I wanted to open up a discussion on amp sims, IRs, software and hardware, for a better resource among those of us who are curious or already down the well. I found it kind of hard to find trustworthy information online.

I recently got interested in replacing my amps with an amp pedal. It all started when I downloaded the GK800RB amp sim from Plugin Alliance and nearly had a heart attack listening to to myself play through it. I have a lot of personal feelings towards this amp, it's one of my all-time favorites and I played and recorded through one almost exclusively for 6 or 7 years. I love the classic (as in OG, not Classic) SVT as well, and of course, that was the next one I downloaded and nearly had to pull myself off the floor and wipe the tears from my eyes. At that moment, I decided that, for me, I no longer needed to carry around my old, beloved amps. But, what would replace them?

What I was trying to solve was this: I wanted a couple of solid amps, or at least one solid platform to have a few awesome amps on. Amps on hardware, that could replace the need of an amp in a live setting, and something that could be useful for recording at home. These days, I'm mostly playing at home. Band practice has been--in the past couple of years--in my basement, through headphones: I had my amps going through loadboxes and IR cabs, the drums on a e-kit, all pumping into an audio interface and out into our headphones. This same setup has been working pretty well for recording, too. I didn't want to give up playing through real cabinets and on real drum kits, since playing out every once and awhile is still a thing I'd like to do.

So, what I was looking for was kind of specific. First, I am not going to talk much about power amps, but I'll say this: for guitar, there's maybe two or three good pedalboard sized class D power amps that get the right amount of wattage to play live. For bass, it's a real mixed bag and very difficult to find something economical and light at the same time. I think this is because, traditionally, going DI on the bass is just fine, whereas with a guitar, going direct requires an IR to really fill out correctly. So, the only pedal-sized power amps you will find for bass are in the 200w @ 4ohm category. I think the idea there is that it's enough for a stage reference, but they all seem to forget that bands need to play together in a practice room. Maybe I'm missing something here, but 200w of class D isn't going to be more than tubes or solid state amps. Correctly me if I'm wrong.

When I first dove into it, of course, I immediately came across the Helix. I will not go down the rabbit hole of amp modelers, because frankly, having all the options at my feet is very not interesting to me. I want one great amp, anything more is icing on the cake. But something like the Helix or Fractal or Neural DSP is kind of wasted on me. Next of course, is the Strymon-style amp modeling pedal. There's literally dozens of these out there: an amp modeling pedal that does a Fender, a Marshall and a Vox. It's literally boring me just to bring it up. There's nothing less exciting than chasing the same dragon as 400 million bros who want to play the blues on their headphones. If those are your bag, I've got no qualms. I've just never really been a Fender or Marshall guy, and while Voxes are cool to me, they kind of aren't my thing either.

So, what I was going for was something that was more analogous to just getting an amp. This is actually hard to find, though there are some options out there. So, I will talk about what I found and what seems cool, what I've tried and what has interested me the most as a piece of hardware to replace my beloved amps: my GK800RB, Traynor YBA-3 and YRM-1.

Single Minded Amps

TC Electronic Ampworx

I have a real soft spot for TC Electronic. It all started when I bought the Shaker vibrato pedal. It's been a mainstay on my board and I dream about it at night. Everything they do just blows my mind and they do it in a very affordable way. I've even recently gotten a couple of their OD pedals and spent less on all three than one from a boutique. Are they mass-produced in China? Don't know, don't care. They sound great. So, when I discovered the Ampworx collection, naturally I was very intrigued. These are kind of interesting, because they are amp pedals that just do one amp and do it really well, even if it's not 100% accurate. They also chose some interesting models for six pedals, some obvious, some not. There's a Marshall 800, not my kind of amp. A Fender Twin Reverb, while cool, not really my thing. There's a Mesa Boogie Double Rectifier. Ok, no one's really doing much of that, but also not my thing. There's also a 5150 for a hi-gain option. Of course, they also have an AC30. But one they have that no one else seems to is a JMT45. While I've never played a JMT45, this little plexi is the amp that the YBA-1 and YRM-1 one were based off of, so that is pretty close to what I had. The Jims 45 pedal is really cool and I may pick one up, it looks like you can find one for around $100-$120, which is insane. The only drawback to the Ampworx series is that there's only one IR in a DI output. Personally, I could care less about included IRs, because I already have IR boxes and software that I like.

UAFX

You probably already know this by now, but Universal Audio took their Ox Box modeling further and built some killer amp pedals that included Ox Box cab modeling. Of course, the available pedals are the aforementioned triad of boringness, but I have to give it to UAD for making single-minded pedal platforms that apparently recreate classic amps to near perfection, with some of the best cab modeling available. The ones I looked at were the The Dream 65 and the Lion. The Dream 65 is three different versions of a Fender Twin Reverb, one classic Twin Reverb, one Dumble mod, and another rare or somewhat unique mod. The irony about recreating a rare modification is that now everyone has that one special thing, so it's no longer special. But whatever, the pedal is a Twin Reverb, right in the palm of your hands. Same goes for the Lion, which is three different kinds of classic Marshalls: a Super Lead, a Super Bass and a Brown Sound, for you Eddie Van Halen-heads. The Super Bass is interesting, in that just like the Jims 45 above, is a Marshall no one else is doing. Then there's the Ruby, which is the Vox AC30 with all the channels. These amp pedals are cool and pretty unique despite doing what everyone else is doing. Out of curiosity and my better judgement, I ended up picking up The Dream 65 and Lion, just to play with them. I don't know if I'll keep them. (If you are interested, hit me up, I'll most likely sell them--i got a good deal, and I already figured i'd lose a little bit of money doing this, I call it a rental price).

Friedman IR-X

If you wanted to get rid of your plexi in place of a pedal, and you also loved Friedman, this pedal seems fucking amazing. Like, hands down must-have. First, it's the only pedal I've found that is an amp maker making a pedal version of their own amp. I would LOVE to see more amp makers do this. I would imagine this is the actual future of amp pedals, once everyone gets over-Strymoned. Second, it's two channels: a classic Plexi and then a Friedman. On top of that, it has a whole software package to tweak with, as well as physical knobs. You can go hog-wild on IRs, either with the ones from Friedman, or load your favorite ones from some place else. It's arguably the most expensive of all these pedals, but it seems really flexible for live and studio recording. If I were a plexi and/or a Friedman guy, this would be an absolute no-brainer.

Bass Amps

Two-Notes Revolt Bass

Of course, amp sims for bass are nearly non-existent and if you find them they're almost always some variation of an SVT, something that is actually really hard to complain about. Anyway, this journey really started for me when I saw this pedal. It's got three channels, one that is a classic 70's SVT, and the other two are... something else, I already forgot, because SVT! Anyway, this pedal is cool and has a real 12ax7 in it, if that matters to you. It's guitar brother is the same kind of thing, but the triad of boringness. This was a real contender for me, but I decided on doing something very different, one that I will bring up later.

A Good Preamp!

Yes! A good preamp is gonna do it. There's so many good ones out there, take your pick. I went with a Walrus Badwater, because I was blown away with what I saw. For IR, I just use it with one of my IR boxes I already have. It's pretty versatile, because I can also feed it into the GK800 and SVT plugins when I record, or just go through the IR box when playing with the band. The Badwater is cool that it is also a DI box. So, you can go strait to a power amp and the board at the same time.

Do Your Own Thing Amps

Two-Notes Opus

I love Two-Notes. It all started with their Cab pedals. I love Wall of Sound as a VST. They just announced TODAY their GENOME app, which is Wall of Sound on steroids: the whole studio, from amp to pedals to cabs and mics, all in one piece of software. If anyone is gunning for Neural DSPs software, it's this French company. Anyway, what's cool about the Opus is, while they have presets for all the boring amps everyone else models, they are just that: presets. Presets on a platform that gives you all the tools to build your own kind of amplifier, and your own kind of cabinet. I won't go into the DynIR catalog here, but I was able to find IRs that are either based off of or pretty close to the cabinets I own, and other cabinets I've always wanted. It's a pretty cool platform and I'm most excited about this. In fact, TODAY the Opus came in the mail, so I have yet to play with it. Oh, and one important thing: Opus does EVERYTHING. It can literally be your one amp for all your guitars, basses, synths, acoustics... hell, probably even vocals. And, now with the GENOME, I think this is probably the most flexible option out there, very much bang for your buck affordable, even if you need to buy a separate power amp to use it with a cab.

Blackstar Amped 1

I came across this one early on, but forgot about it, and then stumbled on it again. I kind of wish I picked one up before spending my money, but if I can sell the UAFX pedals, I might just do it. It's one of the more expensive ones, but it's actually the most economical, because despite being able to create your own amp sound like the Opus--but more with physical knobs and less with a software interface--the Amped 1 does one thing that all these other pedals don't: it's also a 100w amp @ 8ohm AND 16 ohms. Now, a good class D power amp is going to cost well over $400, making the Amped 1 very intriguing. If you were one that was looking for an amp pedal that you can make your own thing from, while also having physical knobs to tweak with, and needed a power amp, this amp pedal seems absolutely spot on.

Had to Mention Amps

Boss IR-200 and IR-2

I have to bring these up, because while I probably wouldn't get one they are pretty cool. There's 9 guitar amps and 3 bass amps, tons of IRs and plenty of I/0 options. Maybe not as sexy as the others, but if you love Boss, you would love these. I also give them credit for providing 3 or 4 unique amps designed by Roland specifically for this pedal. So, while they have some of the obvious choices, there's also some uniqueness here. Both pedals are also very affordable: the IR-200 is the big boy with more options, but the IR-2 is right on the money for a budget amp pedal that is far more interesting than the Strymon-style amp modelers.

Laptop Amp

Ok, so this last one was one of my first ideas: why not use a laptop as an amp? With a cheap audio interface and the right power amp, this is so doable. Some plugins, like Neural DSP, have standalone apps for their amps, with midi controls and built-in pedals. There's even VST host software, like Bluecat and Elemental, that even have really great signal routing and midi hosting to build your own frankenstein signal path. There's also Guitar Rig 7, which seems pretty awesome, if that's your thing. And now with Two Notes GENOME, if you are a two-notes user, the sky is the fucking limit. I ended up picking up a Axe I/O One audio interface, because it's very pedal-like and would fit on a pedal board well. I'm not sure if I'll be going this route, but it's certain intriguing, especially the idea of getting a GK800RB sim in a live setting with the right kind of power amp.

I too have been very impressed with this stuff and love your granularity. When I've tried a number of modelers and IRs they mostly hit the 'good enough' but missing some kind of quality that affects the connection of ear/brain/fingers - I don't know if it's how feedback reacts or what, but there's still a tangible quality missing that setting up a 700rB or a tube head isn't THAT terrible (SVT different story) that I want to go down a rabbit hole of spending this much time on it - but the practical end result sure is nice, especially switching things on the fly and reliability (assuming the system doesn't require managing a million things. )

If I can suggest a metric to measure success with this type of system: "Will someone get pregnant because of this??"

Just to point this pair out, the Quilter "Superblock..." series.

While they just do one thing, they get close enough to an "Actual..." amp that each one easily justifies it's own existence.

They are in fact actual amps with actual wattage!

cakes wrote: Fri Jan 26, 2024 9:03 pm They are in fact actual amps with actual wattage!

Onboard speaker sim that the user can bypass/Direct out.

To me, that gets them into "Hardware Sim..." territory. I get it if some folks feel differently. To me, they aren't really different from a box that is running strictly on software with a "Hardware..." interface.

Yeah, the super block was one that I did come across. I have played Quilters, but I have not been enchanted by them. They are fine amps!

While "Sim..."/"Moderler..." was where the thread started, it is probably worth including this if someone did have "Off The Beaten Path..." amps that they were looking to leave at home.

I did look at the ToneX, but I left it with the idea of amp modelers such as the Helix. Captures are really an interesting thing, and would love to see them as part of this conversation.

I spent some time looking at NAM, GuitarML and ToneX. I actually bought a copy of ToneX, but I find IK Multimedia software really clunky and didn't really like it. (I plan to sell my copy after the 3 months cool off period they impose on you.) The first two neural capture software are open source and I highly recommend checking them out if you want to geek out on capturing amps, even OD and distortion pedals.

What I realized for myself is that, if I'm going to be honest, I don't really have time to make captures. And, I don't care enough. To me, it's kind of splitting hairs. I'm just looking for a tone, I don't care what amp it's modeling. For example, I feel like that TC Electronic JMT45 clone is going to be close enough to what I liked about the YRM-1. But who knows, I could probably get close enough to it with the Opus.

The biggest difference between a capture and a simulated amp is that the capture is a frozen setting on an amp and a sim is the entire amp platform as designed. To use a capture, you have to load it with proper software (such as ToneX or the NAM or GuitarML loaders). The software does provide some tone shaping, but it's outside of the amp design and fairly general tone shaping. I mean, if you're going to spend the time capturing your favorite amp, does it bother you that the EQ falls outside of the amp's design? Seems kind of... I dunno, counter productive to the entire concept of capturing, but I digress.

You could say that some sims aren't 100% accurate, but the honest take on captures is that they aren't either and maybe less so. But, to me, again it's just splitting hairs because it's all close enough to be pretty damn good, and there's other variables to consider such as your guitar, the IRs you use and the pedals on your board, not to mention any plugins or outboard gear you use in your mixes.

Where captures really shine is the communities that exist around them. Be it NAM, GuitarML or ToneX, there are huge communities of people capturing their amps and sharing with each other. This is too much for me, I don't like digging through piles of options. And if you've thrown yourself into the dumpsters if IRs, well I got news for you: dumpster diving captures is just as harrowing.

But hey, if that's your thing, more power to you. The software engineer in me is really enchanted by the open source and community aspect of captures. Honestly, I really just want to make music.

I still use the Strymon Iridium Pedal a lot for guitars, love it!
as for plugins I've been using STL Amphub for a couple of month now and really dig their amps. I often use a 2 amp set up split L/R.
for bass I like AmpliTube's Amp/Cab sims. tested a lot of plugins and the IK stuff sounded best to me for bass.

Still using my bass amps though and will keep using them, just trying to reduce weight with preamp/poweramp and lightweight cabs.