Amplitude and Guitar Rig

What are the difference between the two? Just wondering....

Both are capable of very good sounds, Amplitube might be a bit ahead right now, sound wise but it's ridiculous memory requirements really limit it's usefulness in Sonar as compared to GR4 or PodFarm 2 etc,. 

IK now offers a free version of Amplitube 3, download it and give it a try that's the only way you'll know if it's better to you than GR4.

Dan

Ok cool! Thanks

Amp Sims  are just like real amps - they all have their strengths and weaknesses, you can use a bunch of them and mix them up, and you don't have to stick to one brand. 

You might like the Fender sound in one package, but maybe their Marshall isn't all that good. I have yet to find a single package with which I'm happy all across the board. 
I assume that you already have GR as a Sonar owner. I admit it is my least favorite of the bunch but I'll be testing Amp Sims again tonight and I'll give it another spin, just in case...

IMHO, there isn't a reason on earth not to have Amplitude Free in your plug-in folder. Being able to access additional models of amps, cabs and stompboxes through the custom shop, to demo them and pick the ones you like RULES.


You may also want to check Waves' GTR solo, which is only $39 and doesn't require iLock. Sounds quite good.

And POD Farm Free 2.5. You get a great Marshall and a very good Fender there for free (if it doesn't turn into the crash fest it turned out to be on my machine.)

Karyn


The BIG difference between them is the equipment configuration.

Amplitube has a great range of gear, but you're limited in the ways you can arrange it.

In GR4 you can create almost any routing combination you can think of, including walls of amps split up by crossovers with dozens of FX pre and post amp.

   Guess I need to dig a little deeper into GR4. I got so far as tweaking the amps and such,but not into the configurations(thanks for sharing that info).  I never wanted the guitar to become like the synth was .........I spent way too much time playing with sounds and way too little time making music lol! With my amp simms and my hardware guitar stuff I could literally spend weeks just playing with sounds and now the  amplitube Fender/Metal set has me even more tempted. So here I am at the same place I was with my keyboards. Spending a lot of the little time I have actually using the sounds.

  At some point I have to forceably tell myself that this is my sound pallette and this is what I'm working with. Never before have both keys and guitar players had so many choices. It was interesting to read the autobiography of Keith Richards. He has basically only used one pedal in the course of his entire carreer. I guess for me its one of those left brained/right brained things I struggle with in trying to find a balance between being effectively creative and having the right sounds.

 Sorry for the book here but I feel that this is an area where a lot of musicians get hung up by having too many choices that can actually become an impediment to creativity unless we can hone an idea for a sound quickly without a lot of distractions.

Starise


  Guess I need to dig a little deeper into GR4. I got so far as tweaking the amps and such,but not into the configurations(thanks for sharing that info).  I never wanted the guitar to become like the synth was .........I spent way too much time playing with sounds and way too little time making music lol! With my amp simms and my hardware guitar stuff I could literally spend weeks just playing with sounds and now the  amplitube Fender/Metal set has me even more tempted. So here I am at the same place I was with my keyboards. Spending a lot of the little time I have actually using the sounds.

At some point I have to forceably tell myself that this is my sound pallette and this is what I'm working with. Never before have both keys and guitar players had so many choices. It was interesting to read the autobiography of Keith Richards. He has basically only used one pedal in the course of his entire carreer. I guess for me its one of those left brained/right brained things I struggle with in trying to find a balance between being effectively creative and having the right sounds.

Sorry for the book here but I feel that this is an area where a lot of musicians get hung up by having too many choices that can actually become an impediment to creativity unless we can hone an idea for a sound quickly without a lot of distractions.

I was going to post back after testing last night in this regard.


I've been playing guitar ever since I could stand up, and electric guitar for the past 30 years or so. I'm no D. Danzi, but I know my stuff, at least from experience.


I've tested pretty much every amp sim I could get my hands on - starting way back in the late 90's in Native Instruments Generator, and Cakewalk's original Amp Sim, all the way through the most recent stuff, like Amplitube, Trash or Logic's native Amp Designer. I've also used hardware devices, like POD and Zoom.

As I mentioned previously, I've never been 100% happy with any of them. I realize that I've also blamed my own inabilities in lots of cases when I couldn't get a plug-in to sound as I expected when other guys seemed to get amazing tones out of them.

I'd launch a sim, call up, say, a Fender, which sounded somewhat in that ballpark and then had to tweak and tweak and tweak to get a sound that was close to the modeled amp AND sounded good. So I'd try all sort of things - bypass the cab, re-eq, load impulse responses, blame my preamp. Pretty much as if all my real-world experience with amps didn't translate into the software world.

Enter Waves GTR Solo. In terms of flexibility, probably the least flexible of them all. You get 4 pedals at once, 10 amp models and the regular bunch of cabs. Mics and mic placement are accessed via fixed presets.

Launch a Fender or a Marshall. Ok, it already sounds good from the start, even w/ all the knobs at 5 - just like the modeled amp with all knobs at 5. Lets make adjustments - all of sudden, it's like I'm back tweaking real amps - my knowledge finally translates into this world. It reacts exactly as I would expect it. If the bass knob is at 0, it still retains all the tonal characteristics of the modeled amp. 

In other words, not a second do I wonder what am I doing wrong. I know how to setup an amp, I know what to expect when I touch this or that, and Waves delivers just that. It works as expected from a guitar player's perspective.

I'm a guitar player, and when recording, the last thing I want to do is to think like an engineer. I know that a "57 off axis often works on this or that, or that this type of mic at a certain distance will capture this or that nuance. That I like to combine a Marshall combo with a 4x10 Fender. And that's as much as I care for. When I plug a tube screamer in front of a blackface, I anticipate that I'll have to make this and that adjustment on the amp. That's it. And that how GTR works.

Once I get the performance recorded, if I want to play Mr. Engineer and sculpt sounds, I can. But with this plug-in, at last, I'm getting back to the good old wisdom: just record using the best possible tone to start with. Not struggling and fixing it in the mix. And a great tone usually doesn't require running 12 different amp models and 15 pedals. 

With all of that, I didn't even bother re-installing Guitar Rig. I'm set. Waves received my $40, and that's it, we're good. Tone-wise, I'm having more fun playing right now than I've ever had since I sold my 59 Bassman. 

My DAW is not connected to the internet.
I have had NO problems activating all my IK stuff.
Haven't installed Amplitude free yet, but I'm sure it will use "Authorization Manager" just like all the other IK products.
Again, NO issues here...

IK Obi


Plus the fact it is true stereo I still use it on synths, vocals and a number of other things! Its a great all around FX suite.

Vocals!? What would be a typical chain you would use for vox with Amp 3? Never even thought of using it for vocals.

Rain

Starise


Guess I need to dig a little deeper into GR4. I got so far as tweaking the amps and such,but not into the configurations(thanks for sharing that info).  I never wanted the guitar to become like the synth was .........I spent way too much time playing with sounds and way too little time making music lol! With my amp simms and my hardware guitar stuff I could literally spend weeks just playing with sounds and now the  amplitube Fender/Metal set has me even more tempted. So here I am at the same place I was with my keyboards. Spending a lot of the little time I have actually using the sounds.

At some point I have to forceably tell myself that this is my sound pallette and this is what I'm working with. Never before have both keys and guitar players had so many choices. It was interesting to read the autobiography of Keith Richards. He has basically only used one pedal in the course of his entire carreer. I guess for me its one of those left brained/right brained things I struggle with in trying to find a balance between being effectively creative and having the right sounds.

Sorry for the book here but I feel that this is an area where a lot of musicians get hung up by having too many choices that can actually become an impediment to creativity unless we can hone an idea for a sound quickly without a lot of distractions.

I was going to post back after testing last night in this regard.


I've been playing guitar ever since I could stand up, and electric guitar for the past 30 years or so. I'm no D. Danzi, but I know my stuff, at least from experience.


I've tested pretty much every amp sim I could get my hands on - starting way back in the late 90's in Native Instruments Generator, and Cakewalk's original Amp Sim, all the way through the most recent stuff, like Amplitube, Trash or Logic's native Amp Designer. I've also used hardware devices, like POD and Zoom.

As I mentioned previously, I've never been 100% happy with any of them. I realize that I've also blamed my own inabilities in lots of cases when I couldn't get a plug-in to sound as I expected when other guys seemed to get amazing tones out of them.

I'd launch a sim, call up, say, a Fender, which sounded somewhat in that ballpark and then had to tweak and tweak and tweak to get a sound that was close to the modeled amp AND sounded good. So I'd try all sort of things - bypass the cab, re-eq, load impulse responses, blame my preamp. Pretty much as if all my real-world experience with amps didn't translate into the software world.

Enter Waves GTR Solo. In terms of flexibility, probably the least flexible of them all. You get 4 pedals at once, 10 amp models and the regular bunch of cabs. Mics and mic placement are accessed via fixed presets.

Launch a Fender or a Marshall. Ok, it already sounds good from the start, even w/ all the knobs at 5 - just like the modeled amp with all knobs at 5. Lets make adjustments - all of sudden, it's like I'm back tweaking real amps - my knowledge finally translates into this world. It reacts exactly as I would expect it. If the bass knob is at 0, it still retains all the tonal characteristics of the modeled amp. 

In other words, not a second do I wonder what am I doing wrong. I know how to setup an amp, I know what to expect when I touch this or that, and Waves delivers just that. It works as expected from a guitar player's perspective.

I'm a guitar player, and when recording, the last thing I want to do is to think like an engineer. I know that a "57 off axis often works on this or that, or that this type of mic at a certain distance will capture this or that nuance. That I like to combine a Marshall combo with a 4x10 Fender. And that's as much as I care for. When I plug a tube screamer in front of a blackface, I anticipate that I'll have to make this and that adjustment on the amp. That's it. And that how GTR works.

Once I get the performance recorded, if I want to play Mr. Engineer and sculpt sounds, I can. But with this plug-in, at last, I'm getting back to the good old wisdom: just record using the best possible tone to start with. Not struggling and fixing it in the mix. And a great tone usually doesn't require running 12 different amp models and 15 pedals. 

With all of that, I didn't even bother re-installing Guitar Rig. I'm set. Waves received my $40, and that's it, we're good. Tone-wise, I'm having more fun playing right now than I've ever had since I sold my 59 Bassman. 

 
 Glad you found something that works for you Rain! Do you use this setup live as well? I wrote a much longer reply and accidentally hit the backspace button and lost all of it:( I don't have the time to re-type it so maybe I can take this up later. I'll check Waves GTR out. Thanks for the info!

Six of one..... half a dozen of the other.

they are both amp sims, like someone pointed out, they each have their strengths and weaknesses.

Some people like one, some the other, and some neither.

My suggestion, get some of the free ones and check them out for yourself.  Personally, I think some of them sound pretty good but I don't like the way they work so I have yet to use any of mine in a project. I have several. They are either free or came bundled with something else that I bought. I have not specifically bought any of them.

I swear that I'm going to use one in a project to record guitar.... one of these days.... really!

DeeringAmps


My DAW is not connected to the internet.
I have had NO problems activating all my IK stuff.
Haven't installed Amplitude free yet, but I'm sure it will use "Authorization Manager" just like all the other IK products.
Again, NO issues here...

Thanks DeeringAmps. I'll go and grab me some of the free Amplitude.

 I downloaded Amplitube 3 last night as part of a promotion so it didn't cost me anything (thats a hard deal to beat!!)......... However after I ran the installation wizard and launched A3 I was disappointed to say the least. Every preset I attempted to load informs me via pop up that I am missing some or all of the amps or pedals I need to have the sound I selected. Someone please tell me that A3 isn't this stripped down!!! I expected a full featured program and instead I got what appears to still be a stripped version.

  I exected A3 to offer everything it shows in the presets. Hopefully I did something moronic here.

 I already had the free version. This wasn't listed as a free version on the web site. I bought one program from IK and the second one was free as a promotion. IK Amplitube 3 lists for something like 349.00 full and 199.00 to upgrade. The first one I downloaded several weeks back was listed as "Amplitube Free". The one I downloaded last night was listed as "Amplitube 3"

Sounds like he selected Amp3 (full version) as his 2 for 1.
Time to email tech support, and I'm sure Obi will chime in.
Do you have to un-install "Amp3 free", before the "Amp 3 full" install?
Do they show up as separate VST's in Sonar?

 Zuma I should have been more clear, my mistake..... IK is offering a buy one and get a second software title at equal or lesser value promotion. I bought the ARC room correction as my first title. I selected the Amplitube 3 as my second title. I think there is also an Amplitube 3 Deluxe, but not positive on that one. Maybe I falsely assumed that the A3 offered as a selection was in fact not their free program,but to my thinking that makes no sense because its already free so why offer it on that list??

  The possibility also exists that  maybe the program has "lost" the files to make it a full version. I'm not at my home DAW now so I can't investigate that theory.

  I did file a support ticket to try and at least get another try to download something I can really use,preferably A3 full version.