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Non-guitarists and amp sims

richiebee

richiebee

Active Member
Just curious if anyone out there who is NOT a guitarist, and has a premium amp sim for their sample based guitars. I'm thinking something that is quite specific like the Neural DSP plugins as opposed to a Jack of all trades like Guitar Rig.

If you've gone from Guitar Rig to something more premium, do you think it has made much difference to your overall production quality?
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Haven't dived in the Amp Sim rabbit hole for a while. That rabbit hole is deeper than "Piano vsts".

But when i do, i always gravitate towards OTS Evolution Rock Standard for some reason, without any additional external amp sims. It just sounds good.

Neural DSP stuff is great.

S-Gear has always been a long time favorite of mine as well.
 
keepitsimple said:
Haven't dived in the Amp Sim rabbit hole for a while. That rabbit hole is deeper than "Piano vsts".

But when i do, i always gravitate towards OTS Evolution Rock Standard for some reason, without any additional external amp sims. It just sounds good.

Neural DSP stuff is great.

S-Gear has always been a long time favorite of mine as well.
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I have both Amplesound (Stratocaster) and OrangeTree guitar libraries (Rock Standard and Stratosphere), and both have decent amp sims built in (personally, I lean towards Amplesound both for the guitar sound and the amps), but I have trouble dialing either one in for my specific sound, probably because I've never played guitar. I own guitar rig and have used in the past - I don't think it sounds as good as the amps built in to Amplesound guitars, but the Amplesound ones are kind of inflexible because they don't come with pedals (just post delay and reverb) so if I want something with a wah for example, I have to turn it all off and go external for an authentic signal chain. I know that Cory Wong has the kind of sound I'm after and the Neural DSP Cory Wong plugin is what I'd go for if I was going to go boutique... I'm just wondering whether I'm going for it for the presets, and should instead try and get the sound I want out of Guitar Rig (which I already own because I have NI Komplete). Honestly, I've never really been a fan of Guitar Rig but I'm not sure if its just because I lack the ability to dial in the sound, or if it really is bad compared to something like the Neural DSP plug.

I'm not concerned about the Cory Wong plugin being too specific, because I like his sound, and it covers really what I need in a guitar sound. But it is quite spendy to go on a sample library, and have no other real use (except maybe to go on EZ Bass too since it comes with bass presets).

I can tweak the settings inside the Cory Wong plugin, and know what the pedals do, and I feel that being presented with a very limited, and fixed effects chain is better for me to zone in. I'm just not sure if its all worth it. I am playing with the trial at the mo, and will form a better opinion with a few days on it, but I was just curious what others think on the subject.

Thanks for responding.

R.
 
I'm also interested in this, but as a non-guitarist. I do have Softube's Marshalls and just Logic's amp sims. Any thoughts on Softube's offerings? Should I upgrade to Neural DSP?
 
richiebee said:
I have both Amplesound (Stratocaster) and OrangeTree guitar libraries (Rock Standard and Stratosphere), and both have decent amp sims built in (personally, I lean towards Amplesound both for the guitar sound and the amps), but I have trouble dialing either one in for my specific sound, probably because I've never played guitar.
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Non-guitarist, but a few years ago I had a professional funk and metal guitarist tutoring me (via School of Rock) in how to apply amp and pedal sims on virtual guitars and evaluating their quality (via double-blind remote A/B/C etc. testing... and he was tutoring me in producing and composing for various genres, so we also examined how they sounded in context). We both iirc thought that the best PA amps were better than Amplitube for a variety of styles (and better than the amp sims built in to various VI), and that some of the PA amps were as good as NeuralDSP's high gain oriented amps. But NeuralDSP is very good of course. Didn't test Guitar Rig.
 
As someone who definitely isn’t a guitarist and only uses guitar libraries,
I think the main advantage for something like Neural DSP amp sims is the tactile response it offers guitarists that are actually playing the guitar.
For someone like me who’s working with sample libraries imo it’s overkill.
I have a bunch of Amp sims that I prefer over Guitar Rig I also have and generally use various amp sims from Overloud ,Nembrini,PA,Softube and IK and use these way more than I ever use GR.
For me playing with sample libraries I have more options than I probably(definitely)really need which thankfully has kept me from delving into the Neural DSP rabbit hole.
If you’re actually playing guitar I understand getting into the Neural amp sims if not I’m not so sure………..
 
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I personally love Guitar Rig for everything EXCEPT guitar tones. I used to use Amplitube for guitar, but now I find that I mostly use ISW guitars (Jupiter and Archtop) and find that for the music I make, they fill my needs with the included effects.
 
So I've been using virtual guitars pretty extensively since 2016, mostly for high gain tones.

Honestly, even back then, freeware amp sims and (more importantly) cabinet IRs were already capable of creating some great tones. I still occasionally use the free Catharsis IR (needs a low cut) and I recently tested Ignite Amps Emissary again and if I wanted, I could replace my paid stuff with them and other freeware and still get "90% there".

That said, my current go-to rhythm tone chain consists of NDSP Fortin Nameless Suite into MIKKO Essentials cab. No particular reason other than I happened to find a nice sound via trial and error. Sometimes I use Overloud TH-U and Mercurial SS-11X.

EDIT: Worth mentioning that for high gain tones, I'd rather use freeware than Guitar Rig 5 which is what I have from Komplete. I think it's mostly the cabs I don't like.
 
Symphonichrome said:
Hmmmm, so you are looking to get a more premium amp sim than GR but have it also be easier to use? (genuinely asking so I can better advise)
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Basically yes. Looking for a narrow range of mostly clean tones that don't need a lot of work to get right.

As I said, Wong has the kind of tone I'm interested in and it will likely be mostly played on the Amplesound Telecaster.
 
I've got too many amp sims - including NeuralDSP and Nembrini - but I always go back to Scuffham S-Gear. It's just gorgeous.

If you don't want High gain sounds it's hard to go past S-Gear and, as a player, it feels more like a real amp than all the others.

And, yes: Guitar Rig is great but not for guitars.
 
richiebee said:
Basically yes. Looking for a narrow range of mostly clean tones that don't need a lot of work to get right.

As I said, Wong has the kind of tone I'm interested in and it will likely be mostly played on the Amplesound Telecaster.
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OK

The Neural Plini has (IMHO) the best clean amp sim tone you can get

Archetype: Plini X

A truly versatile plugin, elegantly developed with the artist who inspired it.
neuraldsp.com neuraldsp.com


However, since you are going for Cory's sound, he also has a Neural amp sim

Archetype: Cory Wong

Designed to offer a wide variety of options for players in search of the perfect clean and edge-of-break-up tones.
neuraldsp.com neuraldsp.com
 
I am a guitarist. So not sure if I am allowed to post. But for cleans, usually S-gear has been one of the top tier sim. A lot of country Nashville players use it. Even the recent Dan Huff interview, he used S-gear for all the tones. YYMV.. you can always download the trial and test it.



presets are here

www.scuffhamamps.com

Dann Huff Vertex Interview

Legendary session guitarist Dann Huff talks through the highlights of his career and uses S-Gear to approximate the signature clean sound he used on many hit records of the eighties. Download the S-Gear presets here!
www.scuffhamamps.com www.scuffhamamps.com
 
Been a guitarist for more than 30 years, I own NeuralDSP stuffs, STL, ML, Nembrini and tons of others.
Honestly for me these are the best:

1. Scuffham S Gear
2. Genome
3. NAM
4. Tonocracy

It can easily blend on any mix without too many tweakings.
 
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