Amp Sim Pedal Vs Valve Amps Can You Tell The Difference?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ค. 2024
- In todays video we'll be comparing two classic amps (Fender Twin, Marshall) with an amp modeller, Blackstar Amped-1. To see if you even really need a guitar amp anymore for Alternative/indie.
Here on this channel we explore all things Alt, Indie and Shoegaze guitar, so i thought it would be a good idea to see if in 2023 you really need a guitar amp or whether you can get some amazing tones from an amp sim! I was really surprised by what i heard when i plugged in the Blackstar Amped 1!
Buy the Blackstar Amped-1 (USA): amzn.to/473BPaA
Watch these other videos for more of this stuff!
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#guitaramp #alternativerock #ampsim #shoegazeguitar #indierock - เพลง
Whilst editing this there was things I wish I had said in the video but didn’t. So here goes:
I still absolutely love guitar amps and I love all the different sounds from different speakers, mics and amp voicings but I think if you’re limited to £300/400 this amp sim is hard to beat.
I also think there’s something about how amps look setup on stage that is so alluring and I don’t think will ever go away.
Anyway enjoy the video and let me know what you think!
Watching you play at 8:43 being enveloped in feedback is where it's at for me. I try to get the amp to "sing" every chance I get. We are fortunate to have so many tools available to us today that we can create any playing environment that we desire. Enjoyed the video! Cheers!
Yeah 100% you cant beat that feeling!
Excellent video and playing sir!
Thank you mate!
@@thesethingsmakenoises you're welcome!
Hi! I really look forward to your Sunday vid and im impressed by October drift. I have the origin 50 combo with a celestion midnight speaker, and compared to my solid state amps, it just feels warm and more alive to me. worth lugging around. but for a backup the amp 1 is great.
Thanks so much mate!
Yeah they're amazing amps aren't they! The DR Z i had before is an absolute backbreaker haha!
As a 49 year old player it’s tube amps….always. The outfit I’m playing with now are leap years ahead of me in the modeler scene and I’m now immersed in in ear etc.etc…. It sounds great and I see the merits but there’s nothing like feeling the air from a tube driven amp smacking you in the back.
Yeah definitely! I think that pushing air feeling is what i was trying to get across at the end. Maybe i should have run it through my cab too!
The amp I first had in 1986 was dreadful. I got my youngest a Boss Katana 50. It’s incredible. For the record I use an HX Stomp for recording. If I was playing live I would use my amp.
Air movement is definitely a plus, especially for live settings. But as far as time goes, which is in my opinion most important, it really doesn’t matter what you go with as long as the tone is in. Valves will not make you tone better. They provide features. Other Amos provide other features, and some the same features as a valve. Not to mention the price to tone ratio (if you can even measure that) it simply isn’t worth it for me *shrug*
@@thesethingsmakenoisesI think that's the answer. Put it through a cab and then you have the best of both worlds. But then does that make the whole space saving exercise irrelevant?
Also, Im not totally convinced if I had to buy a cab too whether or not I’d prefer to just buy a cheaper valve combo or something?!
Funny how I stopped in the studio whilst you were making this vid, and unwittingly touched on exactly what it was about haha
Haha innit mate! Good spot 🤘
I regret using amp processors a lot of years, I thought I was outsmarting everybody else who spend a lot of money on amps and pedals, until I got a fender blues deluxe that amp made me love play guitar again, amps sound and feel amazing, playing it mic up with a rode Ntk using headphones sound like a finished record
Yeah, they are amazing amps! There is something special about them isn't there!
Nice stuff 👏 👌
Thanks mate!
This is the perfect video cause I was looking for an an amp modeler and this thing sound great
Thanks mate!
I bought a solid state marshall and cab combo a long time ago. Lately I've been watching Aaron rush's videos on capturing Nirvana's tone, and I'm convinced that my speakers in the cab make a bigger difference to the overall sound than the name on the front.
I'm probably insane, but one of my next "if I have the cash" guitar related purchases is going to be trying to obtain 4 pre-rola celestion speakers from the late 60s and early 70s as they sound exactly like Nevermind. I had hoped I'd find a cab from the era to make that happen but the speakers alone are over $500 each, putting a vintage cab with them in it, in good condition, into the thousands.
The price we pay when chasing a dragon
I've learned so much from Aaron when it comes to tone. Because I'm really old, I accidently got the Nevermind tone. In 1985 I bought this Boogie setup brand new. A 1985 Boogie Simul-class head w/EL34's and a 1985 Mesa 2x12 cabinet with an EV top speaker and a Celestion bottom speaker. Plug in a 1983 Stratocaster and put the Boogie into Channel 3, no pedals, and it's magical. Kurt used that Boogie preamp on some tracks and the sounds are remarkably similar.
His videos are awesome aren't they! Yeah 100%. My Marshall sounds really different through that Blackstar cab or through my Dr Z's speakers!
Those speakers sound nuts!
They are a nice combination. The EV produces clarity and the Celestion provides the low end rumble if desired. Turn the dials correctly and you’re feeling that tone from head to toe at around 100 dbs. That Boogie is really moreish. 😊
Great video sir and I have the blackstar which is awesome but I personally now have a HX Stomp with a Harley Benton 100w SS power amp and that gives me all the stuff with analog in the front.
Also as a fuzz connoisseur check out the soundlad hungry beaver pedal!
That sounds awesome!
Will check it out for sure.
@@thesethingsmakenoises next time your back in the home town, you are welcome to borrow mine dude
I use amps cause I love collecting "Shitty" little solid state amps no ones bothered modeling or making pedals out of, you either find a hidden gem or get very skilled at finding sweet spots and teasing out good sounds from bad gear.
I salute your approach. There's no such thing as bad gear, just bad set-up/pairing. I ran a guitar into a stack of crap clones, then a studio power amp out if a skip, into an ancient £20 Behringer 12" mi-top cab. Sounded colossal. Apparently Cobain used to do a similar thing using a Sans amp and big hi-fi speakers from junk stores.
I used to use a 10" 30w Ampeg for guitar as well. I got it cheap, apparently they get used by keyboard players as well. Cheap and sound reasonably good.
That sounds like an awesome idea! I know Jonny Greenwood uses a Fender 85 which is like a tiny solid state amp that you can pick up really cheap!
1:19 the feels!
This amp sim gives a bit of a famous sneaker brand vibe. Their shoes take significantly less space in your luggage and are compatible with almost everything to make you feel comfy & on point. But in the same breath there are occasions when you just want to swap them for the nostalgic warmth of something you've been attached to for years. Humans. All about the emotional value of things :)
That's a solid analysis of the beast, though! Give it some years to add a few atmospheric memories to its portfolio - and there's a new nostalgia bringing people together around this thing ☺️
Thanks so much Daria!
Nice pedal. Gives another option. Nice clarity, as the valve felt more alive or energetic to me. I think that pedal would layer up nice with the valve amp for a full sound.
Yeah thats a good shout actually. We've been using it on recordings in that way, adding extra tracks with the blackstar on top of the amp sounds anf it really does sound awesome!
In the jazz world often times transistor is opted over valves.
i think there's merit to both. the new little amps are great for touring setups or for home recording. i really have no space in my tiny apartment to set up a bunch of speakers and have cables run everywhere. i think tube amps and analog recording will stay around if just for professional recording purposes, experimentation and also because it's just plain fun to plug into a nice amp and chug off. i won't deny that there's a physicality to playing a fat marshall head through a 4x12 that's addictive as hell and that just can not be replicated going the pedal amp/di route. or at least i couldn't so far. but for practicality reasons these small pedal amps are pretty awesome.
I think everything you said in this comment is correct!
the Amped did sound great, if a bit nasally for my tastes. Live i’ll always be using a Deluxe Reverb (or something larger for a big clean sound), but in the studio it’s all preamps and cab sims. Two preamps for guitar, one for synth and a bass preamp for my drum machine. No mics needed, and they sit really well together.
Sounds like an awesome shout there mate!
Something nearly every reviewer seems to miss, is one of the main reasons I love tube amps. How well does it go when set on the edge of breakup, then using boosts to push the tubes into full on overdrive?
My favourite fuzz is the Way Huge Swollen Pickle, in part for the sheer amount of volume (labeled "loudness" on the pedal itself) it has - it can smash the preamp tubes seriously hard - but I'm yet to find an amp sim that is designed with the kind of headroom needed to be able to do that (I had high hopes for the new UA ones, but they crap out with nasty digital clipping if you just plug a guitar with high output pickups into them).
Until I find an amp sim pedal with high enough headroom that it can take being slammed with huge amounts of boost, I'll have to stick with real tube amps.
Yeah I think you make a really good point!
I’ve never tried one but our bass player has the pork and pickle and loves it!
Yeah I do get that. This thing does have some really good headroom but ultimately if you want to sit and blast it out a tube amp is gonna allow you to do that for sure!
I only being an amp to gigs as I play bass and we were told not to put bass through wedges. Some of us use in-ears, but there's still a few Luddites, so the amp is for them. I use a Behringher BDI into the desk for FOH and its great (I had a GDI but it wasn't as good on guitar).
A lot of people are using Helix and Tonex floor units these days which would be the way forward for anybody playing.though headphones/laptop at home and through PA for.rehearsals and gigs.
I still.like a.valve amp and use them for gigs and through a Torpedo Captor to record.
Your settings on the Blackstar seemed close enough, speakers make a great difference to tone. I usually use IRs of Fanes or Greenbacks.with my Captor.
Yeah i think even for the audience members at gigs just having that sound coming off the stage really does make it sound great.
Yeah, you're right. Speakers are definitely a big part of it!
now it is 2024 and modelers still don’t sound like The real deal
Got a AxeFx3, Kemper and a room full of real rigs I have been collecting since the mid-70s
I also own a Roland chorus and some Gallien Krueger 250 RL’s they are solid State and they sound great but they do not sound like a tube amps nor should they
My ADAmp1’s have a nice mix of analogue and Digital clarity because they actually have real tubes inside the preamp that’s something that some of these modelers need to do just add a few 12AX7’s
Throwing a “real tube” stomp in front of my AxeFx helps immensely, don’t be surprised if the AxeFx4 has some tubes just like the synergy stuff that everybody seems to be loving lately. Steve Vai has his own signature module.
Greg Howe has something similar
I have a number of amp-in-a-box simulators. Pedals meant to simulate old fenders, marshalls, hi watts, orange, vox and soldanos. Do they sound like the originals? I don't know. If I could afford the originals, I probably wouldn't have the pedals. However, I can get good sounds from them. The advantage I have with most of them is that they have 1/4' and xlr outs. So I can run the "clean" sound direct from the xlr and run the other out into my effects chain and into the recorder, giving me a wet-dry-wet config with one preamp pedal. Or I can run through a couple of ABY switches into dual stereo effects loops and a mono out and run the amp sims at the end of the chain and then, using xlr, into the mixer/recorder. I do have a number of valve combo amps and they are quite heavy so the amp sims are a very acceptable compromise.
That’s a great shout mate!
I love my Marshall MG100HDFX. I use it more than my Hot Rod Deluxe.
No way really haha? That’s awesome!
Ah so many discussions through the years solid state v valve. Valve always wins as it colourises and saturates different frequencys giving you that warm effect as most guitarist know unless your a metal head. My freind has the fender twin, i have a blackstar just love it when you drive it. I digress , i thought the sound from your blackstar amp modeler sounded a bit thin compared to the other two, i felt you should have out it through speakers then miked up same as the rest. That would have given a truer sound comparison
Yeah you're right, there is something special about the 'feeling' of tube amps.
I wanted to just show what an awesome sound it could achieve spending just 300/400 quid and how it could compete with the mic'd up amps. But, maybe it would have made for a better video with that too!
For me it's the feel of tube amps that matters most. I think modeling amps are good, but it feels like I can control a tube amp just with how I play.
Yeah i know what you mean. It's like they are much more forgiving the harder you play!
This is just a big fable from the old heads. Emulation is responsive and dynamic now. Try the Universal Audio amps like the Dream, and try this Blackstar in person hooked up to a good cab... tube arguments just don't hold up anymore. The technology has advanced 500 times over in just the last couple years and it's only getting better still.
@therealdaveportnoy620 In my experience, there is a pretty noticeable difference, but that is probably just me. If you can play a modeling amp and it feels the same as a tube, more power to you, but I just can't.
Have you tried Neural Amp Modeler? It is a free plugin with community made models of amps, pedals, cabs and full rigs. It feels like we are living in the golden age of playing and recording guitar on a budget, I've been getting heavenly tone playing on a 64 blonde bassman model
Ahhh yeah i have but i havent given it a go, maybe thats a good idea for a video!
i have felt this way before, all that stuff is really coinvent and sounds pro level when its in mixes..... but man aint NOTHING like being alone with a twin/deluxe reverb alone with a guitar you love.........
Yeah 100% agree!
@@thesethingsmakenoises great video bro! subb3ed!
This is just a big fable from the old heads. Emulation is responsive and dynamic now. Try the Universal Audio amps like the Dream, and try this Blackstar in person hooked up to a good cab... tube arguments just don't hold up anymore. The technology has advanced 500 times over in just the last couple years and it's only getting better still. Amazing how many people don't get this. My amp pedals are hooked up to an Orange cab and you FEEL THE AIR. You FEEL the amp like any other tube head. I also own a Verellen Loucks and barely touch it anymore.
Only listened on my phone speakers, however, to me, the Marshall code and and fender twin sounded fuller and better within the mix. Not sure why. I would’ve expected the emulated cab to sit better in a mix setting.
Hmm I think maybe they are slightly more well rounded which is perhaps from the speakers/mics?!
Any tips on how to organize/stack pedals? Whenever I try using my DS-1 with my Big Muff or blues driver it gets insanely loud or very quiet thanks man
Hmm I would always just make sure you’ve got a stage of volume. Ie make sure the other pedal is quieter than than the one you want last in the chain (I guess the bigmuff)
@@thesethingsmakenoisesawesome thanks brother
Nowadays is a bit of a transition between miking real amps and the modelling world. Both can sound great but... As for a blasting combo with all the dynamics and whistels and bells, it is its own entity. Very difficult to replace. But when recording and listening on monitors or hifi (or play a venue) no amp is needed at all, plug and play if you wish.
Bit of a cultureshock but we have other options than amps nowadays.
Yeah it’s a weird time isn’t it!
Not sure if anyone else has asked but do you plan on checking out the toneX pedal?
I haven’t yet, but will have a look!
@@thesethingsmakenoises I do suggest considering it. Unlimited amps and cabs and insanely accurate. It will be my next big purchase for live music
The amped-1 frankly sounds fantastic. Here's why I don't think it's a good purchase at the retail price: I've come to fully believe that more options are WORSE, not better, when it comes to gear. 3 voice settings and 6 response settings is too much. If they made these half the price with a fixed voice and maybe 2-3 response settings, it would make sense. But more options and no cab is not better than a 15-30 watt combo for the same price.
Yeah you make a good point there! However, i would say that using it to see what kind of amp breakup you'd like if you did want to go down a valve amp route after could be a good shout?
@@thesethingsmakenoises $400 to find out which kind of valve amp you want to buy? I'll pass. Appreciate your review though.
Ha I do get that. I meant mainly if you went for one of these and then in the future got something after experimenting for a while, but I do totally get that!
To amp or not to amp that is the celestian!
Haha nice!
Can it take the fuzz? Seems so.
Yeah it does! I’ve used it a lot since this video and I have a few more thoughts.
It takes fuzz really well, but something about the clipping on it either the gain on the actual pedal itself or running OD/distortion into it doesn’t sound quite as good as my ‘real amps’ it just doesn’t do what I want it to do as easily. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m just trying to perfectly replicate the sound of my amps, but something is a little off. However I still stand by that if I was starting out or just starting gigging I would 100% go for one of these!
Katie Eightyeight. Lovely girl.
Am I right in thinking Billy Corgan modded his Marshall’s to them?
@@thesethingsmakenoises I have no idea. I just wanted to do a KT88 joke.
No, nobody needs their old out of date tube amp anymore.
Send them all to me.
Just doing my bit to help.
Haha!!!
Listen again amped 1 is much thinner than the Marshall totally different
Yeah it is thinner for sure, and I do think there’s a place for amps but for the money I think you’re getting so much versatility
@@thesethingsmakenoises well I’m also old and i was fortunate to own a 1964 Fender BF DR and still have it. Also John Jorgenson suggested a matchless sc 30 which I still have. Try one, it is a very dynamic amp which is so much fun. Far more-so than my old jcm 800. Cheers from Toronto. Keep on having fun.
Thanks mate! I’ve had a brief go with a matchless before, thought it sounded amazing. I also have a DR Z max Jr which reminds me of the matchless but that might have just been me thinking that as I didn’t play them side by side.
I’m a purist I’ll never use this fake amp crap
Haha Fair play!