Amp Sims-Playing live

I’ve done this a few times. I don’t prefer it (on account of my cab sim being super cheap), but there are many capable cab sims on the market which you just plug straight into the mixer board.

I know a lot of folks who gig and tour with fractals or kempers, and entire bands without a single amplifier.

If we are talking amp sims on a PC and not a modeller/profiler like a Helix or Kemper, the 2 big drawbacks to that are reliability and latency. The last thing you want to do on stage is have everyone wait while you reboot your PC after a crash, or have the PC lag and not match your playing.

The below video may help, Ola Englund goes through an amp sim setup that could used for clinics or other applications where reliablity isn't as big of a deal as a live show would be:

Ola Englund Amp Sim Setup

His setup gets somewhat complicated with automation through the DAW but you can also have the same setup with just a standalone amp sim like Guitar Rig. In that case, you could change patches either with a connected midi controller or by the interface itself on the screen.

I've really been wanting to find models with Mesa Mark series and I think Amplitude just came out with the prized IIC+ model so I'll definitely look into that. Thanks for the info

I came across those the other day and I haven't tried it yet but the Mark III video sounds great. It doesn't have the GEQ but I should be able to find a sim for that too.

Something else I'm curious about and haven't found an answer for is audio interfaces and preamps to plug the guitar into the laptop. I'm wondering if I can use my DigiTech RP, run it into the laptop through its own software normally, and put it on a clean channel to play the amp sim. I actually did this when I had a Mark III red stripe to be able to use effects without the Mark III itself being colored by the RP by just using the direct amp and cab on the pedal

Or maybe I just need to take all my shite to Guitar World and have dude show me in person lol

Eventually I'm going to get a more modern multi effects and amp modeling pedal in the $500ish range. I was in love with the Line 6 Pod Go's Mark IV model as well as the rest, but then I heard the IIC+ model on the Headrush. Maybe I should start a new thread about multi pedals but the advances they have made with amp models is amazing, even the ones in the $500 range

Long story short I'll thanks for the help and I'll tool around with this Mesa sim tomorrow. I also downloaded an interface called Cantabile that is supposed to be live playing driven that I still need to try