You're comparing Palmer recorded guitars (so a real head > poweramp out > palmer) to an ampsim followed by Torpedo VST, right ?
Because with your amp head, a good loadbox and the Torpedo PI-101, you can achieve way better results than with a Palmer (to me, the Torpedo cab/miking technology is far better than Palmer one, wich consists only on some filters and old things like that IIRC, where the Torpedo are real measures of the real deal).
Here is a sample made with my Jet City JCA50H head and a Tubetown ToneHound loadbox, running through the PI-101 plugin :
TEST JET CITY 0627 Mix2 MASTER
1 guitar take solo :
AMP GTR1_2
Using it that way is very convenient, you can achieve a lot of different tones with all these cabs and mics.
TLTD said:
Some things I liked were the presence and depth. Initially, I thought I don't want to touch those but they make things really 3D (NOT like presence knobs on an amp).
That's because it's a poweramp sim, so it works like a real poweramp.
Pretty handy too, when used with a real guitar/bass preamp, or with a plugin that don't have a poweramp section (like TSE X30) or a bypassable one (like TSE X50).
But you can also use it to add a bit of coloration/saturation to a signal that's already passed through a real poweramp.
I think this section need some time to get used to, with all the tubes and different settings available (6L6 / EL34 / EL84 / KT88, Single ended or Push-Pull, Triode or Pentode Mode, Volume / Presence / Depth).
Not to mention I use that plugin a lot on bass tracks too (in all the clips that I posted, there were some instances on bass).
The great thing with that plugin/technology is that it's very close to the real life situation of miking a cab. So that you can achieve some great tones... and really shitty ones too, depending on which cab/mic you choose, and where you place the mic.
Important thing with that plugin : you have to set the input level very hot (close to 0dB) if you want it to sound good (the poweramp section and overload feature are calibrated to work at that level).