How do we know the amp models are very accurate?

rrhoads17

Inspired
For people who don't really play tube amps and don't have access to play a Friedman, vintage Fenders and Marshalls, etc., how do we know that the amp models are extremely close to the amps that they're modeling? The amp models sound very good obviously, but do they sound almost dead on to the real deal?
 
The only thing that matters to me is whether I can get good sounds from them. I honestly don't care if they're accurate or not.

Edit: Just to be clear, I believe that the models are very close, and it's nice to know that I'm getting at least some of the experience of playing the real thing. What I don't care about are things like whether the models match the real amp knob settings.
 
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The comparison to a specific amp is relevant to a player who knows that tone. Normally that means someone who has played the amp, but it could also apply to someone chasing a recorded tone where the gear used is known. In either case, you’ll know because you know what sound to expect. In those two instances, yes, it matters.

Otherwise, there are so many great sounding amps available, your options are to sample them until you find what you like, or sample until you discover something you love that you didn’t know existed.

I feel bad for people who get hung up on the hype, the net gossip, and forum lore about what is and what isn’t. Screw all that. Use you ears, pick your poison, and make some music. Honestly, if you can’t find a suitable tone in the Axe Fx III, it isn’t the gear. Go have some fun.
 
The only people that this truly matters to are the tube purists who look for any excuse to defend their personal choices. The internet is their soapbox.

I have a bunch of tube amps, and I don't care one bit if I can dial in my digital stuff to sound "exactly" like them. Just like I don't sweat the fact that my Deluxe Reverb doesn't sound anywhere close to my Boogies. There are certain sounds I am after, and I can get them from either platform.
 
It doesn't really matter but of course we obsess over it.

I have several tube amps and mostly use the AFXIII with a power amp and guitar cabs. I do not do any deep editing other than messing with the impedance curve to match the cabinet.

I don't think I could tell the difference between Recto1 Red and my actual Rev G Recto or the difference between IIC+ and my Mark III (which I couldn't tell apart from an actual IIC+ when I had one).

I think I could tell the difference between my unboosted JMP 2204 and Brit 800, but I could not tell them apart once boosted with an SD-1/Super OD.

I think I could tell the difference between the AFXIII and my 5150 and SVT. I haven't entirely gotten those models figured out yet, it seems. There's a rumble or sub-bass thump from those amps (and an unboosted 2204) that I can't figure out how to get from the AFXIII/power amp setup. The Recto1 sim has rumble to spare haha, the C+/MKIII doesn't have rumble ever, and boosting the 2204 cuts all of that.
 
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Funny that many say it does not matter while Fractal has doggedly pursued a very high degree of accuracy to the originals for over a decade now and which is regularly applauded and precisely measured by many Fractal users. It does indeed seem to matter a lot as that accuracy is one of the common yardsticks by which modellers are measured and which consistently establishes Axefx as "Top of the Heap"
 
The comparison to a specific amp is relevant to a player who knows that tone. Normally that means someone who has played the amp, but it could also apply to someone chasing a recorded tone where the gear used is known. In either case, you’ll know because you know what sound to expect. In those two instances, yes, it matters.

Otherwise, there are so many great sounding amps available, your options are to sample them until you find what you like, or sample until you discover something you love that you didn’t know existed.

I feel bad for people who get hung up on the hype, the net gossip, and forum lore about what is and what isn’t. Screw all that. Use you ears, pick your poison, and make some music. Honestly, if you can’t find a suitable tone in the Axe Fx III, it isn’t the gear. Go have some fun.
Great reply Rick!
 
I honestly don't "know" they're accurate, but having been interactive here for almost a year, and reading reading and more reading, I've come to trust that they just are.
I remember when Cliff had this epiphany prior to Cygnus, and I was like, wow. This guy just never stops improving things, even after it's reached levels that many have reported sound so good that they can't fathom how they could be further improved upon.
Plus, I get so many amazing-sounding tones from the Axe, that I honestly don't care. I know what a great guitar tone sounds like, and this magic black box gets 'em!
 
For people who don't really play tube amps and don't have access to play a Friedman, vintage Fenders and Marshalls, etc., how do we know that the amp models are extremely close to the amps that they're modeling? The amp models sound very good obviously, but do they sound almost dead on to the real deal?
Well, I read it on the internet. Must be true.
 
The whole "just use your ears" thing has never really added up to me. Sure ears are important but if it's just that, then its twiddling knobs and hoping to land on the sound in your head - and given the number of knobs / combinations of knobs, the chances of aimlessly stumbling on that sound is unlikely. I think most people start playing guitar because they were inspired by some player or other which translates into a playing skillset quest and a tone quest which translates into buying / selling / buying gear to match the target tone(s), and, of course measuring progress along the way and predetermining if possible (as the OP requests) how close a given piece of gear can carry one to the target tone. Learning about the "standard" amp tones and how they came to be is also essential in my experience so far (ie if Brian May inspires one's playing, check out resources like "5 Watt World" to understand the history of the Vox AC30...). Learning / understanding more about the mechanics of various amp flavours, and tools like eq, compression + various fx also tremendously improves my ability dial in tones. It's so much more than just listening for what sounds good, though I do think the intention of the this statement often includes these other considerations - but without articulating those related items, the "just use your ears" statement does not seem very meaningful imo.
 
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