Looking for help with amp sims

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Looking for help with amp sims

Postby Matrick540 » Thu Jul 21, 2022 9:25 am

I'v recently got an audio interface (Focusrite Scarlet 2i4) and was hoping to play through my computer using programs such as amplitube and guitar rig, as I'd heard lots of great sounding demos of them.

So I get amplitube and get it working, and everything sounds like a boomy, floaty, loose, muddy mess, nothing like any demo I'v heard, same story with guitar rig.

I'v tried replicating the exact amp, eq and stomp box settings of various youtube videos, and every time it sounds nothing like the video.

Obviously I'm doing something wrong, missing some set up stage or something, so I'd appreciate any tips from more experienced users on how to make it sound like the demos, and not utterly terrible.
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Re: Looking for help with amp sims

Postby livesforrap » Thu Jul 21, 2022 1:17 pm

I'm not sure what your situation is, but I can understand where you are coming from.

Yeah, the demos ALWAYS sound better than out of the box. But, if you start to play around with the tones, you can get some amazing sounds out of AT. Presets are usually terrible in my experience.

Play around with cabinets and amps and see if you can't come up with something good.
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Re: Looking for help with amp sims

Postby supanorton » Fri Jul 22, 2022 2:46 am

Yes, definitely takes some tweaking. It's also very important to check the input and output levels on your interface as well as in your software. As livesforrap says, there are some great tones to be had; you just have to work a little to find them.
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Re: Looking for help with amp sims

Postby livesforrap » Fri Jul 22, 2022 3:45 pm

My starting point would be the "miniplex 20" which is frequently a "go to" for me. That amp with that cab seems to always sound good to me.
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Re: Looking for help with amp sims

Postby squeezenor » Fri Jul 22, 2022 8:02 pm

I'd start by going through the presets. Do they sound right? You don't have to like them, but do they sound as they should, or you'd expect? If so, great! That means you suck at dialing in tones. That can be fixed.

If the presets sound wrong, then the issue is likely elsewhere. Hard to say, exactly, but I'd double check your interface settings and ensure proper gain staging first, both at the interface/daw and the plug in. Amplitube likes a hot signal and that's an easy way to unlock some more gain, but you still can't over do it.
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Re: Looking for help with amp sims

Postby carlaz » Mon Jul 25, 2022 3:57 pm

squeezenor wrote:I'd start by going through the presets. Do they sound right? You don't have to like them, but do they sound as they should, or you'd expect? If so, great! That means you suck at dialing in tones. That can be fixed.
If the presets sound wrong, then the issue is likely elsewhere. Hard to say, exactly, but I'd double check your interface settings and ensure proper gain staging first, both at the interface/daw and the plug in. Amplitube likes a hot signal and that's an easy way to unlock some more gain, but you still can't over do it.

I'd emphasize that, as squeezenor says, proper gain staging into and within AmpliTube is super important. This includes with any presets you are trying, as your results can vary considerably depending on the differences between what you are putting into them and what the creator was putting into them. Clipping anywhere -- on input, on output, or somewhere within the virtual signal chain -- can easily happen when you are trialling someone else's preset, and that clipping can make a mess in the tone. Often even if a given preset initially sounds OK, you may need to go back and check through it, just to be sure. It's easy for there to be even just a little bit of clipping somewhere in the virtual signal chain, especially in more complicated presets. Just a little clipping somewhere might not sound too bad, and might not be immediately noticeable, but you would want to go in and clean it up by tweaking the faders even by just a few dB, as needed.

Try flipping through not just the "stock" AmpliTube presets, but download the "signature artist" presets, or try them (and everything else) on ToneNET, now that that is available. The user-submitted presets on ToneNet can be very variable, but many are fine and some are excellent (IMO!).
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