we could go on and on about the fletcher munson curve and how much it fools people into thinking an amp and an amp sim sounds alike ... but in that particular situation the amp sim kikcked the amp's butt. t
Hazel I was listening to the tracks again and again, and the PODXT track did not respond to the guitar well. I was rolling off the volume to see how the sound cleaned up. The PODXT sounded flat while the Randall cleaned up just like how a tube amp does. And yes you're right, the miked up tracks need a little EQing because of proximity issues, and we do that either in the mixing or tracking stage where the engineer cuts a little lows so the mids become more defined.
Now here are my observations on that A/B test, which I deem as flawed.
1. The amp sim on the PODXT did NOT produce the same timbre produced by the Randall Plexi Module.
2. The amp sim on the PODXT did NOT produce the same preamp compression produced by the Randall Plexi Module.
3. There was no backing track to see how well the track sits on the mix.
4. We cannot make a good judgment on either amp or ampsim primarily because the guitar used was rather... muddy? I wonder but that guitar didn't have much sparkle, or rather "bingi" yung highs.
5. From a producer's standpoint, we cannot say one is better over the other unless we had a particular tone in mind for the project. And rightly so, this is not to say the POD kicked the Randall's butt or otherwise.
But then again, this is the
confusion that I have always been talking about. Just because one cannot capture the tone of an amp in a studio and thus get more decent results with a POD, a lot of people claim the POD kicks <put amp model and brand here>'s ass. You see?
It is just like saying "BFD kicks a Yamaha Maple Custom's ass" when the engineer cannot capture the tone of the Yamaha the way a BFD drum kit sounds. Maybe, the better way to say that is "BFD is a better option when there is limited time in the studio, and there are lesser chances of failure if BFD and an electronic kit can deliver the goods instantly, whereas miking a drum kit like a Yamaha Maple Custom where the room ambience, mics, head choices, and tuning necessitates more setup time, thus being more prone to failure."
It's all engineer vs. artist perspective. The way I see it, a lot of artists are missing out on the fun of tone-chasing if we take these shortcuts. And that is their major clamor. They do not feel as "involved" in the recording when there are shortcuts. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying SHORTCUTS ARE WRONG. What I am saying is, IT IS WRONG TO TAKE SHORTCUTS IF THE ARTIST WANTS TO TAKE THE SCENIC ROUTE.