# Inception style guitar sounds?



## Resoded (Jul 16, 2015)

I'm currently using Softtubes Vintage Amp Room and Metal Amp Room and I'm trying to dial in some decent picked guitar sounds similar to the Inception score. But I'm unhappy with the results, so I'm considering other amp sims.

Does anyone have any recommendations for other amp sims that could achieve something similar?

Don't say axe FX, it's too expensive!


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## Vin (Jul 16, 2015)

Maybe Guitar Rig's Twang Reverb amp could come close? I know that Johnny Marr uses a Fender Twin Reverb with his Jaguar and also Roland JC 120, which is called 2 x 12 Jazz in Guitar Rig.

You might find this interesting as well.


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## ChristopherDoucet (Jul 16, 2015)

What kind of guitar are you using? 

Before the amp setting it's worth noting that while it is a Fender Jaguar, you could fake it with just about any stray or tele, but first and foremost I'd start there, but if you're using a les Paul or something without the fender clean, "single coil" sound, I would find it hard to get that tone.


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## Resoded (Jul 16, 2015)

Thanks for the tips Vin and Christopher.

Well I'm using two different guitars, a ESP SV with a Lundgren Revolver pickup and a Hellcat with SD vintage single coil mics. Exactly the same sound isn't necessary, but something sort of close to it would be nice.


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## mbagalacomposer (Jul 16, 2015)

Is using an actual amp out of the question? 

Basically you're just looking for a lightly overdriven amp sound and pretty damn dry. Thats a tricky to nail all in the box just because its so simple but....Guitar rig has done me right in the past in a pinch. As mentioned above you're probably looking for a fender twin sim kind of deal...or that'll get you close anyways.


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## JCmusik08 (Jul 16, 2015)

Check out Bias Amp from positive grid. Really versatile. Comes with an amp match system as well


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## ZeeCount (Jul 16, 2015)

I'm a huge fan of http://www.scuffhamamps.com/product/s-gear by Scuffman amps. It does a really good job of nailing the Marhsall and Fender type tones (also reacts quite convincingly like a tube amp). Ofc, if I want to use electric guitar in my scores I just mic up my Mesa Boogie Express 25+... 

A lot of the tone that they had on that score came down to the effects chain that the guitarist was running. It sounded like he was using a fairly clean tube amp and then hitting it with a clean boost to push it into light overdrive.


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## Resoded (Jul 17, 2015)

Thanks for the replies!

Mbgala: Yeah, I prefer ITB at the moment.

Zee: I'm leaning towards getting S-gear. I hear a lot of positive things about it.


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## hirnkatheter (Jul 17, 2015)

Check out this amp by KUASSA. http://www.kuassa.com/products/amplifikation-vermilion/


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## ZeeCount (Jul 17, 2015)

Resoded said:


> Thanks for the replies!
> 
> Mbgala: Yeah, I prefer ITB at the moment.
> 
> Zee: I'm leaning towards getting S-gear. I hear a lot of positive things about it.



It is definitely worth trying out (they have a free demo that gives you all the features, you just cant save anything). S-gear's strength lies in clean to mid-gain pushed tones. It's not so convincing for really high gain stuff, but I'm assuming that's not what you're aiming for. They also have a non-ilok version (huge plus for me). Just be aware that if you are looking for effects, all it has is a chorus/flanger, a delay, and reverb.


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## Resoded (Jul 17, 2015)

Zee, I was considering the cabinet IRs for S-gear, do you like the ones that come with the plugin or do you prefer others?


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## ZeeCount (Jul 17, 2015)

Resoded said:


> Zee, I was considering the cabinet IRs for S-gear, do you like the ones that come with the plugin or do you prefer others?



The Cab IR's are made by redwirez, so they are decent. They aren't amazing, but they definitely get the job done. You get the usual suspects: a variety of 1x12, 2x12, 4x10 and 4x12, with two different mic options and 4 positions for each. Their are plenty of free or cheap commercial impulses out there which you can add in if you don't like their ones.


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## Dan Drebing (Jul 17, 2015)

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I was going to start a new guitar thread and this seems like a good place ask.

I know almost nothing about guitar signal chain; pretty much all I do is feed omnisphere guitars to guitar rig 5 or the waves guitar amp vst (can't remember the name). No matter what, the sound of the omni guitars always seems to come through; should I be able to get a lot of different guitar sound using my current tools, or are the samples in omni too colored to be very flexible? The end results alwayseem similar, and I'm not sure if it's the guitar samples or guitar rig tweaking. I've searched the forum but not found any threads that helped.


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## ZeeCount (Jul 17, 2015)

If you want to use something like guitar rig 5 you need to have a completely dry recording of the output of an electric guitar's pickups. I don't have have omnisphere, so I can't comment on the suitability of those samples for re-amping.


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## R. Soul (Jul 18, 2015)

Dan, Omnisphere is great, superb even. But it's not my choice for guitars, not even close.

You want a realistic, dry sounding guitar that you can run through Guitar rig 5. 

One of these for example.
http://www.amplesound.net/en/pro-pd.asp?id=3
http://www.orangetreesamples.com/evolution-electric-guitar-strawberry
http://www.ilyaefimov.com/products/electric-guitars/lp-electric-guitar.html


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## tiago (Jul 21, 2015)

I use Evolution Electric Guitar by Orange Tree and like it a lot, sounds very realistic if used correctly. I also end up using it with Guitar Rig most of the time because I find it to be the most customizable amp simulator and great for guitar effects. But, for the kind of sound that you want, I would probably consider using Amplitube instead of Guitar Rig. Amplitube doesn't give you as many options in terms of sound customization but I find it to have a "warmer" and more realistic amp sound, probably better suited to emulate Johnny Marrs' sound on Inception.


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## Kaufmanmoon (Jul 21, 2015)

I've tried my fair share of amp sims when recording for albums and such and would invariably just use real amps as nothing would come close, (Line 6 pod had its moments)
A few years ago Amplitube Fender was the first thing I could get a decent sound from in my DAW but recently I bought the Scuffman amp stuff and it's now the one to beat in my opinion.

In truth certain patches in all amp sim software have their moments but there's something different about the Scuffman stuff, can't put my finger on it, but I like it.


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## tmm (Jul 21, 2015)

Thread is TL;DR, but I'd say it depends a lot on the guitar / outboar 'real' gear you're using. I've gone through A LOT of gear trying to come up with guitar recording solutions that worked and sounded best for me. Just try searching posts by TMM over on Sevenstring.org, I posted my gear findings there for years.

Where I'm going with this - my best combo of great tone and flexibility is a good guitar + a good real preamp direct in, then using Two-Notes PI-101 Wall of Sound for the amp / cab / mic sim side of things. I love the results I get from that, and I'll bet you could get close to what you're looking for with that.

I got even better results running guitar --> amp head --> attenuator --> interface and switching off the power amp sim in PI101, but that was more expensive, and way less portable, so I compromised on the power amp piece of my signal chain. I would personally recommend against using software for the preamp section of your signal path... That's where you get the feel. That I won't compromise on. Plus, it's way more fun to play through a real Mesa / Fender / etc.

You can hear my Tele + Mesa preamp in this kind of a setup in the song sketch Superluminal in my sig, if you're interested in hearing the results. Slightly more gain than what you're after, but it does that 'edge of breakup' tone really, really well, too.


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## Resoded (Jul 24, 2015)

Thanks guys. A lot of really interesting insights.


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## MarcusD (Jul 30, 2015)

Best way to get a decent guitar tone (with software) is using custom IR responses. All Amp Modeling plugs have their strengths and weaknesses. The one thing they ALL have in common is that the Cabs don't sound or "feel" right when you're playing.

Guitar Rig has versatile FX, Amplitude is good for rock / clean crunchy stuff and some of the Free Amp Sims are actually pretty good for metal.

Guitar VST - > Bypass Cab -> IR Loader - > Custom Impulse Response

http://www.igniteamps.com/en/audio-plug-ins (Ignite Amps -IR Loader) (Free)
This is the most stable IR Loader I've used for guitar cabs, not had an issue with it. Also allows you to do stuff in stereo which is great.

http://www.igniteamps.com/audioplugins/Ignite%20Amps%20NadIR%201.0.2%20VST%20PC%20x86.zip (win 32) Download
http://www.igniteamps.com/audioplugins/Ignite%20Amps%20NadIR%201.0.2%20VST%20PC%20x64.zip (win 64) Download
http://www.igniteamps.com/audioplugins/Ignite%20Amps%20NadIR%201.0.2%20VST%20Mac%20Universal%20Binary.zip (mac) Download

Rosen Digital IRs
These are the best sounding IRs I've come across so far, not expensive either!

My 2 pence.


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## Resoded (Jul 30, 2015)

Thanks Marcus, much appreciated.


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