Amp modeller or amp simulator?

Fenders take on the amp sim.

Fender have copped quite a bit of flack from several of our budding YouTube reviewers. In particular the baby Mustang GT40. I must admit when I tested the GT40 I too thought it sounded as if it was under a doona. I wasn't sold on it but not to the extent of some reviewers that actually made a thing of it sounding dull and making a public video of their re-boxing.

The Line 6 Amplifi

After a chat with my mates up at KC's Rockshop we came to the conclusion that in fact these desktop amps are not amp modellers but are amp simulators. So what's the diff?

Back in the 80's when Line 6 first combined a computer front end with a car stereo power amp coupled to a pair of 12" guitar speakers we had our first guitar amp modeller.

The amplifier created a pretty authentic representation of the amps it modelled. These original amps were soon followed by other manufactures who jumped on the modelling bandwagon. Fender even had a 2x12" modeller that rendered a version of their own Twin Reverb.

Amp modelling soon became accepted. Cover-band guitarists loved them and more importantly the manufactures could churn them out cheap. Being the latest and greatest technology, they were a marketers dream.

By now Logic, Cubase and other software producers were starting to include these algorithm's into their product. And there we have it.. the amp simulator.

Blackstar's ID:Core

What they were simulating was a recording of (say) a Fender Twin Reverb or a Marshall Plexi, an AC30 or a Boogie, however there was no guitar amp cabinet with guitar speakers. What we were hearing was a guitar amp reproduced in a pair of studio or computer monitor speakers. There was no need to mic up your trusty tube amp, you would simply plug your guitar into your computers interface, sit back and enjoy something that 'sort of ' sounded like your tube amp. You heard the sound of a recorded amplifier, a simulation.

With these cute little desktop amps and their twin 6.5" (or even smaller) stereo speaker systems there is no way any of these are going to sound like a model of a guitar amp but it will sound like a simulation of a recorded guitar amplifier. So don't expect to be gigging with one, they aren't guitar amps and neither are they modelling amplifiers. They are recorded amplifier simulators.

One of the Yamaha THR series

Picture this: you have placed your desktop amp on your coffee table, dialled up a track and streamed it via Bluetooth from your phone, it sounds good like a Bluetooth stereo should. Then you play your guitar through the sim and have it sitting nicely in the mix and yes.. it does sound like your Twin Reverb or Plexi.

So there you have it. Use these little lounge room guitar sim amps and play along with your fav tracks and you will have great fun and isn't that what playing is about?

Okay reviewers, it's time to re-think these amps, not re-box them.