Recorded Amplifiers vs Simulators

8/3/2019 Recorded Amplifiers vs Simulators

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26 | EMUSICIAN.COM | 02.09

AMP-MODELING SOFTWARE

AND VINTAGE AMPS

GO HEAD-TO-HEAD.

By Mike Levine

A LI OF E

N M

Conventional wisdom states that while guitar-amp model-

ers are good at capturing the essence of the vintage amps

they emulate, the actual amp will always sound superior.

Naturally, you wont hear that from amp-modeler manufactur-

ers, but you hear it all the time from engineers, producers, and

musicians. Its one of those truisms that people in the audio eld

generally take for granted.

Ive been a user of amp modelers (both hardware and so-

ware) in my studio or many years. Ive used them to record

tracks or all sorts o projects, including commercials and

albums; in act, the electric guitar sounds on my own CD were

recorded entirely with modelers. I even ooled a golden earsengineer colleague o mine who heard my CD and was shocked

to nd out that no amps had been miked or it.PHOTOGRAPHYB

YGERRYMONTESANO


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SHOWDOWN AT THE CLUBHOUSE

Still, in my mind Ive generally subscribed

to the conventional wisdom about amp mod-

elers and assumed that if I had, say, a real

Marshall JCM 800, properly miked, the British

800 patch in my amp-modeling soware would

sound inerior by comparison.

Neverteless, Ive also wondered wat

would appen i modelers were put ead-to-

ead against te amps tey emulate. Would it

really be tat obvious wic is wic? Would

te real amp always sound superior to te

modeler? At an editorial meeting last year,wile tinking out loud, I raised te possibility

o doing suc a test or a eature story, expect-

ing te idea to get rejected because o te logis-

tical callenges it would engender. Muc to my

surprise, EM editor Gino Robair approved it,

saying to me, Make it appen.

The PlanningAs excited as I was about te assignment, te

idea o turning it into reality was a bit daunting.

First, I needed to nd someone in carge o a

studio tat ad a vintage-amp collection wo

would agree to ost te testing. Second, Id need

to assemble a group o qualied experts willing

to give up an aernoon to serve as panelists.

Tird, Id ave to acquire te sotware rom

te various manuacturers. Fourt, Id need to

work out a metodology or te test tat would

allow me to make accurate assessments.

he rst urdle was te studio. I initially tried

a studio in Nasville tat ad been recommended

to me, but it was too booked up or te owner to

commit to letting us use one o te rooms or aday to do our testing. One day I was talking to

Ric Tozzoli, wo is a riend o mine and an EM

contributor. He suggested I try a studio called

te Clubouse, wic is located in Rinebeck,

New York. I ad recently been in touc wit Paul

Antonell, its owner, about getting some quotes or

an EM story on reamping. Tozzoli said tat te

studio ad an excellent vintage-amp collection

(teir amps ad been modeled by AudioEase or

te guitar-amp portion o its Speakerpone so-

ware), so I asked Antonell i we could do te tests

at te Clubouse. He said yes, and we set a date o

September 13 or te testing.

Panelinghe next callenge was nding te panelists.

Wit te elp o Tozzoli and Antonell, I was

able to locate a number o producer-engineer-

guitarists wit excellent credits wo agreed to

be on te listening panel (see Fig. 1).

Te panelists were D. James Goodwin

(Tursday, Parliament-Funkadelic, Motion

Picture Demise), Jon Holbrook (B.B. King,

te Brian Setzer Orcestra, te Isley Broters,

Fountains o Wayne), Pete Mosay (Hall and

Oates, Daryl Hall, Paula Abdul, B.B. King, Barbra

Streisand, Fisbone), Paul Orono (Jon Petrucci,

Blue Oyster Cult, Antrax), and Tozzoli (Al Di

Meola, te Marsalis Family, David Bowie).

All o te panelists ad lots o experience

recording guitars troug vintage amps in

commercial-studio environments. Most also

ad experience wit amp modelers, especially

te tried-and-true Digidesign Pro Tools HD

standby, Line 6 Amp Farm.

How to Do It?I wanted to include all te modelers on te mar-

ket tat emulate specic vintage amps. Because

I needed to be able to switc seamlessly between

modelers during te listening tests, and in an

attempt to keep some limits on te number o

products involved, I decided to stick wit so-

ware modelers only. hat ruled out ardware-

based modelers. Considering ow vital its PODs

are to te modeling eld, I elt particularly bad

about omitting Line 6. I ound out troug te

company tat it was on te verge o releasing

POD Farm, a sotware-only modeler, but it

wouldnt be available in time or our testing.

Te products I ended up selecting wereDigidesign Eleven, IK Multimedia AmpliTube

2 and AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix, Line 6 Amp

Farm 3.0, Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3,

Peavey ReValver MK III, and Waves GTR3.

I initially considered aving a guitarist

in te studio to play troug te amps and

modelers live, but I ultimately cose to record

DI examples in advance. Once at te studio, I

could instead send tese les troug te amps

using a reamping device and troug te mod-

elers witin Pro Tools.

Some people will say tat using a pre-

recorded track troug a reamper takes away

rom te natural interaction between guitar and

amp live in a room and te loading o te pick-

ups tat occurs. hat is a valid point or certain

types o guitar parts, but te trut o te matter

is tat plenty o tracks get recorded wit te gui-

tarist eiter in a diferent room rom is or er

amp or recorded troug a DI to be reamped

later. I also elt tat using te prerecorded DI

track would assure tat te perormance would

be identical wen it was pumped troug teamp and te modelers. Tis would level te

playing eld and remove te possibility tat a

FIG. 1: he panel (from left to rigt): Pete Mosay, Jon Holbrook, Ric Tozzol, D. James Goodwn, and Paul Oroino.


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better performance on a particular pass would

inluence e paness as o wa sounded bes.

I conaced a e sotware manuacurers o

reques copes o e sotware o use or e es-

ng. I was a e concerned a ey mg baka beng par o a es a coud possby ndcae

a er producs weren abe o dupcae e

sound o vnage amps convncngy. However,

a was no e case a a. My conacs a e

varous companes were a que agreeabe o

e dea and seemed conden abou ow er

producs woud are n e esng.

Methods and ParametersAter dong some researc on varous produc-

esng meodooges, I decded a a sn-

ge, very basc bnd es woud be e mos

appropraea s, a bnd comparson o e

same exampe payed roug e amp and e

modeers, w e paness vong on wc

ey oug was e rea amp. In addon, I

woud ask e paness o say wc o a e

sounds was er avore or eac exampe.

Parcuary rcky was ryng o nd com-

mon amps beween e modeers and wa

was n e Cubouses coecon. Aoug

e genera mpresson s a a e modeng

sotware emuaes e same basc group o vn-age amps, s more compcaed an a. he

Cubouse ad a coupe o amps a mos o

e modeers dd: a Vox AC30 Top Boos and a

Marsa JCM 800. he sudo ad a 1963 ver-

son o e AC30 and a 1980 verson o e JCM

800, so we were n busness w ose wo.

Fndng common Fender modes, ow-

ever, was more compcaed. he sudo ad a

69 Bassman, bu mos o e sotware packages

emuae e 59 Bassman. he crcury beween

e 59 and 69 amps s que dferen, so I ad

o rue ou usng a Bassman. Meanwe, some

o e modeers emuaed Deuxe Reverbs, and

some Super Reverbs, bu e mos commony

modeed Fender amp (oer an e Bassman)

was a Backace Fender Twn Reverb. Lucky,

e sudo ad suc an amp, crca 1964, so a

became e rd amp n e esng (see Fig. 2).

Get with the Programming

Because ere were ony ree amps a adenoug maces among e modeers, I decded

o do wo ess or eac amp, usng dferen se-

ngs on e amps and modeers or eac es.

I recorded a sor exampe roug a DI a

was syscay approprae or e parcuar

amp. I used my ESP 400 Seres Sra (w Lace

Sensor pckups) or mos o e exampes, bu

I aso borrowed a Les Pau rom a rend or a

coupe o em.

Once e DI recordng was done, I

weaked e sotware modes o ose amps n

my sudo, makng e basc parameers (suc

as e amoun o gan and e one sengs)

o e varous modeers sounds as smar as

possbe. he one x acor was a I woudn

ave access o e rea amps un e day o e

esng. hen, Id ave o qucky adjus em soer sengs woud be smar o ose Id used

on e modeers.

As e dae o e sesson go coser, I

reazed a nsead o ryng o run e DI

racks roug e modeers n rea me a e

sudo, I coud bounce e racks roug e

modeers n advance, and jus brng ose es

w me o e Cubouse. hs woud make

easer or e sudo o run e exampes back-

o-back or e paness. Because amp mode-

ers end o be CPU nensve, avng our or

ve o em open smuaneousy woud ave

been a major sran on e sudos Mac Pro and

Pro Toos HD sysem. An addona advanage

o usng e prerecorded exampes was a I

coud ncude Peavey ReVaver, wc, a e

me o e esng, ddn ave an RTAS ver-

son and ereore coudn be run ve n Pro

Toos wou usng a VST-o-RTAS wrapper.

(Peavey pans o ave reeased an RTAS verson

o ReVaver by e me you read s.)

The Big DayOn e day o e esng, I arrved a e su-

do around noon. Id asked e pane o sow

up a 2 p.m., gurng a wo ours o seupme beore ey arrved woud be suicen

o weak e sounds on e amps and ge e

FIG. 2: he real tngs (from left to rgt): te 1964 Fender Twn Reverb, te 1980 Marsall JCM 800 wt 4 5 12

cabnet, and te 1963 Vox AC30 Top Boost.

The AC30 is an easier ampto emulate than the Twin.


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audo les and Pro Tools sessions transerred

to the studios computer. I brought session les

or the six examples, which contained the audio

les bounced rom each o the modelers and

the unprocessed DI les to be sent through the

Reamp (rom manuacturer John Cuniberti) to

the actual ampliers.

One thing that took a lot o time waschanging my Pro Tools session les to match

the output scheme o the studios Pro Tools

interace. en it was a matter of getting sounds

dialed in on the real ampliers for each of the

examples, writing down settings, and making

sure that the volume levels of the actual amps

matched those of the les from the modelers. I

also had to pay attention to the input trim level

on the Reamp, because that governed how hard

wed be hitting the amp, which would impact

the sound.

We set up the amps in a room called the

Library, which sits next to the main live room.

e reason we did this was that we didnt want

the panelists in the control room to hear even

the faintest bit of amp sound bleeding into the

control room when the actual amp was being

fed from the Reamp.

Despite the able eorts o Clubhouse assis-

tant engineer Eli Walker, the process o setting

up took longer than expected (see Fig. 3), which

meant that the panelists ended up sitting around

or an hour waiting. Normally this wouldnthave been a problem. It was a nice day, and

they were sitting in the studios backyard, geek-

ing out with tech

talk. Unortunately,

one o the panelists,

John Holbrook,

had a limited time window,

and the delay meant that

he couldnt stay or all the

tests, which was a shame.

Let the TestingBeginWe were inally ready to

start the listening session

at about 3 p.m. e panel-

ists sat in the control room,and I handed out scoring

sheets to each of them. ey

would listen to the various

versions that were routed

through the studios Neve console and an EMT

Plate reverb. e monitors were Genelec 1031s.

For each of the six examples, the panelists

would listen to the various versions consecu-

tively. ey would have no prior knowledge of

which was the real amp and which was a mod-

eler. I asked them to write down which version

from each group was the amp and which wastheir favorite.

Amp: 1964 Blackface Fender Twin Reverb

Modelers: Amp Farm 3.0, AmpliTube Jimi

Hendrix, Eleven, and Guitar Rig 3

Twin, example 1, was a clean, rootsy,

country-inuenced example that was played

on the ESP Strat and featured both

chords and lead work (see Web Clip 1).

As the ve versions were played, the pan-

elists scribbled down notes (see Fig. 4).

So which was the real amp? To me, its obvi-

ous, said Goodwin. I have a couple of ideas,

added Tozzoli. When I revealed the answer,

sure enough, Goodwin, Tozzoli, and two of the

other three panelists had guessed which was

the real Twin. e h vote was for the Amp

Farm version. If its this easy to pick out the

amp in all the tests, its not going to be a very

interesting day, I remember thinking.

But as it turned out, I neednt have wor-

ried. On Twin, example 2 (see Web Clip 2),which was more of a rocking rhythm part

(although still fairly clean), only two of the

ve panelists picked out the version with the

real amp. Interestingly, the Amp Farm version

got the other three votes. Although Goodwin

had guessed the real amp, he said that he also

liked the AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix version. So

did Orono: Nice, very tight sound, he com-

mented. Moshay, the other panelist who had

voted for the real amp, liked the Guitar Rig

version. It was good, he said, although a little

at sounding.Because of the extra time spent during

setup, Holbrook had to leave after the Twin

examples. Now the panel was down to four.

Amp: 1963 Vox AC30 Top Boost

Modelers:Amp Farm 3.0, AmpliTube 2, Eleven,

GTR3, Guitar Rig 3, and ReValver MK III

Fo r A C 3 0 ,

example 1 (see

Web Clip 3)a

crunchy, British-

sty le , 70s- l ike

rhythm part that I

had recorded with

the ESP Strat

o n ly G o o dw in

guessed the actual

amp. The other

three panelists

each chose dif-

ferent models ,

which indicates to

me that either theAC30 is an easier

amp to emulate

Manufacturer and

Studio Contactse Clubhouse clubhouseinc.com

Digidesign digidesign.com

Fender fender.com

IK Multimedia ikmultimedia.com

Line 6 line6.com

Marshall Amps marshallamps.com

Native Instruments native-instruments.com

Peavey peavey.com

Vox Amplification voxamps.com

Waves waves.com

FIG. 3: he autor (left) and El Walker (rgt) work to get te sesson conigured and

te volume levels evened out for te testng.


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an e Twn or a cruncy amp sound s eas-er o smuae an a cean one. Tozzo com-

mened a e Guar Rg verson sounded

damn good. Oronos avorite was ReValver,

which he said had more-ocused mids. Moshay

also liked the ReValver version, as well as the

one run through AmpliTube.

AC30, example 2 (see Web Clip 4), was

another crunchy rhythm-guitar trackthis

one played on the Les Paul. is time, nobody

could tell the real amp from the modelers.

Moshay thought that the Waves GTR ver-

sion was the amp, saying it sounded nice andcrunchy. Tozzoli and Orono guessed it was the

Guitar Rig version, while Goodwin thought it

was the Eleven version. Interestingly, when vot-

ing for which one they liked best (as opposed

to which one was the real amp), three panelists

chose No. 5, which was the real amp. Tozzoli

also liked the ReValver version a lot.

is round of listening sparked an inter-

esting discussion. Moshay noted that overall,

some of the modeler versions lacked a bit of

dimension. With simulators, a lot of time

what happens is that all the time all the tone

just comes right to the front; theres no push to

the low end, he said. An amp will have a little

push when youre pushing air. Its almost like

a multiband [compressor]well just take all

the frequencies and latten tem. And teyre

a ke g, md, ow, baanced lat, as f you

brckwaed t. Wereas on an ampier, te

bottom end of an amp w pus on certan

notes and not on oter ones; you get a tte

trustng gong on.

On te amps, Ive notced conss-tenty tat you ear more of te gutar, sad

Goodwn. You ear more of te caracter

FIG. 4: Goodwin, Orofino, and Holbrook take notes

during the testing session.

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6/6

o e guar, wereas e modeers seem o

omogenze e caracer sgy more, e

added. Orono noed a on some o e

modeed racks, ere was a compressed sound

a was a gveaway.

Amp: 1980 Marsa JCM 800 roug a

Marsa 4 5 12 cabne

Modelers: Amp Farm 3.0, AmpTube 2,

Eeven, and Guar Rg 3

Marsa, exampe 1 (see Web Clip 5),

was a eavy passage payed on e Les Pau,

w bo cords and ead, and was nended

or a g-gan sound. Two o e our pan-

ess, Mosay and Goodwn, were abe odscern e rea amp, bu noaby, none o

em cose as er avore. Mosay sad,

I I were mxng, Id coose No. 1, wc

was e Eeven verson. Tozzo ked a one

bes, oo; e oug was warm soundng.

Goodwn and Orono liked the Guitar Rig

rendition best.

On Marshall, example 2 (see Web Clip 6),

which was played on the Strat, only Tozzoli

guessed the real amp. Moshay and Oroino

thought it was the Eleven version. Goodwin

guessed it was the AmpliTube.As or avorite sounds, Orono picked the

one played through Eleven, which Goodwin

thought was a little more open sounding than

the others. Moshay also chose that as his avor-

ite. Tozzoli and Goodwin liked the AmpliTube

version best. hus ended te testng sesson.

Lessons LearnedIn tota, te panests were abe to te te rea

amp from te modeers ony 38.5 percent of

te tme. Atoug ts wasnt a uge sampe,

I tnk ts fary safe to concude tat gven te

rgt condtons, modeers can sound as good

as te amps tey emuate. he fact tat tese

panests, wo work wt amped gutar sounds

vrtuay every day, coudnt dstngus te

amps from te modeers n so many nstances

presents a very strong case n favor of amp

modeers.

here were tmes wen te smuated amp

sounds were more obvous, especay wt te

cean-soundng Twn exampes. hat jbed wt

my own observatons over te years tat mod-eers ave a muc touger tme gettng reast c

cean sounds (n te Twn exampes, te pane-

sts pcked te rea amp 60 percent of te tme).

But on te cruncy and dstorted sounds, te

modeers were abe to foo te experts 75 per-

cent of te tme.

If I ad t to do over agan, I woudnt ave

done as muc advanced tweakng to te mod-

eed sounds n an attempt to make tem sound

smar. In some ways, I may ave detracted

from ter sound by dong so. hs was espe-

cay true for Eeven on te AC30 exampes,

wc I ad to program rater asty on

te day of te testng. In retrospect, a better

approac mgt ave been to use te modeers

own presets for te varous amps beng tested,

wc mgt ave sown off te softwaresabtes better.

It soud be noted tat tese tests were set

up to compare te sound of te amps aganst

tat of te modeers, so I ave stayed away

from drawng any concusons about wc of

te modeers sounded best. hat woud ave

requred a woe dfferent approac to te

testng. In fact, a of te modeers n te tests

ected postve responses from te panests at

one tme or anoter durng te day. (See Web

Clip 7 for a wrap-up dscusson by te panests

about te testng.)Overa, I was very satsied wt te resuts

of ts experment. Atoug vntage-amp ai-

conados mgt dsagree, my take-away from

te day was tat modeers are not te second-

cass substtutes for actua amps tat teyre

often portrayed as beng. Rater, teyre an

exceent aternatve tat can oen sound just

as good as the amps they emulate. And, of

course, modelers give you a choice of many

dierent amp tones and cabinet congurations,

are much cheaper (not to mention lighter) than

real amps, come with tons o built-in efects,

allow you total recall, and oen have automat-

able parameters. Sure, there are times when

nothing beats a vintage amp. But according to

what I observed in the testing session, thats

certainly not a hard-and-fast rule.

Mke Levne s he execuve edor and senor

meda producer of EM. He wshes o hank Paul

Anonell from he Clubhouse, he panelss, and

he sotware manufacurers. To lsen o he same

iles ha he panelss dd, and o see f you canguess whch sounds are he real amps, see Web

Clps 1 hrough 6.


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