IK Multimedia
Wow, AmpliTube Metal was one plug-in I did not imagine coming from IK Multimedia, but they stood their ground and made it happen. What do I think about this heavy amp-sound plug-in, well simply put, what Judas Priest and Black Sabbath did for heavy metal, AmpliTube Metal has done for metal and hard rock guitarists who record via their D.A.W. setup and professional studio owners too.
Following in the successful footsteps of its brethren AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix and Ampeg SVX, this amplifier modeling software plug-in will not just rock your world, but seriously make you headbang when playing through it.
The preset sounds already featured on here are very astounding in depth and overall clarity. With over 100 presets, you’re not limited to what you can use within your songs, or better yet, take the presets and manipulate them to fit your mood. The good thing about this is, you can save your customized presets for use in the future. There are five presets folders as follows: Amps, Extreme, Heavy, Rough and Soft. And this where you can save your customized presets or better yet, why not create your own folder with your unique amp sounds.
Now, onto the featured modeled equipment, which really makes AmpliTube Metal so comprehensive for the user. The five amplifiers found here are as diverse as you’ll ever get ‘em. The Triple Rectifier Green Channel and Red Channel from Mesa Boogie are few of the highlights here . The Metal Lead V from Peavey 5150, a very common amp used by metal musicians has a real good kick to its leads and highs. Randall’s Warhead 300 has some heavy as hell death metal tones. And of course rounding out the five amps here, Marshall’s JMP 100 gives you the late 70’s and early 80’s heavy metal and rock vintage tones. There are also 13 different speaker cabs featured here from Fender, Marshall, Peavey, Mesa Boogie and a comprehensive selection of Marshall’s most sought after cabs. With six different mics, you get Shure, Sennheiser, AKG and Neumann. You also get 14 stomp pedals comprised of overdrive, distortion, delay, flanger, EQ, Wah-Wah and a whammy pedal. And you’ve also nine rack units encompassing: tube compressor, digital delay, flanger, reverb, graphic EQ, harmonator, parametric EQ and pitch shifter. All of these effects add stunning depth to your tunes and an added versatility in creating some very cool sounds emanating from the amps you’re using. Everything mentioned here can be used together with ease for greater flexibility.
IK Multimedia has seamlessly designed AmpliTube Metal in such a way that everything works in sync with one another with solid precision. For example I was able to integrate pedals from Stomp A and Stomp B with effects from the Racks A and B all the while being able to mess with the settings on Amps A and B, and Cabs A and B. All of these features are fully functional like the real thing, probably even better as you’ve more control of your sound. This plug-in also lets you position your microphones either near or far away from the virtual speaker cabinet. As mentioned above, it even lets you choose from six different microphones for added diversity.
There is also a standard rack mount tuner featured here as well.
The death, thrash, heavy metal, heavy rock and mellow metal sounds found here are truly amazing, something you’d find on stage when checking out your favorite metal band or on a studio recording.
The only thing I was not so blown away with was its lack of utilizing all 8 cores on my Mack Pro desktop system. When I attempted to use it with all 8 cores, AmpliTube Metal’s performance was horribly sluggish, and the last time I checked IK Multimedia’s site, there was no patch for this incompatibility with an eight core Mac Pro. If you’re a Mac user like myself, this stinks, as you want to be able to use all eight cores for more stability and overall better performance. Again, nothing wrong with this plug-in when you use it with one core because it works and performs as expected.
You can use this plug-in with via RTAS plug-in within Pro Tools or any other D.A.W. audio production software, as a VST/AU plug-in or as a standalone product. It works excellent with Pro Tools LE 8, as it is very, very intuitive and reliable. No worries, if you’ve no programs such as Pro Tools 8, Logic Pro or many of the other host music production software suite on your computer, you can use AmpliTube Metal as a standalone via AmpliTube X-gear. AmpliTube X-Gear lets you open any AmpliTube plug-in standalone mode and in plug-in mode and gives you full operation of StompIO, StealthPedal and other IK Multimedia floor controllers. And most of all, it’s offered as a free download.
If you’ve a D.A.W. or are a heavy metal music producer, you will definitely want to have AmpliTube Metal in your music production toolbox. For more information on purchasing AmpliTube Metal, visit: www.ikmultimedia.com

Sarjoo Devani