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AmpliTube 3, The New King of Tone. More Gear, More Feel, More Power, More Tone. AmpliTube 3 gives you More. A massive upgrade of the leading guitar and bass tone gear-modeling software! AmpliTube 3 raises the industry standard for sound variety, realism and creative power - with over 160 precisely modeled pieces of vintage and modern gear available in one package - it is the ultimate tone gear collection for players, producers and engineers.

Just got my copy today. Can't wait to play with it. I will be posting a review shortly as well as a video demonstration. Stay tuned.

This is the classic tone.,base on Jacl Orman design. The standard that all other distortion devices are measured against. Heard on thousands of recordings, it has helped define the sound of the past three decade's most influential bands.

The beauty of the RAT lies in its versatility. Used as a primary distortion, it excels at arena rock rhythm tones and soaring leads. Do you have a powerful amp with too much headroom for the gig? The RAT nails that sweet spot where a tube amp goes from sparkly clean to warm overdrive. It will add more distortion of our Class a tube guitar amp for home studio. Use the RAT as a boost for solos and get the extra kick you need.

RAT Filter control. Turn it to the right to roll off brittle high-end frequencies. Having trouble cutting through the mix? Turn the Filter down and allow the natural brightness of your instrument to shine through. The Distortion and Volume controls dial in the perfect amount of gain while keeping the level consistent with your clean tone. While there's no mistaking the legendary RAT tone when the pedal is on, true bypass switching guarantees that no extra noise will creep into your signal when it's turned off.

When recording on your computer, you're going to want to add reverb, delay, EQ, etc. to your tracks. However, doing all of this on your computer can get taxing. Especially, if you have twenty or more tracks.

I suggest using as much outboard gear as possible. This will free up resources on your computer. It really sucks when you want to add a few more tracks, but you can't cuz your resources are maxed out.  Read More »

When I record using effects, there's no particular order for the chain, but some things do work better than others. It all depends which effects I'm using.  Read More »

Source Audio LLC, a new technology enterprise founded by former executives of Analog Devices, Inc. have introducted Hot Hand, a new guitar effect that translates body movement into sound. It uses a motion controller which fits onto your finger and gives you more control over your guitar playing.  Read More »

Digidesign has just announced a new addition to their DigiRack plugins called Dynamics III. The new plugins are completely free and include a Compressor/Limiter, Expander/Gate, and De-Esser. Dynamics III requires a Digidesign-qualified Pro Tools system running Pro Tools 6.7 or higher software.

From Digidesign:  Read More »

A plugin is like a software version of a rackmount effect processor.  A plugin is a software effect processor that can be accessed by your software in it's effect loops.

There are many different types of software plugins, Direct X, VST, RTAS, AudioSuite, etc. Some types will only work with certain pieces of software. For instance, you want to make sure your software will support VST before spending money on VST plugins.  Read More »

Drumagog is a plugin that automatically replaces drum tracks with a variety of samples. You can use Drumagog to fix or enhance your drum tracks.

Drumagog works with any Direct-X compatible audio editing program (like Nuendo, Sonar, n-Track Studio, Cubase, Cool Edit, Sound Forge, etc). Drumagog is also available for Pro Tools.

Drumagog comes complete with its own drum sample library, and allows you to use your own wav files. Drumagog is very easy to use. Just insert it onto a drum track and select your favorite sample and Drumagog replaces your poorly recorded drums with a perfectly recorded sample. Drumagog comes with a sample collection of hundreds of sampled drum sounds. The cool thing about Drumagog is it's been designed as a plugin, so that it can be used as an insert effect on an existing drum track. It leaves the original track in tact, but it "triggers" the samples to play over your original track.

Here's how it works: If you recorded some drum tracks for a song, and you realize that the kick drum track just doesn't sound right. Maybe you didn't have your mic's placed right, or the kick drum was out of tune, or the level was too high on the kick drum, etc. Just insert Drumagog onto the kick drum track, choose a new kick drum from the list of kick drum samples, and you're done. Every time Drumagog hears the old kick drum being played, it plays the new kick drum sample. Awesome.

Drumagog 4.0 comes standard with:  Read More »

FMR Audio Really Nice Compressor (RNC) should be your next compressor. I belong to quite a few music and recording discussion boards. When it was time to find a compressor for my home studio, I did like I usually do. I consult these discussion boards to see what people are recommending. Everyone said, hands down, the FMR Audio RNC (Really Nice Compressor).

The Really Nice Compressor is a small, affordable stereo compressor with a hi-fi audio path and compression scheme. But all of the other compressors were way more than this? How could this compare with those? Don't let the tiny $180 price tag scare you away. The RNC easily competes with the big dog, more expensive compressors.

The RNC has two modes, normal and supernice. Normal mode allows the RNC to be used for regular compression, for snare drums, bass and guitars. But this Supernice mode is awesome. It made everything so easy. Supernice mode provides transparent compression for sensitive material where compression artifacts are less desirable (like vocals or acoustic guitar). The RNC is unbelievably quiet and extremely adjustable.

Not knowing much about using compression, other than knowing when I'm using too much compression, the supernice mode makes it a no brainer. I use it for bass, vocals and acoustic guitar. I wouldn't give the RNC up for any other compressor, ever!

If you play guitar, you should get an Ebow. It has changed my recordings dramatically. The Ebow is a hand-held magnetic bow for the guitar. You can use the Ebow to mimic strings, horns, and woodwinds with unbelievable sensitivity. The Ebow produces a powerful infinite sustain, with rich in harmonics for awesome guitar sounds.

The Ebow comes with an instruction book, and a cassette. Hopefully, they've upgraded the cassette to a CD? But it teaches you everything. The Ebow is really easy to learn and it's incredible fun.

Some of the things you can do with the Ebow are: Fade a string in from a motionless state for a reverse-tape effect. You can run the Ebow across the strings for very unique sounding arpeggios. Playing the Ebow directly over the pickup will increase your volume and give you the crisp sound of super hot pickups. Moving the Ebow away from the pickup gives you the mellow sound of a hollow body electric. You can mimic a flute, oboe, horns, harmonica, etc.

The Ebow is a bit expensive tho, I think mine ran me about $80. But it's worth every penny.