I just discovered a cool trick for creating many virtual pedalboards in Amplitube and them using them like a real pedal board in real time. (Pipeline asked me to repost here as well as the original post in Recording Techniques.) I want to leave it there because no one comes here, but anyway...

It involves the use of "Aux Tracks."

I have to use Sonar Bandlab 2018 because it will allow me to make an auxiliary track as an output for a track. (This comes with Sonar Platinum and Professional and I assume you can do it with some other DAWS too.)

Anyway, instead of simply inserting Amplitube (which is a CPU hog) on one track and keeping it there for mix down with one sound in place, you can route the Track with Amplitube on it to an aux track by clicking on the "out" of that track (see where in screenshot) and selecting "new aux track."

(I also set the aux track to mono.)

Then, the signal you record on the first track is recorded dry (so you can copy the dry signal and paste it later if you want to to another track) but the part you record on the aux track is recorded as audio with the effects on it.

This way you can punch in and out of as many effects as you want during a solo, for example, and if you like it, just keep it as is as audio. No need to have Amplitube turned on during the mixdown if you are satisfied. BUT, the big deal here is that you are using the virtual pedal board the way you would use a real one, which you cannot do if you use Amplitube as an effect, as opposed to a "send" in this case. (To avoid confusion you don't create a send you create an Aux track but it acts like a send.)

(I also made a template in Sonar just for guitar solos. I put the bed of the song on one track, after setting the tempo, and then record the solo with my virtual stomp box, save it, then export that track for use in the song's main file.)

I can do this as many times as I want and it saves huge amounts of CPU power, plus I am using Amplitube exactly as you would a real pedalboard, except it is easier, you can change your mind and do something else with the dry track, or you can change amps in the middle of the song, do whatever you want.

Also, I can create templates for dozens of genre specific pedal boards in Amplitube and call them up at a second's notice by saving them to a folder in Amplitube presets. That is, you can have 50 racks at your disposal, for example, for one track, if you want to change your sound during the course of the song and commit to audio.

A real time saver for me. Just thought I would pass it along. If you figured this out 20 years ago don't make fun of me.

smile


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