Amplitube 4 Cabinets

[Arleth8s]

Hi friends! I'm new on the forum!

I have a simply question, what is the difference between the Metal V 1, V 2 and V 3 cabs if all them are based on the Peavey 5150 4x12 cab.

Please someone explain me this situation.

Thanks !!

[carlaz]

Those kinds of cab models date from the Amplitube 2 era, I think. That was before microphone placement modelling came in with Amplitube 3. In the Amplitube 2 era, instead of microphone placement, you simply got those 3 variants of the "cab", which had been modeled with different (but unknown) mic configurations. Thus, those old Amplitube 2 era cab models are sort of technically really "cab + mic" models. They remain in the software for backwards compatibility, but you can choose to simply think of them as 3 "alternative" cab models.

[Arleth8s]

Hello! Your answer makes a lot of sense Maybe thanks to this the difference of sound between these versions is due. So, between these three versions which would be the most reliable or close to the original version?

[carlaz]

I'm not sure it is possible to answer the question.

Firstly, what is "the original version"? All three versions of the "4x12 Metal V" cab model represent (as far as I understand it) different ways of mic'ing a physical Peavey 5150 4x12" cabinet (with presumably various kinds and/or combinations of mics in different positions, etc.). Thus, they all sound different -- but how would anyone decide which is "the original"? All are inherently colored by the choices of mic and mic placement that were used to create them?

Secondly, only IK Multimedia knows what mics and positions are represented in the three different versions of "4x12 Metal V" cab model. It is even possible that some (or all) of those three versions do not represent a single, specific mic/cab configuration, but merge tonal qualities from a few different "real world" configurations into a single digital model. After all, IKM's intention was presumably to give users some usefully different tonal options rather than necessarily reproduce the characteristics of a specific real-world mic placement -- otherwise, they probably would have provided the details of what was modeled instead of just going with, "There's version 1, version 2, and version 3."

Since AT2/AT Metal, some models have been updated for use in AT3/4 with their increasingly more specific mic/speaker modelling. So, for example, the old three versions of the "4x12 Metal T" (representing different ways of mic'ing a Mesa/Boogie 4x12" Rectifier cab) are in a sense replaced (though they remain available, for backwards compatibility) by the newer "4x12 Recto Traditional Slant" cab model, with which you are intended to be able to place whichever modeled mics you like wherever you like (and even swap out some or all of the speakers, etc.).

Alas! this is not the case for "4x12 Metal V" cab model versions; there are no updated versions of the Peavey 5150 4x12 cab (nor, for that matter, has the "Metal Lead V" amp model been replaced by an updated "based on Peavey 5150/6505 head" amp model) ... which, IMO, is kind of too bad, since in the Real World, the 5150 seems (to me) to have become something of a hard rock/metal studio workhorse. But ... some day, perhaps!

Anyway, to conclude by way of return to your original (if, I think, unanswerable) question: really, all that matters is you pick the "4x12 Metal V" cab model (or, frankly, some entirely different cab model!) that you think sounds best for your purposes. All the "4x12 Metal V" cab model represent different ways of mic'ing a physical Peavey 5150 4x12" cabinet, and in the Real World and engineer/producer might well might such a cab in different ways to get different sounds -- and they, too, would pick the resultant sound that they thought sounded best, or suited the song/track/mix best. You might as well do the same.

[Arleth8s]

Thanks for answering, then the emulations of the Peavey Metal V booth (maybe 2 and 3) could not be used since these have predetermined microphones with a predetermined sound, being impossible to use them on the microphones of the amplitube 4, since it would be the sound produced by a microphone (unknown) picked up by another microphone (known amplitube 4). Microphone over microphone, or something like that, right?

[Peter_IK]

Thanks for answering, then the emulations of the Peavey Metal V booth (maybe 2 and 3) could not be used since these have predetermined microphones with a predetermined sound, being impossible to use them on the microphones of the amplitube 4, since it would be the sound produced by a microphone (unknown) picked up by another microphone (known amplitube 4). Microphone over microphone, or something like that, right?

No, our cabinets are a combination of impulse and modeling technology and you can use the moveable microphone placement in AmpliTube 4's Cab Room on any of them.

[carlaz]

Peter_IK is, of course, right -- though I think we are all talking at cross-purposes.

The Metal V 1, 2, and 3 were all (as far as I know) originally designed to represent different kinds of mic'ing techniques on the same kind of physical cab. So, yes, they all sort of have the tonal characteristics based on different mic models/placements "built in", but that how things were in the AT2/Metal era, before distinct and movable mic models came in with AT3, and speaker modeling with AT4. You can't record a guitar amp without a mic, so without separate mic modeling, you have to account for the "existence" of a hypothetical mic somewhere in the model. And the cab models are, as Peter_IK says, "a combination of impulse and modeling technology". In this sense they are all "identical" in the sense of how they were conceived as working in combination with the amp head model, etc.; they just sound different by design, too. So, anyway, there is no rationale for picking any of models 1, 2, or 3 over each other except in how they sound for your purposes.

However, in AT4, as again Peter_IK says, even the legacy Metal V 1, 2, and 3 "cab" models can have their speakers swapped out with other speakers. That is, they now function just as individual cab models, like any others.

So, this may all seem confusing but it's just an artifact of how the technology has evolved over the years. IMO, the sensible thing to do is to forget the original usage-case intentions (i.e. of different mic types/positions, etc.) of the Metal V 1, 2, and 3 "cab" models and just treat them as different kinds of "cabs". After all, after years of use, abuse, maintenance, etc. real individual physical cabs can end up sounding quite different in practice.

Yes, it would also be nice if brand-new models of "based on Peavey" amps/cabs came out, if only because the newer Amplitube models are (IMO) rather better than the ones from .... 2007? Or thereabouts for Amplitube Metal? Anyway, I mean, we might well expect to be able to hope that the models and modeling would get better over the course of a dozen years! So, head over to the official wishlist thread (if you like) and put in a vote for a new "based on Peavey 5150/6505" amp/cab model combination.