I feel that Line 6's cab emulation algorithm is really light years behind the competition. Sounds more like a cheap digital filter, rather than an actual speaker cabinet. And if you increase the distance it sounds just like a cheap digital room verb is blended in.

If you must use Line 6, then I recommend bypassing the speaker emulation and use a different plugin for that.

Convolution is nice (Recabinet, etc.), but I also feel that the algorithmic cab module inside TH2 Producer is very flexible and cool. With the "wooden room" option, increasing the mic distance sounds very sweet as well.

Woah there PL, ol pal.  Nobody's trying to "troll" you.  I was just offering you another take on how folks use emulators AND real amp/stomp setups.  And goin down the "I know what I'm talking about because I've played in real bands with real Marshalls" thingy is about as silly as it gets.  Believe me ol pal, there are many of us here who were playing with "real" Fenders and Marshalls in "real" bands...before you were even born.  So get your panties out of a wad would ya?  We're all on equal footing here...you included.  Some of us just happen to have a different opinion of your take.  No biggie.  Maybe that's not a guitar strap on your shoulder afterall.  Looks more like a chip to me:-)

The problem, even when treating your amp sim like a real-world rig, is that most of them only have one or a couple of sweet spots where they sound similar to the real thing. 

A Marshall, no matter how you set it up, which frequencies you cut and which frequencies you boost, always sound like itself. That's how we (well,  at least I) used to achieve variety in the old days, at least partly. You could even go for a Fender-ish sound or a Vox-ey tone. But there's a consistency. Adding a bit of mid won't make your tone unrecognizable.

Then of course, pedals and mic placement. 

There's an element of predictability and for anyone familiar w/ an amp, you probably can guess in advance or at least have a relatively good clue as to how it will sound if you put a Tube Screamer of a fuzz or whatever in front.

Amp sims - most of them - have a tendency to just fall apart or get very nasty once you start dialing setting that move away from the sweet spot. That Vox model can be pretty much square on for this particular Tom Petty type of tone but when you start tweaking and adding gain and cutting back treble and stuff, it sounds nothing like a Vox anymore. Worst, it becomes unusable. 

I exclude S-Gear from that.

Which is why I guess I find it hard to treat them like real amps all the way through. Even the suckiest real amp has more sonic consistency than most amp sims.

<---  Before you were born


Actually, no..  That did not occur to me, but now that you mention it, "yep, I guess before I was born people did not have amp simulators, and when they played in bands they used real amps and stompboxes too."

Noted...


Edit = and yes, "we are all equals here.  and I admit, that was beyond ridiculous of me."

No harm...no foul, ol pal.  Taint nothin:-)

I am very used to using real amps with my keyboards. I have 6 of them here including two Roland KC-550's, a Fender 65 Twin Reverb Reissue, a Roland Jazz Chorus 120, a Leslie 60, and a Roland KC-100. The common characteristic of all these amps (intentionally) is that they are very clean. Well....I guess the Leslie is noisy but not in any guitar tone type of way...I also have a bunch of Strymon and Eventide stomp boxes and a Dunlop Cry Baby Wah pedal. Once again, the common characteristic of all my stomp boxes is, also, that they are for effects that are more keyboard appropriate. The point is that I understand how to hook up amps and effects to keyboards with no problems at all. When it comes to crafting signal chains for guitar VST's like Real Guitar LPC I just become clueless.

It probably is nothing more than a happy accident that I tripped over a setup in TH2 that I happened to like and the same thing never happened in Guitar Rig 5 for me. If I had a better idea of some rational type of guitar tone signal chains I might change my mind. I just have to plead ignorance on this one.

Well I'll tell you what, I'm 44 years old. I've been playing guitar since I was 11. I've done the whole bar band deal, and have recorded in a few studios. I have always liked the artistic side much more than the performance side of things and have had my own home studio for about 12 years. Last February I decided to quit playing live for awhile and focus on recording. That being said...
  I don't want to use real amps. Other people live in my house and we all get along better without loud amps. For my skill level as an audio engineer I get better results using sims. I used to be a purist and demand an all analog rig...pedals, recorders, whatever, but now I'm older and the truth is...it really doesn't matter. Results matter. What tools we choose to use doesn't. I bought Amplitube Fender and it's just as good as my real twin setting quitely in the corner.

inaheartbeat


It probably is nothing more than a happy accident that I tripped over a setup in TH2 that I happened to like and the same thing never happened in Guitar Rig 5 for me. If I had a better idea of some rational type of guitar tone signal chains I might change my mind. I just have to plead ignorance on this one.

I am not a guitarist and use virtual guitars and I find Amplitube far more intuitive than Guitar Rig. So much so that I seldom use Amplitube's presets these days and set up chains from scratch while still finding GR5 confusing.

  edited for various reasons, "too many to list.

The more I play with Guitar Rig Pro, the more I am just, "loving it."  Its distortion is not, "shrill and glassy," like amplitube.  However, Guitar Rig's distortion is a little, "plastic like."  That is OK.  Not great, but ok!!

However, when compared to AcmeBar Headcase, and Peavy Revalver, I find Guitar Rig, "250% more easier to see, and work with."

Pod Farm is easy to see, but I feel like the architecture behind Pod Farm is kinda aged.

One of the things I noticed, that really benefits tone, is to treat these, "amp sims," not like amp sims, but as softwares to create tone.  Yes, "that sounds redundant," but you would be surprised just how much sense it makes.

I'm still following, "real world," signal flow, and I feel like the tones I've got coming put all the presets to shame!!!!!!!

You can get some really complex, really layered, futuristic tone that only, "a computer software," can do.  This is the wonderment of these computer softwares!!!   

Todays stuff, "Sonar, Guitar Rig, Pro Tools, Reaktor," its more powerful than any major label recording studio from the year 2,000.   And 2,000 was not that long ago.
Its mindblowing!!   But, you can not pretend that this stuff is really, "a model of the real world."  You got to think, "its inspired," by the real world, and work with the software, as software works!

My .02