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Thanks Beeps for doing all this testing out!!! I only have TH2 that came with X3 Producer (not sure if it's included in Platinum (which I also have))......anyway, there's a lot of stuff in there that I'll have to slowly digest and will be re-reading. Good work again brother beeps!!  

Cool, man. Wasn't sure if you saw it (you posted just as I was replying to tlw... whom BTW is a very smart fellow in regards to this type of thing... he has helped me with some crucial concepts in the past). As I said it ain't the exact FTATR tone but I think it's still pretty AC/DC. I think the layering is what really does it in the end though and IIRC there are some decent Marshall tones included in the basic version that comes with Sonar. Not sure if there is the same blue compressor pedal in that package but if there is that really seemed to help as well as setting up the cab properly to use 57's, getting some of that rear mic in there and picking the right room.
 
Anyway, it was a neat little experiment and I actually learned/remember some important stuff while doing it so it was my pleasure. Hopefully it'll help get you a little closer to where you want.
 
Cheers, bud.
 

Oh and one REALLY important thing I didn't do or mention is the Anderton trick of creating a notch filter with the EQ to get rid of that slight fizzle/buzz that DI sim stuff produces. You can hear the slight buzz throughout the track but I left it alone to just show the most unaffected tone as possible.
 
You are probably familiar with this method but you essentially just create a super sharp peak filter using the hi-mid band (I do this with the Quad Curve... make the Q as tight as it will go) then slowly sweep through the higher frequncies until that buzz becomes really obnoxious. Then you just reverse the peak into a cut and widen the Q a little bit. I just fiddle with the gain and Q a bit so that it's just barely removing the offending frequency. That way you aren't totally sucking out the hi-mids at that point but the buzz/fizz becomes less apparent.
 
Using the direct outs on my amps seems to minimize the need for this (but I'll still do it on super high gain signals produce by outboard stuff like my Metal Zone pedal which is biznatch to deal with).
 
Again I did not do that to this so the buzz is still there. In the mix though it might get buried.
 
There is something else that Craig does in that process that for the life of me I can't recall but he has written abotu it multiple times all over the intertubesincluding an article on SOS and posts here on the forum so a google of "Anderton + Guitar + Sims" should bring up the full process he uses.
 
Cheers.

Beepster
Never particularly liked Marshalls anyway to tell the truth aside from the JCM 2000 and some crazy souped up custom anniversary jobbies I've had the opportunity to jam/record through. I like HiWatts and 5150's much better. Those sounds are quite a bit harder to duplicate with a sim unfortunately... especially the HiWatt top end and input response.

Only just spotted this. For some reason the forum software decided to unsubscribe me from this thread.

As it happens I'm not an AC/DC fan, but I grabbed a couple of tracks from itunes when I saw this thread and I did see them two or three times back when they first toured the UK. I suggested a JTM45 rather than plexi because I've seen stuff about the band by knowledgable people and a pretty common story is that they used two or three Super Leads each live to get the volume, but recorded using JTM45s.

I'm not a Marshall fan either.....

I have a plexi 50watt Lead I bought very cheaply in the late 70s but never use it nowadays, partly because my taste has changed a lot over the years and partly because the point where picking dynamics or guitar volume can make it go from clean into breakup is stupidly loud. Another reason I'm not a fan is I've owned three different models of Marshall amps and two of them were the most unreliable bits of gear I've ever used.

I know what you mean about amp sims. If you're after a "real amp" sound and reaction to the guitar it takes a huge amount of tweaking to get a sound that's almost as similar to the "real thing" as instant coffee is to ground. For amp emulation I much prefer Sansamp Character series pedals to anything digital, and even with them the Tech21 recommended settings usually have far more gain and distortion than the real amps. And don't get me started on the many failings of digital imitations of overdrives and fuzzes :-)