Review: Amplitube 2 - A Veritable Cornucopia of Toneful Bliss

[Kewlpack]

CAUTION...the following review may induce a severe case of irresistable G.A.S. - in which case, you agree to not hold Kewlpack responsible!

It's So Good - Can't get Enough!
I'm stuffed! My tone hungry palette is finally satiated. It's time for me to step away from this table of plenty and jot down a few notes for those of you who are "tone-starved", beleaguered by the tone quest, and let you in on my favorite Amp/Effect modeling software - IK Multimedia's Amplitube 2 (let's call it AT2 for brevity). Oh yeah, it's that good.

From time to time, I've made mention of it here on TSB, dropping tidbits of info here and there, but I've never taken time to jump into the meatier specifics that make it one of my favorite pieces of gear to date. I kid you not, once you plug in and get going, you will become a tone-tweakin' glutton with AT2!

I'm not going to burden you with my computer set up and other technical mumbo jumbo here. Suffice to say, you'll need a decent computer with a good audio interface (or you could opt for IK's StealthPlug interface). You'll also need a decent set of headphones, speakers, or monitors (we'll hit on that below). See IK Multimedia's website for more details on computer system recommendations.

Tons and Tons of Sweet, Juicy Tone
So... "what's the big deal," you ask? In a word - TONE, TONE, TONE, and TONE! The modeling quality of AT2 is nothing short of fantastic. Each model I've used responds well to picking dynamics, has realistic breakup and has the natural, raw feel of a bonafide amp/cab rig. It's rich sounding with a nice, open clarity in whatever components you're playing through. Roll back the guitar volume and the tones clean up as you would expect. Dig in and compressed crunchy goodness ensues. It's all here.



The effects modules (stomps/pedals and rack effects) are very good and don't kill your tone when off/on. I find my favorites to be the "Compressor" pedal, "Overscream" OD pedal, rack "Tube Compressor", and rack "Digital Delay". The layering of effects is, again, rich sounding. You can achieve a wide range of sounds and textures easily with subtle changes of the dials. There are several top notch models (based on classic, real world units) to build with, but I'd like to see an even wider range of pedals to choose from in the base AT2 package (i.e. even more offerings from Boss, MXR, Digitech, Ibanez, etc., etc.). I know, I know... but gear hounds just can't get enough! Of course, you could always spring for the Amplitube Hendrix or Amplitube Metal pack for more gear too. The rack "Digital Reverb" is really spacious and allows you to go from a tight, bright small room reverb all the way to what amounts to a Grand Canyon reverb... not that you'd use that much, but you could.

Everything you need to build amazing sounding rigs is right here, in one solid package. There are hundreds of presets/patches - many sound quite good, IMHO - and are logically categorized to make it easy to find a tone that suits just about any mood, genre, or need. These patches become real handy when you decide to start tweaking your own tones. Pull one up, make any adjustments you like, save it, and you're done. Convenience... gotta love it.

Now your actual results will vary depending on the quality of your PC speaker/output system - a nice set of FRFR monitors being the best solution. Having said that, I would love to see an option to set your target output device/scheme as this could adjust the output algorithms to improve the results on lower end speaker systems that have strong coloration. IK, let's put this into the next version!

Frankly, one could write an entire review on just the quality of the amps/effects alone... but I should move on and cover some of the other features I love in AT2.

Versatility to Die For
There are thirteen guitar amp models and one bass amp model. These cover just about every classic amp flavor you could want; Fender, Vox, Marshall, Supro, etc. On top of this, AT2 includes models that cover a few modern amps like THD, Mesa, etc. No, there aren't 70+ different amp models here like some other merely mortal modeling products out there. However, the amps that are here are high quality, super versatile, and with a few spins of a virtual knob, can get you just about any amp tone out there.

Here's a cool feature... By default, each time you select an amp in AT2 the appropriate EQ, Poweramp, Cabinet, and Microphone will be selected too. This takes care of any guesswork when you're getting started building your own patches. These default selections make it easy to dial in classic amp tones. Ah, but that's not all... the coolness truly kicks in when you turn the "Match" switches off and start to mix-n-match preamps, EQs, poweramps, cabs, and microphones.

With just a few clicks you could... throw a Vintage Tube preamp on top of a Modern Tube Lead EQ, with a Single Ended EL84 all Class-A poweramp, feed that into a Modern 4x10 cab with a Dynamic 421 mic set near and off-axis... and finally, dial in a little ambiance for extra realism. You can set this up with just a few clicks of the mouse in a few seconds... and I haven't even told you about the independent dual rig capability that you can run in series OR parallel.



You can have a second rig with completely independent selections and settings running at the same time (including the full compliment of effects pedals, rack effects, etc.). To make things even more fun - and at times a little bit overwhelming - you can select one of eight different ways to run the simultaneous rigs. For example, you could run: 2 completely independent rigs; or 2 sets of pedals and rack effects into a single amp that feeds two separate guitar cabs (with their own mic settings); or how about two amp rigs, each with their own pedal sections, all feeding into a single set of rack effects! That's just a small sampling of the configuration possibilities... remarkable.

You can specify the order of ANY of the pedals before the amp(s) as well as the order of ANY of the rack effects after the amp(s). This is done by making selections from a drop down list in each effect slot. Another feature that I would've loved to see would be to have drag and drop capability for ordering the pedal and rack effects. I don't like that you have to select an effect, then redial in the settings when you want to change things around. This is particularly true of the rack effects section. This is a minor quibble, but something that should be considered in the next version of Amplitube.

IIRC, IK states that you can come up with at least 20,000 combinations for amp tones alone. I believe it. The variety is nearly endless. I could go on and on and on and on about the versatility of AT2. Suffice to say, you'll be able to try just about anything you can think of!

Topping Things Off
I love a lot of things about AT2. It makes it easy to plug in and jam away. It makes it simple to experiment and discover new tones I've never considered before. It makes it effortless to set up a dual rig for some massive sound. It makes it possible to get professional studio tone right there in your little (or BIG) DAW studio. Again... just cool stuff.

Now, is it exactly the same as playing through your favorite real tube amp at volume? Nope. There's still something truly alive and undeniable about the feel and tone you get when playing your favorite amp right next to you. Sometimes I find AT2's cabinets can be hard to tame, but that's why we have lots of EQ options! Having said that, AT2 gets the rig-in-a-PC job done conveniently and with lots of style (again, a lot will depend on the type of reference monitors or speakers you use).

With regard to monitors/speakers, I have tried AT2 with speaker setups and soundcards (on different PCs over the last year). Among them, my Creative Labs 7.1 speaker system does a respectable job, but the tone isn't as open and can get a little high frequency heavy (the little drivers probably have an EQ curve to boost high/low); I also had some Mackie MR8's (for a day) and while the tone was bigger, it was WAY too top heavy and the lower mids didn't come through - almost like they were buried by another smiling EQ curve... the rear port didn't work well in my DAW room either; finally, I have some KRK RP6's now and they are smooth as butter, very full sounding, sweet lower mids, and no harsh top end at all! I cannot say enough about finding the RIGHT monitors for your DAW.

As for some of the things I dig, but didn't get to in this review... there's a built in, highly accurate tuner; level controls for input, individual modules, and output; a Speed Trainer that lets you work out riffs; limitless User Presets (as many as you want); Tempo controls for effects; and on and on and on. Oh, and now that the StompIO is out, it'll make using AT2 in a live setting much more convenient, being able to fully control AT2 from the floor!

Finally, I would make a note here about the AT2 VST plugin. You just load it up into your favorite DAW software and voila, all the power and features of AT2 are right there for you to use in your tracks - it's a piece of cake. Just remember: You should adjust the ASIO driver latency according to the capabilities of your hardware/software to avoid those irritating artifacts/pops/clicks in your tracks.

AT2 is a superb software-based warehouse of high quality virtual guitar gear. The buffet is open and there's plenty of tone to fulfill the most finicky player (like me). In fact, if I've whetted your appetite - check out the FREE AT2 demo and see for yourself just how sweet it is.

I give Amplitube 2 a rating of 4.5 out of 5 STOMPS!

Keep Rockin'!
~KP~

Oh yeah... I didn't even mention how COOL it looks and how fun it is to work with... so much could be said about it!