I have had good distorted rock tones from every amp simulator I’ve owned for the past near 20 years. It takes as much time to dial in gain, tone controls, compression, etc as it does to do a good job RECORDING a tube amp.

Don’t confuse the sound you feel in your clothing from a big bassman or twin reverb, with the sound of the same being simulated for recording.

You need to know what you are doing to record a real amp and have it sound like what you remember on stage or in the garage.

In the same way, it takes time to figure out how to dial in amp simulations, which are pretty much either just for playing over a PA or for recording.

My amp simulator has about 25 different amp sims. I’ve only taken the time to dial in the nuances of two of them, a Two Rock Emerald 50 w combo and Fender Deluxe Reverb.

With those two only, and a couple guitars, I can cover just about any tone needed with the right pedals and signal chain and pickup selection and knob settings on my guitars.

This is really no different than pedals and amps and cabinets and mics and all of the fiddling you have to do with that. But it weighs tons less! Literally.

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