squeezenor wrote:Amplitube likes a hot signal. Unusually so. More so than other amp sims. My default patch has it cranked, if that means anything to you. I keep my preamp low so it stays clean and uncolored. I find that lots of the amps, especially the higher gain ones, either sound underpowered or somehow not right if that input isn't cranked. Even the clean ones benefit for the most part.
So try that. It seems to hold true regardless of the amp, guitar, pickups, or tones I'm after.
Hello squeezenor,
It helps a lot to hear that i'm not the only one with this opinion. I also think that especially the high gain amps sound quite "boomy" and don't have as much gain as i would expect. (With Amplitube's suggested or even lower gain stage)
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This post now is
not very scientific or accurate but maybe i can help someone to get at least in the ballpark to this calibration without actually calibrate.
I took some "measurements" with the 1VAC=0dbFS calibration. All knobs (on the guitar) fully cranked. I played very hard. I noted the maximum peak level.
Tele:Bridge: Mexico 50's Tele
Neck: Mexico Vintage Tele
(i don't know if this is 100% correct but you get the point, ...t style singlecoils...)
Tele Bridge PU: Palm muted E String: +0dbFS
Strummed G Chord: +1.7dbFS
Tele Neck PU:
Palm muted E String: -7dbFS
Strummed G Chord: -4dbFS
Schecter:Bridge: Seymour Duncan BlackOuts AHB-1
Neck: Seymour Duncan BlackOuts AHB-1
(...active Humbucker....)
Schecter Bridge PU:Palm muted E String: +9dbFS
Strummed G Chord: +11dbFS
Schecter Neck PU:Palm muted E String: +7dbFS
Strummed G Chord: +10,5dbFS
-Plug in your guitar and set up your recording level like you would normaly do. (-18db, as hot as you can without clipping or whatever level you like, it doesn't matter. But don't clip your converter...)
-In your DAW put a gain plugin on the guitar track and raise the level while you play till it matches with the numbers i posted. (yes, most likely you will see red lights, thats okay. Just put a limiter on your master for now.)
- You may want to adjust the amount of boost to compensate for your own pickups (sadly i can't give any numbers here, you have to go with your ears and feelings)
(- you can also do this in amplitube by adjusting the input but make sure you solo the DI signal!)
-Now you can put Amplitube into your chain and you are ready to go.
-Once set up you should be able to change guitars without changeing anything else. (To keep the "characteristics" of different guitars intact.)
If you try this for yourself please let me/us know if you like it or not or what you think.
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To "proove" that this method applies to Amplitube i found this in the manual of the real Engl e650:
2 Clean
The amount of distortion depends on your guitar's pickups and the Gain (11) setting
Low or High. In Clean mode, single-coil pickups may begin saturating the preamp
when the Clean Gain knob is set to about the four o'clock position; pickups with very
high output levels (humbuckers or active pickups) will evoke mild overdrive at even
lower settings.
If your guitar sports single-coils and you want to add some grit to your tone and bite to
your riffs, set the knob somewhere between 12 and 4 o'clock. For higher output pick-
ups such as humbucking or active jobs, dial in settings between 10 and 2 o'clock and
activate Gain (11).With Calibration this settings seem to be pretty accurate.
Without Calibration i'm off. When leaving the difference between both guitars intact and set the highest output of both to "near clipping". My Schecter is now about as hot as a singlecoil should be and my Fender is....
I think we all can imagine what happens when setting the input for both guitars seperate to "near clipping" and "make them the same"....
Matthias Mueller wrote:At first it seemed to be more accurate/realistic this way, but meanwhile i don't know anymore
I asumed that the Super Reverb is more or less the same as the Twin Reverb with only very little differnce.
I was kinda shocked that the Super Reverb already started to distort at 3 with my Tele (this made me suspicious if this method really applies to Amplitube, or at least to all models)
But testing the Twin Reverb model showed that they are completely different.
With my Tele, the Twin Reverb stays (pretty) clean, even with crancked volume setting.
With my Schecter it starts to break up at around 5.
That's what i would expect from a real Fender Twin.
So meanwhile i'm again back to my opinion that Amplitube sees 1VAC as 0dbFS.
But again i don't have any experience with real tube Amps so, i don't know.
(I hope my english is not too bad, so sorry for mistakes.
)
) doesn't make me the best person to test/judge this.
