Recommendations for Guitar Amp / Cab-Sim VSTs?

Plugins
41

Yup. I was kidding. But I will check out your recommendations. Tone Spot Bass Pro looks really useful.

I’ve got a bunch of amp sims. For a simple, good sounding bass amp sim, I like Kuassa’s Cerberus VST.

For a simple, barely adequate sounding bass, I play my Fender J through my Fender Rumble 200 combo.

Then I go back to IK Multimedia’s excellent modeled MODO Bass.

42

Yes, MODO Bass is drug

43

Are you on Mac or Windows?

44

win 10 latest

45

I just tried Archetype Plini on Windows 10, latest and can’t get it to work at all.
Their stand-alone application does not open. Just gets stuck and if GP tries to scan for a plugin it gets stuck and fails after a while.
If I try that in Cakewalk it just gets stuck and I have to kill it using the task manager.

On Mac OSX they work, the sound is ok, but the CPU usage is a little high compared to other amp/cabinet simulation plugins like TH3/U, BIAS, and others.

46

weird. I have no problem with standalone opening just fine. It does require me to change the audio driver selection and change it back to my desired before I can get sound each launch. (I’ve already reported both these issues to their support).

47

Can’t launch it at all. I’ve tried uninstalling drivers, attaching different audio interfaces - nothing. Just dies down and never shows any window whatsoever.
I am using their trial version though so that may be what’s going on. I contacted them and explained the issues. Hopefully they’ll listen.

48

This a topic of great interest to me. I use Amplitube 4 and thought it was supposed to be as good as any. but I’m seeing that is not many other’s opinion. I am on a quest to achieve a sweet, fat, clean lead tone and would sincerely appreciate any and all tips and opinions!

On a side note, I am also using RealSAtart, RealLPC and Rock Standard. My problem with RealStrat for clean sound is the string buzz, particularly pronounced around the F# above middle C, which gives a kind of warbly almost vibrato tone to solo lines. Also those last high notes from A up die out real quick. Both of those things may be characteristic of a Strat, but make it particularly tough for a clean tone and I have not been able to make it work for me.

I almost feel that RealLPC and Rock Standard work better for me in that regard. RealLPC also has some of that string buzz but nowhere near as pronounced as ReaStrat. However RealLPC and particularly Rock Standard are too brassy sounding for me.

1 Like
49

I love TH3. I’m told that BIAS is very good as is S-GEAR, although I don’t really know anything about that last one personally.

50

i use THU (updated version of TH3) and S-Gear, but also very much like Blue Cat’s Destructor - i may wind up getting Blue Cat’s Axiom. BC is less about modeling, but makes great sounds. Plugin Alliance also makes some great amps; the ENGL and Chandler models are great.

51

Resurrecting an old thread. :wink: I recently purchased the latest version of Line 6 Helix Native (v1.80). Any of the patches that I create in production can be shared with our guitarist with no modifications. That way, he can play a track that I created with the same exact sound on his Helix Floor.
Wow, after being a RealStrat, RealLPC, & Amplitube 4 user for such a long time, the Helix is very nice.

52

I didn’t know they have a VST of their hardware devices. Is the 70s Chorus (based on the BOSS® CE-1) also available in this Helix Native plugin ?

53

Yes… it’s in the listing. Everything in the floor model is in the Native plug-in. Same engine.

1 Like
54

Diehard S-Gear fan here. For the clean to low-medium gain styles that I prefer, I have never bonded with any other plugins. I use it almost daily since 2012 when I bought it.

And even though S-Gear doesn’t yet have any pre-amp effects, GP solves the problem so well. The post effects in S-Gear for delay, reverb and chorus are so good I’ve never needed anything else.

55

Dragging my other thread back in here for a slightly modified question… (link below to the other thread)

For those who use S-Gear with GP - for which it seems like there are lots of happy fans! - a similar question to that I asked about STL Tonality in the thread above:

  • How does S-Gear expose it’s amp controls to GP? Is it a single set of controls that ‘auto-maps’ itself to the selected amp model? Or does each amp model have a unique set of exposed controls? Essentially the ideal would be that I could create a single rack panel that would work for all of the amps in S-Gear (if I decided to go with S-Gear that is - a high probablity!) rather than having to create one for each model. If that makes sense…

(EDIT: A quick check of the S-Gear manual appears to suggest that there is a single set of controls that get assigned to the current model as required - i.e. ‘gain’ will be gain for any amp model, but ‘channel switch’ would just be for those amps that have it. If someone could confirm this though, that would be ace!)

I will get hold of the demo of S-Gear soon-ish (as well as STL Tonality) but waiting for a less busy time when I can give the short trials a decent amount of use. Hopefully S-Gear 2.9 will be out by then as well.

Splendid.

56

Yes…mostly.

  • The common controls between the amps (e.g. channel, gain, bass, mid, treble, presence, sag, volume) are the same mapped parameters, no matter what the amp you choose.
  • Some amps have some different/extra controls, so your rack template would need to include these additional ones that would not be used on certain amps. Some special cases are the ‘Amp Drive’ which is an on/off switch for some amps and a variable control on the Wayfarer. But you can set it up as a knob in GP but just know that anything above half way will be ‘on’ for those amps that treat it as a switch.
  • S-Gear allows you to switch between 2 amps in the same preset (Amp A and Amp B). Amp B has a separate set of parameters, so you would need to watch out for this. I personally don’t use Amp B as the GP rackspaces/variations take care of any changes I need.
  • The other effects in S-Gear (e.g. delay, modulation, reverb) change their parameter order depending on the preset. So you can’t include these in a rack template.
57

Pefect, just the info I was after - have just been having some listens to more S-Gear demos and it really does sound great. I’m very much in the clean to low/mid gain category and S-Gear just seems to cater to that much better than any other amp-sims, a lot of which seem to be designed purely for hi-gain stuff (not that there is an issue with that, just not my thing!)

Cheers for the info!

58

This would be my category as well. I’ve never found anything I’ve enjoyed playing through as much as S-Gear. It just responds so well to your playing dynamics, and the ‘tweak’ controls like sag add some great magic. I’m commonly adding pedal plugins before S-Gear, and there’s lots of great ones out there (some free). It also works great with real pedals. These holidays I picked up a fuzz pedal and with the Custom 57 amp can achieve wonderful clean to mayhem with just my guitar volume knob.

59

S GEAR is very underrated. I think this is the best software when it comes to feel and sound. Easy to use and you get everything you need as far as amp types. This is my go to amp software… and hardware.

I am on a MAC and use an Apogee Element Interface which has very good converters and very low latency.

1 Like
60

I’m getting some incredible tones out of Bias. Mind you, the factory presets are garbage. One needs to tweek or start from scratch, add some cab IR’s but it’s worth it!