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This is an interview with the head of development for The MAKING of AMPLITUBE FENDER®, the first software guitar/bass amp and FX software product, featuring the modeled sounds of famous Fender tones. This milestone represents the future of technology for musicians, taking expensive hardware and turning it into affordable software, but maintaining the sound quality and character that musicians have come to know and depend on for stage and studio performances from Fender®. This interview is with Davide Barbi, chief technology officer of IK Multimedia (head of development). There are also quotes from Shane Nicholas, Fender® Musical Instruments Corp, Senior Marketing Manager, Fender® Guitar Amplifiers.

What makes this different from other Fender amp modelers?

First there are no other Fender amp modelers, official, we mean :). IK Multimedia’s “AmpliTube Fender” has been done in collaboration with Fender® and the whole 12-amps’ modeling process took two years of continuous work.
 
Each single amp (and the same is for the FX and stompboxes) was continuously refined and retouched, based on extensive listening tests conducted in both Fender and in our labs.
 
This made the models sound exactly as Fender wanted them to sound, this is not a small difference if you compare these models to other manufacturer's "Fender" emulations, you can be sure Fender didn't want a '64 Vibroverb model to sound somehow different than the real thing!
 
Since the groundbreaking arrival of AmpliTube 2 software, IK approached modeling of the amplifiers by modeling each amp from the ground up, with a totally new study of the DSP (digital signal processing) that every time, for every amp, starts from the beginning.
 
We don't like modeling amps by using a single generic model and just "setting internal parameters" on it. This is the approach some competitors are using, and it does not simply sound good enough to us because it doesn't translate the magic each piece of high quality audio gear has. We have total respect for what amp manufacturers do and how they design their creations, so we don't want to model amps by using "our" creation tailored to that sound, instead we just model the real thing as it is, from ground up, including all choices and solutions the designer made.

Every amp model at IK starts form its schematics, stage by stage. Since computing power is continuously increasing, we are now able to keep into consideration all stages of the amp, no compromises.
 
This is the first step. The second step is ear and feel tuning. Even when you model amps by schematics and math sometimes, even if you get it right, you still miss that final touch.
 
Here is where the tuning part comes in, we have the models played by musicians that know how things should sound, and give their input. Then we work on the models, and this tuning process goes on and on, for every single DSP part you see in our products like in the “Powered by AmpliTube” line (referencing AmpliTube Jimi Hendrix™, Ampeg® SVX, and other brand-name modeling cooperation products)
 
Likewise, the sound of the models is evaluated by experienced studio engineers and producers, people who know very well how a well-recorded amp should sound, something that is a different knowledge from what a guitar player has. We have to keep both worlds into consideration.
 
We make lots of measurements on the original amps, A/B comparisons, tests etc. Our DSP models and the real amps are really close one each other during the whole development of the DSP (all original amps from the whole AmpliTube line are proudly kept in house, and they will stay here for future reference).
 
The sound of the models are evaluated by experienced studio engineers and producers, people who know very well how a well-recorded amp should sound.