Amp Sim Shootout

Click the link below to hear 6 amp sim guitar tones.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3406793/tone%20testing.mp3

This is what I consider to be the best of the best, however I do still have my likes and dislikes. What is your favorite? I'll post the answers to what they are later. Keep in mind this is how I would set up these amps, it might not be the way the general public of guitarists who enjoy these amps a certain way because x artist/guitarist said this is how to do it. Was that a runon sentence fragment? Who cares, I'm tired and don't care to fix it right now...enjoy the rock!

Thanks to redoubt9000 from the Guitar Amp Modeling Forums for the tracks in the form of DI .wav files.

UPDATE: this may be misleading, notice there are 6 sound clips and 5 amps listed. The sims used are Bogner Ecstacy, Soldano, Rectifier, Engl and 5150. Also note that IR's made using a particular amp might slightly color the IR with that amps characteristics. High/Low pass filters where used and there is no bass guitar. This is a biased test, meaning some of these have been disected and put back together in order to sound GREAT and others have been put together in 5 minutes. I highly recommend a good set of headphones while listening so that you may hear the little differences as well as the big.

*WARNING - ANSWERS BELOW*

I host all of these amps as if I'm using a real amp. For example, one amp sim instance for each speaker cabinet per track. using a different setting on the individual amps helps bring out more harmonics and I believe makes it just that much more realistic....and if not realistic, at least much "bigger" sounding. It's hosted inside Revalver MKIII because I like Revalver's IR loader. It does color the IR's slightly, but I like the end result much better than Kefir or Lecab or whatever other IR loaders. Also, when I refer to Tube Screamers, I'm using Simulanalog's TS with settings 0,5,8 for the most part. As stated before, these might not be the typical uses for these amps, but It's how I use them.

clip 1: the unprocessed signals

clip 2: this is my Alice in Chains "We Die Young" tone. It was my attempt at capturing that airyness of the guitars at the beginning of the song. 1 Lextac amp for each track, with Alu's new 01 on the left and Dimi's Bogner 4x12 IR on the right. The panning is a little weird on this one because it's compensating for the thought that Jerry Cantrell actually used 3 tracks, left ,right, and center to record this. I'm only using 2 here, so it doesn't quite sound right, but you can hear it's pretty close to the tone. I'm pretty sure I used a Tube Screamer on this, but I might not have. I really like using this by itself for solo's.

Clip 3: This is "My Tone". This is what I'm using for basic rhythm tracks on my recordings right now. Four tracks total panned 100%, 84%, 80 %, 100%. Volume is mixed to taste. Left side: Clean 1, doubled and Lextac red channel on each track, this is basically the clip 2 tone, but all in the left ear. Tube screamers on each track. Right side: clean 2, Doubled and lextac red channel on each track and tube screamers. Ir's for these two are a Damien (marshall from recabinet free trial) and Brohymn's Mesa V30. By far, I've spent more time working on this one than the others.

Clip 4: SoloC on 2 tracks, Catharsis Ir's, no tube screamer. This is a great little warm crunch to heavy setting. It actually works best for a warm tone that's not too over the top. Since at the moment there's no real great Diezel sim out there, I might use this for a very rhythmic associated guitar part, similar to what Tool's guitarist does with less distored parts.

Clip 5: Revalver's 6505, 2 tracks. I think I used Catharsis Ir's and Brohym's Mesa V30 on this, but for some reason I think I might have switch out the Mesa IR for Demi's Bogner at the last minute. One of the under-used wonderful abilities of the 5150 style amps is they've got a mid range that will cut through a mix like a knife. I like to bring that out because when mixed with something else, it can really be heard and sounds good. I use this for solos and parts that I want to stand out very clearly. Tube screamer on both tracks. Other than the normal high/low pass I believe I added a little extra mid boost post eq at around 1k.

Clip 6: I'm not a fan of the "mid cut" sort of tones from the past decade or so. But I do recognize that these amps sound great if that's what you're looking for. This clip is LE456 with Alu's New 01 on the left and x30TSE with New 01 on the right. Tube screamers on both tracks. I'll admit, someone else can probably do much better than me with these amps, but I hope i did them justice. I can't remember at the moment, but i'm pretty sure there's a notch filter to tame some fizz.

Clip 7: Last but not least, Revalver's MKIII Flathill (Mesa duel Rec). I've never hated an amp so much in my life than the Rectifier. It's not versitile and every guitarist who uses it sounds exactly the same (but that's opinion I know, please don't hate me :mrgreen: ). Anyway, I wanted to give this one a try so I can at least say that I tried it and I'm fair. 2 Tracks, Tube screamers and Brohymn's Mesa V30 (what else would I use :lol: ) Ir's. Modern channel. I used a notch to filter out some fizzyness in the upper mids just before the low pass filter.[/COLOR]

I hope that I did these amps justice. If you guys have any questions, I might get a few moments free this week to sit down and look over the project files better for more details.