Guitar Noize - guitar news, crazy guitar designs and cool guitar videos

Now this looks interesting, IK Multimedia and Sonic Reality have announced DrummerTracks for Amplitube which is a series of style-based full-length drum backing tracks performed by top studio drummers.

Unlike loops, DrummerTracks are full song drum tracks, recorded in world-class studios by sound powerhouse - Sonic Reality, and designed for use as play-along tracks for the AmpliTube range of software and mobile apps.

There are 10 DrummerTrack style-based collections:

60’s Rock
70’s Rock
Funk Soul
Progressive Rock
Pop Country
Big Band
Motown
Led Grooves (in the style of Led Zeppelin)
Dan Grooves (in the style of Steely Dan)
Backbeats (in the style of The Beatles)

3 ways to use them: You can import DrummerTracks into the AmpliTube SpeedTrainer section in the standalone versions for Mac/PC; load them into the songs or recorder sections of AmpliTube for iPhone/iPod/iPad; or import them to a track in your preferred DAW sequencer - simply hit play and start rocking! Use them for practicing, playing, jamming, composing or just having fun! They’re an ideal source of instant inspiration for your professional, home or mobile studio.

Registered users of AmpliTube for Mac/PC and AmpliTube Mobile products (currently AmpliTube for iPhone/iPod Touch and AmpliTube for iPad) will receive one Free DrummerTracks audio file in their IK User Area to experience the difference a full- length drum track can make on their playing and composing.  More details may be found on the IK Multimedia web site, www.ikmultimedia.com/drummertracks

DrummerTracks titles are available for only $29.99/€19.99 each (excluding taxes) and are available through the IK Multimedia online store.

www.ikmultimedia.com

Agile Partners have teamed up with Peavey Electronics to produce an iPhone App called AmpKit, an amp and pedal studio with full recording capability for iPhone/iPod touch/iPad, and AmpKit LiNK, a high fidelity electric guitar interface. AmpKit is a free app, with a built-in Gear Store, that will be availble on the iTunes App Store. AmpKit LiNK is available for pre-orders now.

This is an interesting move to offer the app for free after IK Multimedia just announced iRip but I guess they are hoping that the sales of the AmpKit LiNK interface and the gear store which must sell extra Amp models and Stomp effects. The site reads like it only comes loaded with the Peavey ValveKing 30 model.

For more info check out Agile Partners website at http://agilepartners.com/apps/ampkit/

I’ve been using Peterson’s iStrobosoft for over 6 months now and it is a really great and accurate tuner for your iPhone which is also super accurate for intonating your guitar, I’ve reposted the demo video above so you can see how it works, at 99c this is an absolute bargain!

Peterson Tuners has temporarily reduced its pricing on their popular iPhone application, iStroboSoft™. The price on the product has been reduced as part of a promotion for the upcoming Summer NAMM Show in Nashville, TN. Pricing has been reduced to .99 cents from its original price of $9.99 for a limited time.
iStroboSoft (released March 2009) is a professional-grade strobe tuner for the iPhone™ and iPod®. Offering the same unrivaled .01 cent accuracy of its hardware equivalents, iStroboSoft provides an accurate pocket tuner for musicians of any level. Aside from the unique strobe display, several user-requested options inside the app help differentiate it from the many competitors on the App Store.
“The iStroboSoft app has been a great resource for both old and new Peterson users,” states Marshall Johns, Peterson Product Marketing Manager. “We always receive great feedback from our hardware tuner users but the most interesting comments are always from new strobe tuner users who are amazed at the difference and are happy to have finally found the ‘missing ingredient’.”
iStroboSoft is currently at version 1.30.01. Features include a noise filter, 24dB input boost, full screen strobe display with a user-selectable color scheme, capo and drop tuning options, and a unique calibration feature that syncs the tuner to an external source. Peterson also offers a mini mic for the iPod users and an adaptor cable for direct line-in usage from your guitar. Please visit: http://www.istrobosoft.com for more details on pricing and availability.

Check out my review of the Peterson iStoboSoft iPhone App.

http://www.petersontuners.com

This is pretty funny but also very cool because it is actually a fully working PolyTune pedal using the new TC Electronic PolyTune iPhone app! Personally I think my PolyTune is way too cool to even consider replacing but some of you might like this idea if you want to save a few dollars? Worried the iPhone app won’t do what your hardware version PolyTune does? Check out the videos below!

The Making Of The PolyTune iPhone App:

Having recorded a few videos recently using IK Multimedia’s Amplitube 3 and reviewing it here on Guitar Noize IK Multimedia were so happy they sent me one of their Stealth Pedal’s so I made a video to show you how to use it.

The Stealth Pedal is one of 3 Amplitube hardware accessories and sits in between the StealthPlug, a simple and incredibly compact USB Audio Interface and the Stomp IO their top end Stage Controller and Audio Interface. The Stealth Pedal is also a USB Audio Interface and an Expression Pedal in a rugged Wah style chassis capable of controlling multiple parameters in Amplitube. The Audio Interface has 24-bit A/D and D/A conversion and 44.1/48 kHz operation. Two separate inputs are provided for Hi-Z or line level instruments which are automatically detected as well as two separate outputs and a headphone output.

The Stealth Pedal expression pedal and switch can be associated with any parameter of “Powered by Amplitube” software, or any other amp and FX modeling software with MIDI control capabilities. The StealthPedal controls can also be expanded with an additional expression pedal and two extra switches for building a mini-pedalboard rig with preset and single effects control capabilities for full live/recording usage. Users are not limited to controlling amp-simulator software with StealthPedal, as it can control any effects plug-in, virtual instrument or DAW with MIDI control capabilities.

The Stealth Pedal allows you to connect an external Expression Pedal and a Dual Switch pedal (not included) in order to expand your controller capabilities if you want to use Amplitube in a live situation. As you will see in my video demo you can assign the pedal to pretty much anything so don’t think you are restricted to just hooking it up to a Wah or Volume stomp. You can control mic placement, Amp gain, reverb or eq settings, Rack effects parameters and using the additional switches you have even more possibilities to turn stomps and amps on and off.

If you are just looking to record and not perform live with Amplitube the StealthPedal is a great Audio Interface using high-end electronic design techniques not commonly found in other USB bus-powered interfaces, including a sophisticated multiple power supply section that allows the StealthPedal to run at internal higher voltages that what are usually found in other bus powered devices.

If you are wanting to use Amplitube Live then having a floor controller is a must to get the most out of Amplitube. Obviously not everyone can afford the high end StompIO controller and the StealthPedal has been priced to make sure it is affordable while maintaining the highest quality of components, it is also built to be tough enough to withstand gigging.

Check out IK Multimedia’s site for info about the StealthPedal, StealthPlug and the StompIO as well as Amplitube 3.

emusician.com have organised a fascinating experiment a year ago by lining up a panel of professional guitarists with years of experience (see below) to listen to examples played through vintage guitar amps and amp modelling software to see if they could tell which was which. Because it was a year ago the software chosen were obviously earlier versions which makes the findings even more interesting to me as amp modelling software has come a long way in a year with much more realism in the most recent versions. The products selected were Digidesign Eleven, IK Multimedia AmpliTube 2 and AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix, Line 6 Amp Farm 3.0, Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3, Peavey ReValver MK III, and Waves GTR3. The amps used for comparison were a 1963 Vox AC30, a 1980 Marshall JCM 800 and a 1964 Blackface Fender Twin Reverb.

The panel comprised of D. James Goodwin (Thursday, Parliament-Funkadelic, Motion Picture Demise), John Holbrook (B.B. King, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, the Isley Brothers, Fountains of Wayne), Pete Moshay (Hall and Oates, Daryl Hall, Paula Abdul, B.B. King, Barbra Streisand, Fishbone), Paul Orofino (John Petrucci, Blue Oyster Cult, Anthrax), and Tozzoli (Al Di Meola, the Marsalis Family, David Bowie).

“All of the panelists had lots of experience recording guitars through vintage amps in commercial-studio environments. Most also had experience with amp modelers, especially the tried-and-true Digidesign Pro Tools HD standby, Line 6 Amp Farm.”

The results as you will have probably guessed were not as clear cut as most people would like to think, although the initial example with the Fender Twin only fooled 1 of the 5 panelists, the second Fender Twin example only had 2 of the 5 guessing correctly. Moving on to the first AC30 example only 1 of the panelists guessed correctly and in the second example none of them did! Moving on to the JCM800 examples and in the first two of the four panelists correctly guessed the real amp, but apparently none of them chose it as their favorite. In the second test only 1 guessed correctly.

For a full rundown of the test results check out the following pages, results 1 & results 2.

In total, the panelists were able to tell the real amp from the modelers only 38.5 percent of the time. Although this wasn’t a huge sample, I think it’s fairly safe to conclude that given the right conditions, modelers can sound as good as the amps they emulate. The fact that these panelists, who work with amped guitar sounds virtually every day, couldn’t distinguish the amps from the modelers in so many instances presents a very strong case in favor of amp modelers.

There were times when the simulated amp sounds were more obvious, especially with the clean-sounding Twin examples. That jibed with my own observations over the years that modelers have a much tougher time getting realistic clean sounds (in the Twin examples, the panelists picked the real amp 60 percent of the time). But on the crunchy and distorted sounds, the modelers were able to fool the experts 75 percent of the time.

As I mentioned these tests were run with older versions of modelling software and I think Amplitube 3 and Guitar Rig 4 have improved massively over their previous versions which would make a test like this even more difficult today for the panelists.

Check out my review of Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 and IK Multimedia’s Amplitube 3. Both are amazing examples of amp-modelling software and for a fraction of the price of the real deal amps that they emulate so effectively.