playing, skill and attitude we finally can get a great tone.

Sorry for bad english it's difficult to me express all this a other than my natural languaje.

 

Jimmy Page recorded the first Led Zeppelin album (and the Stairway to Heaven solo on IV) with a Tele and a cheap Supro practice amp. Does it sound like that to you?
It's in your hands...

ew

 

I can't tell you how many times I have been to New Orleans and some black dude is chilling on the curb with a Peavey Bandit solid state amp and a Peavey Predator guitar screaming on some beautiful blues licks.
Converesely I can't tell you how many times I've heard a teenager with a MESA amp and cabs and IBANEZ guitars who sound like complete SH!%.
A good player can make anything sound GOOD, but not GREAT. Eric Johnson isn't playing through Behringer for a reason and it's not endorsement ( I'm sure they'd love to have him). SOME TONES are simply NOT ACHIEVABLE through playing style. You can't add compression and sag with playing style, you can't make a twin sound like MASTER OF PUPPETS with PLAYING STYLE.

Take an ORANGE OR120 for example. I don't care who you are, NO ONE can make an amp with a FMV style tone stack sound as dark and brooding as an old MATAMP or ORANGE.

When you talk about lead lines, the room for pick attack and "charisma" is much larger and able to hold a larger influence on the overall sound. When you begin to discuss metal/rock riffs and palm muted riffs, there is less control given to the player and more to the overall tone. There are some differences a player can make but he can't make a MARSHALL sound like a MESA. I don't care who he is.

 

You're right to a point- that's the 10% I was talking about earlier.

Your last statement is somewhat flawed, though. I'll start off by saying I don't like MESA's tubes; on every Boogie I've owned (and I've owned three of them), the first thing I do is have a bias adjuster put in. With a Marshall, you can adjust the bias already.

Now, choose your tube. I like Svetlanas (or Mullards if I can find them) for EL34s, and I like Sovteks (or NOS Sylvanias if I can find them) for 6L6/5881s. Take both amps in and have them biased to the same brand and type of tube (or if you have a scope, bias them yourself). Even better, have them biased with the same set and switch them between amps for the test. Run each amp through the same cabinet. The difference between the amps will be far less than you'd probably expect it to be...

If you're looking for a vintage Plexi sound, throw a good set of EL34s in an old Bandmaster/Bassman and run it through a Marshall 4x12... you'd be amazed at the result.

ew

 

I totally agree with you about the Bassman/Bandmaster. Practically the same Western Electric circuit for those and the PLEXI. My Sovtek Mig 50 is modded with EL34's and it has THAT sound. HOWEVER, I can't say that I've tried what your describing with Marshall/ MESA's but tubes are kinda essential to the sound of the amps. I CAN say that I've never played a Marshall with BOOGIE low-end.

I do know that you'll NEVER get a SLEEP or HIGH ON FIRE type of guitar sound without a baxandall based circuit and some MASSIVE transformers.

 

You are refering to a record sound, a gutar sound manipulated in studio. It's well know J. Page as a magic producer. He is one of the best in Rock history. He master micros, amps, rooms, microphone placement (distance, angles), He used fuzztones, Echos and a lot of the technology available in the Led Zep years.
Again is a blend: the gear and how smart you use it and of course de hands of the performer.

Why then musician care so mutch about their instruments, amps, woods in guitars, to get this or that amp. All guitar players search always for ultimate tone, famous or not famous.

 

The search for the perfect tone is (in my opinion) a nice substitute for practicing, working on songs and becoming a better musician...

I know it's controversial and a touch elitist, but I've found it to be true. Those who can really play aren't really all that picky (Eric Johnson is the exception).

 

Because they're looking for what feels right to them.

As an example, take the two people in your user name. Hardly anybody was using Carvin amps until Steve Vai came along. Go back to the original version of The Attitude Song; that's a Performance guitar with a DiMarzio X2N through the Carvin tube head of the time (1984 or 5; I forget which)- that's all. Duplicate the setup- now let's see you match the tone (or even come close).

Van Halen's Frankenstein's a $70 Charvel body, a $90 Charvel neck (mid '70s prices) and a wonky pickup. It works for him and how he plays, though.

Once again, it's 90% your hands...

Oh- as a aside; I'm much more finicky about my guitars than I am my amps. But, if you're playing super-high gain stuff all night, nobody's going to be able to tell if your guitar's made out of basswood or alder or mahogany or swamp ash or...

ew

 

Or listen to "Blue Powder".. That was a Carvin.

I always thought there was some sort of tone mystery... Something I wasn't getting (as a kid). I realized how fast that was BS.

Now when my students ask me "How do I play faster", my answer is "You'll play as fast as you want to"; as in "You'll figure it out if it's THAT important to you.

 

Did anybody ever decide if Amplitube stacks up against GR2?

I think the bass sounds are better in Amplitube's bass plug in.

I'm waiting on a NI update that steals a little bit of the sound from Amplitube, because what NI is missing in sound, they make up for in flexibility.

 

I find Guitar Rig much easier to "use". I will admit that some of the models in the Hendrix edition of Amp are very, very good, but I don't that IK has a chance with our effects quality and MDF.

 

Yes but what about the Marshall he got in the studio? It would be the same with a transistor amp?
Are you telling me Steve Vai is not a gear obsessive? He can expend 3 days and nights dialing in the eventide, adjusting noobs in amps and gear etc.
You are talking about guitar sounds in records, processed in a studio with all sorts of gizmos.
I'm not saying the guitar player is not important! 50%

 

And IMO Guitar Rig is much better than AMplitube, not only in features (that's evident) but in sound. I get tones just like those on records with GR. From clean to crunch to high gain, from vintage to modern.
Amplitube always sounds a lot more ugly to my ears. I got some vintage good sounds from it and that's all.

 

I posted this as an example of a good tone with GR2:


http://www.esnips.com/doc/bb54757e-047f-454a-a3e1-c23c3e96b6c1/Adol---ktz.mp3


It's just GR2 in my Ibanez, recorded with the tape deck. In Amplitube I just can't get this level. Well I think it's a great tone.

 

Satriani's mainstay recording setup during Surfing With the Alien and Flying in a Blue Dream was a Jazz Chorus with a DS-1 in front of it... he could get the tone at a manageable volume that way.

I never said that. I was talking about his tone on that song...

In the case of my comments about Vai, I'm repeating what he said about the song. The Attitude Song was the first Soundpage for Guitar Player back in '84 or '85- I've still got the issue around here somewhere. He did the transcription and described how it was done; there wasn't any other processing used.

A poor craftsman blames the tools...

ew

 

Exactly, and a Jazz Chorus amp, a DS-1 and some others effets he used is called gear to help to get a sound. He wanted an alien sound, and he got it with this gear and his hands.

And yes a poor craftsman blames the tools, thats true.

 

Are you ignoring your previous statement there, or are you just being argumentative?

You said;

The answer would be yes. I saw Joe on the original Surfing tour (as well as three other times); his tone using Marshalls live was the same as using solid state in the studio...

ew