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Amp simulation: Guitar rig 5 and other options

Kemper is the best guitar module i have ever owned, and i have tried a ton of different gear over the years...
Here's an excerpt from a solo gig i did in October:


and if you want to hear more variety of tones, here is another:


Yes, it is way more money than a plugin, but i have stopped looking for any other alternatives. I'm set
And i can use it also for bass tones... (not the bass tone in the video. I mean hooking up a bass to it with the right profile delivers excellent bass tones as well...)
 
With plugins, I think to understand that S-Gear is great for clean-to-crunch sounds, in the Fender and Marshall vein. Bias Fx, on the other hand, should be great for sounds from slightly overdriven-to-death-metal distortion. As a consequence, I went for Bias.

Paolo
 
I really hope you read what I wrote about Bias earlier, having been using it myself since the V1 was released.

It's good- pretty much the best for custom DM/BM/Extreme metal sounds, but for the love of all Gods, print your sound to audio as soon as you have dialed it. Otherwise you might swimming in a serious river of frustration.
 
gsilbers said:
I have the axefx2 which is almost the same as the kemper. The only reason I decide for the axefx2 is because of the effects. So for film composers it’s a much better option as it opens up the guitar to some amazing effects and tones.
Click to expand...
Not to rehash the same topic, but AxeFX is not the same as Kemper.
It used to be that the Axe had superior FXs and inferior tone, but Kemper has caught up a bit with FX upgrades, and is about to release a reverb update that should take care of that.
For tone, the Kemper is definitely the winner
 
Henu said:
I really hope you read what I wrote about Bias earlier
Click to expand...
Yes, and I can already say that installation has already been a bit odd, with the need of manual copy, and reboot of the Mac to let the AU components be seen. I'll use it with care.

Paolo
 
Patrick de Caumette said:
Not to rehash the same topic, but AxeFX is not the same as Kemper.
It used to be that the Axe had superior FXs and inferior tone, but Kemper has caught up a bit with FX upgrades, and is about to release a reverb update that should take care of that.
For tone, the Kemper is definitely the winner
Click to expand...

mmm... both sound execelent to me. and better than line6 and software counterparts and im checking out tons of comparison vidoes and still both kickass and both have many nice tones.
For the effects... to me the axefx would be better.... but in the sense that it has lfo's, step sequencers, a huge variety of fx and a nice software editor. Im sure kemper could add or upgrade fx to sound very good but axefx has a lot more flexibility in terms of sound design, which is why i mention for scoring. although kemper does have a many effects as well so its just for me a matter of choice for some of the extra depth in editing that i dont think many use anyways. For straight up guitar stuff both are awesome though. like this stuff
 
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The ones I'm eyeing are the JST Toneforge amps, but they tend to lean more towards metal.

Actually, thinking about that (and not to hijack the thread), what I'm trying to do is combine an amp sim with a synth sound to get a really gritty synth. This is probably a shot in the dark, but does anyone have experience creating more synthy guitar sounds and have any suggestions for amp sims for this purpose?

Basically, I'm currently layering Shreddage II running through Guitar Rig 5 and combining it with a saw wave. (Then both are going through Trash 2)
 
gsilbers said:
mmm... both sound execelent to me. and better than line6 and software counterparts and im checking out tons of comparison vidoes and still both kickass and both have many nice tones.
For the effects... to me the axefx would be better.... but in the sense that it has lfo's, step sequencers, a huge variety of fx and a nice software editor. Im sure kemper could add or upgrade fx to sound very good but axefx has a lot more flexibility in terms of sound design, which is why i mention for scoring. although kemper does have a many effects as well so its just for me a matter of choice for some of the extra depth in editing that i dont think many use anyways. For straight up guitar stuff both are awesome though. like this stuff
Click to expand...
For years, the consensus has been that Kemper is better for tone, and AxeFX for FXS.
You are right, they are both better than most other products (considering the price, they'd better be!)
Since i have so many FXS plugins, the FXs advantage is not an issue for me, especially since Kemper has released an update for delays and reverbs (stomp boxes are next)
 
silentunion said:
The ones I'm eyeing are the JST Toneforge amps, but they tend to lean more towards metal.

Actually, thinking about that (and not to hijack the thread), what I'm trying to do is combine an amp sim with a synth sound to get a really gritty synth. This is probably a shot in the dark, but does anyone have experience creating more synthy guitar sounds and have any suggestions for amp sims for this purpose?

Basically, I'm currently layering Shreddage II running through Guitar Rig 5 and combining it with a saw wave. (Then both are going through Trash 2)
Click to expand...

Unless you want to do this for live situations, you could do this post performance by recording your guitar track and then inserting a plugin such as MIDI Guitar (https://www.jamorigin.com/) and assigning the MIDI performance to the synth of your choice, like I did here:

I am so dissatisfied with stock sounds from my Roland GR55 from a production stand point, that i did re-assign my synth doubling after the fact, using either Omnisphere or Arturia V collection.
If you are talking about using a guitar amp sim on synth sounds, it totally works as well, but inserting a guitar sim on a synth track doesn't make the synth part more guitar-like.
It will warm up your track, give it more grit, make it sound more analog, depending on your settings...
 
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Patrick de Caumette said:
Unless you want to do this for live situations, you could do this post performance by recording your guitar track and then inserting a plugin such as MIDI Guitar (https://www.jamorigin.com/) and assigning the MIDI performance to the synth of your choice, like I did here:

I am so dissatisfied with stock sounds from my Roland GR55 from a production stand point, that i did re-assign my synth doubling after the fact, using either Omnisphere or Arturia V collection.
If you are talking about using a guitar amp sim on synth sounds, it totally works as well, but inserting a guitar sim on a synth track doesn't make the synth part more guitar-like.
It will warm up your track, give it more grit, make it sound more analog, depending on your settings...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice and that song was beautiful by the way. :)

I do have both Omnisphere and Arturia V. What I'm really trying to do is make the guitar sound more like a synth while trying to retain the guitar-like qualities if that makes sense, so almost the opposite basically. I'm basically looking for the best amp sim for this application.

A good reference track would be Orgy's version of Blue Monday when the guitar with that massive fuzz kicks in (at least I found out it was a Boss Fuzz pedal, perhaps there's an emulation on it somewhere); however, perhaps there's something more personal to me out there and I realise only I can answer that in the end.
 
silentunion said:
Thanks for the advice and that song was beautiful by the way. :)

I do have both Omnisphere and Arturia V. What I'm really trying to do is make the guitar sound more like a synth while trying to retain the guitar-like qualities if that makes sense, so almost the opposite basically. I'm basically looking for the best amp sim for this application.

A good reference track would be Orgy's version of Blue Monday when the guitar with that massive fuzz kicks in (at least I found out it was a Boss Fuzz pedal, perhaps there's an emulation on it somewhere); however, perhaps there's something more personal to me out there and I realise only I can answer that in the end.
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Thank you so much!

I am not an expert on pedals, but from what i have seen, you may want to look into it for your needs.
It seems that a number of companies (Electro-Harmonix among them) are into that market.
But nothing that i have heard is particularly earth shattering, which is the reason why i'd rather trigger a guitar performance.
There is also the solution of running the output of your guitar into the input of a synth plugin (i believe many of the most popular software synths allow this...) and using the synth's filters and modulation capabilities.
The result would still be sounding like a guitar, but with more synth-like character.
 
ptram said:
Yes, and I can already say that installation has already been a bit odd, with the need of manual copy, and reboot of the Mac to let the AU components be seen. I'll use it with care.

Paolo
Click to expand...
wait till you see the great features inside. Advertisement in the plugin. Login request for each time you go to tonecloud or update the thing XD
 
Divico said:
Login request for each time you go to tonecloud or update the thing XD
Click to expand...

...needing to be done for each separate instance of Bias you are currently using in your project, I might add. In all seriousness- as I said, I'd love to give more love to it, but in it's current buggy state I will use it rather cautiously instead of my workhorse. Bias 1 was way more stable.
 
Patrick de Caumette said:
Thank you so much!

I am not an expert on pedals, but from what i have seen, you may want to look into it for your needs.
It seems that a number of companies (Electro-Harmonix among them) are into that market.
But nothing that i have heard is particularly earth shattering, which is the reason why i'd rather trigger a guitar performance.
There is also the solution of running the output of your guitar into the input of a synth plugin (i believe many of the most popular software synths allow this...) and using the synth's filters and modulation capabilities.
The result would still be sounding like a guitar, but with more synth-like character.
Click to expand...


I have never been able to use a synth patch on my guitar in Logic - only been able to use the guitar patches or Amp simulator therein and other effects

Is there an actual way to accomplish this?
 
EpicEsquire said:
I have never been able to use a synth patch on my guitar in Logic - only been able to use the guitar patches or Amp simulator therein and other effects

Is there an actual way to accomplish this?
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Quite a few synths offer a plugin version of their FXS + preamp section.
So, in this case, you would just insert that VST into your channel.
Or re-amp your track if you own an amp, or re-amp it into your favorite guitar rig...
Good filters is one of the biggest perks of putting your track through a module

And there are so many cool saturation plugins these days that it may be a good option as well.
The sky is no longer a limit!
 
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