Anderton

Danny Danzi
 
The other thing that has always bothered me was you can get insane gain out of these plugs yet very little sustain. I'm not talking about cranking up your monitors to the point of feedback, I'm saying these things are hurting in the sustain area to where they just seem fake.

In addition to kudos for more cool tips , I want to address the above. I have a solution that I have submitted to TASCAM for their inclusion in future interfaces...we'll see what happens.

Good luck with that one Craig. Please keep us posted...or heck, at least keep ME posted on this. :) Not sure if you ever tried Headcase by ABG but we have an input gain that we've been using for years that has made a bit of a difference. It compensates for the drive that may be lacking to push the amp sim, thus giving the sustain area a little more kick. In our latest version, it comes by way of a 10 second test.
 
You press a button, play and it measures how much output is coming from your pups and literally makes internal adjustments so that the signal is just right for the plug. The downside of this is, if you play super heavy with your pick hand, the plug receives that signal as a strong one and may reduce the internal gain. If you play super light, it will compensate by adding more internal gain. This internal gain is set up to drive BEFORE sound is sent into the plug, so it's definitely been a useful tool. In our last version, we allowed the user to adjust this manually. I voted to keep that in but the owner was happier with it the other way. At any rate, this is a golden discussion. Thanks for all you do and share with us and I'm glad I didn't offend you with the extra info that I shared. :)
 
-Danny

bbach
Does the cabinet of a full range keyboard combo amp act as a low pass filter set at around 5khz ?

No, I'd expect full range to be around 80 - 15k Hz or wider.

Danny Danzi
 
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One of the things I hate about plug amp sims is they just do not feel like real amps to me no matter which one you use.

I agree.
 

Danny Danzi
 
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To eliminate both of those problems, you can insert something into your line to bring things to life a bit. Some guys have those cool DI boxes that do more than just DI while others will DI and then run into a compressor. I like that method the best as well as inserting a pedal in line like a Ibanez Tube Screamer or a Boss Compressor Sustainer (the blue one)
 
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Along those lines I've been using a guitar preamp. I started off using the effects out of one of my amps, but I've also dusted off my ADA MP-1 and have been using that as well. Since my concern is response/feel I keep the tone pretty neutral. As a guitarist I've been happy with the results. YMMV.
 
I haven't been EQing or anything before going into the sims (TH2 & Scuffham), but I'm going to play around with that.
 
Robert

rsinger
Along those lines I've been using a guitar preamp. I started off using the effects out of one of my amps, but I've also dusted off my ADA MP-1 and have been using that as well. Since my concern is response/feel I keep the tone pretty neutral. As a guitarist I've been happy with the results. YMMV.
 
I haven't been EQing or anything before going into the sims (TH2 & Scuffham), but I'm going to play around with that.
 
Robert

Me as well on the pre-amp. It also works as a great DI. I just bypass it OR, run a little compression out of it which works really well too. Hahaha....I remember the MP-1. What a great piece. They should have combined the dirty tones of the MP-1 and the clean tones of the MP-2 and made a MP-.....nah, someone would have gotten sued. LOL! :)
 
Something about those old dinosaur pre-'s that just make an incredible difference especially if you hybrid them. I'm partial to a few old, custom modified Digitech 2101's that work really well for me. I've since bitten the bullet this September and purchased the AxeFxII. Though it's pricey and not in everyone's budget, I sincerely believe every serious guitarist should have one. Between the tone matching and all the killer amp models, effects, cab modeling and everything else, I just can't see the need for anything else at this point for the rest of my life. :)
 
-Danny

Another great idea for a video! I have tried them all and Amplitube is by far my favorite (very subjective). I use the fx chain module and insert Amplitube, Valhalla Ubermod, VintageVerb and Channel tools into it. I usually use the Tape sim and A-type console emulation for guitars. N-type if it sounds muddy. Then save as a Pro-channel preset my different guitar rigs. I high pass and low pass everything as well. I wish the Quad curve had mid/side processing, but I use Pro-Q when I need that.

Danny Danzi
I'm glad I didn't offend you with the extra info that I shared. :)
 
-Danny

Are you serious?!?!? Your contributions are very much appreciated! Good info is good info and always welcome. I come here to learn, too.

bbach
Does the cabinet of a full range keyboard combo amp act as a low pass filter set at around 5khz ?

I started using keyboard amps for guitar in 1968, and have used only flat response systems for guitar ever since. I get "my sound" before the amplifier, and that way I can use the same sounds on stage or in the studio without having to change anything. (Gibson's FBX was sort of the culmination of this approach for me, because then the sounds were in the guitar and that removed one more variable from the signal chain.)

Danny Danzi

rsinger
Along those lines I've been using a guitar preamp. I started off using the effects out of one of my amps, but I've also dusted off my ADA MP-1 and have been using that as well. Since my concern is response/feel I keep the tone pretty neutral. As a guitarist I've been happy with the results. YMMV.
 
I haven't been EQing or anything before going into the sims (TH2 & Scuffham), but I'm going to play around with that.
 
Robert

Me as well on the pre-amp. It also works as a great DI. I just bypass it OR, run a little compression out of it which works really well too.
 
-Danny

More good tips...I've found that running a tube preamp into an amp sim with only the cab (no preamp or amp) can sound really good. I did an article for Harmony Central that has a ton of audio examples with what happens when you plug an Orange amp preamp into various amp sim cabs.

Danny Danzi
[snip]
I've since bitten the bullet this September and purchased the AxeFxII. Though it's pricey and not in everyone's budget, I sincerely believe every serious guitarist should have one. Between the tone matching and all the killer amp models, effects, cab modeling and everything else, I just can't see the need for anything else at this point for the rest of my life. :)

I've had my eye on both the AxeFxII and the Kemper. They look like nice rigs. They're in my budget, but I'm still exploring amp sims - there are a lot of variations and they seem to be getting pretty good.
 

Anderton
More good tips...I've found that running a tube preamp into an amp sim with only the cab (no preamp or amp) can sound really good. I did an article for Harmony Central that has a ton of audio examples with what happens when you plug an Orange amp preamp into various amp sim cabs.

 
Thanks for the link, that's a good article and more good ideas! I hadn't thought about using multiple cabs (bright & dark). One sound I like is multiple amps - I'll run an Aiken Invader (Marshall clone) in parallel with a Victoria 508 (Fender Tweed clone). I'll have to try that with some amp sims. I also like the article that is linked to about notch filtering. I should have been reading your articles. I also use a VG-99 & GR-55 and most of these ideas are applicable to them as well. 
 
Robert