Amplitube vs mustang vs tube amp ?

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donguillermo

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Hi,

So i ve been practicing mostly on amplitube 3 with my electric guitar because when i started i loved having all those tones, plus it s relatively cheep, and im travelling so cant carry an amp.

I m still happy with the tones, but i had a chance to try a blues deluxe and have to admit that amplitube is not as good as a tube amp.
I m wondering where a mustang is in terms of getting as close as possible as a tube amp sound. Similar or better than amplitube ? If you consider the "distance" (tonewise and in terms of dynamic) between amplitube and a tube amp, where would you put a mustang 2 or 3 ?

Thanks,
 

Frodebro

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Listening to (and playing through) Amplitube through a pair of monitors is a completely different experience than playing through a traditional amp in the room with you, be it tube, digital, or solid state. I can get some great sounds out of my Mustang III that compare well to what I can get with my tube amps.
 

srolfeca

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That's a big part of it, particularly with an open-backed tube combo like a Blues Deluxe.

The bass response and the sense of spaciousness is waaaaay different when you force a 10" or 12" driver in an open box to reproduce the sound of an electric guitar. There's a "3D" feel that comes from the back radiation and all the cancellations that happen in the acoustic space.

Good modelling can capture the frequency response of a mic'd tube amp just about perfectly, but your monitors don't put the sound out into the room the same way as an unmic'd guitar cab.

I'm like most people, I think- I find the sound of an actual amp more involving when I play.
 

fender4life

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Interesting.
Is it that having 1 (or several) 10 / 12 inches speaker makes a greater difference than modeler vs tube ?

You were using headphones? It's apples and oranges. No, theres not any wat to get tube amp realism thru phones. So yes, the mustangs power section and speaker can't be replaced with other technolgy and expect the same results. Furthermore, and this is just my opinion, but real tube amp tone is NOT just what you year, it's how it reacts to your p[laying technique. Touch sensitivity or wehatever you wanna call it. Thats in fat the far bigger part of tube amp "sound". It's also why it took the industry so long to finally recreate true tube amp realism and they have only recently nailed it. Now heres the part that doesn't sit well with some mustang owners and it's just my opinion, but the mustang does not IMO capture true tube amp realism when it comes to tube amp clean sounds or cranked non cascaded preamp tube sound. What it nails dead on IMO is the sound and feel of a very good cascaded tube amp. That is, a tube amp with a cascaded preamp. if you're unfamiliar with that what it means is in the preamp stages there are several stage that amplify the signal then slam that signal into the next stage and so on with up to 4 stages. Then you can create distortion in the preamp at lower levels. Example of that are any modern designed marshalls, mesa boogies, peavey's classic series even which are marketed to sound like classic tweed amps but in actuality have cascaded preamps on thier dirt channels.

Anyways, the point is, the mustang does those cascaded type tones with some of the models perfectly. Even one that is NOT modeled after a cascaded preamp type amp, the bassman, is my main model in the mustang and with a clean boost (greenbox with level full and gain on 0) on it has a cascaded preamp type tone thats just as real as any tube amp of that type i've owned. But to go back to the basis of the original question, no modeler is going to recreate tube amp tone thru phones. A "amp in the room" and phones are never going to sound and feel the same.
 
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