This was the Worst Thing to happen to Amplifiers
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- Опубликовано: 25 авг 2024
- Software has gotten so good, I'm wondering if there's a reason to struggle with miking an amp anymore.
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About Spectre Sound Studios:
I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
We've covered Moon on the Water, played Bias FX, given you the absolute best in Stupid Musician Texts, ranted & raved about bass guitar, and this channel is where The Eagle has Landed.
Everything you've wanted to learn about recording Hard Rock & Heavy Metal can be found right here on this channel!
I also respond to your comments & questions: The best make it into the SMG Viewer's Comments series of videos. Loads of fun, lots of laughs.
Thanks for checking out my channel & please subscribe!
The problem with amp emulations is, they don't make the floor shake, unless your studio monitors are a whole lot better than mine.
🎯 BINGO! If you play live gigs like me, you're not caring about "software" in that setting. Studio, of course, but if you're a real guitar player and not just a basement dweller, you'll always need real amps in your arsenal.
Gotta run it through a flat response amp like a Catalyst or better yet a Power Cab or something although I'd imagine floor shaking territory is reserved for the bassist and the kick drum.
As a Bass player who’s been beaten viciously by Glenn for years this masochistic relationship is really paying off !!!!! Keep calling us lazy cunts and dumbasses as long as you keep coming up with sweet gear and tips on how to get MONSTER mixes.😊
Ditto
Bass players are always better than guitar players.
@@CarltonMelson You trip over 50 lead guitarists just to shake a bass players hand!
As a guitarist who loves bass, I do appreciate you guys being here to learn. Love from Peru.
He may beat us, but I think it's a great inspiration to keep on keeping on. Never get stale. Always improve. Keep focusing on the attention to detail.
With thick strings comes thick skins 😊
I downloaded Reaper 3 days ago, figured out how to hook up my Scarlett, got sound, added a amp sim and recorded a track for the very first time. As a tube amp tech I am blown away at how good they sound and it's inspired me to play everyday now as a quick plug and play amp option. I have a lot to learn but I had to start somewhere, thanks Glenn.
Not sure what amp sim you’re using. I suggest Amplitube though. I’m never looking back.
@@Zeta9966 I have amplitube Max (black friday deal... 85€ instead of 356€ lol), BIAS FX2 Elite and Guitar Rig 7 Pro, and they are all good and have their pros and cons.
@@Zeta9966 I love AmpliTube and the Bogren plug-ins. Even EzMix comes with good guitar sims.
I'm right with you.. This world of digital things is just mind blowing
Glenn, I don’t listen to metal a lot (like .1% of my music on my phone), but I really dig your channel. I finally subscribed. I appreciate all the tips and tricks for recording and really enjoy your features of various budget, but awesome guitars. Hope to see you feature a lot more. Keep being awesome, brother
In 23 years of guitar playing its pretty mind blowing how simple things have become not just to record guitars, but also the easy of having great tone is crazy. i can remember having to buy 1000 or 2000 dollar amp heads,cabs and pedels to have some what of a good sound. What a tIme to be a guitar player it is.
True, as well as amp sims…even a cheap solid state amp can make competent tones now.
best part is your an find software all over the net...free lol!!! like this one in the video
I cant tell you where though..just use google lol!!!!!!!
The best thing about amp sims is that they allow you to effortlessly sound exactly like everyone else.
They might as well just start listing the plugins as the band members.
The future is here. The real deal is in your face. That is what real amps do. The trade off is volume levels. With my amps I am at 86 db. I am old and hence old school. Younger people will take it.
If you sound like everyone else, the problem isn't your amp, it's your songs. If you have good original songs, no one will care that another band has the same tone as you.
@@crabbubbles1161 pretty sure musicians' jobs isn't turning knobs though, it's playing music
It's kinda both,really. And button pushing too.
@@stargazer2459
The bass tone and riff in this video is exactly what we need to contain the 'Loomis Riff Singularity'. Because when the Riff Of Singularity (ROS) is played .... there is no returning ... no "un-hearing". The eternal Mosh Pit will be released into this realm and then things will get very sassy ... very rapidly!
I don't want anyone taking credit for my own tone. Back in the day, we used to throw pedals, amps, gear, and mics together to see what it would sound like. Who even does that now? Creating an original tone requires this old-school technique. I'm tired of hearing the same tone for most mixes. Creating your own tone is half the fun for someone like myself.
Soldano in a trash can is pure heresy, not to mention sacrilegious!
Come and take it! ….from my cold dead hand!
🤣🤣🤣
Damn Glenn, you have really gotten much better at guitar.
Considering him screaming about bad musicians we should actually scream about Glenn's playing.
He said that he is playing for 40 years. Its about time for him to learn how to do it.
@@coin777To be fair to him, how good is the average 40-year-long career musician at mixing and recording? Not being a suck-up, just saying.
@@Billiamwoods better than him lol
More practice more better. If Glenn wasn't addicted to recording the best music he could, he might have been a guitarist.
I became a believer in amp sims when I HAD to use Garageband to record for a short period of time, and the amp sim in Garageband gave me some great tones. I didn't want it to be true. But sometimes shit is just true. Real amps are more fun FOR ME, but amp sims have become a really legit tool for creating music.
I just started a livestreaming improvised looping music project where we're using amp sims on two guitars and a bass for two main reasons. First reason is the wide range of sounds and tones we can get without having to physically switch out amps. The second reason is having a direct signal which, combined with other factors, allows us to have zero stage volume as far as any practical purposes are concerned.
There's still some people who talk smack on amp sims, but I converted a 60 year old tube amp snob when he did a livestream with me. He said, "You can even feel the cabinet!"
Amp sims these days are so badass. Literally limitless options with a great sound
Someone has been practicing. When the engineer practices more than most his clients 🤦
😂 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽. We’d probably all be surprised by how much on a record was performed by “not the band” 😂👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
I still use tube amps and analog equipment. It's the only way to establish a unique sound. Software and modelers, in my opinion, are the culprit for the fact everybody sounds the same now and just are derivatives of each other. The software all sounds so good now that they just throw on a factory preset and they don't have to further tweak it. It's just an instant, convenient good tone.
Tube amps you need to spend a lot more time with. You may need to buy extra pedals like an EQ or boost to dial it in further and really narrow down a good tone. Once you find a good tone, then you set of on the mission to find an even better one. It's a never-ending thing, chasing tones but you don't really have to do that anymore with software. Great tones are just loaded right in it.
Nothing beats a good tube amp tone though and nothing could change my mind on that. There's something highly organic about it that still cannot be replicated by software and I don't think ever will be replicated 100%. Tube amps and their analog equipment is what made players of the past sound so unique from each other. You could tell players apart just from their guitar tone alone, instantly recognizable tones. Now it's like everybody sounds the same, very few can you tell apart with their tones and even then, it's very small. That's what modelers and software has killed off and that's one of the things I really miss with modern music. No longer sounds organic, it sounds completely computerized and digital and overproduced and then because mixes are far too loud now, it gets compressed and squashed down even further to nothing and the instruments just sound flat and lifeless. I would love nothing more than if we went back to how we recorded music back in the 90's and early 00's. That was the peak of organic guitar tones and recording music.
Agreed! Every modeler I've heard sounds great for what it does, but I have yet to hear one that truly nails the feel and response of a tube amp and doesn't feel so dry and ordinary.
I thought I was the only guy who learned how to play the tracks on the Spinal Tap soundtrack. Living in a Hell Hole; nicely done, sir.
Hi glenn your videos are amazing and reliable! I wanted to request if you could do a blind A/B comparison between a real tube amp and an amp sim of that amp or the modelled version of it on modellers like axefx or quad cortex. These days most reviewers don't make accurate comparisons but I have seen you give the realest advice so it would be awesome for guitarists who are looking for a good rig without wasting money
Those are already out there.
For what it's worth: 22 years playing guitar. 20 on tube amps, but sold them 2 years ago and went digital sims (TH-u and Neural) then 4 months ago got an FM9t paired with an ElectroVoice PXM-12MP, and it has been, without question, the best thing I've ever bought for myself as a guitar player ever.
Hey Glenn. Regarding throwing away amps and whatnot...I could never do it.
I play VSTs and plugins every, single , day. Love em. What a time to be alive.
Tonally, it's all the same. In fact, plugins are wayyyy more convenient for recording and whatnot.
But the joy I feel when standing in front of my tube amps and cab, in person, is a sensation I absolutely cherish. That's a matter of preference and I keep tube amps like my Engl and Marshall or Orange just for those moments. Love how they respond to pedals and to the touch. But once again, tonally, the listener, will likely not know the difference. And I'm terms of feasibility and versatility, the big tube amps pale in comparison to Axe FX or QC and whatnot.
End of the day if I'm recording, it'll be the VSTs anyday 😅
The question that won't let me go recently: Some old productions like "Urban discipline", "When the storm comes down", "Powerslave", "Energetic disassembly" - whatever you might think of the style, they really appear to feature the instrument "bass" very prominently and clearly without even being that loud in the acoustic "bass" frequency range. Why is that rarely done in modern mixes? "Back then, the bass players practiced" and "it messes with compression expectations of radio stations" seem to be just too easy and convenient explanations, so what is the real difference there? And... why does "And justice for all", featuring no bass at all, still sound more akin to these productions than modern ones?
Hearing you run through an old spinal tap song put a smile on my face
It's pretty impressive that you can get amp Sims that sound very, very good. The only real drawback with an amp sim, is that in terms of digital accessibility, they're just not their. As a blind guitar player, the advantage you have with a physical amplifier is that everything you can feel and adjust. On the software side of things, not every developer takes the time to make their stuff accessible. I've tried playing around with stuff like the torpedo cab clone and that was not accessible whatsoever. Maybe as time goes on, developers will work on their digital accessibility to make them inclusive.
I think there are midi controllers with enough knobs to sync with whatever amp sim. Might need help setting it up.
@@lusario2650 they're probably are some mini controllers that you can map to the absence, but that's still doesn't 100% make it accessible. You're still going to have to go through menus on the software side to occasionally change things.
This is a really important point! Most music software developers sadly do not think about accessibility. Software devs, if you're reading this: it needs to be a core part of your design!
It’s a great time to be alive. Started playing less then a year ago and so many tools to sound good, which is so encouraging and really keeps you interested. I mean you can sound like any of your hero’s right away
For years, I was chasing the amp in the room sound... But when I thought about my favorite music, I didn't hear the amp in the room... The iconic rifts that made me pick up a guitar, well those I discovered while listening to the radio or through my headphones or at the bar through a PA system and they were amps and cabinets captured by a microphone running thru a pre amp into a mixing board and heavily eq'd... I've recently sold most of my actual amps and invested in some modeling hardware and powered fr cabinets that allow me to have adequate stage volume in contrast with the bass and drums, etc. I've never been happier! My work flow is simple and I can either clone someone else's tone to a T or create my own.... what a time to be playing instruments
Putting a bass amp in a guitar plugin is a great move. Somebody diving into the plugin domain really only needs this to start writing metal.
I haven't gotten totally away from amps, but I have modernized. My rig now consist of a Helix board going into a Thomas Blug Amp 1 Iridium with the foot controller. It's a 100w tube powered amp the size of an EHX multi-effects pedal. 4 channels, effects loop, full tone sections, the works. Fits right on the board. That all goes into a EVH 2x12 cab. Wireless into the Helix, one patch cable between the Helix and the amp, one speaker cable. The cab is on air filled castors so it becomes the cart when moving. With Reaper on my PC and going into the Helix, I have basically a studio setup wherever I want. And it's not just amp plug-ins. There are some fantastic drum programs. I am using the ujam virtual drummer and it is so easy to use and sound great. No, not as good as having a real drummer. But for song writing and demo, it's perfect. It's how I present an idea to my bandmates. And it doesn't argue and get drunk like a real drummer does!
I've avoided guitar software mostly. I use one for bass but still mix it with my amp. I enjoy the process of trying to get a good sound with a mic. I feel like I'm missing learning something if I take the easy route. I'd rather get a feeling of accomplishment with a guitar sound even if it's not as perfect as it could be. I want the guitars to be me, flaws and all.
The price to result ratio is a clear win for the software.
I have to disagree there. A decent PC and a bunch of software is not cheap. It all adds up fast with how many are out there now. I'd rather spend $300 on some cab speakers or new mic, than a few guitar plugins. @@klap00
Sometimes it is not the sound, it is also the feeling - as you've told us many many times. I play with board-ai-headphones/monitors, but real amp is real amp. It might even sound worse, huge hum and screech, but that 100w blowing air is just something that I miss (no amps now).
Agree 💯
Man…Thank you for featuring this plugin!!! Now, pardon me while I go remove a couple dozen sims from my PC and see which licenses can be resold.
here’s the thing, square waves all sound alike, that is all a heavily distorted guitar is, is a squared off wave. once you square them off all the subtle harmonics disappear
Glenn needs to get the BOSS IR2, an amp/ir in a BOSS enclosure.
Nobody mentioned the Bad News shirt?!?! Classic Comic Strip presents.
That thor joke was so funny even the drummer got it!
Sounds great Glenn! I can totally understand using the plug-in when recording. But, live I still prefer having my amps behind me. I guess I'm too old school to change.
I miss seeing your stack of heads behind you. Maybe get a full sized poster of them to hang behind you😂
Keep up the great wotk!
looks like Donald Trump's bathroom
Im surprised Glenn hasn't been jumped in public for talking about how software is good, and how tonewood means nothing. personally i dont use software because i enjoy amps, but the ones i have are all less than 120 bucks used.
and i still get the sound i want with a few work arounds.
if gearsnobs would leave the house once and awhile and interact with others who arent the delivery drivers for amazon or sweetwater, they might realize no one can tell the difference, or even cares in the first place. there are a lot more listeners who listen at low bitrates with no care for how high quality or amazing your tone is, they just want it to be palatable.
Thanks Glenn.
Hey Glenn, your content is golden. I really appreciate that.
On the subject, the stupid-proof presets world is a double edged weapon as instead of trying to figure out how things work, the great majority of players just want presets, and not the knowledge of how to set it right. At the end of the day, it has its toll like everyone is sounding like everyone else. Also, if the fundamental knowledge of setting a tone is missing, then a serious chunk of the knowledge of sounding good is missing. Especially in live environment, that can make quite a difference.
On amps, the modelling vs real gear paradigm has shifted long ago. But no modelling would exist without the real stuff. I think it is a balanced solution to discover a favourite digital amp model and use it whenever it is practical, and after a time get that particular real amp to support companies that are still making them. There are wonderful solutions now'days, for example a 20W JCM800 mini and a suitable 1x12" cab would even fit in a bedroom.
Totally lost it when you ripped into Hell Hole. Cleaning the coffee off my desk now. Thanks guy!
“Folks lend a hand in a HELL HOLE!!! Know where you stand in a HELL HOLE!!” Yeah Glenn! Not too many knew what that was, nice Nigel licks! 👏🎸🔥🥒
4:45 I saw that tiny skip in the video where you changed out your pickups, tubes, strings, AND went from mahogany to poplar body. Don't bullshit us! /s ✌💗🤘
I'm old enough to remember the movie "The Blob", but I didn't know the alien was still alive, let alone into music and making plugins! 🤪
Here's the thing about VST amps though...and I absolutely love them... Without dragging your laptop and a bunch of MIDI gear to the gig, how do you replicate the sound live?
I spend a lot of time in the studio with my clients dialing in their live sound, and then setting up a VST setup that will replicate THAT. But when I'm working on my own stuff, I'm balls deep in Neural and ML Sound Lab stuff, then I have to try to cobble together something that sounds like it out of amps and pedals (mostly pedals, let's be honest). What do you think is a good work flow for a band sound that puts time into constructing a massive recorded sound then has to replicate that tone on stage?
Very good question! That's a bit of a concern for me at the moment - I'm loving all the options available for home recording, but if I actually achieve my goal of getting a band together to play live, I do worry we'll be limited in our ability to get a good sound from physical equipment (unless I can figure out how to set up an entire live rig through Cakewalk on a laptop!)
@@sabershenanigans tonex plus Samson power amp plus Harley Benton 2x12
Or higher end Hizes or Axe FX/Kemper goes straight into house PA
Why did this just pop up in my recommended? I don’t watch any content of this kind so it’s a bit weird but damn I’m happy that it did pop up cause this looks pretty sweet and this dude is an OG! This just gave me the motivation to dig up the old Stratocaster and make some sound for the first time in years - thanks for reminding me how awesome it is to play on this godly instrument.
Glenn, love your channel! I am not a metal player but I have the utmost respect for the genre and the incredible players it has produced. I find that with software modelers/profilers there are a plethora of models for the metal player. Not as many models that accurately produce vintage Fenders, AC30's. Matchless, and Dumble. I can appreciate not having to worry about miking an amp and even better not having to haul to it to a gig. But perhaps because I am nostalgic or because my ear is still telling me, for a classic blues rock player my amp sounds significantly better. I bought my first guitar amp in 1976 - Old guy.
As much as I love the technology, I still like plugging into a high wattage 2x12 or 4x12 and making the air around me move. The biggest advantage? The buy in. You don’t have to drop a couple grand just to “ find your sound”. You click a button and if it isn’t what you want, just click another.
Gleen, you just made me save a LOT of money since I started watching your project with SpectreSoundStudios channel. Thank you buddy
I hate playing through sims, I don't like leaving my computer on while doing other things, so I just find my own tone through the amps and gear I own. I'd rather learn how to mic my rig when I rarely want to share something than have a sim I can always record all hours of the day that takes nothing to set up. It's completely preference here.
Show me your Maboroshi!
The amp sims are great these days, especially for recording, but I don't think the amp is going away anytime soon. Look at Tosin Abasi who's suddenly back to playing tube amps and even has a signature model out now. I directly chalk that up to touring with John Petrucci and Devon Townsend and rediscovering that certain, pantleg-flapping, something that only amps have.
There's a tactile thing about an amp and a pedalboard; and as an audience member seeing a band without amps on stage has an "American Bandstand", playing to a track, damn near air guitar fakeness to it.
ok, now to figure out how to record audio and just do the basic thing... then i am actually convinced to get those
Glennnnn.... (or anyone else)!
In my opinion nearly all of your demos of different amp sims and amps sound good when put "into the mix", which makes it kind of hard to make "objective" decisions on what would be the best amp solution for me.
I am not sure if Glenn has showed the "setup" for his guitar mixes in some video, but it would be REALLY interesting to know some basics:
1. How many guitar tracks are there?
2. How are the tracks panned?
3. What is the EQ setup for each guitar track/guitar bus?
4. Is there some other processing going on for the tracks (or some pre-processing before the signal hits the DAW)? Obviously there is at least mastering processing, but is there anything that has been "added" to the guitar tracks/bus.
All the more metal focused amp sims sound really "samey" to my ear when Glenn/Ola/etc. play them "solo" (and NO, I am not listening through a phone speaker), but when thrown to mix it of course sounds freaking awesome. I just don't think that I have ever seen them really go through their setup or how they have tracked the guitars when playing the full mix. I think it would be really valuable information to include when showing the full mix.
Did you not watch the whole video? He literally plays it by itself by himself
I'm not sure what you are asking, you must have tube amp stocks or something
@@Notinserviceij Thanks for replying. Yep, watched the whole thing and saw Glen playing there, but that was not the point.
What I meant was that it would be interesting to see how the guitars are actually tracked in the "full mix". How many guitars have been tracked there? How are they panned? Any pre- or post-processing going on in addition to the amp sim, etc.
I use amps for performance and personal enjoyment. I record everything using amp sims. They’ll never recreate the thrill of playing a loud tube amp through a 4x12. Won’t ever happen. But they make recording much more convenient and get a better tone than I’m likely to get with micing and amp. Also, I can record without disturbing anyone. I only crank the amps when no one is home or at band practice. I’ve gone down the modeler rabbit hole and they are fine and very convenient for gigging, but to me, it’s just missing the X factor and the thrill I get from playing though a real amp and a cabinet with decent volume.
The title is a bit misleading.
Fun fact about amps: you don't have to log in, load software use external stuff to play. Just turn it on, plug in (maybe wait a sec for tubes to warm up) and play.
I do like my plugins and amp sims but I love to play my micro tube amps. Maybe because I don't have vintage 30 loaded cabs but who knows.
I love the new sim technology and all the windows it opens, but I feel we have forgotten one thing…. Turning up an amp in the room is just way fucking cooler. The bigger the amp and cab, the cooler it feels.
I got my first tube amp and could not get it dialed in. I learned that I would need more expensive pedals to get it to sound how I want. Looking at the cost of getting one single tone, I started looking at alternatives such as a Line 6 Helix or a software based solution. You can get a few tones for thousands of dollars, or all the tones for a thousand or less, without the struggle.
Glenn just made this video to show off his improved solo skills.
Weird take that I've been hearing is, for studio go with plugins or whatever works, for live use real amps with real drums so no one gets lost in the mix. I've heard more and more people say that modelers live don't move air like a real amp.
would love to see your take on bass pickups
Dude, you had me singing right along when you broke into Hell Hole!
Almost no one in the listening audience can tell and amp/cab sim from the real thing.
I ditched mic'ing my cabs to record my amps straight in then I add the cab simulator from Two Notes Torpedo Wall of Sound softward.
The set up sounds fantastic.
Everyone who plays guitar or bass needs a small practice amp or 2 for taking to play with friends or when friends are over. The orange crush 12, the mono price 5w tube amp, the 20 amp joyo heads, or the 50w bass head, and a 1x12 for if you got a drummer friend too. Nothing too expensive. Nothing louder than you need for playing with friends.
Saw Candlebox open for 3DD for their final 30 year anniversary goodbye shows. They had real amps and cabs on stage and they sounded legit, unbelievable! 3DD used Kemper Modelers through the PA and they sounded like crap.
I don't mic amps anymore, I either use Two Notes Torpedo digital loadbox or use Two Notes Revolt analog amp sim with their CAB M+ IR pedal, and go direct. Also easier for live, can't deal with lugging heavy amps up or down stairs and through the back hall and past the kitchen...
I'd love to see what you think of the new Boss IR-2
G’day Glenn. Sims are great for moving quickly when recording and getting a great sound that can sit straight into a mix. For playing live, there’s something about plugging into a tube amp that gets the blood pumping.
I wonder how it would cut against older sims, say Amplitube 3 or so. I had bandmates mistake it for my plexi. I admit I used an own preset.
And no, I'm not going to test it. I'm not even sure Amplitube 3 would run on Sonoma.
The worst thing to happen to amplifiers, happened a long time ago already. And even then I think tube amplifiers will not go away. The psychology of having a half- or full stack behind you is quite powerful. But so is having your studio sound in the rehearsalroom or on stage. 😇
In fact, I think the worst thing to happen to amplifiers was ToneX.
This plugin sounds great btw. No complaints there. And I love to see how your playing progresses!
"It was horrible, but it was loud and it would keep up with a drummer."
Not enough players have experienced this. There's lots of knowledge to be gained in trying to squeeze what you can out of cheap/crappy equipment.
Cracks me up every time my guitar player always says “what’s that? Use that!” when I’m isolating different guitar interfaces and plugins. What is it? The POD 2.0. Go figure
These things are amazing. I can't quite work software because too much options gives me a brain freeze, so I still use my analogs, but once I'm done writing me and my guitarrist usually record strings in like 2 or 3 hours. It's SO practical.
"and I didn't even have to change my pickups" that was FN hilarious. Glen you're awesome!!
Sureeeeee
That's why he got custom made pickups for his guitar 😂😂
The problem I have with amps sims is actually with my DAW.
I am using Cubase 5 and it is a long drawn-out process to print the amp sims to an audio track.
Cubase 5 has the best midi roll screen setup of all of the DAWs I've ever used.
I program right onto the roll screen instead of tapping in from a keyboard or a pad, that's why I need a good roll screen.
I have Cubase 10 but I don't ever use it because they added an extra step to accessing the roll screen.
On another note, I use ML Sound lab drums.
ML drums are easy to install on 32 or 64-bit and, they sound great.
I wasted 50 bucks on your drum set and never could get it to work.
So I assigned it to the trash heap.
Hey Glenn could you do a video on recording with the Quad Cortex as an interface in Reaper?
That edge of breakup sound didn't cut it. You need a low gain & less LP filtered preamp section for a good EOB sound. S-Gear is a great amp sim suite if you like more vintage sounds for not much more money.
Anyone who plays Hell Hole by Spinal Tap to demonstrate anything guitar related is one cool person.
Huh, this might get me to try recording/production again. 15 years ago I was the best and most creative I'd ever been as a guitarist and ready to get it all down, but I *hated* the whole recording and production process. It felt so slow and cumbersome and took all the fun out of making music for me. But just plugging into a computer and fiddling around is so much less involved than lugging around gear and recording amps. INTERESTED.
Reasons plugins are better:
- Much more controlled variables
- Cheaper
- No extra room for gear required
- No maintenance
- Sound amazing
Great, now I have to go buy a new amp sim, THANKS GLENN jeez.
WOW not much a software guy but for $110 this is a steal.
The thu Marty Friedman plug-ins are KILLER. I use the mobile version through a Blackstar fly 3 with my i rig for jamming and recording on the go. It works really well. The actual software is even better
The reason I'm working exclusively with plugins: money. For 700 bucks I get one amp by a decent brand, for 200 one that produces sound. Throw in another 200 for a harley b cab and not counting the mics and stuff. With this money, I get a decent guitar and more plugins than I'll ever need to produce something of true value. (plus the flexibility: it's taking me one click to change the effects order. Try that hassle with a pedal board...)
go used dude and get better at trading gear
Ditching amps for plugins is probably for the best in terms of recording, but there's something to be said for sometimes playing through a real amp just for the sheer pleasure of it.
I have to say that the sounds are pretty awesome here, both tone wise and control wise. Goota love that, right? For recording, this is awesome. For live, it is even more awesome, mostly because this can be like hauling a whole music store of amps and pedals with you and being able to switch between them on the fly (even mid song). The potential here is great.
I was thinking that the AMP companies would be smart to start producing what I think of as "stage blocks", which are amps and cabinets intended to add or take away as little as possible from the actual sound. You know, loud but not distorted, with a wide, flat response curve, and modular, basically something to make your modeled sound loud enough for others to hear. I know in ear monitors are the way to go for the most part, but some people still like to have a loud stage where they can "feel" the music. For them, a powerful and flat response system will be an important part of maintaining the sound.
Oh yeah, that and armored computers. You know people be dropping their laptops all the time. Rack mount computers to keep gear heads from slam dunking their PC every couple of shows would be good.
Space is the real benefit for me. With acceptable quality is here without having to carry an amp around it's now far too appealing. Not even just the space to keep an amp in my apartment but if I have to play somewhere far I don't have to haul an amp onto a train.
I stopped mic'ing amps a couple of years ago. Before that I went through a brief phrase of mixing mic'ed amps and plugins, then it realized I was just slowly phasing out the real amps, so I went straight plugins. For the hobbyist, it's not even a question as far a quality.
However, I've never been all that particular about amps. I'm not much of a tone chaser. If it sounds great, I don't mess with it.
I have a Fractal FXIII. It's not overselling it to say it's the single greatest invention for guitarists ever. We A/B it at my friend's music shop all the time, and either you can't tell or you pick the Fractal over the real amp, more likely. And it's actually FUN to play with, like a game, and NOT like the midi-related nightmares of real amps and pedals.
After many years playing real amps, I decided to give a chance to IR and plug ins. They sound really good and they are easy to set up, but I feel that they don’t respond the same way as a real amp does when recording. Either they have less dynamic or a bit a of latency (even though a fairly decent M1 Mac).
May way to go nowadays is recording on a real amp (monitoring in real time on my audio interface) with a DI (clean signal) channel.
I can later reamp it with plugins, IR, my POD Go, real amps, and blend them to my like in the context of the mix.
damit glenn! every purchase i make there's a new video telling me my purchase probably wasn't the smartest lol. i already dove into the amp life now. i really do want to do everything outside of digital though, so im not super sad lol.
Definitely does not sound like an actual tube amp. I think it has a 'plastic' sound to it, a bit like early Amplitude or T-Rax stuff.
My (hopefully near) future live rig will be tuner -> favourite distorsion pedals -> ToneX pedal loaded with the same IRs as I use when recording -> An FRFR-speaker as a monitor. I will line the output from the ToneX to the PA in parallel. So what's not to like about that? It saves my back as well. I'm older than Glenn for fucks sake so cut me some slack will ya! So I guess tube amps will be more and more like museum artefacts in the future. I mean who DOES NOT want to have the same tone as gotten in studio and have it all the time? WITHOUT EFFORT? What's not to love? This IS a fantastic time to play guitar! :)
OK, today's challenges -
1) a decent AC30 sound from a plugin. Metal? No. Actually, recording an AC30 or maybe any open-back amp.
2) writing songs that aren't based on the drummers right foot.
That said, I like Glenn's channel.
Topic aside, "Blob Audio" is the funniest company name I've ever heard.
I don't wanna live in a world, where DI-boxes are more important than a speakers and amps.
Father - Marshall/Orange
Son - Peavy/Mesa
Adopted Son - Bass Amp
Sounds about right
Is that some Spinal Tap I hear at the 9:40 mark?! Plugin sounds killer btw and it seems like more and more of them coming out do as well. Talking about good sounding plugins I picked up the Element and Singularity bundle, and I'm very much enjoying dialing in heavy bass tones again as I have always struggled in that regard. Thanks Glenn!!
GLENN!!!!!!!!! Kick ass playing BTW. I just ordered Blobnarok. The time it takes me to get the tone I am looking for with AlpliTube 5. Two clicks on Blodnarok and I have what I'm looking for. Outstanding Glenn!!!!!
I'm biased toward tube amps simply because I have almost no experience with amp sim software. When almost none of my playing time goes into actual recording, I haven't yet had the need to take the plunge. I'm just a casual player who likes to jam out with enough power to make my guitar sustain a note forever, and tube amps excel for that. These days people complain about the volume of tube amps but I remember when rocking out meant playing above conversation volume levels. Also, the argument of having a bunch of tones doesn't appeal to me because after decades of tone-chasing I finally have the tone that I absolutely love and whatever I play is going to be with that tone. The downfall of it is when I do record, the tone I get during playback isn't even close to how the amp sounds to my ears. Adding a 2nd mic vastly improved my results but I'm still not there. I could drop a lot of loot on better mics, but then comes the issue of diminished returns - drop that much money on mics or use it to plunge into the amp sim pool... Hmmm. It's a good thing I don't record a lot at this point. That's a problem for another day, I guess.
When I saved a bit of disposable income I am still getting a mesa mark V just to have one. Do I need it? heck no I am a bedroom guitarist and my Axe FX does everything I need, but its more of a collection thing.
I have looked at the do-and-be-everything digital pedals and sim softwares as good tools to quickly find something you dont have or to change and experiment with something you do have without losing it forever. Although everything being digital makes it unsecure, easily cloned or stolen, and able to be filled with information other than your sound, its a runaway train at this point that cannot be argued with, despite ruined shoulders and eventually, thousands of unemplyed roadies.
I'm using only Amplitubes free guitar amps and got some Ampeg plugins for bass guitar. The results I'm getting are phenomenal. My recording setup is just an audio interface and my PC. that's it. I remember when we first tried amp sims with my first band 12 years ago. They sounded pretty crappy and the latency was horrible. In the last 3 years the amp sims became so good, that recording a real amp became obsolete. I'm just using my amps for practice and for gigs now.
I prefer sims. I remember we used to hassle for half a day to get a good guitar tone and that was using really nice and expensive gear. If you told me I had to go back and find the exact same tone again using the same method I'm picturing myself scratching my eyeballs out of my skull in the desperation that would follow. Just the idea that I can change the speakers in a second, move the mic around with a mouse cursor and save the damn setting to be replicated at any time feels like magic.
The only thing I miss is the more unorthodox trial and error that happened in the studio before sims. On one of my first records we actually ended up blending an SM57 on the cap edge with an AKG D112 we put behind the open back cabinet (we may have even tried putting it inside the cabinet). Blending them we got a way beefier sound. I havn't looked into it that much, but out of the five amp sims I currently own none of them let me do experiments like that.
That Gorilla photo gave me flashbacks to my first amp, a Gorilla GG-20. It sounded so bad I almost stopped playing right there. I still have it in a storage unit, I don’t want to donate it and risk inflicting it upon some poor innocent kid who just wants to play guitar. Unironically better off playing unplugged
We need a Gorilla IR so we can recreate those sick bedroom tones. My first amp was the smaller Gorilla with only 3 knobs. They had the coolest logo. A big ol Gorilla. Badass. If those amps had killer Marshall type tones they would have a massive following
My opinion; I love amp and cab sims, they've come VERRRY far. It comes down to preference, I prefer to mic up equipment and do things abit more analog. It's incredibly rewarding to find "THAT"- sound. I get a sick brutal death metal mid scooped tone by boosting my MXR Fullbore Metal with a Metal Zone as the boost, going in to a early 90's Fender HOT combo amp. When I found that combination of gear, it just fell in place. The tone sounds like it'll cut off your face and feed it to you.
I came up with a wild tone using my Peavey KB60. It's a keyboard amp from the 80s with a 12 inch bass and a tweeter, intended for bass and keyboards. I paired it with a tube preamp and Digitech Grunge (yes), turned the tone knob on my guitar all the way down and boosted treble on the Grunge. What I came up with sounds like hell's gates opened and are about to consume everything in a 10 mile radius. In E standard. Couldn't replicate anything remotely similar with amp sims, all I got from them are modern, tight metal sounds, and I'm absolutely not seeking that.
My favorite thing about Sims is not the convenience, silent practice (second close) but price. The sound I can get from a 100$ with a neural dsp is imposible to get on hardware considering It comes with pedals, cabs, mics and different Amp heads.
But being honest the moment I turn my Amp on I forget everything I just said😅 so I still play amps from time to time
It really is more convenient@@sr60030
I at least get it when the old school blues guys who are concerned with capturing every little dynamic nuance insist on tube amps.
I'll never understand you fart chug tone guys don't go digital. Every death metal tone I've ever heard sounds the same. Thin and too much bass at the same time. You can get that with like any high gain setup ever, idk why you don't just go digital and save yourself the headache
@@gdawgs101 the thinness comes mainly from excessive lack of mids or scooped in excess
I have many conversations with guitar friends about Amp sims, some were reluctant at first but the ears don’t lie! As a new guitarist it’s awesome to have all this at your fingertips as amps, pedals etc can be expensive experiments to find out that you just don’t like them! Long live amp sims! (Great channel by the way!)