Your tone secrets.

[ryanpaulmcgowan]

Hey guys, I recently bought Amplitube 3 and, like any thing with lots of shiny buttons and knobs, I've tweaked around with it for a bit and found great joy.

Having tweaked some stuff for a bit, I found myself leaning towards the same things each time. Orange amp sim and cab with a tube compressor in the back seems to be my go to setting. I noticed, after downloading a few presets, that a fair number of the highest rated ones also used something Orange somewhere in their chain. I also noticed that, other than that one little thing, there was very little in common with the patches.

So, what would you consider your best tone secret? Right now, other than the Orange amps and cabs, I've found that using an Overscream to shape the tone of my signal before it hits the amp by turning the tone knob while the pedal is on a low gain setting gives amazing results. Feels almost exactly how I use my Zakk Wylde OD.

Anyone else have anything that they love to use regularly? Anything out of the ordinary? Using any outside pedals like a BBE Sonic Stomp in your chain (I need to try mine with this, actually)?

[maseratialfa]

Im using outboard pedals. First is a Watson classic fuzz, followed by a tech 21 Leeds. Then stealth pedal, t racks 670 compressor before Amp 3 clean Jazz amp, then Iface cab loader with Hiwatt cabs.

[brianbane]

AmpliTube's great tone isn't from any one particular model or signal chain.
If there is a secret, I would say it's all in your mics, and where you place them.
Observe good studio miking technique, and your AmpliTube amps will sound great, no matter which one you choose! Try a dual mic setup, with an SM57 close and fairly on axis, and either a 421 or condenser pulled back a bit and a bit more off axis. Move them around until you find the sweet spot!

Some of my personal favorite amp models to reach for is the British Lead S100, Vintage Metal Lead, British Copper 30TB, Jazz Amp 120, American Lead MKIII, Modern Tube Lead, and Green BA250.

I'll use a toch of rack effects for enhancement, but I typically do not lean on them too much.
The ones I use most often are the Analog Chorus, Tube Compressor, Parametric EQ, Tap Delay, Pitch Shifter, and Stereo Enhancer. When I'm tracking, I typically opt for T-RackS and CSR over AmpliTube's racks.

[brianbane]

One secret I can share with you for getting an aggressive tone from the clean and crunch amps, - particularly the British Lead S100, both Vox models, and the Tube Vintage Combo - is to overdrive the amp input with a volume booster. You can use one of the graphic EQs and boost the master output volume, or boost individual bands to taste. These EQ pedals give you a lot of versatility with tone and drive.

[cliftond]

All well said, also I have found that a good PA, stereo preferably does a lot to give that full amp sound.

[jjguitar]

I realized by putting EQs and stomp pedals in front of the amp improves the tone a lot.You can copy the settings from the original manuals and fine tune them to your guitar, that´s what I did.
In the beginning I had a Line6 DI Port as my main audio interface which is not bad but IK´s StompIO is much better.In my opinion StompIO´s DI signal is more dynamic.A good guitar makes also a BIG difference.I´m also setting the "Input Gain" on Amplitube 3 stand-alone at 0.0 dB.To me it sound less harsh or fizzy.I also recommand monitor speakers.
You can download some of my presets from "Preset X Change" (JJs) and tweak them to your guitar.

@ brianbane

Observe good studio miking technique, and your AmpliTube amps will sound great, no matter which one you choose! Try a dual mic setup, with an SM57 close and fairly on axis, and either a 421 or condenser pulled back a bit and a bit more off axis. Move them around until you find the sweet spot!

I also think this is the most important part to get a good tone out of Amplitube 3.
Do you know any source or links about different miking techniques ? Maybe a tutorial ?
I would like to learn more about miking

[robmlisanti]

Hey guys, I recently bought AmpliTube 3 and, like any thing with lots of shiny buttons and knobs, I've tweaked around with it for a bit and found great joy.

Having tweaked some stuff for a bit, I found myself leaning towards the same things each time. Orange amp sim and cab with a tube compressor in the back seems to be my go to setting. I noticed, after downloading a few presets, that a fair number of the highest rated ones also used something Orange somewhere in their chain. I also noticed that, other than that one little thing, there was very little in common with the patches.

So, what would you consider your best tone secret? Right now, other than the Orange amps and cabs, I've found that using an Overscream to shape the tone of my signal before it hits the amp by turning the tone knob while the pedal is on a low gain setting gives amazing results. Feels almost exactly how I use my Zakk Wylde OD.

Anyone else have anything that they love to use regularly? Anything out of the ordinary? Using any outside pedals like a BBE Sonic Stomp in your chain (I need to try mine with this, actually)?

Here's my Tone I got using the Orange Amps and Cabs along with Overscream and Overdrive!

http://www.riffworld.com/Members/Metalr ... alivenwell

[Caiwyn]

If there's one thing I've learned about digital amp modeling, it's that the cabinet you choose can often have a bigger effect on your tone than the amp. This is as true of Amplitube 3 as it is of my Line 6 equipment. Settle on an amp you like and then audition different cabs to get the one that brings out the characteristics you chose that amp for.

[ryanpaulmcgowan]

These are awesome tips. Thanks guys.

[brianbane]

@ brianbane

Observe good studio miking technique, and your AmpliTube amps will sound great, no matter which one you choose! Try a dual mic setup, with an SM57 close and fairly on axis, and either a 421 or condenser pulled back a bit and a bit more off axis. Move them around until you find the sweet spot!

I also think this is the most important part to get a good tone out of AmpliTube 3.
Do you know any source or links about different miking techniques ? Maybe a tutorial ?
I would like to learn more about miking

Check out Groove3 Studio Secrets with Krish Sharma. There should be some good visual examples in there. Also search around YouTube.

[jjguitar]

Found some interesting stuff on youtube














a nice speaker comparison



a cool sound

[georgfries]

Check out Groove3 Studio Secrets with Krish Sharma. There should be some good visual examples in there. Also search around YouTube.

I would appreciate if you could put in your posts if you advertise for a product. The one mentioned is something you have to buy, why not mention it.

Great tips here all around, one an old guitar player gave me was to use AT3 after a preamp in case you own one - he recommended, for different styles and budgets the Tubeman, a Marshall JMP-1, and the man himself liked a mesa studio preamp best. Of course they are not all easy to find second hand, especially the Mesa. But well, maybe one of you already owns a nice preamp hardware . Personally I am rather happy Amplitube gives me the opportunity to come so really close to "real amps" like it does - and my neighbours are not longer a problem^^.

[zerocrossing]

I guess my tone secrets don't have anything to do with a specific amp, pedal or cab, but I do tend to stay away from the spring reverbs (not because they're bad, I'm just not a fan of that sound) and instead use the ambient room mics in the cab section when I need light verb. If I need more I'll use the digital reverb rack, but if it's going to be prominently featured in the mix I'll go to Virsyn's REFLECT.

Also before I hit an eq, I'll often see what I can come up with by playing with cab size and mic choice/placement... though I tend to go for the 57 the most. I also play a lot with using hybrid setups where I change the amp's preamp or power types. Remember: no rules.

9 times out of ten, I'll spend time messing with gain and input level before I touch a fuzz/distortion pedal, though I do loves me that Ambass'dor or what ever it's called. I also really dig the way my leads sound with my Blackstar HT5 dual distortion pedal.

I guess the best tone secret I have is that while tweaking to your heart's delight is fun, I do most of my tweaking while I have a loop of the mix going on around it so I can hear what it sounds like in context. Most tone issues I hear are tones that are just hogging up the mix.

[brianbane]

Hey zerocrossing! Glad you could make it out to our forum.
You nailed it, mic choice and placement are essential to getting the tone you're after in AmpliTube 3, just like in the studio.

[zerocrossing]

Hey zerocrossing! Glad you could make it out to our forum.
You nailed it, mic choice and placement are essential to getting the tone you're after in AmpliTube 3, just like in the studio.

...but so much easier! I've never in my life been able to afford the mics I've wanted and a place to record them properly, but no need now! I love that I can get the sound of a mic'd cab cranked to 11 while a train is going by 100 feed from my condo and get a perfect recording. I also use a Sustainiac system to simulate the feel of standing next to a cranked stack.