Gallo Engineering Amp Modeler Pro User Manual

Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 1 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

STUDIO DEVIL AMP MODELER PRO – USER’S GUIDE (Version 1.1, January 2010)

Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 2 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 3 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

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Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 4 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

THANKS FOR USING STUDIO DEVIL!

Thanks for using Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro, the ultimate vacuum tube guitar amplifier modeling plug-in! We know you’re going to love the way you sound with Studio Devil!

TECHNOLOGY*

Studio Devil’s Virtual Tube Amplification is a breakthrough in vacuum-tube amplifier modeling technology. Our patented tube-modeling process is based on the dynamic characteristics of real 12AX7A vacuum tube preamplifier stages, the building blocks of the world’s most coveted tube amplifiers. By accurately mimicking these preamp tube stages, virtually any tube amp can be built through unique configurations and combinations of them. Amp Modeler Pro represents just a few of the infinite number of virtual amplifiers that can be built with this technology.

When you play through Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro, you will notice that it responds just like a real tube amp. The tone is rich, simple, and inspiring. And, the dynamic gain structure reacts to your fingers and picking style, allowing expressive playing, just like the real thing! You’ll be amazed at how good your tone sounds playing through Studio Devil’s virtual tube amplifiers. Until now, digital never sounded so…analog!

So…enjoy the newly found warmth of digital…enjoy Studio Devil!

INSTALLING*AND*AC T IV A T ING*YOUR*PLUG3IN*

INSTALLING(YOUR(STUDIO(DEVIL(PLUG1IN(

If you purchased your Studio Devil plug-in as a download, then you will first need to open and extract the downloaded .ZIP file (for Windows users) or .DMG file (for Mac OSX users). If you purchased your Studio Devil plug-in on DVD/CD-ROM, just insert the disc into your CD/DVD drive and open its folder to access the installation files.

After opening your CD/DVD drive folder (or unzipping your download), you will see two installers. For Windows, double-click “Setup.exe” to begin the installation. On Mac systems, double-click the “Mac Installer.mpkg” to begin the installation.

Installation of your Studio Devil plug-in is pretty straightforward. The only key point is that in some cases you will need to know or specify where your Studio Devil plug-in will be installed. Your Studio Devil plug-in is installed into the following default folders…

WINDOWS INSTALLATION FOLDERS :

WINDOWS (VST) C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins\Studio Devil\Amp\ WINDOWS (RTAS) C:\Program Files\Common Files\DigiDesign\DAE\Plug-Ins\

MAC INSTALLATION FOLDERS:

Mac (VST) /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST/ Mac (Audio Units) /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/ Mac (RTAS) /Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-Ins/ Mac (RTAS Presets) /Library/Application Support/Digidesign/Plug-In Settings/

In most cases, these folders will automatically be recognized by your host application. But, in some cases, you will need to add the appropriate folder to your host application’s list of plug-in folders. Consult your host application’s documentation for instructions on how to do this, if necessary.

Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 5 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

ACTIVATING(YOUR(STUDIO(DEVIL(PLUG1IN(

Before you can use your Studio Devil plug-in, you need to activate it by getting a LICENSE KEY from our web server. Only YOU are entitled to activate your product. You are entitled to install and activate this software as many times as needed, but you are limited to using it on one machine at a time. If you plan on using this software on multiple machines at the same time, you will need to purchase additional serial numbers. Contact customer support at support@studiodevil.com if you need to request additional license keys or if your activation fails.

The following are step-by-step instructions on how to activate your plug-in and get you up and running quickly:

1. Insert your Studio Devil plug-in into your host application and open it. If you are running the plug-in for the first time, you will see the following screen:

If you do not have a serial number, you may run the demo-mode version of the plug-in by clicking RUN AS DEMO. If you choose to purchase a serial number at a later time, you can resume this activation by clicking MORE from demo mode:

2. When you are ready to begin, enter your serial number and click NEXT:

Remember to write down and keep your serial number in a safe place! You will need it if you ever wish to re-install your Studio Devil plug-in in the future.

Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 6 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

3. Your Studio Devil plug-in will now display your INSTALL CODE:

Write down this code or copy it to the clipboard by clicking COPY. You will need it for the next step. When you are ready, click NEXT.

4. Your Studio Devil plug-in will now display instructions on how to bring your INSTALL CODE to our web server for product activation:

Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 7 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

5. Launch your web browser and go to

http://www.studiodevil.com/activate

to display our product activation web page. Enter or PASTE the INSTALL CODE you just obtained into the space provided and click GET LICENSE KEY.

6. The Studio Devil web server will now respond with your LICENSE KEY. Write down or COPY your LICENSE KEY. You will need it for the next step.

Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 8 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

7. Return to your Studio Devil plug-in and click NEXT:

8. Your Studio Devil plug-in will now ask you to enter the LICENSE KEY you just obtained from our web server:

Enter or PASTE your LICENSE KEY in the space provided. When you are finished, click NEXT.

Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 9 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

9. That’s it! Your Studio Devil plug-in is now activated!

Click START ROCKIN’ to begin using Studio Devil!

If you ever need to contact customer support, you will need your serial number. You can always get this by clicking MORE on the front panel of your licensed Studio Devil plug-in. This brings up the “Tuner & Meters” screen that displays your serial number and software version number:

License keys change every time you install your Studio Devil plug-in onto a different computer, or when you re-install your Studio Devil plug-in onto the same computer after a fresh operating system installation. In these cases, you will have to re-activate your Studio Devil plug-in as described above.

You are entitled to unlimited activations per purchase. But, you may only use this software on one machine at a time. If you need to run this software on multiple machines, you may contact Studio Devil to purchase more licenses.

Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 10 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

HOW*TO*USE*THIS*PLUG3IN*

(and a bit about re-amping)

Sure, amp modeling plug-ins replace the time-consuming process of trying many guitar amps and speaker combination until you get the right sound. But what happens if later in the mix you find that the “right” sound isn’t quite so right after all and wish that you could change the amp settings or speaker cabinet. This is called re-amping and is where the real power of amp plug-ins shines. Let see how it works…

In the old days, some guys had a pretty neat idea. Instead of plugging a guitar into an amp, they plugged it directly into the recording console. That way, the guitar’s pickup was recorded directly to tape. Then, when playing back the recording, they could patch the “pickup” track into any amplifier during mixdown, and get sounds just like if the same guitar was playing through it. By doing this, the engineers had full control of the guitar sound. They could decide the type of amp and cabinet, the amount of gain and distortion, even the cabinets and mic placement DURING the mix. Before this, if you recorded a guitar with a lot of distortion, and later wanted to remove it, you had no choice but to re-record the track. But what happened if the track was a take of a lifetime and was ruined by a thin amp setting…oh well. Well, that was some of the motivation for creating re-amping, which, stated again, is simply to record the guitar’s pickup directly, and then pump that direct signal into real amps during mixdown.

Well, now you can do the same thing with Amp Modeler Pro. Just connect your guitar’s output jack (which is the pickup output) directly to your sound interface’s instrument (Hi-Z) input. Then, add Studio Devil’s Amp Modeler Pro to the track’s playback effects. Now you should be set to record the guitar’s pickup directly to the hard drive, while listening to Studio Devil on playback…with all the freedom of changing sounds whenever you like. And, with a low-latency sound interface, you can even hear the amp model during your recording take, without committing the sound of the amp to disk!

Recording new guitar tracks is not the only use for Studio Devil’s Amp Modeler Pro. You can even use it to modify existing tracks. But keep this in mind: Studio Devil AMP is an emulation of a guitar amplifier. This means it has been designed to work best with guitar tracks that have been recorded direct, meaning just the guitar plugged straight into your sound interface. This doesn’t mean it won’t produce good effects on other guitar tracks, especially tracks that were recorded clean, but you might be disappointed if you try to use it on tracks that have already been recorded with another tube amp (just like you’d probably be disappointed if you plugged the output of one tube amp into the input of another). We don’t want to discourage experimentation, but we have a good idea of what works here…direct guitar works best. Also, few singers plug mics into Marshall half-stacks, but hey…you never know! The best part is you can always undo whatever you try with the click of the mouse!

Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro – User’s Guide, Page 11 of 35

Marshall is a trademark of Marshall Amplification. VST and the VST logo are trademarks of Steinberg Media Technologies, GmbH.

All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

SETUP*TIPS*

Here are a few tips about setting up your Studio Devil plug-in for the best sound…

HI-Z INPUT: Always use a good quality sound card/interface with a Hi-Z input. The Hi-Z input allows you to connect a guitar directly with a ¼” guitar cord without degrading the guitar’s output signal. If you don’t already have a sound interface with a Hi-Z (or “Instrument”) input, invest in one…you’ll need it!

SETTING A GOOD LEVEL: The idea here is to get the highest possible input signal without clipping your sound interface. This insures that you get all the nice tube-like distortion from the Studio Devil, and none of the nasty digital clips from your sound interface. At first, turn all the volume and tone knobs on your guitar all the way up for the strongest signal. You may even want to switch to the “Neck” pickup which typically has a higher output as well, but this isn’t necessary. Then, once you’re setup and plugged in, start strumming the guitar a little harder than you think you’ll be playing normally. While strumming hard, adjust the input trim control on your sound interface so that you get the highest signal possible without any clips. Once it starts to clip, back off the sound interfaces input level just a touch. If you still get too many clips, turn the input level down on your interface a little bit more, but don’t turn the level down too much, or you won’t get the best sound out of the amp modeler. This is the same basic technique for recording any other traditional tracks, but some extra care is needed here, where the distortion and tone from Studio Devil’s dynamic amp modeling shouldn’t be clouded by harsh digital clips or lost by poor utilization of the dynamic range of the sound interface.

LATENCY: Try to use a sound interface that has a low-latency drivers and hardware. This way you can record though Studio Devil Amp Modeler Pro in real-time! Studio Devil AMP has been designed to keep the processing demand on the CPU as low as possible, to allow even slower hosts to run the amp model in real-time…but if your driver is slow, you’ll still hear a lag. Try ASIO drivers, too…they’re sometimes faster!

REVERB & DELAY: In addition to the DELAY / ECHO and AMBIENCE effects of AMP, your host should come with some of the best reverbs and delays, too. You’ll find that adding a little touch of your favorite ambiance reverb or guitar solo delay is really going to fatten up your tone…try it!

There’s not much else too it…except to pick up your favorite axe and start laying down the best directly recorded guitars tracks of your life! Remember, when you sound good…we all sound good!

+ 24 hidden pages

Gallo Engineering Amp Modeler Pro User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual