MESA/Boogie Amplitube Amps

[James Rock]

IK Multimedia has released some new amps based off famous MESA/Boogie amps that are officially endorsed by MESA. I tried them through the Amplitube Custom Shop so i thought I'd chip in my 2 cents. I have never played through any of the amps this is based on so all my opinion is based of what I have heard. Overall I think they are somewhat pretty good better then the previous modelled Mesa amps but they still have that weird digital thing when going from clean to crunch where there is like a fizzy distortion underneath the clean sound that is drowned out with enough gain. Also the master volumes on the rectifier models are pretty much useless its hard to match volumes between channels and setting fro example if you change all the switches at the back using just the master volume you can't get very loud you need to use Amplitubes volume controls, not a big deal but kind of a hassle. It'd be interesting to see what Mesa users thought (you can try all the models for 3 days through Custom Shop).
I did do a video playing with my les paul but I am not much of a high gain player so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Skezza]

Re: MESA/Boogie Amplitube Amps

Haven't used Amplitube for years. I remember once I had both Amplitube and Guitar Rig using my Guitar Port as the interface. If you want a super low latency device, the guitar port is an excellent shout. I found the tones to be hmm, not great, although I didn't spend huge amounts of time on it. I did a little bit of recording but found my sound ended up being quite hmmm, woody. I was playing a Strat (well, a Charvel Jake E Lee repro that I made) and yet, when I listen back now, I'm convinced I must have been playing an SG.

Might have to give it another go.

 

[James Rock]

Re: MESA/Boogie Amplitube Amps

Haven't used Amplitube for years. I remember once I had both Amplitube and Guitar Rig using my Guitar Port as the interface. If you want a super low latency device, the guitar port is an excellent shout. I found the tones to be hmm, not great, although I didn't spend huge amounts of time on it. I did a little bit of recording but found my sound ended up being quite hmmm, woody. I was playing a Strat (well, a Charvel Jake E Lee repro that I made) and yet, when I listen back now, I'm convinced I must have been playing an SG.

Might have to give it another go.

I tend to use Amplitube and Guitar Rig alot for practising its generally quicker, easier and more controllable then firing up an amp as I have a studio setup in my bedroom. The worst thing about most of these modellers is the cab simulation and using Impulse Responses can help tone (doesn't do a lot for dynamics or feel though).

Seeming there is free versions of both no reason not to give them a go, that said playing through an amp is 100x more fun

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: MESA/Boogie Amplitube Amps

As if tweaking a regular Mesa amp wasn't already a hassle! :doh:

 

[El Dunco]

Re: MESA/Boogie Amplitube Amps

The clean channel on the dual rectifier is pretty accurate (not including the Rev C models which had a practically unusable clean channel). The roar of the gain is pretty damn close. If you wanted to beef up a guitar track and ran the DI through that I doubt you could go wrong. How would you compare it to the LePou Lecto soundwise (a freeware dual rec vst)? Obviously the Lecto isn't Mesa licensed and doesn't have the variac and rectification controls. Do you use the cab sims that came with it or impulses?

 

[James Rock]

Re: MESA/Boogie Amplitube Amps

How would you compare it to the LePou Lecto soundwise (a freeware dual rec vst)? Obviously the Lecto isn't Mesa licensed and doesn't have the variac and rectification controls. Do you use the cab sims that came with it or impulses?

Have only tried it with the cabs so hard to compare to the LePou stuff which I would use with impulses, the LePou stuff is good but does lack a little bit of character I find but awesome for freeware and better then a lot of amp sims.

 

[dominus]

Re: MESA/Boogie Amplitube Amps

Bypass the cabs in Amplitube and load up cabs after it. If you're used to a certain cab sound it's a good way to isolate the amp's tone itself.

 

[ErikH]

MESA/Boogie Amplitube Amps

I use AmpliTube all the time at home unless I'm doing a gear check before a gig. The other night I bought the ENGL Powerball model. Sounds great. I don't use the ENGL cab though. The Orange 4x12 sounds way better with it. Most of the time I'm using the SLO with the Orange cab. If I have to, I would gladly use it at a gig. I have the necessary hookups to run my phone in to the board. Just put it on Airplane mode and go.