Guitar Gear Forum

Digital gear isn't for me.

After listening to several recordings made by Raf and end time, miking a real amp/cab is always going to sound better.

That is all, F digital. It's cool, quick and easy and some highly skilled producers are getting great results but I am not a highly skilled producer. Cannot wait until I can swing another stack.

I think there is a lot to be said for running an analog preamp into good IRs. I'm getting savage tones using my Kartakou Colossus with GGD contenders and I'm sure I'll get great results with my RG100es preamp which is hopefully arriving tomorrow. It doesn't have to be either/or - use the strengths of both platforms.

if I can avoid digital amps I do but for some gigs its just easier...

Maddnotez wrote: ↑Mon May 05, 2025 11:00 pm Digital gear isn't for me.

After listening to several recordings made by Raf and end time, miking a real amp/cab is always going to sound better.

That is all, F digital. It's cool, quick and easy and some highly skilled producers are getting great results but I am not a highly skilled producer. Cannot wait until I can swing another stack.

I'm with you. I like the idea of digital amps and I've tried all the major brands. I don't like any of it. I got some decent sounds out of bit but something is off with it.

I don't mind IRs with analog amps and preamps. But that's as far as I can go.

Yeah I enjoy playing my amp with my Captor X when I can't use the big cab for some reason, but otherwise, the Quad Cortex, Axe FX, Helix whatever, all sound off to me. The all are reminiscent of the old Pod XT we had in the house 20 years ago.

macaronisalad wrote: ↑Tue May 06, 2025 4:13 pm Yeah I enjoy playing my amp with my Captor X when I can't use the big cab for some reason, but otherwise, the Quad Cortex, Axe FX, Helix whatever, all sound off to me. The all are reminiscent of the old Pod XT we had in the house 20 years ago.

This is how I felt with my Helix before I offed it. I always called it the uncanny valley for guitar. Like, just that few millisecond processing time made it feel less immediate to begin with, then there's something just a little less present about it no matter what you do.

I get the sads sometimes thinking about how many people will never play through a properly wound up tube amp, so may not know the difference.

The only thing I will ever use digital guitar simulations for is recording quick clips of new ideas.
I keep my Palmer Pocket Amp MKII set up, and ready to quickly record any new ideas that pop up..
Last week, I replace the Palmer with a POD Express and while it sounds 100x better than the Palmer, like NFA and Macaronisalad say, it's a bit off.
Nothing digital can beat a real tube amp.

shhhhh, your gonna make me get a recto rack pre and run it into IRs.

I will sometimes use digital in conjunction with tube amps/ IRs, typically not as the main tones.
I dug up my Peavey Rockmaster pre last saturday and ran it into some of the different GGD stuff, that may be my new go to for recording. Just want to throw in some new tubes into it.

i have heard modelers sound as good, or dare i even say better in some recordings than the actual amps they are modeling, so i know they can sound good, but like you said not all of us are pro's, or at least not willing to put in the time it seems to take to dial them in when its easier just to stick a mic in front of a speaker and go.