I’m not sure why, but it never fails for me to be disappointed whenever I use an amp sim.

Whenever I plug in my guitar directly into the DI and load up an amp sim with a cab ir, it just sounds super flat. No dynamics, no life, just very lack luster all around and I have no idea why.

I have recorded guitar tracks while running a distortion pedal into a Mooer Radar Cab IR Loader and it sounded very good. But cannot for the life of me get an amp sim to sound nearly as dynamic when I run just my guitar into the DI

What gives?

  • fartsparkles@sh.itjust.works
    English
    13·
    9 months ago

    What amp sim? What cab IR?

    Active or passive pickups?

    Does the DI / audio interface have Hi Z input?

    Does it sound lifeless if you record/listen to the sound straight from the DI?

    My guess is it’s the impedance. If you’ve got a guitar stompbox pedal kicking about, one that doesn’t have true bypass, put your guitar into that and then into your DI and see if the life comes back (don’t engage the effect).

    Motu’ Zbox can be a game changer if your interface doesn’t offer decent Hi Z inputs to give you the impedance you need.

  • Andjhostet@kbin.social
    7·
    9 months ago

    How are you hearing it? Nice speakers or a nice set of headphones? I’m guessing that’s the difference.

  • maegul@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    9 months ago

    I’ve not used any computer amp sims, but used helix a lot. Often I find that eq is necessary. Low mods need to be reduced and highs increased.

    Also, the preset or default settings often are bad. A typical issue is master volume is too high bringing in too much power amp gain, or too much bass etc.

    Maybe something like that is going on?

    Also IR choice could be an issue. How confident are you in the IRs you’re using?

  • Guyonthecouc@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    9 months ago

    If your listening through headphones you loose the natural reverb that you might be used to hearing with a live amp in a room. Try some compression, EQ, and reverb. Play around with comp/eq before and after the Sim. Shouldn’t need much, but can make a huge difference. I’m sure you can carve out some tone that suits you.

  • manwichmakesameal@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    9 months ago

    Here’s how I do it and it now sounds AMAZING. I used to have a very flat sound when playing through the computer too. I use Reaper for my DAW. I have NAM (neural amp modeler) plugin along with the NadIR plugin from Ignite Amps. I used the ToneHunt site to grab some IRs and amp sims. I’m currently using 2 tracks: one has NAM using the Ola Englund Satan 50 with a couple of IRs from the NadIR default. This track is panned slightly to the right and has a room setting of around 53ish%. The other track is similar: NAM using the ENGL Savage 2 and NadIR using some default IRs. This track is panned to the left and has a room setting similar to the other track. Using this setup makes my guitar sound WAY bigger now.