guitar tone purchase, opinions needed

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...

Yeah it is a good chunk o change but it depends on your perspective too...for me it brought the end of a long and expensive period of fucking around with huge rack setups and complicated pedalboards for my live rig. It's the only thing that has the ease of use, flexiblity and power and most importantly TOANZ to base a sick rig around, and i've tried almost everything. So to that end it's a been a real fuckin bargain actually! :ill:
 
Said it before and saying it again: if I wouldn't have to shell out cash for an additional power amp, I'd be all over the AxeFX...
 
fuck dude, for the amount of $$ you're talking about, you could get a couple of nice preamps(engl, marshall, etc.) and recabinet, and be fucking set
 
I did not like them personally, they were to dark for my taste but some people have had good results. Kazorg from this forum made the impulses and sells them under Recab.
 
I don't know if you've tried this, but you could disengage the cabinet simulator on your PodXT Pro and use impulses for some different tones. Also the new 1.05 version of recabinet is brighter sounding.
 
I'm with Joey on this one... micing a cab always has this weird "dirtyness" to it... impulses are so much "cleaner" sounding..

does anyone else know what I'm talking about here?
 
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.
You could give a try to Overloud TH1 too, it has a fully functional 14 days demo.
There are some updates coming in the next 1.1 version (should be out within next month I think) like a dual impulse response loader and 2 new amps...
I think it's pretty versatile overall...
 
The Axe FX was used on Cynic - Traced In Air and the guitar tone is mindbogglingly good on that record.
Bulb also uses it, but that's more typically djenty stuff. None the less, his stuff that's used the Axe Fx so far has sounded pretty much undeniably awesome.
 
You could give a try to Overloud TH1 too, it has a fully functional 14 days demo.
There are some updates coming in the next 1.1 version (should be out within next month I think) like a dual impulse response loader and 2 new amps...
I think it's pretty versatile overall...

Ah cool, TH1 is out already? Downloadin' :D
I bet it's not as good as Revalver, but I liked the idea of it...

EDIT: Argh, fuck iLok-protection on demos!!!! :(
 
I like this impulse I made, and people seem to like these :) (though I prefer the first)

Marcus' JSX ones sound the most 'natural' to me, without fail. The Recto ones are voiced in a way I don't personally like, but that doesn't necessarily speak ill of their quality. Just not my thing.

Impulses still have a way to go. If you want to go down the impulse path, Joey, you're better of just mic'ing a real cab, because it'll get you the other 20% of missing tone. Nebula at the moment isn't handling the job too well, so we have no viable alternative for using real cabs at this moment in time.

The Axe-FX fails to really make an impact on me. It constantly creates these new-age, flat, 2 dimensional tones that all the metalcore and djent-lovers seem to dig, but I'm in another camp. I'd sooner grab a Dual Rec head and run it right into impulses.

Personally, I believe the near future lies in the hybrid approach. All the best non-linear aspects of a tube head combined with the realistic cab depiction of convolution modeling. Convolution has a way to go before it can adequately model the cabs, but for the time being it does the job somewhat convincingly. It's the best compromise I've found short of actually mic'ing a real set-up. Though I'll always do the latter if possible.

I think I've maybe been spoiled by the plethora of amazing amps I've had the pleasure to work with over the last few years. I've come out on the other side simply not being able to tolerate the deficiencies of impulses, nor the sound of digital modelers. None of it does anything for me that a well-constructed tube amp running through a great cab would.

If you're digging the Line 6 approach, then maybe stick with them. They certainly make the best emulation product suited for professional productions, IMO. They don't sound the most realistic, nor the most organic, but they have this way of 'sitting' in the mix just right with the appropriate EQ treatment. Beside that, Revalver 3 has some amazing potential, but I've yet to hear it pulled off convincingly in a pro mix. I'd sooner use a real head with impulses there once again!
 
Ah cool, TH1 is out already? Downloadin' :D
I bet it's not as good as Revalver, but I liked the idea of it...

EDIT: Argh, fuck iLok-protection on demos!!!! :(

Wait wait :lol:, no iLok for the demo, but you need to install the PACE drivers... never had a problem with this protection system, but some guys hate them because it seems to be pretty "invasive"...
TH1 has been out from November 2008 iirc!

Not as good as Revalver? Try it and decide yourself... personally I've switched from RVMKIII to TH1 and never looked back (I think it has more dynamic, needs less tweaking, has better low-mids, a lot less CPU usage, better Tube Screamer), but this is just personal taste/feeling, I don't want to argue about which sim is better, I don't care...
Try everything you can and draw your conclusions...

If you're curious to hear it, this is a metal sample I've made some days ago using Keregioz DIs (just TS + 5150 model + GH impulse, don't remember which exactly, maybe "FinalV2!"):
https://dl.getdropbox.com/u/432451/keregiozTH1Reamp.mp3
 
I've come out on the other side simply not being able to tolerate the deficiencies of impulses, nor the sound of digital modelers. None of it does anything for me that a well-constructed tube amp running through a great cab would.

Word - I like what I've heard of the Axe FX, but to me digital will always be a compromise (usually for volume, so you don't have to mic up a cab, but in the case of a preamp I guess for being able to have built in FX), and $1500 is WAY too much green for a compromise IMO.