Amps/gear you just can't get right

[squeezenor]

There's got to be a few you just can't get your head around, no matter what you do. I have a lot, but here's a few:

The satch jvm: it just sucks. Can't do a thing with it. The presets really don't help, either. So many buttons and knobs and so few useable sounds. I just want a super high gain modern Marshall sound and it simply isn't happening for me.

German 34: really like the green channel, but the other two are just dark and flubby and not interesting

The Hendrix sunn: so bland. It's just... There.

The new x distortion pedal: so many knobs and sub menus and parameters and I just lose interest instantly. I know it's probably better than the other old pedals, but I can figure those out in two seconds, so they win.

What vexes you? Maybe we can start a support group here for people that suck at tone.

[livesforrap]

This isn't going to go well

I don't agree about the Satch one, it's pretty good here, but some of the Fender 2 collection (definitely not all) are too distorted in a bad way to me. I'd have to go through them again to remember which ones but 2 or 3 are just one trick ponies, they sound the same no matter what you do.

LOVE the Slash silver, can't stand the other one

HATE the Boogie 2 tweed. HATE IT! Love the others. 2 things about that model.

a) it has a bug. It's the only AT product that has really really bad aliasing. Sent a ticket, they acknowledged it, but no fix. Oh well, sounds like poop anyway

b) even with the update, they are all too much CPU.

Mostly I just enjoy the product. You mentioned the x dist, I couldn't resist the x space. I don't have anything else that does that. WAY too expensive, but I use it alot.

[squeezenor]

It makes no sense. That satch amp is revered online, more so that the regular jvm. And yet, I can't do a thing with it. I have much more luck just boosting a regular Marshall way too far. Even the jvm900 sounds and works better for me. I check back every so often to see if it'll click, but nothing yet.

Since you mention it, one of the slash amps was pretty cool, and the other was kinda pointless to me. Or severely underpowered. I forget which was which, but I don't use either.

I think most of the classic fenders are ponies with very few tricks to them, and that's ok. I'm not a big enough fender guy to care. The sound fine, that's all I need to know. It makes more sense to change the speaker size or amount in some cases because they are too similar otherwise.

[carlaz]

The Hendrix Sunn amp (JH 1200) is a pretty good (virtual) pedal platform. It's got enormous headroom. You can smash it with fuzz up to the skies, and it sounds good.

I think the Satch VM model is actually pretty good for what it is modeling -- the model and the real amp are both very versatile -- but I'm going to be a bit heretical and confess that I just don't get that excited by actual modern Marshalls (and I'm considering basically anything from the JCM 800 onwards "modern" ). I mean, they're all perfectly OK, and the AmpliTube models seems to generally do them justice ... I have not a single bad word to say about the AmpliTube "based on Marshall" models as models (except that I'd really like a "stock" early '70s Superlead model!) ... I just tend to use other things. If I want "vintage" and Marshall, I use the JH Gold, while if I want "modern", I tend to use models of amps other than the Marshally ones.

Basically the same with the Fenders: I feel like they model what they are intended to model very well, but I just don't use those tones that much.

I confess that I initially struggled with the German 34 -- and I had been really intrigued by the Bogner-based model -- but Jason Sadites has a good YouTube video on it, and I tried his presets for it (which variously use some of the different channels), and those work better for me. Using Sadites' presets as starting points helped me build some variations of my own. (I feel like the Ecstasy XTC 3534 is itself a bit "modern modded Marshally", and my ambivalence towards modern Marshalls may have affected my initial experience with the German 34!)

Weirdly, although I'm a huge Orange fan, I've somehow never quite gotten along with the OR50 model! I probably need to reapproach it ....

[squeezenor]

I was hoping for a big doomy sunn and I got a solid state headroom factory. You can do interesting things with pedals, but it's not really what I'm after. Solid state cleans are usually too flat and direct and no give-y for me. Even on bass.

I'm a jubilee guy so I just want that with way more gain. I'll give more modern Marshalls, bogners or Friedmans a shot, but they haven't really done it for me just yet. I'm better off using something else, even though I'm not after classic sounds. And maybe I don't care much for the jmp1, but that's because the interface sucks and it needs a power amp. That could have been something.

It's my favorite collection, but I think the or50 is my least favorite orange amp. I just find it too dark and muddy and harsh. It's like a custom shop 50 but worse, with more gain. Takes too much eq to make it work. Ambivalent toward the dual terror too, since it's just redundant. The tiny terror is more fun, somehow.

The z wreck is another one I can't understand why I don't like more. The real ones sound great in demos and I'm a Vox guy, but I always reach for the voxes first. I even made my peace with the blue one, which used to suck. I dial up something nice with the z wreck, check it against a Vox and they instantly sound better, every time.

I also find the engls way too compressed for me, but I think that's a pretty accurate representation. More of a fireball guy, I guess.

And I gave up on the mesas. Too many knobs, not enough time. I can make the mark 4 work, but it's a battle. I like things simple. I didn't think the ta30 held a candle to the vox, either, but I haven't tried it in forever. Maybe I'll eventually figure out all these amps out.

[livesforrap]

The Jubilee is my "default"

[carlaz]

I was hoping for a big doomy sunn and I got a solid state headroom factory. You can do interesting things with pedals, but it's not really what I'm after. Solid state cleans are usually too flat and direct and no give-y for me. Even on bass.

Though it would be nice to see a "based on Sunn Model T" or "based on Sunn Beta Bass" head, for all that those are solid state. The prices of the real units went insane after everyone discovered the guys in Red Fang and, of course, Sunn 0))) using that sort of stuff.

It would be fun to see a Sunn 2000S bass amp, too, à la Felix Pappalardi (not to mention Sunn 0)))).

I also find the engls way too compressed for me, but I think that's a pretty accurate representation. More of a fireball guy, I guess.

Yeah, I agree that it would be nice to see a Fireball modelled. They seem to get a lot of online love, these days, too.

And I gave up on the mesas. Too many knobs, not enough time. I can make the mark 4 work, but it's a battle. I like things simple.

I entirely agree! I hear people get great tones for a wide range of genres out of Mesas, but the dizzying array of controls always defeats me. (Honestly, this is a bit of an issue for me on the Satch VM, not to mention the Powerball, as well! ) That's not at all a complaint about the AmpliTube Mesa models: they seem to reproduce the dizzying array of Mesa controls with terrifying accuracy.

[squeezenor]

The whole point of the max bundle was to try out side I never heard of or was always curious about. Sunn would have been on the list, just not that one, lol. I guess it makes sense for bass but I prefer tubes there, too.

I've heard a few other engl sims and I'm not really sure what the engl sound is; they all sound pretty similar to me. Some just have way more features and seem more compressed or low end-y. The cabs definitely have their own thing going, though.

It's why I skipped the Mesa two. I know the sounds are there, I just don't have the patience for all the knobs and switches. Those sounds can largely be found elsewhere in amplitube, and if Max isn't enough amps then the problem is me, and not the four amps I don't have yet.

[livesforrap]

I love what Mesa stuff I have and I'm not afraid of all the controls. I get some MEAN tones out of them (again, other than the borked IIc+ )

[FrThib]

the mesa boogie dual rectifier, channel 3 modern.. there is so little gain. there must be something wrong in the emulation

slash jcm, its not loud enough, even with the master maxed

mesa boogie tweed 2, too quiet also

some cabs just sound weird, i don't think a cab can sound that bad.. Specially the greenback based ones.

some mics just dont sound realistic.. the sm57 is one of them.. even when placed dead center it's not bright enough when i compare it to a real sm57.

[carlaz]

When I first got AmpliTube (back in the v3 days, I think!), I was really into the 4x12 Closed J120, but somewhere along the way I kind of found myself got getting what I wanted from it -- though I suspect this is the sounds in my head changing than the cab/speaker model(s) or anything like that!

[livesforrap]

I think I said this, but for high gain (especially rhythm) the "brit 9000" seems to be the one. I also like the "red pig" and the "jubilee" (of course I really like those amps too

Speaking of cabs, 99 out of 100 times I DO NOT use the Boogie cabs. They sound weird to me (especially the 2x12 that comes with Boogie/2 ) But I do like the Cali Tweeds from that collection for a variety of uses.

[bart.childers]

The Brian May stuff just doesn’t sound anything like Brian May. I have a Brian May guitar - went thru all the presets - not one sounds evocative of his tones.

The Slash JCM is weak, the Slash AFD 100 is good but a bit dark.

The Satch JVM - can’t do a thing with it.

Agreed on the Mesa Mark IV & V - just too many dang knobs and push/pull options. I am beginning to wrap my head around the IIC+ tho.

My bread-and-butter is the stock Amplitube generic “Marshalls”: Red Pig & 8000.

[livesforrap]

T I am beginning to wrap my head around the IIC+ tho.

Please do me (and others) a favor ... play leads and bends (especially bends) at or above the 12th fret. Do you not get insanely bad aliasing? Support confirmed this, but no fix yet

[Peter_IK]

Make sure the Red Special emulator is not used when you are using a Brian May Guitars Red Special. The gear got the blessing from the man himself and folks close to him and his work like Jamie Humphries and Danny Gomez as well as very obsessed (in a good way) users/fans like Thomas Brunkard have been getting great results that sound very much like Brian May's tone.