The latest evolution of IK’s lauded amp suite promises a veritable sonic utopia for guitarists. But do the new features warrant the upgrade?

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AmpliTube’s VIR tech adds impressive realism to the subtlest of mic movements

There’s no denying that the market for virtual amp sim suites has grown and grown over the last decade, as developers continue to bolster their packages with realistic profiles and tone-sculpting scope, but there’s still only a few out there in the professional sphere that would admit to relying on a virtual amp suite for all ‘serious’ production purposes. IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube has long been a prime exemplar of how to do amp simulation right, and with this fifth refinement, looks to solidify the software’s ambitions to be the last word in guitar sound processing. They might have just done it, too.

Ample growth

Coming nigh on five years since the release of the previous iteration, IK have been gradually rebuilding the AmpliTube architecture from the ground up. As with the previous version, V5 can be opened as a plugin (in AU, VST 2, VST 3 and AAX formats) or as a standalone piece of software. Available in three versions, from the budget-friendly SE, which limits the amp models to 77, the standard version upping that number by 100, to the fully featured Max version sporting all that plus 11 top tier artist and brandsculpted models. For this review we’ll be running that hefty Max version through its paces in both standalone and 64-bit AU modes.