axe fx vs amp modeling software

[smegolas]

one of the criticisms against pod, digitech, etc is that the units dont have the processing power to match the amp fx. however, if youre using software based amp modeling (guitar rig, amplitube, revalver, wave, etc) then you should have the processing power through your computer. ive never used any of these, but for those who have, do any come close to the tones produced by the amp fx?

for those who just play in the basement and dont gig so dont need the hardware, are any of these programs really good? are they more capable than say a pod x3?

thanks

 

[Lkdog]

I have owned or used Revalver MkIII, Amplitube, Guitar Rig 3, and Line 6 Podfarm.
I have a Line 6 POD XT and like it. The Line 6 Podfarm sound is better than the hardware units they have IMO.

I also recently bought a used AXE-FX Ultra.

The Podfarm is the best plug in modeler I have used. Revalver MkIII has some real strengths, but is noisy as all heII and
is a total CPU hog (I have a Core i7 machine with 6 GB), and they do not support it very well. Amplitube is decent.Guitar Rig 3 has some nice sounds also but just
not as believable for me.

The AXE-FX is better than all of the above by a good margin. If you are just getting into plug ins/modelers try the Line 6 Podfarm.
Tons of user patches available and very good tone. Not quite the feel or realism of the Axe-Fx but a steal for the money.

 

[rsf1977]

i agree the line 6 pod farm or gearbox standalone application from Line 6 sound pretty good. Way better then anything else they've made tone wise. I've owner quite a few of their "devices" lol. They all are awaiting a craigslist post.

 

[AndrewSimon]

There are some little gems out there, Vintage Amp Room, Amplitube Fender and some of the effects/amps in Amplitube Jimi Hendrix but nothing really comes near the the AXE-FX quality.

 

[smegolas]

. The Line 6 Podfarm sound is better than the hardware units they have IMO.

really? isnt it just the same models? i believe that the x3 live comes with pod farm to be used for editing patches and as a plug in.

 

[RiF]

. The Line 6 Podfarm sound is better than the hardware units they have IMO.

really? isnt it just the same models? i believe that the x3 live comes with pod farm to be used for editing patches and as a plug in.

I had almost all POD/Toneport whatevery thingys including the Podfarm software. The Toneport sounds exactly the same as the PODFarm software. The only thing I noticed is, that the Toneports/PODfarms seem to sound a bit better than the PODs. Some sounds are usable, some are not, most of them do not work well in a mix. Nothing like a real amp or an axe-fx.

 

[Lkdog]

There allegedly were some changes in the algorithms in the plug in versus the hardware versions and some Line 6 reps actually confirmed there were some slight variations I believe.
I thought the Fender Bassman was slightly different with exact same settings for instance.
Other users on L6 forums agreed that the plug in could sound different.
Could be wrong. Certainly nothing significant if there were actual changes.

Here is what I will state as a fact for myself-since I got the Axe-Fx Ultra a month ago I have not turned on my POD XT or used Podfarm.

 

[bonehead]

I have revalver MKIII and love it. Very good tones and it feels good when playing as well.. Also have Guitar rig I only like some of the effects not the amps.

 

[smegolas]

for those who have upgraded from pod to axefx, did you find some of the presets in axefx or patches available online to be very good? or did you have to do tonnes of tweaking before yuo got something really great? and how experienced do you have to be with tweaking?

 

[RiF]

for those who have upgraded from pod to axefx, did you find some of the presets in axefx or patches available online to be very good?

No, not all all. For my taste of guitar tones (mostly metal), none of the presets sounded acceptable.

or did you have to do tonnes of tweaking before yuo got something really great?

Yes, absolutely.

and how experienced do you have to be with tweaking?

You don't have to be experienced. Being a member of this forum to ask questions, a thumb and index finger to turn a knob and press some buttons, one working eye to read the display and one ear to hear the results should besufficient. A good amount of curiosity helps a lot.

 

[monkeymanx]

Believe it or not, some of the best sounding software amps are free. The LePou or Poulin Le456 is freaking awsome when paired with a good cab IR. Also the Nick Crow 7170 and 8170 are great too. I've been going back and forth with various software amps and found the free ones to be great. Alot of the payware is great too though. There are a lot of choices out there and luckily you can demo almost all of them. But give the freeware ones a go, A/B them against some other stuff.

 

[Lkdog]

for those who have upgraded from pod to axefx, did you find some of the presets in axefx or patches available online to be very good? or did you have to do tonnes of tweaking before yuo got something really great? and how experienced do you have to be with tweaking?

I have had the Ultra AXE-FX for about a month.
With 383 presets, it has been hard to spend a lot of time with each one.
Some of them are awesome straight out of the box IMO.

With 383 presets though, you get some duds or odd ones for sure.

The Axe-Exchange with hundreds more presets is a great resource IMO.
Certain users here on the forum have contributed some excellent presets.

Honestly, I have found plenty of highly usable presets stock and online.
I have not had to do much tweaking at all.

 

[Lkdog]

I have revalver MKIII and love it. Very good tones and it feels good when playing as well.. Also have Guitar rig I only like some of the effects not the amps.

Probably more of a real feel than the Line 6 stuff-agree.
Noisy as heII, though and needs a pretty high end computer.

 

[raz]

for those who have upgraded from pod to axefx, did you find some of the presets in axefx or patches available online to be very good? or did you have to do tonnes of tweaking before yuo got something really great?

When have you ever gotten "great" results out of anything without lots of work? Greatness in any endeavor, be it tiddle-dee-winks, playing the guitar, or making an Axe-FX sound great, requires dedicated, focused, consistent effort. "Average," "fair-to-middling" and "okay" are easy to get to. Greatness is hard. I don't care what it is. Greatness never comes cheaply. It's hard. There is no way around that. Not even with a single-ended tube amp.

and how experienced do you have to be with tweaking?

It's easy to do anything once you know how to do it. So again, there's no answer to that question. Once you've learned how to put an amp block and a cabinet block into an empty location, and how to connect them to input and output, and how to select the amp block and edit it, then tweaking is easy. But until you learn how to do that, tweaking is impossible. The same is true about any Line6 product.

But I'll say this, having owned a Pod, Pod Pro, and XT Live and used all of them extensively: it takes no more time to learn how to put a basic preset together on the Axe-FX than it does on any Line6 product. And once you do that, you'll realize that you get better results with the Axe than you would with the Line6 product. So you'll be closer to greatness than with the equivalent amount of time spent with a Pod.

 

[avastcosmicarena]

Believe it or not, some of the best sounding software amps are free. The LePou or Poulin Le456 is freaking awsome when paired with a good cab IR. Also the Nick Crow 7170 and 8170 are great too. I've been going back and forth with various software amps and found the free ones to be great. Alot of the payware is great too though. There are a lot of choices out there and luckily you can demo almost all of them. But give the freeware ones a go, A/B them against some other stuff.

Yup.... the 8505 and the new X30 sim by ongel (modeling an engl preamp) are very good. I've honestly had better luck with them than I have the axe-fx. and that's with using the same impulses (guitarhack, recabinet, catharsis... these are all the best I've tried and much better than all in axe-fx unfortunately :/)

 

[AlbertA]

Believe it or not, some of the best sounding software amps are free. The LePou or Poulin Le456 is freaking awsome when paired with a good cab IR. Also the Nick Crow 7170 and 8170 are great too. I've been going back and forth with various software amps and found the free ones to be great. Alot of the payware is great too though. There are a lot of choices out there and luckily you can demo almost all of them. But give the freeware ones a go, A/B them against some other stuff.

Yup.... the 8505 and the new X30 sim by ongel (modeling an engl preamp) are very good. I've honestly had better luck with them than I have the axe-fx. and that's with using the same impulses (guitarhack, recabinet, catharsis... these are all the best I've tried and much better than all in axe-fx unfortunately :/)

Interesting, I take it this is what you are referring to?:
http://www.theserinaexperiment.net/

 

[FractalAudio]

Yup.... the 8505 and the new X30 sim by ongel (modeling an engl preamp) are very good. I've honestly had better luck with them than I have the axe-fx. and that's with using the same impulses (guitarhack, recabinet, catharsis... these are all the best I've tried and much better than all in axe-fx unfortunately :/)

Hmmmm, I tried them and found them sterile and fizzy. Different strokes I suppose.

 

[avastcosmicarena]

Yup.... the 8505 and the new X30 sim by ongel (modeling an engl preamp) are very good. I've honestly had better luck with them than I have the axe-fx. and that's with using the same impulses (guitarhack, recabinet, catharsis... these are all the best I've tried and much better than all in axe-fx unfortunately :/)

Hmmmm, I tried them and found them sterile and fizzy. Different strokes I suppose.

the amp sims or the IRs?

if amp sims, it obviously depends on what kind of music and what real amps you prefer too. for me, the whole andy sneap/jason suecof/etc. 5150 into a mesa oversized cab is perfect. I think the 8505 can get really close. it needs to have a tubescreamer boosting in front though(just like in real life. hah) the engl amp ongel made is much tighter, but I could agree that one is maybe a bit too scratchy sounding. I think the 8505 is a little smoother..... it depends on a lot of factors though, of course...

EDIT: Forgot to mention I'm talking strictly high gain modern metal tone here. for clean sounds I'm 100% happy with what I can get with the axe-fx (stock IRs and all)... but haven't really nailed a high gain sound direct that I love still, and it's been a while...