Amp Designer/Pedalboard Review
By Orren Merton
I either own or have reviewed nearly (if not absolutely) every native format guitar simulation software plug-in available for any package, including proprietary effects such as Guitar Amp Pro for Logic Pro and Eleven for Pro Tools. In addition, I either own, have owned, have used, or have teched a rather enviable collection of vintage and modern tube amplifiers and pedals. I love and have used both hardware and software amps and effects both in recordings and in live performance.
While some tube amp snobs would never ever consider using a software amp, the undeniable fact is that the state of the art of guitar amp and effect modeling has advanced astronomically from the time that Line 6 first developed "Amp Farm" for Pro Tools TDM over a decade ago. What is also undeniable is that what passed for "good enough" in a previous generation of modelers quickly becomes "barely acceptable" as the technology advances.
Amp Designer and Pedalboard, the new guitar simulation plug-ins in Logic Pro 9, do not update Guitar Amp Pro, Logic's previous guitar offering. Instead, these are a completely new pair of plug-ins, not just a redesign but a rethink. While both plug-ins are seperate, since they together form the guitar suite of Logic 9 I'll review both of them here.
Can you Feel it?
When reviewing amp simulations, I am looking for two things:
- Does the model "feel" like an amp?
- Does the model sound like an amp?
For those who aren't guitarists, by "feel" I mean does the software tube amp model respond to the guitar signal the way physical tubes do, which alternately compress or "breathe" based on how hard you play, and how the volume knob on your guitar is used. For example, when you play a string lightly, it will compress differently than if you slam your pick down hard on the string. And if you turn your guitar volume knob down, it will act as much as a "gain" knob, reducing distortion as much as volume.
The dynamics of an amp simulation are not nearly as important when running non-guitar signals through these plug-ins, but for guitarists, the feel of a model can mean the difference between thinking of it as a piece of software or thinking of it as your amp.
When I write "sound like an amp" I never mean "sound like the specific amp I have in my studio." Especially with vintage amps, they all sound different. Even with modern amps, different runs may have components of non-identical tolerances, have used different manufacturer's tubes due to availability, etc. So you can have two Marshall JCM800s from different years that sound different, etc. But they both have the same "sonic footprint" even if at identical settings you can tell them apart. So that's the sort of "tonal ball park" I'm looking for.
Moreover, I've found that none of these software packages get all of their models to sound equally good. It's always a bit confusing that you'll get a program that nails one kind of amp but gets another totally wrong. You always wonder "what happened with that one?" But there are no exceptions to this rule. So the question becomes, which packages have more that are on than aren't, and which ones nail the amps/pedals you're looking for.
The Right Tone
In general, I would say that most of the simulations in Amp Designer, especially the clean amps to mid-gain amps really capture the feel of the amps modeled. As you roll off your guitar's volume knob, play with picking dynamics, and so on, the models respond like a tube amp, cleaning up as the volume lowers, getting dirtier as you hit the amp harder. This is the most important feature for actually "performing" with the amps. To a guitarist using Amp Designer, this may very well trump all else. If you're reamping, this may or may not be important to you.
Some of the high gain amps are very responsive as well. I find the Brown Stack and High Octane especially are excellent "players." For whatever reason, I don't think any of these packages can get the feel of a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier right, and Amp Designer's "American Modern Stack" is no exception. It feels totally overcompressed and un-amp-like no matter what you do. That doesn't mean you'll never get it to sound good, but if you've ever plugged into a real mesa boogie amp, you'll know that the software model isn't even an approximation.
As for sound, I think all of them are in the tonal ballpark of the amps they model. Some of them sound really good, and others not so good. I like the Fende and Vox simulations, and some of the boutique simulations, quite a bit. Some of the High Gain simulations are real winners. The High Octaine, Brown Stack, and Turbo amps sound open, which real amps do, while other simulation packages really flail on their high gain simulations, sounding really dark and filtered. I think the lower-gain Marshalls sound really good, but the high gain ones don't have the richness of the real Marshalls, tending towards "digital hash" at extreme gain/master volume settings. And as I mentioned, the American Modern Stack is just...sigh...
Guest Speaker
While each amp is coupled with a matching speaker cabinet, don't forget to mix and match cabinets with amps as well. You may find that you prefer the sound of a different cabinet with a given amp—for example, I really like the sound of the Pawn Shop 1x8 with some high gain amps. Also, you can "tame" some harsh treble by selecting a more narrow band cabinet. Finally, another powerful option is to select no speaker cabinet at all and to use Space Designer to load an Impulse Response from a speaker cabinet of your own.
I think the UI of moving the mics around in Amp Designer is genius; rather than selecting position via radio buttons or sliders, you drag the simulated mic around a grid. I'm sure that the other simulations will be copying it in the future. And more importantly, it sounds good—you really can get some great in-between on and off axis tones that way.
The three mic simulations all sound appropriate. The Ribbon mic really sounds great, I love it! I sometimes find that switching out the cabinet and mic lead to a tone I prefer than the original cabinet matched to an amp.
On the Floor
In some ways, I wish that Pedalboard and Amp Designer were contained in one single GUI, but on the other hand I see the value of being able to use Pedalboard to add some "stompbox" processing to tracks that I have either already played through a hardware amp, or tracks that are not guitars at all. As such, Pedalboard in no way relies on or requires Amp Designer, although the two work together extremely well.
The ergonomics of Pedalboard are excellent. You chose the stompboxes from a browser at the right of the UI, and drag them to the left to activate them. You can reorder them however you'd like, replace them, etc. all via drag and drop. You can also select a serial or parallel signal path for each individual pedal, and there is extremely flexible MIDI control for live use. Very well thought through.
There are lots of different pedals to chose from, with the emphasis on overdrive pedals (much like the real, physical pedal market). Not all the distortion plug-ins are great-I think when pushed, the high gain pedals tend to sound quite digital. I think Hi Drive does a good job of capturing the "pushed" sound of the Rangemaster treble boosters of old, and Happy Face Fuzz does a fine Fuzzface simulation, as long as you don't push them to their limits. Double Dragon and Monster Fuzz can take even a clean amp and make them sound authentically heavy, but again, watch your levels. All the distortions, when used on non-guitar sources (vocals, drums, bass) sound fantastic.
When looking at the delays and modulations, I'd say that the Tru Delay, the Vibe pedal, Heavenly Chorus, the Roswell Ringing, and Auto Wah all sound really good. Those are my favorites, but the others, whether more subtle or less "vintage" sounding, don't sound bad
Well Designed
I think that Amp Designer and Pedalboard compare extremely well to all the packages out there. I think that Line 6, TH1, IK Multimedia and Native Instruments may have a simulation here or there that is better than Amp Designer or Pedalboard, but overall I think Amp Designer and Pedalboard are more consistent in quality.
All in all, I'd say that Logic's guitar offerings just went from mediocre compared to the evolution of the other third party offerings, to world class. I never get involved in "software vs. hardware" arguments because as I said at the beginning of this review, I use both regularly. I will say, however, that I can easily see these models being used in stage and studio and standing as valuable additions to any recordist or guitarist's arsenal.