Acoustic simulator pedals

Jetfire

Ive had one of these before and wasnt overly impressed. Is there anything out there that does a decent job of it or is it better to use my acoustic anyway?

John_A

Just got a Zoom g3n and the acoustic simulator in that is really good, assume it's the same as the Zoom single stop sized multi FX, certainly better than the old Boss one I used to have.  Good enough for the odd bit of pseudo acoustic stuff in a band, but still not as good as the real thing

nick79

I've had some success with using a 7 band eq pedal, not fantastic but get's me a bit closer than without it.

Dominic

Tried them all - none great but most ok - the little Mooer Akoustiker does as good a job as any other

ICBM

If you've previously used the Boss AC-2, try the AC-3 - it's much better, it's a completely different thing rather than a slight improvement. If you've already tried the AC-3… well, it's still just an acoustic simulator pedal .

I also agree with nick79 that an EQ pedal is worth trying, and if anything can sound a bit less artificial in some ways, although less 'like an acoustic', if that makes sense - kind of like an acoustic guitar with a soundhole pickup rather than like a piezo or a mic'ed acoustic.

DesVegas

How would you set an eq pedal to sound like an acoustic? @ICBM @nick79 ;

ICBM

DesVegas said:

How would you set an eq pedal to sound like an acoustic? @ICBM @nick79 ;

I start with a 'seagull' shape - bass flat, low mid boost, mid-mid cut, upper mid boost, treble flat - so on a 7-band EQ that's 2 and 6 up, 4 down - and adjust from there. You may want more treble if you're going into a more middy/less trebly amp.

It's usually better to use the neck pickup,  which may be counterintuitive if you think you're trying to simulate a piezo bridge pickup!

Grunfeld

Dominic said:

Tried them all - none great but most ok - the little Mooer Akoustiker does as good a job as any other

The little Mooer is pretty decent, I agree.
Acoustic sim pedals sound okay and plausible with the guitar playing on its own or with just vocals.
But as soon as the rest of the band join in then the sound gets lost really quickly.
I think it must be something to do with the way the pedals squash and reshape EQ and add a kind of compressed sound to the guitar. 
Does anyone have any tips for how to get them to stand out in a live mix (and let's face it that's the only time you'd bother with a pedal rather than a real acoustic guitar), with the rest of the band?

DesVegas

Cheers @ICBM I'll give it a go when I get my board back from my friend.