When I saw the announcement that Logic Studio 9 was out, I was practically in my car to hit the Apple store. When I read that it had guitar modeling, I was literally in my car heading to the Apple store.

I am a guitar player, and have been playing with Modeling for several years. It started with the red bean Pod, then a Pod Pro, Guitar Port with Gearbox software, Pod XT Pro, then I purchased Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3. If you aren’t familiar, Guitar Rig 3 is a fantastic modeling program with a very impressive array of sounds, all quite authentic. Modeling has taken a leap forward, but the built in amp simulator in Logic Studio 8 was still quite pathetic.

I had exceptionally high hopes for Logic Studio 9’s guitar modeler and Pedal Board. I’d like to say that I was blown away, but I am sure the tone of this article has already given away that I wasn’t. The bright spot is that the Pedal Board is fantastic.

All Gain, is nothing but Pain

Before I start saying the negative, let me say that the low gain amps sound perfectly acceptable. The Fender twin models, VOX and Roland sound alikes are very good. I still think Guitar Rig is better, but for your average pop fair with buried guitars, no one is likely to notice the difference.

The problem comes in with the high gain models. It might be because they tried to make them too accurate. That is because real amps are noisy as hell. Logic Studio 9’s guitar amp models are also noisy as hell. I would say that they are also usable, and for extreme metal sounds that get compressed and buried, you would probably get by. If you were going for a beautiful legato solo with Steve Vai like gain, you are probably going to be frustrated by the intolerable amp buzz between your singing notes.

Stomp Your Way To Better Music

As a guitar player, I love stomp boxes. I notoriously scour craigslist and pawn shops for cheapo and vintage pedals just to see what kind of weird sounds I can make. With those guys, I have to print it when I hit record. With the stomp box models in Logic Studio, you can stick all kinds of vibe on your guitar tracks, or bass, vocals or anything else.

When you have this kind of sonic palette at your finger tips, you can go from your plane Jane guitar tracks, to the gushing lush sounds of U2’s the edge, all in perfect sync with your project’s tempo.

You’ll Love This

The bottom line is that this is a great tool. Even if you have to supplement it’s tonal qualities with other plugins, or just record real amps, it’s always nice to have options. Between these two plugins, you’ll have more options than you can imagine.

Filed under: Logic Studio, Amp Models, Guitar, Stomp Box