my go-to combo since 2017 or so has been overloud's th-u for its amp and pedal sims, followed immediately by two notes wall of sound for the cabinet sims.
just got genome and haven't dived into it at all. my understanding is that it's eventually going to replace wall of sound, so i'd probably better figure out how to integrate it.
Re: Amp Sims, Modelers, and IRs
12I've been eyeing these for years but hoping they'd come down in price a little. They look useful but about $175 useful to me, not $400.bassdriver wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 5:33 am I still use the Strymon Iridium Pedal a lot for guitars, love it!
I use one of these SHB-1s as a substitution for plugging synths into a real amp (generally not worth the effort). Pretty good for free.
https://www.igniteamps.com/#software
Re: Amp Sims, Modelers, and IRs
13Not to start a side discussion, but synth-thru-amp came up with my band to avoid one more amp/cab to lug around. Came down to more we liked having the synth coming through a speaker set with the amp filtering that we were used to in a band context rather than whatever sound was coming out of monitors/PAs. - the synth covers so much frequency space, especially in the low end that having it geographically in the band line was much more comfortable that I still keep bringing stuff.penningtron wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 8:03 amI've been eyeing these for years but hoping they'd come down in price a little. They look useful but about $175 useful to me, not $400.bassdriver wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 5:33 am I still use the Strymon Iridium Pedal a lot for guitars, love it!
I use one of these SHB-1s as a substitution for plugging synths into a real amp (generally not worth the effort). Pretty good for free.
https://www.igniteamps.com/#software
Gk400+EV 1x15/1x6 so not that bad.
Re: Amp Sims, Modelers, and IRs
14That sort of reminds me: I have a Quilter Interblock that makes a nice portable head, but also has a speaker sim and 'Vintage' eq curve to emulate guitar amps. Something like that could go direct into the PA and sound more amp-like.TylerDeadPine wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 9:27 amNot to start a side discussion, but synth-thru-amp came up with my band to avoid one more amp/cab to lug around. Came down to more we liked having the synth coming through a speaker set with the amp filtering that we were used to in a band context rather than whatever sound was coming out of monitors/PAs. - the synth covers so much frequency space, especially in the low end that having it geographically in the band line was much more comfortable that I still keep bringing stuff.penningtron wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 8:03 amI've been eyeing these for years but hoping they'd come down in price a little. They look useful but about $175 useful to me, not $400.bassdriver wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 5:33 am I still use the Strymon Iridium Pedal a lot for guitars, love it!
I use one of these SHB-1s as a substitution for plugging synths into a real amp (generally not worth the effort). Pretty good for free.
https://www.igniteamps.com/#software
Gk400+EV 1x15/1x6 so not that bad.
I agree: if you're trying to integrate synth into a band then you need to deal with the extreme frequencies, otherwise they eat up everything.
Re: Amp Sims, Modelers, and IRs
15I know the Helix seems lame to you, and I totally get why you don't want to live in a world of menus. I'm pulling out old hardware dum machines to get away from the world of stage laptops and iPads. However, with big modeling devices, you can always just pick your one favorite model and not look at anything else. Plus, the Helix is the only modeler where you can get PRF favorites like a Traynor amp and the KWB pedal. The models are made by solid dudes.
One myth I want to dispel is that a device with MORE content must mean that the content is then of a lesser quality. That's not true. Any company selling a line of DSP pedals that all go into a case of the same form factor could be giving you ALL of those pedals in one device. They're just breaking it up to sell customers more than one thing. Or they're doing it to provide a more direct experience with a single model. Both are valid reasons. Still, I know the time and effort that go into model creation. We give model updates for free because it keeps the product alive and dynamic in the marketplace.
I will end this this semi-advertisement and hype-post by linking my own band. On this recording, everything was Helix; guitar, bass, even some vocal processing.
https://zachdracula.bandcamp.com/
One myth I want to dispel is that a device with MORE content must mean that the content is then of a lesser quality. That's not true. Any company selling a line of DSP pedals that all go into a case of the same form factor could be giving you ALL of those pedals in one device. They're just breaking it up to sell customers more than one thing. Or they're doing it to provide a more direct experience with a single model. Both are valid reasons. Still, I know the time and effort that go into model creation. We give model updates for free because it keeps the product alive and dynamic in the marketplace.
I will end this this semi-advertisement and hype-post by linking my own band. On this recording, everything was Helix; guitar, bass, even some vocal processing.
https://zachdracula.bandcamp.com/
Re: Amp Sims, Modelers, and IRs
16tl;dr: Origin Effects, all-analog preamp pedals, carefully done, sound nice. Aguilar Tone Hammer, good base for bass, name so dumb it's funny.
I use the Helix all the time for delay, reverb, tremolo. I haven't really explored the models but that other stuff is very good.
I have an Aguilar Tone Hammer, the 700W version. It sounds OK on its own, not great, but overall it has better low end and midrange fullness that a lot of the lil solid state guys do not have.
I bypass the Aguilar tone stack and use the Origin Effects fake-SVT in front of it. Is it better than a V4 or SVT? No. But...bypassing the tone stack on the Aguilar and using that thing as the front end...it's close enough. Great travel setup.
So then I got Origin's black-panel Deluxe one, for guitar, to avoid hauling around an old Super Reverb on a tour, and it is quite good. Rounds off midrange/high end if you have a main amp that is a bit too hi-fi. Makes a Hiwatt sound passably like a 60s Fender. Good tremolo on it.
My bandmate thought the Origin things sounded good and ended up buying the fake-Magnatone one, also good, also has a crazy trem on it.
I use the Helix all the time for delay, reverb, tremolo. I haven't really explored the models but that other stuff is very good.
I have an Aguilar Tone Hammer, the 700W version. It sounds OK on its own, not great, but overall it has better low end and midrange fullness that a lot of the lil solid state guys do not have.
I bypass the Aguilar tone stack and use the Origin Effects fake-SVT in front of it. Is it better than a V4 or SVT? No. But...bypassing the tone stack on the Aguilar and using that thing as the front end...it's close enough. Great travel setup.
So then I got Origin's black-panel Deluxe one, for guitar, to avoid hauling around an old Super Reverb on a tour, and it is quite good. Rounds off midrange/high end if you have a main amp that is a bit too hi-fi. Makes a Hiwatt sound passably like a 60s Fender. Good tremolo on it.
My bandmate thought the Origin things sounded good and ended up buying the fake-Magnatone one, also good, also has a crazy trem on it.
Re: Amp Sims, Modelers, and IRs
17That GK RB800 amp sim is really something, just immediately sounds like you want it to.
I messed around with some amp sim plugins, the ones that stayed are Mercuriall Reaxis (a Mesa Triaxis) and Spark (Marshall), and Scuffham S-gear, although I haven't used the latter in ages.
They all sound perfectly great, all this stuff is amazing, but for me, I found I really don't like playing guitar with it coming through my monitors, it sounds fine but it's just a million times better coming out of the cab. So I have the little cheapo Bugera load boxes on my amps, and I'm sure tone snobs will tell me I need the big $$$ reactive load boxes (a dude in a store actually made a face when I mentioned the Bugera), but to me they sound just fine, I've no problem with them at all.
I messed around with some amp sim plugins, the ones that stayed are Mercuriall Reaxis (a Mesa Triaxis) and Spark (Marshall), and Scuffham S-gear, although I haven't used the latter in ages.
They all sound perfectly great, all this stuff is amazing, but for me, I found I really don't like playing guitar with it coming through my monitors, it sounds fine but it's just a million times better coming out of the cab. So I have the little cheapo Bugera load boxes on my amps, and I'm sure tone snobs will tell me I need the big $$$ reactive load boxes (a dude in a store actually made a face when I mentioned the Bugera), but to me they sound just fine, I've no problem with them at all.
Re: Amp Sims, Modelers, and IRs
18
I don't think the Helix is lame at all. I was about to pull the trigger on the stomp, but I really didn't want to dive into the world of modelers, to be honest. I am also not that interested in replacing my pedals just yet. I saw your Traynor model in the list of amps and honestly, that was really compelling to me. I was really looking for something that just did an amp and did it well.benadrian wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 10:44 am I know the Helix seems lame to you, and I totally get why you don't want to live in a world of menus. I'm pulling out old hardware dum machines to get away from the world of stage laptops and iPads. However, with big modeling devices, you can always just pick your one favorite model and not look at anything else. Plus, the Helix is the only modeler where you can get PRF favorites like a Traynor amp and the KWB pedal. The models are made by solid dudes.
One myth I want to dispel is that a device with MORE content must mean that the content is then of a lesser quality. That's not true. Any company selling a line of DSP pedals that all go into a case of the same form factor could be giving you ALL of those pedals in one device. They're just breaking it up to sell customers more than one thing. Or they're doing it to provide a more direct experience with a single model. Both are valid reasons. Still, I know the time and effort that go into model creation. We give model updates for free because it keeps the product alive and dynamic in the marketplace.
I will end this this semi-advertisement and hype-post by linking my own band. On this recording, everything was Helix; guitar, bass, even some vocal processing.
https://zachdracula.bandcamp.com/
I think it's hard to find a "bad" modeler or sim, to be honest they're all good in their own ways. Just like amps, it's all about taste. What it boils down to is the options one is looking for. I think I'm in the minority where I want my amp pedal to do as little as possible.
Re: Amp Sims, Modelers, and IRs
19I think you would really like the Opus. I was able to get it new for $260 on reverb. Worth every penny. You'd also get GENOME for free with it, if that interests you.penningtron wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 8:03 amI've been eyeing these for years but hoping they'd come down in price a little. They look useful but about $175 useful to me, not $400.bassdriver wrote: Sat Jan 27, 2024 5:33 am I still use the Strymon Iridium Pedal a lot for guitars, love it!
I use one of these SHB-1s as a substitution for plugging synths into a real amp (generally not worth the effort). Pretty good for free.
https://www.igniteamps.com/#software
Last edited by cakes on Sat Jan 27, 2024 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Amp Sims, Modelers, and IRs
20Crazy timing. Audified has a sale on there GK amp studio. If I didn't have that GK head from PA and Genome, I'd pick this up in a heartbeat.