Customer Reviews

Behringer V-AMP3 Next-Generation Virtual Guitar Amplifier with USB Audio Interface And Energyxt2.5 Recording Software

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am still shocked at how great sounding this thing is and how much use I get out of it. I haven't had a single issue with it, other than the fact that its kind of ugly and isn't as cool looking as a Marshall Half stack or Fender Twin.

First thing you will want to do when you buy this amp is do a google search for behringer v amp 3, find the official behringer page for this and dowload and print out the full manual for this thing. The included manual in the box is pretty bad. The full manual goes into MUCH more detail. A slight, but easily remedied annoyance.

Secondly, It's kinda ugly. I don't know why the decided it needed to be in the shape of a guitar, it kinda lends to a kitschy feel that is aided by the red plastic (I guess they were trying to make it kinda look like a Line 6 POD?)

Thirdly, the interface takes a little getting used to, and isn't super convenient if you decide you want a different sound while playing in a club with it. Hard to fault it here though, as with the number of options you have, I don't really know how it could be easy to come up with something new in a dimly lit club. There is an easy solution, just limit yourself to the presets you created at home while onstage.

Now that those relatively minor negatives are out of the way, lets get to the positives.

1) Tone for days! My best friend plays a '63 Fender Strat through a '65 Twin, a vintage Marshall Plexi, a Fender Vibroverb (actually its two numbers away in the serial number from SRV's Vibroverb) and several other super legit amps. We go back and forth writing songs and after I got this he kept remarking on how good my tone was, I told him he was in for a surprise when he actually came over. He was thinking that I bought a Fuchs or something like that with the crazy good combo of clean tones I was getting, mildly overdriven and full on overdriven lead. He was shocked and partially appalled when he saw that those great tones were coming from this humble little hunk of plastic.

2) Preset presets are great, making your own are even better! When I first got this, I kinda played around with the presets for a while and they were usually very good sounding. Then I started playing around with the different amps and found a couple I liked. I was more or less satisfied that I probably got around 4-5 tones I really liked. Then I found the full manual on the behringer website and ventured into the waters of tweaking the cabinet simulations, reverb settings and noise gates. That's when the magic came alive.

How I would recommend using this thing is going through the list of amps you want to try, setting all the tone controls to 5, gain level at the type of overdrive you want and then going into the edit mode and changing the cabinet around until you found one you like. The differences in the cabinets are HUGE. A substantially bigger difference than you'll find in real life, where most cabs sound pretty similar. Once you've gotten the best sound you can get with the particular amp and cab combo, pick the type of reverb you want. For whatever reason the thing tends to default to type 8, which to me is by far the worst of the reverb settings. I tend to favor types 2,3 and 7 for clean sounds 1,6 and 8 for overdriven (though occasionally the crazy type 5 is fun for wild overdriven tones).

Once youve set your reverb and speaker cab, exit edit mode and then start tweaking the tone controls. You will find a TON of great tones.

3) Preset making is easy and limits you in a good way on the stage. I have a Fender Strat and an Epiphone Dot with Gibson '59 Classic humbuckers installed. These two guitars lend themselves to relatively different settings. No problem, what I did was made odd page presets for the strat (or any single coiled guitar) and even page presets for the Dot (or any humbucker guitar). Honestly on stage I don't want to page through a ton of pages, so I just limit myself to the 5 tones on the given page I'm on. It kind of sounds limiting until you think "well hey, I ONLY have 5 amps to chose from at any given point in time." The footswitch (not included) lets you switch into an overdriven model for leads and back for clean rhythm. I usually will just put it direct into the PA, though I do have a 2x12 speaker cabine and a power amp that I will use sometimes as well (though if I have to lug an amp around, I will usually bring my Princeton Reverb).

4) If you can't tell, this thing has replaced my actual real amps most of the time. I bought this thing as a practice amp and to occasionally get some different tones on recordings. Then my amp crapped out on me for a week and I made do with this. And I loved it. It wasn't better sounding, but it wasn't noticeably worse either, and all the different tones I could access. Sure, you look kinda weird, as people scan the stage for your amp. But sound guys love you. Your bandmates may make fun of you, that is until they realize how much better the stage volume is and how you have to carry one less piece of equipment. When the Princeton came back I used it at most of my gigs, but would occasionally get lazy and just grab the V-3. Now I only really bring the Princeton if the place I'm playing can't really support my guitar though the monitors. The other guitarist I sometimes play with lugs around a Fender Super Reverb, which looks cooler, but I laugh during load out.

5) It can even be used for things besides guitar! Home recording one day my XLR to USB converter crapped out on me when I was trying to record some harmonica parts. Well, I thought, we will see what it sounds like if I plug a harmonica green bullet mic directly into the the V-amp's tube preamp setting. It was fantastic sounding! Much better than direct recording and then EQing through My Audio Technica AT2020 USB mic. I now even occasionally record some vocals this way, if I want that warm, occasionally breaks up when you really lean into it, Stax soul vocal sound (not to say I can sing like Otis Redding or anything). (note, to do this you will need an XLR to 1/4" TRS cable, the V-Amp 3 only accepts 1/4" TRS inputs)

In sum, this is a great product, especially if you really learn how to use it. It could be slightly easier to use and cooler looking, but with tones like these for $100, how can you really complain that it looks cheap? It is cheap, it just doesn't sound cheap at all.

Finally, I have a friend is a Line 6 Pod and this thing blows the doors off it. Sure, you won't sound like you're playing a Dumble or Egnater, but you definitely don't sound like you're playing a $100 hunk of ugly red plastic either.

The first amp simulator I ever bought was the V-Amp 2 in 2003, and I was completely blown away by the way it sounded, especially in my stereo headphones. I'd been half-heartedly dabbling in guitar off and on for more than 20 years by that point(far more off than on -- I was a synth player in local bands in the 1980s), and had never taken lessons or made much progress as a guitarist, much as I wanted to. Well, I plugged my crappy low-end Fernandes guitar in the V-Amp 2, put on the headphones, dialed in what promised to be a Van Halen-esque Marshall sound with some nice delay, played one note and my life changed. Seriously. All I did was a couple of hammer-on/pull-offs and I thought I had died and been reincarnated a lead guitarist.

Flash forward to 2011. Gone is the $120 Fernandes and the V-Amp 2. I've gone through at least $10,000 worth of music equipment in the intervening eight years -- including setting up my own home studio and recording stuff that is on the internet and iTunes, etc. -- and I firmly believe it all started when I hit that first note on the V-Amp 2. Like I said: life changing.

As I've bought and Ebay'ed (that is a verb, right?) all these thousands of bucks worth of gear, one thing that hasn't changed is my adherence to amp sims in all but live performance situations (and I ran that old V-Amp 2 through the PA for two years in my last live band, ending in 2005). But amp sims have not stood still. The Line 6 Pods have improved, as have the software-only sims like Guitar Rig, Amplitude, and Waves GTR. So, how does the V-Amp 3 compare to the V-Amp 2 of long ago? Uhhhh... pretty similar actually, and that's a bit disappointing. As much as the "2" wowed me 8 years ago, I was expecting improvements in the "3" and I just can't find them.

I currently use the V-Amp 3 and Guitar Rig 4 with RAMMSTEIN, and will upgrade to 5 when it comes out in September. These are two very different beasts, one a standalone hardware amp sim, the other a software-only vst you play in your computer. I don't mess with Pods, so I can't compare the Behringer to the Line 6, though I did take a Pod for a test run in the store in 2003 and liked the V-Amp 2 better.

SOUNDS:
This unit can sound really great, whether it be a factory preset or something you create yourself. The simulations are good, the effects are realistic and useful, and you can dial up anything from clean, to sparkly, to gritty, to grinding, to shrieking, to just plain weird, unmusical and atmospheric. Most players will find a small number of "go-to" sounds they'll dial in each time they fire up and are looking for "their" sound, whatever that may be. There are also a jillion presets that all sound so close to each other, you can barely hear why they occupy multiple slots, and plenty of splashy, swirly, delay and modulation-soaked things that sound very little like guitar. So, on the one hand, don't be swayed by the raw number of available sounds, because you aren't likely to use more than five or ten, but do rejoice in the number of banks, because you can tweak your sound and save it over those 25 blues amps that all sound practically the same to you, or that fast, thick flanger that only serves to annoy you.

EASE OF USE:
The V-Amp is light, portable, moderately good looking, and has big, friendly dials to turn and handy buttons to push. Using the factory presets is a matter of pushing a maximum of two buttons, and often only one if you are switching within a bank. Plug your guitar into the 1/4" input, and either your headphones into the phones jack or a single (mono) or two (true stereo) 1/4" monitor cables into the line out jacks and just play. There is a midi in, which I used to use live on the V-Amp 2 to change banks on the fly via a footswitch (sold separately), but I never use midi on the V-Amp 3. Ease of tweaking is a separate story. It's not exactly hard, but with the alternate amps requiring you to press and hold an ALT button, and with things like the cabinets hidden inside the machine (you have to consult the chart in the manual to know what the numbers mean), it's not as transparent as tweaking something like the software-only Guitar Rig 4. But other than hard-core tweaking, changing your sound is just a matter of twisting big knobs.

NOISE:
The unit doesn't generate much if any self-noise. I put a stomp box NR between my guitar and the V-Amp to keep my guitar itself from buzzing, and the V-amp itself very rarely adds any noise. That's different than Guitar Rig, which I also use, which can be QUITE noisy on some settings and requires its own dedicated gate.

COMPUTER INTERFACE:
I was really disappointed with it and didn't mess with it much after plugging into my laptop and getting hideous latency. Looking back, I don't know if I set the drivers properly (not sure ASIO is an option on my laptop card or with this V-Amp interface); suffice to say, I tried it, I hated it, I moved on. The Energyxt2.5 software was a crippled demo, and I unabashedly despised it. Do not buy this for the interface and recording software. Buy it for the amp sim, and record into your computer into a proper DAW. The V-Amp 3's sounds are fine for that -- better than Amplitube IMHO and sometimes simpler to deal with than Guitar Rig. However, keep in mind you are recording the sound of the amp when you record V-Amp's signal, so no going back and changing amps and recorded effects in mixdown like you can with vst amp sims on your DI track.

VALUE:
Heck, yes! For the way this sounds -- even if you only really use a few of its sounds -- and as sturdy as it is (never had a problem gigging live with my V-Amp 2, even toting it around on a ship in the Black Sea), it is well worth this price.

So, I highly recommend it. One star off for not really being an improvement over the V-Amp 2, but it still sounds great and costs little. Worth having even if only as a practice amp you can play into headphones.

Hooked this bad boy to my amp and it rocks out with good clean distortion..... BUT the manual stinks , the interface stinks , be sure to read the pdf on amp use because of the way this outputs.... I dont like devices that make buttons have dual roles and this thing is chock full of them.... but once you get the sound you need from it wham! I just wish they made it easier to use. This device also comes with a usb box that allows your computer to record your guitar.

The V-amp3, put simply, is very good (not just for the money).

I've spent nearly a year playing with it, and this processor offers very good value and performance, not just for the money, but overall.

The soundcard itself is small, and USB powered. Windows 7 will automatically install drivers, which work just fine, although the Behringer ones seem to offer a little better functionality.

I have not used the included recording software, and can't comment on it.

The V-amp3 itself is mostly what I use, and nearly on a daily basis. The EQ has a broad enough control to work with bright and dark sounding electric guitars. I have not used this with acoustics.

The compressor is sensitive and, when set low, is a nice touch, with a similar response to a Boss unit. It can be set way too high, however, making for some overly compressed sounds, and a bit of noise.

Distortions: this unit simply shines with good ones. Some sound a bit digital, but most are very good, and compared to a POD or Korg AX1000G (which I've used for years) this thing has a more natural, analog sound.

Reverb: light reverb on this unit is good, but takes on a "small room" sound too quickly, and can affect the tone at higher levels. It's best to leave this on low. The echoes and delays, however, are much better and transparent, leaving a nicely resonant echo sound. Teamed with a little reverb, it makes for a very good slap-back echo. Tap tempo can also make a huge difference here.

The built-in tuner is quite handy, and can mute the sound (unless the program volume knob is turned up).

The unit runs a touch warm toward the power connector, but is vented. I've also noticed after a year the pots are in need of a cleaning (slightly scratchy), but it is used in a somewhat dusty environment.

The power brick has a strange pinout that is similar to other Behringer products, but is nice in that it is not a wall-wart. It's not a noisy power supply, either.

The unit is pretty intuitive, and well laid out. I've typically played this through a Fender Champ 600 and Carvin Vintage 16 amp.

Keep in mind, this is a digital distortion unit primarily, and I think, in some cases, stomp boxes will be better, but this is still very good for digital. It will not compete with something like a G-Major 2 in terms of effects (those units sound extremely good to me, and I own one). But it is definitely a better choice than a POD, or competing floor modeler. For the ~$100 price tag, this thing deserves to be tried. It has a permanent spot on my desktop, and in my effects case.

This was an great buy. The behringer worked pretty smooth and it has a lot of features to play with. The price is really good, and the package is full of goodies. If you want and affordable virtual amplifier this is for you.

I owned an earlier model and used it for many years, playing on stage through that and a solid state amp.

There are reasonably good sounds and the sound quality is excellent. The headphone and line in and out is great for practising at home plugged into the computer.

I prefer grungy sounds and this does it well: I mostly used a mod of the Van Halen sound. Earlier models had some software glitches (mostly to do with edited sounds degrading as you tweaked them), often requiring factory reset. Still I used it for years and the sound was 80% of my Mesa Boogie Mark III - which to most people's ears is just as good.

Compared to the Line6 similar offerings this is 90% of the quality at half the price so you decide.

I didn't use the clean sounds much so can't comments on those.

The only main gripe is for each effect (delay, reverb, chorus etc) once you've selected it you can change it by a dial to MORE or LESS. Sometimes that's too coarse - it might change the mix of the delay but not the speed, or the speed but not the rolloff. But it's still brilliant for the price and I could live with that.

This latest model adds recording software, USB, more amps and better software - you really can't go wrong with this.

The device is amazing. Friendly user interface. Great effects.
cons: the form factor of the device makes it difficult to put in limited space places however, i care about the functionality.

One part of the unit the usb input from the V-Amp 3 effect generator to the USB port was not working properly. They said they would only authorized specific merchants and if you bu a unit on Amazon think twice before you make that move as Behringer has not kept their warr. I had this devcice for 5 months and it was warranted for a year and they told me it wasn't their problem but thanks for being a values customer. Smells like a load of cow chips to me.