Getting more gear :) amplitube, guitarRig, HD500x, pod farm

Started by Neardark72, October 17, 2015, 05:00:47 AM

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Neardark72

Hey guys,
Since you are a huge source knowing quite all, I have a decision to make.

I own a GR55 that I love for clean tones and PCM sounds, I had some issues with my metal patches (I'm into stuff like Old Motley Crüe, Orgy, Marilyn Manson, Queensryche, Bullet For my valentine, to get the idea). The heavy tones are ok, but not as good as I would like them to sound. Might be a user handicap though, but I didn't try yet to work on tones with my new stuff, so maybe I'm fine.

I recently (2 days ago) bought some stuff: a new Jackson DK2HM and some awesome (in my newbie opinion) JBL LSR-305 monitors to have a decent sound, and also a Yamaha AG-03 (mixer) because I might be an idiot, but the thing looked decent, being able to control the monitors and having a USB audio to record my GR55 with a Boss Slicer SL20. The AG-03 came with Cubase AI8 for 100$ CAN. I thought it was a low-brainer. So far I only listened to some music through the set-up and the sound gave me a boner.

Now, even if the only thing I think I know from Cubase is some videos I've seen on YouTube and that with guitar plugins (VST I think), I can record clean and add effect on the dry tone to have a awesome tone.

Question 1: Am-I dreaming for using a VST plugin on CUbase AI?

Question 2: is the Yamaha AG-03 decent enough to do something ok?

Question 3: Witch would you use?
A) Amplitube
B) guitarRig
C) PodFarm
D) HD500
E) Go back to school the GR55 is awesome

Thanks in advance for your opinions, and Keep this awesome forum alive :)

Magiamusical

Don't use Cubase AI but with Ableton Live 9 Intro I like and use the following VST's:
AmpLion (free)
LePou Amps (Free)
Ignite Amps (free)
The above requiere speaker cabinets emulators, I use
Multi Cabinets
LePou LeCab2
LAConvolver

Complete with amps and Speaker
Amplitube 3
VOX JamVox
Guitar Rig 3

There are many others
Note: Hate PodFarm

Godin LGXT, Les Paul Studio w/GK3, JTV89F w/GK3, GR-55

Neardark72

Thanks Magiamusical :)

Did you mean that you don't use Cubase or that I shouldn't use it?

Do you need VST to get effects on the volcals or its already built in?

Thanks again,

Regards,

ND

Magiamusical

Quote from: Neardark72 on October 17, 2015, 07:15:10 AM
Thanks Magiamusical :)

Did you mean that you don't use Cubase or that I shouldn't use it?

Do you need VST to get effects on the volcals or its already built in?

Thanks again,

Regards,

ND

I have never used Cubase so I cannot talk about the capabilities of the software.

There are a lot of VST's for Vocals available, in the case of Ableton Live it does come with a lot of effects VST's

My suggestion go into YouTube and search VST Cubase, Ableton VST, Vocal VST and so on and you will get a lot of knowledge on what's available and how to use them




ND
[/quote]
Godin LGXT, Les Paul Studio w/GK3, JTV89F w/GK3, GR-55

Now_And_Then

Quote from: Neardark72 on October 17, 2015, 05:00:47 AM

I own a GR55 that I love for clean tones and PCM sounds, I had some issues with my metal patches ... The heavy tones are ok, but not as good as I would like them to sound. Might be a user handicap though, but I didn't try yet to work on tones with my new stuff, so maybe I'm fine.

I recently (2 days ago) bought some stuff: a Yamaha AG-03 (mixer) ... The AG-03 came with Cubase AI8 for 100$ CAN. I thought it was a low-brainer. So far I only listened to some music through the set-up and the sound gave me a boner.

Now, even if the only thing I think I know from Cubase is some videos I've seen on YouTube and that with guitar plugins (VST I think), I can record clean and add effect on the dry tone to have a awesome tone.

Question 1: Am-I dreaming for using a VST plugin on CUbase AI?

Question 2: is the Yamaha AG-03 decent enough to do something ok?

Question 3: Witch would you use?
A) Amplitube
B) guitarRig
C) PodFarm
D) HD500
E) Go back to school the GR55 is awesome


Firstly, you need to decide if you want to go the hardware route (Gr-55, POD) or software-&-computer route - Amplitube, Guitar Rig, etc, or if neither is more important / useful / convenient than the other. 


(I didn't fall for the GR-55 so I do not know, but is it possible to plug into it with a guitar and standard 1/4" cable? If so, you can try running your guitar into whatever your favorite distortion / fuzz box and then going into the GR-55's 1/4" input - if it even has one; dunno if it does.)


Personally, I gave up on Line 6 quite a while ago. But then, I am recently getting away from these digital multi-fx boxes too. There are simply too many fantastic pedals with all kinds of interesting capabilities which multi-fx boxes can not begin to approach.


If you want to go software, you should look around for demo versions of the software that interests you. I own AmpliTube and it's terrific; I have never liked Guitar Rig (or any other Native Instruments products) because their GUI's are very, very hard on my eyes. Other people - people with better eyes than mine, apparently - swear by it.


One other product to look at would be Peavey ReValver - it is outstanding! (Note that I have v3 of both AmpliTube and ReValver, the current version of each of which is v4, and having "in-app purchases" I classify them as "scam-ware". Not everyone adheres to this opinion, however. You can sometimes get IK Total Studio Bundle 3 on Ebay for very cheap. If you can, it is an incredible value.)


But bear in mind that I don't play metal or anything like it, so my opinions of AmpliTube and ReValver are not of any value for you in this regard. You will need to audition them for yourself.


Looking at http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/steinberg_yamaha/cubase_ai_6.html I read the following: "Offering up to 32 audio tracks, up to 48 MIDI tracks to control external instruments, as well as up to 16 instrument tracks and 8 slots in the VST Instrument rack to control virtual instruments, Cubase AI 6 has enough power to suit the needs of discerning musicians and records as many as 16 audio channels simultaneously... In addition to the included plug-ins and instruments, Cubase AI 6 is compatible with hundreds of additional virtual instruments and effects available for the VST platform today. " So yes, if that's CAI6 then you can indeed use VST plug-ins - both effects and instruments.  (One important caveat here: I am going to assume that it will host both VST 2.x and VST 3.x plug-ins. I do not know if this is actually true. But since you already have Cubase AI 6 you can find out for yourself.)


Quote from: Neardark72 on October 17, 2015, 05:00:47 AM
I can record clean and add effect on the dry tone to have a awesome tone.


Recording a guitar track dry for later re-amping is a very good ability. Except, really, it isn't. Because it makes for a more complicated recording process and lets you tinker endlessly with sounds that are almost indistinguishable from each other, and even when you are re-amping with significantly different sounds, there's more often than not no objective reason for choosing one sound over another. So you can waste endless amounts of time agonizing over decisions that are far less than trivial. It gives you the ability to really diminish the amount of music that you make. Here's my current philosophy: "Pick a sound or get off the pot".


'Course, if you want to be an engineer more than a musician, that's your decision.

Neardark72

Now and then,

Thanks for the reply. I'm trying amplitube right now with the custom freeware, and the funny thing is that I can't use it live on stand alone because of a huge latency, when I lower the bits, I get that weird angry bee noise. But with cubase, using it as a vst, I can use it without latency that is very weird :o

The problem with the custom freeware, is that I can't get any metal tones. Knowing my problem of latency on stand-alone, I'm not too convinced to go with the hole bundle.

My other challenge, Cubase seams to have a decent amp vst in it. But I have a huge reverb using it and there's no reverb button on the amp simulator. I need to read why, but googleling my problem leads me to subjects about another plug-in to remove reverb... Won't help as I want to record it without the reverb and add it per channels while mixing or mastering.

I do take good note about not spending too much time on getting a tone. Definitely a trap that I could fall in and spend 80 hours for quite nothing  ;D

I'm taking notes about Revalver and IK total studio bundle.

Thanks again

Regards

ND

Elantric

review many other Guitar amp sims here
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?board=20.0

Metal players tend to like Scuffams S-Gear
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=16368.0

QuoteThanks for the reply. I'm trying amplitube right now with the custom freeware, and the funny thing is that I can't use it live on stand alone because of a huge latency, when I lower the bits, I get that weird angry bee noise. But with cubase, using it as a vst, I can use it without latency that is very weird :o

You need a reasonably powerful computer to get the lowest audio latency with Amp Simulators. I own many types, and no question for me, lowest latency occurs on my Mac's running OSX with Intel I7 Quadcore CPUs

If you are on Windows, you must look for a machine with Intel i5 or i7 and still have a USB 2.0 port ( rare in 2015)

I'll bounce between using Focusrite Scarlett 2i4, or GP-10 
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=10805.0
- which I find more versatile for recording compared to HD500X

Read my computers here
https://www.vguitarforums.com/smf/index.php?topic=6104.0


I often use Amp sims on iPad running IOS 8.4.5 use Positive Grid BIAS FX or Yonac Tonestack or Amplitube with IK iRig Pro Audio Interface.
 
You can use the HD500X as an Audio Interface for recording, but not for running  amplitube, or guitarRig - because Line-6 removed the reamping feature in the Line-6 USB driver
Compared to HD-500X, The old XT Live was far more versatile and functional for re-amping or use as an audio interface for third party Amp Sims or running PodFarm

XT- Live USB Driver

Now_And_Then

#7
Quote from: Neardark72 on October 27, 2015, 07:03:25 AM
I'm trying amplitube right now with the custom freeware, and the funny thing is that I can't use it live on stand alone because of a huge latency, when I lower the bits, I get that weird angry bee noise. But with cubase, using it as a vst, I can use it without latency that is very weird :o

This sounds like a driver issue to me. While Cubase has its own ASIO driver, what kind of driver does the standalone version of AmpliTube use? (I don't even remember the last time I used the standalone version.) If it lets you select a driver, be sure to have an ASIO driver selected; if you have a choice of several ASIO drivers, then try them all in turn, and if it does not have an ASIO driver to select, you might need to install ASIO4ALL.

Quote from: Neardark72 on October 27, 2015, 07:03:25 AM
Cubase seams to have a decent amp vst in it. But I have a huge reverb using it and there's no reverb button on the amp simulator. I need to read why, but googleling my problem leads me to subjects about another plug-in to remove reverb.

That should not happen. Does it sound like real reverb or could it be an echo from a monitoring setting that is incorrectly set? You might want to go to the Steinberg Cubase at http://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=25 and post your problem there. If you don't get an answer, you might want to try posting in the main Cubase Pro 8 / Cubase Artist 8 / Cubase Elements 8 forum here: http://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=226. Or you could start with the main Cubase 8 Pro forum as this problem would / could occur with any version of Cubase.

neshel

On latency: This isn't quite true. I run Amplitube 3 and Guitar Rig 5 at 64s and 49s, respectively, on my old Pentium D 3ghz, and it's pretty zoom. What's important here is the drivers - ASIO via my Alesis Multimix 8. I don't think the Alesis is being used as a soundcard, because it doesn't have the processing power far as I know. Regardless, my best experience with virtual instruments is with an ASIO driver, ASIO4ALL or the Alesis' ASIO work great with the FTP. It does make a difference that I'm not running any other nonsense - only Reaper 3.7-ish, with three or four VSTs at a time, and I have a couple/few Windows folders open.

Attached is a GR5 track using the Transamp and Gratifier cabinet. I think there's compression pre, and eq post cab. Probly 'too much gain' for many, but it's like just enough for me. I can't for the life of me get something decent from the tube amps. Amplitube 3 is just godawful in this regard. There's a reason I don't pay for these things.

I'm surprised Elantric didn't mention the 55 vids he posted recently....or was that the Boss GT-10?.......

neshel

Here's something a little different, GR5 again, using the Transamp brit in front of the Van51, Gratifier cabinet again. Really motor, like raowrr, and metallic. I made use of re-amping here. Two examples; the second of the two is a little more open sounding.


Second attachment is the Van51 and Gratifier. Pretty thick.


None of these is what I'm looking for, but they're probly usable in a conventional context.

Neardark72

Quote from: Now_And_Then on October 27, 2015, 10:57:00 AM


This sounds like a driver issue to me. While Cubase has its own ASIO driver, what kind of driver does the standalone version of AmpliTube use? (I don't even remember the last time I used the standalone version.) If it lets you select a driver, be sure to have an ASIO driver selected; if you have a choice of several ASIO drivers, then try them all in turn, and if it does not have an ASIO driver to select, you might need to install ASIO4ALL.

ASIO4ALL solved the problem. No more latency thanks!!!

The reverb is still there... It does sound like echo and reverb. Driving me nuts... It's not from the monitors, I hear it on the headphones as well. I have to take the time to go on the sites for more info on how to get rid of it.

Elantric

QuoteMy other challenge, Cubase seams to have a decent amp vst in it. But I have a huge reverb using it and there's no reverb button on the amp simulator.

If you are using the GR-55 as audio interface - and you want to use external VST Amp sims - disable Input Monitoring on Cubase and on the GR55 System area, change the USB Direct Monitor to Off

sixeight

QuoteThe reverb is still there...

Are you using an internal soundcard? Some of them have a built-in reverb that can be switched off. Check all the soundcard settings.