Many people hear the phrase "amp sim" and turn up their noses and witter on about "tubes" and "purity" and "always sounds digital" and all that elitist pish.
Quite frankly I love guitar simulation and here's why:
Guitar amp simulation allows you to approximate any amp you care to think of within a budget. Yup that's pretty much it.
It allows people, like myself, to get close to an Engl Powerball or a Mesa Triple Rec without spending a fortune.
Maybe I want to write something bluesy, better buy a Fender twin. Maybe something jazzy, Roland Jazz Chorus then. Maybe something rocky, I'll just go into the cupboard and get me JCM800.
I do not have unlimited funds, a massive recording complex or the storage for this level of equipment.
Now there are, and I use a technical term here, shit tonne of VSTs, AUs, modelers etc. available from Waves, IK Media, Native instruments, Line 6, Axe FX et al and you will pay handsomely for the privilege of using them.
Some of them more than justify the price though given what you get and they all do tube emulation to a certain degree.
Don't get me wrong you can't digitally simulate an analogue process exactly, it's just not possible. But you can get an incredibly close approximation.
Here's how it works:
Guitar plugs into sound card/ audio interface
Sim and cabinet are loaded into the DAW of choice
The "sim" effectively just eqs the sound to match an approximation of the amp in question
Sounds simple?
Yes
Yeah, there's all sorts of special techniques involved for mic distance and placement but it's all just eqing and maybe a little reverb.
Doesn't make it any less impressive.
Line 6 are arguably the people who brought this process to the mainstream with their POD. I know there were people that did it before them but the POD revolutionised home recording.
I bought a POD, still have it.
I still remember recording the first thing I did with it and compared to the Zoom 506 I was using at the time it was "real".
It had that beef that the Zoom was missing.
How things have changed.
It's not terrible now but it is a little fuzzy sounding but that's because it was made a loooooong time ago.
I still prefer to record direct and use an amp sim VST while recording.
It just gives you that much more flexibility. I know you can record dry and reamp later but I only have a small tube combo for home use and my mics aren't exactly studio quality.
Recently, I've taken to using a VST written by a guy called LePou
He makes a variety of different sims and also produces LeCab which is a cabinet sim that uses speaker impulses to simulate the sound.
They sound great but for accuracy, they need horse power.
Lots of it.
Enter Fractal Audio. Their fractal Fx series is basically a pc dedicated to an amp sim.
Every ounce of its processor dedicated to simulating a sound.
It's amazing. Proper dynamic modeling of tubes. But it's still just a model.
There's so much choice now and everyone is doing it, Boss, Korg, Zoom, Line 6, Avid, Behringer, Digitech....every manufacturer of effects now has a modeling solution built into their effects boxes.
Some cack, some good, some great.
The Zoom G3 has shown me that even on a £150
budget pedal you can get a semi decent sound.
Bottom line?
Use them. They may save you a lot of time and effort but don't let them make you lazy.
Nothing sounds better than a good amp, in a good room with good mic placement and a good engineer.
