I'm going to run down a common list of problems either myself or others have with modelers, and try and list some attempts to solve them.
1) They're not unique.
Modelers largely cop rather famous and debatedly rather overexposed tones. If you have a nice little tube combo you picked up for cheap; it might be trying to do something similar(sound like another amp), but it'll still have it's own sound, to varying degrees. There are a lot of unique tube and Solid State amps that don't tend to get modeled; on the Solid State side the Sunn Beta Lead and HHICS100, and on the tube side, any number of vintage tube amps such as Silvertone, Gibson etc(which leads to the next point).
The Tech21 stuff in my view really suffers from this, even if they're great amps, they model basically the most generic and overmodeled tones, you have your Fender Twin sounds for cleans, your mid gain Marshall sounds for rock, your Dual Rec sounds for metal.
What's been done to fix it? The ZT Lunchbox is a largely a digital "modelling" amp of a sort but has it's own tube. Amps such as the Fender SCXD have a number of settings that are not specifically trying to emulate an amp, but a variation on the team such as the super overdriven Tweed and Blackface. Line 6 have various "original" amps where they take the top end of one and graft it to another.
However these are still largely all borrowing from existing amp tones, there are almost no unique digital amplifiers whereas there are some solid state ones.
2) It might not model what you want.
This is particularly frustrating on combo amps. It's nice to have a grab and go solution so I don't have to dick around with poweramps, monitors etc(see the next few points).
I would really like an Orange amp. However, they're largely too expensive for me and the cheaper models I can afford largely don't have the features I need. It's also not a sound I'm 100% sure I'd be using all the time. Orange amps are exactly the kind that would be great to model since you can't really cop those tones with other amps.
I also consider a guitar through an overdriven bass amp a pretty important vintage tone, for example Keith Richards got a pretty nice tone doing this. And you have guys like Josh Homme creating much sought after tones this way. By using a Bass amp you can to some extent get away with the problem guitar amps having of sounding quite similar. Very few modelers actually seem to model a bass amp.
If I got a Spider Valve II, it has a nice assortment of tones. However it only really has one Tweed setting, and I like my Tweed settings, and no JCM800 setting. Though these kind of amps tend to get overmodeled - it's still essential to have the basics in SOME capacity.
With an SCXD, it does fantastic Fender and Plexi tones, but the Vox tone is iffy, and the metal tones are less than stellar.
It's something a friend of mine has said before - he doesn't want to get a modelling combo unless he's sure it does everything he wants. Because combos generally don't have the same range of sounds.
Are there ways to work around this? As pointed out, the new Spider amps do an Orange and a Hiwatt which is nice and unusual for a modelling combo. Line 6 did in the past release amp packs. While these weren't massively popular due to cost, it is a good concept in a way. Fractal Audio continue with free updates.
3) It's not a real, physical amp.
This is a tough one to beat - again there are modelling combos which have a better "amp in the room" feel, but you bring 2) far more heavily into the occasion then. Modeling amps often tend to be made from cheaper components too, and suffer because of it.
Powered cabs can go a lot way to the "cab in the room" factor, but it's still not as nice as having a real amp to some people. You can't go in and mess with the internals, or enjoy the burning tubes(though tube powered cabs will still have this to an extent).
The main problem with it not being a real amp too is that you can't get all the features you'd like from a "real" set up.
Not being able to swap things around the way you like can be frustrating. For example, on my PX4D, the cabinet model comes BEFORE the modulation. This is the most retarded thing ever. The limited range of a speaker is largely what takes the harshness away from distortion. So if it filters off at around 7khz or so, and then you decide, hey I want a harmoniser/pitch shifting effect, you then have harmonics at 14khz, WAY beyond what an amp will put out. 2 Octaves up will go up to 28khz; that's more than anyone can hear(though of course that won't be reproduced by most speakers/headphones)! It makes those settings almost useless for no good reason, it sounds like harsh, fizzy, clangy crap.
Some people like their wah after their dirt to get more "filter sweep" effects than the traditional sound. Some people like to run reverb into the amp instead of in the FX loop(Not naming anyone KEVIN SHIELDS), and a lot of modelers that propose that they are "rig replacements". And even if you use your own effects, a lot of modelers do not have FX loops. I can't stress how annoying this is.
Very few modeling amps do, and they seem to insist on not including them despite it being the most popular mod for the Valvetronix amps and SCXD for example.
How is this being worked on? Vox's latest VT range give you a whopping 33 amps which weakens the problem presented in 2), the latest Spider amps are higher quality than they were. Axe FX and Revalver give you a lot of the same tweak-ability you get with a real amp without the fear of electrocution, though the lack of physical interaction won't make it the same for some.
4)Consistency of tone
What do I mean by this? If you have a versatile Marshall like the new JVM, you'll get a load of tones while it sounding like the same amp. With a modeler, they'll go "ah sure what do you need a Marshall pretending to be a Rec for, have a real Rec sound", but then you lose a lot of the consistency and the impression of a single amp trying it's damndest.
Amp modelers by and large simple don't bother emulating the full amp, but only one of the channels. A lot of amp models don't even have the same versatility a single channel amp has and tend to model a particular sound(though this is increasingly a thing of the past). You also can't jumper them or mod them or swap the tubes out.
A lot of modelers also seem to exaggerate the characteristics of various cabs which can make them stand out too much. Most amps will sound like they fit together recorded on a record with a bit of EQ. However if you have a very stuffy mid range cab with a more full range one, it's going to sound awkward. And of course, many people like to run heads through the same cab, a lot of modelers(i.e. combos) don't tend to let you swap head and cab around, or where they do, they sound tailored to each other and it doesn't work out right.
Is this being worked on? The Peavey Vypyr series claims to model both clean and dirty channels. The SCXD models the Fender amps at varying levels of dirtiness. Again Revalver and AxeFX actually let you get into the nitty gritty of the amp and tweak the innards like a real amp.
5) Cost versus quality
Yep, cost. Modelers are generally seen as a bargain basement things due to the Spiders and similar amps but in reality while a lot of these amps will fool people on recordings if you want one that will work well in a live setting, you're going to most likely have to fork out for a costly modeler like the Axe FX or at least 11 Rack, a good power amp, and a good full range cab.
If you're only interested in modeling a couple of amps and playing small gigs, it's a nightmare and the cost running into the thousands is unjustifiable just to get the same level of "convincing" quality a couple of $400 tube or even some SS amps could probably manage when you could pick up a few second hand tube amp combos/heads and pedals to cover the same range of sounds, get real amps and the sounds you want. If you go cheaper, then you're taking too much of a dip in quality to justify it. I believe there's a large lost market of people here, no matter how good the tech becomes, lower end and higher end modelers will differ vastly in the quality of preamps, A/D converters and durability.
Of course the other conveniences involved in a modeling amp will help make it for some people; it can be easier to record, and the modelers that actually let you tweak the amp and swap out tubes make it easier to customise your sound, and of course the reason a lot of us have modelers, you have the extra sounds "Just in case", for those rare tracks where you absolutely must have an AC30 even though you'd likely never own a Vox yourself.
The Character series pedals can get amazingly expensive. Okay if you just want an Orange sound, or a Mesa Boogie sound(the character knob can also help with some of the other types). But if you want to get the same versatility as the older Sansamp for example, it'll cost you. A lot. And you still need something good to plug it into, it sometimes seems like it's worth going the extra mile and picking up a used Tiny Terror combo instead of getting the Oxford, a good power amp/powered combo/speakers.
What's been done about this? Cheaper modelers ARE largely getting better. I was impressed with the sound of the 15 Watt Vypyr when I tried it. The Spider IV seems to be a decent amp, unlike it's predecessor. The Pod HD Supposedly offers more Axe-FX like quality in a simpler and cheaper package.
However you can not have an entirely "digital" modeler, and when the analogue components become cheaper for modelers so too will they be for "real" amps. My Korg PX4D has fantastic modeling but is wholly ruined by the microphonic hiss it produces. This will likely always be a problem in lower end gear. Though some tube and SS amps will be affected by this, at least they can focus entirely on the components and not the algorithms, hardware and the audio components.
6) Ease of use.
It's been said before but from a usability engineering perspective modelers can be pretty horrendous.
There is simply nothing as straightforward to plugging into an old champ and jamming away.
This is true of multi-FX in general too. I remember the Yamaha Magicstomp got a bad rep over it. My M9 is nice in some ways, more like real pedals but it can still be a nightmare switching between saved settings, etc.
Some people feel to get the full benefit out of the higher end modelers, a lot of tweaking needs to be done. A lot of people contend it's not necessary, but with all that there it's hard to shake the niggling feeling(much like the later point about obsolete tech) you could be doing better. With an amp, an amp's an amp. Even if it's not the greatest, it has it's own soul and can be itself better than any other amp(except maybe a very good modeler versus. an amp with serious reliability issues).
What's been done about this? Well, rather famously the old Champ has seen a facelift into the Super Champ XD; modeling combos such as that tend to offer a greater ease of use(though the amp voice switch can be confusing to some, as it's just numerical, no names no colours to help remember the type or model of amp), but that introduces some of the above problems which are far more inherent with modeling combos. Line 6 did release a Pocket Pod express, though it's hard to justify such a simple device when the full on Pocket Pod is not much more expensive.
7) It'll become obsolete too quickly.
This is a big worry in some cases. Line 6 have already pretty much dropped support for their Stompbox modelers in favour of the new Pod stuff. A modeler which seemed awesome at first, ends up falling victim to 2) in the long run, or the flaws and cracks start showing up especially when compared to a more realistic modeler.
This always makes me afraid to buy a modeling amp. A bunch of new stuff was just announced recently for example - the VT+ Series, Pod HD+, Fender Mustang, new Roland Cubes. I'm unsure any of these are quite suitable, but you never know when they'll drop another bomb with a higher wattage/updated version, and we've yet to hear from Peavey and some of the others.
You never know when some new unheard of feature will be spewed all over the Line 6 gear. Maybe they'll finally make an affordable quality modeler with an effects loop. Who knows.
What's been done about this? Modelers are really approaching the place where sound quality isn't that much of an issue, differences will be smaller. An Axe-FX will never sound "bad". Fractal Audio update their firmware a lot. Of course, the hardware can still go out of date, but a lot can be done with algorithms, and improving efficiency of the hardware should a little more juice be needed.
Following on from this somewhat -
8) It sounds/feels too digital, not like a real amp.
I'm not ranking these - but ironically, this would rank surprisingly low. It's the most important thing in principle but now that we do have such good quality modeling and have done for some time. A lot of the time hooking up even an older modeler to a tube poweramp and good FRFR speaker will work wonders.
What's been done about this? Tech is improving all the time. The sound is more or less already there, and the feel is getting closer and closer. Though you still have the earlier problem with cheap components.
1) They're not unique.
Modelers largely cop rather famous and debatedly rather overexposed tones. If you have a nice little tube combo you picked up for cheap; it might be trying to do something similar(sound like another amp), but it'll still have it's own sound, to varying degrees. There are a lot of unique tube and Solid State amps that don't tend to get modeled; on the Solid State side the Sunn Beta Lead and HHICS100, and on the tube side, any number of vintage tube amps such as Silvertone, Gibson etc(which leads to the next point).
The Tech21 stuff in my view really suffers from this, even if they're great amps, they model basically the most generic and overmodeled tones, you have your Fender Twin sounds for cleans, your mid gain Marshall sounds for rock, your Dual Rec sounds for metal.
What's been done to fix it? The ZT Lunchbox is a largely a digital "modelling" amp of a sort but has it's own tube. Amps such as the Fender SCXD have a number of settings that are not specifically trying to emulate an amp, but a variation on the team such as the super overdriven Tweed and Blackface. Line 6 have various "original" amps where they take the top end of one and graft it to another.
However these are still largely all borrowing from existing amp tones, there are almost no unique digital amplifiers whereas there are some solid state ones.
2) It might not model what you want.
This is particularly frustrating on combo amps. It's nice to have a grab and go solution so I don't have to dick around with poweramps, monitors etc(see the next few points).
I would really like an Orange amp. However, they're largely too expensive for me and the cheaper models I can afford largely don't have the features I need. It's also not a sound I'm 100% sure I'd be using all the time. Orange amps are exactly the kind that would be great to model since you can't really cop those tones with other amps.
I also consider a guitar through an overdriven bass amp a pretty important vintage tone, for example Keith Richards got a pretty nice tone doing this. And you have guys like Josh Homme creating much sought after tones this way. By using a Bass amp you can to some extent get away with the problem guitar amps having of sounding quite similar. Very few modelers actually seem to model a bass amp.
If I got a Spider Valve II, it has a nice assortment of tones. However it only really has one Tweed setting, and I like my Tweed settings, and no JCM800 setting. Though these kind of amps tend to get overmodeled - it's still essential to have the basics in SOME capacity.
With an SCXD, it does fantastic Fender and Plexi tones, but the Vox tone is iffy, and the metal tones are less than stellar.
It's something a friend of mine has said before - he doesn't want to get a modelling combo unless he's sure it does everything he wants. Because combos generally don't have the same range of sounds.
Are there ways to work around this? As pointed out, the new Spider amps do an Orange and a Hiwatt which is nice and unusual for a modelling combo. Line 6 did in the past release amp packs. While these weren't massively popular due to cost, it is a good concept in a way. Fractal Audio continue with free updates.
3) It's not a real, physical amp.
This is a tough one to beat - again there are modelling combos which have a better "amp in the room" feel, but you bring 2) far more heavily into the occasion then. Modeling amps often tend to be made from cheaper components too, and suffer because of it.
Powered cabs can go a lot way to the "cab in the room" factor, but it's still not as nice as having a real amp to some people. You can't go in and mess with the internals, or enjoy the burning tubes(though tube powered cabs will still have this to an extent).
The main problem with it not being a real amp too is that you can't get all the features you'd like from a "real" set up.
Not being able to swap things around the way you like can be frustrating. For example, on my PX4D, the cabinet model comes BEFORE the modulation. This is the most retarded thing ever. The limited range of a speaker is largely what takes the harshness away from distortion. So if it filters off at around 7khz or so, and then you decide, hey I want a harmoniser/pitch shifting effect, you then have harmonics at 14khz, WAY beyond what an amp will put out. 2 Octaves up will go up to 28khz; that's more than anyone can hear(though of course that won't be reproduced by most speakers/headphones)! It makes those settings almost useless for no good reason, it sounds like harsh, fizzy, clangy crap.
Some people like their wah after their dirt to get more "filter sweep" effects than the traditional sound. Some people like to run reverb into the amp instead of in the FX loop(Not naming anyone KEVIN SHIELDS), and a lot of modelers that propose that they are "rig replacements". And even if you use your own effects, a lot of modelers do not have FX loops. I can't stress how annoying this is.
Very few modeling amps do, and they seem to insist on not including them despite it being the most popular mod for the Valvetronix amps and SCXD for example.
How is this being worked on? Vox's latest VT range give you a whopping 33 amps which weakens the problem presented in 2), the latest Spider amps are higher quality than they were. Axe FX and Revalver give you a lot of the same tweak-ability you get with a real amp without the fear of electrocution, though the lack of physical interaction won't make it the same for some.
4)Consistency of tone
What do I mean by this? If you have a versatile Marshall like the new JVM, you'll get a load of tones while it sounding like the same amp. With a modeler, they'll go "ah sure what do you need a Marshall pretending to be a Rec for, have a real Rec sound", but then you lose a lot of the consistency and the impression of a single amp trying it's damndest.
Amp modelers by and large simple don't bother emulating the full amp, but only one of the channels. A lot of amp models don't even have the same versatility a single channel amp has and tend to model a particular sound(though this is increasingly a thing of the past). You also can't jumper them or mod them or swap the tubes out.
A lot of modelers also seem to exaggerate the characteristics of various cabs which can make them stand out too much. Most amps will sound like they fit together recorded on a record with a bit of EQ. However if you have a very stuffy mid range cab with a more full range one, it's going to sound awkward. And of course, many people like to run heads through the same cab, a lot of modelers(i.e. combos) don't tend to let you swap head and cab around, or where they do, they sound tailored to each other and it doesn't work out right.
Is this being worked on? The Peavey Vypyr series claims to model both clean and dirty channels. The SCXD models the Fender amps at varying levels of dirtiness. Again Revalver and AxeFX actually let you get into the nitty gritty of the amp and tweak the innards like a real amp.
5) Cost versus quality
Yep, cost. Modelers are generally seen as a bargain basement things due to the Spiders and similar amps but in reality while a lot of these amps will fool people on recordings if you want one that will work well in a live setting, you're going to most likely have to fork out for a costly modeler like the Axe FX or at least 11 Rack, a good power amp, and a good full range cab.
If you're only interested in modeling a couple of amps and playing small gigs, it's a nightmare and the cost running into the thousands is unjustifiable just to get the same level of "convincing" quality a couple of $400 tube or even some SS amps could probably manage when you could pick up a few second hand tube amp combos/heads and pedals to cover the same range of sounds, get real amps and the sounds you want. If you go cheaper, then you're taking too much of a dip in quality to justify it. I believe there's a large lost market of people here, no matter how good the tech becomes, lower end and higher end modelers will differ vastly in the quality of preamps, A/D converters and durability.
Of course the other conveniences involved in a modeling amp will help make it for some people; it can be easier to record, and the modelers that actually let you tweak the amp and swap out tubes make it easier to customise your sound, and of course the reason a lot of us have modelers, you have the extra sounds "Just in case", for those rare tracks where you absolutely must have an AC30 even though you'd likely never own a Vox yourself.
The Character series pedals can get amazingly expensive. Okay if you just want an Orange sound, or a Mesa Boogie sound(the character knob can also help with some of the other types). But if you want to get the same versatility as the older Sansamp for example, it'll cost you. A lot. And you still need something good to plug it into, it sometimes seems like it's worth going the extra mile and picking up a used Tiny Terror combo instead of getting the Oxford, a good power amp/powered combo/speakers.
What's been done about this? Cheaper modelers ARE largely getting better. I was impressed with the sound of the 15 Watt Vypyr when I tried it. The Spider IV seems to be a decent amp, unlike it's predecessor. The Pod HD Supposedly offers more Axe-FX like quality in a simpler and cheaper package.
However you can not have an entirely "digital" modeler, and when the analogue components become cheaper for modelers so too will they be for "real" amps. My Korg PX4D has fantastic modeling but is wholly ruined by the microphonic hiss it produces. This will likely always be a problem in lower end gear. Though some tube and SS amps will be affected by this, at least they can focus entirely on the components and not the algorithms, hardware and the audio components.
6) Ease of use.
It's been said before but from a usability engineering perspective modelers can be pretty horrendous.
There is simply nothing as straightforward to plugging into an old champ and jamming away.
This is true of multi-FX in general too. I remember the Yamaha Magicstomp got a bad rep over it. My M9 is nice in some ways, more like real pedals but it can still be a nightmare switching between saved settings, etc.
Some people feel to get the full benefit out of the higher end modelers, a lot of tweaking needs to be done. A lot of people contend it's not necessary, but with all that there it's hard to shake the niggling feeling(much like the later point about obsolete tech) you could be doing better. With an amp, an amp's an amp. Even if it's not the greatest, it has it's own soul and can be itself better than any other amp(except maybe a very good modeler versus. an amp with serious reliability issues).
What's been done about this? Well, rather famously the old Champ has seen a facelift into the Super Champ XD; modeling combos such as that tend to offer a greater ease of use(though the amp voice switch can be confusing to some, as it's just numerical, no names no colours to help remember the type or model of amp), but that introduces some of the above problems which are far more inherent with modeling combos. Line 6 did release a Pocket Pod express, though it's hard to justify such a simple device when the full on Pocket Pod is not much more expensive.
7) It'll become obsolete too quickly.
This is a big worry in some cases. Line 6 have already pretty much dropped support for their Stompbox modelers in favour of the new Pod stuff. A modeler which seemed awesome at first, ends up falling victim to 2) in the long run, or the flaws and cracks start showing up especially when compared to a more realistic modeler.
This always makes me afraid to buy a modeling amp. A bunch of new stuff was just announced recently for example - the VT+ Series, Pod HD+, Fender Mustang, new Roland Cubes. I'm unsure any of these are quite suitable, but you never know when they'll drop another bomb with a higher wattage/updated version, and we've yet to hear from Peavey and some of the others.
You never know when some new unheard of feature will be spewed all over the Line 6 gear. Maybe they'll finally make an affordable quality modeler with an effects loop. Who knows.
What's been done about this? Modelers are really approaching the place where sound quality isn't that much of an issue, differences will be smaller. An Axe-FX will never sound "bad". Fractal Audio update their firmware a lot. Of course, the hardware can still go out of date, but a lot can be done with algorithms, and improving efficiency of the hardware should a little more juice be needed.
Following on from this somewhat -
8) It sounds/feels too digital, not like a real amp.
I'm not ranking these - but ironically, this would rank surprisingly low. It's the most important thing in principle but now that we do have such good quality modeling and have done for some time. A lot of the time hooking up even an older modeler to a tube poweramp and good FRFR speaker will work wonders.
What's been done about this? Tech is improving all the time. The sound is more or less already there, and the feel is getting closer and closer. Though you still have the earlier problem with cheap components.
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Some of your complaints though don't exist in every modelling amp though - I had a L6 Vetta that allowed you to move effects where you wanted them. Axe-FX does this too, as do many others. Using this as an excuse why all modellers are bad is kinda like me saying tube amps don't have enough gain when all I've played through was a fender twin.
