The stealth pedal, outputs to stereo or midi. It could save your musical life.
IKMULTIMEDIA ROCK WITH THEIR AMPLITUBE PRODUCTS.
NO NEED TO TAKE YOUR AMP OR EFFECTS OUT OF THE HOUSE AGAIN.
PLUG INTO THE PA, AND WITH THEIR LOW LATENCY PEDAL, YOU´LL SOUND LIKE A ROCK GOD
If you´re recording at home then you could be saved by taking along your notebook or laptop to a gig. This is especially so when you´ve got an amp you rely on to give you the sound you love. I´m presently using a product that, could save your life, your sound and maybe your reputation.
So, then you´re asking, this doctor can save all the top 3 to make me the next god of rock! Indeed, yes!
What´s he using then, I hear you muse?
THE STEALTH PEDAL
I´m using StealthPedal that is an Audio Interface/Controller that looks like wah-style pedal. Often IKmultimedia throw in a lot of prepackaged processors, amps and effects in a okay resource intensive program. It plugs direct into your PC via USB. There´s 2 inputs, 2-3 outputs plus a volume switch on the side. Installation and getting it verified can be a little tricky if you don´t follow the instructions. You can buy other pedals from them for switches and expression pedals and have them all lined up in a row. The pedal itself is a brick. It´s better built than a crybaby, but think the same quality and a bit more weight and you´re there.
The cool thing is you can get their product to run on 5 pc´s. So, do your work on your main PC, save it to another PC. Get another code and use it on that PC. You only have 5 activation codes. These are all relative to your PC. It probably makes a code relative to your MAC address so it´s harder to copy. Still, it´s nice that they allow more than one installation on more than 1 pc.
If you have to reformat your PC, it´s not a problem. It will work again with a reinstallation. This for me is a winner. I mean, with Macromedia and Adobe products it doesn´t register locally to the machine. So, if you have to reformat their products say its already been activated and you have to go through a support based raping to prove your innocence!
Amplitube 2 Live
When you buy the stealth pedal it comes packaged with some free software. Mine came with a free version of Metal and SVX. They normally give away 1 extra free, at times 2. I got amplitube 2 live and then SVX (for the bass) free.
So, you´re asking so what! Well, let´s have a look at some of these products.
Yes, you not only get amps, but programmable PEDAL effects. When used with a basic switch pedal you just have your presets and click them on and off. You can copy effect types and then change per song. If you´re really funky, all you need to do is tweak a part and have countless variations by clicking forward during the song. This relies on you having your PC connected to the pedal live during the performance. But if it´s a crazy small, black notebook, or a mac, then it´ll add flavour.
A bassists best friend, Amplitube SVX
The main difference is that the output can go DIRECT to a PA. With the low latency of the pedal plus the amp effects it´ll give you the sound you require. This makes it excellent with having ALL the effects, going through the amps you like, then rack effects for some extra punch. If you prefer to have a warmer effect for a ballad, then you could use their valve amp effects. Pretty neat ain´t it?
For me, one of the winning parts with Amplitube Metal is that it has different microphone models for singing . Throw on a few effects and you get the sound you love. Hey, I´m trying out a new project with a Marilyn Manson kinda voice. Add an octaver pedal for some really funny effects. Beautiful.
Setting up the amplitube products for the first time isn´t that hard. As with all midi inputs to sequencers there´s a steep learning curve but IKMultimedia´s customer support is quite efficient working things out. Make sure you load up the VST plugins as well as the program when you run it for the first time! It´ll save a lot of headache later.
For home recording IKMultimedia have a deal with a company that interfaces with a drum kit. There´s a basic program called Riffworks. There´s riffworks free and a full product. It was going for like 70 euros, 99 dollars at the time of writing. They too have sales on so check em out. I´m broke, so I went with the free version.
Here´s a sneak peek at the GUI!
In effect there´s a link at the bottom of the page to input your instrument using the pedal, called Audio Set up. Or you can play live over your PC speakers, which I prefer to do.
The great thing about Riffworks is you can set different time signatures and tempos. There´s a great metronome you can use to keep in time.
They recently said you can improve your time keeping with the product. I´d agree with this. My time keeping is tight, but if you´re going into a studio you can benefit from learning tempos. It´ll save you in the long run, probably make you ad lib a little more and improve your creativity. Finally, it´ll mean just 2 or 3 recordings of your riffs, rather than repeating away ad infinitum costing you valuable home recording time, stress and buying another pack of cigs!
The only bummer is that if you play in really strange time sigs, like I do, you will find that the snare hits in a weird place.
So, if you have a bar set up of 8 bars, and you´re playing in 5/8, then it´ll hit the 4th, then the 8th, then the 12th throwing you out a bit. It´d be nice if you could program the hits for a 2 and then a 3, for this time signature. Still, for metal, they have some 6/8 patterns that´s keeping me amused. God knows what I´m gonna do with the 15/8 time sig!
In my experience, you need to turn up the insensity switch. If it´s just on 1 you won´t hear at times, the snare only the hi’hat and bass drum. There´s another cool option to add in variation. So you can set up one bar that´s basic, then set up another bar that´s varied. This is great for more creative numbers and adds dimension to song creativity.
The difference between the free and the advanced products is the output and sound quality. You can output in .wav and mp3 and with the free one. For the more advanced home recorder, the amount of layers, and quality of sound comes higher. Here´s details from their site.
| RiffWorks T4 | RiffWorks Standard | |
|---|---|---|
| RiffWorks Layers | 4 Layers Plus Drums | 24 Layers Plus Drums |
| Layers while Collaborating | 24 Layers Plus Drums | 24 Layers Plus Drums |
| RiffWorld Free Membership | Yes | Yes |
| RiffCaster Song Posting | Yes | Yes |
| Mix song to .wav : for burning to CD Mix song to .ogg: for sound player applications Mix to Riff: bounce multiple riffs down to one layer in a single riff RiffCast to .mp3 : Download MP3s of your songs on RiffWorld.com |
Yes Yes YesYes |
Yes Yes YesYes |
| Export Riffs to .wav | No | Yes |
| 32-bit Recording | 16-bit only | 16-bit & 32-bit |
| 32-bit Mix | 16-bit only | 16-bit & 32-bit |
| Included InstantDrummers | 1 (demo) | 9 InstantDrummers ($90 value) |
| REX Player | No | Yes |
| ReWire | No | Yes |
| Screen Resolution | 1020 | 1020 & 1125 |
| Bundled Plugins | AmpliTube® Duo LE & Studio Devil BVC |
AmpliTube® 2 Live ($90 value) Sonoma 7 VST Plugin ($50 value) |
| FourTrack iPhone App Import |
IKMultimedia Review Conclusion
All in all, the stealth pedal is a great piece of kit. With the bundled software, plus their very good offers, it could be an asset to take to any concert not only to use as a multieffects processor, but as a portable amp incase yours actually dies. If recording in a studio you can create a sound you desire. This is important if you have a sensitive ear for the right feeling you need. Leaving it all up to the sound engineer might indeed effect the tone you wish to create with amp effects.
There is a steep learning curve with the Stealth Pedal when interfacing with sequencers. However, all in all, the results are very impressive. I liked IKmultimeda´s registration for the products which gives a musician freedom to install on other PCs that a lot of other products do not do. There are similar and free, maybe even cheaper guitar effect modelling software on the market. However, I´m recommending this product due to it´s low latency output.
Some of the products mentioned.
• Amp & Stomp modeling
• Post effects modeling
• Separate Pre, EQ, Amp, Cabinet and Mic modeling
• 20,000 different amp configurations
• Stomp, amp and post effects included
• Includes AmpliTube X-GEARplug-in and standalone
• 5 Power-Amp models
• 13 Cabinet models
• 6 Microphone models
• 14 Stomp Effect models
• 9 Rack Effect models
• High-precision Tuner
• 2 Guitar rig chains
• Metal presets immediately recall the entire rig used
• Includes AmpliTube X-GEARplug-in and standalone
• Plug-In and Standalone version
AmpliTube X-GEAR
Expandable guitar/bass amp and FX modeling system
• The first fully modular, customizable and expandable amp and FX modeling software system
• Provides a single host interface for all “Powered by AmpliTube” products
• Full mixing and matching between all the modeled gear
• Allows complete integration with StompIO audio interface/floor controller
• Plug-In and Standalone version
AmpliTube 2 Live
Guitar Amp & FX modeling software
• 3 Guitar and Bass Amp Models
• 5 Cabinets
• 9 Stomp models, plus Spring Reverb and Gate
• 2 Microphone models with selection/position controls
• Full-MIDI Control
• Built-in Tuner
• 128 Customizable User Presets
• SpeedTrainer
• Includes AmpliTube X-GEAR plug-in and standalone
• Plug-In and Standalone version
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