Inside Home Recording.com

How I used AmpliTube to get my latest guitar tones

February 23rd, 2007 by Derek

Tony from the Home Made Hit Show (like IHR, part of the Home Recording Network) asked me today for more specific details about the guitar tones I created for my instrumental track “Fakeout,” which I reconstructed in my IHR 101 segment in episode #37 this week. For both guitar tones and the bass tone, I used IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 2 Live amp emulator plugin, along with the StealthPlug USB interface that comes with it.

Here are the details of each amp tone I created, with screenshots…

Vox Amp Sound

For the main, trebly crunch sound, I was trying to get as close to a Vox AC30 amplifier sound as I could—and I managed to do that with no other effects other than AmpliTube. Also, key to the sound is that I rolled off my 1990 Squier Stratocaster guitar’s volume a fair bit (probably down to around 5 or 6 out of 10). At full volume from my guitar, the sound would have been much more saturated and distorted.

Here’s a screenshot of the settings, with a summary below:

• Based on the “BritPop” preset (under Styles > Rock)
• Amp: British Tube Lead (i.e. Marshall style)
• Cab: 1×12 Open Vintage (i.e. small combo)
• Mic: Condenser 414 (i.e. AKG 414), on axis, distant mic position
• Amp knobs: Gain 9, Bass 6, Mid 5.5, Treble 2, Presence 8, Reverb 0, Volume 4
• Noise Gate: Threshold -55 dB, Release 190 ms
• Output Volume: +1.9 dB
• Master Volume: Unity (0 dB)

AmpliTube 2 Live doesn’t have an actual Vox-style amp in it, but what I did was take the British-voiced Marshall-style virtual amp section, connect it to a 1×12 open-backed virtual cabinet, and make it sound as Vox-y as I could with the gain, equalization, and gating. Part of that was reducing the input signal from the guitar by rolling down the volume knob so that the distortion wasn’t so heavy.

The setting has some pretty strong built-in compression, so I didn’t need a separate compressor, and the noise gate helped each chord “explode” as I hit it. It also probably helps that I use reasonably thick strings (0.011 through 0.049) on my Strat. That has a significant effect on the tone. Most of the time I was using the Strat’s middle pickup, but a couple of parts used the front (neck) pickup. All three pickups on my guitar are totally stock single-coils.

Marshall Amp Sound

The second sound was a much darker, intentionally muddy Marshall amp stack tone, and here’s the info for that one. I did not re-play the guitar; I simply duplicated the first guitar track and used different settings, so the volume is identically rolled off on the Strat:

• Based on the “King of Gain” preset (under Complete Rigs > Lead Hi-Gain)
• Amp: British Tube Lead (i.e. Marshall style)
• Cab: 4×12 Closed Vintage (i.e. Marshall half-stack)
• Mic: Condenser 57 (i.e. Shure SM57), on axis, distant mic position
• Amp knobs: Gain 10, Bass 4.5, Mid 3, Treble 3, Presence 5.25, Reverb 0, Volume 4
• Noise Gate: Threshold -92 dB, Release 200 ms
• Output Volume: +2.4 dB
• Master Volume: Unity (0 dB)
• Stomp Box Emulators: Compressor (compression 2, level 10), Graphic EQ (see screenshot, highs rolled way down, a bit of mid scoop)—the Chorus pedal is turned off

Ampeg Bass Amp Sound

Finally, there was the bass, which was pretty much the Pure Amps > Bass Amp > Bass Bright setting, which is an Ampeg SVT kind of sound, with the gain (and thus the distortion) turned up. The source of the bass sound was not a real instrument, but GarageBand’s “Bread and Butter Bass” MIDI bass preset and loops:

• Amp: Bass Amp
• Cab: 1×15 Bass Vintage
• Mic: Condenser 414 (i.e. AKG 414), off axis, close mic position
• Amp knobs: Gain 4.25, Bass 3.25, Mid 4, Treble 8.5, Presence 6, Reverb 0, Volume 6.5
• Noise Gate: Threshold -92 dB, Release 200 ms
• Output Volume: Unity (0 dB)
• Master Volume: -3.3 dB
• Stomp Box Emulator: Compressor (compression 6.5, level 4.5)

I hope all that’s useful to you!

Entry Filed under: Blog