While thumbing through the September 2008 Guitar Center sale catalog I read the interview with Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars of Motley Crue. I read the following, and I quote.....

"While recording his parts for "Saints of Los Angeles" Mars and producer James Michael decided to use Digidesign's new amp simulation plug-in Eleven instead of traditional guitar amps"

"I usually like to record with real guitar amps, but Eleven changed my mind," says Mars. "James knows my tone really well, and he knows how to stack different amps with different mics to get the sound that I need.. Eleven comes really close to what real amps and mics sound like-------- you actually get the amp buzz and noise and everything else that you get with a real amp. It also gets rid of the hassle of working in a really big room, setting up the amps and placing mics."

Now the part that that really bothered me was "Eleven comes really close to what real amps sound like"............

Now, I love Motley Crue, I've followed them from the begining. The guitar tones on the first few albums maybe lacked something, but the songs and the grooves made up for it. Now granted the best and worst selling records were both produced by Bob Rock, "Dr. Feelgood" and the "S/T" w/ John Corabi on vocals, they both had Guitar sounds from hell... Bob's just good like that, and maybe I'm just a closet Canadian Engineer, but those tones came from guitar amps with great mic techniques, through Neve 1081 pres into 2" 24 Track analog tape.... The up and coming engineers should search for interviews and pictures of what Bob does, it's pretty amazing......

Side note: though "feelgood" was a hit album, the S/T album is one of my favorite albums to listen to. The songs and the production kick ass....

So for a band to do a new album using only guitar plug-ins is just a rip. Even if they did use real amps and just said it in the interview just to promote "Digidesign's newest reason to not have to do it for real..." I bought it the day of release because I'm a fan and yeah it's close but, why????

A band that's still at the top of it's game with great guitars and gear shouldn't have to settle for not using real amps just because the producer says they can... This is why the "comes really close" comment runs all over me......

The art of engineering is becoming a lost art form. This must just send chills or the willies to guitar players like Eric Johnson and Billy Gibbons who spend hours and days getting the perfect guitar tone, or the Nashville session guys that can dial up great tones with real amps on a dime......

I had a conversation with a friend of mine the other day and we were talking about amps and guitars, and he said he loves his Line 6 amp. Now this wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't talked about all the great amps he owned, but the Line 6 modeled them well. It's like having a LA-2A Plug and the vintage hardware version and choosing the plug......

Call me an old fart, there is nothing that sounds as good as a speaker pushing AIR into a microphone......

So I guess I ask, just because you CAN come close, WHY!!!!!!!!!!