AmpliTube 3

[Dubster]

Originally Posted by Jantex

Have to admit, I expected more. I never really liked the flubby low end on any Amplitube product ant this thing continues with AT3. Marshalls sound very unreal with plastic gain and without any aggression. Plexi and JTM drown in flubby loose low end, even when I set the bass to minimum. I cannot get punchy strat sound out of it. I must admit, I stil like Revalver III much much more, it behaves more like a tube amp IMHO.

I have to say, I'm giving it another whirl today, but I tend to agree with this, at least as it applies to high gain amps. I don't know why, but nearly all amp sims seem to treat higher gain amp modeling as just fizzy, mids-always-sucked-out caricatures instead of making truly accurate representations of the amps and while ReValver has plenty of issues (#1 being the lack of updates/support since Peavey bought Alien Connections), it does a fine job of treating high gain amps with some respect and at least attempting to capture the wide range of sounds many, including the Mesa Rectifier series, are actually capable of. I'm gonna see how it fairs with clean to mid-gain fair more today, but so far, I'm pretty underwhelmed. The dual mic implementation is nice, and the room mic idea is a nice touch, but the models, at least the high gain models, are still as one dimensional and flat as ever to my ears.

[m.m.mustard]

sounds absolutely fantastic here! best ampsim imho - very realistic!

[JPeters86]

This is truly a step up from AT2 and Guitar Rig 3. Finally an amp sim with some authentic sounding distortions. I love the Fuzz pedals. Great work IK!

[CramRack]

The upgrade is expensive. $50 overpriced, imo.

[keithl]

Are all projects done with Amplitube 2 still functional?

Meaning, if I load up Amp3.0, will it ruin my older projects used with Amp2.0?

[tobymusic]

I have one very important question: Is it backwards compatible?

Will sessions that used AT2 come up with AT3 instead when i have AT3 installed but no AT2 any more??? Or do i have to leave AT2 installed to be able to open older sessions? That would be a major bummer (and actually a reason why many people i know have abandoned Native Instruments software!)

Toby

[Peter - IK]

Originally Posted by keithl

Are all projects done with Amplitube 2 still functional?

Meaning, if I load up Amp3.0, will it ruin my older projects used with Amp2.0?

No, it is a separate plugin. Your old projects should not be disrupted at all, you can load up AmpliTube 3 with the same presets/settings and compare though.

[Peter - IK]

Originally Posted by Lenzo

Just played with the demo for over an hour. Some great sounds. Feels good.
Unfortunately for me on a Mac G5 Quad with 8 gigs of ram, running PTLE 8.01, it crashes constantly. I'd be interested in hearing if others with a similar setup have it running smoothly. My system is pretty problem free when it comes to plug ins, but it is an older machine, so it just may be that I'll have to wait until I get a 8 core. Too bad for me. I can see this as being a great tool.
L.

Please give a shout out to support via the User Area or drop me your registered email and IK username (with description of the problem reiterated) and I'll shuttle it over to support.

[Peter - IK]

Originally Posted by tobymusic

I have one very important question: Is it backwards compatible?

Will sessions that used AT2 come up with AT3 instead when i have AT3 installed but no AT2 any more??? Or do i have to leave AT2 installed to be able to open older sessions? That would be a major bummer (and actually a reason why many people i know have abandoned Native Instruments software!)

Toby

AmpliTube 3 is a separate plugin. You can load your old projects - just don't uninstall the other Powered By AmpliTube products! Also, this gives a good opportunity to compare and contrast.

[zvenx]

Originally Posted by Peter - IK

............. you can load up AmpliTube 3 with the same presets/settings and compare though.

sadly I did. and bought AMP3 two minutes later :-)
rsp

[zvenx]

Originally Posted by CramRack

The upgrade is expensive. $50 overpriced, imo.

at $199 or $149..... up to yesterday after release the pre order coupon which made the price $149 was still valid.
rsp

[Dubster]

Still pretty underwhelmed but I want to give this plug a really fair shot, so two questions for you Peter:

#1: Is there a user manual somewhere so I can see if there's something I'm just missing here that will bowl me over?

#2: What models are used in the Riff 9 audio demo. It's the one clip that really got me psyched to try Amp 3 and nothing is jumping out at me like that.

Thanks in advance.

[SWAN808]

Originally Posted by digital 1010

Means i can put the money towards a DSI MEK too!!

[Johnkenn]

I'm not real sure how anyone can try this and not come away thinking this is the best modeler out there. You've played the Orange amp and the MkIII and you're still underwhelmed? The Coppertop AC30? Really?

[gbevin]

I'm blown away by Amplitube 3. Version 2 didn't do much for me and Guitar Rig 4 was a nice step in the good direction, so was StudioDevil AMP. However, as soon as I tried Amplitube 3 out this afternoon, I heard what I've been longing for since I moved over to full digital a year and a half ago. I think that we're finally there, you guys really seem to be nailed to tone and the response in this one. Can't wait to have more time to play with it. Thanks IK Multimedia!!!

[CaliTone]

still haven't gotten my email yet. What's taking so long IK Multimedia?? I've emailed sales support, so hopefully I'll get an answer soon.

[zerocrossing]

Originally Posted by feck

I am a big IK fan/user, so I will be using this for sure. I will say that I still find that the amps just don't clean up well when the volume knob is dialed back, especially compared to the Axe Fx which kills at that. It has always seemed to me that the IK sims just need to be played with the guitar at full volume, and if you want to clean up the sounds realistically, it is best to do that on the amp. I look forward to ITB sims cleaning up like real amps though. Oh well, it isn't that hard to adjust the gain on the amp model.

This confused me a bit at first as I assumed that the input level meter was expecting a nice hot input. Makes sense, right? Well, it does if you think of Amplitube as a piece of digital audio processing gear... and it is in its own virtual way. But what they've done is modeled how an amp reacts to different levels on the input side. What looks like a good healthy input is often enough to make the amp break up even on the clean models. Just dial the input level down until you get your clean tone and you'll be good.

[zerocrossing]

Originally Posted by Johnkenn

I'm not real sure how anyone can try this and not come away thinking this is the best modeler out there. You've played the Orange amp and the MkIII and you're still underwhelmed? The Coppertop AC30? Really?

I agree with you, but different strokes... and all that... I guess. We tend to think that since we're all made with the same basic stuff we're bound to hear more or less the same thing... right? I guess not because I've given Revalver many chances and I found it to be the worst sounding amp sim I've ever used. OK, maybe the models on the Boss VF-1 was worse. Oh well. Anyway, how can someone think something is great when I think it's horrible? I guess the same way someone can think what I feel is great is horrible.

[Agreed]

Originally Posted by feck

Hey Agreed. If I am not mistaken, what you are saying here is that you constantly hit the sim with the loudest signal you can, which makes sense. Which is exactly what I am saying - when attenuating with the guitar volume knob, the quality suffers dramatically. I understand that sims do calculations based on the quality of the input signal, so the lower it is, the less "well" it is able to do its job. But the AxeFX is a sim, and it actually responds more drastically to guitar volume attenuation than a real amp does, which is one of the things that I love about it. So, it certainly can be done on a sliding scale within the software. I suppose that is one of the strengths of the Axe, and of course Amplitube has its own set of strengths. With Amplitube, when I back off of the guitar volume, the sim just sounds like a quieter version of the louder signal - velocity scaling, in other words. I am a huge advocate of ITB sims and make almost all of my records with them, so I am fine to do the workarounds. But when I hear guitarists saying that sims aren't "as good" as real amps, well, when I think about this issue, I have to agree with them. With all things, the technology will certainly improve. And that isn't to say that there aren't some great improvements with this new software. The mic movement/adjustment is awesome, and I look forward to making some killer recordings with it.

The AxeFX actually has a pretty impressive input section that does a nice job of basically giving the DSP portion of the unit a very amplike response to begin with. If you happen to have a StompIO, its 12V class-A input section has similarly amplike qualities, the best sounds I've ever got with any of my modelers (and god, that's way too many by now, they sort of add up when you review this stuff) was with a StompIO up front. If you haven't given that a try but it's within your reach (I know, it's difficult to audition things like that) it might be worth a shot.

Really, though, I didn't quite mean what you took me as saying - my fault for being unclear, I apologize. What I mean is that I've found that using the hottest signal possible with my volume knob turned up, turning down the volume knob of course cuts the signal into the modeler, too, and allows me to take dynamic control over the grit. I've got a real THD Univalve sitting right here, the first thing I did was compare how it responds to the THD Bivalve in AT3, and I was impressed with the control I got over the crunch. Same with the high gainers, the Mesa Boogie Dual Rec model can get some great bluesy crunch tones if you dial the gain down past the half-way point and then roll back the guitar's volume a bit.

Of course your mileage may vary but that's what I do and it works well for me

[Dubster]

Originally Posted by Johnkenn

I'm not real sure how anyone can try this and not come away thinking this is the best modeler out there. You've played the Orange amp and the MkIII and you're still underwhelmed? The Coppertop AC30? Really?

The Orange is pretty impressive so far. The MkIII and AC30 models? They're ok I guess, maybe I need to spend more time with those, but at least on the AC30 end of things, I wasn't any more impressed than a lot of other sims (that seems to be one amp that multiple sims do a descent, or at least workable job on). I'm not saying it's the worst amp sim in history, it's just not all that impressive. When I demo'd the Fender edition, I was surprisingly impressed, although I'm not a huge Fender freak. I had hoped that that degree of detail would be taken to every amp, and specifically higher gain amps, but nope. Same old overly fizzy, too much bottom end, sucked out mids caricatures (to be fair, Line 6 is guilty of the same thing, and Guitar Rig's higher gain models are abysmal). Admittedly ReValver doesn't do traditionally clean to broken up models (Fenders & Voxs spring to mind) quite as well as it's competition, but it is the only sim that gets within the ballpark when it comes to modern high-gain amps like the Rectifier series.

[Johnkenn]

Actually, I wasn't terribly impressed with Amplitube Fender. Oh well...Also - maybe we're comparing apples to oranges - I don't really do a bunch of high gain stuff.

[feck]

Cool, thanks for the clarification. I will be experimenting with it a good deal more in the coming days.

Originally Posted by Agreed

The AxeFX actually has a pretty impressive input section that does a nice job of basically giving the DSP portion of the unit a very amplike response to begin with. If you happen to have a StompIO, its 12V class-A input section has similarly amplike qualities, the best sounds I've ever got with any of my modelers (and god, that's way too many by now, they sort of add up when you review this stuff) was with a StompIO up front. If you haven't given that a try but it's within your reach (I know, it's difficult to audition things like that) it might be worth a shot.

Really, though, I didn't quite mean what you took me as saying - my fault for being unclear, I apologize. What I mean is that I've found that using the hottest signal possible with my volume knob turned up, turning down the volume knob of course cuts the signal into the modeler, too, and allows me to take dynamic control over the grit. I've got a real THD Univalve sitting right here, the first thing I did was compare how it responds to the THD Bivalve in AT3, and I was impressed with the control I got over the crunch. Same with the high gainers, the Mesa Boogie Dual Rec model can get some great bluesy crunch tones if you dial the gain down past the half-way point and then roll back the guitar's volume a bit.

Of course your mileage may vary but that's what I do and it works well for me

[Lenzo]

Originally Posted by Peter - IK

Please give a shout out to support via the User Area or drop me your registered email and IK username (with description of the problem reiterated) and I'll shuttle it over to support.

Peter,
Thanks for the offer. I'm impressed that someone from IK is so responsive. I played with it today for another hour or so and had only one crash. I loaded a couple of instances into a session on PT with 20 or so tracks and it played fine. This is a very nice piece of work. I just said last week that I was not spending any more money on gear, as the pile is pretty large. I should have known better than to say something so foolish.
L.

[MarsBot]

I own Amplitude 2 and Guitar Rig and have recently demoed most of the other amp emulations out there: Revalver, TH1, studio Devil. I just played through the Amplitude 3 demo for a couple of hours and IMHO it's head and shoulders above everything else out there right now.

It was sooo much fun to play. I just ran through the presets and the tones were inspiring me to play in all kinds of different ways. That's right: the tones were actually inspiring. These sounds will find a place in my songs for sure. Is it perfect? Well, I'm sure there are areas where it won't measure up to an amp in a close A/B. Will it replace real amps in every situation? Probably not. But it sure is good. It's WAAAAY better than Amplitude 2 in terms of tone quality.

Also, it's a great effects box. The resonator and step delay would work on a lot of other instruments. The stomp distortion and fuzz too. And I actually think this is one of the better ITB reverbs I've heard. I'm going to try it out as a drum/vox reverb in some mixes to see if it holds up. But that really stands out for me. Usually these amp emulators bathe every preset in crappy reverb. Amplitude 3 also bathes most presets in over-the-top reverb, but this time it actually sounds like a pretty good one, so it's not nearly as annoying.

[tobymusic]

Originally Posted by Peter - IK

AmpliTube 3 is a separate plugin. You can load your old projects - just don't uninstall the other Powered By AmpliTube products! Also, this gives a good opportunity to compare and contrast.

Hi Peter, thanks for clarifying this, i just saw your post in the other thread concerning this, too.

It's great that AT3 will read AT2 presets, that's at least a workaround there.
The problem is this: coming back to a session two or three years later, on a new computer, new OS etc. there will be no AT2 any more (anybody still having Amplitube 1 installed with Pro Tools 8??)

Toby

[Jantex]

IMHO AT3 does pretty well cleans and 6l6 amps in general. But no Marshall sounds right or even close to what it should. JCM 800 have to much gain on tap and is much to slow and it doesnt have the right bite. With Plexi I wouldn't have known I am playing through Plexi if I didn't read the manuals. JTM 45 is also pretty faulty. I simply cannot get AT3 to sound bity and edgy like Aerosmith, AC/DC or Led Zeppelin. Too much flubby low end. I can get that sound immediately with Revalver III, Softube Vintage Amp Room and LePou amp sims. And I agree higain is nowhere near Revalvers.

[stag]

Originally Posted by Jantex

Have to admit, I expected more. I never really liked the flubby low end on any Amplitube product ant this thing continues with AT3. Marshalls sound very unreal with plastic gain and without any aggression. Plexi and JTM drown in flubby loose low end, even when I set the bass to minimum. I cannot get punchy strat sound out of it. I must admit, I stil like Revalver III much much more, it behaves more like a tube amp IMHO.

I bet you are using Reaper also, right?
The update is a very impressive work.
I didn´t try it extensively but so far it gets two thumbs up.

[Jantex]

No, I'm not using Reaper. I'm using Cubase 5 and PT8.

[Absolute]

Originally Posted by feck

. I will say that I still find that the amps just don't clean up well when the volume knob is dialed back, especially compared to the Axe Fx which kills at that. It has always seemed to me that the IK sims just need to be played with the guitar at full volume, and if you want to clean up the sounds realistically, it is best to do that on the amp. .

I hear this complete fallacy all the time on forums and really comes from people not knowing what they are talking about. They heard it somewhere and just kept repeating it--but its nonsense.

What your saying would make no sense to any Amp maker.

All your doing when lowering your guitar volume is essentially lowering the gain knob on your amp. There is no magical interaction that has to be somehow coded by a modeling company. There is nothing you have to get extra awesome on the input to accommodate a knob turn.

If an amp doesnt sound good when you lower your volume knob--then it doesnt sound good at lower gain. Maybe Axefx is the one that is not so realistic on the input and maybe he doesnt code his gain down far enough.

Regardless..it total BS to present this fallacy over and over again without understanding amplifiers.

[ProFool]

Just installed it last night, gonna check it today.
So far I just had a quick look on the interface and found out it doesn't go full screen on the stand alone version even if you click the full screen square browser button, not sure if this is a bug or you just can't go full screen.
Would be cool though. Cheers