However, some guitarists may feel that the dynamic impact of certain modeling boxes isn’t ferocious enough to truly stand the hairs on the back of their necks at attention. If you’re not getting the sonic image of the chunky roar produced by a stack pushing air across a stage or into a microphone, here’s an easy trick to give your high-gain amp models a little more Thor-like thud.

Simply plug your guitar directly into a compressor and double the model track with a clean, compressed sound on another track. The slight timing differences in your two performances will add some needed dimension, and you’ll want to dial in a heavily compressed, even wallop that really thumps your ears when you attack your guitar strings. You may also want to EQ the direct sound a tad thicker than the modeled tone by boosting low mids, because a spiky snap might tank the illusion of power. Then, take care balancing the clean, compressed sound with the modeled roar. You want to take advantage of the clean tone’s propulsive energy without sacrificing any of the high-gain model’s distorted majesty. The ideal mix will become apparent when the combined tone is thick and blistering. This trick should work with anything from a simple stompbox compressor to a complicated studio processor—although it really rages if you can get your hands on a tube compressor to generate a little more harmonic drive.