Looks like I'm new but Im not, have been here for years but havent posted for 18 months and it looks like my account was deleted.
 
I am looking for recommendations for guitar amp/effects plug ins for Producer. I have a trial version of NI's Guitar Rig 4 and its pretty good, nearly there. I listened to the on line samples of the Line 6 Pod Farm plug in and really liked the clean sounds but the heavy/distorted sounds were so so.....
 
I play & record mostly I guess hard rock, but also a wide variety. Live I play a Wolfgang through a Peavy 5150 combo so you can visualise the live tones I get. With limited time/money/ability I have struggled getting that tone through a mic onto my DAW so I have swallowed my all tube pride and looking at the "easier" option for guitar recording using digital plug ins. All recommondations would be appreciated.

Amplitude 3 may get you close to that sound but I doubt that any emulation you buy will duplicate it. Without any knowledge of your mic or audio interface it is hard to help you but I would think you would be much happier using a Shure SM57 and a good audio interface like a Roland Quad or Octa-Capture. You may have to experiment with amp and mic placement but I think it can be done. If you have two mics you could try putting one close to and the other farther away from the amp.
 
I have been using amp emulators for a number of years now. Johnson J-Station, V-Amp and a number of software emulators are some examples. I use Amplitude 3 now for almost everything. But the hardest sound for me to emulate is that tube driven speaker overdrive. But I must confess I’m not an expert of hard rock tones i.e. more of a jazz blues guy.
 
I hope this helps and good luck.
　

I have Guitar Rig 5, Pod Farm Platinum, S-Gear and Amplitube.  I've gotten more sounds that work for me from GR5.  GR4 is quite different since version 5 introduced the Redwires Impulse Responses instead of the NI modeled cabs.  BIG improvement.  The POD Farm comes in a close second and has better stomp boxes with greater choices. The POD Farm preamps are incredible for mixing other instruments and vocals.  Having said that the best amp modeling I've ever owned is by far my Zoom G5.   I sold my HD500 and GT10 after getting that and have NEVER been happier with my live sound.  The G5 into my Mustang III FX return blows away any tube amp I've owned.  The G5 direct is sweet also and would be a toss up to the Guitar Rig 5 but it is so much more convenient to record a dry signal and be able to change amps/fx any time using software modelers.

It's a bit like drum software - people have their favourites.
S-Gear - great sound but doesn't have the 300 amps and 400 effects like the others.
Guitar Rig - Not quite marmite but if you like, you'll love it. GR5 is an improvement by all accounts.
POD Farm - Line6 can have a Line6 sound to it. Lot's of sounds and flexibility.
Amplitube3 - Has a lot of choices and flexibility.
TH-2 - ditto

I've heard them all used brilliantly so you need to try and buy. I'd say most people end up buying most of them that are available. There's always a sale on them at some point and that's probably the best time to buy each one.

Check out ACMEBargig. They just came out with their first release. They gave it away for free for a long time but now they have perfected what they do. I guess they wanted lots of user feedback.

THanks guys for all your feedback....Ill give them all a go

Very nice free ones. 
Pick a model and google/youtube for clips

http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/forum/
http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/


Run them through LeCab with the cab IR of your choosing or http://www.recabi.net/

+1 on S-Gear!

A couple of the free LePou guitar amp sims sound great to me.  I really like the 456.

http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/


Cheers,
Eddie