(electric guitar riffing)
- Hey I'm Nate Savage and I want to show you
how amp modeling can be a very fun, effective
and practical tool for practicing.
This is important for me because I have
a lot of different places
that I end up having to set up to practice, Like here,
Here.
And here.
This is great because if you're on the go like me,
you can't always afford to bring an amp with you.
Or if you live in a place like me
where you can't make a lot of noise all the time,
especially late at night.
Or if you just hate carrying heavy stuff around like I do
then amp modeling can be a real problem solver.
So what exactly is it?
Well I'm not the most technical person in the world
and you know, I couldn't really describe what it is to you
but I just look at it as software
that kind of replicates famous amps.
And this is great if you don't have a lot of money
and you want to start to get to know what different amps
and effects sound like.
And they come, it comes in lots of different formats,
all the way back to my first experience with amp modeling
which is my trusty old POD, you know,
stand-alone units like that.
And even nowadays I'm leaning to more software based things
like apps on your tablet or your iPhone,
mixed with audio interfaces or your laptop,
little stand-alone apps like BIAS FX, that's one.
Line 6 makes a lot, there are a few others, AmpliTube.
There are even built-in ones in software platforms
like GarageBand that are really fun to use.
So I'm gonna go through three different ways
that you can use amp modeling as an effective practice tool
and I'm going to be using BIAS FX today,
If you don't know what that is, it's a little app
that you can use as a stand-alone application
on your laptop or your desktop computer,
or you can use it on your iPhone or iPad as well.
So I have it pulled up here on my iPad,
and then I'm going into an iRig,
it's just a little audio interface
that you plug right in to your tablet.
(electric guitar strumming)
So its just super standard,
it's a black-faced kind of Fender model.
And then I have a little bit of reverb
and delay on it as well so its super easy
to get a really nice sounding tone.
(electric guitar riffing)
And the best thing about this set-up to me is
the portability of it.
I really don't use my iPad for much nowadays,
but I do use it a lot to practice with,
especially since I've gotten a way to get my sound
or the guitar into the iPad
and there are loads of different interfaces you can use
so don't break the bank for that either.
So this is my super portable kind of practice set-up.
All it is, is my iPhone and an iRig
or just an audio interface to go into your mobile device,
there are a lots of them out there nowadays.
One of the best things about modeling in general
is it gives you the opportunity to play around
with a lot of different amps and a lot of different effects
that you might not normally be able to get your hands on
because they're so expensive or hard to find.
And that can really help you get to know
what you like on the guitar.
One of my favorite heavy amps
is a Mesa Boogie Mark three, four, five,
whichever one, I just love them, I love the way they sound.
And this gives me a model for that
and it's a really good heavy tone that's super usable.
(heavy rock guitar riffing)
And if you want wetten things up
for more of a kind of a lead sound
you can throw out some more delay,
maybe some reverb as well and just go from there.
(heavy rock high-pitched guitar riffing)
And just to let you know, I'm just in kind of a green room
or kind of a isolated room here at work
and I can't always make a lot of noise here either
so having something like this,
where I can just plug my headphones in
is really, really convenient.
The third way I like to use amp modeling for a practice tool
is probably the most common one that I use
and it's just at my work space slash practice space
that I have set up here at home.
And this is the easiest one to kinda get going because all
the stuff is normally set up and it stays set up,
it's just straight into the audio interface
for my guitar, right in my laptop
and then I use like BIAS FX, I just pull up,
you can either do the stand-alone version,
the desktop version, but for today I have Logic going,
I'm recording the audio for this video,
and I just have Logic plugged in here on
the channel strip right here,
I'll just close this and show you, right here.
And its really easy to build a tone
and adjust it on the fly, if you wanna pull up,
you know, your iTunes and play along to songs
or JamTrack and play along to songs,
it's really easy to do that very quickly
when I get home from work or whatever.
And then, just build kind of a custom tone.
This one is just a Modded Plexi,
so it's a little bit higher gain.
(electric guitar riffing)
But if I wanted to slap some delay on there
and some reverb to make it a little more ambient,
you know, a little more spacious sounding,
(electric guitar high-pitched riffing)
And that sounds great,
that's a totally usable tone right outta the gate.
You can use that all day long,
and if you need to adjust it on the fly,
say it's a little bit too gainy
for whatever song you are playing along to,
just come here to the controls,
(electric guitar strumming)
for instance, its super easy to adjust everything.
So if you're like me,
and you don't like carrying a lot of heavy stuff around
or if you live in a spot
where you just can't crank up your amp,
you need to be quiet,
but you still want a lot of really good, versatile tones,
check out all of your options as far as amp modeling goes
and you know, I still love cranking my tube amp up,
but that just not always practical.
So let me know which amp model options you're looking at
in the comments below, or which ones you currently use.
I'll see you later.
(acoustic guitar music)