My sound is the same as it was 20 years ago. just more expensive stuff making the same sound....Chung, chung , chung, chang. <-----thats not chinese, that sthe sound of my guitar...
CJ

It is true that you can get really nice sounds from a amp modeler, but he asked for professional guitar sounds. Now I know you're not gonna say that most professional guitar players use amp modelers when they record their tracks for a CD. There are some things you can't do with an amp modeler that you can with a real amp, i.e. how about those nice feedbacks. Just the power you get from a nice tube amp is priceless. No matter how you look at it, digital is digital and analog is analog, and they both have their goods and bads. This is not directed to anyone in particular just in case .

ORIGINAL: Jose7822

Now I know you're not gonna say that most professional guitar players use amp modelers when they record their tracks for a CD.

You would be surprised. If an engineer has an ear good enough to get good sound through a mic'ed amp, he will also be able to get great tones out of a PODxt. Then I hear often that engineers let guitarists play through whatever they want but record a dry signal and then process it in ProTools using Line6 Amp Farm. I read an interview with Nickleback that clearly stated they did this for the "The Long Road" CD. By the way, that has some of the finest guitar tone I ever heard.

I think many don't want to admit that their CDs were made with a POD instead of a real amp. And more often you will find in live gigs that many guitarists are using a wall of empty marshalls and going direct to PA with a POD.

Guitar amps now have modelers in them. Not all, but alot of them, and im laughing at the person who is playing through it while denownsing Hardware effect processors. There the same thing but with speakers...

CJ

This has always been a subject that interests me. This is my take on everything, YMMV. I am 42 and have been playing electric guitar since my 6th birthday. I have had more equipment than I can imagine, and have wasted more time of my life than I want to admit tweaking to find that "perfect tone". I later realized perfection does not exist in an imperfect world.

Did you ever notice that only guitarists get into this debate? The rest of the world doesn't give a rat's a$$ how the guitarists tone was made, wouldn't notice the difference, and would rather the guitarist spent more time improving his talent and less searching for that perfect tone that just doesn't exist.

As I finally mature, I am learning that tone is just a very small part of a greater thing called music. Mozart's piano sonatas sound great on grand pianos, upright pianos, my Roland NS364's piano patch and even played by midi through Kontakt using their aweful Steinway Light sampleset. Why? Because tone is just a small part of what makes music magical.

Pat is the shiza!!! I've seen both Pats play live a couple of times. But Metheny definitely has his own sound and his playing is superior no doubt. Love the phrasing!

Cut the bass frequencies. I find that soloed the guitar sounds great but you need to roll of the bass frequencies to get it to sit nicely in the mix. (Still learning this lesson, actually.)

I assume he means cut some bass from the guitar track in any song mix which has other instruments that generate in that range of frequencies. It's good general advice that may or may not apply in a given situation, but usually does to some degree, the more so the larger the mix.

--thndrsn

Thats too general, That does not go for every song.

Yeah, okay, whatever. Let's quibble about it.

good general advice that may or may not apply

--thndrsn

P.S. You forgot the apostrophe.

I use GR2 and am constantly blown away by it BUT not as it ships with the presets. it does seem really sensitive to picking strength, touch etc. more so than a real amp. If you take the time to explore it , it will give you results. plus I can get on a plane with a guitar and a laptop and take a full setup to sessions.

To really get a "professional" guitar sound you probably need a "professional" studio. I personally could never record at home at the kind of volume levels necessary to get proper speaker excursion and cabinet involvement to accurately record distorted guitar.

I just checked out the womanizer on the damage control site damn they all sound good

:)

I listened to some of the guitar recordings mentioned above and I like them... but its certainly apples and oranges. It seems like the digital modeling is really good at getting that vintage Quadraverb/ Yamaha SPX sound...from about 20-25 years ago... but that's not tha same as

"make you humbucker sound like a single coil"
"series/parallel britsh cabinet"
"classic caifornia clean"
etc etc that digital modeling optimistaclly offers to the aspiring guitarist.

If you have the time or inclination you might enjoy hearing some analog style guitar I recorded a while ago with Cakewalk 9 on a Win98/Wave 4 sytem. They are hiding out on my webpage here:

http://www.harmoniccycle.com/hc/music-05-songs.htm

FWIW, I know I am not a good guitarist... I am a jack of all trades, master of none type guy :-). These recordings are improvisational jams that I laid over some chord progressions "composed" using Jammer Pros automated features. I used the auto looping features in Cakewalk and then "mixed" the various takes in layers.

The MIDI tracks are very MIDI :-) but here's the point:

The guitar sound is from an small single ended 6V6 Fender "Champ" clone I built for fun. I was playing the amp thru 2 circa 1950's 8 ohm Rola speakers
wired in parallel for a 4 ohm load. The speakers were rescued from a Baldwin organ that was done for. I have never played a "creamier" set of speakers.
Various distortion and envelope filter pedal efx were used. At the time I was alternating between a '92 Gibson SG special and a '66 Martin GT70 Hollowbody electric (very similar to Gretsch, same hardware, pickups etc.)
I either miced with a AKG 414 or a SM58, sometimes a 57.

I just don't think you can get these sounds with a sim anything... It's not like I don't like playing my buddies Zoom pedal when he visits ... but :-)

My current fascination is Playing a Warmoth parts Strat clone I strung up with flatwounds and hooked up a set of Lindy Fralin "real 54 alnico III" pickups. I play it thru a '70 Fender Champ with a custom Weber VST speaker. I set everything at 10 play some rhythm chords... it's imediately apparent this combo is a classic. It's just chimey and clean and pure with a little quack and bark when you dig in for some solo work.

I know I am being a pest here but it's cause I get so disappointed when I stop by the guitar stores and see the total lack of real, honest to goodness guitar amps and speakers. How are aspiring guitarists ever going to find out about the good stuff if someone doesn't make a big deal about it.

best regards,
mike

ah gee CJ I was trying to be nice with the vintage quadraverb reference :-)

best,
mike

Nicely said hocketjx.....
CJ