Comparing a Vintage Deluxe Reverb to Amplitube's Plugin

I practice through headphones mostly anymore. in comparing the Amplitube 4 Deluxe Reverb to a 65 Deluxe reissue, I found the Amplitube DR seemed to break up more at at a lower volume than the real thing. At low volume, you can play with the cab, speaker, and mic position (in the Mac version) and get pretty close. The breakup sound, though, is a better imo in the real thing. For practice, though, Amplitube is sufficient although I almost always use the Twin Reverb sim.

Now, though, I’ve moved from 6G15 clone -> iRig HD2 -> Amplitube and now use 6G15 clone -> Quilter Mini 101 because it’s simpler. Plug in, flip two switches on, and simple knobs to tweak the tone. After playing for years, I just find it easier and more intuitive.

 

I’m a constant “I can do better” person so I delete a lot of stuff I record. I’ve only bought Ownhammer, but there are a lot of great IR’s out there right now. Two Notes lets you move mics around like Amplitube. From what I’ve heard, Celestion ir’s really bring out the sound of the speaker, where Ownhammer the actual cabinet comes in to play. Many people with their own studios are making ir’s with their own cabs.

it’s one of those things where, for not much money, you’ll wind up with thousands to choose from. Since I’m used to how to dig around in Ownhammer’s files I always go for the OH1-0. OH1 is a 57 and 121 mixed and 0 is the brightest mix. I’ve gotten to where I only use just a few cabs and this mix. Everyone has their favorites.

 

Great video!

The differences between the two became more pronounced as you started playing harder- the actual amp started to compress and break up in the familiar way we all know and love, the sim turned into a mess that sounded like clean DI guitar signal mixed with fizzy distortion. The amp could have sounded even better with a fancy analog signal chain in front of it, the sim just is what it is. Not to say that amp sims don't have their place, but this illustrates pretty clearly why I keep my tubes amps and collection of mics.

 

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They both sound good in the video clip, but I've learned that what you hear in a video clip, even with a good recording and played back though good monitors isn't the same as live. All those youtube clips that had me convinced that the tweed Champ setting on my Mustang III or my Super Champ X2 sound just like a real Champ evaporated when I built my own 5F1 (tweed Champ) and compared them myself. Not even close. .....well, ok.... close, but not the same. There really is some magic in those little glass jars...

 

I appreciate the time and effort you took to make the video, and I liked how you used a variety of different styles of playing with full chords, leads, fingerpicking, etc. That helped to make the comparisons more revealing and was a thoughtful series of choices. At least in your clips the real amp sounds much fuller and, in some contexts, better than the model, although I thought it was interesting how the differences can be greatly diminished depending on the style the guitarist is using. In other words, while the difference was big when you played open chords/chords, it didn't seem to matter nearly as much when you were playing fingerstyle.

In terms of constructive criticism, I think the video would have benefitted from having you make a second run at things where you attempt to use the settings in the modeller or changing mic placement to better match the sounds. Using the pots at the same settings makes sense and I'm not saying I think that choice was wrong. I just think given the fact that pots have a significant level of variability (tolerances, aging etc will all make one pot at 5 different from another pot at 5) and mic placement is so incredibly sensitive the way you did the comparison didn't really give the modeller its best chance at success. I could be wrong but I think if you had placed your mic even a half inch closer to the cone of the speaker the modeller would have come off much better.

Thanks for the enjoyable video.