Recording - July 2011 - 49

• Metal Flanger: Totally has the classic Van Halen flanger tone in a box, but can really get over the top in a vintage Prince kind of way too. • Chorus One: Shimmery like the old BOSS, with a very nice tremolo sound as well. • Ampeg Analog Chorus: A very subtle smooth chorus with nice depth and smooth vibrato, again, made for bass, but equally cool on your axe. • Univibe: This is another one of the musthaves. Offers a very wide range of LFO sweeps and is buttery and deep. Delays • T-Rex Replica: Very clean and modern but still full. Has a subdivision switch for BPM sync and a Brown switch which makes the repeats darker and gritty. • Analog Delay (Ampeg): Classic analog delay with a chorus vibrato. Nice for classic slapbacks. Has a great phat analog-y sound. • Fender Tape Echo: If you do rockabilly, this is Sun Studio in a box. Smoother and more even than the Analog Delay with more delay time, has wow and flutter and the pitch tracking when the delay time is adjusted. My favorite delay of these choices. • Tap delay: 8-multi tap delay with a ton of control, and reverse. This is the most complex pedal in the family, as each tap has its own full set of controls. It takes a bit of time to tweak and program, but it is really worth it. • Echo Man: Nice and fat analog delay, and is a great model of the EH Memory Man. • Delay (The stock one): Not bad tonally and does really cool glitch stuff when automated. Pitch • Whaminator: A full-on whammy pedal and does it well, think Vai! • Pitch shifter: Very nice pitch pedal for classic simple up and down harmonies. • Octav: The old brown BOSS Octave pedal in your computer complete with the old wonky, wobbly note tracking. • Harmonator: Intelligent pitch shifter with 3 voices and a gritty vintage tone. • Ampeg Octaver: Great for sub tones. While it was made for bass, if you need to simulate a bass with your guitar, this is the pedal and its tracking is very accurate. Compressors • Fender Comp: One knob does it all. Gives fullness while retaining guitar tone; almost sounds like tape compression. • Ampeg Comp: Instant smooth low-end fullness that highlights the string thump and doubles as distortion box when pushed. A key buy for bass or guitar. • DComp: MXR Dyna comp. Not as smooth as the basic comp, but it is punchier and adds a touch of drive like its real world counterpart. • Compressor: Basic compressor adds sustain, fullness and tightness. A very nice smooth out-of-the-way comp. Chris uses this in almost every patch he creates.

Wah • Fender Wah: Min. and max. frequency settings which can get very filtery and extreme. • Ampeg Bass Wah: Made for bass, with an auto feature where the pedal still controls the tone. • Wah 47: Nice high end and extreme sweep. Again with auto wah. This one sounds the most classic. • Wah 46: Similar to the 47 with a more midrange-centered sweep. • Wah 10: Deep, honky high midrange for guitar switchable to a deep thickness on the bass wah settings. • Wah : The most vanilla of the bunch, but with a great auto wah. Other • Fender Reverb 63: Great spring reverb for that amp that lacks it. • Step Slicer: Kind of a step tremolo with deep cuts. It’s modern, glitchy and rhythmic. • Swell: Just as the name implies, played notes swell in like a bowed string or the attack setting on a synth. Conclusions This program has something for everyone, from the tone purist with an SM57 shoved into the grille of a classic amp to thick stereo amp stacks with 12 effects pedals into racks of outboard gear captured with modern tube and ribbon mics, and it sounds amazing and very 3-dimensional. About the only negatives I could find in this program are that the web-page-style navigation menus when picking presets and pedals are a tad narrow and touchy, and I almost wish that you could save what I would call sub-presets, like a favorite individual effect pedal setting or amp setup... but I am being really picky at this point. I reread my review of AmpliTube 2 while preparing this article, and was tickled to see that virtually every one of my complaints had been addressed in version 3.5. Hard to argue with that! I know the hardware junkies will stick to their claims that no software will ever sound and feel like the real thing, and they are partially right... but so what? I love miking real amps in a nice room, but I also love the sound, scope and experimentation available in AmpliTube, and feel no guilt using both. In the real world many guitarists are lucky to own two or three amps and maybe a halfdozen pedals. Here you can spend days falling down the rabbit hole of infinite choice and possibility. Whatever your flavor, you can find it here! Nice job, IK... we can’t wait to see what you come up with for version 4! Prices: Full version, $349.99; Fender, $229.99; Ampeg SVX, Hendrix, and Metal, $129.99 each. See website for hardware/software and iOS options and bundle pricing. More from: IK Multimedia, www.ikmultimedia.com.
RECORDING JULY 2011

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Recording - July 2011

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