"As I've mentioned in Composer's Corner before, I'm not a guitarist. I play the guitar, yes, but less for live performance and more as a composing tool. In fact, the guitar has become an invaluable part of my composing arsenal, not just because I can add live guitar tracks when a certain piece needs it, but because I can also create all kinds of unique sounds when running the guitar through other effects processors."

"Nowadays, the technology has advanced to the point where the good software producers are able to create amazingly authentic-sounding guitar simulations. The latest one to really nail it comes from the folks at IK Multimedia. It's called AmpliTube Fender, and it offers just what the name says: All Fender, all the time. In fact, it's the only Fender amp simulator approved by Fender itself—thanks to the fact that Fender collaborated with IK on this product."

"If you're familiar with AmpliTube already, you'll be able to jump right in to AmpliTube Fender, as the interface functions in an identical fashion. As soon as I started auditioning sounds, I knew this plug-in would immediately fill in some critical holes in my guitar-sound collection. First was that 1960s pop/rock sound that I often need in contemporary pop music situations that I just hadn't been able to find yet. Oftentimes, the sounds are either too harsh or too thin. AmpliTube Fender had several options to choose among, and they all sound great. "

"The second critical need was for a great jazz guitar sound. I've found a few in my other plug-ins, but I really just wanted that great jazz sound that you can only get from an old Fender amp. And thanks to AmpliTube Fender, now I have it. In fact, there's a great collection of jazz guitar sounds here."

"And then there's the Vibroverb collection. Awesome, and incredibly useful in film music situations. It's not just for ambience, by any means; it sounds real and organic, not synthesized."

"As with AmpliTube, you can take any preset and tweak and tinker with it to your heart's content. Then just save it so it's there in the menu whenever you need it. You can swap out amps and match them up with different cabinets. Change the microphone and/or its position in front of the amp. Tweak the effects, like reverb, compression, delay, EQ, etc. Add a stompbox if you want; then adjust the settings on the stompbox. Increase distortion; add more flange or echo; increase the depth of the tremolo. And speaking of tremolo and echo, one of the greatest things about AmpliTube Fender (which will come in very handy for composers, who love time-saving bells and whistles) is that it gives you the ability to sync time-based effects, like tremolo, echo and delay, to the beat-per-minute of your cue. So if your cue is 133BPM, AmpliTube Fender will automatically sync the rate of the effect to 133. Of course, you can change it if you want, but I think having this sync as a default setting is pretty cool—it sure saves you from having to look up delay/BPM conversion settings."

"And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that there are a lot of great bass guitar settings, as well. As I don't play the bass, I have found IK's bass simulations to be a great tool for making synthy-sounding bass patches sound much more real—and AmpliTube Fender's sims are no exception. All you do is record your synth bass patch (the drier and less effected the patch, the better) and apply AmpliTube Fender just like you would to a live guitar track. The difference in the quality of sound can be astounding, and somehow, as if by magic, the AmpliTube'd bass track always seems to lay in the track better."

"So IK Multimedia has done it again. As the sixth AmpliTube incarnation (in addition to AmpliTube 2, Jimi Hendrix, Metal, Live and X-Gear), AmpliTube Fender is poised to be another big hit for the company. And they continue to provide composers with great-sounding and time-saving tools that don't break the bank. —FSMO"