Re: [Harp-L] PC-based Amp Emulation software? Suggestions?

[Richard Hunter <turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

JohnnieHarp wrote:
<Is their software available that will allow playing through a PC that will
<emulate amps/effects. Just to clarify play into PC mike with sound coming
<out in real time through the speakers/headphones.

There's lots of stuff available, good stuff selling for anywhere from free to hundreds of dollars.  You need either a standalone amp modeler or a VST plugin plus a host for that plugin.  At the free end, Computer Music magazine publishes a DVD with every issue of the magazine, and the software on the DVD includes the CM guitar suite, which is a set of VST plugins that emulate guitar amps and cabs, plus EnergyXT, a host.  Studio Devil provides a free one-amp-and-cab model VST plugin that sounds good.  So does Voxengo.  There are lots of other good amp modeling plugins available for free at kvraudio.com.  

In $100 and down range, Line6 makes plugins plus computer audio interface packages.  The software plugins are called "Pod Farm", the base version sells for about $100, and it sounds great.  A number of my recent harp recordings, including "Ridin Blues" and "Kill the Doctor (That Killed My Wife)" (both at taxi.com/rhunter) use a Bassman amp model in Pod Farm plus a delay effect in the same software for the amped sound on the harp.  I've also used Studio Devil VGA (Virtual Guitar Amp), but I think Pod Farm is more powerful for harp, largely because of the effects it includes, and also because it runs in standalone mode.  At the high end, there's software like Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3, which sells for a few hundred dollars and will make practically any sound you can make with a guitar amp.  

In other words, there's plenty of stuff available to do the job you want done.  

Regards, Richaed Hunter

author, "Jazz Harp"
latest mp3s and harmonica blog at http://myspace.com/richardhunterharp
more mp3s at http://taxi.com/rhunter
Vids at http://www.youtube.com/user/lightninrick