So, as some of you know, in the last
few months I reluctantly overcame my suspicion of iThings and Apple
in general and acquired an iPhone. Whilst “time travel”, “death
ray” and “teleport” apps seem to be sadly lacking, I did come
across a superbly useful gadget that any electric guitar player needs
to have.
Amplitube is a free piece of software
that essentially converts your phone into a guitar amp with a variety
of virtual stompboxes- the free version comes with a Marshall-a-like
with a distortion, delay and noise filter, although there are plenty
of upgrades that you can buy and a separate free Amplitube Fender
download which gives a virtual Fender Deluxe Reverb.
It also features a drum machine,
recorder (upgradable to multitrack), tuner, metronome and a
fantastically useful Song Trainer function which allows the user to
import songs and slow them down. Essentially your phone becomes a
fully mobile practice station allowing you to practice through
headphones anywhere and anytime.. all you need is the iRig,
essentially a micro-preamp with 1/4” jack socket for guitar and
3.5mm socket for headphones or stereo output into a mixing desk.
These are about thirty quid, but a quick search on eBay got me a
refurbished one for half that.
I wouldn't normally go on about a
product (without being paid), but this thing is so absurdly useful
and cheap no iPhone-packing guitar player should be without it.
Certainly, it would have been an absolute godsend during my cruise
ship days. Not only that, but the other night I had to run straight
from a late lesson to rehearsal (with the mighty Dave The Rock Band),
couldn't face an extra twenty minute delay gathering equipment and
squeezing it all into the car so just gambled on taking the phone and
guitar...
I won't pretend that this thing
equalled the sound of a cranked valve amp, but damn was it better
than I expected... anyone familiar with the original Line 6 POD will
find similar sounds here. Certainly, the convenience factor was
absolutely off the scale.
Ooh, and I've just been on their
website (www.ikmultimedia.com)... Bluetooth pedalboard. This is going
to get out of hand very soon....
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