Guitar, computer, live (part 1: amplitube 3)

Making friends with a guitar and computer for playing on stage - what could be better?
But as it turned out, in order for it to work properly and give real advantages over guitar processors, you need to search through tons of information and podshamanit a bit, which I did.
By the way, you need to spend so much money that would be enough for some Line6 HD500: you need a floor midi controller and a normal audio interface. Do not forget about the midi-controlled preamp, since digital amplifiers and signal distorters most often sound extremely bad. But this is a problem of ordinary guitar processors. It is worth noting that having done all these actions you understand that the game is worth the candle. And this, of course, pleases.

In this article, I want to talk first about the basic types of guitar software, and then go to complex solutions and complete the whole thing with an overview of the buns that we can get by combining the guitar and the computer.

Amplitube 3 - the beginning

Amplitube 3 is a beginner program, although it is one of the strongest players in the guitar software market. Consider it in more detail.


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This is how we see the window after launching the program. Everything looks quite simple and clear, but I will go through the main points in order to make a general impression.



The program provides several modes of switching channels. Unfortunately, there can be only two outputs, but the likelihood that it will take more, as well as the likelihood of a resist when immalyt imprued is extremely small.



As you can see, in the second position, we have two lines that run in parallel. It is possible, like Tom Morello, to throw a quack on one line, and on the second - tremolo and chorus. Well, or something different.
8 positions are enough for almost any fantasy and it is difficult to complain specifically about this aspect.

Lotions

Let's go further. The program can switch between several modes: "Tuner", "Floor", "Amplifier", "Cabinet" and "Rek".



As we have noticed, in the “Paul” mode we have the opportunity to choose effects and set them one after another. In total, 10 “floor” effects can operate simultaneously in sequential mode, or 5 on each channel in parallel. I can not say that this is not enough, but the restrictions are always bad.

The effects are divided into separate groups and include the usual guitar set: distortion, kwaki, tremolo, coros, compressors, octavera, delay and reverse. There is also a small stepsekvensor well, and all garbage on the little things. The set is quite self-sufficient for an ordinary guitarist.

I want to note that I did not like the sound of distortion, even very much, but this is a subjective opinion, as I listened, bypassing the emulation of amplifiers and cabinets, releasing a signal to the tube Musicman. The amplifier is not “evil” at all, and my guitar is rather “soft” - Framus Diablo Pro. But many "mistalisty", especially from the young, very much praise this particular program.

Midi

Evaluating the sound is generally a thankless task - so I propose to go specifically to a review of what this program can offer us in Live mode, in conjunction with an outdoor midi controller.

In itself, the purpose of the controller is quite simple: we right-click on the controller we need in the program, select “Assign midi” and after that pull the floor controller.



That's all. Controller assigned.

Scene

The mode of the list of songs for which we are moving here is made fairly straightforward, but illogical.
When saving a preset, we select in which folder to save it. This folder is our list.



True, strangely, the presets are arranged in alphabetical order and during preparation for the concert it is best to create a separate folder and rename the tracks in the desired order: “1_Polet_Shmelya”, “2_Let_eat_bee” and so on. Then the program will handle everything as you need.

Switching between presets, by the way, can be assigned to controllers in the global input midi control menu. It is quite convenient and obvious.



Also, in this menu, you can assign a common controller for all wah, volum, and so on effects, or assign buttons to enable / disable ordinary effects based on their position on the “floor”.

findings

In general, after all the settings we get an ordinary pedal substitute: you can assign on / off several pedals to each button, but only in toogle mode. Assigning to a separate controller only the inclusion or only the shutdown of something - it is impossible, which creates certain inconveniences.

Oh, I almost forgot about the "rack". It slightly expands the possibilities of the program: added delay, equalizers, harmonizers and some filters.

More cons?

In addition to all the above, the disadvantages are the inability to control any external device via midi. So, if you have a tube preamp (well, or not a tube) with midi control, you will not be able to use this program in its pure form.

Amplitube 3 is limited only by the effects it has, which, in principle, is the standard for this class of programs. Also, it seems to me that the attempt to wrap all the effects into an “analog” appearance wrapper, even if it makes it easier to navigate the familiar pedals, but imposes some limitations and destroys almost all the advantages of computer sound.

Personally, this program seemed to me too limited even in comparison with outdoor guitar processors, not to mention the leading DJ solutions.

Afterword

At first, I wanted to review all the decisions in one post, but, looking at the scope of the description of even such simple software as Amplitube, I decided to split the article into several.

In the next part, we will look at Guitar Rig and the nuances of working with him on stage, and then we will deal with serious software for “live” computer sound and solutions for pros.

Published the second part. And the third , for those who do not want to read about Guitar Rig.