DI digital amp v.s. real tubes: Me plaing vai's Jibboom

[chiel]

Hi all,

In lack of a good mic to record my KOCH multitone tube amp , I've been trying desperately for a while to create an acceptable tone using my BOSS GT-3's DI function (with varying degree of success). Although a digital amp in my opinion won't EVER be able to recreate the sound of a real tube amp, I think I finally managed to get a pretty decent sound out of this heavy blue thing (after some mastering, anyway).

I recorded Vai's 'Jibboom' using the BOSS GT-3 with this preset. Waddaya think?

http://www.perfectwavemusic.nl/mp3s/jibboom.mp3

Also, I was wondering: do any of you guys have any good experiences using digital modeling devices (such as Line6 products or whatever) to obtain a *professional* sounding tone? I know Line 6's POD is being used throughout various professional music productions...

[Devo]

awesome!

sounds great to me!

[Ibateur]

sounds awesome to me too. What gear did you use aside from the GT?

[chiel]

I used a Maverick F-3 with .009 strings. That's basically it. And a multitracker to be able to record over the backing track.

[Toxicity!]

i must say, that cover is 99% perfect

[chiel]

Thanx, I try...

It's not an EXACT duplication of every note (I bet Vai doesn't play it exactly the same twice either ). Although with this one I tried to do 'Vai's version', in general I try not to and come up with my own stuff instead. Having said that, in case of a cover such as this one it's hard when you have the *real* thing exacty 'in your head'! It won't work that well trying consciously NOT to play what Vai played! It's easier with your own stuff, where you can start from scratch, having nothing to directly compare it to...

But than again, duplicating somebodies playing CAN be an extremely valuable lesson...

[Toxicity!]

yea i noticed some differences but on the whole, pretty tight and expressive playing

[AirGuitar]

Sounds really great! Fantastic playing and very good preset tweaking skills too!!

[Big Job]

That is a very good tone and I liked the playing too! I use a Pod but I have never came close to tones that good. I think this is because I have a very bad sound card on my computer, when I use the Pod the sound is VERY sterile and fake.....

Big Job

[chiel]

Thanx for the compliments on the playing and the tone!

Originally Posted by Big Job

That is a very good tone and I liked the playing too! I use a Pod but I have never came close to tones that good. I think this is because I have a very bad sound card on my computer, when I use the Pod the sound is VERY sterile and fake.....

I used a soundblaster Live! Value, about ten years old... a good card, but nothing really special. I never owned a POD, but the Boss GT3 can be very sterile sounding too, so I really think the sterility comes from the FX-unit. I've only been able to create one or two realistic distorted presets, with some additional EQ-ing in the mastering phase.

In general it's much more difficult to produce a good digital distorted tone than a clean one with digital amp sims. I think the problem lies in producing realistic overtones, wich are much more apparent in distorted tones than in clean tones. With a real amp, overtones are normally heavily affected by mic placement and speaker type and such. These overtones are mathematically very complex in structure, hence difficult to emulate realistically.

At the same time, I must say digital amp simulation HAS come a long way since the beginning. Plugins such as Amplitube actually do a very good job in emulating realistic tubish distorted sounds.

[arnab]

superb playin!

[mi2tom]

Originally Posted by arnab

superb playin!

+1

[Ralph khoury]

Impressive... if u can get that tone with a GT-3 then u will be smoking with a Line6 pod xt live... I own both, and the Line6 is waaay better and more realistic.

[LonePhantom]

That was awesome, tone was great too.