Disappointment....

Ive often wondered about the modulation/simulation amps and guitars.
like the pedal boards Digitech makes, perhaps everything sounds the same.
and everyone sounds alike.
no individuality.

that's why I went back to stomp boxes and had some of them modded to my tastes.

The POD is really good if you can tweak the settings......pretty realistic

Once I saw an old girlfriend walking down the street, and I asked myself, "Why did I ever break up with that girl?"

So, I asked her out on a date. 30 minutes into the date I remembered why I broke up with her. :D

That is how all these multi-efx are for me. I hear a few sound-clips and get all excited. I go spend a couple hundred bucks and bring it home. But after the initial excitement is over, you start to really listen to all these presets. And just like you discovered, many are very artificial sounding.

Not putting these pedals down. I have a Zoom GFX-1 I really like. But I am mostly using it for great distortions. But all these super-duper presets with hyper-flange, and ridiculous effects that sound like you are hitting pots and pans with a spoon don't get it.

You will probably find in time that the best sound you can get is a guitar through a good amp with some good ol' natural overdrive.

Think AC/DC. 8)

So Wes,
Your saying, your old girlfriends presets are artificial sounding?

gene

A State Trooper pulls over a motorist who is weaving all over the highway.

State Trooper- Good evening sir, how are you tonight?

Driver- Howdy officer, I'm doin' just fine.

State Trooper- May I ask where you are coming from sir?

Driver- Well, me and the Missus just ccme from Joe's place and are headin' home.

State Trooper- You look like you've had a good time tonight sir.

Driver- Oh yeah, we always have a good time at Joe's.

State Trooper- Well sir, were you aware that your wife fell out of the car about 2 miles back?

Driver- Whew, man am I relieved!!

State Trooper- What? What are you talking about??

Driver- Well officer, for a minute there I thought I had gone completely deaf!

The problem with old girlfriends is they make too much sound. :D

Disclaimer- Just a joke! Women are wonderful!

Ok, I get it. Good joke too.

I hear what you're saying claxon... I bough an alesis spitfire amp, once I brought it home I though it was awesome... then after a couple monthes, I started to hate the thing.

I still havent bought a new amp due to monetary issues (I have no damn money) and I still am not happy with the way it sounds. The guy at my GC is starting to get angry with me going over there every other day and playing with the marshall tubes.... which will definatly be my next investment. I guess I can't really say I hate the thing but, just like Wes said, they end up sounding to artificial, and when you've had it long enough to go through all the presets and make your own and still be disapointed with the tone your not-so-achieving, then it starts to nag on you. I find myself constantly trying to blow the speaker on so I have a good excuse to buy a new one but, gotta make due with what ya got right? :roll:

So Wes,
Your saying, your old girlfriends presets are artificial sounding?

HAHAA HA

That was really funny! good one!

you just gotta fiddle with her knobs and play with her button. she'll start to make some nice sounds soon enough.

aroundtheclaxon: Would you mind explaining to me what 'midi simulation' is? Personally I have no problems with getting proper sounding recordings out of it, after tweaking for two years. Why don't you record yourself using the V-amp so some of us might give help in setting it up, seems more constructive then just dishing a device because *you* can't use it well. Drop your settings here and tell me what sound you're after and what the entire setup is.

dogbite: horsecrap, period. The ammount of control digital devices offer give way more control then anyone could ever have with a tube amp. And this is not an opinion you can agree or disagree with, it's a fact. You might not like most of the possible sounds but saying there is no individuality is so much nonsense that it actually caused me to sneeze. And that doesn't happen to often.

General comment: if you (you being the reader, whoever you are) ever have problems with getting the sound you're after ask yourself if you really know what you're doing. For example, how do the EQ knobs interact with each other? Is that the same for each amp? That hidden 'drive' channel, where is the boost placed? What is the impact of different speakers? What's the difference between adding pre-amp volume, using a booster pedal, adding gain and using the boost function?

I know some people are probably going to be annoyed by this but in my opinion the #1 cause of bad sound is not the gear but the the user. I agree that the V-amp2 is not the best out there but if you can't find proper sounds in it you are doing something terribly wrong yourself. Really.

I'm in the middle of this one.

On the one hand, I agree very much with Arjen, you can get decent sound out of digital systems. It might take a lot of experimentation and time getting knowledge of how it works -- but that's true of any complex sound chain, analog or digital.

On the other hand, I think most of the digital stuff out there is not quite there yet, and between two systems of equal quality, the analog system will just sound better. Of course, an analog system of equal quality to many of these digital packages could run several thousand dollars . . . so you have to realize there's a reason to settle for something that's only slightly worse.

Personaly, digital or analog, I don't like the multi-effex "all in one" stuff. There's too much that happens behind the scenes that makes it more complicated in terms of control from my perspective. I like seperate sound processors for each effect so that I can know what each piece is doing to the sound chain. But that's probably more an artifact of my having started messing around with this stuff in the '70s when all-in-one systems just weren't around than anything else. . .

I think the issue I have with digital is that it is so complicated.
Sure, you have all kinds of freedom and control ... too much, actually.
I want to play music, not program my effects pedal.

I know I'm not the only one ...

My neighboor has a Line6 that sounds killer.
He uses only one or two presets (Marshall Stack, Fender cleans).
He gave up on the footswitch and tuner a long time ago.

Personally, I drool when I play it. But I know if I owned one,
after a while I'd want to chuck it out the window out of frustration.

My rig is a 70s Fender Deluxe Reverb and a Strat.
I'd like to add a Marshall 18W to get that lead sound,
but a heavy metal pedal might do nicely in the meantime.

Arjen makes some excellent points. Even some of the great vintage tube sounds that are so famous took years in many cases to come about. People were always experimenting with speakers and modifications of one sort or another. Look at the Fender Bassman. This was made to be a bass amp. But some guitar player decided to play through it. And it worked and caught on.

I listened to some modeling amps last week. I really liked a Behringer V-Ampire amp, but I don't know if it can handle the kind of volume I need. It would be pushing it. But the guys I play with are maniacs. I have tried to get them to come down on volume, but it's no use. But this amp would probably work well in most bands.

I don't like things that are too complicated myself. It just gets too tedious. It can also be confusing. Sometimes too many options is not a good thing.

I have an old 58 Premier amp. It has simple volume, tone, and tremelo controls. That's it. There are no highs, mids, and low eqs. So you get what you get. But it really has great tone. You turn it on, set the volume and tone where you like it and play. I like that. Super easy.

wes,

you know man, i don't even agree with myself as much as i agree with you lol,
why go a hundred miles to get across the street, i like things simple, anything more would be uncivilized lol. :P