Amplitube 3 vs Pod Farm 2 vs Guitar Rig 4

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Well, my USB interface is on the way, now it's time to pick some people's brains about the software to make my guitar sound good.

 

Basically this is what I gathered. I would have gathered more before posting but the search function is just so damned silly.

 

Pod Farm 2 is the most intuitive and fun to "play" with. The clean tones are decent, but modern tones tend to sound a bit thin and sterile. The effects can be cheesy, and the presets suck (but I expect that).

 

Guitar Rig 4 is really mixed. People either love it or seem turned off by it.

 

Amplitube 3. Seems like a lot of people think this one sounds the best, but has a silly way of assembling everything. Lacks the intuitive nature of Pod Farm.

 

So what say you. Tell me what you think about the various pieces of software and which one I should ultimately spend my hard earned cash on.

[inkblot]

GR4 is the only one of those I've used. It has some good features but IMO the tone is not as good as lepou and other freeware. I could give up GR4 and be perfectly happy with freeware + ReCabinet.

 

I recall reading that Steven Wilson uses Pod Farm to demo songs before hitting the studio with great results but I have no idea if it's true.

[pak066]

i have guitar rig 4 and love it. it is great sounding for being a computer based system and its pretty easy to use. the built-in presets are very close sounding to the sound they are trying to emulate if not spot on. great product and have been having fun with it ever since i got it. and it is great for recording too because there are a bunch of different variables that you can control like how far the ic is from the amp, what type of mic your using, what type of cab (4x12, 1x12, open/closed back ect.). i like it a lot and highly recommend it.

[Eddie]

I have previous versions (POD Farm 1, Guitar Rig 3) and also Waves GTR 3 and probably some other software that I can't recall right now. I also use Recabinet along with these programs.

 

I think you can get good sounds with any of them. One difference is what you'll use it for. Waves GTR seems more ready for recording, without a lot of additional eq. or compression, for example. But to me a more significant difference is what the software offers in addition to amps and effects. I like Guitar Rig because it has a tuner, 2 recording decks, a metronome, the ability to change speed without changing pitch, etc. This makes it a wonderful practice tool. I saw version 4 and can upgrade for a discounted price, but I have little interest in upgrading.

 

I was also very interested in another option, TH1 by Overloud. Their customer support was non-existent when I contacted them, so I prefer to avoid their products now.

 

In terms of intuitiveness, I did read a book on Guitar Rig. You can use it without reading a manual, but to get the most out of it it helps to read the manual and additional material. It's not difficult, but it is very powerful so studying a bit will help you get the most out of it.

[BeanoBoy]

I have all 3. I find Amplitube 3 a little more 'tubelike' (especially in the slightly crunchy tones) than the other two. I prefer the digital reverb on Amplitube as well. Seems a bit 'sweeter'. Saying that, I find them all very useful. You won't go wrong with any of them.

[jhall]

Never really met modelling software that I didn't like.

[tech21man]

Amplitube fender for clean tones.

 

Guitar rig 4 is unique for control room. an easy way to mix wherever in the stereo image 8 virtual mics in any analogy. more 3-d sounding. Easy to use and easy to adjust for things like sag, bias, etc. Not too deep editing though. Some killer presets. Heavy, Vai etc. Great bogner, orange, stompbox emulation, jc-120 that works!!! The worst marshall sounds ever.

 

 

Revalver if you know how to deep edit electronic parameters. You change plate voltage and tubes you change the sound. Great fun. Some great presets. Early 80's is pure sex. Crunch tones the best for single note lines. Very succesfull peavey emulations that worth the price tag alone. The absolute best impulse loader with crunch and speaker distortion knobs that work. Great and easy dual rig functionality. It hosts VST modules. You can run virtually anything in there and dual rig a guitar rig model with a revalver model with I.R.!!! The absolute must.

 

 

Vintage amp room . It is the absolute best for marshall sounds at least for me. You boost it and go straight to megadeth territory and responds like an amp. Enough said.

 

 

LePou. The guy is a genius. His power ball is juicier than TSE X30. His soldano sims sound like the new jet city amps!!!(recorded). He rocks. He is free. The only one I am willing to donate.

 

TSE X30. Great and above all perhaps the harder edged sound that may actually cut through a mix for DI use. I am yet to try it out with a laptop.

[Uma Floresta]

Amplitube Fender FTW

[Sheik Yerbouti]

 

Amplitube fender for clean tones. Guitar rig 4 is unique for control room. an easy way to mix wherever in the stereo image 8 virtual mics in any analogy. more 3-d sounding. Easy to use and easy to adjust for things like sag, bias, etc. Not too deep editing though. Some killer presets. Heavy, Vai etc. Great bogner, orange, stompbox emulation, jc-120 that works!!! The worst marshall sounds ever. Revalver if you know how to deep edit electronic parameters. You change plate voltage and tubes you change the sound. Great fun. Some great presets. Early 80's is pure sex. Crunch tones the best for single note lines. Very succesfull peavey emulations that worth the price tag alone. The absolute best impulse loader with crunch and speaker distortion knobs that work. Great and easy dual rig functionality. It hosts VST modules. You can run virtually anything in there and dual rig a guitar rig model with a revalver model with I.R.!!! The absolute must. Vintage amp room . It is the absolute best for marshall sounds at least for me. You boost it and go straight to megadeth territory and responds like an amp. Enough said. LePou. The guy is a genius. His power ball is juicier than TSE X30. His soldano sims sound like the new jet city amps!!!(recorded). He rocks. He is free. The only one I am willing to donate. TSE X30. Great and above all perhaps the harder edged sound that may actually cut through a mix for DI use. I am yet to try it out with a laptop.

 

 

Woah. Good stuff here. I'm testing out a demo of Amplitube 3, just because I heard it has the best overall package in terms of sounds. Revalver sounds pretty killer too, mostly because it can host VSTs. Why hasn't anybody else done that yet?

 

I read somewhere that some guys from Line 6 left and worked on Revalver, which is why Line 6 seems to be stagnating and all the other companies are catching up or surpassing them.

 

So if I had Revalver AND Amplitube, I could run Amplitube within Revalver?

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Okay, after doing a bit more research I've managed to whittle it down to what I truly want.

 

I think Revalver might be a bit too in depth, I want something that I can get good clean to mild distorted tones out of fairly easily. I think that amplitube 3 with the fender pack might be the way to go. All of this eventually going into Reaper.

[blackmonday]

Man, just checked out LePou. Almost too good to be true. I only wish there was a Mac version. Will be trying this out very soon.

[cogdog]

tech21man - thanks for the LePou heads up, very cool !

[tech21man]

Man LePou was something like: Hey! All you other companies out there. WTF are you doing? He is one guy and he gives free sims that blew me away in a fashion that everything commercial never did.

 

The Le456 with a mark IIC+ impulse response is my go to metallica old school tone. It is tight articulate or loose or dry or whatever you want it to be. That even after I clicked my mesa studio preamp (kinda like an actual mark IIC+ preamp) into revalver into a virtual power amp into a cab sim!!!

 

Also and I.R. pickup EMG 81 or gibson pickup sim helps!!! Yes there are out there such as the redshift pickup replacer google it.

[ashasha]

I was a beta tester for ReValver and have to say that IMHO it's the closest to playing through a real amp and that was what everyone was shooting for during development. But since Peavey bought it the support, updates and patches are just about non-existant. I have no idea what happened. It does work very well and while you can get pretty indepth you don't have to. You can make a great patch in less than a minute with it.

 

I prefer GR3 because it's so familiar, works great with a MIDI footcontroller and the tape decks are fantastic. Being able to slow down or speed up while still being in pitch is invaluable and being able to record along with a backing track or something is just very easy. Plus if you record a clean signal you can run it through the rig and tweak your setup there. It makes it almost too easy.

 

What I don't like about GR3 is that really heavy stuff is hard to dial in. I play a lot of warm to overdriven stuff and for that it's unbeatable. Delays and reverbs are dead simple yet powerful and by using a splitter or two you can mix and match amps, pan, fade, whatever and get a ton of flavors and textures.

 

I tried GR4 over at a friends house and didn't care for the new MIDI handling and I thought the sound was a little grainier overall.

 

I could never get to liking Amplitube. I thought that it was the most overrated and worst sounding. It does the brutal stuff probably better than anything other than ReValver MKIII. Not really my cup of tea. And you can't get MIDI to work unless you buy X-Gear or hack the crap out of it with VSTHost and spend about 2 days solid programming every patch.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I downloaded a copy of ampitube to try it out. I can't judge it's sounds until my USB interface comes, but I'm not sure how much I like the way the program itself is laid out. There are these 8 signal chains that you have to choose from and modify instead of placing them yourself. The menus seem very deep but at the same time kind of fussy. I guess I'm used to playing around with Pod Farm, which is perfect for a simpleton like me.

 

I'll try out revalver next. Revalver has it's own VST host, does that mean I can use all those freeware VSTs with revalvers cab sims and stuff? Or could I do the same thing within Reaper using amplitube and VSTs?

[thunder100]

 

. I play a lot of warm to overdriven stuff and for that it's unbeatable. Delays and reverbs are dead simple yet powerful and by using a splitter or two you can mix and match amps, pan, fade, whatever and get a ton of flavors and textures. .

 

 

+ 1

 

After lots of trying I use now POD Farm 2(I had all the amp packs allready) for a quick try If I dont use the rack(Axe-FX).

 

All are as good as you spend time to dial them in.

 

And as an actual comparison I have the Axe.-->Of course all of them lack but you are at 90 % for much less bucks

 

Roland

[tech21man]

Actually I never liked guitar rig up until version 4. Still I never ever liked it for the reasons somebody else does!!! Crunchy rock slightly overdriven stuff pale compared to revalver or even most of tech21 stuff (unbeatable for many reasons and for me they way they modelled the amps: 9 mics into the room, not just one in a relative place. A thick heavy sound. Always cuts and I always add it on double or triple parts).

 

I did like it for heavy rythm. Even entombed patches or korn or metallica presets do sound...heavy.

 

The recto model is not something to write home about but it is adequate.

 

Actually all of this doesn't matter. Revalver does unite them all into the VST host. Revalver itself is nothing sort of great for me. It is easy. But I never got on with any of the models until I tweaked them. Then its cabinets are below average bar three (4x12, c30 4x12 and slo 4x12). Impulse responses well remedy that and set it free.

 

So anybody can choose for his need through a great variety.

 

I still have to say LePou kicked some behind into the next neigbourhood with his sims though. One man can do the job if he knows what he is doing!!!

 

I am also very fond of the new zoom distortion effects processors, the g-seiries. Cheap. Great specs. Great effects. Great drives and eq. And impulse response cabinets love them!

[bartak101]

Massive call on the LePou stuff. Much kudos.

 

Been a fan of Guitar Rig, but mainly cause I love their other software. Been meaning to look into other emulators but you've done the job for me.

 

Many thanks Tech21man.

[ashasha]

 

.....does that mean I can use all those freeware VSTs with revalvers cab sims and stuff? Or could I do the same thing within Reaper using amplitube and VSTs?

You an do all kinds of crazy stuff without running a DAW like Reaper. But to answer the first question, yes you can run just about any VSTi inside of ReValver; but I have made it crash with something that I can't recall right now.

 

But if you want to start chaining VSTi's I suggest getting ahold of VSTHost. It's free, it's tiny and it's AWESOME. It was originally designed to debug VSTi's, but it's so incredibly useful that people started using it as a standalone interface to run their VSTi's. You can program patches with it and route audio all over the place between stuff and you can even program MIDI controls for stuff that you can't get into within the application most of the time and even change patches within it. I could have patches setup to switch between ReValver, GR3 or whatever else I had installed, I could run GR3 with no cabs and send it's audio straight into a convolution modeler like Voxengo Boogex for my cabinets...and that's straight forward vanilla {censored}. You can nuts with it.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

 

You an do all kinds of crazy stuff without running a DAW like Reaper. But to answer the first question, yes you can run just about any VSTi inside of ReValver; but I have made it crash with something that I can't recall right now. But if you want to start chaining VSTi's I suggest getting ahold of VSTHost. It's free, it's tiny and it's AWESOME. It was originally designed to debug VSTi's, but it's so incredibly useful that people started using it as a standalone interface to run their VSTi's. You can program patches with it and route audio all over the place between stuff and you can even program MIDI controls for stuff that you can't get into within the application most of the time and even change patches within it. I could have patches setup to switch between ReValver, GR3 or whatever else I had installed, I could run GR3 with no cabs and send it's audio straight into a convolution modeler like Voxengo Boogex for my cabinets...and that's straight forward vanilla {censored}. You can nuts with it.

 

 

Wat.

 

So, I could pretty much use a cocktail of any amp, cab, whatever using a VST host? It's a way to slave together all of these competing softwares?

[ashasha]

Wat. So, I could pretty much use a cocktail of any amp, cab, whatever using a VST host? It's a way to slave together all of these competing softwares?

 

Yep.

 

Now depending on your system it may make it kind of sweaty....

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Yep. Now depending on your system it may make it kind of sweaty....

 

That seems so...democratic.

[scuzzo]

i like guitar rig 3 for its creativity and ability to get close to any cool rock tone..

like Adrian belew and Andy summers and David Gilmore..

 

i like Amplitube 3 for its ability to pretty much clone any cool vintage tube tone i can think of.. its dead on with most of and but it takes some tweaks to get the sweet spots..

 

Hated Revalver.. messed with it about 15min... and tossed it aside.. its was the worst of the lot mho.. just not a fun interface not fun to work with..

[ashasha]

 

i like guitar rig 3 for its creativity and ability to get close to any cool rock tone.. like Adrian belew and Andy summers and David Gilmore.. i like Amplitube 3 for its ability to pretty much clone any cool vintage tube tone i can think of.. its dead on with most of and but it takes some tweaks to get the sweet spots.. Hated Revalver.. messed with it about 15min... and tossed it aside.. its was the worst of the lot mho.. just not a fun interface not fun to work with..

Yeah, the interface isn't spectacular, but once you get used to it then it's actually very logical. I don't like the fact that the dropdowns don't scroll with the mouse wheel though. Stuff like that drives me insane.

 

And that's what I was talking about with patches/updates. There's no reason for that not to be addressed and fixed. The bulk of development went into the sound though. And it's relatively light on resources compared to some of the others out there.

 

Another thing that sets it apart is the fact that you can load ANY impulse response into it. I know that it isn't as revolutionary as it was a few years ago, but IR's and convolution modeling is fantastic. I know that GR3 used it, but you are stuck with what they give you. If you want a different cabinet or mic or whatever, just find an IR of it and load it up.

[mnewb1]

I am still working through these decisions myself.

 

I like amplitube so far... I think it sounds spectacular. I'm a little put off by GR4 in that they give me a thirty minute window to try it out...not enough time.

 

I am also considering an eleven rack. I've already been working with ProTools, so I wouldn't mind moving up to the LE version and continuing with PT.