What do you look for from an amp modelling VST?

[Orvillain]

What would you say were your top 3-5 desirable things from an amp modeller VST?

Mine:

1. Must have all channels+modes of an amp - I don't mind if the plugin only covers 1 amp.
2. Must have a way to load a custom IR - included cab models/IRs are good, but I want to be able to load my own.
3. User presets of course.
4. Effects wise I'm fairly flexible, but if it has them then the delay and reverb effects must be able to go before the amp, and a good input gate.
5. Must be easy to use and quick to get setup.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

- Standalone option as well as plugin. AAX, mac and windows is non negotiable.

- Speed for getting a sound going - I don’t want to be customising routing or assigning things if I can avoid it.

- minimal visual clutter, a slick concise GUI that puts emphasis on the important stuff

- make it quick and easy to bypass any block (in case I want to combine any single part of it with something else

- amazing GUI (there’s too many plugins these days to settle for something average).

- metronome and pitch shifting aren’t essential for me but I know a lot of people want them.

 

[bigmenace]

Do it like Neural DSP does and it's bueno.
But honestly, their VST's really tick all the boxes for me.

• Fairly convincing sounds
• Very decent cab section with adjustments + IR loading is hassle free
• Gate + Boost/OD pedals + reverb/delay
• Separate multiband EQ
• Top notch GUI, easy to use and pleasing to look at
• Standalone version
• Smaller details like tuner, pitch shifting and some funky effects is a good bonus

 

[Sascha Franck]

As everything is covered already anyway, I'd wish for more adventurous things. Guitar Rig had a great start but sucks by now.
As far as traditional sounds and their organisation/handling goes, S-Gear is pretty much perfect (and I don't even own it).

 

[2dor]

I agree with most of the stuff before. I'm a big fan of poly-pitch shifting simply because I love the feel of some guitars & don't want to restring etc.

I'd maybe add something like an "input calibration" wizard utility (STL did something somewhat akin to this) to help users get the gain staging into the plugin right.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

I'd maybe add something like an "input calibration" wizard utility (STL did something somewhat akin to this) to help users get the gain staging into the plugin right.

I’m sort of torn on these because their margins of error can potentially be quite big.

I’ve seen a NAM creator suggest aiming for peaks at -6dBFS with humbuckers to meet their headroom of 6dBu. If I followed that advice, I’d be 12dB out.

Whenever I try the STL one it seems to get within a couple of dB. IMO just providing a fixed number and being unambiguous about it is way better for everyone.

One other option would be if they had some kind of “in built” DI’s that you can hear roughly how things should sound for a couple of different guitars. Could be a quick way to sanity check things are about right (with noise, interference, levels etc).

 

[2dor]

I’m sort of torn on these because their margins of error can potentially be quite big.

I’ve seen a NAM creator suggest aiming for peaks at -6dBFS with humbuckers to meet their headroom of 6dBu. If I followed that advice, I’d be 12dB out.

Whenever I try the STL one it seems to get within a couple of dB. IMO just providing a fixed number and being unambiguous about it is way better for everyone.

One other option would be if they had some kind of “in built” DI’s that you can hear roughly how things should sound for a couple of different guitars. Could be a quick way to sanity check things are about right (with noise, interference, levels etc).

Definitely - I'm not saying STL's way of doing it is what I'd like to see. Rather some kind of walkthrough or some way of choosing the interface from a list and the plugin can auto-calibrate; even something like Steve did with the input calibration menu inside the NAM plugin - that would help.

Another thing that I'd like to see in amp sims is different cab impedance curves a la FAS. That would be pretty cool.

STL AmpHub somewhat has this but when I reached out to them to ask what value I should have the "Resonance" set to in order to get an accurate response, all they could share was the same "use your ears" trope.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Definitely - I'm not saying STL's way of doing it is what I'd like to see. Rather some kind of walkthrough or some way of choosing the interface from a list and the plugin can auto-calibrate; even something like Steve did with the input calibration menu inside the NAM plugin - that would help.

Another thing that I'd like to see in amp sims is different cab impedance curves a la FAS. That would be pretty cool.

STL AmpHub somewhat has this but when I reached out to them to ask what value I should have the "Resonance" set to in order to get an accurate response, all they could tell me was the same "use your ears" trope.

Yeah I totally agree with all that.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I don't get into the minutiae like a lot of you guys, I really just want a clear and concise plugin with realistic tone and feel. As long as the basics are covered, like cab IRs and the ability to eq them. Having effects is a nice touch but not a requirement.

 

[laxu]

1. It must sound good and feel good to play.
2. It must be easy to use.
   • I don't love the "amp view, cab view, fx view" format of most plugins where you need to jump between them.
3. It must seem like a fair price.
   • This is kinda difficult to gauge, but I wouldn't buy e.g a UA amp sim plugin for $99 per plugin because it has so limited cabs and fx. All 4 of their current amp sim plugins for that? Much more fair.

Getting into more detail:

• If it's a single amp model based on a real amp, it should cover all the controls, channels and modes of that amp.
  • But it should also have a good selection of cabs/mics. I feel like e.g UA's plugins are too limited for cabs where I like only one of the IRs available.
  • I'd rather see models of amps that haven't been done 100x already. Another JCM800 or SLO plugin will be of zero interest to me.
• For effects, I don't feel you need to provide an entire suite here. Some sort of room reverb is nice for headphones playing, some sort of boost is nice to kick the tone into another gear but I don't necessarily need delays, modulations and pitch shifting. Plugins are meant to be used together.
• I don't really care about having fancy graphics that much. Functionality over form. I kinda like the abstract minimalism of some of Neural DSP's plugins, e.g the Petrucci plugin does not ape Mesa Marks and Rectos but creates their own visuals - some of which would look really cool on a real amp.
• The quality of factory presets can be a big deal. Neural DSP's popularity has to be partly because they have some really good presets that people new to amp sims can just load and play. Minimum barriers to a good sound.
• Standalone apps are nice to have, but not a dealbreaker for me. It can be an easy way for newbies to engage with amp modeling.

I feel like the amp sim market has a lot of "me too" products that don't really entice me to buy them. You quickly end up in a situation where you have a couple of do-it-all plugins and then additional ones aren't that interesting.

 

[molul]

In my case it's quite easy: great sound, easy to use and tweakable but easy to dial tones.

Although I'm currently only interested in a solution like Helix Native. Being able to exchange presets between hardware and VST is just so awesome.

 

[Sascha Franck]

I don't love the "amp view, cab view, fx view" format of most plugins where you need to jump between them.

This is precisely what I like with S-Gear. All important parameters at a glance. Even Guitar Rig does it sort of well (it's just wasting enormous amounts of space).

 

[MirrorProfiles]

This is precisely what I like with S-Gear. All important parameters at a glance. Even Guitar Rig does it sort of well (it's just wasting enormous amounts of space).

all parameters at a glance but almost none of them are readable without a magnifying glass.

Sorry but it's a pretty dreadful GUI by modern standards. They just use generic knob shapes for basically everything, bad unreadable fonts and almost every single control has equal priority to the user. Even the placement of different processing blocks is in weird places. Exposing everything all at once to an individual should get you placed on some kind of register.


For 2025 standards, I'd score it about a 2/10 for the GUI.

 

[Sascha Franck]

all parameters at a glance but almost none of them are readable without a magnifying glass.

Isn't there multiple sizing options?

Sorry but it's a pretty dreadful GUI by modern standards.

We've been there already. You don't like it, I do. You're wrong, I'm right.
Life can be so easy.

 

[Sascha Franck]

And fwiw, when I am saying S-Gear is what things should be like, I *never* reference the actual looks. Yes, it should defenitely be updated/improved there.
But for me it's all about having the most crucial parameters to shape your main sound (and possibly the most important FX, in case there's sufficient space left) on one single page. Because nothing annoys me as much as permanent page-clicking.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Yeah, big -1 from me for dumping everything on one screen.

And a big +10000000 for context dependency being well implemented. Amp plugins are all about mixing and matching plugins anyway, you could well be clicking elsewhere to access your favourite tuner or flanger or cab sim anyway. Bloating out an interface so you can fit a load of controls that rarely get touched (at the expense of getting in the way of the ones you do touch) is exactly what I don’t want.

A great GUI is based on knowing how much you can remove, not in how much you add. The best ones remove the fat and waffle. That’s the hard bit.

 

[Orvillain]

Oh yeah, fuck anything even remotely like S-Gear. Total bowel drivel arse. Guitar Rig too. Awful bits of software IMHO.

I actually think NDSP and Amplitube are the nicest software for UI. NDSP is much simpler for the UX. I think once you get your head around Amplitube, the UX is actually quite good. I really like how it can effectively be your end-to-end guitar chain, including all the 500 series rack emulation type stuff, and typical stuff you'd do to guitar to fit in a mix. I like the multiple-paths too.

NDSP plugins are way more plug and play though, and really don't need any fucking around. Nameless and Mark IIC+ and Soldano are some of my favourite plugins.

 

[Sascha Franck]

Yeah, big -1 from me for dumping everything on one screen.

Why exactly? Do you like endless page flipping?

 

[Sascha Franck]

I think once you get your head around Amplitube, the UX is actually quite good.

I think it's absolutely horrible. There's hardly a UI requiring more "item-clicks".

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Why exactly? Do you like endless page flipping?

I’m not endlessly flipping, I like to work quickly and without going in circles or wasting time.

Amplitube are the nicest software for UI

I feel like Amplitube is impressive without necessarily being good. My main issue with it is that for the majority of its users doing anything takes way too many clicks. It’s impressive because it looks nice visually, and it is really trying to do SO MANY different things.

But to say adjust a mic position or blend it gets a bit slow to use. I like how they make their amp’s look tbf. It reminds me a bit of iTunes where it just added so many different things, and eventually it gets in the way of what it was designed to do in the first place. IMO Amplitube would be improved loads if they simplified it and stripped out the clutter.