The guitarist and instructor “gets her Slash on” in this tone-matched cover
IK Multimedia’s highly anticipated AmpliTube 5 is here, and the newest version of the software, which comes a full five years after its predecessor, delivers on all fronts, with 129 new gear models, a redesigned cabinet section with new VIR technology and improved power amp/speaker cab interaction.
There’s also an all-new resizable interface that allows for creating and routing rigs with ease, with improved gear selection, drag and drop placement and support for one, two or three-amp rigs with up to 57 simultaneous effects.
Other features include IK’s new Volumetric Impulse Response technology, which results in 143,000 cab IRs, as well as a new mixer window and redesigned Custom Shop that allows the user to build a custom gear collection via an easy-to-navigate interface.
(Image credit: IK Multimedia)
In addition to creating your own killer sounds, AmpliTube 5, just like its predecessors, allows you to nail classic guitar tones from your favorite players with ease. For just one example, check out the above demo from guitarist and instructor Sophie Burrell, who gets her Slash on in this spot-on cover of Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome to the Jungle.
For her guitar parts, Sophie dives deep into AmpliTube’s Slash collection of tones. She starts by selecting the JCM Slash amp model, and tweaking the settings to her personal preferences: Presence around 8, bass at 6, middle on seven, treble on 6, output master on 9 and lead master on 8. Her gain, meanwhile, “is almost up to 10, but not quite,” Sophie says.
“So that’s how I cranked it. And I had the lead channel and the rhythm channel turned on at the same time. I did this because I felt like it gave me a little bit of added beef.”
As far as pedals, Sophie begins by making a customized choice, selecting the Over Scream, which conjures classic Tube Screamer tones. “Although it isn’t part of the Slash collection,” Sophie says, “I thought it sounded really sick so I added it into the chain.”
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She fills out her pedalboard with the Slash Booster, Slash Noise Gate and Slash Delay, and then demos the results, playing both rhythm and lead lines.
The final verdict? Positively Slash-tastic.
“I went for quite a gritty tone for this cover, mainly because I think Appetite for Destruction as an album has some pretty gritty tones on it,” Sophie says, adding, “I really enjoyed tone searching and getting into that, and getting my Slash on.”
To get your own Slash on, or to conjure any number of AmpliTube’s seemingly infinite tone options, head to IK Multimedia.
Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
