Altogether, AmpliTube Fender is a solid, great-sounding package. For example, you switch out a Shure SM57 for a Sennheiser 421 and you get the approximate changes in tone you’d expect. I was also really impressed by the virtual microphones. Putting a distortion pedal in front of a Twin Reverb has always been one of my favorite Fender tones, and I heard a very practical representation of that. You can get some warm, fat chunk with tube-ish grunge, or sparking Fender clean tones.
Nonetheless, the software consistently delivered some of the best sounds I’ve heard from any amp synthesizer. If you’re worried that all this may get a bit noisy, there is a rudimentary noise gate at the bottom of the GUI that operated as most of these do: For major downtime, it will keep out the noise if the performance is quiet in the holes, but if the ambient noise of the track rises above the threshold, then the noise floor will rush to center stage.Īs I stated above, no plug-in is going to nail the sound you get from actually moving air and heating up tubes. The “selected parameter” readout at the bottom of the GUI reflects your changes in numbers, though I’d rather see this readout on the individual rack effects and not at the bottom of the screen. The rack section provides journeyman processing, featuring a simple knob-per-parameter layout for such effects as pitch shift, flanger, tape echo, triangle chorus, wah and compressor. For example, you can run the Overdrive Screamer from AmpliTube Metal into your ’59 Bassman from the Fender package.
There are added switches on the amps for moving the mic on/off axis and near/far from the cabinet, or you can quickly switch to another mic using the handy up/down arrows.Īnd if too much isn’t enough, you can expand on your tonal palette by purchasing additional AmpliTube packages and using the free X-Gear software to combine their components with your favorite pieces of AmpliTube Fender gear. Once you choose your rig, you can use any of the included virtual microphones with any of the virtual speaker cabinets. Furthermore, no plug-in is going to produce a spot-on re-creation of the distortion and feedback of a cranked tube amp. When I compared some of the plug-in amps to the real-world equivalents, it seemed that most of the EQ frequencies matched up, for example, but the overall behavior and feel of the knobs varied slightly. The knobs and switches are also true to the actual amps however, don’t count on pulling out your old session-recall sheets, matching the control values set on your original tracking dates and expect to hear identical tones. As you flip between the choices, you’ll see faithful graphic representations of the amps being modeled.
Next up are the amp and cabinet sections. Using this pedal, the virtual Fuzz-Wah operated smoothly and produced tones that could easily pass for the real deal.
I was quite pleased with the Fuzz-Wah, which I controlled with IK’s new Stealth pedal. The stomp box section offers virtual floor-space for 12 boxes in any combination. Need to tune? Click over to the slick, full-window tuner for a touch up or check it quickly at the bottom of the GUI, then jump to any other section you’d like. The bright yellow signal-flow diagram at the top of the GUI explains it all and lets you easily click into the separate sections and set up sounds. The completely modular and intuitive GUI makes the signal flow of the separate sections a breeze to understand.
I tested it within Logic and Pro Tools HD and LE, but it also operates as a stand-alone app supporting Audio Units, VST, RTAS in Mac OS X, and VST and RTAS in Windows XP or Vista. This is not a simple amp modeler, but plug-ins within in a plug-in that let you stack effects and create your own dream rigs, or build upon the vast included library of gear combinations. With models of 12 different Fender amps, 12 cabinets, nine mics, nine stomp boxes and seven rack effects, the tonal possibilities expand to a dizzying level. You can never have too many guitar amps/effects and IK Multimedia’s Amplitube Fender offers a versatile selection in a virtual package. In the studio, variety is the spice of great tracks.
All amp models are represented with careful attention to detail.