Anyone play PRS guitar through DAW / amp sims, particularly Reaper?

ken2esq

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I have been toying with Reaper DAW for a couple years because it was cheap way of getting experience with Digital Audio Workstation / home recording, and it supposedly had a lot more professional functionality than, say, GarageBand.

One of my main interests was plugging my electric guitars into an interface, and using Reaper for amp simulators, virtual effects pedals, etc., as an alternative to chasing tone through real amps, pedals, etc. So I downloaded a lot of different amp sims, cabinet simulators, impulse effects, pedal-type virtual effects, etc. There's a lot out there -- both free and otherwise. Really, the amount of options was daunting. As some one who has had hardly any experience with real amps and pedals, I was not able to dial in any tone I liked with the virtual stuff. (I have powered studio monitors that are good, so I don't think speaker quality is the issue.) But back when I was trying this, I was using relatively cheap guitars (Epiphone G400 or Epiphone Dot Studio).

Now I've got my PRS McCarty and I see a lot of difference in the tone when I play it through my real tube amp. I'm thinking about giving the Reaper / virtual amp sims another shot, this time using my PRS. I think the type of guitar affects what works best for an amp sim, virtual guitar effects chain, etc., so I'm particularly interested in any other PRS players (particularly McCarty players) who have used amp sims and virtual guitar effects chains, what they like to use, how they sequence the virtual plug ins or dial them in, what kind of tones they got with their set up (e.g., perhaps comparing it to a band / player I might know, like a chain for Pink Floyd-like tone, or for Santana-ish, or Nirvana-ish, etc.)? I think with Reaper in particular it may even be possible to "share" a virtual FX chain, which I have never done but, if it can be done, might be ideal.

Yeah, I guess some old fashioned, roll-up-the-sleeves diving in and experimenting might help me figure this out, but time is a luxury and I'm hoping I might be able to cut a corner or two with some good advice.

Ken
 
Hi

My suggestion: Demo a couple without paying before you decide.

I've recently gotten Scufhham's "S-gear", which has just four amp models. This is a huge strength in my opinion - simplicity rules!!! if you had 50 real amps, you wouldn't know what to do with them. Virtual is no different.
It also has some pretty neat cabinet emulators.

You can also try vintage amp room, which has 3 amps, and also apparently has some of the same strengths people praise s-gear for - playing response (feels more like playing a real amp).

If you go for something different, you can couple it with a good cabinet emulator - the Redwirez stuff seems to get a lot of praise, as does Ownhammer. Then you just turn of the cab emulator in the plugin itself.

Note that s-gear includes some of the redwirez cabs "natively".
 
I often work on demos sketching out ideas with amp simulators, and use S-Gear and Vintage Amp Room as well. I also like Native Instruments Guitar Rig for heavily effected things.

For lots of plug and play bread and butter tones, Waves Guitar is very good. BX has some good amp sims similar to S-Gear in that only a few things are modeled, but they're very good.

I have several other packages as well, but these are my favorites.
 
I have a line 6 pod studio with pod farm. I use it for scratch tracks and playing around but when I record I throw a 57 on my tube amp.
 
I do this all the time, and get results I'm happy with. There are a couple of tricks to getting the guitar sims to sound good. I personally like Amplitube 3, with the newer model packs like the Slash pack and the Orange Amp pack. Just getting the OCD pedal and putting it in front of the basic amps sounds pretty darn good.

#1 - Get a GOOD interface. Something that accepts a Hi-Z guitar input and has adjustable gain on the interface. If you are not sending a good signal to the sim, it's going to sound bad.
#2 - Change the sample rate. For some reason, changing the sample rate to 96 kHz seems to open up a lot of the sims.
#3 - If the amp sim has a 'room mix', add a bit it in. This takes the sound from being dry / fake to having some air
#4 - If you can move the virtual mics around, do it.
#5 - Play with the different cabs.
#6 - Use the pedals like you would with a real amp. The trick to good distortion is to layer the distortion. Try putting a TS808 or an OCD pedal in front of a Marshall head and cab. Put a compressor in front of an amp or distortion. Use the TS808 like a tone shaper.

Hope these help!
 
I use a cheap setup of a guitarport, pod farm 1@2 and noise cancelling studio headphones. I love the super low latency of the pod farm/guitarport dispite it being very outdated. I have lepou plugins used through reaper too. I got jamup pro xt for my iPhone 4s and it is AMAZING for the money. I am experimenting with it a lot just now. My cornford harlequin is gathering dust just now with a child in the house I don't need more volume!

I need a decent interface and monitors soon. I will be buying a focusrite scarlet 2i2 after seeing misha mansoor using one and rating it highly.
 
I use a cheap setup of a guitarport, pod farm 1@2 and noise cancelling studio headphones. I love the super low latency of the pod farm/guitarport dispite it being very outdated. I have lepou plugins used through reaper too. I got jamup pro xt for my iPhone 4s and it is AMAZING for the money. I am experimenting with it a lot just now. My cornford harlequin is gathering dust just now with a child in the house I don't need more volume!

I need a decent interface and monitors soon. I will be buying a focusrite scarlet 2i2 after seeing misha mansoor using one and rating it highly.

Yeah, I briefly tried Amplitube on my PC and didn't love the experience. I have used Reaper as a DAW, which is nice and great price. Honestly, if I wanted to use Reaper, I'd still plug my iPhone/Pad into the PC using JamUp Pro or Bias...it's that good and I have no desire to go through the trouble trying anything else.
 
As far as I'm concerned, this is the only way to record guitars. I use Logic Pro X and Amplitube 3. The "Custom Shop" version of Amplitube, where you can purchase individual amps, cabs, and effects, has a model of the Marshall AFD100 that just blows me away.
 
By the way, PRSh actually had a hand in the development of Waves GTR. It includes some models based on amps in his personal collection:

 
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I use Lepou stuff. His amp sims and cab loader. I downloaded a huge file that had cab impulses from many different people.

I mainly only play high gain stuff with drop tunings but i feel high gain is where sims tend to shine. Especially after EQing. Amazing sound has a lot with getting your original signals right but a really skilled person who knows how to cut certain frequencies and all the after effects can truly make it mint.

There are times when i feel like the sound and response i get is a bit too good. Notes seem to jump off the fretboard... Sustain, playability seems a bit too easy and unrealistic...better than my tube amp with 2x12 Eminence Governors. I almost feel the need to limit my play time in this realm because it seems to somehow hurt my perception of how a real rig acts in the real world.
 
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I recently picked up the Scuffham software as well. Simplicity, but with a wide range of tones (not that I've begun to scratch the surface).

Also use some Amplitube, including the Orange and Metal sets. It's a minor niggle, but I hate that Amplitube shows you all the models but doesn't tell you what's actually installed, so you can see something in the list and not realize you can't use it until you select it.

I agree with the other guys - my preference is to use a real tube amp, but there are times that the quickness and simplicity of the sims does the job. A lot of times I'll turn to my Adrenalinn III for a clean tone - it just has the bite I want without a lot of dialing and tweaking.

All the guitars on this track are sims - all Amplitube, as I recall.

https://soundcloud.com/alantig/war-machine

For the record - as I was learning it, the DGT through a Hot British pedal into the 2-channel C NAILED the tone. And I'm not a tone-chaser (meaning I'm not trying to emulate any player's sound).
 
By the way, PRSh actually had a hand in the development of Waves GTR. It includes some models based on amps in his personal collection:



This is some good stuff actually. One of the models is nearly dead on with my Blistertone 50. It takes some tweaking but you can achieve some very very nice tones.

On the other side, I also use Amplitube and Pod Farm 2. If you like presets these are good, but if you are tweaker, they are EVEN better.
 
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I use software amps all the time, there's great stuff available (even in Garageband) if you spend the time with it.
 
Another Garageband guy here. One cable and I'm playing.
I use it as a "sketch pad" for riffs and other noises.
 
I use GB, Logic, Line6, Amplitube, through a Toneport GX. No latency issues. Can't say I love the sounds, but I do love recording the dry guitar and toying amps and effects endlessly afterwards.
 
#1 - Get a GOOD interface. Something that accepts a Hi-Z guitar input and has adjustable gain on the interface. If you are not sending a good signal to the sim, it's going to sound bad.

Thanks for the advice, but a bit too late. I already have the FocusRite 2i2 interface. I saw in a thread on the Reaper forum just today, there was a question about this interface, and a representative FROM FOCUSRITE said this interface was not good for electric guitar, issue with gain / headroom. That seems to confirm both your advice, and the fact I need a better interface. So now I get the joy of selling my old interface 2nd hand and buying a better one. Crap. Well, at least I know what I need to do to improve my virtual amp tones (or, more accurately, one of the things, since there's probably more to it).

Ken
 
That sucks I seen the video misha mansoor from periphery reccomends the 2i2 as thought 'if he uses it' etc but I read I bit afterwards saying it clips like crazy even on low gain input. From what I read the 2i4 is the one to get (but more pricey)
 
Thanks for the advice, but a bit too late. I already have the FocusRite 2i2 interface. I saw in a thread on the Reaper forum just today, there was a question about this interface, and a representative FROM FOCUSRITE said this interface was not good for electric guitar, issue with gain / headroom. That seems to confirm both your advice, and the fact I need a better interface. So now I get the joy of selling my old interface 2nd hand and buying a better one. Crap. Well, at least I know what I need to do to improve my virtual amp tones (or, more accurately, one of the things, since there's probably more to it).

Ken


Hold your horses! :)

Instead of taking a hit on the resale and buying something more expensive, you could just get a DI box. Something like this, maybe: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Nady-ADI-1-Active-Direct-Box-183713-i1125322.gc

It's probably not the highest quality, but it has a high input impedance on the guitar setting, so that's something. And it's pretty cheap. That's what I would do. I use a DI as well (though I soldered up my own from a kit).

You would then plug it in to an input on the 2i2 set to "line" and adjust the gain so there's decent signal going into the amp sim (no reason to go overboard, though)... It runs on phantom power, so you would switch that on on your interface as well. Conversely, if you are recording a mic at the same time which DOESN'T use phantom power, then the DI can be powered from a 9V battery (I say this because it seems the 2i2 only has a global phantom power on/off like my interface does).

No guarantees from me that it will work as intended, but it should, unless focusrite screwed up.

Sound quality is probably not the greatest in a cheap unit such as this, but unless you're doing professional recordings and such I don't think that's a problem.

Give it a whirl - especially if you can get it with a return policy.
 
Thanks, Michael, I had seen that mentioned in other forums after searching more on the focusrite 2i2 problem. There was some disagreement whether it was worth it, since a "good" DI box can cost over $100 (as much as the focusrite itself) and if you buy a cheaper type, like under $40, it's like buying a cheap microphone, and will itself have some negative affect on tone or recording quality. While some of the DI's around $60 were well-regarded, at that price point I might be able to sell my 2i2 and buy a 2i4 that does not have the clipping problem (and has MIDI). But there is the hassle factor of getting a new interface...

Well, I ultimately bought a used Behringer Ultra-DI DI100 off Ebay. We'll see if a cheap DI is satisfactory.

Ken
 
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