Guitar Rig 3
Sound Quality & Feel: 9
Gear Emulation: 9
Fatness: 7.5
Quality of Chords: 8
Expression: 10
Ease of Use: 8.5
Presets: 10
Knob Control & Feel: 8
Fun 9

Pros: The interface is nice. Drag & Drop eases creativity. There are many boxes that sound unique. Lots of presets. Country & Blues fans will be pleased I think. The metal section is also good. - Well the presets are just awesome! Better value for the money. Amps behave close enough to the real thing.
Cons: Doesn’t have the heavy “fatness” aspect without tweaking. Presets might be harder to mix with, but I think that can be fixed with EQ.

Amplitube 2
Sound Quality & Feel: 7
Gear Emulation: 8
Fatness: 8.5
Quality of Chords: 9
Expression: 7.5
Ease of Use: 8.5
Presets: 7.5
Knob Control & Feel: 7.5
Fun: 8

Pros: Heavy Sounding, Uses Graphical Stomp Boxes
Cons: Many presets have an audible “grating” digital distortion which is loud and “jacked up.” The presets for blues & country suck ass. No drag and drop stomp boxes.

Conclusion: Guitar Rig 3 Wins
I would say that both are very digital sounding in different ways. Amplitube is very upfront and has an audible digital tone to it if you listen close enough. Guitar Rig has a natural feel, and a “clean” cd-quality digital feel to it, and somehow retains the full expression of the amp emulations released by the guitar. If I had to compare the sound quality to keyboards, I would say that Amplitube is a Roland with the volume turned up too high and Guitar Rig is a Korg that finally got rid of the lame sounds.

If you absolutely need a totally overblown sound, that will work in your music, then get Amplitube. If you want to craft and create your own unique sounds, including metal, country, jazz, and get access to tons of different emulations/presets etc…then Guitar Rig is a better value and experience. Guitar Rig was more fun to play and I’m sure you can tweak it to work for your music - there are definitely enough different types of gear to do that inside! You will still be able to get that heavy metal sound in Guitar Rig 3.

Step 1. Create an audio track
Step 2. The fx bus settings:

Bus Send 1 = Wah Distortion Delay @ 99%
Dry Level 0%
Bus Return 10%
Time: 0.1ms
Feedback, Attack, Release, Sensotivity, all @ 0%
Drive: 100%

Bus Send 2 = Plate Reverb @ 71% (Optional)
Dry Level 0%
Bus Return 9%
Decay, Diffusion 100%
Density 35%
Damping 30%

Be careful when setting this up as you will likely clip the internal circuit or your speakers if all the settings aren’t in yet. Pay attention to bus return levels.

Step 4. Plug your guitar into the Alesis Fusion’s audio in OR through an external amp FIRST (recommended).

Here are the settings on my practice amp which leads into the Alesis Fusion via Headphone-Out:
Input Gain 100%
Treble 100%
Mids: variable (50%)
Bass: 100%
Overdrive: ON
Adjust the output volume accordingly

After all this setup you will get a live guitar FX processor out of the Alesis fusion, and a patch that sounds AWESOME.
Its like Overdrived Metal-Wah from hell. Great for solos and some chords.

If you’ve ever looked through guitar community forum posts you’ll come across the topic of which wood sounds better. A lot of people have been saying that it makes no difference, while expert ears stand by their claim that the type of wood does. Well a new study has shown that wood density does affect the sound quality! Since the study was done on the violin, an instrument with a resonating cavity, it could be applied to acoustic guitar. I’m willing to take the leap forward and say it does have some affect on the sound quality of a solid body electric guitar. So density does affect sound performance!

The Secret of the Sweet-Sounding Stradivarius Link

What can you do??? Get the word out and say “Boycott Phonica” on your blog. You can check their database, and also Search Youtube to see if someone posted a re-edit of your mix, which Phonica could be selling. Report content abuse on Myspace to get your content removed if necessary. You might be getting ripped off $$$ and not know it yet.

If you felt like you have been wronged by Phonica, or know anyone else who has, please post in the comments with your artist & song details. I will repost your story and let the world know. Chip Collection is fighting back for the recognition of original creators. With your help the right artists can make a stand. WE are the fame and money in the new internet age of music, not these edit-posers.

Get the word out and Boycott Phonica! Only dick holes play their music nowadays.

I wish I had it again because the sound of the machine is something else, you can’t replicate it from a plug in

This is a very good article discussing the strengths and weaknesses of hardware vs. software, and the uniqueness of sound qualities that can be lost when making “the switch.” Group hardfloor talks about the Roland TB-303 in the article

Link to the InTheMix article.

We’re running an international contest for bans/musicians, filmmakers and cultural activists.
The winner of each category (music, film, culture) will be given an artist development package worth US$30,000 each. The package will be tailored accoding to the needs of the winner, supported by Hobnox and its network of industry professionals.

Submissions are accepted online now: http://www.hobnox.com/evo2-start.1302.en.html?

Hobnox is the makers of AudioTool, that I previously posted about.

Multi-sample formats are now available for the Nes Wave Pack and SK1 Complete sample packs. Previously these were Reason Refills only, which are also still avaiable as a seperate product. Native Instruments, Giga, and Soundfont 2 are supported. Multisample Patches are included with seperate drum samples for easy, custom loading.

NES WAVE PACK - Multi Format Product (Giga, SoundFont 2, Native Instruments)

CASIO SK1 Complete - Multi Format (SoundFont 2 Compatible Samplers)

Thank you!
Chip Collection

Fuzz - Connecting People Who Create And Love Music

Project Opus - Supporting bands, Fans and local music everywhere

iCompositions - Empowering The Independent musician

Mac Jams - Mac. Music. Community

Having a hit on radio doesn’t matter anymore. Nobody listens to radio for the music…

Thanks, LX7.CA

Check out his blog for interesting commentary and the rest of the videos. There looks to be 8 on youtube.