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IK Multimedia Amplitube 3
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IK Multimedia Amplitube 3

Software Amp Simulator from IK Multimedia belonging to the Amplitube series

Thread minimizing instances of amplitube

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martin1412

martin1412

3 posts
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First post
1 Posted on 02/14/2015 at 05:24:09
I have a 2011 macbook pro w/ 16gb RAM to avoid running into problems with CPU usage. However, as I'm still relatively new to tracking and mixing studio-quality music, I think I'm missing something here...

I record guitar tracks multiple times them mult them and put together the best 'master' guitar track, say for the rhythm guitar of verse 1. However, on each guitar, there's an instance of amplitube 3 running, and after say 3 tracks, it really makes my 16gb of RAM run like 1gb...

This may be a stupid or impossible idea, but as they all have the same settings, I thought perhaps setting up amplitube as a send instead of an insert might do the trick, so I can send all of the guitar tracks to a single instance of amplitube (when all tracks use the same amp settings), but this didn't seem to do the trick, and either just ended up with direct guitar signals or perhaps a veryyyyy slight crunch (when my settings were for heavy crunch).

Basically here's my question: are there tricks to minimizing CPU usage of amplitube, particularly when you have several tracks using the exact same amp settings? It's making the playback cut in and out and introducing different artifacts while recording, which gets in the way of a solid source track.

Hopefully someone can help, thanks!
Mike Levine

Mike Levine

1065 posts
Author
2 Posted on 02/14/2015 at 07:06:15
Hi Martin--Amplitube 3 has three different quality modes, which can be set from the main window on the upper right. The manual describes them as follows:
"­HI:­offers­ the­ best­ sound­ quality­ at­ a­ higher­ CPU­ usage
MID:­offers ­a ­very­ good­ sound­ quality­ at ­a­ reasonable­ CPU­ usage
ECO:­offers­a­ good­ sound­ quality­ at ­a­ very­ low ­CPU­ usage"

Here's another suggestion. If your DAW allows for "comping" tracks, that is, recording multiple takes on the same track and the putting together the best track using sections from any of the takes, then you don't have to record each one on a separate track with a separate instance of Amplitube. If you have, say, three different guitar parts in a song (maybe two rhythms and a lead), you'd only need three guitar tracks total, each with one instance of AmpliTube.

If that doesn't solve your problem, you can bounce individual guitar tracks to disk, with AmpliTube inserted on them, and then put together your parts from the bounced tracks, all of which have AmpliTube's effects on them already, so they no longer require the plug-in to be inserted. Some DAWs also have a "Freeze Tracks" function, which, when you activate it for a track, temporarily renders the track with whatever plug-ins are on it, and turns off the plug-ins to save CPU.
martin1412

martin1412

3 posts
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3 Posted on 02/16/2015 at 03:07:13
Thanks Mike!

I'll look into your suggestions. I use Studio One 2 so if you're familiar with it's functionalities I'd be happy to hear your recommendation of which suggestion to pursue.


Comping sounds like the ideal solution but I have to understand how to ergonomically use it. I'll take a look after work, thanks again :)
Mike Levine

Mike Levine

1065 posts
Author
4 Posted on 02/16/2015 at 09:19:07
Quote:
I use Studio One 2 so if you're familiar with it's functionalities I'd be happy to hear your recommendation of which suggestion to pursue.

Setup one track for each guitar part. That should restrict the number of instances of AmpliTube you have to open, since you won't need to open one for each take. Use the Eco setting if necessary to save CPU power. Next, record as many passes as you need for each part (called Layers in Studio One) into the appropriate track. Next, use Studio One's Track Comping feature to create comps for each of your tracks.

You can find information on track comping in the Studio One 2 manual (download at https://support.presonus.com/entries/21745240-Reference-Manual) in section 6.8.

If you're still having CPU issues, use Studio One's Track Transform feature to render your tracks (with AmpliTube on them — make sure to turn it back to high quality) to disk. Here's what the manual says about that (section 6.10.1):
"With any Audio Track that has effects inserted on its corresponding channel selected, right-click on the Track and select Transform to Rendered Audio from the context menu. Check Preserve Realtime State if you would like to be able to transform back to the original Track."

I hope that helps. Good luck!
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