The Big Guitar Amp Sim Roundup + Review

[irispill]

Ha, I'm usually not 10 feet from my amp when I am recording or writing! And I have some powerful computing. 2019 mac pro with Pro Tools HDX. If you have a track already produced with a bunch of VI's and want to add some overdubs, it gets tricky. I also use a console for monitoring directly. That's my experience. I can make it work and do every day but it is not inspiring. I have UAD octo as well but not their interfaces.

[Britishboxer]

A


Out of the five amps, Amp #3 really does it for me with leads.



You’ve heard of mic cabinets...this is kind of like a cab cabinet.



Three pedals? Well, they’re three good pedals.

So, here’s the verdict. There’s a 10-day trial, and that’s enough to find out if Tonality does what you want. Just remember it’s dedicated to a specific type of sound, in a specific genre. I don’t mean that to sound limiting, because there is a lot of flexibility. Also remember that if you want to compress going in, or add chorus, or whatever, you’ll need to look elsewhere. (This is a situation where if you have Waves GTR but don’t use the amps, the Waves stomp effects can serve you well.)

It’s interesting how I went from not liking this sim to liking it, once I tamed the cabs so I felt they sounded creamier and not so “digital.” Of course, tone is subjective, and I wouldn’t assume everyone would agree—the non-EQed sound has its own character, which you might prefer. But it does point out just how subjective amp sims are, and perhaps more importantly, how many times an amp sim can be just a slight tweak away from giving you the sound you want.

this sim is iconic, the fact that it is a stand out mix sim (meaning it will fit any in the box or live mix environment) is key, then you have the Marshall tremolo well captured amp, the only reason anyone would pick multiple sims is because of rare captures like this amp, I think it is Mike's amp, in west valley studios where just about any artists dreams of recording even today with computers in 2024.

I just cant stand that they changed the IR cab layout of valley studios to a speaker cone, they should keep the actual cab layouts cause it gives you a quick visual perception, they can add a pop up mic placement feature.
STL went from this


To this


While the real room looks like this

Made zero sense to me when they could of added a pop up mic feature like softube, the unique thing about this sim was the tone and cab section, you where able to see valley studio's cabs, and even realise that 10inch speakers may fit in the mix., some people stated to of contacted STL Tones about it but they refuse to listen to user requests, total knuckle heads.

Ok so why am I commenting on an old thread, simple, I recently tried tonnes and tonocracy, both capture style helix apps now, especially tonocracy which sounds better apart the effects, AND ITS FREE! so what im saying is that even after we reached the point of capturing and sharing amp profiles between each other natively with out a Kemper.. you still cant beat the Howard Benson Marshall tremolo, I have not even pushed the other models but just his alone is a rare gem...a great capture..im sure they can also improve it.

The softube are stock Marshalls, with cocked Over drives unlike the real SD1 etc etc,
The other captures out their dont behave like real amps as softube do but tonocracy adds additional els and features for all captures that do when you push the amps with od effects pedals and you can even tell between asymmetrical and symmetrical clipping diodes..

SO while...there are many Marshall sims on the market this sim still holds up against them all, at least one you realise what you need in a recording..guys who use real amps resorted to Howard and Mike's sim., lets not forget Mike's contribution here, both are geniuses.

and to be blunt, I compare all my sims to this sim now, there are a few Marshall gurus online sharing their experience with Marshalls in the box which was rare impossible in the past and still not a real amp today., one guy uses the JST DI plugin in and match eq to compare the hoard benson while the other is a die hard Marshall JMP2203 player and resorted to the Howard Benson in critical moments in the studio.., the list goes on

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcLi6opGz6c

And this guy too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TubhBtPTGwI