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Amp simulation: Guitar rig 5 and other options

I wonder if this has to do with the style people are looking for. There are a lot of sims that excel at metal type sounds. Being ancient, I'm always looking for that Voodoo Chile (not slight return :)) sound, Kid Charlamagne, Duane and Dickey and the like, and S-Gear just nails that kind of thing for me. I do agree about the teensy controls, but over the years I've grown used to them I suppose.
 
kind of funny -- not that I'm touting Guitar Rig or anything, but I think people might be surprised at the number of appearances it makes on major trailers and soundtracks.

like so much in what we do, how good something has to sound depends on a lot of considerations.

There’s nothing wrong with it. It just doesn’t react like an amplifier when playing a Guitar through it and as I’m primarily a Guitarist, that’s the main problem I have with it. As an FX box, it’s great.
 
I'm a seemingly rare GR5 fan too. I have Amplitube 4 and a bunch-o modelled stuff from the big names, but I often wind my way back to GR5. As others have said, for effects stuff its brilliant - I always use it for ambient stuff. The Edge presets are uncanny to me, better than others I've heard, so its not just ambient. Probably fair to say the more metal you go, the less good it gets.
 
Doesn't even have to be full-on metal. Crunchy rock sounds are pretty one-dimensional sounding coming from GR5, and the response just isn't there (compared to newer sims like S-Gear, Thermionik, Kuassa, Mercuriall).
 
I agree with others about GR5 being simply not very good amp sims. It has a lot of terrific FX in it, so if you don't care that much about the underlying amp tone or perhaps if you are not accustomed to what a real tube amp sounds and feels like, then GR5 might be great for its flexibility..perhaps some of its cleaner tones might be ok. The OP never really said what kind of guitar tone he is primarily needing, which could be a factor in recommending something.

I have the following, some of which are free and you should definitely try the free stuff, some of it is quite good:

GR5
Amplitube4 (including Hendrix, Fender2, Slash and other models)
Peavy Revalver
Vox JamVox
S-Gear
Thermonik (most classic models)
Recabinet 4 and 5
Anvil
Hybrit
Le456
LeCto
LeGion
LeXtac
LeCab
Nick Crow 7170
Nick Crow 8505
Nick Crow Tube Driver
Nick Crow Wagner Sharp
StudioDevil
Ignite TPA-1
Ignite TS-999
Ignite TSB-1
TSE-R47
TSE 808
Ignite Emissary

They all have some good things and bad things, its hard to pick a favorite but strangely my favorite is the Vox JamVox which which sounds almost exactly like my Vox Tonelab, which I still love to this day...especially for brown tones, its not particularly great at strong metal sounds, but many of the free ones listed above are.

Thermonik is very underrated also and very good, I want to do more with it, but it doesn't really have any FX compared to others

Amplitube4 sounds pretty darn good in some models, but i find it dreadful to play in terms of ear fatigue and feel.

Revalver has amazing customization options, including you can design your own amps down to the tube circuits. you can also insert 3rd party VST's into the signal chain inside it.

S-Gear is supposed to be great, but I just haven't gotten along well with it or gotten great tones out of it, so I don't know... Need to spend more time with it.

There are some others that I don't own, haven't used but worth mentioning

Positive Grid
Overloud TH3
Waves GTR3
Brainworx
Mercurial
TSE X50
Line6
 
Oh no, just what I need, another rabbit hole. Ahhhhhh!

No seriously, thank you for posting that list.


I agree with others about GR5 being simply not very good amp sims. It has a lot of terrific FX in it, so if you don't care that much about the underlying amp tone or perhaps if you are not accustomed to what a real tube amp sounds and feels like, then GR5 might be great for its flexibility..perhaps some of its cleaner tones might be ok. The OP never really said what kind of guitar tone he is primarily needing, which could be a factor in recommending something.

I have the following, some of which are free and you should definitely try the free stuff, some of it is quite good:

GR5
Amplitube4 (including Hendrix, Fender2, Slash and other models)
Peavy Revalver
Vox JamVox
S-Gear
Thermonik (most classic models)
Recabinet 4 and 5
Anvil
Hybrit
Le456
LeCto
LeGion
LeXtac
LeCab
Nick Crow 7170
Nick Crow 8505
Nick Crow Tube Driver
Nick Crow Wagner Sharp
StudioDevil
Ignite TPA-1
Ignite TS-999
Ignite TSB-1
TSE-R47
TSE 808
Ignite Emissary

They all have some good things and bad things, its hard to pick a favorite but strangely my favorite is the Vox JamVox which which sounds almost exactly like my Vox Tonelab, which I still love to this day...especially for brown tones, its not particularly great at strong metal sounds, but many of the free ones listed above are.

Thermonik is very underrated also and very good, I want to do more with it, but it doesn't really have any FX compared to others

Amplitube4 sounds pretty darn good in some models, but i find it dreadful to play in terms of ear fatigue and feel.

Revalver has amazing customization options, including you can design your own amps down to the tube circuits. you can also insert 3rd party VST's into the signal chain inside it.

S-Gear is supposed to be great, but I just haven't gotten along well with it or gotten great tones out of it, so I don't know... Need to spend more time with it.

There are some others that I don't own, haven't used but worth mentioning

Positive Grid
Overloud TH3
Waves GTR3
Brainworx
Mercurial
TSE X50
Line6
 
Kazrog Thermionik trounces all of them. Kuassa and Mercuriall are also great. S-Gear while good, is way too fiddly to use due to tiny controls (but they do have a GUI refresh underway).
Totally agree on Kazrog's models. I've never heard a modeller, plugin or otherwise, that sounded even remotely like the 2 channel Dual Recs i used for about a decade. His version was so close to the old recordings I had done with those amps, that I purchased the suite as soon as I tried it. Not a fan of Recabinet though. This was just Thermionik into Redwirez IRs. I don't have S-Gear but for mid gain stuff, the demos sound as real as the real thing to me. Gotta pick those up eventually.
 
Some of these sims are not only going to be personal taste but will be different for those who play guitar vs those who do not (like myself)- A guitar player is going to care more about "feel" and how the instrument responds to playing while those who don't play will only care about "tone". Since I don't play the guitar I can only give my opinion on what I think has the most realistic "tone"- I was in a rock band for 6 years so I feel like I've got a decent grasp as to what a good guitar amp "should" sound like, but it's still all subjective. Here are my thoughts:

The best tone from what I own is definitely Bias Amp, however I do feel that they tend to rape you a bit on price for what you get compared to some of the others that I don't have so I would highly encourage anyone to first look at Thermoinik, Mecurial and S-Gear. While I don't own these, to my ears they sound just as good as Bias.
Guitar Rig 5 is a gem and does FX like none of these others will so I think it's worth owning just for that but it's not in the same class when it comes to realistic guitar amp tones as the ones I mentioned above. That could possibly be remedied when using their impulse loading amp module with a high quality impulse respone. Also don't ignore some of the free ones that will rival some of the paid ones such as LePou. Here is a good list of the free ones to try out. https://bedroomproducersblog.com/20...best-free-guitar-amp-simulator-vstau-plugins/

Just for reference here is the list of what I own.

Amplitube 3
Bias Amp FX Standard (not the new version)
Bias Amp Standard (Not the new version)
Guitar Rig 5 (came with KU11)
Amplion- I got this on a $15 sale but haven't actually been that impressed with it.

I have tested just about all of the sims out there and the ones I mentioned came out on top for me but unfortunately I didn't test them til after I already bought Amplitube 3 on a big sale or I would have gone for those others instead. The only reason I haven't gotten them is because Bias is working well for me but I also paid twice as much for it, and that's just the standard version.
 
I'm also using the free Lepou plugins, Hybrit, Le456, LeCto, LeGion, LeXtac and LeCab.
They are really good, and as they are free, I think they are worth trying.

I never tried Thermionik, but a lot of people seems to find it really good, I think I will try the demo soon.
 
Interested in something that works particularly well with a baritone, do you think it can get into this territory?:




I have Reaxis, Spark and the U530. They all are great. One of my baritone guitars are super picky with amp sims but the Mercuriall amps sound great with it.
 
One company I never hear talked about in these Amp Sim discussion is AAS. Has anyone tried them out? The reason I ask is because they have their Lounge Lizard on sale for $8 so it got me curious.
 
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