Eleven rack plugin

[steveterhune]

I am looking to buy an eleven rack, but want to be sure I will get the plugin with it. Not the MK ii, but the plugin that lets you adjust setting of the guitar sound on-screen.

[Darryl Ramm]

The Eleven Rack editor is a free download to anybody....

And while internally the editor actually does use a plugin architecture, it is not itself a plugin to Pro Tools or any other DAW, it is a stand alone application.

[steveterhune]

Thx. So, if I have played into a track with a clean sound, how do I change it to a crunch sound?
STT

[Darryl Ramm]

You just opened a shipping container full of different amps, heads and cabs. You are not going to instantly find what sounds best out of that shipping container. It is going to take some time to play with them and see.

You get more crunch by picking a amp/head sim similar to what you are looking for and turning up the preamp-gain/gain on that amp sim like you would on the real guitar amp. Or maybe running a (real or sim) OD or distortion pedal in front of the amp.

Amps simulated are described here http://www.avid.com/US/products/eleven-rack#features Pick one from there that is close to what you want/or want to reproduce if you know an artist who plays that amp.

The Eleven Rack User Guide contains a lot of useful information and is very well written, although it assumes you have some experience with how a real physical amp works/behaves.

The perception of the Eleven Rack's sound and especially how well it simulates a live amp in a room is strongly influenced by the loudness/SPL and what monitor/speaker/speaker cab/power amp/monitor you are driving with the Eleven Rack.

If you are tying something and it is not working or not making sense, then describe exactly what you are doing and ask for help here.

[steveterhune]

Thx. I understand how the amp modeling and effects work, but my question relates to use in Pro Tools. In a plug-in like Amplitube, I can play a dry signal into the track, then adjust the settings of the amp later, and change it whenever I want. How does this work with the Eleven if the eleven software is not a plugin?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by steveterhune

Thx. I understand how the amp modeling and effects work, but my question relates to use in Pro Tools. In a plug-in like Amplitube, I can play a dry signal into the track, then adjust the settings of the amp later, and change it whenever I want. How does this work with the Eleven if the eleven software is not a plugin?

Ah you are asking about reamping, converting a dry signal to a wet one. A "clean amp" vs. "crunchy" amp is very different.

All this is in the Eleven Rack User Guide and you need to read that.

But basically, if the Eleven Rack is the Pro Tools audio interface this is very easy to do using the reamp output (it's an input to the rig, but an output in Pro Tools) in the Eleven Rack. You just send your dry track signal to the Reamp Output and set the Eleven Rack rig input to "Reamp".

Forgetting to set Rig Input from Reamp back to Guitar In is a common cause of Eleven Racks that no longer appear to work... you'll slap yourself the first few dozen times you do that.

When getting started with reamping start by working with a Pro Tools session created from the Eleven Rack "Guitar tracking + Re-amping" template, the pre-created tracks and track naming in that will help you get started.

And if you want a Benoni fix reamping is explained here.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICzu75EZjkQ

[steveterhune]

Finally!!!! I am clear about it after trying to find the answer for months. That link is just what I needed. Many thanks. Do you recommend the Eleven rack? Any thoughts on the MK ii plugin? I was going for the Eleven because I need Pro Tools. I have LE8 and an old digi 002 which works only intermittently.
MK plugin is pricey.

[Darryl Ramm]

I highly recommend the Eleven Rack as a practice box, a recording/reamp box and a live box (if you understand the cab sim limitations (it's either on or off globally, so if driving FOH you may not want to use a guitar power amp/speaker cab on stage for monitoring since the guitar cab/speaker breakup etc. simulation is on or off globally, and it does not have any great MIDI pedal integration). The plugins may be easier for reamping (and a good compliment if you get used to the Eleven Rack).

But while I think they are great (and would buy another tomorrow) the Eleven Rack appears to be an abandoned product from Avid, I would not expect new features. And Avid is just not great about timely driver updates for new OS releases for any of their consumer interfaces. Just be aware of that if buying one. It is also light on for effects. But it all depends on what you want to do. Pointedly the Fractal Audio Axe-FX is probably a better live rig, has many more effects and has impressive ongoing development. But you do pay for that. (Hey get the Eleven Rack *and* an Axe-FX II).

[steveterhune]

I don't care a bit about live use. Only studio emulation. Good point about the drivers. I guess Avid is going the way of the plugin, it's just that instead of $600, I'd have to invest $1000.00 for PT and the MKii plugin.

[Darryl Ramm]

Avid is not really going anyway here. Plugins don't replace the whole Eleven Rack. And the Pro Tools Eleven plugin predated the Eleven Rack, they just finally updated them to Mk II to pick up the extra amps that the Eleven Rack had. The main folks responsible for all this have not been with Avid for a long tim. I suspect they mostly just handed the existing code from the Eleven Rack Expansion pack to some developers and had them port to the plugins.

Because of poor support I'd strongly avoid any Avid branded consumer (non HD) interface. And only go HD for larger studios where the scalability is needed. The only interface I'd make an exception for is the Eleven Rack, folks primarily doing guitar and bass work can frequently live with just that, or hang it outboard of another interface.

If you are working on another DAW switching to Pro Tools just for the Eleven Plugins makes no sense.

The Eleven Rack has issues with non-Pro Tools DAWs, it does not mute it's local monitoring when used as an interface with those DAWs. An annoying bug.