After 10 years of intense guitar playing, out in clubs, recording etc., I switched gears about 5 years ago and have been composing—DAWs, orchestral, hybrid stuff, scoring work etc. Totally changed gears. Recently I've started doing more guitar playing in the work, and have been slowly (very slowly) getting some chops back. I've found some amp plugins that get pretty great tone, Scuffham S-Gear and UAD stuff (I use the UAD Apollo and an Octo Satellite) are my favorites. The one thing I haven't found is good drive pedal simulations. I'm wondering if anyone knows of any vsts that can get that great, responsive low to medium breakup from things like Lovepedals, Mad Professor etc. It might be beside the point, when recording you can set the plugin amp the way you want it for a section and I do that. But I'm wondering if there are any vsts that give the same experience as playing a great pedal? Thanks!
You can find a very good choice of pedals in Amplitube: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/atjppedal/ http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/atnypedal/ http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/cat-view.php?C=family-t-racks-processors if you have Nebula, there are other goods sims here: http://damyfx.altervista.org/nebula-programs.html (by the way I love DrCrunch Marshall amp sim!) a free vst of an advanced Tube Screamer is available here: http://www.igniteamps.com/it/audio-plug-ins (TS-999) But I think you're right. At the end there is less interest in pedal sims, since the wide choice of amp sims, and the possibility to adjust and re-adjust all the settings could be enough.
Audified makes some decent drive pedal VST's but nothing that getting really responsive. Just like with real pedals, you need a good amp sim to make a drive pedal usable. I have had better luck with S-gear and just pushing the amps gain up.
You've no doubt thought of this and probably have reasons for wanting a plugin drive pedal, but I just want to say that I've gotten some amazing recorded tones with a great-sounding OD/Boost pedal or two (analog/outboard) running into amp modeling plugins. Having a couple "real" pedals in your studio really doesn't complicate things much, and it's instant gratification.
Having used Mainstage for a while now, I would say that you can get better results by using combinations of EQ, compression, and clipping plugins, both before and after any amp sims and IR plugs.
There is the positive grid bias pedal vst that may work for you. You can create your own drive pedals.
Thanks all, appreciate the thought and info! T The reason for wanting a plugin is due to the UAD 'unison' thing, when you use their guit amps in the unison slots, they are (supposed) to emulate very well the same type of connection as when you're plugging into a real amp. It does sound pretty great, and very responsive. Pete Thorn's videos show it off to good effect, (but then, everything he does sounds good! The kid plays his ass off). I'm thinking that by plugging into a physical pedal, you'd lose some of that. I had done it for a while a few years ago, maybe I'll give it a whirl again. I've got gain pedals up the wazzooo. I used to be a pedal and amp junkie, now I'm a string library junkie. Just traded one bad habit for another. I took a look at the Bias stuff and seemed interesting and I'd heard good things. Though it looks like it might be more slanted toward the high gain/metal end of things and I'm in the Derek Trucks/Hendrix etc. world (being extremely old) I'll definitely give it a whirl, for the price kind of hard to resist! Seems like there might be a market opportunity here for some enterprising young geniuses! Love Pedal Eternity Plugin, Drivetrain Plugin, Honeybee plugin... As a gear junkie they'd take plenty of my money.
