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If you follow Guitar Noize you will know that I am quite a big fan of amp modelling software for recording purposes it is a cheap and extremely versatile method for creating a great studio quality sound. When I saw the specs for IK Multimedia’s Amplitube Fender® a while back I was intrigued that this version of Amplitube would be restricted to only Fender® amps and wondered if it would be limiting so with the recently updated version 1.1 which sees a trio of new stomps (Compressor, Wah and Tremelo) and a new Rack Unit based upon the Fender® ’63 Reverb Tank I decided to put it to the test.

The first thing you realise when you start Amplitube Fender® is just how many great amps Fender® have made over the years and how expensive it would be to own such a collection of classics. A vintage reissue of the ‘59 Bassman LTD alone will set you back $1400 as would a reissue version of the ‘65 Twin Reverb® and that is just 2 of the 12 amps. Obviously the cool thing about Amplitube is that you can mix and match speaker cabinets and microphones too so you are not limited to using the Vibro-King Custom with its matching 3x10” Open Back cabinet, maybe instead you could use the Vibratone 1x10” Rotary Speaker for Leslie style effects. There are also 9 different microphones to use with the cabinets that can be placed near or far and either on or off-axis as well as adding ambience to fatten up the sound.

There are now 9 stomp effects as well as 7 rack effects, a couple of these are duplicated such as the reverb, tape echo and tremelo but the difference is in whether the effect is placed before the amp or in the virtual effects loop depending on what sounds you are trying to achieve.

I don’t personally own a Fender® amp but I have played a few and I have to say that IK Multimedia have really captured those chiming Fender® clean tones incredibly close to the originals. Many of the amps can create a great blues to blues rock tone when used in conjunction with the Fuzz Wah. If you want pre-amp overdrive then the Supersonic has plenty with its 2 gain knobs and for an all out Metal assualt machine check out the MH-500 Metalhead™ a solid state high gain amplifier.

Amplitube is incredibly intuitive and simple to use but it does have extra features for those who like to experiment with the technical side, it has 5 individual components, with Tuner, Stomp pedal board, Amp Head, Cabinet + Mic, and Rack effects on 2 separate guitar rigs with 8 different series/parallel configurations. I haven’t delved to deep into this but I found it easy to run two amps in parallel to create some very unique sounds. It also means you can use 2 sets of 4 stomps on the same amp. You can easily see the wiring configurations by clicking on the numbered setups.

I have one issue with Amplitube Fender®, when I was recording the video demo in Ableton Live I switched amps and effects a lot but none of this information was saved so when I played back my hours of recording it was set to the last amp I had selected. I have used another software modelling amp which took care of this no problem so I didn’t have to record on separate tracks each with its own amp setup. I did notice some automation possibilities but it was per amp and looked like you had to manual set up the midi mapping. I have no idea how complicated it would be to add a feature like this, but to be able to switch say between amp A and amp B and record that change into Live would be a very useful addition especially if you are trying to reduce CPU load of the extra plugin instances.

If you like Fender® amps then you will love Amplitube Fender®, it is incredibly simple to dial in a great sound on all of these amp models and with the added stomps and rack effects there are many tonal possibilities. You are getting 10’s of thousands of dollars worth of amps, cabinets and mics for a mere $229.99 which is a bargain. I’m not sure how it would compare in a live setting as I haven’t tried, but you would have to spend a lot of money on studio time and a good engineer to get a recording close to this quality.

Check out IK Multimedia’s site for more information on Amplitube Fender® and the rest of the Amplitube series including their Interfaces and Controllers

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