Take a look at this gingantic guitar rig here.  I have found a way to reduce the size to my laptop computer using Native Instrument's Guitar Rig 2 software and Berhinger's USB Guitar Link (in the second picture).

Just reduced the monstorous sized guitar rig to a laptop computer and USB guitar link.

Guitar Rig 2 comes with 40 effect pedals, Amps, Cabinets and MICs catogorized into Amp & MICs, Distortions, Equilizers, Volume, Reverb, Modifiers, Tools. Each pedals that have different knobs that can be adjusted.

Comes with 600 factory presets catogorized according to genre from Metal to Country to Classic 60s sounds that can be modified as you like and can be saved as a new preset or you can built your own rig from the scratch with available tools and save as a completely new preset.

I was blown away...I'm not going to spend a dime on real amps.

The fun part is you can take your electric guitar, USB guitar link and your headphones and your laptop anywhere and fire up your guitar rig.

The Guitar Rig 2 software works both as a stand-alone application or as VST plugin for VST hosts like Nuendo or CUBASE or other VST hosts where you can actually record your guitar tracks.

Here are some samples or some sounds I created.

Metal : http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSgYFe1Yms

Hard Rock: http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSgYFe1Ym0

Soft Rock: http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S8LTM0LdsaSgYFe1Ym8

Kaobadhi,
I like you Ibanez and Behringer USB link. Guitar Rig is a great tool. I would also recommend IK Multimedia Amplitube 2 and Wave GTR 3. I have all of them and my test says, Wave GTR 3 is the best in terms of crunch and clean. Amplitube has module like Jimi Hendrix and Metal. The distortion in Metal is the best. One thing I noticed about Guitar Rig, it's noisy. After testing all these softwares, I've realised that if you do NOT match the impedance of what they want with your audio interface, they sound thin like plastic when you record, no matter how they sound on their website.

Amplitube 2
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/amplitube/ Check out the audio,video demo

Wave GTR 3(PRS Interface sounds way too cool...I've got the software but unless you match their specifications, it does NOT sound as good as they should be, no matter what audio interface you use)
http://www.waves.com/Content.aspx?id=93 check out the video
http://www.waves.com/Objects/waves_videos/584/gtr_vdos/gtr3/TheMakingOfGTR3PopUp.html

I've heard about Protool Eleven and Alien Connection's ReValver Mk III

Bob Marley

Yes Guitar Rig 2 kinda gives noise especially on distorted channels and I have noticed that but when I applied WAVES X-Noise and Hum removing plugins in the subsequent slots of Nuendo's plugin slots practically almost all the unwanted noise seemed to disappear.

As far as WAVES GTR 3 is concerned it kinda crashes my Nuendo pretty bad every now and then and I have stopped using it. However other sound shaping plugings like hum and noise removal plugins from WAVES seem to do wonders and work perfectly as I have wanted it.

IK Multimedia's Amplitube 2 is a good amp modeling software especially on clean channels but Amplitube Metal seems to be little less than powerful (compared to distorted channels of Guitar Rig 2) to me though it is worth experimenting with.

I tried earlier versions of Rock Revalver as well, but just like WAVES GTR 3 it kinda freezes my Nuendo every now and then.

 

Khao,

Good to hear and share stuff with you.
I've settled down with Line 6 toneport UX2, cheap and affordable, USB interface. You NOT only can used it as an audio interface for microphone (2 of them with phantom power) but you can also plug in your guitar(2 of them). The best thing is the GearBox software, which comes with it. With the same volume level I tested all those above softwares through toneport, the gearbox (which looks ugly by the way) sounds way better than guitar rig,amplitude or the Wave, since the interface is exactly designed for it. You can buy expansion packs from line 6 website which has more amps and some of the metal distortion sounds way better, but you pay. You don't have to open the gearbox software as a VST in your DAW;just playing along as a standalone will record the sound, so it is way smoother,won't crash your Nuendo.
Less hasssle, no stress on your CPU and can get descent quality sound. Here are some video on youtube.

Acoustic

 

Electric

Bass

Vocal

 

how much does the software cost anyway....

as well as the guitar link USB

I am looking into buying MBox pro (with Pro Tools LE) for home recording. Does anyone have experience working with this tool?

Walkahead,
Use torrent, you can get all those for free. There's a mantra among the audio software junkies, made popular by the so called GOD cracker who goes by the names H20,and the mantra is "Try before you buy"

Hey Bobbie,

Thanks for your input...I have read through many love and hate relationship that people have had with MBox2. As the software driven recording are quite complex and are dependent on the computer and the OS, it may be that the faulty drivers or the configurations are to blame. I worked with local sound engineers and I was blown away by the quality of Pro Tools HD. I thought the software was quite user friendly and there was no dreaded live recording lag which I seem to experience with Sonar and SB Audigy. I am going to upgrade the sound card and this seems like a good opportunity to go with PT LE as it comes bundled with MBOX2. Funny enough most people seem to have trouble with MBOX USB not the firewire. But anyways, thanks for your input.

hey man.. and what about the guitar USB.. will the USB that goes from guitar to the computer found in the walmart or guitar center work.. and what if we need to setup the effect and change it while playing the song...?? enlighten me my friend...

Walkhead
The software based guitar amp modeling technology has come a long way, still they are not even remotely close to real life amp. Just having the software will not work at all, you'll need a interface usually called sound card with low latency. Latency in layman term is the time the signal takes from the guitar to the interface/sound card and then to the Operating system, then to the guitar software, then the software convert the signal into the noise,gives it back to the operating system,then it goes back to the sound card, which will eventually go to your speaker/headphone. You see, there is lot of things involved. It is basically converting your magnetic analog signal into digital data, then when it comes out it convert the digital data into analogue noise you hear. This involves time, so if you are using your regular sound card that comes with your computer, you'll hear a delay, you hit a note and it takes few second for your to hear, which is NOT what you want. So the industry has developed standards depending upon what device and Operating system you use. They have made special driver technology which the manufacturer of those interface/sound card can embed with their hardware to work with certain operating system, which is the heart and soul of guitar amp modelling software to work smoothly with no delay. There is ASIO for PC developed originally by Steinberg, Core by Logic (my guess). So you'll have to buy a device with ASIO driver (if you use PC) to get the lowest latency (no delay in what you hear), which comes in various shapes, sizes and features depending upon your need ranging from cheap to ultra expensive. Chances are the sound card that comes with your computer will NOT have a low latency driver. No matter what you buy, it has to have ASIO driver to get the best result. The WaltMart that you've mentioned if it does NOT have ASIO driver, then it is just a rip off. Some cheap products with ASIO driver that you can get that comes right off my head are Behringer, M-Audo and many many more. If you cannot afford any of them, there's a free ASIO driver called ASIO4ALL (google it) that you can install onto your on board computer sound card (some card simply does NOT work, give it a shot) and this will bring down the latency, read their manual to get the optimum speed.
This is just for the sound to work at least in a descent speed. Now when it comes to controlling the software, most manufacturers make their own hardware to control their software like Guitar Rig can be controlled by their own foot pedal (can't remember the name, check their website). These are all based on midi (do a google and learn about it a bit more). simply put the software gives designated number for each control like volume, on/off, preset change, pedal on/off. so you have to have a device to give that special number called midi controller, they come in various shapes from regular looking keyboard to pedal that are for guitarist. You'll have to learn how to program the midi data of the device to the software. The software will usually have a pdf with the midi program/patch change data info, you match it with the foot pedal's data. Then they work.Some basic knowledge of midi will help you a lot for these types of things. Although this guy is officially related to zzsounds.com which is a huge online musical instrument retailer, he does have many good articles that will help you. Make sure to check all the things that he has written about midi, interface and other equipments, of course you might find him a bit irritating with the way he writes.
http://www.tweakheadz.com/
Hope this helps

better get guitar fx

easy to use and handy...