Favorite amp simulator?

[rockstarjoe]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice on software amp sims. I would, of course, love to crank my amp up to full volume and stick a SM57 in front of it, but in my little apartment that would quickly get me evicted. So, I'm looking into my "silent recording" options.

I am currently running my guitar through a Mesa Boogie DC-5 pre-amp, sending it out the silent recording jack and into Pro Tools. This sounds surprisingly bad. I've tried a few amp simulators and they help a little, but I was just wondering if anyone had any preferences or tips. Thanks!!

 

[cmccarten]

IK Multimedia's Amplitube 2 is pretty great. Their clean simulations are great, although the distortion tends to be somewhat limited. I would recommend it any way.
Native Instrument's GuitarRig 2 is available for a demo download at their website (full functionality, just shuts off after 30 minutes). It is, in my opinion, the opposite of Amplitube: great, diverse distorted and overdriven tones; and kind of weak with clean stuff. It's a lot more expensive, as I recall...but if you got it with the rig kontrol foot switch thing they have, you'd be set.
Another worthwhile mention is IZotopes Trash. Definitely not up to par with the previous two, but still can produce some halfway decent stuff.

If you aren't looking to spend any money, just get the GuitarRig demo. If you're looking for the next level, I suggest Amplitube (I really like its GUI).

 

[rockstarjoe]

IK Multimedia's Amplitube 2 is pretty great. Their clean simulations are great, although the distortion tends to be somewhat limited. I would recommend it any way.
Native Instrument's GuitarRig 2 is available for a demo download at their website (full functionality, just shuts off after 30 minutes). It is, in my opinion, the opposite of Amplitube: great, diverse distorted and overdriven tones; and kind of weak with clean stuff. It's a lot more expensive, as I recall...but if you got it with the rig kontrol foot switch thing they have, you'd be set.
Another worthwhile mention is IZotopes Trash. Definitely not up to par with the previous two, but still can produce some halfway decent stuff.

If you aren't looking to spend any money, just get the GuitarRig demo. If you're looking for the next level, I suggest Amplitube (I really like its GUI).

Thanks for all the info! I do like Amplitube, not so sold on GuitarRig yet. I haven't tried Trash, but I'll give that a shot.