A little thing called "cascading gain".
The AmpliTube that ships with Tracktion sounds damn good, but has only three amp models to choose from. Not only that, the third "Lead" model is based on a solid-state amp, and I can definitely hear it. grrr!
Well, since a lot of guitarists use real tube pre-processors to warm up the sound of solid state or modeling amps, I decided to try the same thing in the virtual world.
Basically, I set up an effect chain with TWO instances of AmpliTube, one feeding directly into the other. In the first one, I turned off ALL effects, overdrive, and cabinet simulation, using it as a pure "pre-amp". I used a "Clean" model, with all of the EQ dials set to 12:00, the gain set to fairly low, and the output volume set to wide open.
For the second amp in the chain, I used the "Lead" model with the 4x12 cabinet sim. With this model, I played around with the EQ and gain settings until I got that nasty, yet creamy sound. I didn't need to use the Overdrive, since I had the first instance of AmpliTube as a pre.
Anyway, using this "virtual tube pre" in front of the solid-state "Lead" model REALLY warmed up the sound.
Another way to use this trick is to cascade a couple of "Crunch" models. By playing around with EQ and gain settings, you can get that articulate picking attack sound that works especially well with single coil pickups. I EASILY got an Yngwie tone, since he does EXACTLY the same thing with chaining real Marshalls.
But remember to only turn on the cabinet sim on the second amp in the chain, otherwise your sound will get too muddy.
Cool AmpliTube trick!
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- KVRer
- 23 posts since 25 Jun, 2003 from Los Angeles
Last edited by SevenString on Wed Jun 29, 2005 10:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You can take the man out of the 80's, but you can't take the 80's out of the man. - Paul Gilbert
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- KVRAF
- 1600 posts since 1 Apr, 2003 from Seattle, WA