digital effects(like amplitude)

[th30nlyAket]

DigiTech iPB-10 Programmable Guitar Multi Effects Pedalboard with iPad Integration and more Guitar Multi Effects at GuitarCenter.com.

digitech released this that basically when used with an ipad lets you simulate a full pedal board using simulated effects that are supposed to mimic well know effect such as big muffs, small stone, etcs. Is there any other kinda device that can do this or any way to use the computer version of amplitude to do this. Currently when i try to do it on my computer i get delay(i dont have a audio interface just using a microphone)

also i know there normal multieffects but to me those dont quite have the signature effects im looking for.

[bassbrad]

Digital Effect modelling has come a long way and there are certain advantages but it will never completely replace the analog. There are certain unique aspects of analog devices that will win out.
I am certainly a user of modelling in many aspects but given the choice I'd go analog every time.

[rsmith601]

This is something we think about and talk about quite often at Source Audio, so it is hard for me not to comment.

First, there are certain things which can be done with digital effects circuits which are either very difficult or impossible in the analog domain and I will give three very important examples: 1) the foldback distortion curves which give a unique synthy tone to our MWD pedals. 2) the ten band multiband processing on the MWD pedals. 3) the Low Retain circuit for preserving the low end on our bass envelope pedals. These are very useful and important things which are not found on simple analog pedals.

Second, I have noted before that the work done by Fractal Audio has broken new ground in terms of modeling analog effects. Their stuff is not cheap, but people like Zappa and Belew are ditching their pedals in favor of Fractal. This trend will continue and the gap will continue to narrow.

Third, Analog compressors and things like a full blown Leslie will continue to be tough to model for some time to come. The non-linear switching aspects of analog transistors in compressors are really difficult to characterize in the digital domain. Similarly, the sound wave dynamics of a real Leslie in a cabinet is extremely complicated.

The gaps will continue to close. Some faster than others.