Amplitube 4 is here!!!!! ......well almost.....

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Ah, Windows here; completely different problem then. Good luck.

your Amplitube is CS or full?

CS. It's a crippleware bug then? Well played IKMM.

If there's an issue with the free version and it gets reported it then appropriate action will be taken. There's nothing being "played" here.

[ArranD]

Ah, Windows here; completely different problem then. Good luck.

your Amplitube is CS or full?

CS. It's a crippleware bug then? Well played IKMM.

If there's an issue with the free version and it gets reported it then appropriate action will be taken. There's nothing being "played" here.

Just in case there's any international idiomatic misunderstanding of the expression 'well played', it was a comment on the wisdom of restricting the feature set of the CS version and should not be taken as implying that the bug was deliberate in any way.
I'm unhappy, as are many others that there's no upgrade path, and that the majority of the 'upgrade' is the new amps and cabs, which aren't available individually.
But that's already been done to death.

[Peter - IK Multimedia]

Ah, Windows here; completely different problem then. Good luck.

your Amplitube is CS or full?

CS. It's a crippleware bug then? Well played IKMM.

If there's an issue with the free version and it gets reported it then appropriate action will be taken. There's nothing being "played" here.

Just in case there's any international idiomatic misunderstanding of the expression 'well played', it was a comment on the wisdom of restricting the feature set of the CS version and should not be taken as implying that the bug was deliberate in any way.
I'm unhappy, as are many others that there's no upgrade path, and that the majority of the 'upgrade' is the new amps and cabs, which aren't available individually.
But that's already been done to death.

Thanks for the clarification, I would hope no company would place a bug on purpose but if any would be accused of it at KVR I'd bet on us being on that list

The upgrade path is saving up to 30% with the loyalty program which new customers would not have taken advantage of yet. I have forwarded the requests for demoing gear, though.

[Burillo]

finally tried Amplitube 4 after it being released while i was on vacation (argh!!!).

first, criticisms. some of these were mentioned by others, some i have already mentioned, but anyway, these are my thoughts.

5 amps only? when Amplitube 3 has like twenty? i mean, i'm all for quality over quantity, but if we're going that way, then older amps should have been dropped entirely (or at least to the cutoff point of, say, AT Fender release - anything older should have been dropped). it makes no sense to release a major new version with only 5 new amps while keeping all the crap that's already there. (face it, IK - you wouldn't have remodeled the JCM800 if you thought your existing model was perfect)

also, i know the real JMP1 is a bit awkward to control, but why did you opt to port that limitation into digital world? you could have made it much more comfortable to use while keeping the sound!

new cab room. no off-axis mics? still? yeah, we got the "surprise feature" of dual 57, one of which is off-axis, but that's kind of not what people were asking. the controls are a bit awkward and take time getting used to, and moving mics while switching rooms has become that much harder. changeable 12-inch speakers only? why not all speakers? the technology seems to be there...

new routing. why the limitations? why can't i put a distortion pedal into the FX loop? i mean, i know not too many people do that, but such a limitation would have to be intentionally coded and tested - why? why wouldn't you just allow putting anything, anywhere?

acoustic simulator. nah, always was a gimmick, still a gimmick. it makes my guitar sound like electro-acoustic at best. but then i never had my hopes up. to be honest, i'm not sure why people are still trying.

loopers and new stuff in the standalone version - haven't tried those, can't comment.

now, onto the praise.

5 amps. i didn't like the JCM900, but that's probably because i wouldn't have liked the real unit either, since i never liked any JCM900 emulations ever made by anyone. JMP1... i already mentioned it's awkward to control, but i managed to coax some nice sounds out of it. i'm sure it's a great amp, but it's way too hard to dial in sounds on it, so i can see it being my least used new amp (aside from JCM900).

Silver Jubilee... now this one i love! with one caveat - i don't like how the clipped gain sounds (probably because i don't like JCM900 too?). but turn it off, and it shines, if little bit too loud... to be honest, i prefer it on little gain, it can do some badass Malcolm Young rythm sounds. great amp!

JCM800 is everything i expected it to be. it's top-heavy and noisy, but i heard the real thing has similar character. it's easily dialed out though (with mic placement, speaker chances or FX). it's a bit mushy when turning it all up to 11, but again, it is manageable with some trickery. overall, would have been my favourite amp from the collection...

...if it wasn't for the Red Pig! now that's the amp i never expected to like as much as i did. dialing in great sounds is really easy, the amp is very predictable and a joy to play. i really can't say much about it, other than it is the perfect Marshall tone that i always wanted to have!

and now, the cab section. this has exceeded my expectations. switching speakers makes for a whole new experience. want the same basic sound, but with a more "modern" touch? swap the speakers to something decidedly more metal! want a bit of a vintage vibe? throw in some old-ass british speakers! want a bit of both? no problem, you have two mics - set those up with different speakers! want some subtle coloration but otherwise keep the sound? mic a single speaker, and swap the other three!

and the new mixer is a simple touch, but it makes tweaking the sounds SOOOOOOO much easier - i never knew how much i missed a simple mixer! the new rooms are very nice too, especially the garage this really pushes Amplitube a bit into Revalver 4 territory, because Revalver has several cabinets in the shop that have 2 or 4 different speakers. and, as was correctly pointed out numerous times already, old sounds sound better too! i hardly feel the need to replace the cabinets in Amplitube now, while previously i did that routinely.

the new routing is a nice touch - putting a flager pedal into the FX loop makes for sounds much different from either stomp or post-FX, and i can finally use that "tape echo" pedal from Hendrix Anniversary for its intended purpose! fantastic!

so, to summarize, overall, the upgrade was worth it for me. YMMV of course, but i'm very happy i preordered (and did so with gear credits - in fact, outside of buying the iRig UA not too long ago, i haven't spent a cent with IK for well over a year).

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Burillo, I agree with everything you said. It's probably the most all over the place upgrade I've ever experienced with some things that just annoy me, decisions I don't understand at all, and some truly nice updates sprinkled in. It's a mixed bag, and IK just flat out got a lot of things wrong here IMO. But for the $70 it cost to upgrade, I'm happy to have the improved routing and cab room, so overall, I'm glad I updated. That said, I'd much rather have paid $150 to upgrade and gotten more newly modeled amps and effects, had more mic placement options (off axis, behind the cab with polarity inverted), and more speaker choices outside of just 12" models. The looper and acoustic sim pedal both seem gimmicky and could have been left out entirely IMO, but I guess IK is trying to appeal to new/young guitarists who might not be hip to DAWs just yet or have acoustic guitars. Anyway, like I said, total mixed bag but I'm still overall glad I updated if only for the new cab room. It's just a mixed opportunity from IK (i.e. I would have given you more than double what I already did if you had put together a better base package).

Regarding the JCM9000, I haven't used the AT4 version yet, but played a gig with one once (used that amp at a few rehearsals too since we shared a space and often bill with a band that used one) and I was not a fan of the real-deal either. It's a long ways away from an 800 and definitely not anything that ever needed modeling IMO. They were, at the time, regarded as pretty bad amps from a tone-perspective, so I think there's a bit of "it's old now so it must be good" at work with the JCM900.

[Burillo]

spent another evening with Amplitube 4 yesterday, playing rhythm to some Airbourne tracks (cutting out one of the guitars with Riffstation). used the Pig and JCM800. now, i'm not sure what the difference is due to - whether it's new amps, new cab section, different cabs or whatever - but i was surprised to find out that i can hear the guitar. i can clearly hear the attack, and sustain is just right. previously, it was either too quiet or too loud and i couldn't ever find a good loudness level for my guitar to seamlessly blend into the track. until now. i think i now understand what people mean by ampsims not cutting through the mix. great job, IK!

[ArranD]

Ah, Windows here; completely different problem then. Good luck.

your Amplitube is CS or full?

CS. It's a crippleware bug then? Well played IKMM.

If there's an issue with the free version and it gets reported it then appropriate action will be taken. There's nothing being "played" here.

Just in case there's any international idiomatic misunderstanding of the expression 'well played', it was a comment on the wisdom of restricting the feature set of the CS version and should not be taken as implying that the bug was deliberate in any way.
I'm unhappy, as are many others that there's no upgrade path, and that the majority of the 'upgrade' is the new amps and cabs, which aren't available individually.
But that's already been done to death.

Thanks for the clarification, I would hope no company would place a bug on purpose but if any would be accused of it at KVR I'd bet on us being on that list

The upgrade path is saving up to 30% with the loyalty program which new customers would not have taken advantage of yet. I have forwarded the requests for demoing gear, though.

Bug fixed as of Yesterday's release (V4.02).
I'd still like to see an unrestricted user interface (less the standalone DAW/Looper additions) with the the option to purchase the new amps/cabs/etc individually - basically the old (business) model of Amplitube. Purchasing all the items individually would cost more than buying A4 as it's currently priced, add in unlocking the standalone features for the full version, and early purchasers of A4 full shouldn't feel too put out that it's offered A La Carte.

[glokraw]

i can clearly hear the attack, and sustain is just right

Thanks for the review. Maybe you could visually compare some waveforms
produced by the ampsims you have?
The lack of 'attack' has been a pretty consistant dig against ampsims.
Since the dawn of time, people complained about
pounding on damp logs sounding dull.
Cheers

[incubus]

Bug fixed as of Yesterday's release (V4.02).

So, it's not a "crippleware bug" then?

[SJ_Digriz]

I have to echo the love for red pig. I struggle to get tones I like out AT. The Red Pig is the first and only AT amp that I just turned on and it sounds awesome. No endless fiddling. Just turned it on and done.

[ArranD]

Bug fixed as of Yesterday's release (V4.02).

So, it's not a "crippleware bug" then?

Well it was a bug in what I consider crippleware ie: the restricted cs version, but as I took pains to explain it wasn't my intention to imply that the bug was deliberate.

[spacekid]

Hey Peter, I found an error with the Mesa TA-30. The gain/boost pull knob isn't working properly. When I change the dial on one of them (gain or boost) it changes the other one to match. In other words, gain and boost are locked together at the same settings. I don't think it's supposed to work that way. I could be wrong though.

[jme-audio]

I just downloaded Amplitube 4 CS and uninstalled my 32 Bit Ableton Live and installed 64 Bit Ableton Live to get it running.. but after all the work I am a bit disappointed to see that INSERT A and INSERT B are disabled in the CS Version. This is such a basic feature (f.e. to be able to place a Delay after a Amp) that it really should not be locked. I can not understand this. I mean: this was forgotten in earlier versions and should have been there from version 1 on. For all the users that bought so many stuff for Amplitube, please make the INSERTS available in the CS Version too. It is just so annyoing to have to create two instances of Amplitube just to add f.e. a little delay. We have all spent much money and it would just be fair to let us take part now that this misconception that was there for too long is removed.

[SJ_Digriz]

or you could buy it

[ArranD]

or you could buy it

€150 seems a little steep just to enable those features.... The point is most of the value in new version is in the new amps and many of us don't want or need 5 new marshall sims.
For €150 it's actually cheaper to move to a different sim like Revalver or S-Gear.