IK Multimedia AmpliTube MESA/Boogie Amp Sim Software

MESA/Boogie’s designer amps—now available in ones and zeros

by Craig Anderton

IK took a fork in the road several years ago by positioning AmpliTube, the first native amp sim software, into more of a host and then making various modules—amps, cabs, effects, etc.—available from an online Custom Shop. This was my first real exposure to in-app purchases, and I suspect for many others as well. What made it work was that you could evaluate the various components at no cost before committing to a purchase, so there was no "buyer’s remorse" due to software not having a return policy.

AmpliTube MESA/Boogie is actually two products. One is a variation on the AmpliTube Custom Shop cross-platform software (stand-alone; VST2, AU, RTAS, AAX, 32- or 64-bit) that includes the suite of MESA/Boogie components and costs $149.99. The other is an à la carte selection of the various amps and cabs, available through the custom shop if you already have AmpliTube.

Like other collaborations IK has done with amp companies, these models have MESA/Boogie’s blessing and were done with their input. The roster of amps is:

• Mark III Combo
• Mark IV Combo
• Dual Rectifier Head
• Triple Rectifier Head
• TransAtlantic TA-30 Combo

Cabs are:

• 1x12" Mark III Combo
• 1x12" Mark IV Combo
• 2x12" Rectifier Horizontal
• 4x12" Recto Traditional Slant
• 1x12" TransAtlantic TA-30 Combo

Why MESA/Boogie?

MESA/Boogie amps essentially invented the modern high-gain amp sound, and it’s not an easy sound to emulate. Although many amp sim packages include emulations of the dual rectifier, this is the most complete suite of MESA/Boogie plug-ins and the only company-authorized one. The amps add a  different flavor of sound compared to the usual Marshall/Fender/Vox/Orange amps.

Why AmpliTube?

If you’re not familiar with AmpliTube, it offers eight fixed signal paths, including various combinations of parallel and serial configurations. While not as flexible as the rack paradigm used by Native Instruments’ Guitar Rig or Peavey’s ReValver, it has a “guitarist-friendly” workflow that makes it easy to create custom rigs. You can insert up to 12 stompboxes, 2 amp heads, and 2 cabinets, with 8 “rack” effects at the end of the chain.

The rack effects are one of AmpliTube’s secret weapons, because they acknowledge that many signature guitar sounds happen with a little help from studio rack processors. In particular, the parametric EQs can tame amp sim resonances apart from whatever EQ plug-ins you use.

The cab miking options are the second secret weapon. You can place two different mics in stereo positions, and the results are sufficiently close to the real thing that I’ve actually used AmpliTube as a “flight simulator” to teach about amp mic placement. Although IK isn’t the only sim that includes virtual miking, and some other sims take the concept further, AmpliTube implements this feature effectively.

AmpliTube has a thorough MIDI implementation, which is useful for live performance as well as manipulation within a DAW. Of course IK would be happiest if you used their iRig BlueBoard, but any standard MIDI controller will do the job.

In addition to the MESA/Boogie components, AmpliTube Custom Shop comes with 9 stompboxes (chorus, flanger, tremolo, delay, wah pedal, overdrive, compressor, graphic EQ, volume pedal suitable for external control), 4 amps (American tube clean 1, American tube clean 2, British tube lead 1, bass preamp), 5 cabinets (4x10 open, 1x12 open, 2x12 closed, 4x12 closed, 1x15 bass), 3 mics (dynamic 57, condenser 414, condenser 87, 2 rack effects (digital delay, parametric EQ), and chromatic tuner.

The Sound

Having played through various MESA/Boogie amps over the years, I was pleased the emulations capture the sound without  unwanted “buzz” or “fizz.” That’s tough to pull off. In a nutshell, these models get it right—you won’t need after-the-fact processing other than what you’d normally do to have a guitar play nice with others.

Of the amps, my favorites are the Rectifiers because of how adaptable they are to leads and power chords but if you dial back, they work well for crunch. They have the requisite sustain-that-goes-into-next-week, but most importantly, provide a genuine sense of power.  The Mark amps weren’t my favorite Boogies, but the emulations do a good job of the expected crunchy rhythms and clean sounds. I’m a major fan of the TransAtlantic TA-30 because when you drive it hard it kind of splits the difference between the Rectifiers and Marks, so I was glad to see it included. Basically if you like MESA/Boogies, you’ll like the emulations. But I don’t really have to strain my brain too hard trying to describe the sounds, because you can go to the Custom Shop and audition them for yourself.

Conclusions

AmpliTube is neither a CPU hog nor a miser. However, you can choose three different modes for CPU consumption, as well as mess around with preferences to oversample (which draws more power) or not (which doesn’t sound as pure). I recommend using the CPU-friendly settings when tracking so you can set the lowest possible latency for your interface, then enabling all the oversampling options when mixing. Note that the highest supported sampling rate is 96 kHz.

MESA/Boogie amps have been a bit of a “final frontier” for amp sims because they’re tough to get right. Fortunately IK did their homework, so I’m not surprised MESA/Boogie authorized these emulations—if you wanted to stuff a MESA/Boogie in your laptop for a fraction of the price of the real thing, now you can.

Resources

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 Craig Anderton is Editorial Director of Harmony Central. He has played on, mixed, or produced over 20 major label releases (as well as mastered over a hundred tracks for various musicians), and written over a thousand articles for magazines like Guitar Player, Keyboard, Sound on Sound (UK), and Sound + Recording (Germany). He has also lectured on technology and the arts in 38 states, 10 countries, and three languages.