Amp Simulation For Home Recording

Many people came to me asking my thought on amp simulation and how I record guitars myself. Therefore, I decided to give my humble advice based on my own experiences.

Although the idea of recording a real l, fat and loud half stack is always tempting for us guitar players, most of the time, in a home recording situation, recording an actual amp is not possible. Therefore we all turn to our good friends: amp simulators.

Let's make one thing clear:

I don't think comparing these devices to real amps is the right way to judge them. In fact, they should be judged upon how they sound together with the whole mix of a song. That way we can spend more time creating something new instead of trying to emulate.

I spent quite some time with these things trying to get sounds that would work for either my songs or the songs I produced and recorded for others. One thing I learned was that none of them work alone for every situation as opposed to what they are advertised for. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. I use 3 different softwares in my studio. Waves GTR 3.5, Line 6 POD Farm and occasionally Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3. Let me talk you through these three software.

Waves GTR:

This is by far the most expressive amp simulation software I came across to. It's clean sounds are OK but I think the distortion/drive sounds are where this software really shines. I found out that this one works best for ballads or pop tunes since the sweet spots sound great and very expressive.I was also able to get great lead sounds out of this software. You can get pretty heavy sounds too but still heavier sounds lack a little chunk in my opinion...

POD Farm:

If you are looking for chunky, heavy face melting distorion, look no further! POD is just the right thing for you. You can get the heaviest rhythm sound especially if you experiment with layering different amp combinations. I think it's clean and overdrive sounds lack some expressiveness and clarity.

Guitar Rig:

You can get incredible clean sounds out of this software! And the citrus model is nice for drives. If you ever try to get a heavy distortion that sounds good, you won't find it here, look elsewhere.

This is my take on recording guitars at home. I hope it will help you all to find your own voices in this endless world of music technology.

Tace care for now and thank you all for reading,

- Sabi