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Figured out how to use Amplitube as a live preamp/modeler!


bassred

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I use Saw studio on my laptop and my PC to record. I probably don't touch 10% of the programs capabilities. I have been enjoying the Amplitube program, and have taken to using it for all the electric guitar parts I am laying down. It has plenty of great presets and is totally tweak-able.

 

I had heard that Saw has a live input mode, where you can use the program as a live mixer with 24 assignable outputs.

 

I took some time to mess around with this last night and found that I can dial in an input and assign it to an aux out, and tell that aux out to go to my A/D-D/A converter to use the amplitube plug-in in a live setting.

 

There is a little noticeable latency, I'm guessing because my Presonus Audiobox uses a USB connection. Anybody know of any way to tweak that? or should I just try to deal with it to see if I can use this new-found joy for jamming/church.

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I use Saw studio on my laptop and my PC to record. I probably don't touch 10% of the programs capabilities. I have been enjoying the Amplitube program, and have taken to using it for all the electric guitar parts I am laying down. It has plenty of great presets and is totally tweak-able.


I had heard that Saw has a live input mode, where you can use the program as a live mixer with 24 assignable outputs.


I took some time to mess around with this last night and found that I can dial in an input and assign it to an aux out, and tell that aux out to go to my A/D-D/A converter to use the amplitube plug-in in a live setting.


There is a little noticeable latency, I'm guessing because my Presonus Audiobox uses a USB connection. Anybody know of any way to tweak that? or should I just try to deal with it to see if I can use this new-found joy for jamming/church.

 

 

Live computer based mixing is not ready for prime time yet, I would warn away from it. This comes from the guy who no longer uses an amp live and runs backing/control/automation tracks with Digital Performer on a MacBook Pro at gigs. My mixer is still analog.

 

Latency will kill you live and unless ALL the channels on your firewire or USB interfaces have the option of direct monitoring I wouldn't try it. You can be certain that this is a well explored road for me and I'm waiting for something new to happen...........

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There is a little noticeable latency, I'm guessing because my Presonus Audiobox uses a USB connection. Anybody know of any way to tweak that? or should I just try to deal with it to see if I can use this new-found joy for jamming/church.

 

It's a good bed the latency is from the USB. There's no audio interface I've personally ever heard of or encountered that has any good direct monitoring via USB. Firewire, all the way.

 

I'll stick with my Pod XT Live, personally. :thu:

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Live computer based mixing is not ready for prime time yet, I would warn away from it. This comes from the guy who no longer uses an amp live and runs backing/control/automation tracks with Digital Performer on a MacBook Pro at gigs. My mixer is still analog.


Latency will kill you live and unless ALL the channels on your firewire or USB interfaces have the option of direct monitoring I wouldn't try it. You can be certain that this is a well explored road for me and I'm waiting for something new to happen...........

 

 

Actually, the SAW program can link to a program called SAC, and in live input mode, can run a fairly large rig with no problem. They are running SAW/SAC/PC controlled systems in a few showrooms here in Vegas. The guy who designed SAW is from the area.

 

I have heard tunes from a live recording of a large band (think Tower of POwer style instrumentation) and the whole show was actually being run from a laptop and a rack of interfaces. It is closer than it may seem. Hell, if I recall correctly, Gamble mixers are just a rack with XLR panels/converters and the actual mixer is PC based. I'm sure it would be a good idea to have a console available, but rigs such as this are here.

 

the latency with my unit would be enough that it would interfere with a live setting, if the player weren't able to adapt a little bit. I'll wait until I have a chance to actually try it at a rehearsal or jam and see how it goes. but I just thought it was kind of cool to be able to use an existing plug-in for (almost) real-time processing!

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Actually, the SAW program can link to a program called SAC, and in live input mode, can run a fairly large rig with no problem. They are running SAW/SAC/PC controlled systems in a few showrooms here in Vegas. The guy who designed SAW is from the area.


I have heard tunes from a live recording of a large band (think Tower of POwer style instrumentation) and the whole show was actually being run from a laptop and a rack of interfaces. It is closer than it may seem. Hell, if I recall correctly, Gamble mixers are just a rack with XLR panels/converters and the actual mixer is PC based. I'm sure it would be a good idea to have a console available, but rigs such as this are here.


the latency with my unit would be enough that it would interfere with a live setting, if the player weren't able to adapt a little bit. I'll wait until I have a chance to actually try it at a rehearsal or jam and see how it goes. but I just thought it was kind of cool to be able to use an existing plug-in for (almost) real-time processing!

 

 

I don't doubt that a low latency PC based mixer solution is probably available but I'd also suspect that it's still out of the price range of local bar gigging bands. Those new ethernet CAT5 snake systems look awesome but wow, the price on those!

 

Anyways, there's a huge difference between running stored audio/midi data out of a computer/firewire interface/midi interface setup like the one I use (I also use a Glyph FW800 external drive) and running vocals/instruments into a firewire/USB interface, through the computer software and then back out without very noticeable latency.

 

As long as three years ago however I did use vocal processing through Sonar 5 on a core solo Toshiba laptop. It worked OK but only because I only ran my vocal through it and used a channel on my firewire interface that also ran that vocal signal direct (essentially I was using Sonar's effects in the same way that you'd run a vocal signal out an aux channel to a hardware effects unit).

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Live computer based mixing is not ready for prime time yet, I would warn away from it. This comes from the guy who no longer uses an amp live and runs backing/control/automation tracks with Digital Performer on a MacBook Pro at gigs. My mixer is still analog.


Latency will kill you live and unless ALL the channels on your firewire or USB interfaces have the option of direct monitoring I wouldn't try it. You can be certain that this is a well explored road for me and I'm waiting for something new to happen...........

 

 

Latency is not an issue nowadays since CPUs are very powerful so you can set short buffer sizes for your ASIO audio interface

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I have been doing this for years. Not when gigging of course, cause depending on a computer while onstage is a really bad idea, but I use to to practise in the basement, play with backing tracks, jam with friends, etc.

 

I just run the Plug-in in Reaper, running my monitors... would be easy to send the output to a PA though.

 

Anyway, whats the latency you are getting? I get 2.9ms with an OOOLD PCI card. (M-Audio AP2496) running at 96Khz/24bit with 256K buffers.

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I don't doubt that a low latency PC based mixer solution is probably available but I'd also suspect that it's still out of the price range of local bar gigging bands. Those new ethernet CAT5 snake systems look awesome but wow, the price on those!


Anyways, there's a huge difference between running stored audio/midi data
out
of a computer/firewire interface/midi interface setup like the one I use (I also use a Glyph FW800 external drive) and running vocals/instruments
into
a firewire/USB interface,
through the computer software
and then
back out
without very noticeable latency.


As long as three years ago however I did use vocal processing through Sonar 5 on a core solo Toshiba laptop. It worked OK but only because I only ran my vocal through it and used a channel on my firewire interface that also ran that vocal signal direct (essentially I was using Sonar's effects in the same way that you'd run a vocal signal out an aux channel to a hardware effects unit).

 

 

I run SAC for my band. I will be doing a full review in the live sound forum as soon as I get time, but here are some highlights:

 

1. Software was $500, 3-8X8 interfaces (24 in 24 out) $600, PCI interface card (toslink ADAT) $800. So $1900 total. Computer is older hardware I already owned, system does not need anything crazy, in fact a single core is preferred.

2. All fits in a 10U case, including amp for the sub, power strip, computer, splitters.

3. This is the only solution I found that would give me 8 stereo in ear feeds.

4. latency is

5. soundman sits anywhere with his laptop to mix, no snake, entire system sits side stage

 

 

 

On the subject of using Amplitube live, I used Amplitube and Guitar Rig as a live rig using a cheap laptop and a firewire interface. Controlled it with a Line 6 short board. No noticeable latency. I used the standalone mode, no host like SAW or Ableton needed. It was kind of a pain in the ass to find a safe place for the laptop and interface, easier to use a pedalboard modeler.

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Hey look, a really old thread... We used Saw for recording and SAC for live control in our rehearsal room (up until I left the band last September) and it worked great. Drummer ran a laptop from across the room (and I had the PC on my end, so we both had access to levels).

 

The laptop I was using died (actually its just the power supply, but I'm really cheap...) so I haven't done the Amplitube thing in a while. Maybe I'll get that badboy up and running again - it is a ton of fun to have all that stuff available!

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