IK Brian May - Why do the presets in AT5 sound so BAD?!

[InsertNameHere]

AT4 presets just dont translate at all to AT5 and its very disappointing. I just purchased AT5 and the Brian May Pack during their group buy, but whatever preset I play from this pack in AT5, and A/B with same preset in AT4, the AT5 version sounds way worse - more boxy, mushy, lacks definition, sounds further back in the stereo field, and sounds like it has a blanket over it, and I have no idea how to fix this!

I truly feel sorry for those who have chosen AT4 preset packs based on their reviews and can only play them in AT5, because they dont just "sound different," they sound much, MUCH worse! I've tried this with the Brian May, Mesa Boogie, Orange, and I'm experiencing this with all of them.

Any tips on how to fix this?! When I play presets designed in AT5, I do like the sound and feel. But any preset I try to play that was created in AT4 just terrible. I was hoping since they still sell collections like Brian May, they would have updated the presets for AT5 as well, but I guess not?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I dont know why IK couldnt have included a "legacy mode" for these presets that you could toggle on/off? Or at least updated the presets to actually, you know, sound correct/good in AT5? Maybe with some help from my forum friends I can at least make them sound better?

[InsertNameHere]

p.s. I noticed that AT4 has some additional settings in the amps for Brian May that are missing in AT5. For example, load the Bohemian Rhapsody preset in AT4, and you will see a setting in the amp section called "Sides" as well as the ability to quickly jump to the L, C, R amps. However in AT5, this no longer seems like its an option at all, even though AT5 can run L C R setups! What is going on?! I must be missing something?!

[jamcat]

The presets for AmpliTube 5 are different than the ones in AmpliTube 4.

Make sure you're using the AmpliTube 5 versions found in the Preset Browser under AmpliTube Collections > AmpliTube Brian May.

But also note that IK's presets are always an after though. They put almost no effort into them. All the focus is on modeling the gear, and it's pretty much up to you to set it up.

[jamcat]

p.s. I noticed that AT4 has some additional settings in the amps for Brian May that are missing in AT5. For example, load the Bohemian Rhapsody preset in AT4, and you will see a setting in the amp section called "Sides" as well as the ability to quickly jump to the L, C, R amps. However in AT5, this no longer seems like its an option at all, even though AT5 can run L C R setups! What is going on?! I must be missing something?!

AmpliTube 5 has an all new routing system. AmpliTube Brian May was a bit of a hack for AmpliTube 4 to be able to recreate his 3 amp configuration. AmpliTube 5 has the 3 amp routing as one of the standard routings available for any amps, not just Brian May's AC30s. And it's a lot more straight forward to work with, too.

[InsertNameHere]

The presets for AmpliTube 5 are different than the ones in AmpliTube 4.

Make sure you're using the AmpliTube 5 versions found in the Preset Browser under AmpliTube Collections > AmpliTube Brian May.

But also note that IK's presets are always an after though. They put almost no effort into them. All the focus is on modeling the gear, and it's pretty much up to you to set it up.

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I am running the presets in AT5 in the Preset Browser -> AmpliTube Collections -> Amplitube Brian May. In fact, this is the only location I see for Brian May presets. Should there be more?

As for the presets for Brian May in particular, correct me if I'm wrong, but didnt they hire an expert (name escapes me) to specifically match the tones used on Queen's Hits? So its a real shame that they sound MUCH better in AT4 vs AT5 for whatever reason.

But dont take my word for it, load up any of the presets and A/B them and see if they sound remotely the same. But even beyond the presets sounding different, I cant seem to get the same "in your face" tone from AT5 that I can get with AT4 in general. Are there any tips on how to achieve this? Whats odd is I've even gone as far as to bypass the cabinet section on both AT4 & AT5 and load my own IR's, and this helps in terms of depth being better matched, but the tones are still completely different.

Any advice?

[InsertNameHere]

p.s. I noticed that AT4 has some additional settings in the amps for Brian May that are missing in AT5. For example, load the Bohemian Rhapsody preset in AT4, and you will see a setting in the amp section called "Sides" as well as the ability to quickly jump to the L, C, R amps. However in AT5, this no longer seems like its an option at all, even though AT5 can run L C R setups! What is going on?! I must be missing something?!

AmpliTube 5 has an all new routing system. AmpliTube Brian May was a bit of a hack for AmpliTube 4 to be able to recreate his 3 amp configuration. AmpliTube 5 has the 3 amp routing as one of the standard routings available for any amps, not just Brian May's AC30s. And it's a lot more straight forward to work with, too.

Exactly, which makes it even more puzzling that when I load a preset like Bohemian Rhapsody solo, the AT4 actually has the 3 amp configuration, while AT5 does not! Again, unless I'm missing something?

[jamcat]

The AT4 presets are in the Preset Browser under “Legacy.”

For most AmpliTube collections, the AT5 presets are a totally different batch than the legacy ones, but for the Brian May Collection, they are the same. This suggests that they took the original presets created by Jamie Humphries and just imported or recreated them in AmpliTube 5. It’s quite doubtful Jamie was involved in porting the presets to AT5 in any way.

And that brings us back to IK not putting much effort into their presets.

My suggestion would be to open up both AT4 and AT5 and hand tweak the AT5 versions until they sound reasonably like the AT4 versions.

They’re not going to sound exactly alike because so much in AT5 is rebuilt (in particular the cabs), but in theory you should be able to get them sounding better.

For the most “in your face” cab tone, use the VIR page to place the mics right in the centre on axis against the grille. Also try different mics, though you'll probably get the cleanest results with either the SM57 or U87, because it appears those are the only mics IK used as source mics, and all the others are swapped in digitally using convolution.

[mumpcake]

I never thought the AT4 presets for that library were that great to begin with.

[MogwaiBoy]

boxy, mushy, lacks definition, sounds further back in the stereo field, and sounds like it has a blanket over it, and I have no idea how to fix this!

I feel like this about almost all amp sims I watch a video and they sound amazing, then I try it myself and it sounds so... blankety, fake, ratty/ragged with no touch dynamics. Apparently plugging directly into the interface with a normal cable is not the ideal, so I'm looking into some DI options currently, including IK's own 'Z-Tone'. Maybe Amplitube now favours such a setup?

[pekbro]

This is all you need right here: https://lehle.com/EN/Lehle-Sunday-Driver-SW-II
This will overdrive your amp and let the feedback ring out, assuming the software behaves
like a real amp anyway.

*Not the only solution of course, just a super nice high quality one.

[DCrown]

Generally I think that presets are not Amplitube's strength. Quite a lot of too loud clipping or too silent or too boomy presets.