Guitar Pre Amp Suggestions?

[benjy]

Hey dudes, I am currently in the market for some new recording gear. I have a studio project similar to acts like Being as an ocean, climates, counterparts, napoleon, etc hardcore stuff. I have been looking into to pre amps because I cannot rip a real amp in my small room. Any suggestions on what to purchase. I have heard good things about the engl e350. Open to all opinions I am just sick of completely plugin based guitar tones, not my cup of tea. Thanks!
Side note: I am running Logic Pro 9 on a fully upgraded 2012 MacBook Pro with a focusrite pro interface. Thanks again.

 

[neptunian]

I have a Peavey Rockmaster for practicing. It sounds good through my practice amp. I tried Rockmaster -> interface -> Revalver's power amp sim -> various cab impulses and got ok sounds, but nothing I ended up using in my mix.

Haven't tried the Engl e530 but the demos on youtube sounded pretty good.

Whatever preamp you get, remember that in addition to the preamp, the power amp and cab/mic/room make up a large part of the final sound. So if you get just the preamp, you may still need plugins to simulate the rest.

To my ears, amp heads alone have been well virtualized. The real shortfall is in the cab/mic/room simulation. Cab resonances, woof and thump, room reflections, harmonic distortion of the speakers, etc. seem to require a lot more complexity to model. Cab impulses only go so far, Nebula takes a lot of CPU.

If you have the money for a Kemper Profiling Amp, that would cover it all.

 

[benjy]

Thanks for the info! Ill check out kemper. there are a lot of good vibes coming from engl users. I have thought about reamping one through like an orange ppc212 to finalize but idk. Hopefully more people will chime in. I'm just not a huge fan of pod farm and other things like lepou.

 

[BLUElightCory]

Just checked out the Kemper and it blew me away. Just an amazing piece of gear with unlimited potential.

 

[benjy]

Yea I checked out the price! Not possible for me :/ it has rad reviews but as a 17 year old with a minimum wage jab and other expenses that is waaaaayyyyy to much haha

 

[benjy]

Okay so really, would an engl e530 pre with some good impulses be better than say a lecto or 8505 with good impulses. Plus maybe record clean with the engl and reamp with said plugins.

 

[Deadstar]

I think You should try the Amt ss20 or the laney irt studio

 

[Chainsaw Calligraphy]

I've had an Engl e530 for a few years now and to be honest I usually end up using TSE x50 instead. The distortion has quite a smooth and modern characteristic that doesn't cut through busy mixes as well as a 5150 type tone. If you want I can throw together a quick comparison between an amp sim and e530 later today.

 

[slayercannibalsuffohead]

Grab the E570 and be done. Best pre I have ever owned/played through. It's a beast.

 

[benjy]

Dude that would be awesome! I have a friend who uses the x50 and I really like the tone but I own a mac and it is not available as of yet. Other sims like the lecto I don't know I'm just kinda eh. I'll check the e570 dude. Thanks guys!

 

[if6was9]

I have a bunch of preamps. I think they're a great way to add tonal options for a decent price. I have a few poweramps already of different flavours so it makes sense to get pre's.

The Peavey Rockmaster is great. My tech who is authorised to work on Peavey gear told me it's the same design as the 5150's preamp. Not super versatile but it sounds great. Mines currently giving me problems though so no clips unfortunately.

The ENGL e530 is great. It's totally different sounding to the Rockmaster. Very smooth, modern tone. Also has a wicked clean channel. It's pretty versatile but it isn't very aggressive.

I REALLY like the AMT stuff. I have the S-1 as my gigging preamp. Considering getting another one but not sure what flavour to get, considering I already own a real Peavey, ENGL and Marshall.

If you want tons of options but can't afford an axe fx or Kemper see the Digitech gsp1011. They go for a few hundred used, have TONS of amp models, effects and also some cab sims. The other guitarist in my band uses one live and it's great sounding, though he uses it through a nice tube poweramp so I've never used the cab sims on it.

 

[benjy]

Thanks for the responses! If anybody has sound clips that would be rad. I go for kind of a hardcore ie climates, landscapes, and counterparts sound. The clean is one of the reasons I really dig the engl! I was listening to some clean engl then re amp with a 6505 and it sounded amazing! There is a 2101 on my local craigslist for 300. Now do the two compare?