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To be fare, I have a GT001 which I use as a headphone amp and I can get some fun usable sounds out of it, but it's not on the same planet as my real rig.
Yes, recorded in a mix, the Helix (and I'm sure other high end modellers) can sound very convincing, so much so that you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between it and a mic'd amp.
In the room, played through a FRFR speaker, when your sat in front of it, is is where they sound and feel different to what a tube amp will sound, but again, when you're amp is mic'd up at a gig, the sound through the PA and a modeller fed direct to PA will sound very close.
This guy gets a some great tones:
It sounded more like a recording rather than a roaring amp tone and subsequently for me wasnt enjoyable at all.
But curious to know how fractal or kemper live users get on.
For live I still favour tube amps but that is more to do with being able to make changes on the fly to suit a particular acoustic environment.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
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In a live situation in a full band mix, with an enthusiastic drummer I'd honestly be amazed if you could tell the difference between a decent modelling amp/mfx and your average typical Fender, Marshall or Vox etc. Tube amp.
Most of any difference is really in feel to the guitarist and nuances you might hear in a studio situation or in your room at home where you're atuned to your surroundings. But live at your typical crowded pub, club, party gig - no way. Especially if you were going through a 4x12 cab and you were to see a Fender, Vox or Marshall dummy out front and your brain told you that you were looking at and therefore hearing a valve amp.
And thats even before we consider amp profiling from a Kemper thats effectively a sampling of the real thing.
The differences folk think they can hear live are very often psychological. However, the problem with this debate is opinions will always be divided and there will be those that say 'I'm different and I can hear the difference'. The only way to prove it either way is to set up a blind test with dummy and real amp rigs all through the same cab and speakers, miked up to the PA, and a real audience, which ain't gonna happen.
My modelling amp is old tech, a 2003 AD120VTX Valvetronix, and it doesn't have the sophistication of a Kemper or AxFx or Helix. I've done tons of gigs with it and even when performing in front of tube purists, they thought it was a Vox AC30 or Marshall. Its even been mistaken for an Orange amp based on tone...which is intetesting as it doesn't have an Orange model! Lol
At one gig there was an AC30 on stage from another band. Some guys came up to me to say how they enjoyed the gig and it was nice to hear a proper Vox AC30 valve amp instead of ' that modelling rubbish'....and they were sound engineers from a local studio. Should have seen their mouths drop when I told them I wasn't using the AC30 they saw and I was playing through that modelling rubbish. People hear what they want to hear!
View my feedback at www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/comment/1201922
I currently run two set ups, one pedalboard into a Brunetti Pleximan, and one Ax8 into fryette and a guitar cab. Both sound great and in a blind test you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I keep both because I like fiddling with pedals and I like tube amps, but if I really had the courage of my convictions and didn't like trying out gear so much I'd stick with the Ax8 exclusively.
I even got compliments on my tone while using a Behringer V-Amp once.
Meanwhile I've seen a whole bunch of people using Fractal gear and they always sounded shit to my ears (our Clarky is probably the lone exception to this).
With a lot of them, it's down to how you use it more than what it's nominally capable of.
Most of the more recent modellers have a selection of good and not-so-good sounds, but the good ones are really quite close to sounding like analogue now - easily good enough that you can't tell with any certainty.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Not used mine as a modeller live... in an electric set. Just because I'm used to amp. But... I have heard some dire amp tones through a PA, when the amp itself sounds good, you are at the merry of the sound guy. Modellers remove lots of that problem.
Besides that, a mic'd up amp does not sound like a "live" amp. IMO modellers capture the mic'ed up sound very well now.
Anything else is apples to aubergines.
Taking the time to get the tones spot on and being able to compare directly to a real amp does help with getting the right sounds.
Ringleader of the Cambridge cartel, pedal champ and king of the dirt boxes (down to 21)
https://speakerimpedance.co.uk/?act=two_parallel&page=calculator