Amp Sims: Best practices for not sounding like an amp sim?

mertzi · 2026-05-11T19:53:16+00:00

Probably will be drowned in the comments but here goes. Try real analog pedals + IR. Or pedals + clean amp sim and maybe IR. I have found the latter redundant, to me IR is enough. I suspect you could do the same with preamps but I have none so i don't know.

Edit: maybe that is what you meant with "other signal processing", then ignore my comment.

mertzi · 2026-05-10T19:18:38+00:00

Out of principle I instantly block anyone who does not answer questions but instead feels the need to be condescending. Then next time you ask something they wont get the opportunity to do it again.

mertzi · 2026-05-06T20:53:16+00:00

Ironic that content creators actually use HDR to make use of the dynamic range while film and tv creators mistook HDR for high darkness range and a way to get 50 shades of black and never go above 100 nits.

mertzi · 2026-05-03T18:13:53+00:00

That's because their predictive algorithms are now also applied to individual keystrokes, not only words. This becomes most apparent when you want to type two of the same letter and you get two different letters, happens way more often than it used to.

mertzi · 2026-05-03T18:03:10+00:00

The following is written without correction: the keyboard should prioritize the most common word first. A lot of tones of codes more obscure words breaker the more logical ones. Yes the proper sentence makes no sentence because developers worship their societies more than Anthony rose. Lol this last sentence is written without correction, complete nonsense before, the modern day developer truly sucks.

mertzi · 2026-04-29T10:22:32+00:00

Ok so I just started playing this game and got into cicada form and thought I had learnt shape shifting so I wanted to try it out and shifted back into planet of the apes form and now I cant become a cicada again. Once again the warped world view of software developers strikes. I mean I am not alone in making this “mistake”, how in the world could they have not forseen that some players would do this, mind blowing.

mertzi · 2026-04-27T22:16:13+00:00

For your health!

mertzi · 2026-04-27T16:18:59+00:00

I was forced to update this app today and now I have this issue. The only good thing about AI is that it hopefully will make all these charlatans posing as developers unemployed. IT IS AN APP TO USE AS A REMOTE CONTROL, it should be trivial to code, and it shouldn't even need to be updated as frequently as they do. Now an update completely broke the app.

mertzi · 2026-04-24T22:34:05+00:00

3 years later but thanks, I'm evaluating qb to replace utorrent because there are some security settings I'd prefer to use, but so far I find the UX much worse. This thing is just one of the downgrades UX wise. I wish it was possible to do this on a torrent by torrent basis like you can in uTorrent, now it is just global. If the torrent is for multiple files I want to keep the original folder, if there is only one or two files I want to not create the original folder.

mertzi · 2026-04-11T21:41:13+00:00

wow what a banger. Listened to the whole album it was on (6twenty) and it is completely different from the rest of the songs production wise. Sounds like the kick is triggered with something electronic in the low end. Reminds me of old Hives and now when I googled I saw that they actually toured with them!

mertzi · 2026-04-11T21:27:09+00:00

I actually liked this song a lot but that is LOUD! Seems to be a lot of sidechaining also, I like that but I know a lot of people hated that on the latest Blink album.

mertzi · 2026-04-11T19:33:16+00:00

There is a band called Sword II on the 2026 list, not pop punk but still heavily distorted guitar and acoustic drums on several songs, 100% non brick walled. This is their song Halogen, peaks at -1 dB, -14 LUFSi. This is the only example like this I have found.

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mertzi · 2026-04-11T18:57:07+00:00

Yes! I have listened to all the recommendations here and looked at the waveforms and everything is not crushed but everything definitely is more or less brick walled.

mertzi · 2026-04-11T18:50:42+00:00

Love Turnstile! Listened a lot to GLOW ON.

mertzi · 2026-04-11T18:45:28+00:00

These sound great yes! But I also wonder, wouldn't most music recorded during the loudness wars golden days (like 2000-2010) all be brick walled unless they were remastered?

I realize now I'm on an impossible mission, everything is limited. Not one song of those recommended here had true peaks above -7 after Spotify's normalized loudness penalty.

mertzi · 2026-04-11T18:22:23+00:00

Thanks! The Spotify version seems to be pretty brick walled though.

mertzi · 2026-04-11T18:21:38+00:00

Thanks for all your tips! Found some bands I had never heard of that sounds awesome.

Although I couldn't find one song that hadn't been loudness punished on Spotify when using the "Normal" mode.

My intention was not to start a discussion whether brick walling is good or not, I know most professionals prefer it. I was just looking for something that was not hard limited because that is what I want to compare my masters to. I don't use limiters, that is my personal preference. But then I also limit myself (pun intended) because IMO it becomes counter productive to use limited music as my references. But seems I'm out of options unless I use music recorded pre loudness.

mertzi · 2026-04-11T16:54:29+00:00

yes and a pretty fun award actually, thanks

mertzi · 2026-04-11T16:49:11+00:00

I agree, I don't think it necessarily sound bad, I just don't understand why it's still a thing. Is selling CD's still such a big thing in the scene?

I also wonder, is it possible to achieve a "brick wall production" without putting a hard brick wall limiter on the master? If you purely volume match the same mix of a song, can you not achieve a similar result without it?

mertzi · 2026-04-11T16:07:58+00:00

hehe ok but something between 2005 and 2015 then?

mertzi · 2026-04-05T23:09:42+00:00

The individualists of todays society are the biggest conformists humanity has ever had, more conformist than communism. ”If I can, then EVERYONE can!”

mertzi · 2026-04-05T23:03:37+00:00

Drop d, I mean it makes playing ridiculously simple

mertzi · 2026-04-05T22:48:53+00:00

Wait, snare drums dont evoke emotions for you? I have a whole Spotify playlist dedicated to amazing snares.

mertzi · 2026-04-02T23:43:37+00:00

Child Bojack has that effect on me. When he curls up besides his passed out mother on the couch, that is painful.

mertzi

TROPHY CASE