Cool Pants Michel! heh

Thanx, I thought they fit the occasion heh

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DUDE - not the POD.....NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo



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listen to this album - tell me which tones are real, which are PodFarm.

El Dorado by James Wilsey - Download El Dorado on iTunes



El Dorado by James Wilsey - Download El Dorado on iTunes

Hair spray?

1) I have always said that the ultra clean sounds with amp sims (like the one he demonstrates) do no create the same problems as guitar with gain

2) People almost always drench fake amps in FX when then are demoing them, but drenched in FX guitar do not suite most styles of production.

3) The Avengers were cool.

my favorite sound is a deluxe reverb, just ever so slightly on the edge of breakup, with spring reverb turned on. i've yet to hear an amp sim that can hack that... have you?

Nope, haven't heard it. It's a strange thing trying to get a simulator to be like the sound you describe. Would love it to happen but haven't really experienced it yet.

If you have a Deluxe on the edge of breakup there is a massive amount of dynamics available at your fingertips. You can play all the way from whisper quiet to much much louder while still remaining warm and full.

I can crank up my studio monitors in an attempt to simulate that but you never quite get the same experience as with the real amp.

Seems like a much smaller dynamic range in general with amp simulators trying to recreate what actually happens when you plug into a real Fender amp. Maybe there is still a special DI/interface that can simulate such a wide dynamic range. Haven't tried Eleven or Axe-FX yet, maybe they are much closer to achieving this.

IMO the main problem with any simuator is the right hand reaction. An amp will get louder and brighter when you hit harder with your right hand, simulators do that in a very linear fashion, that's what sounds plastic to me. Once it's recorded, it's sometimes not easy to hear how much better it could have been if the player would have gotten a better reaction to his right hand. I am also sure that one could get any sound of a simulator with an amp, but not the other way around.

Simulators are great for writing and quick demos, but if you care about the minute differences in the expressions in your music, you'd probably better off using an amp. I have given a bunch of simulators the benefit of the doubt many many times and will in the future, but the amp always won. As long as one knows what he/she is doing and has the time to mess around with different amps, speakers, setups, mics and pre-amps I think the real amp sound will always have a better feel, at least for now.

There are a lot new simulators coming out and I will continue to check them out, but for right now, if it goes on an album - it will be an amp.

ditto!

Michael, have you tried the Axe-FX or Eleven yet?

all very good points.

not yet

totally agree! I can not find a great Amp Sim that recreate a Brown, Vintage semi-saturated sound as a good Amp or Amp+Pedal...

But for some nasty super dirty- crazy sounds, AMP Sim can be cool...more like an EFFX.

Now what do you think about the possibility of using those Software Amp Sims or even the POD and use and Amp?
Michael ,did you try that?

Also was a huge discussion between the sound of Pedals vs the Digital Racks.

I felt that for many Metal Rhythm Heavy ,very Saturated sounds those Racks even some if are Digital sounds pretty cool, more like a sound Machine...but always using it with an Amp.

Michael, what do you think about it?
Where is the issue for you? going straight , not using an Amp? or just the sound itself of those devices-Plug Ins.

I've got a 1966 Deluxe Reverb, it looks brand new. It has a lot of dynamic range as it's 80 watts now. It's lots of fun in clubs because no one expects that little thing to be the cause of all that volume! I had one in 1966, but that was stolen. I got this one in 1976 from a housewife for $160.

I used to set up all of Pete Anderson's stuff (Dwight Yoakum). He also had the same Deluxe Reverb, it his was tweaked up to 40 watts using a pair of 6L6 tubes and you can hear it on all of Dwight's CD's. Pete is famous for his tone and many try to emulate his. His old Tele's were refitted with custom jfet preamps to allow more amp "drive" and a lower noise floor.

A few years ago Pete was all gaga over "Amp Farm". He told me he scrapped the amps for Amp Farm! I couldn't believe it myself. He's such a tone purist!

Turns out it was the same thing many of us fall for = novelty. He was smitten at all those sounds he could choose, never realizing to the end none of them would hold up to the real amp. It was the new toy infatuation.

Now he's back to the real amps. I knew he would.

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades

It still remains that the input stage of the emulator doesn't translate your right hand movements correctly. I remember when I started working with King's X, Ty (who is one of the most brilliant guitar players I know) had been working for years with a simulator and when we started recording the album I plugged him into an Engl amp. At first he did not feel comfortable playing the Engl, because it was much more work. After he got used to it, he of course mastered each and every track and he was glad that I insisted on him playing a real amp. His words were: "I forgot how it felt"

It's mainly the input stage that messes it up for me.

Wow, this much to say about PODs? I've sold all but two amp modellers after using a bunch of em off and on. It's not because they don't record well, it's because they feel like crap. As one poster previously quoted, it feels like I'm playing the guitar at one remove; replaying something someone else did.

So, what two did I keep and why? The original Sansamp, being analog, seems to retain the sound envelop of the guitar. I don't use it super high gain, but for clean and crunch it feels right, records well and has saved my bacon at gigs a few times. Always carry one in the suitcase... The AxeFx, using convolution and individual component modelling also seems to get it right. I don't think the AC30 sounds exactly like my AC30, but it's a respectable sound and it feels really good playing it. Since it replaced all my preamps AND modellers AND rack effects for guitar, it's not a bad deal.

By "gain" I mean any amount of gain. Even clean I have not heard amp sims that are as good as a real amp, but the ultra clean sounds do not seem to create all the problems in a mix that the sounds with gain do.

Funny.... i don't seem to run into the same mixing problems, with amp sims.... i mix them all the time with real amps and all kinds of other sources... to me it's similar to mixing a keyboard sound... it's more of what you leave out when designing the sound... it will never be the same as the real thing but it's plenty useful... but as a texture and as rcm pointed out, on low gain settings mostly. also one thing i foud is if you use a analog distortion box and use them for the amp sound they sound quite alright... and pod>amp>mic works ok too... i could not work without them, but would not work without an amp and mics either..

P.S. Michael, if my pod sound anything like that wall of doom probably sounds like, it would be more than awesome, but i guess there's always more tone get from somewhere... love the gear btw!

Distorted amp sim guitars are my least favorite things to have to mix out of everything there is.

I agree that the cleaner sounds are less problematic, but they still don't sit in the mix like a well recorded track done through an amp, or even direct.

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Great photos, Michael - drool, drool!

Finally have some space for your ****, huh heh

YIKES!!....

freekin' awesome!

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I use a Pod pro live... It's a lifesaver and is not susceptible to bad stage acoustics.

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fukk all this ****....it's all in the fingers, anyway...heh....

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Very good point! When I first checked out a POD I was floored because I expected a Zoom-type sound that was all digital and plastic. The POD was so much better that I ended up buying one and also convincing myself how convenient it is in the studio......

Once the novelty wore off the POD was gone. Even though you surely can get workable sounds out of it it just isn't fun. Getting a great recorded guitar sound with an amp always takes work, sometimes it's ver hard work but it's totally worth it!

I love the POD x3 live, personally. I used it to produce my bands album, and we also use them live. Direct into PA. Live, we get an awsome sound, and people always comment. I think for the next album, I will use amps, and POD for tracking. I got a fairly ok sound on the album, but it was recorded at my home with minimal gear. I have a purpose built place now, so have much more space to experiment. I do love line 6 stuff, and I think it's great where there isn't a huge budget.
Have a listen to a few of the tracks on MaLoKai-new album on amazon and itunes!! on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos. See what you think o the sound.

Blessings, Alex

Don't shoot Mike! You'll destroy that perfectly good folding table!!!

SM.

But you should take those awesome pants off before you try to shoot a hole through them.

There will always be some collateral damage

That's what I love about my job: I can wear pajamas to work and have a beer at Noon and nobody would think it's weird... heh

hehhehhehheh
DO IT!