Re: Your attitude toward modeler gear and modeler software
I record miked amps, and I like recording with Amplitube 3 too. And the Amplitube 3 tracks sound great, especially certain of their amps. I particularly like many of their Orange amp simulations (all of which are too pricey for me to think about getting the real deal), the Soldano SLO simulation, the Marshall JTM simulation and the Hiwatt simulation. Also, all of which I don't have the funds to go buy the real deal, let alone the Royer ribbon mic that I like to use a simulation of in Amplitube.
I have acquired a nice little collection of tube amps, and they cover blues, hard rock, various cleans from shimmery and bright to thick and warm, crunchy 80's metal, buzzy scooped modern high gain, and even semi-clean/semi-crunch classic rock. I like recording them as well.
Sometimes I go to Amplitube just because I want to get a part recorded quickly and easily, and don't want to spend what little time I have to record on reconnecting a bunch of cables.
One time I mentioned to a friend that I often use a hardware pedal ahead of Amplitube. This kind of freaked him out. He'd never thought of it before. But why not? Yes, Amplitube has simulations of various pedals, but if I have a favorite pedal and I have a certain tone in mind and I know that pedal will get me there, I sometimes put the pedal between my guitar and the recording interface, and just add the amp in the computer.
I don't use actual guitar amps that process the guitar with modeling. I have a Yamaha DG1000 preamp that I used to use years ago, but it hasn't been used in probably 5 years now. I've plugged in to Line 6 and other modeling combo amps, and while they might sound great alone, if you do a shootout with them and a tube amp, or even an Sansamp Trademark 60, the tube or solid state amp has always to me sounded more present and in my face. Part of this may be the excessive reverb and other effects on most modeling amp presets. I did hear a local band with a guitarist who played through a Spider Valve, the one with a Bogner tube preamp in it, and he was getting some great tones. Great meat and potatoes chunky sustaining overdrive tones, nothing over the top with gain, or with excessive effects. His guitar sat in the mix very well and had a nice meaty overdrive tone.
It was created by Max Morton.
