jbow
Danny, Herb, anyone... sorry to bring back a three week old thread but It's been on my mind. So...
 
I got out my old Alesis NanoCompressor (and NonoVerb). I'm wondering if the NanoCompressor will fill the bill to push the Amp Sims a little, in a good way or if I should just use a clean boost. (I have that on several guitar pedals.) I don't have a DI box. I know not the NanoVerb but since I got one out, I got them both out. I read the manual for the NC and am thinking it might do nicely but am not sure. In any case, I should use these more. I don't have much hardware.... and I DO NOT need to get started on 500s, lol.
Thanks,
Julien

It won't hurt to try it since you have it. Just watch for any noise or hiss you may get out of it. I mean, realistically, you will get a little, but just make sure it's not crazy.
 
See, one of the cool things about real amps is how they process the signal a bit before it hits the amp tone stack. A little compression is one of the things some buffered input signals generate. That is exactly what you'd be doing here. The more you comp the sound, the more consistent the tone will be.
 
However, you may also sacrifice dynamics within the amp sim. A good compressor set just right can give you amazing results. This is why Bats is against the old technology. There is definite merit in what he's telling you. BUT....sometimes you just need a little comp and a little push and the old technology may actually be helpful in how it degrades the sound in a good way. You never know until you try.
 
For example, let me share something with you that may open up a few ideas for you. You've heard me mention how the buffered input signal can have an impact. Now let's think about tubes for a second and why people love them so much. When you strike a string, the tube works on chopping off that high end transient, thus "warming" things up" like we like to say.
Pinch harmonics like what you may hear from Eddie Van Halen, are those tubes just chiming in and helping with the tonal characteristics. When we add things in line BEFORE our amp sims, we are sort of simulating that. We can't expect the sim to behave like a tube amp because it doesn't know how to nor does it have the code for "spontaneity" written inside. Like for example, tubes don't just sit there and glow...they literally help the tone due to how they react with the signal. This warming up, or....compression saturation, is what we need from the sims we use that isn't there.
 
So you CAN use a tube pre in line, you can use a compressor of your choosing, you can use a pedal that gives you a boost...and heck, you can create an entire front end of stuff if need be to really get some interesting results. So don't be afraid to experiment. That old dinosaur piece you may have lying around just may give you something cool to work with. When you know you've exhausted what it can do and you're still not happy, you know that particular piece may not be the right one. :) Hope this helps!
 
-Danny

i could see how a comp, set just right,
would actually let you milk a little more out of the sim...
 
assuming, that the 'dynamics' you get out of the comp, are in line with what you are doing with the sim..
 
case in point:
 
if you are using high gain models, the characteristic of the sustain, dynamic attack, and bite, or lack of, is part of the natural compression that occurs in real tube amps..
both at the preamp stage, and the output stage.
 
in other words, those amps that were modeled, are more than likely already very compressed, naturally...
 
adding a compressor to the clean tone going in, might just make the modeled tube amp distortion sound a bit 'homogenous'

The nanocomp is best avoided. It's noisy and is really intended to deal with line levels not guitar signals.

A pretty good and not too obviously "DynaComp squish" guitar pedal compressor is the Pigtronix Philosopher's Tone. Just don't set the blend or compression too high and be wary of the "grit" control that adds an unusual kind of hazy distortion. Works well on bass too.

My personal approach nowadays is to use a mix of pedals that I think need to be before the amp feeding a real amplifier set to the kind of volume where it works properly then feed that into a Palmer speaker DI and load box, so no speaker or mic involved and repeatable consistency. Eq and other processing added afterwards in the box Not quite the same as a real cab in the room with you, but then neither is a cab recorded through a mic when the recording is played back.

Pinch harmonics, feedback and huge sustain are quite possible at very domestic levels monitoring through a pair of nearfields. Plus the advantage the sims give you of being able to tempo match delays, modulation etc.

I've also tracked via both the Palmer DI box and a mic+cab at times when dealing with someone who wants to use their cab and have it mic'd. The Palmer track often ends up coming in very useful because it avoids the various problems of getting the same sound onto disk when recording involves more than one session.

Thanks everyone. I may give it a try but will probably steer towards the Comp-Tortion (with no Tortion and just a wee bit O'compression). IT has a good clean boost and in low doses the compression is nice on a guitar. The SD Pickup Booster seems to add a bit too much from the get go. The Boss EQ pedals might be fun to try starting flat with just a little boost, then tweak a little, might be fun. I think I'm going to have time to play with it today on something.
Thanks again, looking forward to it and sorta excited about it.
J

Very interesting stuff here guys and I appreciate all these great tips you all provide. This thread got me thinking a bit on getting a better signal path.....
 
I've been plugging my guitar directly into my Focusrite interface and then using the software amp sims for recording.
Regarding using a DI box.....I have a POD2.0 as well as a Digitech RP12 (in storage).....can I/should I use one of these to improve my signal path/sound?

So long as the guitar is plugged into an input with a very high impedance, around 1MOhm or higher, a DI box will make little if any difference other than possibly reducing noise if the alternative is a guitar lead over around 15 feet in length. Guitars need to see a very high impedance or they lose volume and treble. This is why some effects with poorly designed bypass systems which only disconnect the effect output but leave the effect circuit input permanently connected to the guitar are notorious for "tone sucking". The original Cry Baby was the classic example of this, or many MXR pedals or older EHX stuff.

Guitar leads with a high self-capacitance can also cause a loss of top and volume - http://www.premierguitar....w_to_Choose_a_14_Cable

A pedal with a permanently on high impedance buffer at the input and a low impedance output can be very useful as the first thing the guitar sees (but put after things like the Fuzz Face which need to see the guitar pickups and pots directly to work properly). That will usually prevent or at least reduce loss of treble/volume caused by less than ideal bypasses in subsequent pedals. Any Boss pedal, including tuners, has a good buffer built in, as do pedals made by quite a lot of other manufacturers nowadays. The downside of buffers is that you usually don't want too many of them in a row or their accumulated effect will change the tone. A couple of buffers are fine, a dozen or so maybe not so good.