guitar tone purchase, opinions needed

joeymusicguy

joeymusicguy

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Sep 21, 2006
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ok so i have some cash for a huge upgrade. as most of you know, all of my previous work has been line 6 pod xt pro tone. im ready to move away from that...

i guess my options would be...

Pod Farm (same as a pod? but plugin form, way more convieniant considering i have a terrible time getting my actual pod unit to function properly with the stupid input switch)

Revalver (initial impression is good, but i still haven't really heard anything that made me go WOAH. most people are recorded in drop a or something. the tunings i have to deal with are E standard, drop D, c# standard, drop C, drop c flat, c standard, drop B, drop a#) so i guess i need more proof this could work for me. i've downloaded the demo and toyed with it in the studio. im recording a pretty big band right now and the guitarist and i were pretty impressed (yes the amps sounded as if those amps were sitting in my booth mic'd up... but THAT sound isn't good enough for a final product).

Axe FX (heard lots of demo's, havent heard any final products. again im talking about a real song, not meshuggah style stuff. im working witih pop, rock, and metal, so its hard to find a unit that fits the bill)

any other suggestions? i would love to move to something different.

the thing i've always loved about my line 6 tone is that its been very transparent. there's not a whole lot that changes from tracking stage to mastering stage. sure there are tweaks made (eq, limiting, harmonic excitement, filtering), but i can take all that stuff off and the tone remains pretty true. other tones from other products, to me, sound like they would need a lot of tweaking to end up sounding "final" and polished. my line 6 has allowed me to come up with some pretty standard mixing techniques which saves tons of time allowing for more production ideas and editing rather than fucking with eq all day. anyone who is getting their tone with a mic'd amp probably knows what im talking about.
 
Machinated said:
I have podfarm and really like it - although it doesn't end up on most of my projects.

just curious.....how come you don't mic up real amps joey? I normally track DI's and monitor with podfarm and then reamp when everything is tracked.
Click to expand...

because the eq/frequency of the tone never sounds natural to me, it always sounds.... weird

the mic position vs the speaker/amp combination (and the fact that 90% of any touring artist's gear is pretty screwed up) plus the air and the angle...

i'm just not into it! the last time i mic'd an amp was 3 years ago, and my work flow has changed drastically since then. im not even sure if i'd have time / have amps available to do it.

on top of all this, my good buddy who is a damn good engineer has a mic'd cab setup in a locked room in his house. i've heard his guitar tracks in one of my mixes and it didnt rock like my digital tones. the band ended up having me reamp with my line 6 tone.
 
yeah - fair shout if it works for you.

I think if you have the time you should really figure out micing up - theres a bit of a learning curve but I think it gives you a lot more options in terms of tone as the mic and speakers can have such a big influence on the amp. agreed that most bands bring in stuff that isn't normally in good nick, but I have had some bands get there endorsers to send in new stuff for recording.
 
Machinated said:
yeah - fair shout if it works for you.

I think if you have the time you should really figure out micing up - theres a bit of a learning curve but I think it gives you a lot more options in terms of tone as the mic and speakers can have such a big influence on the amp. agreed that most bands bring in stuff that isn't normally in good nick, but I have had some bands get there endorsers to send in new stuff for recording.
Click to expand...

i tried recording the direct amp sound before and running cab impulses on it, this kinda worked in terms of natural / transparent tone eq (wasn't weird like a mic on the speaker)

but ultimately, it was kind of bassy. i used the WAVES GUITAR TOOL RACK with the amp switched off.

is this method any good sounding with newer cab impulse stuff? i havent tried in a few years.
 
I would reccommend the Axe-FX strongly if you want something hardware, it's an amazing unit. There are shitloads of clips in different styles on thier forum. It's still getting out there in the general populace so i'm sure you will hear more albums being done with it as time goes on.

If you want software only then Revalver is pretty killer too, and the makers of the Axe-FX have a software version coming out sometime as well. I've heard good things about the Softube metal amp room but never tried it.
 
The MAR is cool, it's a PowerBall sim and is pretty spot-on IMO. It even simulates the signature fizz that the PB is known for (if you are unaware of what I'm talking about, just search for LSD-Studio's comments on it, :lol:). I may end up owning it eventually but not any time soon. I used the demo for a few days of pre-production on a label project and at first I thought it sounded great. Then after a while I started to notice the fizz and everything and didn't have time to fuck with it so we ditched it and then the demo ran out.

Another user on this forum was telling me about his newly acquired AxeFX and how it's disappointing, even with help from a couple of AxeFX users. That was depressing for me to hear because I was planning on getting one this year but now I'm not too sure...

ReValver MKIII has been nothing but awesome for me. Sounds like the closest simulation and all the tweakable options are nuts! I'm still waiting for MKIV to see if they include Krank or Engl :D Hopefully they do, that would make it killer for me.

I would say if you are happy with the tones you get out of the Line6 POD engine then the next logical step up would just be to stay with Line6. It's familiar to you and you like the sounds. That's enough to justify sticking with it, IMO. The newest versions of their software allow running dual rigs (x3) which really helps to make the tones killer.

I'm one of the very few people that want amp simulation software to get to that point, and want impulses to also get to that point. I believe that someday we will have the software available that is capable of providing a legitimate alternative to mic'ing a real amp+cab. I already feel like MKIII is pretty f'in close in terms of simulating a real amp, MKIV or MKV should pretty much finish up the last bit needed. Impulses aren't quite there yet, I think the Nebula tests done recently have gotten us all a little closer, but still not all the way.

~006
 
006 said:
The MAR is cool, it's a PowerBall sim and is pretty spot-on IMO. It even simulates the signature fizz that the PB is known for (if you are unaware of what I'm talking about, just search for LSD-Studio's comments on it, :lol:). I may end up owning it eventually but not any time soon. I used the demo for a few days of pre-production on a label project and at first I thought it sounded great. Then after a while I started to notice the fizz and everything and didn't have time to fuck with it so we ditched it and then the demo ran out.

Another user on this forum was telling me about his newly acquired AxeFX and how it's disappointing, even with help from a couple of AxeFX users. That was depressing for me to hear because I was planning on getting one this year but now I'm not too sure...

ReValver MKIII has been nothing but awesome for me. Sounds like the closest simulation and all the tweakable options are nuts! I'm still waiting for MKIV to see if they include Krank or Engl :D Hopefully they do, that would make it killer for me.

I would say if you are happy with the tones you get out of the Line6 POD engine then the next logical step up would just be to stay with Line6. It's familiar to you and you like the sounds. That's enough to justify sticking with it, IMO. The newest versions of their software allow running dual rigs (x3) which really helps to make the tones killer.

I'm one of the very few people that want amp simulation software to get to that point, and want impulses to also get to that point. I believe that someday we will have the software available that is capable of providing a legitimate alternative to mic'ing a real amp+cab. I already feel like MKIII is pretty f'in close in terms of simulating a real amp, MKIV or MKV should pretty much finish up the last bit needed. Impulses aren't quite there yet, I think the Nebula tests done recently have gotten us all a little closer, but still not all the way.

~006
Click to expand...

well crap. i dont want to invest 2000 dollars into something that could be dissapointing...
 
Go for Pod Farm, for 50 bucks you get the line 6 software in a plugin form. Its quick and convenient. Just dump it on a DI'd guitar track, tweak and change the tone as your project develops...
 
Yeah, I can't wait to get a real sounding amp through software. It's just such a pain in the ass setting up the gear every time and then being careful not to touch anything after finding a nice tone. I prefer just saving the settings and recalling it when needed.
 
Torniojaws said:
Yeah, I can't wait to get a real sounding amp through software. It's just such a pain in the ass setting up the gear every time and then being careful not to touch anything after finding a nice tone. I prefer just saving the settings and recalling it when needed.
Click to expand...

honestly i firmly believe we as humans / engineers will naturally progress to this

it makes sense...

it took a long time for digital recording (vs tape) to sweep the field, but it did

i really believe digital tone will too
 
joeymusicguy said:
well crap. i dont want to invest 2000 dollars into something that could be dissapointing...
Click to expand...

They have a two week trial period so you could find out for yourself. Most people as far as I know are blown away by it, not dissapointed, guess it depends what you are expecting from it. For me I had a POD and got some good tones out of it but the Axe just Pwns it in feel, tone and FX. In addition to a silent recording solution it replaced my Eventide in my live rig for FX. I probably sound like a commercial but it really is an amazing piece to me.
 
Yeah, the AxeFX seems awesome, but Revalver sounds great too, and when we're talking ~$200 vs ~$1500, there's no contest to a po' ass nukka like me...
 
Loomis got himself an AxeFX. I spent some time with him messing around with it, mostly checking out all the factory presets, but I bet if you actually go in there and mess with the signal chain (amp/cab/FX/graphic EQ) then you could probably make it sound like anything. One of the main things I noticed about the unit is that the way it responds to picking is MUCH more detailed and realistic than I've ever heard from a POD. That, and there's no POD fizziness either. I'm really tempted to fork out for an AxeFX just because they're so cool, but I'm also in love with the sound of his Engl SE, so I would rather put the AxeFX money towards an SE. We'll see...
 
hey joey...like i mentioned in the reamping thread, i can bring a krank down to your place if you want to spend some time fucking around with it...i'll be around tomorrow and saturday, and can come down there either day
 
Put it this way, the person I am referring to basically said he should've gotten a POD with what he was getting out of the AxeFX so far. But he just got it and hasn't had a lot of time to tweak it yet, we are both hoping that is the case. I'm assuming it will be like a POD in that you have to tweak the hell out of it to get a good sound, and hopefully that good sound will be better than something you can get out of a POD, otherwise he'll be pissed! :lol:

I'll point him to this thread in case he feels like chiming in on it.

~006
 
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