sfguitar

I know this may be a tired subject, but I am wondering what people think of the digital modeling of guitar amplifiers via products like the POD vs using a tube amplifier with a stomp box. I am not a pro musician so my point of view may not reflect what a working musician thinks of them. I've had a Korg PX4 for a long time and recently bought a Digitech RP350. Here are my thought on the subject and I would be interested to hear what others think.

(1) The amp modeling is pretty advanced now. The tones I get from the RP350 are amazingly realistic. Plus not having the hassle of stringing together a series of stomp boxes is quite nice. All the modulation and delay effects are included in the package so no need for separate pedals.

(2) For low volume situations, such as practicing at home, recording or playing a small gig, I think these units are the way to go. One either uses a PA or a guitar amplifier set to clean so no additional distortion is added by the amplifier.

(3) For live mixing ( no mixer and PA) in a loud environment, probably a real tube amp is better. I say this mainly because cranking up an amplifier, even in clean mode, will start to introduce distortion in the amplifier and speakers so the modeling sound will get additional distortion added which would become unmusical and buzzy.

However, if one has a high quality PA system, this would not be a problem and amp modeling could still work. After all, pros playing large venues often mic their combo amps which feeds into the large PA.

Curious what others think of the use of these units as an alternative to using boutique tube amps to get the tone.

pepBR

It didn't work out for me. I have a Boss GT-8 and as I can't afford to have 2 rigs, one to practice at home and another for rehearsals and playing on a gig, I gave up my GT8.

Setting the tone at home gave me a lot of headache on gigs, the tone not only was not the same but you said it all, in louder volumes everything gets messed up.

The real problem of migrating to stomp boxes is the versatility to change tones. So I am building a rack with a switching system so I can have the same digital pedalboards versatility.

It worth mentioning I am not a pro and I am not that good, but I'll buy the equipment.

will

I use a Pod X3 Live, and a Boss distortion pedal. Here are my thoughts on both approaches:

Digital:

PROS

- allows for quick tone switching, which is more or less important dependent upon the music you are playing.
- If you have a tube amp, you can use digital for time based effects and modulation, and leave the amp tone intact.
- able to edit effects quickly and easily, and precisely hone tone volumes for live performance.

CONS

- the amp modeling tone really can be heard when played through an amp loudly, so cannot work for live situations. I do not use this when playing live.
- Digital overdrive and distortion pedals are decent, but individual stomp boxes prove much more ballsy and likely to give your audience shivers of joy.

Analog:

PRO:

- great tone.

CON:

- if you need to change effects quickly, you run into problems very quickly when 2+ pedals much be switched.

pepBR

Will is right.

To change tones with several stompboxes, you will need to spend more money and buy a Midi Switcher and Midi Control Board. It's expensive but again, depending on the type of sound you want, it worths.

Olaftheholy

I use BOTH!
A vintage fender '68 super reverb, albeit a hotrodded (Tyler Grund style Tyler Grund Super Reverb Modification) one with a string of cleanboosters in front. Superhardon/ts808ri/ts808HW/mxr 6band/pitchblack.
I linked a secundairy amp (VOX ad50) to the SR, and use multiple settings on that one, Rotary,tape echo,tremelo etc... i switch the vox with the fs5 footswitch.
It works a treat.
The VOX also powers the Vibratone...

I promise GE a tell all HD video soon, for now there's a quicky vid i did for some1 who needed xepl. on two TS's stacked

http://olaftheholy.nl for the video

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me stompin' on boxes

Adji

The biggest con for me is that modellers simple do not FEEL like amps. I don't think we will ever successfully recreate the feel of a cranked tube amp. I have heard the Eleven Rack comes pretty close but I don't know.
I use Amplitube 3 sometimes for practising late at night and it sounds pretty good, but it still FEELS fake.

Olaftheholy

you should play the VOX ad series with valvereactors.... they DO feel like a tubeamp when it comes to pllayfeel and sensitivity.

really

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me stompin' on boxes

Big Bite Fx

I don't like the way that digital signals sample the signal, I know now they are running 24bit encoders however that is still at a lower resolution than the signal from a guitar. These losses are getting better but they will never be as good as an analouge signal. It's like trying to build a football out of lego blocks no matter how small the blocks it will never be as good.

firebrand

I have found the VOX Tonelab SE and LE of yesteryear to be the best "feeling" modeling units I have used. Pairing the ToneLab with a Traynor YCS50 or 90 can produce very satisfying results. The Tonelab easily becomes your preamp by plugging direct into the Power Amp In of these amps. I used this setup from 2006-2009 for ALL my live gigs and it simply rocked.

Prior to that I ran a Vetta 2004-2006 and was happy. I was extremely happy with it. Mine was a first run (known as a Judge Dredd model). I only got rid of it due to the internal connectors becoming more unreliable.

Today I run a Genz Benz Black Pearl 30 head. This is the first amp since a Mesa 50 Cal that I have liked the tone without using any external effects.
Since buying this amp, I have built a "real" pedal board. I now have 5 different overdrive/distortions, 2 compressors, 3 delays, 2 chorus, a tuner pedal, and have narrowed down from 6 wahs to one.

For 90% of my rehearsals I still use the ToneLab SE or a LovePedal COT50, Wampler SLOstortion and an Empress SuperDelay into a .22 Caliber (poweramp pedal) into a 1x12 cab.