Amplifier simulators are nothing new. For years manufacturers have been trying to accurately mimic collections of the most common and most sought after amplifiers, cabinets, microphones, direct injection boxes, and the spaces to put them in.

While various devices have succeeded at re-creating the sounds of classic amps, only recently have they been able to capture the feel of playing on a tube amp. The majority of the truly convincing simulators are confined to the computer domain, though there are also standalone devices that can afford a guitar player convincing tone and feel. This month, we’ll look into a few of the more impressive ways that even the most obsessed tone junky can finally leave their amps at home. Software Simulators The bevy of computer-based software simulators grows at an alarming pace. It seems that every day a new manufacturer unveils their amp simulator.

While some are better than others in terms of tone and feel, some offer a greater flexibility in sound design, some offer an easy-to-use interface, and others are designed to be light on your computer’s processor. Which one do you turn to?

That’s a tough question to answer. Fortunately, many software manufacturers offer a free demo on their website.

Most are not restricted in any way except for a time limit on how long they will operate before you must purchase or discard them. Before making a decision on any product, it’s wise to try out several demos to see which simulator is a good fit. Each will have its strengths and weaknesses. Try to keep in mind what specific needs you have for your sound, style, technique, and rig. While this list is nowhere near being comprehensive, I’ve found the following software simulators are definitely worth checking out: Overloud TH1 Features include accurate tone and feel, versatile mic placement and amp/ cabinet blending, a good complement of effects—and it’s relatively light on processors.

Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 This package offers a wide array of amps, cabinets, mics, and effects, with a straightforward interface, easy integration with hardware controllers, and flexible routing. Peavey ReValver Mk III A tweaker’s paradise, it allows simulation at the component level. You can swap out tubes on a virtual amp, rebias the tubes, add a rectifier, and more. If you can dream it, you can do it in ReValver. Line 6 POD Farm Drawing on Line 6’s long history of modeling amps and effects, POD Farm has an impressive array of classic units ready to create (or recreate) the rig of legends. Hardware Simulators If you prefer to leave the computers to the IT guys at the office, there are still plenty of floor- and rack-based solutions worth looking into.

Again, the key is to try out as many as you can before you come to any decision. Some products will nail a few sounds beautifully, but fail utterly on others. Try to focus in on the functionality and tweakability of each simulated offering. A classic example of where things can go terribly wrong can be found by adjusting the rate of a delay while a note is playing through it. A wellconstructed unit will allow the signal to shift and change, while a poorly designed unit will garble the signal into a mess of digital noise.

Compare your experience with the real-world gear versus the simulations; you’ll be able to quickly determine the quality of the simulations in a unit. When thinking about hardware units, it’s also important to consider the flexibility of the effects routing. If a unit locks you into a set configuration (e.g., Overdrive- Modulation-Compression-Reverb), you may find yourself limited in regard to sound design. Most units today allow the user to define the signal path, and sculpt the signal in any way they wish. Be sure to find out about the available options for backing up your sounds to an external device. Should your unit’s memory fail, or should you need to replace the unit on short notice, it is invaluable to have a backup of all of your carefully constructed programs on hand. If you can’t back up your data, the unit isn’t worth considering.

Again, there are many worthwhile units on the market. Here are a few I recommend checking out: Line 6 POD X3 Line 6 is almost synonymous with amplifier and effects simulation.

The POD line offers a rich history of well developed, great sounding models. VOX ToneLab LE Drawing from Vox’ heritage and close relationship with Marshall, the Vox ToneLab (as well as the AD series of amplifiers) contain some of the bestsounding amp models. Roger Linn Design AdrenaLinn III The assignable sequencers and arpeggiators really take this device into exciting new territories, making it an amazingly deep and complex amp modeler and multi-effects unit. The onboard drum machine can also be very useful. Nick Schenkel Nick Schenkel has played guitar since he was 12 years old. Over the past 15 years, he has worked in several professional recording studios and as a monitor mix engineer for live performances.

An honors graduate from Washtenaw Community College’s Music Production and Engineering program, Nick works as a Sales Engineer at Sweetwater Sound. Reach him at 800-222-4700 x1399 or at nickschenkel@sweetwater.com.

Guitarists are known for being picky about their tone — and for good reason. Some bands have built entire legacies on their guitar tones. cough-VanHalen-cough. Years ago, when record labels had robust budgets and bands blocked out recording studios for weeks at a time, it was common to experiment with dozens of different amp, cab, microphone and effect combinations to. Unfortunately, that’s not always feasible for most modern producers and engineers. Guitar amp simulators allow you to audition countless guitar rigs based on the hardware behind some of the most iconic guitar tones of all time.

Take a look at some of the most popular modern amp simulators and what makes them stand out. Ignite Amps specialize in designing custom guitar amps, all of which include an amp simulator plugin modeled after your own unique design. Ignite is known for working with heavy metal royalty — some of their most popular plugins are actually emulations of amps designed for major artists. The is a digital emulation of a custom dual-channel guitar tube amplifier built for Ryan Huthnance of Emissary Studios. Is a digital emulation of a three-channel tube preamplifier for guitar, built for guitarist Cristiano Trionfera. Is based on the SHB-1 Extreme Bass Head built for Federico Fulceri of, featuring six triode stages and a 1300W Class D power amp. Is a digital emulation of a three-channel tube preamplifier for guitar, featuring Clean, Rhythm and Lead channels.

The Clean channel is inspired by the classic Californian circuits and the Rhythm channel has a hot-rodded British character, while the Lead channel is a custom algorithm designed for very high-gain settings. Amplitube was originally released in 2002, but it’s come a long way since then. Amplitube 4 is an incredibly robust guitar rig simulator featuring 33 stompboxes, 25 amps, 29 cabs, 12 mics and 15 rack effects units designed to produce hyper-realistic tones. In addition to a variety of proprietary designs, Amplitube also features emulations of the iconic amps from Fender, Marshall, Vox, Mesa/Boogie and Roland. Their advanced cab room emulator allows you to select different cabs as well as the individual speakers within them to find the sweetest of sweet spots — not to mention room selection, mic selection/placement and a mixer section for. While most amp simulators strive to recreate physical hardware, Joey Sturgis has created a line of all-new virtual amps with Toneforge — many of which were created in conjunction with major artists. Toneforge includes unique algorithms for a variety of pedals, amps, cabs, mics and post-processors.

In addition to the stock Menace amp, the introduced even more options — and now Toneforge has designed a number of processors with artists like Ben Bruce of and Jason Richardson. Designed to “achieve sonic results equal to or beyond those possible in a professional, large-scale recording studio,” Thermionik is a full-blown amp modeling suite featuring 30 legendary guitar amplifiers, 20+ cabinet and five effects pedals.

Thermionik is known for its identical recreations of legendary amplifiers — every channel, knob and switch is emulated. Each model is designed as its own dedicated plugin, allowing you to create your ideal signal chain from dozens of unique pieces of gear. In addition to classic Fender, Marshall, Mesa/Boogie and Vox amps, Thermionik also features emulations of boutique amps from ENGL, Diesel, Bogner, Orange, Soldano and Supro. Line 6 has been releasing digital modeling amplifiers since 1996. While Line 6 are well known for their Spider amps and Pod amp modelers, their new Helix series is quickly becoming a favorite of many professional guitarists. Offering a massive collection of emulations spanning 72 amps, 194 pedals, 37 cabs and 16 mics, Helix is designed to inspire. Helix features an intuitive interface that will immediately feel familiar for guitarists.

And the best part is Helix Native can be used to transfer tones to the rack effect and pedalboard units in the Helix family, making it easy to transfer your tone to the studio or the stage. Native Instruments originally released Guitar Rig in 2004, featuring three tube amp emulations. But over the years Guitar Rig has grown and evolved.

With the most recent release, Guitar Rig 5 offers 17 amps, 27 cabinets and 54 effects. Their award-winning Dynamic Tube Response Technology puts legendary tones at your fingertips in seconds, Native Instruments also offers a free version of Guitar Rig called Guitar Rig 5 Player with a single amp model, 17 cab emulations and 13 effects. TH3 offers an impressive list of hardware emulations, including authorized models of boutique amps from Randall, DVmark, Brunetti and THD. Featuring 72 amps, 37 cabs, 75 pedals and rack edicts and 18 microphone models with up to four mics on each cabinet — TH3 is one of the most robust amp simulators available. As you may be able to tell from the name, BIAS Amp from Positive Grid is all about tweaking the tiniest technical details.

BIAS AMP 2 is designed to authentically recreate the sound of real tube amps and allows you to mix and match components to create your ideal tone. Positive Grid partnered with amp legends to develop their component emulation technology, which allows you to select almost every component of BIAS AMP’s signal chain, including preamps, power amps, tubes, transformers, tone stacks, filters, mics and of course, a variety of Celestian Drivers. In addition to the original standard, glassy, crunch and insane setting, BIAS AMP 2 features new Blues and Bass amp packs for all of your tonal needs.

Scuffham Amps has been releasing boutique tube amp emulations since 2008. The Custom ’57 is inspired by the famous Tweed Amps of the late 50’s. Was inspired by guitar tone. Brings together elements from multiple classic American amp designs with three channels and several tone-shaping switches, making this a very versatile amp.

Online Guitar Amp Simulator

Is Schuffham’s take on a high-gain amp from the 80’s, inspired by Mike Soldano. Is another highly versatile amp — inspired in part by the memory of an old red Park 75 head Michael Scuffham had during his time at Marshall. S-Gear includes access to all five amps and can be purchased directly from Scuffham or as part of.

Over the years, Softube has worked with some of the biggest names in the music business like Marshall, Fender, Abbey Road and Universal Audio. In that time, they’ve developed their own bundle of powerful amp emulations, bringing together the best features of a number of classic amps. Softube’s Vintage Amp Room features the White Amp based on the Marshall JCM800, the Brown Amp based on the Fender Twin and the Green Amp based on the Vox AC30. Their Metal Amp Room was co-developed with Patrik Jensen and tailored to his needs.

Metal Amp Room features upgraded microphone emulations, allowing for stereo mics and adjustable panning. The cabinets were measured in the studio (previously known as Studio Fredman). Check out the presets for some of the studio engineers’ personal favorites. Features an emulation of a Hiwatt DR103 amp, an Amp SVT cab as well as a few proprietary options. It would be impossible to do an amp sim roundup without talking about UAD. Over the years they’ve developed some of the most accurate signal processor available — and their amp sims are no exception. With over 16 painstakingly modeled plugins, the UAD amp collection offers everything from vintage analog tube warmth to modern high-gain madness to thundering bass amps.

Mac Computer Simulator

Honorable Mentions While these plugins may not include the same robust feature set as those above, they each offer unique guitar tones that are worth noting:. Now that you’ve got a wall of sound at your disposal the hardest part will be deciding which amp to use.

Why doesn't it work for mac. I guess things haven’t changed that much after all. Check out these amp sims for some free trials and create a guitar tone worth being picky about! Learn more about.