Guitar amp emulator show-down

Guitar amp emulators: can you tell the difference?

It's rare these days to record with effects (would you track vocals with reverb, or add the effect at mixdown?). So why is guitar distortion any different?
It's not uncommon for a guitarist to spend hours working on their "tone", trying to achieve the fattest, most distorted guitar sound possible from their equipment.
The trouble is, although this may sound fantastic while unaccompanied, as soon as the rest of the band try to fit into the mix there is no room left, and the result is a muddy, undefined recording.
Unfortunately, we're not at the "un-distort" plugin stage yet (though give it a few years!), and if this isn't addressed before mixdown, there's not much that can easily be done about it.

The obvious solution is to DI the guitar, and use guitar amp emulators. Rather than simply distort the signal (which gives a result similar in tone to a wasp buzzing in a jam jar), these emulate the effects of speaker cabinets, heads, and even effects pedals, without tying you down to a recorded signal.
Another advantage emulators offer, is that they offer a far wider selection of amps and cabinets than most studios are able to provide.

There are still a few considerations to bear in mind. If you're sitting in front of the computer recording, it is likely that you are hearing a considerable amount of the attack directly from the strings. This is obviously not recorded, and on playback, the guitar can sound undefined.
A guitar body will react differently when in front of a loud cabinet - the resonances will affect both the tone and the sustain. We'd recommend recording the guitar cab as usual, but splitting the signal at the DI box, so both mic'ed and DI'ed signals can be tracked simultaneously.


Both mic and DI used to record guitar

With so many guitar amp plugins on the market these days, we thought it might be fun to put them up head-to head - see if you can tell one from another, or even from the real thing!

We ran a Fender Telecaster (neck pickup, all pots rolled up full) into the Normal input of our vintage Vox AC30, and mic'ed it up with a Shure SM57.

(We bypassed the hotplate, and put all the AC30 pots to 12 o'clock).

At the same time, we DI'ed the guitar, and tracked both signals into Pro Tools.

Finally, we ran the DI'ed signal through several amp emulator plugins (settings shown not used):

Native Instruments Guitar Rig

Probably the best known of the plug-ins we used, Guitar Rig uses "Dynamic Tube Response Technology" to achieve emulation of a dozen classic and modern amps. It can be run as a stand-alone application, or as an AU, RTAS and VST 2 plugin. Check out the demo at http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=guitarrig3 - it gives full functionality (except recall) and only times out after 30 minutes - though it is quite a resource hog!

Sansamp PSA-1

Now coming as standard with Pro Tools 8 (though will apparently also work with Pro Tools 7), this is an emulation of the Tech 21 SansAmp PSA hardware rack.

Eleven Free

Also thrown in with Pro Tools 8, this is a cut-down version of Digidesign's Eleven, giving you the DC Modern Overdrive and Vintage Crunch amps. These are not modeled on any real-life amps (though the full version of Eleven gives you a further 14 specifically modeled amps, ranging from a 59 Fender Bassman to a '92 Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier). You are also limited to two cabinets: the 4x12 Classic 30 (based on the 06 Marshall 1960AV 4x12" with Celestion Vintage 30s) and the 4x12 Green 25W (based on the '68 Marshall 1960A with Celestion G12H "Greenbacks").
The full version gives you control of mic type and axis, as well as "Speaker Breakup", emulating the comb filtering etc. that occurs when a speaker is driven at high frequencies.

Guitar Amp Pro

Part of the huge collection of plug-ins that comes with Logic Pro, we're expecting to see an update from Apple to Guitar Amp Pro soon (see Garage Band '09), though this still does a very respectable job in it's current version.
Waves GTR Solo

Rather than us telling you all about this, Waves are currently offering GTR Solo free for one year, so you can try it out for yourself! Go to http://www.wavesgtr.com/html/product_gtr_solo.html to register and download. Though don't blame us if you come to rely on it too much, and end up buying it in 12 months time.....

Amplitube LE

Included in the Pro Tools ignition pack, this is a cut-down version of the full IK Multimedia Amplitube plugin, offering three heads and cabinets, as well as a few of the most common guitar effects.


Garage Band '09

A surprising inclusion to a test like this, but GarageBand has been a testing ground for Logic plugins and features for a while now. The iLife '09 update added cabinet and amplifier emulation, as well as recreating some classic effects pedals. Don't be too surprised to see this added to Logic Pro in the near future - possibly Logic 9 is on the horizon?


Can you tell which is real? We've tried to get the sounds as close as possible (with reasonable time and effort!) , but there are obvious differences still. Answers will be posted soon.
To suit your bandwidth, the files are as mp3 and wav.

Try to figure out which of the eight samples is the real Vox AC30, and cast your vote on the poll (on the right). We will give you the answer on the 1st of August.

So, what's the alternative to emulators? Ideally, you will need a re-amp box, and a wide selection of amplifiers and cabinets. London School of Sound has a huge selection of vintage and modern guitar amps, including a classic Vox AC30, two Fender Bassmans (Bassmen?), a Fender Tweed, a Leslie (rotary speaker) cabinet, and the loudest Marshall stack you're ever likely to come across.

Some of the guitar amps from the London School of Sound collection


Radial Pro RMP Re-amp box