Indeed, but some measures can be taken. (Good Signal) + (Guitar Rig) - (A bit of 4kHz to 8kHz) = (Better Sound). Taming the fizz is tough; right out of the box, GR sounds like an amp covered in a swarm of bees, but certain liberties in the cab & mic section with some positioning and phase tinkering, plus some extremely narrow cuts and a broad boost here and there post-amp really helps.
I believe you've overlooked DURAN DURAN, my friend. I DEFY ANY OF YOU TO CHALLENGE NOTORIOUS' GREATNESS.

Tubifex by TC.

when I use an amp sim I lean to GR, I also own nigel, amplitube and the built in one in Logic. They all have has something i could work with. I usually add them to a real amp track for texture. I always record a direct input along with miced amps incase we want to change the sound later.

Duran Duran Notorious is an awsome album.

The short answer is--Native Instruments Guitar Rig

For my full thoughts about the state of the art (in 2004, at least ):
http://emusician.com/mag/emusic_stack_box/

I'm also very curious to try the new Waves GTR product.

And BTW, even though I write about the sims, I'm still a "toob snob" and own numerous tube amp heads as well.

Orren

I've used Amplitube, Guiar Rig, and GTR. I'm not a big fan of amplitube, it seems to have a very distinct sonic signature on it that isn't always a good thing. Guitar Rig sounds pretty good but uses up so much DSP power that I'm hardpressed to use it on an intensive session. GTR sounds good if you spend some time tweaking, and it does seem to actually sound like a guitar amp, unlike amplitube. I'm pretty happy with GTR right now.

Dante

[QUOTE=jordan19]yes, but when the women you love are gone for a week or two, suddenly the blow up doll doesn't look so bad. it's all relative


heh heh heh

guitar rig for me is the www.realdoll.com of amp sims .. pretty useful for trashing tracks and the odd impromptu guitar overdub still wouldn't really use it for main guitar tracks but yeah the flexibility of it can be a great inspiration for experimentation.

It also totally rules on keyboards and I find more often than not I have it patch up on a send just as a spring reverb

CHeers,
Marcus

simulanalog (coolest interface, check it out)
voxengo boogex (ir based)
both are freebies, and good for what they are. i prefer real amps (which i don´t need that often either since i´m doing mostly acoustic stuff. so don´t trust me here).

These aren't plugs but here's my vote: For cleans and overdriven guitars: The Vox Tonelab. For dirt and grind for days: The Mesa Recto Recording Pre. Of course both into good preamps and Spkr. simulators. I'll put them up against any plug.

Hey Marcus that is the best point yet,Guitar rig is better for synth stuff then just Gtr's.
I normalled mic up the amp's first then if we need the soft stuff in the rig we use it.
Because the distortion in all these rigs sucks lets face it.
You can't get good distortion without an amp and a stomp! box tutt
But the bottom line is use the miced up amp first with 3 or four mics come on we all have tons of mics. Then if you need gtr rig or any other sim. use it for automation for the hook....etc..etc. I guess what I am trying to say is either buy an AMP and like 40 stomp boxes or get a DOLL!!!>>>>>>STOMP BOXES RULE!!!!

I like amplitube a lot, but I haven't heard Guitar Rig, either.
I've gotten some damn good sounds out of amplitube, that's all I know.

My favorite sound so far is to put it on a DI bass track. I just dial up a clean amp sound and BOOM the bass is suddenly WAY badass!!!

I like Amplitube...mostly my sounds are going to be more cleanish OD tones...Bassman, OD'd Deluxe, Plexi kinds of sounds. It doesn't do very well on heavier tones, but...

Guitar RIg and that Legends thing were just rotten for the kinds of sound I use. People say the heavy stuff is better, but frankly, if it doesn't have the meat and potatoes sounds--well, I didn't explore further. All I know, is there is nothing you can pull out of NI's "Twin" amp that sounds anything like a decent Twin reverb. Not even resembling it. People seem to like it's recto amp sim, but I don't like real Mesas, so...again, I didn't do too much playing with it during the demo period.

Now, I did find a lot to like in Line6's Guitar Port, but, it can be flaky routing to record within an app, and there's not a very wide variety of "good" there.

If I HAVE to DI heavier stuff, I've got a little box that can be stellar--- www.v-stack.com --little analog stomp box, peels back the distortion with the guitar's vol knob, and it very pick sensitive. You can actually get it where it clean picking lightly, and screams when you dig in. Pricey for effectively a one trick pony DI...but, it kills the plugs and PODs and JStations, etc I've used. Works well as a dist pedal in front of a clean amp, too.

All in all...I'd rather use SansAmps and V-Stacks, etc--analog pedals through my old ADA cabinet sim than any of the digital wizz bangs. But, Amplitube has gotten me where I was going morethan a time or two.