Loopy Pro: Create music, your way.
What is Loopy Pro? — Loopy Pro is a powerful, flexible, and intuitive live looper, sampler, clip launcher and DAW for iPhone and iPad. At its core, it allows you to record and layer sounds in real-time to create complex musical arrangements. But it doesn’t stop there—Loopy Pro offers advanced tools to customize your workflow, build dynamic performance setups, and create a seamless connection between instruments, effects, and external gear.
Use it for live looping, sequencing, arranging, mixing, and much more. Whether you're a live performer, a producer, or just experimenting with sound, Loopy Pro helps you take control of your creative process.
Download on the App StoreLoopy Pro is your all-in-one musical toolkit. Try it for free today.
Guitar amp app
So I ordered a new guitar. I currently have a presonus studio 24c. I also have th-u. Now I tried th-u once before and it didn’t sound very good so I’m not sure if I was doing something wrong. I play grunge and hard rock and even some metal but my question is, is th-u the best app for high gain type of stuff or would you recommend a different app for this kind of stuff?
Comments
Nembrini amps are the best, there’s plenty of them and some of them more suitable for high gain.
If you’re getting started and want to jump right in I’d also recommend Rhino, it’s got everything. Different preamps, distorsion and fuzzes, cabs… all in one package. I’d say it’s specially suited for high gain stuff.
Which TH-U amp/rig did you use? Some of them are best-in-class or among the best. I recommend spending time to read some of the many posts in the forum about people's favorite rigs and amps.
I think almost all of the guitar apps can sound good to great after some tweaks. Only a few sound bad no matter what one does.
If you tried th-u and it didn’t sound good to you, chances are the other apps won’t sound good either. Specifically with amp sims (not fx) the scale isn’t horrible to great, it’s more like fine to very good. I took a look at your interface, and the knobs are actually a bit confusing. It would be helpful if you posted a picture of your interface knobs and how they’re set. There’s always a chance there’s something wrong with your set-up. Once you sort your gear and your input/output levels, most of the guitar apps are going to sound fine. Some players chase that last 5% of tonal perfection, some don’t care, while others can’t hear the difference anyway. So when you say an app like th-u doesn’t sound very good, I must question the hardware as well as the set-up inside the app, because it’s just not a night and day difference from app to app, more like incremental gains. Have you tried the free iOS versions of Bias, Amplitube, GE Labs, Nembrini Crunk? Do those also not sound good with your set-up?
So it would be great to know what exactly about th-u doesn’t sound good to you. Is it the input or output distorting? Or something else? What are the buffer settings? How’s the latency? How are you setting your knobs on the interface? Were you using th-u standalone or as an AUv3? Objectively speaking, it’s one of the better “sounding” guitar apps out there. It’s great for the genres you mentioned, as are many of the Nembrini amps and Aurora’s Rhino. I hate Bias Fx and think it sounds like garbage, but many people like it for high gain too. Perhaps you would love Bias FX, you never know. I like Amplitube but I’ve only tried their clean stuff. My point is why don’t you try all of the apps for free and decide what you like? Most of them are free on iOS to start. You can also try Rhino and Nembrini for free on desktop.
There isn’t just one app or dev that people love unanimously. People have different ears, different pickups… in terms of learning curve all the guitar apps are about the same. Which is why they should all sound fine to you if your set up is ok. Have you tried the free garageband amps? Do those sound bad?
Nembrini is great but needs major tweaks in the bass and input/output levels. After that’s sorted it should sound stellar. Rhino is great but can clip too quickly if your levels aren’t set properly. Th-u and its presets sound good out of the gate, at least to me, but you also have to make sure your input/output is not in the red. They can all sound good, you have to put in the work to adjust them and to troubleshoot them. Nothing on iOS is gonna be as easy as plugging a guitar straight into an amp and setting all knobs at noon and that’s it. The digital realm requires that a lot more attention must be paid to input/output settings, eq, headphones, etc… (what headphones are you using anyway, this makes a huge difference in perception of vibration overload). It’s not just louder and softer, or cleaner and dirtier. The apps will clip harshly or have digital distortion, or have a signal that’s too weak, or one piece of the puzzle is not set up properly, etc etc… give us more detail and we can help.
But to answer your question, literally all of the apps are good enough for high gain. Even the free ones. The best is subjective and personal…
@JoyceRoadStudios : good points.
@jdolecek49 : it would be helpful if you posted a screenrecording showing how you have things set up that includes some playing so that we can hear what it is that you got and don't like -- it would make it easier to advise.
Fabfilters Saturn is my favorite guitar amp sim. And it does a lot more than just guitar amps.
I agree, there are so many possibilities.
I have sorted my apps for guitar out these days, but what I did when I started end of last year, was reading a lot on Audiobus forum about experiences and recommendations (there is a THU Fender holy grail topic with lots of info), and I was always looking for a discount (check the appsliced website).
My approach is that I just like to have a lot amp sim apps and THU rigs, like a real amp collection in my garage or practice room. The more I own the less I use it, but that doesn't matter for me.
For high gain, the Rhino amp is pretty good. Great wild and rich sound. Grunge, I don't know, I think grunge is some kind of lo-fi sound anyway, think Boss DS-1.
How about Tonebridge? It’s different, but fun! And it’s free.
TH-U shouldn’t sound bad
@JoyceRoadStudios has covered most things to be concerned about.
You also have to be aware of ground loops when it comes to iPhone/iOS.
Love Tonebridge to be able to instantly (and in a completely pain-free way) duplicate a very specific tone.
Since the advent of Tonebridge I’ve spend a lot less on building up my amps/effects libraries.
Gain Stage Vintage Clean is my favorite when it comes to clean tones, it gives you a lot of headroom to experiment with other fx's.
https://apps.apple.com/se/app/gain-stage-vintage-clean/id1508081069?l=en
You might like Rhino
When I discovered Rhino, my cravings for THU disappeared. At first it seemed rigged for high gain only but after tweaking, I was really rewarded! Highly recommend it.
Another vote for Saturn + Nembrini IR loader with Ownhammer or other custom IRs. It may not be a facsimile of a specific classic amp sound you’d like to have, but it simply sounds the best/richest/most pretty distortion harmonics.
I have th-u but I don’t understand it. First off I have no clue what the purpose of the rig player is. I just want to be able to load say the equivalent of the jcm900 and then throw a ts9 in front. That’s how I did it on stage. I want a high quality tone, hell I can’t figure out how to delete components….I just want to set my rig up and play, but this just seems so complex
TH-U is capable of high quality sounds. Rigs are the equivalent of profiled amps (like Kemper does) but some magic they capture an actual amp played with a variety of settings to recreate the tone. It is a different technology than the 'sims' which use different way of trying to simulate the targeted amp.
The best rigs generally sound better than the 'sims' in TH-U though many of the sims sound quite good. As with any amp, some time spent exploring the settings.
To delete a component, long tap on it and three icons appear above it: move, show settings, delete.
@jdolecek49 : and really if you show us and let us hear what you are doing, it will help is help you. The settings you use (including the input level) can have a big impact.
Are you using only free THU components?
Some components are better than others.
It would also be helpful to hear what you are trying to achieve.
Just my opinion.
Forget TH-U. Just get one of the Nembrini high-gain style amps and their TS9 to put in front of it. I think it'll make a lot more sense to you. You play grunge and metal? You'll be hard pressed to tell the difference in tone between most amp sims once you get a shit-load of distortion going on.
TH-U great is for sound purists who don't mind navigating the mirad of purchase options and ways to get some tone up and going, and who get along with the abstraction of the actual amp controls into the sidebar controls it has. I don't get along with TH-U myself though I know it's the best for many people.
I think maybe the Nembrini Cali Dual Three Channel, 8180 Monster Tube, or the BG Exstasy Boutique would work. (The BG Extasy is the only one of those I've tried and I love it ... but I'm into less Metal tones.)
The Clon Minotaur is free, and could work great in place of a TS9. Or go for the 808 Overdrive (also Free). The Analog Rack Screamer is also excellent. They have distortions of several types to choose from.
You can check out all the Nembrini offerings here: https://apps.apple.com/developer/nembrini-audio/id1493296895?see-all=i-phonei-pad-apps.
What I think you'll like about them over TH-U is they're each a discrete component rather than all the combo stuff in TH-U. I'm not knocking TH-U. I just think you'll find it easier to transition to something more modular.
For distortion, be sure to get Chow BYOD
@jdolecek49 are you able to easily create a chain in AUM, Audiobus, or another DAW that you use? Or does it have to be just one standalone app? Because @wim has it right, if you can use a host DAW, just get one high gain Nembrini amp and put a Nembrini TS in front (they have a free and a paid TS). Also Nembrini The Boss is a great pedal. There are plenty of single app offerings of overdrive pedals. Blamsoft DC-9 is also a TS9 emulation. There’s also DD-21 DiodeDistortion by DesignByPaul, $3 but iPad only. Plenty more. But the point is you have to chain them together in a host. If you’re having trouble understating th-u then Rhino won’t be any easier. For JCM900 your best Nembrinis will be the Peavey 8080 Monster Tube, the BG Ecstacy on channel 3, perhaps the Mrh159.
JCM900? Really? What are you playing Zakk Wylde? Nobody needs that much gain. For grunge better to have a TS boosted Marshall low-mid gain, and some chorus or whatever. Maybe the Nembrini Mrh810 then, it’s a jcm800 which is basically the same thing as a 900, but the Nembrini one has a more vintage Marshall clipping, it will get you both 70s and 90s. The mrh159 is more of a thicker wall of brown sound, will get you late 70s to early 80s. The Peavey one will get you to like 1990. The Mesa Boogies will get you Korn. The BG ecstasy will get you 60s all the way through the 90s. Have you tried the free Nembrini Crunk?
Take Soundgarden for example, albums recorded with Peaveys and Marshalls from the 80s to the early 90s, but for live shows in the 90s they switched to Boogies.
Jerry Cantrell used Peavies that Eddie Van Halen gifted him, but now he has his own Friedman signature amp which sounds like a thick modern Marshall, except a bit more compressed and less gain.
But I digress. Most of the high gain Nembrinis will work for you and they’re easy to use just like having one amp (except with dozens of cab and mic options).
The JCM900 was notoriously bad.
For grunge I would be buying a Boss DS-1. They go for about 20 bucks used.
I run one into a 60’s AC50 and it’s rock n roll.
Is membrini stand alone.the amps are 20 each so all I need is a head? What about a cab?
They can include cabinets but will be improved by using an IR loader and first-rate cabinet IRs from someone like OwnHammer. This is true of pretty much all iOS amp sims.
You can save a lot if you wait for a sale. They have them frequently.
Check out the free offerings. Some are pretty darn good.
Don't bother with third party IR's unless/until you feel like the tone is missing something, such as thump or chunkiness. For the types of tones you seem to be looking for, I'm not so sure it'll matter.
Consider some doubling such as you can get by putting Infected Mushroom's free Wider plugin after the amp.
Those are just my opinions.