Getting sustain and feedback out of amp sims

[bryan_kilco]

I love using amp sims for quickly plugging in and tracking some ideas and not having to lug gear around, but the one thing that really gets to me is the lack of sustain they have.

I've recorded guitars for our upcoming album and there's 1 or 2 spots where a solo busts in on a bendy, long-ish note, and at rehearsal it sounds AWESOME with the sustain and feedback of a live amp. The sim version.....not so much. I think I literally spent about an hour trying to get one note to sustain just how I wanted it.

I tried getting up close with the guitar to my cranked monitors, no real luck.

How do you guys get the proper sustain, while tracking, with amp sims? These tracks will be sent out to someone else for reamping and I want to make sure that the sustain will be right.

ALSO - will sustain and feedback occur naturally during a reamp, just like a guitar plugged in? Never reamped before so I would think that, since the guitar isn't present in the same room, there would be less sustain and feedback. Or am I totally incorrect here?

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Good question. I've tried sending an output to a small practice amp near the pickups and still was not able to achieve desirable results.

 

[Red Phoenix]

Maybe because real tubes are always a bit microphonic and that is not covered in sims..when you stay near the amp with the guitar you get feedback with hi gain sounds and therefore more sustain...the distance between guitar/pickup and ampsim is not yet emulated

 

[Studdy]

http://www.softube.com/index.php?id=af ?????

 

[Red Phoenix]

..i revise my last last statement.
Have you tried or use it?

 

[Fredrik-Ablaze]

Buy my fernandes monterey with a sustainer system?

 

[Mago]

Cranking and close to monitors works for me, for "normal" feedbacks. As for the sweet tone turns into feedback type of stuff, that's even hard to pull off live really nice, cause you have to be in the right spot for the particular cab to get it right (think Dream Theater - As I Am, first section with the drums).

If you feel like long notes die too quickly if you don't get near your amp, than maybe you need a different guitar? Depends on how long we are talking here.
I don't think that ampsims translate the natural sustain of a guitar differently, its just not possible to trick it with making feedback.
I guess if you'd record a miced up amp and track+monitor through the mic setup it wouldn't sustain longer than with an ampsims. Never compared it directly, mind.

 

[updog]

http://www.softube.com/index.php?id=af ?????

I've mentioned this one before, and still stand by it. A plugin for feedback sounds pretty stupid for a lot of people, but this is what I use for that problem and as far as I can tell, it does the job. It adds sustain and beefs up leads and solos.

 

[Sethis]

The sustain and the feedback are part of the recording so unless they're already in the DIs they won't occur when you reamp. You can simulate feedback when you stand near to the monitors, it works for me. Still I kinda prefer the real version. If you want to get a perfect sustain/feedback on an amp sim one idea would be to use a Y signal splitter on the output of your guitar and send the DI to the interface and the amp at the same time. The amp will start the whole process and the interface will record it.