Amplitube - my unofficial review

[rmx]

How much cpu power does it need? Have you compared it to "Bomb Factory"s" sans amp plug?

Rob

[lwilliam]

I tried the BF SansAmp a year or so ago and couldn't run 24 24-bit tracks with the SansAmp running on my G4/400. Well, it ran, but it was like molasses - and that was with no other plugins loaded. It was a big CPU hog.

Amplitube showed about a 12-15% increase in CPU power when I looked at the System Usage meter. I would guess that it probably takes way less than 1/2 the power of SansAmp.

Amplitube definitely rocks for clean to crunchy sounds...the best AC30 model I've heard yet. Everything can be easily automated, there's even Audiosuite if things get too hairy...

The presets have generally way too much reverb and/or echo on them for my tastes, but that's easily fixed.

BTW, the spring reverb emulation is also one of the best.

Hmm, I didn't know you could actually BUY it yet. I thought we had to wait for the actual CDs to ship...but then, I don't really want to pay retail price off their web site either. I can wait a month and get it locally...

I also think it will be one of my most-used plugins, since every one of my projects has several tracks of guitar (acoustic and/or electric).

[Joseph Anderson]

I was gonna estimate 10% CPU usage, so we're not far apart.

[tommy gunn]

I just downloaded the demo of amplitube,, I have used the sansamp from bomb factory, first off I really enjoyed amplitube, it is very fun,, very easy and very 'good' it feels and acts more like an 'amp' than the sans amp (in my opinion) I did however like some of the balls that the BF sansamp had,,, but in the same sentence amplitubes cleans are heavenly! when I was 19 (I am 25 now) I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time,, and I got to work in a band under producer Sean McMahon (co produced slipknots 'Spit it out') while we were in the studio he used the hardware sans amp psa-1 and I was very amazed at my guitar sound,, but I was very new to recording and didn't pay enough attention to that process....I have been to tech21's website and listend to some of there sample sounds and they are amazing no effects just straight out of the box presets so they claim.. has anybody out there been able to actually compare the hardware version against the software....I think that it is strange that Bomb Factory emulated a peice of guitar gear but the only sample sounds they have of the unit on there site is on drums and something else (not guitar!)
why?

I would love to get amplitube and have it in my collection,, but I can't get what I am hearing on tech 21's website,,,how about you guys???

tommyg [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

[Joseph Anderson]

I have purchased and installed Amplitube, and have the following comments.

Let me first say I am not a superstar guitar player. I'm a songwriter and I play several instruments, none of them truly well. I'm also not affiliated with IK (Amplitube's maker) in any way whatsoever.

My bottom line: this is a truly unbelievable piece of software. I think this is going to be one of the absolutely most important plug-ins in my arsenal. The clean sounds are nothing short of BREATHTAKING. What I've found is that the more I explore this thing and tweak the settings to my liking, I am able to get an unimaginable variety of killer sounds from the plug, including some ROCKIN' crunchy sounds, and I'm just running an Ovation through it.

It comes with a full rack of "stomp pedals" and a ton of different amp sounds, eq models and cabinet choices.

I'm totally blown away. You need to check this thing out. DIGI is right to feature it in the Digizine this month. (No, I don't work for them, either.)

Now, an admission. I ragged the hell out of Jason at IK over the delays in the product's release. I hereby officially repent.

PS - Jason, it turned out, lives in North Carolina where I now reside; he helped me recently with some questions about Amplitube and the guy was very, very considerate and helpful.

Happy ending.

[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]