Amplitude or what software?

[Faldoe]

Currently have Amplitude 3 which works but has some issues.

Thinking about upgrading to 5 but wanted to know if you all have other suggestions for other software types.

Would be used for making rough tracks/laying down ideas, not for doing serious recording. Though I guess it wouldn't hurt to become more and more familiar with recording this way that I could produce some nicely done tracks myself.

 

[shnizzle]

depends what exactly you´re looking for in an amp sim. what issues do you have with amplitude? for another full amp suite i recommend TH-U. for a more stripped down amp plugin that sounds amazing i recommend Mercuriall Euphoria. lots of people may recommend stuff from Neural DSP.

 

[DrakkarTyrannis]

If you just wanna lay down rough tracks just use this or something similar. It's free, has everything you need in one suite, and it sounds good.

 

[vejichan]

depends what exactly you´re looking for in an amp sim. what issues do you have with amplitude? for another full amp suite i recommend TH-U. for a more stripped down amp plugin that sounds amazing i recommend Mercuriall Euphoria. lots of people may recommend stuff from Neural DSP.

Settings recommended for euphoria

 

[Winspear]

If you'd like a stripped down plugin that does one amp exceptionally well , check out the neural stuff

 

[WarMachine]

Not sure if it's still free or not, i know they have a paid version now. But you'd be surprised how well ToneLibGfx has tons of sims and effects and sounds great.

 

[Masoo2]

Some might disagree with me but after using amp sim plugins for going on 7 years now I've found that they all feel/respond just about the same, can all sound great, and really just depend on the nuances of what you're specifically looking for in a plugin.

I for one always loved POD Farm and these days tend to use Overloud TH-U and Helix Native, but also have a lot of experience with EZMix, TSE X50, the Kazrog Thermionik suite, and many free ones like the built-in Cubase VST Amp Rack, LePou stuff, and Ignite Amps Emissary. All of them sounded great, but all also required a lot of post processing on my side of things to deal with harsh frequencies, occasional flubbiness, and mixed digital saturation results. In practice, that often meant plugin-after-plugin of tube/tape saturation, multiband compression, modeled preamps (POD Farm preamps <3), detailed EQ, colorful EQ, DI compression (Renaissance Axx) and EQ, etc.

Was never too impressed with the Neural stuff, but out of all of them Plini and Nolly are the clear standouts when it comes to quality/sound/options imo but I still wouldn't drop the money for one. Have some experience with the Mercuriall stuff and it's pretty good. Don't have a ton of experience behind Guitar Rig, S-Gear, Waves GTR 3, Plugin Alliance/brainworx, or Amplitube. The new stuff coming out of ML Sound Lab, especially the free ones, are interesting but I haven't had the time to check them out. STL Tonehub was pretty ehh when I checked it out, but I love Will Putney so much that one day I might purchase the plugin just so I can get access to his preset pack. Steer clear from Positive Grid, it's hilarious how downhill their sound and modeling quality went when they shifted from JamUp to BIAS. Also steer clear from JST Toneforge Misha Mansoor, though the other Toneforge plugins were kinda okayish.

If you're liking how Amplitude sounds/feels/functions, stick with it or upgrade. I know Jakub Zytecki is huge on Amplitube and still uses it to this day in the studio though recently he's switched over to a hardware Helix unit iirc.



Find one you like and stick with it, alternatives really aren't better or worse. The only amp sims I've experienced that are truly above and beyond are the Axe FX and Kemper stuff. I mean even my old POD X3 still sounds great albeit dated due to cab the included cab IRs, but the Axe FX and Kemper are the only things that I've considered purchasing over the years to replacing my plugin suite. It's a hard pill to swallow though because they clearly aren't cheap alternatives, they're way more expensive than even a rather large plugin collection.

Make sure you learn the ins-and-outs of your plugin though, it makes a huge difference. The amount of stuff you could do toneshaping-wise in POD Farm was insane once I began to understand every little component and how to perfect the in-plugin signal path and cabinet/mic selection. Those skills I learned back when I only had POD Farm and a little Line 6 interface clearly carried over and now I really don't struggle at all to get great sounds out of plugins unless I just genuinely don't get along with the ingrained sound (read: Neural Fortin stuff and Positive Grid).