Posts tagged ‘Amplitube’
Jimi Hendrix – Newport ’69 Pop Festival with Dial Showman
In case you missed the FREE American Vintage D amp in AmpliTube I posted about yesterday check out this video. It is Jimi Hendrix WAILING on his guitar through the same model amp that IK Multimedia modeled!
Now go get that freebie! Only 2 days left to get it…
Get Jimi Hendrix’s Dual Showman Modeled Amp Free with AmpliTube Custom Shop!
Its pretty bad ass if you ask me when companies give out freebies. So I was excited to hear IK Multimedia was giving out a free American Vintage D in the new Custom Shop! If you haven’t tried AmpliTube 3 FREE yet, get on it!
Check out the deets:
Hendrix acquired this 100 watt amp in 1968 and used it in ‘68 and ‘69 with the Experience tour together with an assortment of other amps. The amp sported a built-in spring reverb unit and originally came with 2×15” J.B. Lansing® speakers.
Once you have installed AmpliTube 3 FREE log into the Custom Shop and download your free American Vintage D amp from the “What’s Hot” section on the main page. Hurry, as it’ll only be free til the end of September!
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 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 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!
IK Multimedia Amplitube Fender Review Pt I
Wow…. Seriously…just wow! I got this a few weeks ago and have not yet been able to stop jamming! I just keep playing guitar! This is getting in the way of my production! Anybody else try it? Wow. I am speechless. That describes IK Multimedia’s newest addition to the Amplitube series. I mean W-O-W. I have been playing guitar for 10ish years now and have done more than my fair share of looking for “that” tone. I have spent thousands of dollars on gear and sold thousands of dollars worth of gear. I mean its not that I didn’t find anything good, Just not what I have been looking for. That is when I went to my usual line 6 stuff. Not stellar but good enough ya know? Well when I heard about Amplitube Fender I was intrigued. Wasn’t really too sure about it but I was still intrigued. After reading tons of info on it I finally bit the bullet and opened up the best Fender sim I have ever heard. Seriously. No wait..the best guitar plug in. Ever. They have set a new bar and the worst part, at least for other companies, they set it high.
Now I usually play through a Fender Pro Junior, even had a Bassman LTD for a bit too. Loved them both, but I stuck with the Junior cause its small and I do a ton of gigging and recording. For gigging purposes with some decent pedals its pretty versatile. Bassman is nice, but it is heavy and kills my back! Now I’m a bit spoiled, as a lot of you are, with a multi effects unit. You know the type…a bazillion amp models, a bazillion cabs, one or two mic models and bazillion effects. Nice if your plugging directly into a board for a gig or if your in a home studio it can be okay and sure it gets you by, but it lacks realness and depth. Well now I can honestly say that when I’m recording now I miss nothing. I mean nothing. Not even a tuner. Noise gate? Yep. Compressor? It’s there. Fuzz? Check. Wah. Uh huh. Mic models? Well…how about 9 different models!? I mean seriously, this is a whole mic locker in itself! I was ecstatic! I am in heaven!
When I first plugged my Strat (If you can’t tell I was a Fender guy to start….) I was immediately impressed. Now I knew it would be nice I mean I have IK Multimedia’s Ampeg SVX (also Highly recommended) and love it, but wow. Forget the awesome sound, these LOOK LIKE THE REAL AMPS. Just like how Ampeg SVX looks exactly like a Ampeg looks, these look just like the Fender amps that they emulate so well! Now I know I should really just pay attention to how well and realistic it sounds but a little eye candy never hurt right? Plus when your spending your hard earned money in this recession you really want your moneys worth. You want to be sure they put everything they could into your purchase. Well the detail in this is amazing! Not only in the tone knobs, cabs, grill cloth but even down to the specific mic models that are being modeled! The Condenser 87, 84 and 414 looks like a 87,84 and 414 would. The Dynamic 57, 421 and 441 all look like a 57, 421 and 441 look like. The ribbon looks like a ribbon and the Groove Tubes mics look like them too! I mean the logo is even there! Back to how they sound though..Each amp is ridiculously emulated to where, I know this is blasphemy, but seriously….I enjoyed this more than I do my real amps!
Now I know, I know, whatever right? No. I mean I had my M Audio IE-30 headphones on and jammed for about 4 hours when I first got it. I never do that with my amps. Never. I though ok I’ll just record a few lick’s and just change presets til I find stuff I like and go from there. Well within 2 presets I was hooked. I had to create my own preset folder just to save the presets that I like! I spent 4 hours of my life going through about 25 or so presets, I didn’t even make it past first amp in the series! I fell in love with the ’57 Deluxe! Amazing tones coming from presets!? I mean usually I’m not a preset guy but the amp is amazing! Errr, well I mean this plug in is amazing…kind of weird to say that but, again, Wow. It’s well deserved. I had to come back and say “Okay Obi, your going to go through all the presets, amps and effects just to check this out and know this plug in…you are not going to stay on any said part of this plug-in for more than 2 minutes…”. I have been messing with this for a little over a week and still am in love!
Now usually I don’t write reviews for a lot of gear purchased unless its for my website but this is amazing! I can not stress it enough, this is by far the best thing any home studio can have to rival the big studios when it comes to how your guitar sounds. This is ridiculous. You get so much for the price its hard to say no. I have just put my Pod XT Live in its gig bag to be sold on eBay since I can use this live! This new Fender plug-in is my new studio and gigging workhorse!
IK Multimedia Amplitube Fender
Check out Amplitube Fender Review Pt II!!!