by carlaz » Mon Jan 20, 2020 4:32 pm
There always seems to be a lot of confusion about how all the things that include "AmpliTube" in their names interact -- or don't. IMO, it is simplest to think of "AmpliTube" as a sort of platform, and really there are two, or I guess three, separate platforms: "AmpliTube Desktop", "AmpliTube iOS", and "AmpliTube UA".
"AmpliTube iOS" and "AmpliTube UA" are for mobile devices, iOS and Android respectively. I actually have "AmpliTube iOS", but I haven't used it much recently. I presume that, for practical reasons at least (there probably being no way to share models or presets between them), "AmpliTube iOS" and "AmpliTube UA" are effectively separate platforms -- from each other and from "AmpliTube Desktop".
"AmpliTube Desktop" runs as a standalone and in various plugin formats on both macOS and Windows. Here, presets are shareable across the OSes, and I believe you can share a single license across up to 3 (?) machines at a time running either OS. Regardless of how you bought your particular "AmpliTube Desktop" product(s), you have the same access to all your purchased models by running either the standalone or plugin version of the "platform". You can add more models to the "platform" by buying them from the Custom Shop and/or IKM web site.
Thus "AmpliTube 4" is "AmpliTube 4" regardless of whether you bought a bundle (e.g. Hendrix, Brian May, Fender, Orange, whatever), or you simply have the free version from downloading and installing the Custom Shop and accompanying standalone/plugins, or you bought one or more additional models via the Custom Shop, etc. Everything in "AmpliTube Desktop" (currently "AmpliTube 4", though I think older versions of AmpliTube theoretically live alongside it as separate software -- not that I think they work in my current version of macOS/Logic, though) lives together in that same platform.
But, nothing in the AmpliTube desktop "platform" has anything to do with the mobile AmpliTube "platforms". If, for example, you have a Mac, and an iPad, and an Android device, and you want to use a version of AmpliTube on all of them, you essentially buy 3 separate products. If you then want to buy a given gear model that is available across all those products, you are essentially buying 3 separate models of the "same" piece of gear.
But, returning to "AmpliTube Desktop", the combo of standalone+plugins effectively is the "platform", and everything else is just gear models, either packaged up for sale in bundles or sold separately. So regardless of whether you just download the free version or you have bought (for example) "AmpliTube Brian May" (or whatever bundle), that basically provides the "platform" software plus whatever gear models. You can then add more gear models to your "platform" as and when.