I think the X1 guitarrig 4 and the TH2 overloud Sonar edition together make a great selection of amps to choose from...

I find current digital eq's perfect for notches. Wich really can reduce fizzyness... Just another way to do the same I suppose.

Anderton


Regarding the de-essing thing, I wrote as column about it in my March 2012 "Recording Guitarist" column in Guitar Player magazine, but it doesn't seem that article has been posted online. Here's the article's introduction, which should give you an idea of what I'm talking about...I use the VC-64 de-esser to do the job.

As with any kind of distortion, you should avoid feeding too much treble into an amp sim set for a distorted sound—distorting high frequencies can lead to a harsh, brittle timbre. Although you can pull back on your guitar’s tone control to reduce highs, the tradeoff is often a more muffled sound. Fortunately, “de-esser” processors provide an “intelligent” way to reduce the highs going into an amp sim.

A de-esser’s main purpose is to reduce vocal sibilants (“s” sounds) by compressing only high frequencies, thus lowering the level of sibilants while leaving the rest of the vocal untouched. When placed between a guitar and amp sim, it reduces high frequencies from your axe when they’re prominent, but otherwise doesn’t affect your signal. As a bonus, the compression adds a little additional smoothness and sustain.

Brilliant - thank you for the great suggestion.

Anderton


FWIW - I love using amp sims. They take some work to get right, but then again, so does miking a guitar amp. 

+1  Since you mentioned miking a guitar amp..... I've found that when trying to dial in GR5 I get a big return on the time spent adjusting things in the Control Room module.  Control Room is GR5's "miking the amp" module.  I read and followed Mr. Anderton's post on using an equalizer to notch out the harmonic sizzle and then fiddled around in Control Room with mike selection, mixing and mike positioning relative to the cone and cabinet.  Lesson learned: with GR5 I almost never rely on the "matching cabinet" that pops up as a default with any selected amp.  I go to the Control Room and things sound much better.

Zenwit

Lesson learned: with GR5 I almost never rely on the "matching cabinet" that pops up as a default with any selected amp.  I go to the Control Room and things sound much better.

You gotta use Control Room PRO, bro! That's the new shiny one! All the others (Cabinets & Mics, Matched Cabinet and Control Room) are different degrees of legacy crap! Control Room Pro really sounds so much better! 

NI should get around to removing the other options to avoid confusing and dissappointing new users!

Sven

SvenArne

Zenwit

Lesson learned: with GR5 I almost never rely on the "matching cabinet" that pops up as a default with any selected amp.  I go to the Control Room and things sound much better.

You gotta use Control Room PRO, bro! That's the new shiny one! All the others (Cabinets & Mics, Matched Cabinet and Control Room) are different degrees of legacy crap! Control Room Pro really sounds so much better! 

NI should get around to removing the other options to avoid confusing and dissappointing new users!

Sven

I'm 100% with you SvenArne.  I should have been more clear in my post that I'm referring to the newer Pro version of Control Room.  A real step forward from the older version. 
 
That said, for us old legacy users (GR3 here) NI has to leave the older versions in place so that when people upgrade their legacy projects don't crash due to the old "vst not found" honker that pops up if your old module has been removed.
 
Norway is cool.  They have a town called Hammerfest!

To Mr. Anderton:

What de-esser settings are you using on the VC-64 for guitar amp sims?

Frequency and amount setting would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi guys, I just wanted to jump in here real quick and say thank you for all the information about TH2. I purchased the upgrade for the full version even before X2 was released, and am extremely happy with it. I don't play guitar, but it makes my RealGuitar, RealLPC, and RealStrat sound awesome!

And thanks Beepster for the tip about double clicking on the cabinets. I didn't even know those controls were there! It was like finding an Easter Egg! :-) Guess I'll have to read the manual better.

And finally, I've read a lot of good things about Mr. Anderton, where might I find some of his tutorials and/or writings? 

@GR5: yeah, CRP is very important for that. But, with recabinet it's even better :) I'm starting to get won over by TH2 though, I was surprised how good the presets I made yesterday sounded today. In conjunction with the gloss/eq it's not hard to get a good sound. Now......about the prochannel bug...........

Zenwit

 They have a town called Hammerfest!

And the name means basically the same thing in Norwegian as it does in English. Go figure!

I haven't even opened it yet. I've tried a load of other amp sims and they have all left me a bit cold and now cynical. Will definitely have to give this a go though based on some of the comments here.