IK Multimedia SampleTron Review
We are so spoiled today with technology. We have amazing DAW’s, effects, and amazing sampling libraries from companies like IK Multimedia that help you do anything you can think of! Well I have been digging into Sampletron and to be honest I have never played anything like it before. I mean lofi sounding strings, choirs and flutes that sound so bad they sound amazingly good!
Before we had digital samplers, digital pianos, workstations and all the computer software there were the real instruments. If you wanted to write a song you had to have a real piano, choir and orchestras! Then there was analog recording, you could finally record sound! You could even play it back when ever you wanted! Add effects? Sure! You can even slow the tape down or speed it up for weird sounding effects! It was both a gift and a curse really looking back before digital people were going for clean and now that we have clean we want dirty. Ridiculous really but SampleTron is the best of both worlds bringing old technology to a new medium plus some extras! This isn’t just a re released VHS on DVD re released on Blue Ray then streamed online from your NetFlix account, not at all! This is what people have grown to love plus the SampleTank engine which makes for a amazing duo!
So again before digital there was analog right? Well before the Motif, Triton and Fantom there were Chamberlins and Mellotrons. They, much like today’s workstations, had a wide range (well at least for that day and age) of sounds recorded to tape reels on each key. When you pressed a key it played the tape of which ever samples were on the tape. They took sounds like strings, flutes, brass, choirs and made them sound beautiful with analog tape! At the time of their release people were very impressed by being able to play many sounds from one keyboard like instrument. Now because all these sounds were recorded and played on tape, and being how tape can wear out and be affected by things like temperature, humidity and even abuse these were very expensive and very fragile. Because of this these are very hard to find or fix and much harder to get one in working order! It is these types of vintage sampler/playback devices made famous by The Beatles, Yes, Genesis, Kanye West and Beck that have become known as “trons”
Now some of you are thinking “Why do I care about old sounds when I have the newest hottest keyboard/VSTi/Software out with tons of fresh sounds!”. Well these sounds are unique in that they sound amazing. Kinda like throwing on a old LP and playing the sounds you hear there.
[annoying TV personality voice] “But, but, but, but wait! There is more!” [annoying TV personality voice/]
In SampleTron you get the greatest sample library that you can’t really get in real life (Being that they are so hard to find in any type of order and parts are hard to find.) but you also get some extras that will really make people wish they had SampleTron instead of the real thing! With these tapes, once it was finished playing the sound stopped. That’s it, sorry I have to rewind and then you can hit the key again and it will sound again. Well much like in Miroslav Philharmonik you have the choice of going the looped route and have a infinite note or have it just like the old days and let the tape run its course. Now being that tape was the main medium used here there were at times noise issues like wow and flutter. Another great feature here in SampleTron is the ability to add or take away noise! Now being that this comes in the great SampleTank engine you also get great synth engines; Stretch, Pitch shift/Time stretch and resampling. All of which really come in handy with some of the Powerhouse and Rhythm Mate models being that instead of the usual strings and such these come with percussion and drum loops! You get amazing lofi sounding drums AND you can match them to any tempo you can stretch too! So for old timers and purists…be jealous, very jealous because we are just getting started.
In comes the beginning of the digital age. Remember? CD’s in the 80′s? What about 8 bit samplers in the early 80′s? Well in SampleTron you get the end and the beginning of a era. You have your basic tape based playback and then you have your Optigan, Talentmaker and Vako Orchestron which used analog optical discs. Even in the Powerhouse which used 8 track tapes for its sample playback medium, but in SampleTron you get 3 welcomed and fitting instruments. The 360 Systems Digital Tron, (An 8 bit digital sampler originally created to replace the analog based trons) Roland VP-330, (early Vocoder) and finally the Stylophone. (Simple electric organ.) Everything about this collection oozes retro lofi that people try and achieve by mangling today’s instruments. SampleTron is the best sounding and easiest way to go!
Most purists will hate the idea of their favorite Tron being sold as a sample library, but if they’re smart they will jump in on this. You can complain about it all you want but IK Multimedia has a reputation of taking great stuff that was and even is and making it something new fresh and make you instantly fall in love with it! SampleTron is no exception from IK Multimedia’s great line up! From the great loops to the amazing retro strings and flutes you will find a spot for SampleTron in your music!
IK Multimedia Sonik Synth 2 Review
It’s no secret that I love IK Multimedia’s plug-ins. From the whole Amplitube series to T-Racks 3, they are a solid company worth the investment. Well I just recently decided to check out some of their virtual instruments and jumped in with Sonik Synth 2. Now for those that aren’t familiar with Sonik Synth 2, it is a virtual workstation that comes in AU, VSTi and RTAS formats for both Mac and PC with over 8 gigs of sounds. Pianos, Rhodes, Wurli’s, ARPs, Moogs, Jupiters, B3′s – You name it Sonik Synth 2 has it. It has 3 synth engines, 16 part multi timbral with layer-able sounds, 32 built in effects and 16 stereo outputs. From the feature list alone it seems like this is a must have workstation to have!
From the very beginning I was impressed with the layout. One thing IK Multimedia has always done right is make it very easy to use. Everything from the patch selection to effects are logically laid out. In the top half of Sonik Synth 2 you can select a patch, where it be to layer sounds together to make a combi or to just select a simple piano sound to jam out. In the bottom half you can edit each sound, add effects and edit those effects. Fairly simple and straight forward editing with volume, pan, filter and poly/mono/legato along with portamento time selection. Also you can have up to 5 effects per layer or channel. There is a wide range of great sounding effects including EQ, compression, reverb, rotary speaker, tremolo, chorus, delay and tons more. 32 in total, many of which come from their studio quality T-Racks 3 and Amplitube series which I reviewed earlier this year.
So I first started out by loading a Rhodes patch being that Rhodes have always been my favorite and I’m very picky with them. I was really taken by surprise the first time I tried out non synth sounds in Sonik Synth 2. After playing for a few minutes I started getting curious on how to edit sounds a bit and found it incredibly simple. I added Leslie to it, reverb, took away chorus add distortion and I had a whole new sound that still sounded incredible! Different but incredible non the less. Now I started getting curious. If it sounds this good with no synth sounds I can’t wait to get into the synths in it! So I started navigating through the synths and found myself going through the basses which are always the hardest to get right in my opinion. usually theses are the most overlooked and worst sounding in other libraries but not in this one! I kept scrolling through each of the bass sounds and couldn’t stop smiling, I was really impressed! Some of my favorite ones that stood out being Mr Nice Guy and Invaderz Bass, but all of them sounded great!
Up next were some leads and pads and Sonik Synth 2 has them in spades! Prophets, Jupiters, Moogs – All of them are here and all sound amazing! From subtle smooth sounding to hard sync styled pads and leads. One of my favorite things to do in Sonik Synth 2 is add slight overdrive and a short delay. Really makes leads sound huge, wide and helps them pop. When testing out new plug ins I like to try and recreate sounds from newer songs I like. So here I went for Drakes “Successful” and in under 5 minutes I found the V-tra Bright String Pad and put a low pass filter on it at 560 Hz and had the intro synth down pat! The synths here in Sonik Synth 2 are the best thing about it!
Finally I got to something I don’t usually use virtual workstations on, Drums. I am really picky on my drums and have my little collection of drums I use for all my drum sounds, but the 808s, 909s and the acoustic kits here are too good! After running through a few drum sequences with them I can replace a lot of my wav kits. Never thought I’d see the day I’d be using a VSTi for my drum sounds! I love having all in one solutions for sounds in Reaper because it doesn’t come with much at all in that department. Reaper along with Sonik Synth 2 is a solid workhorse for me and is now my main tool in production!
So in the end I am more than loving Sonik Synth 2! I was expecting some good synths and some so so everything else but what I got is world class everything. I didn’t even get to touch on everything in this review for times sake but the strings, guitars, basses, pianos, drums, synths and effects in this are top notch! For the price you can’t go wrong for bread and butter sounds – no wait, forget the price. You can’t go wrong with Sonik Synth 2 for bread a butter sounds for you DAW!
IK Multimedia Stealth Pedal Review
So I have done reviews on Amplitube 2, Amplitube Metal, Amplitube Fender and Ampeg SVX. Well these amazing tools all came with the Stealth Pedal I just got. That is a intro to how awesome of a studio tool the Stealth Pedal is! It is a USB pedal interface for guitar or bass. It has 2 separate 1/4″ inputs, 2 1/4″ outputs, a 1/8″ headphone out and 2 1/4″ inputs for addition pedals to be added for more control. When I first opened the box it actually surprised me. It is pretty heavy! A solid feeling metal pedal with great smooth action when you put your foot on it and adjust it. On the right side there is a input for a expression pedal, 2 inputs for guitar or bass as well as a master volume knob. On the left side there is another input for a foot switch, 2 1/4″ outputs, a 1/8″ headphone out, a usb input and 3 status LED’s. This thing is feature rich before we even hit the software!
When I first received the Stealth Pedal I was really impressed by the awesome sounding software it comes with. Granted each in their own right have tons and tons of features but what I wanted to focus on here is the ease of use when controlling the different programs. When I first installed the drivers it installed a program called X-Gear. It is basically a shell that hosts the other Amplitube programs. Inside of this you can use Fender, Ampeg SVX, Metal and of course Amplitube 2. You can easily and quickly switch between a clean shimmery Fender to a heavy metal 5150 sound with a single click. Really great too! At the top of the screen you have your Speed Trainer where you can play along with your favorite songs as well as slow down or speed up the music without changing the pitch so you can learn different solos or study different parts. This is a GREAT practice tool! In the upper right hand corner there is a metronome and control option. This is where you can change what the pedal actually controls. This is super easy to set up and change on the fly. Even if you add all the options with the external controllers it is simply labeled and logically laid out. Then in the main section of the screen appears all your usual Amplitube settings your familiar with.
I first tried this in the studio and was impressed. Solid feel, great sounds and easy to use. The next step was to try this out live. I took it to a gig I play regularly at a local jazz spot. Plugged into the pa and pulled out my laptop. The drummer was a bit curious as he sometimes plays to a metronome on his laptop but never thought you could use a laptop instead of a amp. One of the best things for me here was that I was able to walk in with my backpack and my guitar case. That’s it! Laptop, Stealth Pedal in the backpack and my guitar and cables in my guitar case! It was easy and the fastest set up/sound check ever!
After I played a few chords along with the band to check how it sounded they were all impressed. No more big Fender deluxe for me when this is just as good and a million times better on my back! After the gig I had a few regulars stop by to ask me about what the laptop was for. They were very impressed at the sound coming from this little pedal! I played the whole gig with out a hiccup! Lastly I tried this with the bass player who is a great friend of mine and we record and gig together regularly. I had him plug into this and play straight through the PA. After a few clicks to find a decent sound he liked with Ampeg SVX he was asking me where he could buy one! He was loving this! The best part about it is how well it integrates to control the software. You can set it and forget it. Volume pedal, wah, channel switching – it can all be done with this pedal!
Now after writing reviews for each version of Amplitube that the Stealth Pedal comes with I can say I love this whole package. For less than a lot of people pay for a pedal board or amp you can get a whole suite of world class guitar amp and effect modeling as well as a interface to control those sounds live! This has to be one of the best things I have seen for guitar. You can use this to control the software functions with a pedal! Its no surprise that if comes from the labs of IK Multimedia.
IK Multimedia Amplitube 3 Review
When I first heard that there was going to be a new AmpliTube 3 I thought “How can you beat AmpliTube Fender?”. Now after spending a bit of time with it I can say they didn’t. They more than raised the bar with AmpliTube 3 and maybe even improved it. From presets, CPU handling and the sound quality they went above and beyond with this release. They poised it to be the new standard not only in guitar amp and effect modeling, but as a whole new platform! Sound-wise it rocks. I have been blown away by AmpliTube before, the first time I played it I closed my eyes and smiled. Well, I get that same dynamic and open feel here, but now I get Orange, Vox, Mesa Boogie models and STEREO in and out! I can go on forever about the things that excite me in it but lets start at the beginning…
AmpliTube 3 is the biggest collection of amps and effects released yet with over 160 pieces accurately modeled! 30 of these are new amps and effects, everything that was there before has been reworked to sound a lot better than they did before. I could not believe the sound I was getting when browsing through the old AmpliTube 2 presets I didn’t like. It brought a whole new sound to what they had before! When looking through previous versions of AmpliTube I always hated how you had to browse through presets. Click, arrow, arrow, arrow again if you had a lot of presets and then wait til yours came up. With AmpliTube 3 there is a new preset manager that makes this easier than ever! They have also taken a nod from their workstation series and made AmpliTube 3 able to open ANY of the other AmpliTube’s amps, effects or presets! Now I don’t have to load up every AmpliTube to see which sound I want to record with – I can do it all INSIDE of AmpliTube 3!!!
One of the biggest changes in AmpliTube 3 besides the sound is the way it manages the computer’s processing power. AmpliTube 3 now includes 3 three buttons on the top right. They are ECO, MID, & and HI and each mode can help save CPU power when using high track counts or on slower computers! In previous versions, you had to go into the preferences for each AmpliTube and select what was oversampled and what wasn’t. Well now you just click a button and you’re done! Of course they still allow you to edit all of that in preferences but I find that the ECO/MID/HI buttons do a fine job. Now a lot of people are thinking “Why would you need to run more than one guitar gear modeler?”. Remember when I was all geeked out about STEREO in and out? Yeah you’re getting it now aren’t you? You can use AmpliTube 3 and all of its great new amps and effects on anything you want now! One of my mix secrets is taking the reverbs from AmpliTube Fender and using them on vocals and drums but I hated that it wasn’t true stereo…Oh wait, now it is! Even better yet for all the producers out there you can use the Step Slicer as an effect on synths and keys for that gated trance sound and it automatically locks on to the project tempo you’re working on! One thing AmpliTube 3 has mastered that I hate about other DAWs is how they handle effects. When you choose a distortion for example followed by a delay. If you want to add another distortion before the delay have to delete it, insert new effect and then reinsert the delay after it and recall your settings. Not in AmpliTube 3! Drag and drop anything wherever you want it! They really outdid themselves with that feature alone! Just taking into account the vast number of effects in AmpliTube 3 makes this a no brainer for normal production and mix duties!
Now in all of the update I love one thing I never fancied about AmpliTube 2 but (which never bothered me at the same time) was – the bass amps. I mean I have IK Multimedia’s Ampeg SVX and I loved that sound on just about any song for bass. Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke right? Wrong. They have brought HEAT with the new bass amps in AmpliTube 3! This is the first time I have used ANYTHING besides Ampeg SVX and been more than happy with it! I brought in a session bass player and pulled up the Phat Vintage Bass preset and was blown away. It really is a gift and a curse now – I don’t know which one sounds better! Comparing two sounds from different AmpliTube releases is easy too now that we are able to load the different presets inside of AmpliTube 3‘s new preset manager! Also Another new thing is the way you can mic up amps,. You can now choose 2 different mics and move them around independently of each other and move them around in the room to really fine tune the amp/mic/room sweet spot!
Last but not least we have the standalone version. Usually I don’t use the standalone versions of AmpliTube to often but when I opened up AmpliTube 3 I was in for a nice surprise! They added a feature packed 4 track recorder! Now I know what your thinking, “I have a full featured DAW! Why would I want a simple 4 track recorder!?” Well this isn’t just ANY 4 track recorder, this is the most feature packed 4 track you’ll ever use! Not only can you use independent pitch-shift/time-stretch on each track but you can use the effects within AmpliTube 3 on these tracks! Get out basic song ideas out quick in record time! There are also Stealth Pedal and Stealth board control features to assign pedal controllers on the fly! Small additions like this really make this release IK’s best yet!
Seems like the good folks over at IK Multimedia keep me surprised and happy with all the stuff they have been releasing lately! With their attention to detail in the features, sound, and even looks on AmpliTube 3 this is sure to be a hit! From jamming out with headphones playing new Orange, Vox and Mesa models to recording quick ideas on the fly AmpliTube 3 has got it. Learning new songs and need to slow down leads to learn them? AmpliTube 3 has got it. Recording in an apartment and need quality top notch amp and effect selection? AmpliTube 3 has got what it takes to turn your computer into a world class studio with the best mics, amps and effects available to man! You can not go wrong with IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 3 whether you are a guitarist, bassist, producer or engineer. AmpliTube 3 belongs in your collection.
IK Multimedia Amplitube 2 Review
Amplitube is known to be one of the most versatile and best guitar plug in available. It seems like there are tons and tons of guitar amp sims for recording, but there aren’t many that are in Amplitube 2‘s league. I recently received Amplitube 2 with the Stealth Pedal along with Amplitube Metal, Amplitube Fender and Ampeg SVX. I will be digging into all of these and better explaining their features and how they sound. Now when I think about Amplitube 2 I think “This is what Fender, Metal and Ampeg SVX are made on.” Amplitube is the Grand Daddy to all the others. In it are the very familiar controls, functions and work flow. Tuner, pedal board, amps, cabinets, microphones and rack effects. Pretty basic right? Its the sound that has made it one of the best.
Amplitube 2 has a great feature list including a Digital tuner, 21 stomp effects, 14 Pre-amp & EQ models, 7 power amp models, 16 cabinet and 6 microphone models 11 post-amp FX racks and 2 fully configurable rigs. Lets start with the Tuner and Stomp effects. The tuner is great, on/off switch and has a mute switch too so if you are using it live the crowd won’t hear you tuning. The Stomp effects, like always with IK Multimedia, sound great. They have really jammed this full of great ones too! From basic compressors to fuzz its all here. Each one not only sounds like the real thing but also looks like it too! The GUI in Amplitube is one of my favorite things about it besides the sound!
Now on the main course, Amps and cabs! There is such a huge variety you can get here with the amps alone. One thing that really was interesting is the fact you can change the preamp, eq and the power amp in each head. That provides for great flexibility with the cabs you can really fine tune everything! There are 16 different cabs you can use from 1×6″ small combo to a huge 4×12″. On top of that you can also select the mic in which you record the cabinet with. There are 6 different mics including some of the finest microphones including stuff from Shure, Neumann, Sennheiser and AKG.
When Amplitude first came on the scene nobody was willing to give up their guitar rigs to a computer to record with. IK Multimedia changed that when they released Amplitube. The amp models included are more than enough for any artist to get a well rounded rig set up in seconds. You can record a metal lead over a country twangy rhythm and still have tons of other tone possibilities at your finger tips! I have yet to go through every single possible combination but I know no matter what if I need to record guitar Amplitube 2 is gonna be one of the first things I open up in Reaper! The effects are really really great. I love the DCOMP and the Overscream/Fuzz Age combo running through the American Tube Clean 1 for a slightly dirtier bluesy tone.
I can not say enough about Amplitube 2 or any of the other Amplitube series. They are a must have for any studio, guitarist or bass player. I have saved hundreds of hours and headaches Ever since I got this I haven’t had to call musicians back in to rerecord their parts and spend money and time to redo stuff. This is a necessity. Thanks IK Multimedia!
IK Multimedia Amplitube Metal Review
Amplitube Metal is ugly. I mean really, really ugly. Ugly like when your doing an awesome solo and your face scrunches up. Or Ugly like when your listening to your favorite metal band and they go into a break down and your face does the same scrunch up while you bang your head to the awesomely dark, deep yet full guitar tones! (Yeah you know what I’m talking about…) Amplitube Metal is exactly what it is. Its Metal. Full on rebellious, in your face, loud Metal. From old school rock to Nu Metal and every other type of distortion you can think of! Another great amp sim from IK Multimedia in the Amplitube series this is another specialty amp sim that sounds phenomenal.
Amplitube Metal, like Amplitube 2, Amplitube 3 or Fender has a basic yet highly customizable interface. There are 5 modules and each module has tons of options. You can switch back and forth between them like you would tabs in FireFox. Very easy and you don’t get lost in menus! The modules in order are: a high quality tuner, a stomp pedal board with 12 stomp effects, 5 Amp models, 13 cabinet models 6 microphone and 9 rack stereo effects. The number of tone combinations here are ridiculous! You can go through so many different tones that I get stuck when I record myself. Sometimes I go in with a idea and then just start jamming and come up with tons of new one and forgot why I originally came in to record! This is a great problem to have. I have had writers block before but when you have a tone that inspires this really makes tools like Amplitube Metal a necessity in the studio!
With Amplitube Metal you have 5 amps. Well in this, like in Amplitube 2, you can select pre amp, EQ and a power amp all within the amp head. This is a great feature to mix and match what you like in different amps. On to the cabs, there is a pretty big speaker selection for you here too. This is where the Metal in Amplitube Metal really starts to come out. Nothing but 4×12 cabinets here, 4 of them with 3 “takes” of each one to be exact! Some of the best and most used in metal cabs are here. From Marshall to Mesa, all here and they all sound huge just like they do in real life!
The included effects in Amplitube Metal are again awesome sounding and centered towards metal. So chances are if you play metal you have played these before. With the included Rack effects you have over 23 different effects at your disposal. Chorus? Done. Flange? Done. Delay? Of course, oh and its sync-able to your host’s BPM! Everything you could ever need plus mere? Done, it is all here! Oh and they threw in a kick ass tuner as usual. Oh and the fact that you can run 2 rigs at the same time is awesome!
What bad can I say about Amplitube Metal? I seriously can’t think of a thing! Every time I review something or am looking at purchasing something I look at the price point. At this price point you can not get a better deal for recording distorted guitars. If you were to even buy one rig you would be spending hundreds, if not thousands more than you would pay for any of the Amplitube series!
IK Multimedia Ampeg SVX Review
So I try my best to do music for a living. I guess it’s cool, no wait I take that back, it’s great. I mean usually. I do what I love and then do odd jobs to pay bills if I don’t make enough money off of music. You know what I mean, I’m the quintessential starving artist. It kinda sucks actually. The worst part is seeing new gear and knowing it’ll take forever to save up and buy it! Well I’m primarily an engineer. What that entails is making other people sound good, well at least I try to. You can only do so much when the artists come in with sub par gear and expect you to make them sound like Metallica! I swear I have seen drummers come in with heads that are so bad I ask them why they didn’t get new heads and their response is “You can change those?!”. I want to slap them sometimes. So because of this what you do when you run a studio is have a studio set, a few guitars, basses, pedals and amps. Well going back to being the “quintessential starving artist” that I am my collection is kinda sparse.
This is where IK Multimedia’s Ampeg SVX powered by Amplitube enters the scene, How does this make sense?
4 separate modules: tuner, configurable pedal board, Amp heads, Cabinets and Mic locker
8 Stomp effects
4 signature Ampeg bass amps
6 signature Ampeg cabinets
6 microphones
High-precision tuner
All this for $229.99? Really?
“Well sure it sounds impressive but I bet it sucks…” – Same stupid drummer…
Let me break this down a bit more before I give my opinion on the sound. As to the way it is set up, there are 4 “modules” or screens, think of these as tabs in Firefox. You can switch back and forth to whatever section of the recording chain you have set up. The first is the Tuner. It is really precise and very good for bass. I use Reaper and when I try to tune my bass in Reatune I always lose the bottom E and sometimes the A, it just never seems to pick up those low notes. With this tuner it picks up the low B string on my 5 string Ibanez! On another note, just like with a real tuner, you can turn it on or off and mute the output. This is an awesome feature, especially if you use one of IK Multimedia’s interfaces made for the Amplitube series, the Stomp IO and the Stealth Pedal.
Next up is the pedal board. Now this is where I can start to scratch the surface of the tone that this plug in is capable of! It comes with a 6 space pedal board with 8 different stomp boxes. Each one of these are specifically tuned and designed for bass. None of that re branded slap the word bass in it guitar effects here! You can tell every part of this was thought out and carefully replicated just like the gear they are modeled after. There are some classic Ampeg effects like the SPC-OT Octaver and the SCP-OD Overdrive as well as an analog Compressor, Chorus, Delay, Envelope Filter, Bass, Wah, and a Volume pedal! All of it sounds great too! In just about every chain I have built I include the compressor, it just sounds amazing! I hardly have to do much outside of this plug in for Bass tones! Sometimes, every great once in a while, I’ll throw ReaComp for limiting or gentle compression but the Ampeg Compressor is always on!
Last but not least we get to the actual amps. There are 4 Ampeg heads in Ampeg SVX. These are some of the best of the best when it comes to bass amps! The SVT-Classic, B-15R Portaflex “Flip Top”, BA-500 and the SVT-4PRO. Each has its own place is musical history. With this you can mix and match each head with one of 6 bass cabinets, the B-15R, BA-500, BXT-410H, SVT-410H, SVT-810H and the PB-212H. My personal favorite is the BA500 and the PB-212H with the compressor on the pedal board. Ahh sweetness, oh but wait we have to mic it up right? Well there are 6 mic models to choose from too. Now this is where I fall head over heels for this. If you know me I am a BIG mic guy. I collect them like a nerdy 5th grader collects stamps from countries nobody ever sends mail too. The mics modeled are the Electro-Voice RE-20 (Dynamic 20), Shure SM57 (Dynamic 57), Sennheiser MD-421U (Dynamic 421), AKG D-20 (Vintage Dynamic 20), Neumann U-87 (Condenser 87), and the AKG C-414 (Condenser 414). Now truthfully a lot of us, especially those of us with modest budgets, may never have all these mics in out lockers so it is great to have these already built in to even further fine tune your Bass tone!
Now its pretty obvious I’m kind of a IK Multimedia fan with a few of their plug ins. This is the plug in that started it all! This is why I love IK Multimedia! They took my bass and made it sound like a bass should sound on a record! Before this I was using colored compressors, EQ and bass cab impulses, boy have I gone a long way since those days! My tone has gotten better by leaps and bounds and there is a reason why this is the industry standard in Bass amp plug ins!
IK Multimedia Amplitube Fender Review Pt II
So I have had Amplitube Fender for almost 3 months now. The excitement of having a new plug in has definitely worn off, BUT my excitement about how stellar this version of Amplitube sounds hasn’t! I kid you not when I say this is my FAVORITE guitar tone I have gotten in the studio! Recently they did a upgrade and its not just bug fixes. It includes 3 new effects including the Fender Compressor Stomp, Fender Wah and the Fender ’63 Reverb Tank Rack Unit and each one of these sound amazing! Now the first time around I wrote more so on how in love I am with this plug in, and rightfully so, I mean this is an amazing plug in! Well this time I will dig deeper into what is included and tell you how each part of Amplitube Fender sounds!
Now just like all the other versions of Amplitube, Ampeg SVX, Metal and Amplitube 2 there are a tons of options but the overall layout is the same. The same killer tuner, same amp, mic and stomp box layouts. Very familiar which is a good thing. It helps keep them all uniform to be able to use them in X-Gear which is a “shell” of sorts that lets you use any of the Amplitubes together and switch between presets. Sweet. Now I can not stress enough how well this sounds compared to real Fenders. I have had the chance to play a real ’65 Fender Deluxe Reverb that my uncle bought back in 1965 when he was a teenager. I love it and have offered countless times to buy it off him. Of course being that it has sentimental value he always says no but I love to borrow it and play it. Well when I play Amplitube Fender I can close my eyes, put my M-Audio IE-30′s on and just forget I’m running through a computer!
In Amplitube Fender there are 12 Guitar amps, 12 matching cab, 9 stomp box effects, 7 rack effects, a tuner and 9 microphones. This has the same layout as all the other Amplitube series have. Another cool feature I haven’t touched on with the Amplitube series yet is Speed Trainer. It is used in the stand alone version of Amplitube Fender. It is basically an integrated audio player that gives you separate pitch and speed controls for playing back music and slowing down the tempos of music without changing the pitch. It allows you to drag any WAV, MP3 or iTunes files into it and set loop points for playing over and tracking your songs. Oh and they throw in a metronome in there too. These are awesome practice tools that EVERY guitarist should take advantage of!
Now lets get into the Amps. There are 12 amps total including ’59 Bassman LTD, ’65 Twin Reverb, ’57 Deluxe, ’65 Deluxe Reverb, ’64 Vibroverb Custom, Vibro-King Custom, Champion 600, Super-Sonic, MH-500 Metal Head, Pro Junior, Bassman 300 and the TBP-1 Bass Preamp. I could record all guitars AND basses with this plug in! These are awesome and sweet emulations. I hate to even call them that because once your put time into guitar tone you get really snobbish sometimes and I tried so hard to find fault in these, but I couldn’t. Every time I recorded a guitar or bass I ran it through this and they all sound stellar! I’m gonna kinda skip the guitar stuff here and kinda focus on bass here. There are 3 obvious options for bass here. The ’59 Bassman, Bassman 300 and the TBP-1 Bass Preamp. Out of these my favorite was the TBP-1. It sounded so clear and full that now I really have to choose between Ampeg SVX and Amplitube Fender! Now back to the amps. I have to say again that my favorite clean amp here is the ’65 Fender Deluxe Reverb and then to top it off my FAVORITE guitar crunch I have heard is from the MH-500 Metal Head. Very impressive. I have never paid much attention to the Fender “Metal Amps” mainly due to the fact Fender is and has always been known as a clean amp company. Well the awesome sound of the MH-500 Metal Head is amazing!
As a guitar player my favorite thing besides new pedals and awesome amps is cabs. I have been known to own a few amps in my day but my passion was switching cabs. I have had 1×10′s, 1×12′s, 4×12′s, and I have had a 2×12′s and a 15 in a cab before! Well one thing that you really can’t mess with is trying these different amps with other Fender cabs. I mean running a MH-500 Metal head through the ’59 Bassman® 4×10” Open Back cab sounds cool. I mean you can run through these combinations that you would never have thought to even try before that sounds really good! One of my favorites is the Fender Vibratone 1×10” Rotary Speaker for a Leslie type effect.
The stomp box section of Amplitube Fender has a 1st class effect selection. In the Stomp section there are 9 stomp boxes at your disposal. There is the Fender Compressor, Fender Blender, Fender Phaser, Fender Fuzz Wah, Fender Tremolo, Fender ’63 Reverb, Fender Tape Echo, Fender Wah and Fender Volume. You can use these in any combination in either Stomp A or B. Now if you thought that was a lot we haven’t even touched the Rack effects yet! In the Rack you have a Fender, Pitch Shift, Fender Tape Echo, Fender Sine Flange, Fender Triangle Chorus, Fender Wah, Fender Compressor and the Fender ’63 Reverb. Now that I went through those lists can you really imagine needing anything else? I mean they have all the bases covered inside the plug in without having to add to it. One thing I really want to point out is how awesome these sound! My favorite reverb is the 63′ Reverb. Sometimes I’ll use it as a reverb for vocals or other oddities and turn off all the amp and cab modeling so it is just the reverb and it sounds stellar!
Now I know I have done a review on Amplitube Fender before but it needed to be revisited with the new update and to give you guys a more in depth review. I still can not believe how much this plug in has made recording guitars. No matter where I am I can turn on my laptop plug in my Audio fire and record a take and dial in a killer tone that would take tons of setup time and a lot more money than this plug in costs! The versatility in this makes this a must have for every guitarist recording! You can be a session guitarist and do all of your work with Amplitube Fender!