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Amplitube software amp modeler

 
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woland99



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 155
Location: Austin, TX

PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 6:02 am    Post subject: Amplitube software amp modeler Reply with quote

I downloaded demo of Amplitube Live from the website:
http://www.amplitube.com/

It is bundled with Stealth Plug USB interface and I thought
that at $90 it seems as decent deal for direct recording.

Tonewise demo was actually not that bad - it did sound didgital
- no question about it esp. with delay on. Also I thought that
reverb was a bit too intense - most of the time I would not turn
it past 1.5. Plus for the money they could have given you extra
reverb stompbox with more choices than just spring reverb.

What was mildly annoying was latency - my laptop is not really
media oriented and I did not try to close other apps running
before trying Amplitude but I could barely keep latency (with
ASIO on) at 10ms and for me that seems a borderline - I can
definitely feel that picking and sound generation are dsconnected
at such latency. 7ms is more acceptable value.

So - anybody using Amplitube? Or Stealth Plug?

JT
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woland99



Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Posts: 155
Location: Austin, TX

PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2007 4:33 pm    Post subject: Followup on IK Multimedia Stealth Plug and Amplitube s/w Reply with quote

Well I ended up buying StealthPlug. It is very sumple USB interface
you plug one end into your guitar and the other end into USB port.
You install the driver and presto! you can now record directly to your
laptop.

OK - maybe not that fast.... First the plug comes only as a straight one
and while it is not flimsy or anything but certainly it is not heavy duty
one - so I decided to use my regular guitar cord with right angle plug
on it and then hook it to StealthPlug via female-female connctor.

Then the driver. I could not get the one that came in the box to work
with Amplitube software - tone was like a shortwave radio signal over
the couple thousand miles of Arctic storms. Luckily after downloading
the most recent driver from IK Multimedia website all those issues went
away.

Also - on latency. I run Amplitube with StealthPlug on Thinkpad T42 -
1.6GHz Pentium M w/ 1GB RAM - not the worst but not the best platform
for music either. When I tried Amplitube demo I tried using ASIO drivers
that came with Audigy ZS soundcard. The best I could get was about
12+ms latency. And you can feel that much latency when you pick -
guitar responce is mushy and unnatural. With StealthPlug driver installed
I could get 48000Hz sampling and 144 samples buffer size - so um....
latency is (144/480000)*1000 = 3ms. And sound for the most part is
clear - no clicks. Not sure if I can trust that 3ms but for me latency <10ms
is acceptable - I do not pick that fast.

Tonewise.... hmmm.... - I can't say I am blown away by the quality of
the amp models. And it is somewhat annoying that they are a bit on the
noisy side. With Amplitude Live bundled with StealtPlug you only get
3 models - Fender Deluxe Reverbe 65, Marshall JCM800 and a generic
bass amp. And 4 cabs 1x12 open, 2x12 closed, 4x12 closed and 1x15
bass cab. I never owned Deluxe Reverb 65 or JCM800 so I cant comment
on quality of models. But I like the sound better than PodXT - I could
not get a clean sound out of PodXT that did not sound thin to me.
I have to say that for what I wanted Amplitube - a practice tool to run
along Band-In-A-Box - I am satisfied with the tone. I only used it as
standalone app - perhaps VST version can be easier to twek as far
as EQing the tone.

StealthPlug comes with few bundled s/w item - aformentioned Amplitube
Live, Mackie's Tracktion2 sequencer, IK SampleTank2 and IK TrackS.
And some drum/bass loops. I only looked at Tracktion for brief moment
- it seemed a bit easier to learn than Ableton Live but unlike Ableton it
came without any tutorials. I think I will try to explore using it to edit
MIDI files produced by BIAB. Or perhaps just recording vamps over
some drum/bass loops to jam.

What I was quite impressed with was SampleTank2 SE. Despite the fact
that that "tease" (that is what SE stands for) version came with only 64
sounds it really breathed new life into Band-In-A-Box - it never sounded
better. For example it came with Clean Strat sample - but you also get full
power of Aplitube as effect that you can pile up on that Strat sound - all
inside SampleTank. So it was first time when I guitar based Soloists in
BIA sounded acceptable. I think I will upgrade to full version of SampleTank2.

My practice rig now is Ibanez AS120 (with RMC synth pickup) hooked
to Roland GR33. Synth output from GR33 goes to mixer and guitar out
goes to StealthPlug and output from stealth plug goes to mixer. Then I
have output from my soundcard also running to mixer (cheapo small
Behringer). I have a switch on AS120 to flip thru synth patches and
also to do synth, guitar or synth+guitar. And on guitar side I can blend
magnetic and piezo signal from RMC. One reason I like fiddling with
guitar synth is that it makes you think more about the notes that you
play and less about guitar cliches.

Now all I need is to practice.

Peace,

JT
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