Hardware to replace software

[dumelow]

Hi,

Im currently running ProTools LE on a fairly decent windows computer. I recently recorded a composition which had around 15 tracks on it and my computer handled this fine. I had about 6 tracks of guitar and bass, and with me only having limited gear, I use amplitube LE as an amp modeller and for the effects at hand, with excellent results. Apart from my computer gets loads of low memory errors when there is more than 5 tracks loaded with amplitube. I mainly use the amp modelling by the way and then some distortion or chorus

My idea was that, If i have some hardware that can do what amplitube does for me with sound recording quality, then my computer wont ever have to struggle.

Im aware of POD's, and ive used a zoom b2.1u (which was fantastic live but some patches were quite noisy when recording DI)



What would you recommend I look into buying for a zero noise amp modeller/multifx for use with guitar AND bass?

Cheers

[paul_5]

The [i]free[/i[ solution is to bounce the tracks with amplitube on and then use those instead of trying to process all of those in real time. You can then simply 'disable' the tracks that have all of the plugins on (I'd also recommend hiding them from the arrange window and the mixer to avoid confusion), so that if you need to revisit the amp settings later on, simply 'enable' the track again, fix what needs fixing and then bounce the track back out again. Admittedly this is very time consuming, and requires more patience and organisation than simply doing everything through RTAS plugins.

Also you could bus the guitars through the same plugin to reduce RAM usage (if all of the guitars are sharing a similar reverb patch for instance). This is a great way to free up your machine's resources at a stroke.

Other than that I can't really recommend any specific hardware, 'cos I'm a bit of a troglodite when it comes to recording - I prefer to move microphones than reach for EQ knobs. I have had some good results with the Sansamp PSA plugin (comes free with PT 8+), and I can run multiple instances without overloading the CPU.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but I've used the 'bounce workaround' on my old G4 powerbook (single 1GHz processor), and managed to mix a 20 track song for radio just fine.

[1976fenderhead]

[quote name='dumelow' post='1055882' date='Dec 12 2010, 11:56 AM']Hi,

Im currently running ProTools LE on a fairly decent windows computer. I recently recorded a composition which had around 15 tracks on it and my computer handled this fine. I had about 6 tracks of guitar and bass, and with me only having limited gear, I use amplitube LE as an amp modeller and for the effects at hand, with excellent results. Apart from my computer gets loads of low memory errors when there is more than 5 tracks loaded with amplitube. I mainly use the amp modelling by the way and then some distortion or chorus

My idea was that, If i have some hardware that can do what amplitube does for me with sound recording quality, then my computer wont ever have to struggle.

Im aware of POD's, and ive used a zoom b2.1u (which was fantastic live but some patches were quite noisy when recording DI)



What would you recommend I look into buying for a zero noise amp modeller/multifx for use with guitar AND bass?

Cheers[/quote]

Amplitube is known for being a system hog. Personally I'm enjoying Guitar Rig at the moment. I have POD Farm Platinum but I find it consumes too much time as it has too many not so great options to choose from, while Guitar Rig has less but better.

POD Farm's advantage though, is the models are stored in the interface (POD Studio or Toneport) which I believe therefore does most of the processing leaving your computer RAM unaffected (I may be wrong). Also, if you monitor your recording through POD Farm standalone and not through your DAW, you're recording with zero latency. And POD Farm 2 let's you load modules instead of the whole thing as plugins, so for example if you just want an amp and a distortion pedal, you just load the amps module and the distortions module, instead of having to load POD Farm 2 with all other models that come with it.

If your main problem is system performance, I suppose POD Farm 2 would be a good option because of the modules. I wouldn't get their interfaces though, they're a bit s*it, you can buy it with iLock instead.

[Guest jbarks]

[quote name='paul_5' post='1055963' date='Dec 12 2010, 12:54 PM']The [i]free[/i] solution is to bounce the tracks with amplitube on and then use those instead of trying to process all of those in real time.[/quote]

^ This is probably the best solution without having to spend any money. Other than that, your best bet is the POD, but you'd be recording it effected anyway so your end result would be the same. Just spend 10 minutes bouncing the tracks and you'll be fine.

Edited December 12, 2010 by jbarks

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I use guitar rig, but I also have a Behringer V-amp2 which I used to use for recording guitars. It's a very good sounding and cheaper hardware alternative to a Pod.

[s1ater]

The digidesign eleven rack would do it
pretty pricey though

[1976fenderhead]

[quote name='jbarks' post='1056187' date='Dec 12 2010, 04:51 PM']Other than that, your best bet is the POD, but you'd be recording it effected anyway so your end result would be the same.[/quote]

If using POD Farm with POD Studio (or with iLok and another audio interface instead), you can monitor effected and record dry.