Quote:
Originally Posted by riffdrive
There's been several quasi-scientific studies that have shown that even professional recording engineers with 30 years experience and multiple grammy-winning songs and albums to their credit can't tell the difference between a modeled amp and the real one most of the time.
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I read an article somewhere where a big-time grammy winning engineer said the best Tweed Deluxe he ever heard was a Line 6 Vetta. And engineer/musicians like Pete Anderson (with Dwight Yoakam) almost always records with guitar amp software. Modelers have long gone past the point of being unrecognizable as such to an audience. Weezer only uses their amps for stage volume, the PA feed is from a Line 6 rackmount. But until a modeler feels and responds like a tube amp to the player, they won't replace tube amps. Perhaps that day will come though.
I'm firmly of the opinion that most electric guitar and amp technology is simply a happy accident. How did Ted McCarty know that his humbucker would become the best sounding pickup you can get to this day? And what lamp did Leo Fender rub to make the Strat so perfect? How much thought did Ken Bran put into the design of the Bluesbreaker combo to make it so great? Did he have a primo Les Paul to tune it with so Eric Clapton would sound so good? Where did all this magic come from?
Simple: the defining artists of our time took the standard equipment they had available and made it timeless with their music. Maybe if we guitarists would pull our heads out of the past we'd see there are even better tones out there with forward thinking modern equipment and software. Maybe the modelers and software would be even better if designers didn't try to make it copy the old amps, but strive for unique new tones.
Now I'm off to practice with my ash Tele and 50W Marshall stack...
