What’s interesting is that IKM now licenses the use of famous equipment, so you know exactly what you’re buying, whereas back in the ol’ days it could only hint at the gear being simulated with presets named like “Jimi in the Wind” and “Get The Edge”. With Amplitube 4 you still get a large range of different amplifiers and stomp boxes to mix and match, however, if you’re looking for something more then IKM’s Custom Shop allows you to buy extra amplifiers and pedals. Now it’s up to Amplitube 4 and like a lot of designers IKM offers you several different bundles based around a core product.

You could instantly dial up Jimi Hendrix’s strat, Hank Marvin’s mellow Shadows sound or shred your computer speakers with some modern heavy metal. More important, they’re all very high quality.Īmplitube is one of the first amp modelling programs I encountered and way back in its early versions it was already a jaw-dropping plug-in. I don’t consider the following five programs any worse or better than each other, but some do have a different approach to offer. You can learn a lot about choosing and setting up an amplifier, stomp boxes and your effects signal chain before you ever buy the real thing.

Which means that not only are you hearing authentic sounds when you use these programs, also the various controls, knobs and adjustments are accurately modelled, too. The gear is meticulously recorded and processed in professional studios before being integrated into the software. The developers of these programs go to a great deal of trouble to sample and then “model” the original hardware amplifiers and effects pedals so the results are very close to a genuine reproduction.

Here we’ll look at amp software running as a standalone program - something you can do yourself without needing any DAW skills - and what I reckon are the five best front-runners on the market today.īut first, a quick explanation. But let’s forget the home studio for the moment. These are software plug-ins and they’re generally called “amp and effects simulators” or more correctly “amp modelling” programs and you can use some of them as a standalone application on your PC and Mac or they’ll run inside your favourite DAW like Protools and Cubase while you’re recording that Grammy-winning hit. If you haven’t looked into the cool world of guitar amplifier modelling softwares like AmpliTube and others, you’re in for a treat - and if you have, then you already know just how much fun it can.

Guitar rig 5 vst