Using AmpliTube Onstage - Obstacles and Opportunities

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Using AmpliTube Onstage - Obstacles and Opportunities

Postby thomas.brunkard » Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:45 pm

I'm a Helix user in a Queen tribute band and I've spent the plague working with AmpliTube 5. Some results can be scorned/enjoyed here: https://youtube.com/thomasbrunkard

I think AmpliTube is sonically perfect for my gig. I use a Line 6 Helix and AmpliTube is much closer to the Brian May sound. So I'm trying to build it into a rig.

My current set up is the Helix sending a summed signal to a floor monitor (nothing else in the monitor) and a stereo output feeding the front of house. This set up allows me to control the volume of my guitar on stage.

Aside from the lack of authenticity compared to AmpliTube, the limit of this rig is that it is harder to put on stage at festivals as I can't leave a floor board up there for the whole day. That and it is risky having the entire brains of one's rig on the floor.

The approach I'm taking with AmpliTube is a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017, 16GB Ram) based rig with AXE I/O as the interface and Morningstar MC6 Midi Foot Controller.

AmpliTube standalone won't cut it unfortunately. Here's why (and the solutions):

1. Outputs - AmpliTube has no control over the differing outputs on the Axe I/O meaning that I can't have a summed mono output with a separate level control for the mono output and an unchanging one for the front of house.
2. Output bus - different venues might need different EQ settings for the stage monitor. There's no master output bus

The solution here is to run the plugin in Mainstage. Using Aliasing, I only need to run it once and when I change presets in Mainstage, I can apply changes to the single instance of the plugin running.

So far so good!

Where I'm getting stuck is if I want to invoke multiple effects on a preset at once. The only way to do this is to assign one Midi CC to a couple of effects or to change preset in AmpliTube altogether. This makes things a bit messy.

I'll try and document how I get on in a video. Ideally, it would be great if AmpliTube presets could have scenes or some mechanism to either receive multiple midi CC at once.

Is anyone else doing something similar?
Check out my adventures with AmpliTube Brian May and Axe I/O here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzJ0af-klLVmUizM3dqL8g-oFwEYBTxAu
thomas.brunkard
 
Posts: 48
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Location: Dublin, Ireland

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