Just bought and installed Cubase 6 and was surprised to find how awful the VST Amp Rack sounds. Most of the amp models sound like putting your guitar through a lousy fuzz/distortion pedal and then straight into a mixer.
In comparison to IK Amplitube 3 it’s really like day and night… Even the old Cubase Amp Simulator sounds 100 times better than the Amp Rack.
Or am I doing something wrong?
Probably. I’m by no means a guitar expert, but I find the VST amprack sounds a lot better than the ampsim.
Play a little with the mic positions, they make a big difference.
You’re probably doing something wrong. Amplitude’s not cheap and it isn’t that good for the money. The Amp Rack is part of Cubase but you don’t have to use it.
Actually, I think the VST Amp Rack sounds pretty damn excellent. I have two problems with it though, main one is it keeps crashing Cubase constantly and causing me to lose everything I was working on even with auto-save set to every 5 minutes. And I have nothing else loaded but the Amp Rack when this happens. The crash log in the Event Viewer does indeed point to the crash occuring in a VST3 plugin. I posted about it here but now my post is three pages back so I don’t think Cubase will do anything unless others complain of crashing.
Second, while it sounds awesome I can’t seem to get rid of this “boxy” sound to the amps. It makes the guitars sit outside the mix a bit and not blend in smoothly. Seems like some kind of mid-range notch filter or something even though I have nothing else going on but the amp and cab. Outside of that though I think it compares extremely well to other amp sim VST’s out there. I also own Guitar Rig 3 and think the amps sound pretty awful, however I’ve used it with amazing success just as a cab sim for my Mesa Triple Rec’s direct line out. Sounds just like a mic’d amp.
Since the crashing makes VST Amp Rack completely useless to me at this time I went out last night and picked up a POD HD Desktop to use for direct recording. Adunion - have you experienced any crashing with VST Amp Rack?
Rev.
Actually, AmpliTube is technically “free” at this point. With the latest Custom Shop version you have the option to install the basic program and only add/buy the gear you want. You can even try out the gear before purchasing.
Huh! A topic with “[Steinberg product X] … what a joke” in the title by a member with 5 posts. TROLL ALERT! 
But anyway. As already recommended by Strophoid: experiment with AmpRack. You may find some good tones … and if don’t, just use Aplitude, if you like it. Electric guitar sound is always about personal taste. I’ve been trying a lot of software/hardware modellers during the last 10 years (whoops EDIT: 20 years). Some of them sounded pure excrement to my ears, but I wouldn’t have called them “a joke”. I knew they just didn’t suit for me, because there was something I didn’t like or there wasn’t something I wanted. That’s same as with real amps. Someone likes a Roland Jazz Chorus while another one likes a 5150.
For last 8 years I’ve just used my PodXT (whenever I’m not after that specific patch of my GT-3), even though I have some vintage tube stuff in my storage room … not because PodXT sounds better … but because it’s more convenient and I know the thing inside out.
It’s about about finding the tools that SUITS FOR YOU. If something doesn’t suit for you, there’s no reason to be a cry-baby about it.
Hello Adunion,
I would recommend you to experiment a little more with the VST amp. Perhaps you crank the input levels a little more up, so the amp can “start to work”. Knowing every detail of a new program in just a vew days nobody can.
Cheers,
Chris
I’m very satisfied with VST Amps though I like Podfarm better but that I can’t use in 64 bit.
I get on fine with VST Amp Rack… After spending a bit of time sussing out how it behaved with different guitars, players etc.
cant beat a couple of sm 57’s and a nice amp in between them 
i thought the vst amp was pretty good to be fair…mess around with it more dude
i found it interesting , but kinda lacking for a real useable hard rock style distortion.
prolly b good for some lighter rock, etc…
Of course it doesn’t … unfortunately our computers are not powerful enough to emulate the behaviour of every air molecule between the speaker an the microphone … YET … but maybe one day…
But still … IMO amp modelling is good enough IF the guitar player is satisfied with using modelling. If that’s the case, use the amp modeller you feel comfortable with. If the guitarist feels unconfortable with a modeller … then power up your Marshall stack (or whatever) and put that sm57 in front of it!
Hello all. Thanks for your attention to this subject. First of all I want to say that I’m not a “troll”. The reason my posts here on this forum are so few, is that I’m usually busy making music. Now that I’ve recently bought Cubase 6, I feel there are some issues to sort out. That’s why I’m posting here. Apologies if my rant above offended anyone.
Anyway. It really sounds like I’m doing something wrong in terms of the Amp Rack. I just can’t seem to figure out how to make it sound good. Changing amps affects the sound, even though there’s little difference in sound quality between the different amps. But changing cabs or fiddling around with the mics does nothing as far as I can hear.
I’ve attached two audio files for you to listen to. One of them is with VST Amp rack (Deluxe amp), and the other is with Amplitube 3 Free. Only thing I did was to lower the gain a little on the AmpRack and increasing the amp volume. The plugins were inserted on the very same track with the very same recording. One at a time. Quite a difference, to say the least…
PS. Jarno… of course I’ll continue using what I think suits me best. I just wanted to raise the matter about this since my expectations were higher.
GuitarAmplitube.mp3 (383 KB)
GuitarAmpRack.mp3 (383 KB)
Totally subjective!!!
Either sound is good or bad depending!!!
Well of course you’re right about good/bad being a subjective matter. If you prefer that fuzz-like sound that sounds like a cheap distortion pedal going through a mixer, the AmpRack example might even be considered as good sounding. I agree that can be usable sometimes too. But that’s not the point. What’s really surprising me is that this this “amp simulator” only seems capable of creating sounds like these…
I must admit to being a plonk some mics in front of an amp/speaker sort of a guy 
Although I do use a Pod on occasion or do some re-amp work.
It all really depends on just what you’re after, I’d imagine that Amp sim A may not produce the sound you want where as Amp sim B does.
Like the Pod certain sounds work with some guitars and not with others, sticking a Strat through a JCM800 never blew my mind.
my opinion:
in a complete mix no human hears the difference between real or modelling amps!
I am quite sure that you get a similar sound with proper adjustments or other combinations of plugins in cubase.
what you think?
am I wrong or not?
P.S: …of course I prefer the amp sound of the first example. ;o)
Rock on!
BTW:
@adunion,
please can you attach a clean guitar of your example?
(I´d like to try it with onstock plugins in cubase…) 
interesting!
.
Sure! Here you go. Btw, the guitar used is a 1992 Fender Japan Stratocaster played through a Studio Projects VTB-1 preamp.
GuitarClean.mp3 (383 KB)